Consortium Members Research Articles

Editorial

Dear Readers,  It gives me great pleasure to announce the sixth regular issue of 2023. In this issue, 5 papers cover various topical aspects of computer science by 16 authors from 4 countries. In an ongoing effort to further strengthen our journal, I would like to expand the editorial board: If you are a tenured associate professor or above with a strong publication record, you are welcome to apply to join our editorial board. We are also interested in high-quality proposals for special issues on new topics and trends.  As always, I would like to thank all authors for their sound research and the editorial board and our guest reviewers for their extremely valuable review effort and suggestions for improvement. These contributions, together with the generous support of the consortium members, sustain the quality of our journal.  In this regular issue, I am very pleased to introduce the following 5 accepted articles: In a collaborative research effort between Morocco and Spain, Soukaina Benabdelouahab, José A. García-Berná, Chaimae Moumouh, Juan M. Carrillo-de-Gea, Jaber El Bouhdidi, Yacine El Younoussi, and José L. Fernández-Alemán report on their bibliometric study on e-learning software engineering education by conducting an analysis of 10,603 publications, dating from 1954 to 2020. Achraf Boumhidi, Abdessamad Benlahbib and El Habib Nfaoui from Morocco propose in their research a financially-oriented reputation system that generates a single numerical value from user-generated content on Twitter toward cryptocurrencies by applying a sentiment polarity extractor based on the fine-tuned auto-regressive language model named XLNet. Samuel Caetano da Silva and Ivandré Paraboni from Brazil focus on politically-oriented information inference from text by a series of experiments to compare a number of strategies for political bias and ideology inference from text data using sequence-based BERT models, syntax- and semantics-driven features. Burak Gülmez from Türkiye discusses a model developed for disease detection from images of cotton leaves applying a deep convolutional neural network model and the grey wolf optimization algorithm. This model outperforms the ResNet50, VGG19, and InceptionV3 models frequently used in the literature. Last but not least, José L. López Ruiz, Ángeles Verdejo Espinosa and Macarena Espinilla Estévez from Spain discuss a new methodology for the optimization of Bluetooth anchors for location-relevant systems in an enclosed space using a machine learning-based inference model based on different configurations of the BLE anchors located in the enclosed environment.  Enjoy Reading!  Cordially,  Christian Gütl, Managing Editor

The Korean brain aging study for the early diagnosis and prediction of Alzheimer’s disease (KBASE): Cognitive data harmonization

AbstractBackgroundKBASE is a prospective cohort study launched at Seoul National University (SNU), South Korea, in 2014 using similar design and methods as the North American Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). The KBASE cohort consists of well‐characterized participants (420 cognitively normal, 140 mild cognitive impairment, and 90 AD dementia) (Figure 1). It includes systematic longitudinal collection of comprehensive clinical, cognitive and lifestyle data, multimodal neuroimaging, and bio‐specimens for the first six years (“KBASE1”) at a single center. “KBASE2: Korean Brain Aging Study, Longitudinal Endophenotypes and Systems Biology” (NIH Grant U01AG072177) is the second phase of KBASE, launched in collaboration with Indiana University and other institutions. KBASE2 began in 2021, and has similar assessment protocols to the KBASE1. The NIA AD Sequencing Project (ADSP) will perform GWAS and whole genome sequencing (WGS).MethodNeuropsychological data will be harmonized by the study team and members of the ADSP Phenotype Harmonization Consortium. Comprehensive cognitive data were collected using a battery of standardized tests (Table 1). Harmonization and co‐calibration will enable comparative analyses with cognitive data from similar studies with largely non‐Hispanic white (NHW) cohorts, including the ADNI and AIBL, and ultimately the range of other aging and dementia cohorts including those with underrepresented multi‐ethnic populations. WGS and GWAS data will be harmonized and shared by the ADSP.ResultCognitive data harmonization processes are underway and have begun to address the challenges of language and cultural differences. Initial steps include mapping tests and items into an English template. Harmonization and co‐calibration efforts will include identifying appropriate anchor items and accounting for differences in test items that were made to be more culturally and linguistically appropriate. Additional challenges include the wide range of educational attainment as well as gender effects on educational opportunities. A bilingual neuropsychologist who is trained and licensed in the U.S. and a bilingual psychometrics expert are deeply involved in harmonization processes.ConclusionHarmonized KBASE cognitive data will be shared with the ADSP and other investigators for use in quantitative phenotype analyses, as well as other pooled, integrative, and comparative studies of other multiethnic, multilingual, U.S., and international cohorts.

