bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of movement-based priming combined with task specific training on upper limb recovery in patients after stroke
Authors:   Department of Occupational Therapy, National Institute for Locomotor Disabilities (Divyangjan), Kolkata, West Bengal, India, Sethy Damayanti , Sahoo Surjeet ,   Department of Psychiatry, IMS & SUM Hospital, Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Odisha, India, Sahoo Srikant ,   Department of Neurology, IMS & SUM Hospital, Siksha O Anusandhan (Deemed to be University), Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India, Mohakud Kshanaprava ,   Swamy Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research, Olatpur, Odisha, India
Published: November 2023

Background: Rehabilitation of upper limb impairments and functional deficits is a top goal in stroke rehabilitation. Alternative therapeutic methods may be developed to facilitate upper limb recovery. Priming prepares the brain for better action. When some therapies accompany Priming, it results in a change in behaviour at the performance level by improving the effect of Neuro-Rehabilitation Therapies and enhancing change in the neural process. Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of movement-based priming combined with task-specific training on upper limb recovery in patients after stroke. Materials and methods: Twenty-four subjects in the early phase of stroke, attending the Department of Neurology in a tertiary care hospital of Bhubaneswar, Odisha participated in a single-blind randomized controlled trial. 24 subjects after stroke were recruited to the study and randomly allocated to a control group receiving task-specific training only (TST) and an experimental group receiving Movement-Based Priming with task-specific training (MBP+TST). The control group received only task-specific training for 45 minutes per session three days a week for six weeks, while the experimental group received 15 minutes of priming and 30 minutes of task-specific training. Fugl-Mayer Assessment of upper extremity (FMA-UE)was used to measure upper extremity motor recovery, and the Motor Activity Log (MAL) was used to measure the use of arm and hand during activities of daily living at baseline and after six weeks of therapy. Results: Both the TST group and the MBP+TST group had significantly improved their capacity to move and use their upper limbs functionally (p<0.001). FMA-UE and MAL scores improved more favorably in the MBP+TST group than in the TST group (p<0.001). Conclusion: Priming in combination with task-specific training results in better upper limb recovery than task-specific training alone.
Exploring TiO2-PP as a Reusable Floating Photocatalyst for Humic Acid and Iron Removal in Peat Water
Authors: Nugroho Bintoro Siswo , Asri Asifa , Arman Yudha
Published: November 2023

In this study, we fabricate TiO2-PP catalyst and analyze its use for peat water photodegradation. The photocatalyst is a thin layer of TiO2 deposited on the surface of polypropylene (PP) grains by the thermal milling method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) images indicate that the fabrication successfully deposited TiO2 particles on the PP grain surface homogeneously well. The results show that photocatalysis of peat water using TiO2-PP with solar irradiation is more effective than the UV lamp. After photocatalysis for 40 hours with solar irradiation, the humic acid content in peat water decreases significantly, accompanied by a decrease in Fe concentration. When being reused, TiO2-PP photocatalyst shows performance above 92% in the fourth iteration, while in the fifth iteration, the performance decreases to 83%. These results show that TiO2-PP has the potential to be applied as a reusable floating photocatalyst to reduce the humic acid and iron content in peat water.
The Spatial Arrangement of The Electric Field in the Needle-Plate Electrospinning
Authors: Kusumaatmaja Ahmad , Manaf Muhamad Nasrudin , Hidayat Shiddiq Nur , Triyana Kuwat , Rahma Farah , Kadja Grandprix T. M. , Yunus Muchammad
Published: November 2023

The electric field distribution of the Neddle-Plate (NP) electrospinning set up has reported due to the simple classical electrodynamics solutions. The charge is assumed to distribute uniformly in the needle (nozzle) and the collector (plate). The electric field has an influence only in the early stage of the electrospinning process. The electric field and the viscosity of the jet fluid have caused the bending of the straight jet. The high viscosity of the fluid can preserve the straight jet length much longer. The electric field gives the initial angular momentum of the jet due to the whipping motion of the jet. For the area away from the nozzle, the electric does not influence the whipping motion. Then the whipping motion solely due to the influence from the charge repulsion of the jet fluid and the evaporation of the solvent.
Compressibility Effects on Turbulent Heat Transfer of Natural Convection in a Square Cavity
Authors: Mahmudah Rida Siti Nur'aini , Widiatmono Restu , Darmawan Denny
Published: November 2023

