bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prognostication Following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: The Modified Hunt and Hess Grading Scale
Authors: Al‐Mufti Fawaz , Dicpinigaitis Alis J. , Bowers Christian A. , Claassen Jan , Park Soojin , Agarwal Sachin , Khandelwal Priyank , Qureshi Adnan I. , Majidi Shahram , Fifi Johanna T. , Lee Seon‐Kyu , Jadhav Ashutosh P. , Yaghi Shadi , Raz Eytan , Satti Sudhakar , Kamel Hooman , Merkler Alexander , Dangayach Neha S. , Siddiqui Adnan , Izzy Saef , Elijovich Lucas , Yavagal Dileep , Connolly E. Sander , Gandhi Chirag D. , MacDonald R. Loch , Mayer Stephan A.
Published: August 2024

Background

This study proposes a modification to the traditional Hunt and Hess (tHH) grading scale for prognostication in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), which differentiates the most severe‐grade patients based on the presence or absence of brainstem dysfunction [determined by Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores 3‐5].

Methods

Weighted aSAH hospitalizations were retrospectively identified in the National Inpatient Sample from 2015 to 2019 and were stratified by tHH and modified HH (mHH) grades. mHH grade 5 was defined as tHH grade 5 with GCS score 3–5, while mHH grade 4 comprised tHH grade 5 with GCS score 6–8 and tHH grade 4. HH grades 1–3 do not differ between the traditional and modified scales. Measures of diagnostic performance were compared for the primary study end point [poor outcome as determined by the previously validated NIS‐SAH Outcome Measure (NIS‐SOM), shown to have high concordance with modified Rankin Scale scores > 2]. External validation of the mHH was performed using data from a prospectively maintained aSAH registry.

Results

Among 6130 aSAH hospitalizations, 2245 (36%) were tHH grade 5. Seven hundred and eighty‐five (35%) of these had a GCS 3–5 and were designated as mHH grade 5. Poor outcomes were identified in 78% and 77% of grade 4 tHH and mHH, respectively, and in 83% and 95% of grade 5 tHH and mHH, respectively. In comparison with the tHH, the mHH achieved superior discrimination [c‐statistic 0.793 (95% CI 0.768, 0.818) versus 0.780 (95% CI 0.750, 0.807); DeLong p < 0.001] for poor outcome, as well as improved specificity (0.929 versus 0.304) and positive predictive value (PPV) (0.949 versus 0.827). External registry validation of the mHH demonstrated excellent discrimination [c‐statistic 0.835 (95% CI 0.801, 0.870)], with a specificity of 0.950 and PPV of 0.905.

Conclusion

The mHH achieved a favorable diagnostic performance profile using retrospective data and may aid in the prognostication of high‐severity patients with aSAH.
Exploring the Role of Businesses in Polycentric Climate Governance with Large-N Data Sets
Authors: Tobin Paul , Duit Andreas , Kelly Niall , Kelly Ciara
Published: August 2024

Much existing empirical research on polycentric climate governance (PCG) systems examines small-N examples. In response, we aim to advance studies of PCG by exploring, and reflecting on, the use of large-N data sets for analyzing PCG. We use Python (a programming language) to create a novel data set from the United Nations’ Global Climate Action Portal. This method allows us to quantify key variables for 12,568 businesses located in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries: the number of businesses’ climate commitments, their progress toward meeting those commitments, and businesses’ memberships in “more polycentric” networks via transnational climate initiatives (TCIs). Our analysis of these data reveals that greater interconnectedness may strengthen climate policy performance, since businesses with memberships in TCIs more commonly achieved their commitments. Additional research using these data, and/or similar methods, could be conducted on climate governance and on other areas of international environmental governance, such as mining and oil production.
The Weight of Beastly Traits: Biopolitics and Imaginations around Wild Boar Hunting in Uruguay
Authors: Dabezies Juan Martin
Published: August 2024

This article explores the concept of wild boars as beasts of the Anthropocene by examining their physicality and the policies focused on controlling their populations. Considering the labeling and perception of the species as a beast, the study investigates the sociopolitical implications of such categorization. Specifically, it examines how wild boars have been described and portrayed as intimidating, dangerous, and threatening within Uruguay’s hunting and conservation communities. By analyzing the processes that frame the lives of wild boars and render them legitimate targets of eradication, this article sheds light on the semiotics and naming of wild boars’ changing corporeality throughout history. It reveals how the hunting community motivates their practices by portraying themselves as guardians of biodiversity and agricultural production rather than mere leisure hunters. I argue that the notion of beastliness is instrumental in wildlife management strategies employed for wild boars.
Historical A Priori as Form of Life: The Rationality of Social Practices in Foucault’s Archaeology in terms of Wittgensteinian Criteria
Authors: Gürsoy Özgür
Published: August 2024