Real-world multicentre analysis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treated with atezolizumab and bevacizumab (A+B): Efficacy, esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) uptake and bleeding complications.

4105 Background: The IMbrave150 trial established A+B as a standard of care for HCC and an EGD within 6 months (mos) of starting treatment to detect esophagogastric varices and prevent bleeding complications was advised. However, the value of performing EGD in all patients (pts) is unknown. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all HCC pts treated with A+B between July 2020 to August 2022 at 5 cancer centres from the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba (members of the HCC-CHORD Consortium). Pts characteristics and treatment history including efficacy, EGD details and bleeding events were collected. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and response rate (RR) were calculated. A comparative analysis was conducted to compare the correlation between the EGD uptake and bleeding events. Results: A total of 112 pts were identified (median age 66 years, 87% male, 24% East Asian, 67% liver cirrhosis, 33% HCV, 25% HBV, 15% NASH, 23% BCLC B, 71% BCLC C, 91% Child-Pugh A, 29% main portal vein invasion, 45% ALBI grade 1 and 54% ALBI grade 2). Prior to systemic, 61% had locoregional therapies. 90% received A+B as first-line therapy, while 9% received it as second-line and 1% as third-line. Outcomes of pts treated with A+B are shown. Before starting A+B, 78 pts (70%) had completed an EGD within 6 mos. Of these, 32 pts (41%) had evidence of varices on EGD, and 15 (20%) required treatment with either banding or beta-blockers. All bleeding events in this population was 15% (n=17). Bleeding rates in the EGD and non-EGD groups were 18% (n=14) and 9% (n=3), respectively. Bleeding adverse events were 5%(n=6) gastrointestinal vs 10%(n=11) non-gastrointestinal (6 epistaxis, 1 ecchymosis, 1 periodontal and 3 unspecified). The GI bleeding rates in the EGD and non-EGD groups were 6% (n=5) and 3% (n=1). Conclusions: Outcomes of HCC pts treated with A+B in Canada are comparable to those observed in the IMbrave150 trial. Our study detected and treated varices at twice the rate of the IMbrave150 trial among the EGD group, reflecting real-world treatment of a high-risk population. Yet, pts who had no EGD before starting A+B, presumably due to a low risk of portal hypertension based on physicians’ judgement, did not experience more bleeding/GI bleeding than those who had an EGD. This supports the approach of selective EGD prior to A+B, and more guidelines are needed in this area. Outcomes and response rate of patients(pts) treated with Atezolizumab with Bevacizumab in this study. [Table: see text]

Editorial

Dear Readers,  I am very happy to announce the fifth regular issue of 2023. In this issue, 5 articles by 22 authors from 5 countries cover a variety of topical research aspects in computer science. Allow me to express my appreciation to all authors for their sound research and to the editorial board for the highly valuable reviews and comments for improvement. This continuous stream of relevant and novel contributions, along with the generous support of the consortium members, sustains the quality of our journal.  In the ongoing effort to further strengthen our journal, I would like to expand the editorial board: If you are a tenured associate professor or above with a strong publication record, you are welcome to apply to join our editorial board. We are also interested in high-quality proposals for special issues on new topics and trends. Please consider yourself and encourage your colleagues to submit high-quality articles or special issues for our journal.  In the fifth regular issue, I am very pleased to introduce the following five accepted articles: César Domínguez Pérez, Jónathan Heras, Eloy Mata, Vico Pascual, Lucas Fernández-Cedrón, Marcos Martínez-Lanchares, Jon Pellejero-Espinosa, Antonio Rubio-Loscertales, and Carlos Tarragona-Perez from Spain report on their deep learning approach for semi-supervised semantic segmentation to identify irrelevant objects in a waste recycling plant. In a research collaboration between Australia and Iraq, Mitchell Jensen, Khamael Al-Dulaimi, Khairiyah Saeed Abduljabbar and Jasmine Banks are focusing on their work on autoimmune disease detection in humans, more specifically on automating the classification procedure of HEp-2 stained cells from microscopic images and improving the accuracy of computer-aided diagnosis. Kashif Mehboob Khan, Warda Haider, Najeed Ahmed Khan, and Darakhshan Saleem from Pakistan address their research on big data provenance using blockchain for qualitative analytics through machine learning. Abubakhari Sserwadda, Alper Ozcan, and Yusuf Yaslan from Türkiye present their research on a novel end-to-end unified topological similarity and centrality driven hybrid deep learning model for temporal link prediction. And last but not least, Tahseen A. Wotaifi, and Ban N. Dhannoon from Iraq aim in their research to use deep learning, pre-trained models, and machine learning based on Convolution Neural Networks to predict Arabic and English fake news based on three public and available datasets: the Fake-or-Real dataset, the AraNews dataset, and the Sentimental LIAR dataset. Enjoy Reading! Cordially,  Christian Gütl, Managing Editor