Heat transfer in turbulent flows is one of the essential topics in power plants and thermal-based engineering. This study aims to analyze the effects of density changes due to heat transfer in a turbulent environment—which is usually neglected because it can cause instability in a simulation. We simulate an available experimental case of turbulent heat transfer of air with OpenFOAM: one with an incompressible approach (no density change) and another with a compressible treatment. The simulation geometry is a 0.75 × 0.75 m2 square cavity, where its left and right walls are kept at a temperature difference of 40 K. We compare and analyze the temperature, velocity, and turbulence kinetic energy profiles of both simulation results against the experimental data. We found that from all qualitative and quantitative comparisons, the change in density plays a vital role in turbulent heat transfer. The compressible treatment gives better results than the incompressible: the neglection of density change causes a significant difference with the experimental data. Thus, we strongly recommended incorporating compressibility in simulating heat transfer in turbulent flows.
Low Temperature Calcination of TiO2 and ZnO Particle Film and Evaluation of Their Photocatalytic Activity
Authors: Islami Inovasari , Ramadhika Lutfi Naufal , Safriani Lusi , Bahtiar Ayi , Fitrilawati Fitrilawati , Riveli Nowo , Aprilia Annisa
Published: November 2023

In this study, TiO2, ZnO, and TiO2/ZnO films were prepared under low calcination temperature and characterized to observe their properties related to photocatalytic performance. The samples were prepared by mixing the gel phase of ZnO precursor, TiO2 anatase powder, triton-x 100, and acetylacetone to produce a paste form for the deposition process. The resulting paste was then deposited by screen printing onto a glass substrate and subjected to calcination at 250C to facilitate the ZnO crystallization and remove other additive materials. XRD analysis confirms that the formation of ZnO and TiO2 crystals was assisted, although their crystallinity was lower than corresponding particulate forms. The lower crystallinity seems to be related by additive materials remains. The surface morphology of each sample was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET), and contact angle examination. Interestingly, both TiO2 and ZnO layers tend to have a hydrophobic surface meanwhile TiO2/ZnO has a hydrophilic surface. BET analysis revealed that ZnO has the highest specific surface area due to a nanosized. FTIR spectra confirmed the presence of appropriate chemical bonds in the ZnO and TiO2 and other additive materials, such as alkyl groups. The photoluminescence (PL) spectrum shows a blue emission associated with intrinsic defects such as vacancies and interstitials of Zn and Ti in all samples. Differences in the photocatalytic performance of film and particulate form for each material were observed and analyzed. All samples' structures, morphology, and PL characteristics were then correlated to their photocatalyst behavior for methylene blue degradation.
A Weighted Average of Multiple Inversions of Rayleigh Wave Dispersion Curve Using Particle Swarm Optimization for Geotechnical Site Characterization
Authors: Safani Jamhir , Wirawan Rezki , Rubaiyn Al Rubaiyn , Nawawi Mohd , Matsuoka Toshifumi
Published: November 2023

Shear wave velocity is an important parameter in geotechnical engineering for studying liquefaction, finding bedrock for the basement of a building, and figuring out the presence of subsurface cavities. This study aims to develop and evaluate the accuracy of the multiple inversions by the Particle Swarm Optimization (MI-PSO) algorithm with a weighted average solution. This algorithm is applied to Rayleigh wave dispersion data for geotechnical site characterization. Two synthetic models, the HVL model and the complex model (i.e., a combination of models with LVL and HVL characteristics), are used to conduct algorithm tests. These synthetic models replicate subsurface characteristics that are frequently encountered in geotechnical cases. Synthetic data tests show that the MI-PSO algorithm with a weighted average solution works excellently. The MI-PSO technique with a weighted average solution resolves the model better than the conventional average solution. When applied to two field data sets, the MI-PSO algorithm with a weighted average solution can delineate target models that are consistent with the qualitative interpretation based on the observed dispersion curve characteristics.
Review Essay: The Material Culture of Textiles: Towards Sustainability
Authors: Smelik Anneke
Published: November 2023

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Sexual display from the abyss: Octopuses between heteronormativity and exorbitance
Authors: Panisson Benedetta
Published: November 2023

This paper focuses on a footage recorded in 1993 by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution at 2500m depth. It is the first visual experience of sexual activity between abyssal octopuses in their oceanic habitat: they are two males of two different species. This paper aims to analyze the gendered, affective, and moral structures that have produced texts and voice-offs in relation to this visuality, letting emerge how a transcultural, feminist, queer, and artistic gaze can lead to a reparative stance, beyond a replicated heteronormativity perceived as threatening, towards a more relaxed intimacy with animal sexualities, including a hybrid sense of eroticism that accompanies the human attraction for visual sexualities.
John and James Rivington, Booksellers: The Retail Trade in Mid-Eighteenth-Century London
Authors: Orr Leah
Published: November 2023

Abstract: This article analyzes evidence from a manuscript ledger belonging to the London bookselling firm of John and James Rivington during the early 1750s. The ledger shows that the Rivingtons, at the center of the London book trade, frequently swapped or acquired books from other booksellers for retail sale in their shop. The price valuations in the ledger also reveal that the books traded between booksellers were valued at a much steeper discount off the retail prices than previous studies have found. This article concludes by suggesting that the wide range of booksellers in their inner circle and the steep discount of prices for those on the inside explains how the Rivingtons and others at the center of the London trade were able to maintain their monopoly and also why they underestimated the threat from booksellers outside their network. The swapping of books gives insight into the retail experience and shows booksellers stocking common books even before there was an established canon of English literature.
Olive's Vision: Evolution, Pragmatism, and Radicalism in The Bostonians
Authors: Fagan Joshua
Published: November 2023

