bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Flood simulation and impact analysis of Xun River under backwater condition
Authors: Liu Guoyin , Wu Xianmin , Zhang Xueyi , Li Dongyun
Published: October 2024

The intersection of river channels is easy to cause the backside of the main flow, which greatly influences the change of hydrological conditions of river channels. To study the changing characteristics of river flood under the condition of uplift, a one-dimensional hydrodynamic model was established to simulate the evolution process of river flood under the condition of seeking river uplift. Factors such as distance, height, flood speed, inundation area, inundation depth, and flood speed were selected to analyze the changing rules of the influence of river bullying. The results show that the influence degree of the river following is closely related to the size of the flood. Under the same earthquake magnitude, the backwater distance, backwater height, inundation area, inundation depth, and inundation speed of sub-river flood increase with the increase of flood magnitude, while the flood speed decreases. When the magnitude of the flood is once in 200 years, the flood elements reach the maximum, the reflux distance is 8, 368 m, the reflux height is 3.2 m, and the velocity is reduced by 43.2%. This study can provide relevant data for the flood control work in the Sun River basin and provide a reference for the scheme design of tributary interchanges.
Study on hydrodynamics of fish school based on SPH simulation
Authors: Wang Xuejian
Published: October 2024

In this paper, the effect of spatial configurations on the hydrodynamic characteristics of fish is investigated numerically using the δ+-SPH model. The spatial configurations include side-by-side and triangular. The fluid field, including the pressure field and velocity field, are obtained by SPH simulation. The results show that the SPH method can well simulate the self-propelled movement of fish. Under the viscous flow waters, the side-by-side fish will be close to each other due to the Bernoulli effect. For triangular configurations, fish will tend to form inverted triangular configurations due to passage effects, which accompany the changes in the cost of transportation.
Non-uniform maldistribution of boiling flow in two parallel microchannels with entry effects
Authors: Chen Xiaoyi , Wang Youtong , Li Haidong , Jiang Jieyan , Pan Zhenhai
Published: October 2024

Current theoretical studies of parallel channel instability are restricted to the full development assumption, and the entry effect of the existing developmental stage in miniaturized heat dissipation scenarios is not taken into consideration, leading to some deviations in the predicted results of the stability in practical applications. Using a kinetic model of phase transition and pressure drop, we study microchannels with an L/D ratio of 50 and a hydraulic diameter of 200 μm. The significant influence of the entry effect during both the development and fully developed stages is revealed by our results, which demonstrates a narrowing of the overall flow discrepancy and, consequently, an enhancement in the system’s stability. Particularly, the mitigating effect of the entry effect on the flow instability and maldistribution within the parallel channels was gradually enhanced when the qin increased from 20 W/cm2 to 100 W/cm2.
Study on the diffusion and blocking behavior of bubble plumes in Cross-Flow
Authors: Fan Kai , Meng Cheng , Wei Wei , Wang Enwei
Published: October 2024

With the deepening of the concept of environmental protection, environmental problems in dredging engineering have attracted more and more attention. The diffusion of suspended particulate matter is inevitable in the process of dredging. A bubble plume, as a multiphase linear plume, has been widely studied because it can block the diffusion of suspended particulate matter in water. To explore the formation characteristics of the bubble plume, we evaluate the formation quality of the bubble plume qualitatively and quantitatively, analyze the effect of the bubble plume on blocking the diffusion of suspended particulates under different operating conditions (the type of bubble plume generation device, the number of bubble plume rows, and the ventilation flow rate) and environmental conditions (water flow velocity), and study the movement trajectory of blocked particles and blocked failed particles. A series of experiments on bubble plume characteristics and bubble plume blocking the diffusion of suspended particles were conducted to analyze the particle distribution characteristics and bubble plume blocking effect under the interaction of transverse flow and bubble plume. The results show that the better the quality of the bubble plume is, the lower the transverse flow intensity is, and the better the barrier effect of the bubble plume is.
Design of motion control system for unmanned wheeled electric vehicle
Authors: Wang Zhihui , Xu Hongxin , Zhang Xuejie , Xie Wen
Published: October 2024