Long-term transformation of nanoscale zero-valent iron explains its biological effects in anaerobic digestion: From ferroptosis-like death to magnetite-enhanced direct electron transfer networks

Nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) has been extensively used for environmental remediation and wastewater treatment. However, the biological effects of nZVI remain unclear, which is no doubt a result of the complexity of iron species and the dynamic succession of microbial community during nZVI aging. Here, the aging effects of nZVI on methanogenesis in anaerobic digestion (AD) were consecutively investigated, with an emphasis on deciphering the causal relationships between nZVI aging process and its biological effects. The addition of nZVI in AD led to ferroptosis-like death with hallmarks of iron-dependent lipid peroxidation and glutathione (GSH) depletion, which inhibited CH4 production during the first 12 days of exposure. With prolonged exposure time, a gradual recovery (12–21 days) and even better performance (21–27 days) in AD were observed. The recovery performance of AD was mainly attributed to nZVI-enhanced membrane rigidity via forming siderite and vivianite on the outer surface of cells, protecting anaerobes against nZVI-induced toxicity. At the end of 27-days exposure, the significantly increased amount of conductive magnetite simulated direct interspecies electron transfer among syntrophic partners, improving CH4 production. Metagenomic analysis further revealed that microbial cells gradually adapted to the aging of nZVI by upregulating functional genes related to chemotaxis, flagella, conductive pili and riboflavin biosynthesis, in which electron transfer networks likely thrived and the cooperative behaviors between consortium members were promoted. These results unveiled the significance of nZVI aging on its biological effects toward multiple microbial communities and provided fundamental insights into the long-term fates and risks of nZVI for in situ applications.

Non-Profit Organizations as Facilitators of the Sustainable Social Innovation of Firms: An Italian Case Study

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) are becoming top players in the business arena and can significantly contribute to socially sustainable development by leading several open innovation (OI) processes. The present study investigated the functioning of an NPO (ELIS, based in Rome, Italy), that acts as an open innovation intermediary in a large consortium of enterprises. By adopting a mixed-method approach, key aspects related to the NPO’s organizational culture, the OI management process within the consortium, as well as leadership skills and values were investigated among 77 employees and 8 managers of the NPO. Results showed that the managers’ approach to OI, teamwork, and market challenges significantly affected the NPO’s ability to produce OI among the consortium members. Moreover, empowering leadership, and a culture of trust and mistake acceptance were highly valued by the NPO in view of an effective OI performance. The study contributes to the current literature by highlighting the conditional factors of the NPO’s capability to create open innovation with enterprises, and push them toward societal change. Implications for OI development have been discussed.

Psychosocial supports within pediatric nephrology practices: A pediatric nephrology research consortium survey.

The landscape of available psychosocial services within pediatric nephrology care is poorly characterized. However, the effects of kidney disease on emotional health and health-related quality of life are well documented, as is the impact of social determinants of health on kidney disease outcomes. The objectives of this study were to assess pediatric nephrologists' perceptions of available psychosocial services and to elucidate inequities in access to psychosocial care. A web-based survey was distributed to members of the Pediatric Nephrology Research Consortium (PNRC). Quantitative analyses were performed. We received responses from 49 of the 90 PNRC centers. With regards to dedicated services, social work was most commonly available (45.5-100%), followed by pediatric psychology (0-57.1%) and neuropsychology (0-14.3%), with no centers having embedded psychiatry. Availability of psychosocial providers was positively associated with nephrology division size, such that as center size increased, access to various psychosocial providers increased. Notably, the majority of respondents indicated that perceived need for psychosocial support exceeds that which is currently available, even at centers with higher levels of current support. Within the US, there is wide variability in the availability of psychosocial services within pediatric nephrology centers despite a well-documented necessity for the provision of holistic care. Much work remains to better understand the variation in funding for psychosocial services and in utilization of psychosocial professionals in the pediatric nephrology clinic, and to inform key best practices for addressing the psychosocial needs of patients with kidney disease.