Abstract: The Bostonians , despite frequent framing of it as a non-radical or even anti-radical novel, contains within it a pattern of disruptive evolutionary change. I argue that the novel's concept of evolution is not linear and gradualist, but rather overwhelming and radical, befitting the Pragmatist conception of Darwinian evolution supported by the James brothers. Change itself is not abhorrent to the narrative, and Basil Ransom's desperate attempts to prevent and reverse change are largely ineffectual and absurd. What is abhorrent is only supporting utopian, hyper-individualist concepts of change that satisfy self-aggrandizing ends, as Olive Chancellor does. Only when she loses Verena, I argue, does Olive awaken from her possessive solipsism and participate in a non-elitist way in the democratic, communal process of social transformation. This evolutionary process is chaotic and unpredictable, revising and challenging old convictions, but it organically creates powerful change that extends beyond the expectations of any singular individual.
Ungrateful Hero: Theseus and Ariadne in Inferno 12
Authors: Moudarres Andrea
Published: November 2023

Abstract: This article considers Virgil’s reference to the myth of Theseus and Ariadne in the context of pilgrim’s encounter with the Minotaur in Inferno 12. Here Dante draws attention to Theseus’s debt to Ariadne, the princess of Crete who instructed the Athenian hero on how to kill the Minotaur and escape from the labyrinth. Yet, as Dante likely read in Ovid’s adaptations of this myth, it is Theseus’s lack of gratitude for Ariadne’s assistance that defines the relationship between these two characters. I will therefore argue that Dante does not see Theseus as a Christlike model for the pilgrim, but rather as one of his classical foils.
Pavese’s Border Multilingualism: The Homeric Nekyia and Beyond
Authors: Beretta Francesca G.
Published: November 2023

Abstract: This article examines Cesare Pavese’s translations from the Homeric poems and other Ancient Greek works, including those from his confino or exile in Brancaleone Calabro from 1935–1936 and his English translations and writings from the same decade. By developing the concept of border multilingualism, I argue that these translations are part of a specifically Pavesian ethics and poetics of language that takes in-betweenness as its defining trait. Within this framework, I suggest that the practice of confino created borderlands within Italy by designating spaces on the national territory in which citizens were paradoxically stripped of their civil rights.
Italian Detective Fiction in a European Context: National, International, Transnational
Authors: Rushing Robert A.
Published: November 2023

Abstract: Detective fiction and place have always been tightly connected, both within the fiction itself and within the criticism. In this article, I look at French, Scandinavian and Italian crime fiction, with an eye not only to what a comparative analysis shows (traditionally rooted in a relatively static notion of national literatures that are assumed to be more or less “comparable” and thus in some sense equivalent) but—more importantly—to what an analysis attentive to a transnational understanding shows. The notion of the international and the idea of comparative are remarkably close in locating themselves in an abstract space between two objects of attention. Those objects are, in their abstracted state, more or less equal. What is lost in those abstractions is precisely what is not lost in the space of the transnational, since transnational movements are always from one specific place to another. Transnational studies should always capture the question of the asymmetric and differential power between nations and cultures—what makes it easy to go to some places, hard to go to other. Broadly speaking, I look at two very different kinds of crime fiction. First, the international thriller, in which the detective moves effortlessly around the world, the movement of Bauman’s “liquid modernity”—a genre that is, unsurprisingly, strongly associated with an invisible privilege and prestige. This subgenre is perhaps most tightly associated with the Anglophone world but certainly appears in France and Scandinavia as well. Second, what I call the “Euro-procedural”, a form that was pioneered by the Swedish authors Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöo in the 1960s but that has particularly flourished in the age of globalization, perhaps particularly in Italy. The Euro-procedural stresses, like all procedurals, the grinding and unpleasant day to day work of the detective, caught between a hostile public and a decaying European state; not every crime in the Euro-procedural involves other nations but, when they do, their transnational or transcultural nature is clearly marked, as human capital and valuable illicit materials like drugs are trafficked from the (relative) periphery to the (relative) center. Broadly speaking, the Euro-procedural insists on the boundaries that demarcate national spaces but does so in order to stress both the weakness of the nation state in an era of global crime and movements of capital, material and persons and also to stress the asymmetric relations of power between different nations or cultural spaces.
Realism, Initially
Authors: Bistline Ellen Truxaw
Published: November 2023

Abstract: This article argues that the pictorial initials that begin chapters within many Victorian novels participate in and theorize these novels' modes of realism. Initials' dual pictorial-alphabetic form enacts an experience of leaving behind their illustrative image for sequential, alphabetic reading, thereby constituting the paradoxical meaningfulness of superfluous details in these novels' story worlds. By intimating extradiegetic character connections, the initials in Charles Dickens's Old Curiosity Shop create a sense that its character network is horizonless. In Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters , initials suggest an unlimited granularity of pertinent intradiegetic detail.
Registration and Impersonation in A Tale of Two Cities
Authors: Tarr Clayton Carlyle
Published: November 2023