The concept of rule permeates Foucault’s methodological formulations concerning the object of his investigation, but he offers few explicit discussions of the epistemological status of such rules. My claim is that the explication of Foucauldian rules in terms of Wittgensteinian criteria clarifies their epistemological status, and thereby enables one to formulate a novel conception of the historical a priori, one that is defensible against recurrent objections which charge that Foucault’s theoretical reflections confuse concepts that are distinct. Foucault and Wittgenstein are best seen as articulating a sense of intelligibility in which forms are integral to content and meaning is not abstracted from social practices. ‘Form of life’ increases the conceptual cogency of ‘historical a priori,’ whereas the latter delineates what it would be like to take the former’s historicity seriously.
Nutritional and antioxidant properties of two species of edible scarab beetles (Cetonia aurata and Oryctes rhinoceros)
Authors: Mwanza S.S. , Mudalungu C.M. , Kimani N.M. , Mokaya H.O. , Ochieng B.O. , Juma S. , Tanga C.M.
Published: August 2024

Edible scarab beetles are important repositories for nutritive and bioactive compounds, but this information remains largely unexplored. This study explored the nutritional and therapeutic properties of two edible scarab beetles from three different locations (Embu, Murang’a and Nairobi Counties) in Kenya. Morphological and molecular characterization of the wild collected larvae revealed two important edible beetle species (Cetonia aurata L. and Oryctes rhinoceros L.). The larvae of both species are excellent source of crude proteins (44% for O. rhinoceros and 63% for C. aurata). The larvae of O. rhinoceros were rich in minerals, particularly calcium (15.75-22.65 mg/g) and potassium (13.62-22.88 mg/g). The anti-radical activity of C. aurata larvae ranged between 91% and 92% across the various target sites. Lysine was the most important and abundant amino acid in both larvae (>5 mg/g). The larvae of C. aurata and O. rhinoceros are a good source of unsaturated fatty acids like Methyl-8Z, 11Z, 14Z-eicosatrienoate (32 mg/g) and Methyl-9Z-octadecenoate (9.47-120.84 mg/g). The entomochemicals of phenolic nature derived from the beetle larvae portray a unique opportunity to supply and improve high quality nutritious food with enhanced ability to get-rid of free radicals, thus promoting good health and well-being of the consumers. Future development of foods supplemented with scarab beetle larvae derived products must consider the preservation of potential benefits of not only nutrients, but also nutraceuticals. However, in-depth research is still needed to guarantee the bioactivity in processed foods and ensure quality control test before the release of these products to the market.
3. Globality
Authors: Tumino Stephen
Published: August 2024

Chapter Three ("Globality") contests the discourse of neoliberal globalization that has been endlessly repeated across the political spectrum over the past 40 years from the left as much as the right, in the academy as much as in the mainstream media: the claim that the world has entered a "post- class" moment in which class struggle is over because of the new "knowledge" economy and all that is left is to make do with capitalism. In this familiar story, cultural changes like the Internet and the new eco-friendly lifestyle politics are supposed to have empowered the people against totalitarian power by decentering and deregulating their lives so that they can find freedom in the local and everyday, the sphere of consumption, rather than, as in the past, through class struggle over the socio-economic conditions of production. I argue that what recent changes in global media and culture did in fact produce was a "cyber" imaginary that hides from view the class conflict in global capitalism so as to normalize the exploitation of wage-labor by capital that is at the center of capitalism. To support my claim I consider the social uprisings in Argentina, Venezuela and Peru in 2001 and argue that what they showed is that the only alternative to the extreme social inequality and instability of global capitalism is revolutionary class struggle. I then lay bare how this basic truth of Marxism is covered up by a thick layer of mystification by the corporate media through a variety of relays and mediations. Central to the ideological work of giving global capitalism the face of freedom by covering up its basic class inequality and what it makes necessary is Hardt and Negri's manifesto of the new capitalism (Empire), which for this reason was made an academic "best seller" and celebrated by such official organs of finance capital as The New York Times and Charlie Rose as "the next big thing." Calling the book "the next big thing" simply affirms the central premise of Empire that "imperialism is over" (Hardt and Negri 2000, xiv). It has been displaced by "empire": a "new form of sovereignty" (xi), where cyber-labor "creates the very world it inhabits" (xv).

Keywords: Negri; affective labor; Empire; Lenin; imperialism; globalization; Argentina; Latin America.
11. Capital
Authors: Tumino Stephen
Published: August 2024