The unmanned wheeled electric vehicle is a weapon platform that draws significant attention in current and future battlefields, and research on its motion control is fundamental. This paper introduces the design of a 6×6 unmanned wheeled electric vehicle and discusses the motion control methods applicable to this vehicle. The electric drive system of this vehicle comprises six independent asynchronous motors and corresponding motor controllers. A comprehensive controller designed based on DSP connects the six motor controllers. As it is an experimental platform, the motion control algorithms are deployed on an onboard computer, which connects to the comprehensive controller. Using the Backstepping method, the kinematic control algorithm for the 6×6 unmanned wheeled electric vehicle is designed. The global asymptotic stability of the control system is proven through the Lyapunov function, and its control performance is verified via simulation experiments. Finally, the system is deployed and tested on the actual vehicle. Experimental results show that the motion control system designed in this paper enables the unmanned wheeled electric vehicle to achieve effective motion control. The control laws derived from the Backstepping method are relatively simple and have low requirements for the sampling period. In practical systems, output speed magnitude and rate of change must be limited to stay within allowable system parameters.
Predicting landslide extent of satellite images based on image classification extraction
Authors: Chiu Chen-Yuan , Hsu Sung-Chi , Huang Yishuo , Zhang Nan , Peng Chen
Published: October 2024

Landslide is a common geological disaster and the most destructive natural disaster at home and abroad. Therefore, automatic interpretation of landslide high-risk areas and potential landslide areas through different models and methods is one of the basic ways to prevent and reduce possible disasters. In this study, we improve the NDWI method by using the multispectral image data from the French satellite SPOT 5. Combined with infrared band sensors, the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) of large exposed landslides is extracted by improving the NDWI index method by utilizing the characteristics of near-infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) bands and replacing the green-wave band or the mid-infrared (MIR) band with the short-wave infrared (SWIR) band, which can be applied to the water resources management of high-risk areas, potential landslide areas, and potential landslide areas, and the water environment monitoring of water resources and disaster emergency management. We calculate the 2014 satellite images with a total area of 11351.6 ha, and after the NDWI index, the dark blue color represents the high-risk landslide area of 1609.1 ha (14175%), the light blue color represents the potential landslide area of 3971.773 ha (34.989%), and the brown color represents the vegetation area of 5770.727 ha (50.836%).
Assessing the design of integrated methane sensing networks
Authors: Patel Lekha , Zenker Jake P
Published: October 2024

While methane is the second largest contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide, it has a larger warming effect over a much shorter lifetime. Despite accelerated technological efforts to radically reduce global carbon dioxide emissions, rapid reductions in methane emissions are needed to limit near-term warming. Being primarily emitted as a byproduct from agricultural activities and energy extraction, methane is currently monitored via bottom–up (i.e. activity level) or top–down (via airborne or satellite retrievals) approaches. However, significant methane leaks remain undetected and emission rates are challenging to characterize with current monitoring frameworks. In this paper, we study the design of a layered monitoring approach that combines bottom–up and top–down approaches as an integrated sensing network. By recognizing that varying meteorological conditions and emission rates impact the efficacy of bottom–up monitoring, we develop a probabilistic approach to optimal sensor placement in its bottom–up network. Subsequently, we derive an inverse Bayesian framework to quantify the improvement that a design-optimized integrated framework has on emission-rate quantifications and their uncertainties. We find that under realistic meteorological conditions, the overall error in estimating the true emission rates is approximately 1.3 times higher, with their uncertainties being approximately 2.4 times higher, when using a randomized network over an optimized network, highlighting the importance of optimizing the design of integrated methane sensing networks. Further, we find that optimized networks can improve scenario coverage fractions by more than a factor of 2 over experimentally-studied networks, and identify a budget threshold beyond which the rate of optimized-network coverage improvement exhibits diminishing returns, suggesting that strategic sensor placement is also crucial for maximizing network efficiency.
Thermal Performance of Becool-Roof Coating in Reducing Heat Gain on Fisherman’s Settlement of Gorontalo City
Authors: Djafar A G , Pratiwi N , Rahmayanti  , Mutmainnah N , Kaharu A
Published: October 2024