Abstract: In Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Madame Defarge knits a coded register of enemies to be sent to the guillotine. Civil registration became French law in 1792, serving as one of the principal means to track the lives and movements of the population. Nearly four decades later, the Births, Deaths, and Marriages Act passed in England and Wales. Registration meant that the state could practice centralized surveillance through a complex network of official registrars. This article argues that Dickens's contemporary personal turmoil prompted him to be suspicious of civil registration. Madame Defarge's "fatal register" demonstrates how registration could undermine individual liberty through a process of what Dickens calls "universal watchfulness."
James Reshoulde and Elizabethan Scribal Culture
Authors: May Steven W.
Published: November 2023

Abstract: Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. poet. 85 (Ra), and Marsh's Library, Dublin, MS Z 3.5.21 (Ma), are two of the most important anthologies of Elizabethan lyric poetry. We have long known that Ra was compiled at St. John's College, Cambridge, apparently by John Finet. He credits his fellow Johnian, James Reshoulde, with two poems in Ra, one of which is answered by a poem in Ma. Reshoulde is not named in Ma, but the discovery of his handwriting in this miscellany confirms that it, too, was compiled at St. John's and drew upon a common store of in-house and external writings, including poems written by courtiers at the apogee of Elizabethan society. The relationships among these elite texts shed important new light on how lyric poetry circulated in the age's scribal culture and how these practices exerted a democratizing influence on what is generally considered a culture of exclusive coteries.
John Locke, Ecological Imperialism, and the Narration of the Land in Robinson Crusoe —A Tale of the Anthropocene
Authors: Bowers Terence N.
Published: November 2023

Abstract: The influence of John Locke's political thought on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has often been discussed. Most studies have focused on how the novel speaks to political crises in England, especially those surrounding the Glorious Revolution, which have traditionally been seen as forming the key context for understanding Locke's Two Treatises of Government . But recent scholarship has shown that the Two Treatises also addressed the colonial context in America and provided the intellectual platform that justified British expansion in the New World. Though studies of Robinson Crusoe have for some time analyzed the novel in the context of colonialism, Locke has not figured much in such analyses. This essay argues, however, that Locke's key connection to Robinson Crusoe is his view of America and empire and that Defoe's story of survival in the wild builds on and powerfully reinforces Locke's colonial ideology, which is grounded in a vision of how human beings should (and should not relate) to the earth. This vision is deeply anthropocentric and matches what the environmental historian Donald Worster calls "the 'imperial' view of nature." The vision of empire shared by Locke and Defoe is thus based on and inseparable from a quest for ecological dominion that is global in scope. In the latter part of the essay, I discuss the astounding popularity of the Crusoe story and its status as myth and argue that it constitutes a version of what Carolyn Merchant terms the "Recovery Narrative," which forms "perhaps the most important mythology that humans have developed to make sense of their relationship to the earth." Given its influence and enduring popularity, I suggest that we see Robinson Crusoe as a key text and driver of the Anthropocene—the geological epoch in which human activities have altered the planet's land surfaces, oceans, and biosphere and produced the environmental crises that we face today.
Optical correlation diagnostics of rough surfaces
Authors: Angelsky O. V. , Maksimyak P. P.
Published: November 2023

A number of optical correlation methods for the diagnostics of slightly rough surfaces have been developed. The problem is treated using the model of infinitely extended random phase objects. It is based on the following assumptions: (i) all spatial frequencies corresponding to the phase structure of the object contribute to formation of the radiation field resulting from interaction with the object; (ii) the dispersion of the object phase
σφ02 < 1; (iii) the inhomogeneity correlation radius of the random phase object is larger than the wavelength, i.e., lφ0 > 1.
Electrooptic effect calculations for arbitrary crystal classes, field directions, and wave vector directions
Authors: Maldonado Theresa A. , Gaylord Thomas K.
Published: November 2023

The ability to predict changes in optical properties induced by an external electric field is necessary for the design and analysis of electrooptic devices. However, the small electrically induced perturbations in the impermeability tensor create a potentially unstable numerical problem. A procedure employing the general Jacobi method is introduced for calculating the principal indices of refraction and the orientations of the index ellipsoid when an electric field is applied. The method is applicable to an arbitrary isotropic, uniaxial, or biaxial crystal class with an arbitrary direction of applied field. It includes a straightforward approach for consistent labeling of the new principal dielectric axes so as to produce the minimum global rotation of the ellipsoid from the zero-field principal dielectric axes. The necessary calculations can be implemented with a pocket calculator and are usually found to be more accurate than those obtained from larger computers using standard library math packages. Furthermore, to analyze device performance, simple expressions are derived for the orientations of the fast and slow polarization axes and the corresponding indices of refraction, given an arbitrary direction of applied electric field and an arbitrary direction of optical propagation. Illustrative examples are presented.
Spatial frequency doubling lithography for fabrication of integrated optical device gratings
Authors: Jewell Tanya E.
Published: November 2023