Chapter Eleven ("Capital"): Transnational capitalism has, as The Manifesto of the Communist Party says, "simplified" the question of social inequality by dividing the world between a class of "haves" whose material needs are met only because the majority "have not" the means to do so as these means have been privatized. This ruthless binary of class in global capitalism has produced a new wave of anti-capitalist struggles that has given renewed urgency to the question: what is the place of the intellectual in contemporary social relations? It is as one answer to this question that a new global intellectual has emerged, featured most prominently in the writings of Pierre Bourdieu. In this chapter I rehearse how Bourdieu's texts seeks to go beyond the dominant notion of the "local intellectual" required by an earlier, more regulated, phase of capital accumulation that traces itself in the writings of Foucault, Lyotard and de Certeau, to name a few. And yet, Bourdieu's concept of a collective intellectual, while breaking rhetorically with Foucault's local intellectual, returns in the end to the same reformist conclusions that alibi capitalism. This is because Bourdieu makes "class" an outcome of struggles over "symbolic capital" in a plurality of "fields" that exceed conceptual reduction. What Bourdieu's "field" theory of class struggle does is segregate the social into autonomous zones lacking in systemic determination by the social structure of private property so that everyone is considered to be equally in possession of "capital." Bourdieu opposes Marx's labor theory of value with a value theory of class that posits class as an after-effect of the past symbolic struggles of intellectuals over "cultural capital." What the reduction of "class" and "capital" to cultural conflicts cannot explain is the systemic primacy of the production of surplus-value in unpaid-labor, the basic condition of the global majority, which determines that their needs are not being met and which economically compels them into engaging in collective class struggles.

Keywords: Bourdieu; capital; class; intellectual; capitalism; cultural theory; neoliberalism.
English and Kiswahili Lexical Localization in Kibena
Authors: Chaula Neema , Mwashota Pendo
Published: August 2024

This paper has examined how English and Kiswahili borrowed expressions have been localized in Kibena. The study was guided by Kachru theory of language dominance and deficit, which deals with language contact and lexical borrowing between donor and recipient languages. In this study English and Kiswahili were the donor language and Kibena was the recipient language whereby the Kibena speakers consciously or unconsciously localized English and Kibena words in Kibena during communication process. The study employed a mixed approach and a descriptive research design in data collection, presentation, and discussion. Data were collected from fourteen written texts and fifty respondents through a questionnaire, interview, and documentary review. The data were analyzed using conceptual and rational content analysis methods. The findings underscore the significance of language contact in developing Kibena lexical knowledge through new lexical creation, borrowing, or localization in order to fill the lexical gap and for prestige attainment. The study realized that English and Kiswahili lexical which were localization in Kibena influenced the development of new words in Kibena through loan blend words formation, neologism creation and word to word translation techniques. The language contact was found to be among of the language’s vocabularies enrichment through words borrowing, naturalization, and adaptation. It is recommended that other research be done on the role of the phonological adaptation process of English and Kiswahili words into Kibena during lexical localization.
An Update to the Stochastically Perturbed Parameterization Scheme of HarmonEPS
Authors: Tsiringakis Aristofanis , Frogner Inger-Lise , de Rooy Wim , Andrae Ulf , Hally Alan , Contreras Osorio Sebastián , van der Veen Sibbo , Barkmeijer Jan
Published: August 2024

High-resolution, limited-area forecasting is strongly affected by errors in the initial atmospheric state, lateral boundary conditions (LBCs), and physical parameterizations used by numerical weather prediction (NWP) models. These errors need to be accounted for through the introduction of uncertainty in an ensemble prediction system (EPS). One approach to account for model error is to use a stochastically perturbed parameterizations (SPPs) scheme. A first version of the SPP scheme of HARMONIE EPS (HarmonEPS) has been tested, with promising improvements in ensemble spread. However, it introduced systematic biases and deteriorated skill scores for some variables. Here, we investigate the performance of an updated version of the HarmonEPS SPP scheme, which includes (i) the use of uniform distributions, (ii) the correlation of stochastic patterns between key SPP parameters, and (iii) the introduction of four additional parameters, in the microphysics and mass-flux schemes. Two five-parameter SPP-based setups are compared against initial and LBC perturbations setups for five forecast periods: (i) 22–28 March 2019, (ii) 6–12 July 2020, (iii) 20–26 February 2021, (iv) 13–26 January 2021, and (v) 20 May–2 June 2021. We find that SPP-based experiments show better probabilistic metrics for near-surface and cloud-related variables than the non-SPP experiments. The SPP-based ensembles show increased spatial spread (as indicated by dFSS), while maintaining similar spatial skill (as indicated by eFSS) with the non-SPP experiment. In addition, the systematic bias in the ensemble members of the previous SPP iteration has been alleviated with the use of uniform distributions. Finally, the use of microphysical and mass-flux perturbations improves the ensemble scores for cloud-related variables, precipitation, and visibility.