Tanjung Kramat in Gorontalo, Indonesia is a village fostered by the department of Architecture, Universitas Negeri Gorontalo. The village is home to around two hundred families whose majority job is fishing. The people suffer from the uncomfortable condition of tropical coastal environment due to the high air temperature, humidity, and wind speed. Not to mention people in Gorontalo prefer to cover their upper structure using metal zincalume roof since they are more affordable. The highly thermal conductivity roof accounts for excessive heat gain to the house. Through a CSR program by Becool, the villagers received Cool Roof Coating to reduce heating and mitigate global warming. Before and after painting measurements of roof surface temperatures, radiant temperatures, and ground air temperatures are conducted. After the application of the coating, the analysis shows a positive result as the roof surface temperature is reduced by about 20ºC, followed by an improvement in ground air temperature by an average of 0.8ºC. The cool roof coating has succeeded in improving the neighborhood of Tanjung Kramat village.
Identification of Urban Heat Island Potency in Janten Village area due to Aerotropolis Development
Authors: Putra Patric Chrisna Yuansha , Binarti Floriberta
Published: October 2024

Special Region Yogyakarta Province experiences an increase in heat every year based on land surface temperature data in each region. This increase in heat is caused by the decreasing function of green land in rural areas over time, so that the land surface experiences increased exposure to sunlight due to reduced radiation barriers and heat absorption, and has the potential to give rise to an Urban Heat Island. The decline in rural areas as green areas is due to industrial development, one of which is the planning of the Aerotropolis area in Janten Village, Wates Regency, Kulon Progo, Yogyakarta. Aerotropolis is a regional development concept that makes airports the center of the economy, mobilization, transportation, and industry. This paper aims to analyze the magnitude of the potential arising from Land Use-Land Change (LULC) due to the Aerotropolis planning concept in Janten Village. The main data collection was carried out through direct measurements in the field using a Micro Weather Station (MWS) as a recorder of climate conditions and a thermal flir camera to capture surface temperatures. The data taken will be processed using experimental methods using the ENVI-Met application according to modeling of the existing conditions and microclimate of Janten Village.
Comparative Analysis of the Distribution of Natural Lighting with Artificial Lighting in Auditorium at Indonesia University of Education, at Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences Building
Authors: Maharani Shofia Anindita , Budiman Nindita Arta , Komala Dewi Nitih Indra
Published: October 2024

This article provides an indepth analysis of the lighting conditions in the auditorium at the Indonesia University of Education, specifically within the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The study aims to assess the effectiveness of both natural light from windows and artificial light from lamps in accommodating large gatherings of up to 300 people. Using AutoCAD and DIALux, we conduct a simulation experiment to visualize the lighting system, considering factors such as the distribution of natural light and the impact of artificial lighting. Our methodology involves specific parameters for data analysis to ensure a comprehensive evaluation. While observing the auditorium, we note potential challenges, such as the limited impact of natural light. This finding raises questions about the need for adjustments to the architectural design or the inclusion of additional natural light sources. Conversely, the artificial lighting appears to be abundant and sufficient for illuminating the entire space. Considering the broader implications, the study addresses the significance of optimizing lighting conditions in auditoriums for improved user experience and potential energy efficiency. The findings contribute to the ongoing discourse on effective lighting design in educational spaces. This research is not without limitations, and future work could explore more nuanced aspects of lighting design or investigate the feasibility of implementing sustainable lighting solutions. In conclusion, this study offers valuable insights into auditorium lighting, guiding future research and practical interventions for enhanced lighting conditions in similar settings.
Secondary Skin Facade for Urban Noise Reduction: A Case Study of Bandung Creative Hub Co-working Space
Authors: Aziz Muhamad Abdul , Ramadhan Try
Published: October 2024