Bridging the gap - how to walk the talk on supporting early career researchers.

Early career researchers (ECRs) play a crucial role in European and nationally funded research projects. They are at the forefront of planning, conducting, analysing, and reporting research. As part of the SOPs4RI project funded by the European Commission, we, as ECRs and members of this project's consortium, were given the opportunity to reflect on our role, obstacles, and possible opportunities that we experienced. Although several steps have been already taken to support early career researchers, more concrete actions have to be pursued. In our opinion, the EC should take the lead and serve as a global frontrunner (taken as exemplary also by national funding agencies) in implementing initiatives to support early career researchers during their research trajectory. We opine that the European Commission should explicitly (i) require the creation of a support system in which early career researchers will be able to build new skills and capacity, (ii) encourage and facilitate more involvement of early career researchers in decision-making roles of EC-funded projects, and (iii) provide resources to support career continuity between fixed-term contracts. The suggested actions can help early career researchers build competencies and expertise to establish stability and continuity within the research environment or to embrace and excel in careers outside academia.

Editorial

Dear Readers,  It gives me great pleasure to announce the fourth regular issue of 2023. I would like to thank all the authors for their sound research papers and the editorial board and our guest reviewers for their extremely valuable reviews and suggestions for improvement. These contributions and the generous support of the consortium members enable us to run our journal and maintain its quality. I would also like to thank our broader community for reading and incorporating sound J.UCS papers into their research.  Still, I would like to expand our editorial board: If you are a tenured associate professor or above with a good publication record, please apply to join our editorial board. We are also interested in receiving high-quality proposals for special issues on new topics and emerging trends.  In this regular issue, I am very pleased to introduce five accepted papers involving 14 authors from four different countries. Seyedeh Mahsa Mirhoseini-Moghaddam, Mohammad Reza Yamaghani and Adel Bakhshipour from Iran look into fraud detection for Olive oil by applying smell and sight sensors resulting in an accurate, fast and non-destructive detection of adulteration in extra virgin olive oil. Fahimeh Ramazankhani, Mahdi Yazdian-Dehkordi and Mehdi Rezaeian report their research on kinship verification by analysing facial features based on various texture and color features and metric learning methods. Stefan Strydom, Andrei Michael Dreyer and Brink van der Merwe from South Africa contribute in their research to the International Classification of Disease (ICD) coding based on a transformer model applied to hospital discharge summaries. Fernando Terroso-Saenz and Andres Muñoz from Spain present their research on human mobility prediction using a long short-term memory and Gated Recurrent Unit neural network based on geo-data from cellular phones combined with data from road traffic sensors. Shefali Varshney, Rajinder Sandhu and P. K. Gupta from India report their research on cost-effective scheduling in fog computing based on the modified PROMETHEE technique.  Enjoy Reading!  Cordially,  Christian Gütl, Managing Editor 

"Candidatus Nealsonbacteria" Are Likely Biomass Recycling Ectosymbionts of Methanogenic Archaea in a Stable Benzene-Degrading Enrichment Culture.

The Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR), also referred to as superphylum Patescibacteria, is a very large group of bacteria with no pure culture representatives discovered by 16S rRNA sequencing or genome-resolved metagenomic analyses of environmental samples. Within the CPR, candidate phylum Parcubacteria, previously referred to as OD1, is prevalent in anoxic sediments and groundwater. Previously, we had identified a specific member of the Parcubacteria (referred to as DGGOD1a) as an important member of a methanogenic benzene-degrading consortium. Phylogenetic analyses herein place DGGOD1a within the clade "Candidatus Nealsonbacteria." Because of its persistence over many years, we hypothesized that "Ca. Nealsonbacteria" DGGOD1a must play an important role in sustaining anaerobic benzene metabolism in the consortium. To try to identify its growth substrate, we amended the culture with a variety of defined compounds (pyruvate, acetate, hydrogen, DNA, and phospholipid), as well as crude culture lysate and three subfractions thereof. We observed the greatest (10-fold) increase in the absolute abundance of "Ca. Nealsonbacteria" DGGOD1a only when the consortium was amended with crude cell lysate. These results implicate "Ca. Nealsonbacteria" in biomass recycling. Fluorescence in situ hybridization and cryogenic transmission electron microscope images revealed that "Ca. Nealsonbacteria" DGGOD1a cells were attached to larger archaeal Methanothrix cells. This apparent epibiont lifestyle was supported by metabolic predictions from a manually curated complete genome. This is one of the first examples of bacterial-archaeal episymbiosis and may be a feature of other "Ca. Nealsonbacteria" found in anoxic environments. IMPORTANCE An anaerobic microbial enrichment culture was used to study members of candidate phyla that are difficult to grow in the lab. We were able to visualize tiny "Candidatus Nealsonbacteria" cells attached to a large Methanothrix cell, revealing a novel episymbiosis.