Significance Statement

Ensemble prediction systems are essential for weather forecasting. Their skill depends on the representation of uncertainties arising from errors in the initial atmospheric state and model physics. In this study, we present an update to the stochastically perturbed parameterizations scheme, which represents uncertainty arising from model errors, of the limited-area HARMONIE ensemble prediction system. The update to the scheme includes the introduction of uniform distributions and correlated perturbations for the perturbed parameters, as well as the addition of four new perturbed parameters. Overall, this revision removes systematic biases in ensemble members, which were present in the previous iteration of the scheme, and shows increased ensemble spread (up to 70%) and reduced model errors (up to 5%) for near-surface and cloud-related variables.
Impact of Surgical Parathyroidectomy on Craniofacial Morphology in Patients With Renal Failure
Authors: Liao Zhenpeng , Ye Zhongkang , Zhang Xu , Zhang Jun , He Peng , Hong Haiyu , Mi Jiaoping
Published: August 2024

Purpose

Parathyroidectomy is beneficial in tertiary hyperparathyroidism (THPT) consequent to chronic renal failure. The craniofacial morphology of patients who undergo total parathyroidectomy and autologous transplantation (tPTX + AT) has not been widely studied. This study assessed the efficacy of tPTX + AT in THPT and evaluated possible improvements in craniofacial features.

Methods

This retrospective analysis included patients who were diagnosed with medically refractory THPT and had undergone tPTX + AT between September 2013 and May 2021. The VAS was used to evaluate improvements in various symptoms including bone pain and pruritus. Changes in serum calcium, phosphorus, alkaline phosphatase, and intact parathyroid hormone (iPTH) levels were also assessed. The impact of the procedure was assessed by comparing two-photon X-ray bone mineral density measurements obtained 1 year before and after surgery.

Results

The VAS of pain and pruritus decreased significantly on the first postoperative day ( P < 0.05). Calcium levels changed significantly (from 2.50 ± 0.22 mmol/L to 2.10 ± 0.26 mmol/L) on postoperative day 1 ( P = 0.0000); iPTH levels also declined substantially on this day, reducing from 211.00 (122.10, 252.80) to 5.04 (2.96, 9.40) pmol/L. Bone mineral density increased significantly across various regions including the greater trochanter of the femur, intertrochanteric area, total hip, and third lumbar vertebra ( P < 0.05). The angles between the upper incisor and mandibular plane and the lower lip and Ricketts E line (drawn from the tip of the nose to the soft tissue area) also improved ( P = 0.043, P = 0.001).

Conclusion

Total parathyroidectomy and autologous transplantation can rapidly alleviate bone pain and skin itching in THPT. It may also improve bone density and facial soft tissue.
The Myth of the Middle Class Squeeze: Employment and Income by Class in Six Western Countries, 1980–2020
Authors: Moawad Jad , Oesch Daniel
Published: August 2024

The public debate portrays the middle class as the big losers in recent decades, while people above and below seemingly fared better in terms of employment and income growth. This narrative is both conceptually and empirically flawed. Based on the Luxembourg Income Study 1980–2020, we show for France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the UK, and the US that middle-class employment expanded, while the working class shrank. The middle class also experienced consistently larger income gains than the working class over the past four decades. The disposable real incomes of working-class households in France, Germany or the US grew by less than half a percent per year, compared to 1% or more for the middle class. Cohort analysis also shows that the promise of doing better than one’s parents held for the middle class, but vanished for the working class.
The COVID-19 Pandemic in Britain: A Competence Shock and Its Electoral Consequences
Authors: Green Jane , Evans Geoffrey , Snow Dan
Published: August 2024

Competence shocks cut through partisan and other salient divides to impact party reputations and electoral choice. We examine whether the COVID-19 pandemic was a competence shock in Britain – a context where the issue of Brexit had otherwise dominated and reshaped electoral choice. Using British Election Study panel data between 2019 and 2022, we show that Brexit support had little effect on pandemic performance evaluations, that the pandemic served primarily as a competence shock and that the incumbent Conservative government lost popular support over its handling of the pandemic. The Conservatives were insulated from electoral losses by leader evaluations and by partisanship, but lost more of their newer voters from the 2019 general election. While the pandemic was exceptional, its effects have wider lessons for British politics in the post-Brexit era. The British case also provides insights into how competence shocks can cut through highly salient and otherwise dominant socio-cultural political divides.
Print Media in Odisha and Its Changing Contours
Authors: Mohanty Tanaya
Published: August 2024

This article is based on the case study of four newspapers in Odisha, namely Utkala Dipika, The Samaj, Prajatantra and the Sambad. It traces the early beginning of Odia print media in the 19th century that marked the beginnings of an Odia national identity. Media then was seen as an institution committed to societal welfare. The print media in Odia played a defining role in the making of its public sphere. Each newspaper studied in this article in some way or other reshaped the public sphere. This holds true of the print media in both its early years and in the globalised era where media operated primarily as an industry. This article is based upon a historical approach that entailed archival sources as well as case studies of thirty journalists from both rural and urban backgrounds working in different capacities starting from reputed editors to stringers.
Culturally Sustaining Catch-Up? How English Language Arts Teachers “Compensate” with Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy After the State Exam
Authors: Moore Daniel P.
Published: August 2024