A new method to fabricate the gratings used for integrated optical circuits is described. The method combines optical projection lithography, coherent illumination, and spatial filtering. Only the two first orders diffracted by the mask grating are allowed to pass through the lens. This produces a grating pattern in the image plane that has a high contrast (near 100%), a large depth of focus (aproximately ±13 μm), and a period half of what would have been obtained in normal imaging. Thus with a 5× reduction lens a 5-μm period grating on the mask produces a 0.5-μm period image on the wafer. Gratings of different periods, sizes, locations, orientations, and configurations (chirped, phase shifted, etc.) can all be produced on the same chip with a single exposure. Using a deep UV lens with 248-nm KrF excimer laser for illumination, we printed a high-quality 0.5-μm period grating in an oxide layer on 10- × 10-mm silicon chips. The extended depth of focus was observed. This method is primarily useful for patterning gratings. The method can be extended to fabricate phase-shifted gratings of a 0.23-μm period for DFB semiconductor lasers. This technique opens up the possibility of high-volume production of IOC chips with Bragg filters using standard IC fabrication facilities.
Optical characteristics of deeply modulated gratings
Authors: Zaidi Saleem H. , Brueck S. R. J.
Published: November 2023

Studies of grating properties have a long and distinguished history. Much of this work has been confined to relatively shallow gratings with sinusoidal profiles. We report an experimental study of both zero-order and first-order reflectivities of Agcoated photoresist gratings at 633 nm, with particular attention to surface plasma wave (SPW) mode couplings and grating polarization effects. Gratings studied had periods from 380 to 840 nm and depths to 1000 nm. For gratings with only one allowed SPW coupling, as the grating depth is increased beyond the optimal depth for coupling into the SPW, and SPW coupling gradually decreases and the resonance angle shifts and broadens. Simultaneously, the grating diffraction efficiency increases. For optimal gratings, <1% of the incident TM-polarized light is reflected by the grating. In contrast, the grating reflectivity is over 80% for TE-polarized light. Such high polarization ratios offer the potential of inexpensive compact nondispersive polarizing optics. For gratings with 2 orders coupling to the SPW mode, a complex behavior is observed. As the depth is increased, the resonance angles appear to initially attract and then repel each other. The first-order diffraction also shows a strong coupling to the SPW modes.
Wavefront-modified vector beams for THz cornea spectroscopy
Authors: Lamberg Joel , Zarrinkhat Faezeh , Tamminen Aleksi , Baggio Mariangela , Ala-Laurinaho Juha , Rius Juan , Romeu Jordi , Khaled Elsayed E. M. , Taylor Zachary
Published: November 2023

Terahertz spectroscopy is a promising method to diagnose ocular diseases, where the cornea is typically imaged by Gaussian beams. However, the beam’s mismatch with the cornea’s spherical surface produces a 5-10 % error in analysis. We investigate cornea spectroscopy with wavefront-modified vector beams, reducing the original analysis error to less than 0.5 %. Vector beams are synthesized by our developed 3D Angular Spectrum Method expanded to vector spherical harmonic presentation, allowing wavefront modification and scattering analysis from 100-layer cornea models. We show that wavefront-modified spherical vector beams possess increased accuracy and non-sensitive focusing on cornea spectroscopy compared to the Gaussian beams. Additionally, we investigate wavefront-modified cylindrical vector beams, which show frequency-dependent scattering power arising from s- and p-polarizations. As a result, these beams are unsuitable for cornea spectroscopy, although they have potential for optical force applications. Wavefront-modified vector beams can be applied to spherical target spectroscopy and optical force applications, such as medicine, medical imaging, and optical tweezers.
Multidimensional stitching method with wavelength tuned interferometry and unconstrained support tooling for large-thin parallel plate
Authors: Zhang Shuai , Hou Xi , Yan Wei , Zhao Yuancheng , Hu Xiaochuan , Meng Yutong , Li Mengfan
Published: November 2023

Limited by measurement methods, measuring the surfaces and thickness of large thin parallel plates has been challenging. In this paper, we propose a multi-dimensional stitching method using thickness alignment (MSuTA), which use the sub-aperture stitching method based on the phenomenon of parallel plate self-interference with wavelength-tuned interferometer (WTI) for measuring the surfaces and thickness of large thin parallel plates. We establish the stitching correction model based on Legendre polynomial to separate the aberrations caused by the elastic deformation of the thin plate in the unconstrained support tooling by analyzing the influence of the stress state of the thin plate with unconstrained three-point support. The stitching experiment has carried out on 6.3 mm thick, 6-inch parallel plates that the stitching residual is better than 0.35 nm RMS. Compared with 12-inch vertical interferometer, the surfaces and thickness deviation are better than 0.8 nm RMS, and the 36 standard Legendre polynomial coefficient deviation are better than 2.5 nm. Moreover, MSuTA can improves the lateral resolution of the measurement by nearly four times, allowing for a display of more comprehensive surface information. The stitching method proposed in this paper will be widely applied in the manufacture and measurement of large thin parallel plates, and provide reference for the elastic deformation analysis of the thin optical elements in the unconstrained support tooling.
Lattice Mie resonances and emissivity enhancement in mid-infrared iron pyrite metasurfaces
Authors: Islam Md Sakibul , Babicheva Viktoriia E.
Published: November 2023