Recommendations to overcome barriers to the use of artificial intelligence-driven evidence in health technology assessment.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has attracted much attention because of its enormous potential in healthcare, but uptake has been slow. There are substantial barriers that challenge health technology assessment (HTA) professionals to use AI-generated evidence for decision-making from large real-world databases (e.g., based on claims data). As part of the European Commission-funded HTx H2020 (Next Generation Health Technology Assessment) project, we aimed to put forward recommendations to support healthcare decision-makers in integrating AI into the HTA processes. The barriers, addressed by the paper, are particularly focusing on Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, where the implementation of HTA and access to health databases lag behind Western European countries. We constructed a survey to rank the barriers to using AI for HTA purposes, completed by respondents from CEE jurisdictions with expertise in HTA. Using the results, two members of the HTx consortium from CEE developed recommendations on the most critical barriers. Then these recommendations were discussed in a workshop by a wider group of experts, including HTA and reimbursement decision-makers from both CEE countries and Western European countries, and summarized in a consensus report. Recommendations have been developed to address the top 15 barriers in areas of (1) human factor-related barriers, focusing on educating HTA doers and users, establishing collaborations and best practice sharing; (2) regulatory and policy-related barriers, proposing increasing awareness and political commitment and improving the management of sensitive information for AI use; (3) data-related barriers, suggesting enhancing standardization and collaboration with data networks, managing missing and unstructured data, using analytical and statistical approaches to address bias, using quality assessment tools and quality standards, improving reporting, and developing better conditions for the use of data; and (4) technological barriers, suggesting sustainable development of AI infrastructure. In the field of HTA, the great potential of AI to support evidence generation and evaluation has not yet been sufficiently explored and realized. Raising awareness of the intended and unintended consequences of AI-based methods and encouraging political commitment from policymakers is necessary to upgrade the regulatory and infrastructural environment and knowledge base required to integrate AI into HTA-based decision-making processes better.

Research on Cooperative Evolutionary Game of Design and Construction Consortium of Green Building Project under Design Change

In recent years, with the country’s vigorous promotion of green buildings and the increasingly complex and large-scale engineering projects, the design-construction consortium model can better meet the needs of the organization and implementation of large-scale green projects and become a realistic choice for enterprises in project implementation. Therefore, the formation of a good and stable cooperative relationship between consortium members is increasingly important in improving project revenue and quality. The issue of maintaining the stability of consortium relationships is an urgent problem to be solved at this stage. As such, a three-party evolutionary game model, based on evolutionary game theory, comprising the developer unit, design unit, and construction unit, is constructed here. Then, strategies for ensuring evolutionary stability under different design modalities are discussed. Finally, the influence of relevant parameters under changing design conditions on the stability of the design and construction consortium of green building projects is analyzed through numerical simulation. The research results show the following: (1) If the additional revenue distribution coefficient within the consortium members is closer to 0.5, the influence on the stability of the design and construction consortium will be smaller; in contrast, if the influence on the design and construction consortium is increased, the cooperative relationship within the consortium will be more unstable. (2) The presence of additional revenue ∆π1 can increase the stability of the design and construction consortium. An increase in the additional revenue ∆π1 will inhibit the instability of the consortium on the one hand and strengthen the stability of the consortium on the other but will also lead to the occurrence of opportunistic behavior. (3) The construction unit’s payment of a subsidy to the cooperative members can help promote the stability of the design and construction consortium to a certain extent and can also weaken the effects of other factors on the stability of the consortium, but there is a threshold value for the amount of said subsidy. (4) On the one hand, the cooperation members actively cooperate with each other to maximize the cooperation benefits of the design and construction consortium, while on the other hand, the construction unit actively promotes the implementation of the green building project, strictly monitors the implementation of the green design and green construction approach by the design and construction units in the early and implementation stages of the project, prevents the design changes caused by the final product failing to meet the green building standard, and actively solves design change problems in a manner that benefits the sustainable development of the green building, so that the cooperative relationship among the members of the consortium can develop steadily, which is beneficial to the green and ecological development of architectural design and construction.