What does it mean to teach in a school that claims commitment to both culturally sustaining pedagogy and high-stakes test achievement? This study explores how ELA teachers perceive and navigate that tension over a school year. Specifically, it examines how teachers describe their instruction before and after the April state exam. Analysis of interviews and artifacts from nine teachers indicated that, after the exam, teachers consciously compensated for a lack of culturally sustaining pedagogy earlier in the year. Teachers described compensating post-test through criticality, plurality, and democracy—attempting a form of culturally sustaining catch-up. They also more frequently mentioned joy.
Firm dynamics in urban neighbourhoods and innovation: A microgeographic analysis
Authors: Rochell Charlotte
Published: August 2024

What happens to firms’ innovation activities when new firms enter or leave their urban neighbourhood? We empirically explore the role of knowledge spillovers through firm dynamics using firm-level panel data from Berlin. The results indicate that an increase in firm activities in the neighbourhood through entries and influx positively relates to incumbents’ innovation activities. This finding is restricted to diversity externalities which work on a very small microgeographic scale, vanishing already after a quarter of a kilometre. For specialisation externalities through firm dynamics, we cannot find a link to innovation in incumbents.
Conceptions of democracy in China: New evidence from the structural topic model
Authors: Yan Yu , Li Zhenzhen , Meng Tianguang
Published: August 2024

This article investigates popular conceptions of democracy and its underlying factors in China. Democratic conceptions among Chinese citizens have long been debated, with most concluding that economic welfare and government performance dominate how the Chinese view democracy. This article offers a different picture, with new evidence drawn from text data. By employing the structural topic model to analyze the responses to open-ended questions from three waves of the Asian Barometer Survey between 2008 and 2015, this article delineates four democratic conceptions prevalent among the Chinese populace, namely ‘Political Participation’, ‘Political Rights’, ‘Consultative Decision-making’ and ‘Socioeconomic Performance’. The analysis shows that political participation has become the most prominent conception, closely followed by political rights. This finding suggests a shift in the Chinese interpretation of democracy, aligning more closely with western procedural notions while still retaining distinct Chinese characteristics. In addition to rising demands for freedom and equality, informed respondents ask for deeper involvement in public affairs and higher inclusion in the decision-making process. These trends underscore the necessity for the Chinese authorities to more effectively address public demands, especially in the context of the ongoing endeavor to cultivate China’s new model of whole-process people’s democracy.
Can language test providers do more to support Open Science? A response to Winke
Authors: Papageorgiou Spiros
Published: August 2024

In this letter, I first present examples of the adoption of Open Science by the language assessment industry. I then discuss some of the inevitable challenges language assessment professionals face as they continue to adopt Open Science.
Evaluating the impact of nonverbal behavior on language ability ratings
Authors: Burton J. Dylan
Published: August 2024

Nonverbal behavior can impact language proficiency scores in speaking tests, but there is little empirical information of the size or consistency of its effects or whether language proficiency may be a moderating variable. In this study, 100 novice raters watched and scored 30 recordings of test takers taking an international, high stakes proficiency test. The speech samples were each 2 minutes long and ranged in proficiency levels. The raters scored each sample on fluency, vocabulary, grammar, and comprehensibility using 7-point semantic differential scales. Nonverbal behavior was extracted using an automated machine learning software called iMotions, and data was analyzed with ordinal mixed effects regression. Results showed that attentional variance predicted fluency, vocabulary, and grammar scores, but only when accounting for proficiency. Higher standard deviations of attention corresponded with lower scores for the lower-proficiency group, but not the mid/higher-proficiency group. Comprehensibility scores were only predicted by mean valence when proficiency was an interaction term. Higher mean valence, or positive emotional behavior, corresponded with higher scores in the lower-proficiency group, but not the mid/higher-proficiency group. Effect sizes for these predictors were quite small, with small amounts of variance explained. These results have implications for construct representation and test fairness.
Treatment of lower limb telangiectasias with Nd: Yag 1064 nm laser with and without tumescent anesthesia – TTL technique
Authors: Bajerski Julio Cesar , Giordani Camila Biedler , Borges Luiza Brum , Taniguchi Juliana Bosso , Neto Elias Arcenio , Kikuchi Rodrigo , Saleh Jaber Nashat , Noel Rafael Stevan , Puton Renan Camargo , Correa Mateus Picada
Published: August 2024

Introduction

Transdermal laser is an option for varicous veins treatment, yet it may be painful. In this study, we will present a technique for performing tumescent anesthesia associated to transdermal laser (TTL) to reduce pain during treatment.

Objective

The study compares pain during treatment of telangiectasias in lower limb with and without tumescent anesthesia to offer a less painful procedure.

Methods

50 CEAP C1 patients with bilateral telangiectasias on thighs underwent transdermal laser treatment, using tumescent anesthesia on one side and standard technique on the other. Pain was assessed via the Visual Analogue Scale. The outcomes were compared with Student's t-test. Significance was set at p < .05.

Results

Laser treatment without tumescent anesthesia resulted in a VAS pain score of 7.9, versus 0.0 with anesthesia, showing a significant statistical difference.