High-refractive-index antennas with characteristic dimensions comparable to wavelength have a remarkable ability to support pronounces electric and magnetic dipole resonances. Furthermore, periodic arrangements of such resonant antennas result in narrow and strong lattice resonances facilitated by the lattice. We design iron pyrite antennas operating in the mid-infrared spectral range due to the material’s low-energy bandgap and high refractive index. We utilize Kirchhoff’s law, stating that emissivity and absorptance are equal to each other in equilibrium, and we apply it to improve the thermal properties of the iron pyrite metasurface. Through the excitation of collective resonances and manipulation of the antenna lattice’s period, we demonstrate our capacity to control emissivity peaks. These peaks stem from the resonant excitation of electric and magnetic dipoles within proximity to the Rayleigh anomalies. In the lattice of truncated-cone antennas, we observe Rabi splitting of electric and magnetic dipole lattice resonances originating from the antennas’ broken symmetry. We demonstrate that the truncated-cone antenna lattices support strong out-of-plane magnetic dipole lattice resonances at oblique incidence. We show that the truncated-cone antennas, as opposed to disks or cones, facilitate a particularly strong resonance and bound state in the continuum at the normal incidence. Our work demonstrates the effective manipulation of emissivity peaks in iron pyrite metasurfaces through controlled lattice resonances and antenna design, offering promising avenues for mid-infrared spectral engineering.
Research on the pre-pulses caused by post-pulses in the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier
Authors: Chen Haidong , Wang Xinliang , Liu Xingyan , Chen Xun , Bai Peile , Pan Shuren , Hu Liang , Hu Jiabing , Wu Fenxiang , Zhang Zongxin , Liu Yanqi , Xu Yi , Leng Yuxin
Published: November 2023

Pre-pulses caused by the post-pulses in the optical parametric chirped-pulse amplifier were comprehensively studied for the first time, including the underlying mechanism for the delay-shift of pre-pulses, the intensity variation of pre-pulses affected by the initial delay of post-pulses and the pump energy, and also the nonlinear beat noise. The simulation and measurement confirmed that the high-order dispersion of the pulse stretcher was the main cause for the delay-shift of pre-pulses, which should be similar with the chirped-pulse amplifiers. The intensity of pre-pulses would decrease significantly as the initial delay of post-pulses increased, but would increase with the growth of pump energy. Moreover, the temporal position of the nonlinear beat noise in the experiment was successfully predicted by our simulation. This work could help us better understand the pre-pulses in OPCPA and provide helpful guidance for designing high-contrast laser systems.
Interaction between decision-making and motor learning when selecting reach targets in the presence of bias and noise
Authors: Zhu Tianyao , Gallivan Jason P. , Wolpert Daniel M. , Flanagan J. Randall
Published: November 2023

Motor errors can have both bias and noise components. Bias can be compensated for by adaptation and, in tasks in which the magnitude of noise varies across the environment, noise can be reduced by identifying and then acting in less noisy regions of the environment. Here we examine how these two processes interact when participants reach under a combination of an externally imposed visuomotor bias and noise. In a center-out reaching task, participants experienced noise (zero-mean random visuomotor rotations) that was target-direction dependent with a standard deviation that increased linearly from a least-noisy direction. They also experienced a constant bias, a visuomotor rotation that varied (across groups) from 0 to 40 degrees. Critically, on each trial, participants could select one of three targets to reach to, thereby allowing them to potentially select targets close to the least-noisy direction. The group who experienced no bias (0 degrees) quickly learned to select targets close to the least-noisy direction. However, groups who experienced a bias often failed to identify the least-noisy direction, even though they did partially adapt to the bias. When noise was introduced after participants experienced and adapted to a 40 degrees bias (without noise) in all directions, they exhibited an improved ability to find the least-noisy direction. We developed two models—one for reach adaptation and one for target selection—that could explain participants’ adaptation and target-selection behavior. Our data and simulations indicate that there is a trade-off between adaptation and selection. Specifically, because bias learning is local, participants can improve performance, through adaptation, by always selecting targets that are closest to a chosen direction. However, this comes at the expense of improving performance, through selection, by reaching toward targets in different directions to find the least-noisy direction.
Central metabolism is a key player in E. coli biofilm stimulation by sub-MIC antibiotics
Authors: Yaeger Luke N. , French Shawn , Brown Eric D. , Côté Jean Philippe , Burrows Lori L.
Published: November 2023