Foresight in clinical proteomics: current status, ethical considerations, and future perspectives.

With the advent of robust and high-throughput mass spectrometric technologies and bioinformatics tools to analyze large data sets, proteomics has penetrated broadly into basic and translational life sciences research. More than 95% of FDA-approved drugs currently target proteins, and most diagnostic tests are protein-based. The introduction of proteomics to the clinic, for instance to guide patient stratification and treatment, is already ongoing. Importantly, ethical challenges come with this success, which must also be adequately addressed by the proteomics and medical communities. Consortium members of the H2020 European Union-funded proteomics initiative: European Proteomics Infrastructure Consortium-providing access (EPIC-XS) met at the Core Technologies for Life Sciences (CTLS) conference to discuss the emerging role and implementation of proteomics in the clinic. The discussion, involving leaders in the field, focused on the current status, related challenges, and future efforts required to make proteomics a more mainstream technology for translational and clinical research. Here we report on that discussion and provide an expert update concerning the feasibility of clinical proteomics, the ethical implications of generating and analyzing large-scale proteomics clinical data, and recommendations to ensure both ethical and effective implementation in real-world applications.

Development of plastic-degrading microbial consortia by induced selection in microcosms.

The increase in the production of highly recalcitrant plastic materials, and their accumulation in ecosystems, generates the need to investigate new sustainable strategies to reduce this type of pollution. Based on recent works, the use of microbial consortia could contribute to improving plastic biodegradation performance. This work deals with the selection and characterization of plastic-degrading microbial consortia using a sequential and induced enrichment technique from artificially contaminated microcosms. The microcosm consisted of a soil sample in which LLDPE (linear low-density polyethylene) was buried. Consortia were obtained from the initial sample by sequential enrichment in a culture medium with LLDPE-type plastic material (in film or powder format) as the sole carbon source. Enrichment cultures were incubated for 105 days with monthly transfer to fresh medium. The abundance and diversity of total bacteria and fungi were monitored. Like LLDPE, lignin is a very complex polymer, so its biodegradation is closely linked to that of some recalcitrant plastics. For this reason, counting of ligninolytic microorganisms from the different enrichments was also performed. Additionally, the consortium members were isolated, molecularly identified and enzymatically characterized. The results revealed a loss of microbial diversity at each culture transfer at the end of the induced selection process. The consortium selected from selective enrichment in cultures with LLDPE in powder form was more effective compared to the consortium selected in cultures with LLDPE in film form, resulting in a reduction of microplastic weight between 2.5 and 5.5%. Some members of the consortia showed a wide range of enzymatic activities related to the degradation of recalcitrant plastic polymers, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa REBP5 or Pseudomonas alloputida REBP7 strains standing out. The strains identified as Castellaniella denitrificans REBF6 and Debaryomyces hansenii RELF8 were also considered relevant members of the consortia although they showed more discrete enzymatic profiles. Other consortium members could collaborate in the prior degradation of additives accompanying the LLDPE polymer, facilitating the subsequent access of other real degraders of the plastic structure. Although preliminary, the microbial consortia selected in this work contribute to the current knowledge of the degradation of recalcitrant plastics of anthropogenic origin accumulated in natural environments.

Industry Perspective on the Pharmacokinetic and ADME Characterization of Heterobifunctional Protein Degraders.