Conclusion

Tumescent anesthesia and transdermal laser (TTL) is capable of reducing pain in laser treatment of telangiectasias and reticular veins.
Optimal model reference adaptive fractional-order proportional integral derivative control of idle speed system under varying disturbances
Authors: Yang Yi , Zhang Haiyan Henry
Published: August 2024

This paper presents an original model reference adaptive fractional-order proportional integral derivative (MRAC-FOPID) controller for the stabilization of the idle speed system in an internal combustion engine under different external load torques. The MRAC-FOPID controller is developed by aligning the changing of FOPID controller’s five parameters with a cost function’s negative gradient direction. Numerical simulations are presented and show that the proposed MRAC-FOPID controller uses 49% more control effort to achieve 72% and 40% more reductions in the relative integral squared error (RISE) and relative integral time absolute error (RITAE), respectively, compared to an optimized model reference adaptive proportional integral derivative (MRAC-PID) controller. Furthermore, the MRAC-FOPID controller is found to have better robustness than other two previously published optimal controllers, with only a 3.07% relative change in RISE when facing variable disturbance. This work also highlights a novel Matlab/Simulink based implementation of the adaptively-varying-order derivative operators, which cannot only be extended to the design of other adaptive fractional-order controllers but may also facilitate hardware realization of the MRAC-FOPID controller in real idle speed systems.
Book review: Anil Kumar Vaddiraju, Politics, Governance and Philosophy
Authors: Sivanna N , Veeresha Nayakara
Published: August 2024

Anil Kumar Vaddiraju, Politics, Governance and Philosophy. Eliva Press, 2022, 158 pp. $54.50, ISBN: 9789994980338 (Paperback).
Characterizing music for sleep: A comparison of Spotify playlists
Authors: Kirk Rory , Timmers Renee
Published: August 2024

There is widespread interest in the use of music to help with sleep, although there is little clear understanding of the features that distinguish music for sleep from music for other purposes. We asked if music intended to facilitate sleep is distinct from music more generally considered as relaxing by comparing the features of tracks comprising three types of playlist on the music streaming service Spotify. Ninety playlists to facilitate sleep, relaxation and, for comparison, energy were gathered, based on titles and descriptions. Our analysis found significant differences between many of the features of the tracks in the three playlist categories, and nature sounds were prominent in sleep music playlists. A nonlinear classification model correctly classified music from sleep playlists with an accuracy rate of 72%, with brightness being the strongest predictor in distinguishing music from sleep and relaxing playlists. Music from sleep playlists could generally be described as acoustic, instrumental, slower, quieter, and with less energy compared to the other playlists, conforming with previous work. Our results emphasize the importance of timbral qualities in music for sleep and confirm sleep music to be distinct from music for relaxation. The results can be used to guide the selection of music for sleep, and the transition from relaxation to sleep.
A lounge of one’s own: Art, gender, discrimination and the law
Authors: Banks Robin , Taylor Alice , Goldblatt Beth
Published: August 2024

In this essay, the authors consider the recent discrimination law decision of the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in relation to the ‘Ladies Lounge’, an artwork by Kirsha Kaechele at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart. The article first considers the question of whether there was unlawful direct discrimination before turning to the application of defences (referred to as ‘exceptions’ in the relevant legislation, the Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 (Tas)). The authors highlight the particular tensions that arise at the interface of law and art, particularly when the art seeks to create discomfort.
Running on Empty: Ontario Hospital Workers’ Mental Health and Well-Being Deteriorating Under Austerity-Driven System
Authors: Brophy James T. , Keith Margaret M. , Hurley Michael , Slatin Craig
Published: August 2024

The well-being of health care workers (HCWs) and the public in Ontario, Canada is at risk as the province's health care system is strained by neoliberal restructuring and an aging population. Deteriorating working conditions that preceded the COVID-19 pandemic further declined as the added challenges took their toll on the work force, physically and mentally. The pandemic-weary hospital staff, predominantly women, many racialized, are facing unprecedented challenges. They are experiencing stress, anxiety, and burnout from staffing shortages and the resulting increased workloads, long hours, and violence. Comprehensive telephone interviews were conducted with 26 HCWs from less highly paid occupations in a range of hospitals across the province. Thematic analysis reveals a critical need for policies and legislation ensuring increased funding, hospital capacity, and reduced wait times while providing HCWs with fair and equitable wages, increased staffing, mental health supports, greater respect and acknowledgment, and strong protections from violence and other workplace hazards.
Translating Research to Practice: Practitioner Use of the Spatial Reasoning Toolkit
Authors: Farran Emily K. , McCarthy Sarah , Gilligan-Lee Katie A. , Bates Kathryn E. , Gripton Catherine
Published: August 2024