Exposure of Escherichia coli to sub-inhibitory antibiotics stimulates biofilm formation through poorly characterized mechanisms. Using a high-throughput Congo Red binding assay to report on biofilm matrix production, we screened ~4000 E. coli K12 deletion mutants for deficiencies in this biofilm stimulation response. We screened using three different antibiotics to identify core components of the biofilm stimulation response. Mutants lacking acnA, nuoE, or lpdA failed to respond to sub-MIC cefixime and novobiocin, implicating central metabolism and aerobic respiration in biofilm stimulation. These genes are members of the ArcA/B regulon–controlled by a respiration-sensitive two-component system. Mutants of arcA and arcB had a ‘pre-activated’ phenotype, where biofilm formation was already high relative to wild type in vehicle control conditions, and failed to increase further with the addition of sub-MIC cefixime. Using a tetrazolium dye and an in vivo NADH sensor, we showed spatial co-localization of increased metabolic activity with sub-lethal concentrations of the bactericidal antibiotics cefixime and novobiocin. Supporting a role for respiratory stress, the biofilm stimulation response to cefixime and novobiocin was inhibited when nitrate was provided as an alternative electron acceptor. Deletion of a gene encoding part of the machinery for respiring nitrate abolished its ameliorating effects, and nitrate respiration increased during growth with sub-MIC cefixime. Finally, in probing the generalizability of biofilm stimulation, we found that the stimulation response to translation inhibitors, unlike other antibiotic classes, was minimally affected by nitrate supplementation, suggesting that targeting the ribosome stimulates biofilm formation in distinct ways. By characterizing the biofilm stimulation response to sub-MIC antibiotics at a systems level, we identified multiple avenues for design of therapeutics that impair bacterial stress management.
Intranasal challenge with B. pertussis leads to more severe disease manifestations in mice than aerosol challenge
Authors: Weaver Kelly L. , Bitzer Graham J. , Wolf M. Allison , Pyles Gage M. , DeJong Megan A. , Dublin Spencer R. , Huckaby Annalisa B. , Gutierrez Maria de la Paz , Hall Jesse M. , Wong Ting Y. , Warden Matthew , Petty Jonathan E. , Witt William T. , Cunningham Casey , Sen-Kilic Emel , Damron F. Heath , Barbier Mariette
Published: November 2023

The murine Bordetella pertussis challenge model has been utilized in preclinical research for decades. Currently, inconsistent methodologies are employed by researchers across the globe, making it difficult to compare findings. The objective of this work was to utilize the CD-1 mouse model with two routes of challenge, intranasal and aerosol administration of B. pertussis, to understand the differences in disease manifestation elicited via each route. We observed that both routes of B. pertussis challenge result in dose-dependent colonization of the respiratory tract, but overall, intranasal challenge led to higher bacterial burden in the nasal lavage, trachea, and lung. Furthermore, high dose intranasal challenge results in induction of leukocytosis and pro-inflammatory cytokine responses compared to aerosol challenge. These data highlight crucial differences in B. pertussis challenge routes that should be considered during experimental design.
Rational therapeutic targets with biomolecular liquid-liquid phase separation regulating synergy: A pan-cancer analysis
Authors: Sun Si , Wang Wenwen , Li Guoqing , Xiao Man , Peng Minggang , Cai Jing , Wang Zehua , Yang Qiang , He Xiaoqi
Published: November 2023

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) is characterized as an ubiquitous framework for diverse biological processes including carcinogenesis and cancer progression. While targeting cancer from perspective of LLPS offers an opportunity to drug the conventionally undruggables with cancer-driving potential, the therapeutic value of cancer associated LLPS (CAL) proteins remains elusive. Here, we report the genomic landscape, prognostic relevance, immune-infiltration association, down-stream pathway alteration and small molecular responsiveness of CAL protein-coding gene signatures based on protein-coding associated mutations and transcriptional abundance in pan-cancer. Correlations of CAL protein-coding associated mutations and transcriptional abundances to overall survival and progression-free survival were observed in an array of cancers and further characterized by differential survival outcomes between patients with intrinsic disordered region (IDR) enriched and non-IDR enriched mutations in endometrial cancer. Altered signaling pathways and universal pattern of immune infiltrates on account of CAL protein-coding associated gene-set mutations involved key components of oncogenesis in various cancer types and well established therapeutic targets including MAPK signaling pathway and implied an inflamed tumor immunity that might be highly responsive to immunotherapy. LLPS inhibitor enhanced cytotoxicity of cisplatin/paclitaxel in selective cancer cell lines. These findings provide preliminary evidences for rational chemo-, targeted- and immuno-therapeutic innovation with LLPS regulating synergy.
Using photographs for rating severity degrees of clinical appearance in research mice enables valid discrimination of extreme but not mild and moderate conditions: A pilot study
Authors: Krueger Johanne C. , Boecker Maren , Gauggel Siegfried , Bleich Andre , Tolba Rene H.
Published: November 2023