Targeted protein degraders (TPDs), specifically the bifunctional protein degraders discussed in this manuscript, consist of two linked ligands for a protein of interest and an E3 ligase, resulting in molecules which largely violate accepted physicochemical limits (e.g. Lipinski's Rule of 5) for oral bioavailability. In 2021, the IQ Consortium Degrader DMPK/ADME Working Group undertook a survey of eighteen IQ member and non-member companies working on degraders to understand whether the characterization and optimization of these molecules were different from any other beyond the Rule of 5 (bRo5) compounds. Additionally, the working group sought to identify PK/ADME areas in need of further evaluation and where additional tools could aid in more rapid advancement of TPDs to patients. The survey revealed that although TPDs reside in a challenging bRo5 physicochemical space, most respondents focus their efforts on oral delivery. Physicochemical properties required for oral bioavailability were generally consistent across the companies surveyed. Many of the member companies used modified assays to address challenging degrader properties (e.g. solubility, non-specific binding), but only half indicated that they modified their drug discovery workflows. The survey also suggested the need for further scientific investigation in the areas of CNS penetration, active transport, renal elimination, lymphatic absorption, in silico/machine learning, and human pharmacokinetic prediction. Based on the survey results, the Degrader DMPK/ADME Working Group concludes that TPD evaluation does not fundamentally differ from other bRo5 compounds, but requires some modification compared to traditional small molecules and proposes a generic workflow for PK/ADME evaluation of bifunctional TPDs. Significance Statement Based on an industry survey, this article provides an understanding of the current state of ADME science pertaining to characterizing and optimizing targeted protein degraders, specifically bifunctional protein degraders, based upon the responses provided by 18 IQ consortium members and non-members developing targeted protein degraders to treat disease. Additionally, this article puts into context the differences / similarities in methods and strategies utilized for heterobifunctional protein degraders compared to other bRo5 molecules and those used for conventional small molecule drugs.

Hospital Capacity Command Centers: A Benchmarking Survey on an Emerging Mechanism to Manage Patient Flow.

Delayed hospital and emergency department (ED) patient throughput, which occurs when demand for inpatient care exceeds hospital capacity, is a critical threat to safety, quality, and hospital financial performance. In response, many hospitals are deploying capacity command centers (CCCs), which co-locate key work groups and aggregate real-time data to proactively manage patient flow. Only a narrow body of peer-reviewed articles have characterized CCCs to date. To equip health system leaders with initial insights into this emerging intervention, the authors sought to survey US health systems to benchmark CCC motivations, design, and key performance indicators. An online survey on CCC design and performance was administered to members of a hospital capacity management consortium, which included a convenience sample of capacity leaders at US health systems (N = 38). Responses were solicited through a targeted e-mail campaign. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics. The response rate was 81.6% (31/38). Twenty-five respondents were operating CCCs, varying in scope (hospital, region of a health system, or entire health system) and number of beds managed. The most frequent motivation for CCC implementation was reducing ED boarding (n = 24). The most common functions embedded in CCCs were bed management (n = 25) and interhospital transfers (n = 25). Eighteen CCCs (72.0%) tracked financial return on investment (ROI); all reported positive ROI. This survey addresses a gap in the literature by providing initial aggregate data for health system leaders to consider, plan, and benchmark CCCs. The researchers identify motivations for, functions in, and key performance indicators used to assess CCCs. Future research priorities are also proposed.

Editorial

Dear Readers,  It gives me great pleasure to announce the third regular issue of 2023. In this issue, 4 papers by 11 authors from 5 countries cover various topical aspects of computer science. In an ongoing effort to further strengthen our journal, I would like to expand the editorial board: If you are a tenured associate professor or above with a strong publication record, you are welcome to apply to join our editorial board. We are also interested in high-quality proposals for special issues on new topics and trends.  As always, I would like to thank all the authors for their sound research and the editorial board for their extremely valuable review effort and suggestions for improvement. These contributions, together with the generous support of the consortium members, sustain the quality of our journal.  In the third regular issue, I am very pleased to introduce the following 4 accepted articles: Gerardo Matturro from Uruguay reports on his research findings on undergraduate software engineering over a seven-year period, specifically on students' motivation to participate in research projects, skills acquired, and their perceptions of benefits. Uma Priya D and P. Santhi Thilagam from India propose an approach to cluster heterogeneous JSON documents using the similarity fusion method based on structural, semantic and contextual measures of JSON schemas. Zeinab Rahimi and Mehrnoush Shamsfard from Iran present a hybrid contradiction detection approach that can detect seven categories of contradictions in Persian texts: Antonymy, negation, numerical, factive, structural, lexical and world knowledge, which is based on a novel data mining method and a transformer-based deep neural method for contradiction detection. In their joint research between Estonia, Spain and India, Shashi Kant Shankar, Adolfo Ruiz-Calleja, Luis P. Prieto, María Jesús Rodríguez-Triana, Pankaj Chejara, and Sandesh Tripathi discuss a modular and modifiable infrastructure for data preparation, organization, and fusion to partially support the development of context-aware multimodal learning analytics solutions.  Enjoy Reading! Cordially, 