A robust finding in cognitive psychology is that training children’s spatial abilities is an effective route to improving mathematics performance. Despite this finding, there is limited representation of spatial reasoning in school curricula. To bridge this gap between research and practice, we created the Spatial Reasoning Toolkit (SRT; Gifford et al., 2022). In Study 1, we provide quantitative data of practitioner knowledge of spatial reasoning ( N = 94) and their intended use of the SRT ( N = 74). One year after the toolkit was launched, we compare these samples to a sample of SRT users ( N = 59). In Study 2, we present case studies from three different school settings of users of the SRT. Results demonstrate that practitioners judged the SRT to be very useful. As intended, practitioners used it mainly for professional learning and for planning, but confidence in their ability to define spatial reasoning was mixed. Three diverse case studies demonstrate flexibility in application of the SRT resources, exemplifying that every child is unique and might not conform to the ‘typical’ trajectory. Practitioner time was presented as a barrier; this limitation was somewhat overcome by presenting multiple resource types, but nevertheless highlighted the need to maximize accessibility when translating research to practice.
Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology to Support the Three Legs of Talent Development
Authors: Siegle Del
Published: August 2024

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a valuable tool in seamlessly integrating three important components of talent development: academic acceleration, classroom inductive teaching techniques focusing on depth and complexity, and opportunities for interest-based activities. These three components of talent development within gifted education services can be likened to a three-legged stool. Each component is crucial to accommodate and stimulate the intellectual growth of gifted students.
Re-designing strategy to enable a sub-system to function as a dynamic vibration absorber
Authors: Matsubara Masami , Takahashi Kohei , Furuya Kohei , Saito Akira , Kawamura Shozo
Published: August 2024

In the design of a typical dynamic absorber, the components corresponding to the dynamic vibration absorber (DVA) should be reduced to a lumped constant system model comprising a mass, spring, and damper. The equivalent mass and stiffness must be determined and linked to design coefficients. However, no studies on the dynamic design of a main structure (main system) and an attached DVA (sub-system) based on an FE model without constructing a reduced-order equivalent model with a few DOFs have been conducted. This study proposes a new method of extracting and simplifying the design of a sub-system to function as a DVA using the state of a finite element (FE) model. We established the relationship between the condition of the sub-system functioning as a DVA and the modal parameter of the entire system. According to a survey, the modal kinetic energies, which were calculated from the partial mass matrix and mode vectors, of the main system and sub-system are approximately equal. We used this relationship to redesign the sub-system. As the modal kinetic energy was used as a design index, the FE model could be redesigned without constructing an equivalent lumped parameter model consisting of two or three degrees of freedom (DOFs) as in the conventional DVA design. We demonstrated the relationship between the modal kinetic energies of the main system and sub-system when it functions as a DVA for a 2-DOF lumped mass model and discussed how to distinguish the sub-system from the entire system (multi-DOF system). Considerable improvement was found in re-designing at FE model, validating the proposed method. The proposed method can be used to redesign components that behave similarly to dynamic absorbers to effectively reduce vibration from the results of FE analysis, without modeling the system as a lumped constant system.
Bilingual clause combining: A Variable Equivalence hypothesis for conjunction choice
Authors: Torres Cacoullos Rena , LaCasse Dora
Published: August 2024

Objectives:

Bringing linguistic experience into code-switching (CS) constraints, a new hypothesis considers cross-language variable equivalence, which arises from within-language variability. Bilingual choices are assessed for Spanish-English CS between clauses, where subordinating conjunctions may not be consistently equivalent.

Methodology:

Equivalence exists at the main-and-adverbial clause junction, inasmuch as the conjunctions are consistently present and placed the same way in the two languages. Equivalence is variable with main-and-complement clauses, because English complementizer that is mostly absent. Tokens of clause combining were extracted from the prosodically transcribed speech of members of a long-standing community in northern New Mexico who use both languages in their everyday interactions. Bilingual clause combinations were compared with their unilingual counterparts produced by the same speakers, as benchmarks.

Data and Analysis:

Over 2,000 tokens of clause combining were coded for conjunction, subordinate clause type, prosodic connection, and CS direction for bilingual instances ( n = 189).

Findings:

Bilinguals treat CS with complement and adverbial clauses differently. With complement clauses, the rate of CS is lower, prosodic separation is greater and, most notably, conjunction language choice is more asymmetrical. Spanish complementizer que is overwhelmingly selected over English that. In contrast, choice between causal conjunctions porque and (be)cause is affected by CS direction.

Originality:

The Variable Equivalence hypothesis states that bilinguals favor CS with the equivalent option from one of the languages that is more frequent and predictable in their combined linguistic experience, considering both languages.