To ensure good animal welfare in laboratory research and in stockbreeding severity ratings of the animals´ wellbeing are essential. The current study investigated how valid raters can evaluate different severity degrees of clinical appearance and how ratings might be influenced by factors other than the severity itself. Ninety-seven people rated the severity degree (none, mild, moderate, or severe) of the clinical appearance of mice seen in eight different images. The images also differed in the perspective in which they had been taken (entire mouse or head only). The raters differed with regard to their experience of working with laboratory animals and were subsequently divided into three groups—beginners, advanced, professionals. Generalisability theory was applied to examine the contribution of the different rater (raters themselves and experience) and image facets (actual degree of severity and perspective) to the overall data variability. The images showing the extreme severity degrees were rated more homogenously and more precisely than were the images showing the intermediate degrees, as compared to the reference scores. The largest source of variance was the actual degree of severity, accounting for 56.6% of the total variance. Considering only the images showing the extreme severity degrees, this percentage rose to 91.6%, accounting almost exclusively for the found variance. In considering only the intermediate severity degrees, the actual degree of severity did not contribute to variance at all. The remaining variance was due to the raters and the interactions between raters, the actual degree of severity and the perspective. The experience of the raters did not account for any variance. Training in the assessment of severity degrees seems necessary to enhance detection of the intermediate degrees of severity, especially when images are used. In addition, good training material should be developed and evaluated to optimise teaching and to minimise wrong assessments.
Effects of polyploidization and their evolutionary implications are revealed by heritable polyploidy in the haplodiploid wasp Nasonia vitripennis
Authors: Leung Kelley , van de Zande Louis , Beukeboom Leo W.
Published: November 2023

Recurrent polyploidization occurred in the evolutionary history of most Eukaryota. However, how neopolyploid detriment (sterility, gigantism, gene dosage imbalances) has been overcome and even been bridged to evolutionary advantage (gene network diversification, mass radiation, range expansion) is largely unknown, particularly for animals. We used the parasitoid wasp Nasonia vitripennis, a rare insect system with heritable polyploidy, to begin addressing this knowledge gap. In Hymenoptera the sexes have different ploidies (haploid males, diploid females) and neopolyploids (diploid males, triploid females) occur for various species. Although such polyploids are usually sterile, those of N. vitripennis are reproductively capable and can even establish stable polyploid lines. To assess the effects of polyploidization, we compared a long-established polyploid line, the Whiting polyploid line (WPL) and a newly generated transformer knockdown line (tKDL) for fitness traits, absolute gene expression, and cell size and number. WPL polyploids have high male fitness and low female fecundity, while tKDL polyploids have poor male mate competition ability and high fertility. WPL has larger cells and cell number reduction, but the tKDL does not differ in this respect. Expression analyses of two housekeeping genes indicated that gene dosage is linked to sex irrespective of ploidy. Our study suggests that polyploid phenotypic variation may explain why some polyploid lineages thrive and others die out; a commonly proposed but difficult-to-test hypothesis. This documentation of diploid males (tKDL) with impaired competitive mating ability; triploid females with high fitness variation; and hymenopteran sexual dosage compensation (despite the lack of sex chromosomes) all challenges general assumptions on hymenopteran biology. We conclude that polyploidization is dependent on the duplicated genome characteristics and that genomes of different lines are unequally suited to survive diploidization. These results demonstrate the utility of N. vitripennis for delineating mechanisms of animal polyploid evolution, analogous to more advanced polyploid plant models.
Mapping the flow of knowledge as guidance for ethics implementation in medical AI: A qualitative study
Authors: Goirand Magali , Austin Elizabeth , Clay-Williams Robyn
Published: November 2023

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been applied to a range of applications in healthcare and public health such as case identification or monitoring of the population. The urgency of the situation should not be to the detriment of considering the ethical implications of such apps. Implementing ethics in medical AI is a complex issue calling for a systems thinking approach engaging diverse representatives of the stakeholders in a consultative process. The participatory engagement aims to gather the different perspectives of the stakeholders about the app in a transparent and inclusive way. In this study, we engaged a group of clinicians, patients, and AI developers in conversations about a fictitious app which was an aggregate of actual COVID-19 apps. The app featured a COVID-19 symptoms monitoring function for both the patient and the clinician, as well as infection clusters tracking for health agencies. Anchored in Soft Systems Methodology and Critical Systems Thinking, participants were asked to map the flow of knowledge between the clinician, the patient, and the AI app system and answer questions about the ethical boundaries of the system. Because data and information are the resource and the product of the AI app, understanding the nature of the information and knowledge exchanged between the different agents of the system can reveal ethical issues. In this study, not only the output of the participatory process was analysed, but the process of the stakeholders’ engagement itself was studied as well. To establish a strong foundation for the implementation of ethics in the AI app, the conversations among stakeholders need to be inclusive, respectful and allow for free and candid dialogues ensuring that the process is transparent for which a systemic intervention is well suited.