Consensus recommendations on sleeping problems in Phelan-McDermid syndrome

Early onset sleep problems and disorders are very common in individuals with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PMS) with rates of up to 90%. These sleep problems and disorders cannot be taken lightly. Not only do they have a major impact on the health, behaviour, functioning and learning opportunities of affected individuals, they can also have detrimental effects on the well-being and resilience of parents and caregivers, ultimately affecting the physical health, mental health and well-being of the whole social system.In this review we aim to understand the types and frequencies of sleeping problems in PMS as the basis for recommendations on their management and treatment and to provide general guidelines for clinicians and practitioners. We conducted an in-depth literature search, summarised findings, and participated in a series of consensus meetings with other consortium members - experts on PMS and stakeholders - to agree on guidelines and recommendations. In parallel, a world-wide survey was created and distributed amongst parents to include their perspective.Our literature search found only four articles specifically focused on sleeping problems in PMS, although some other articles mentioned prevalence and associated factors. Country-specific prevalence rates ranged between 24% and 46%, whereas our parental survey reported 59%. The main problems reported involved difficulty falling asleep and numerous night awakenings, with being restless in sleep, night-time incontinence, and tooth grinding also commonly reported. Only a small number of individuals had undergone a sleep study monitored by a specialist. Bedtime resistance normally decreases with age, but sleep-onset delay, sleep anxiety, parasomnias, problems falling and remaining asleep remain throughout lifespan, with total sleep time improving during adulthood. However, this improvement was also accompanied by a substantial increase in parasomnias. Ultimately, an increase in sleep disorders in children correlates with increased sleep disorders and daytime sleepiness in parents/caregivers.No study to date has focused on the underlying causes of sleeping problems in PMS, but comorbid mental health conditions, somatic causes, or (poly)pharmacy have been proposed as triggers for sleeping disturbances. Currently there is no PMS-specific treatment for sleeping problems, and current recommendations are mostly based on individuals with intellectual disability and/or neurodevelopmental conditions.

A framework for the entrenchment of intellectual property (IP) information services in Zimbabwe's university libraries

The study investigates the current status of Intellectual Property (IP) information services in Zimbabwe's university libraries. The study employed a quantitative approach. An online questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 69 library professionals employed at 20 university libraries which are full members of the Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC). Findings show that the current focus of the surveyed institutions is on providing scientific research support services (18); disseminating/sharing university research output (14); and copyright activities (12). More specialised IP information services such as IP education and training, patent information services, IP consulting services, IP online service platforms, and web-based IP information services are largely unavailable in Zimbabwean university libraries. Results reveal that the underlying challenge in the development of IP information services in Zimbabwe's university libraries is insufficient IP knowledge among academic librarians, which is exacerbated by inadequate IP management frameworks in university institutions. The study proposes a framework for the entrenchment of IP information services in Zimbabwe's university libraries.

Facilities, selection, outcome measurement, and limitations of therapeutic plasma exchange for neuroimmunological disorders: The South East Asian survey study.

Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) for neuroimmunological disorders has played an important role in the Southeast Asian region. This study investigates the challenges of performing TPE within the region. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted and launched to 15 South East Asian Therapeutic Plasma Exchange Consortium (SEATPEC) members from seven countries in January 2021. It included demographics, TPE techniques, indications, challenges, timing, outcome measurement, and access to laboratory testing in each local center. A total of 15 neurologists from 12 participating centers were included. They usually perform five sessions of TPE (100.0%), with 1 to 1.5 plasma volume (93.3%), and exchanges via the central catheter (100.0%). Acute relapses of neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and myasthenia gravis are the most common indications. They used a combination of normal saline and 5% albumin (60.0%) as replacement fluid. Most (66.7%) used TPE as an add-on treatment in steroid-refractory cases or as first-line treatment for severe attacks. They suggested assessing the TPE efficacy of TPE by the interval to the next attack, post-TPE relapse rates, and TPE-related complications. The major challenges within our region are expense, reimbursibility, and access to TPE. Although countrywise differences exist, all share similarities regarding methods, indications, timing, obstacles, and challenges of TPE for neuroimmunological conditions. Regional collaboration will be essential to identify strategies to reduce these barriers to access to TPE in the future.