Significance:

CS constraints are probabilistic (preferred CS sites) rather than categorical (permissible CS sites). The Variable Equivalence hypothesis accommodates variation in actual language use. Methodologically, comparing spontaneous CS with the same speakers’ unilingual production allows discovery of CS asymmetries. These asymmetries reveal quantitative bilingual preferences to switch at particular sites.
Machine learning model for osteoporosis diagnosis based on bone turnover markers
Authors: Baik Seung Min , Kwon Hi Jeong , Kim Yeongsic , Lee Jehoon , Park Young Hoon , Park Dong Jin
Published: August 2024

To assess the diagnostic utility of bone turnover markers (BTMs) and demographic variables for identifying individuals with osteoporosis. A cross-sectional study involving 280 participants was conducted. Serum BTM values were obtained from 88 patients with osteoporosis and 192 controls without osteoporosis. Six machine learning models, including extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), light gradient boosting machine (LGBM), CatBoost, random forest, support vector machine, and k-nearest neighbors, were employed to evaluate osteoporosis diagnosis. The performance measures included the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), F1-score, and accuracy. After AUROC optimization, LGBM exhibited the highest AUROC of 0.706. Post F1-score optimization, LGBM’s F1-score was improved from 0.50 to 0.65. Combining the top three optimized models (LGBM, XGBoost, and CatBoost) resulted in an AUROC of 0.706, an F1-score of 0.65, and an accuracy of 0.73. BTMs, along with age and sex, were found to contribute significantly to osteoporosis diagnosis. This study demonstrates the potential of machine learning models utilizing BTMs and demographic variables for diagnosing preexisting osteoporosis. The findings highlight the clinical relevance of accessible clinical data in osteoporosis assessment, providing a promising tool for early diagnosis and management.
Macro-scale finite element simulation of wire-arc additive manufacturing
Authors: Pragana JPM , Sampaio RFV , Bragança IMF , Silva CMA , Nielsen CV , Martins PAF
Published: August 2024

This paper focuses on the development of a finite element computer software to perform macro-scale thermo-mechanical simulations of wire-arc additive manufacturing (WAAM). The emphasis is placed on various aspects of computer implementation, such as modeling the heat source, incorporating an element birth approach to replicate material deposition, and ensuring compatibility of solution time increments with the wire feed rate, travel speed of the heat source and melt pool volume. Thermal strains are also included due to their impact on residual stresses and distortions of the built parts after finishing material deposition. Experiments consisting of single bead, multi-layer deposition of AISI 316L stainless steel along linear paths are utilized to validate the predicted temperature distribution over time and evaluate the computed geometry and distortions of the deposited vertical walls after unclamping. Microstructure observations of samples extracted from the walls combined with finite element estimates of the temperature gradient help understand the influence of temperature history on the morphology and orientation of columnar grain growth.
Truth and Transformation: The Test of Truth in the Development of New or Revised Ideas, and Related Values and Beliefs
Authors: Roux Rian
Published: August 2024

Our current cultural climate is marked by a convergence of pressing issues, including the rise of the post-truth situation, which has recently been described as an epistemic crisis (Hoggan-Kloubert & Hoggan, 2023). This conceptual paper outlines why adult education institutions must reclaim the pursuit of truth as undergirded by rationality, autonomy, and pluralism as a core educational aim and presents a particular pedagogical conceptualisation for doing so. It is proposed that transformative approaches are uniquely positioned to address some of the issues associated with the post-truth situation; however, to be both applicable and accountable within participatory democracies, such efforts also need to be philosophically coherent, practically ethical, and incorporate opportunities for students to critically evaluate ideas, and related values and beliefs against the test of truth. To this end, a reconceptualisation of the axiological, ontological, and epistemological foundations for transformative learning is presented.
Idiopathic intracranial hypertension pathogenesis: The jugular hypothesis
Authors: Fargen Kyle M , Midtlien Jackson P , Margraf Connor R. , Hui Ferdinand K
Published: August 2024

In spite of expanding research, idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and its spectrum conditions remain challenging to treat. The failure to develop effective treatment strategies is largely due to poor agreement on a coherent disease pathogenesis model. Herein we provide a hypothesis of a unifying model centered around the internal jugular veins (IJV) to explain the development of IIH, which contends the following: (1) the IJV are prone to both physiological and pathological compression throughout their course, including compression near C1 and the styloid process, dynamic muscular/carotid compression from C3 to C6, and lymphatic compression; (2) severe dynamic IJV stenosis with developments of large cervical gradients is common in IIH-spectrum patients and significantly impacts intracranial venous and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressures; (3) pre-existing IJV stenosis may be exacerbated by infectious/inflammatory etiologies that induce retromandibular cervical lymphatic hypertrophy; (4) extra-jugular venous collaterals dilate with chronic use but are insufficient resulting in impaired aggregate cerebral venous outflow; (5) poor IJV outflow initiates, or in conjunction with other factors, contributes to intracranial venous hypertension and congestion leading to higher CSF pressures and intracranial pressure (ICP); (6) glymphatic congestion occurs but is insufficient to compensate and this pathway becomes overwhelmed; and (7) elevated intracranial CSF pressures triggers extramural venous sinus stenosis in susceptible individuals that amplifies ICP elevation producing severe clinical manifestations. Future studies must focus on establishing norms for dynamic cerebral venous outflow and IJV physiology in the absence of disease so that we may better understand and define the diseased state.