In recent years, the proliferation of co-working spaces has offered a collaborative environment for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small businesses in urban areas. However, the issue of environmental noise within these spaces presents a challenge to comfort and productivity. This study focuses on the Bandung Creative Hub (BCH), a prominent co-working space in Bandung, Indonesia, and investigates the efficacy of facade engineering solutions, particularly the installation of secondary skin, in mitigating urban noise pollution. Through a comprehensive analysis utilizing both empirical measurements and computational simulations, the study aims to understand the intricacies of noise dynamics within the BCH co-working space. Empirical measurements using the Noise Tool software capture ambient noise levels, while computational simulations with IBANA provide predictive modeling of acoustic conditions. The results reveal a significant reduction in noise levels, with the sound level around the workspace corridor decreasing by approximately 23.3%, from 62 dB to 47 dB, indicating the effectiveness of facade engineering interventions. The limitations of prior research, which concentrated solely on barrier intervention methods and spacing ratio. Nevertheless, this study introduces a fresh perspective by examining the efficacy of secondary skin facade engineering in achieving noise standards and enhancing the quality of urban environments.
Acoustical Analysis of Auditorium in National Educational Museum, West Java
Authors: Rahmatulloh Muhammad Rasyad , Gaputra Agara Dama
Published: October 2024

Besides being the place for evidence of past history and future history, the National Educational Museum in West Java also has audio visual room, for the visitor to learn about the museum more. Visitor ability to understand what is being said in the auditorium depends on the acoustics quality of the room. This study primarily talks about acoustics auditorium and find out if the acoustics in Auditorium of National Educational Museum is optimal for its function. The objective of this analysis is to determine the acoustics quality of the room in Auditorium of National Educational Museum. The simulation results with acoustic standards was carried out after conducting field observations and simulations using Ecotect v.5.50 software. After the simulation conducted it is known that there is some factors that makes this auditorium reverberation time not optimal such as sound-reflecting materials, floor and ceiling shape and elevation, and the number of occupants in the room. Which resulted in the speaker’s voice become less clear to the perceiver. Thus, to respond to the issue some materials can be change to sound-absorbing materials, and the ceiling shape can be made simpler to reduce the reverberation and echoes.
Living hinges for resilient and recyclable paper-based flexible printed electronics
Authors: Wu Flora , Graddage Neil , Lee James , Griffin Ryan
Published: October 2024

The ability to fabricate electronics by printing has enabled an array of technologies that can create intelligent or smart packaging; however, this can come at the cost of recyclability. Selection of materials compatible with recycling streams is possible, such as paperboard and carbon inks, but there is a trade-off in terms of performance, flexibility and reliability. A major challenge for the use of paperboard is delamination and deformation when subject to small bend radii. The substrate has a tendency to crease when bent beyond a critical radius, which can fracture the surface and any traces printed onto it, causing device failure. We have demonstrated that the use of kerf cuts to form a living hinge, similar to that used in woodworking, can increase the flexibility of paperboard and allow reliable bending of conductive traces. We have identified the key design parameters of such a living hinge and evaluated their effect on the flexibility of a typical paperboard used in packaging. We then demonstrated that conductive traces of silver or carbon can withstand repeated bending with 100% reliability, compared to a worst case of 16% of control sample traces surviving the same test. Additionally, we demonstrated that the hinges improve the consistency of the trace resistance when subject to repeat bending. The behaviour of the resistance change as a function of bending was seen to be dependent upon the ink material, likely due to differing morphologies. We demonstrate the applicability of this technique in a smart device for medication adherence packaging.
Grover-QAOA for 3-SAT: quadratic speedup, fair-sampling, and parameter clustering
Authors: Zhang Zewen , Paredes Roger , Sundar Bhuvanesh , Quiroga David , Kyrillidis Anastasios , Duenas-Osorio Leonardo , Pagano Guido , Hazzard Kaden R A
Published: October 2024

The SAT problem is a prototypical NP-complete problem of fundamental importance in computational complexity theory with many applications in science and engineering; as such, it has long served as an essential benchmark for classical and quantum algorithms. This study shows numerical evidence for a quadratic speedup of the Grover Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (G-QAOA) over random sampling for finding all solutions to 3-SAT (All-SAT) and Max-SAT problems. G-QAOA is less resource-intensive and more adaptable for these problems than Grover’s algorithm, and it surpasses conventional QAOA in its ability to sample all solutions. We show these benefits by classical simulations of many-round G-QAOA on thousands of random 3-SAT instances. We also observe G-QAOA advantages on the IonQ Aria quantum computer for small instances, finding that current hardware suffices to determine and sample all solutions. Interestingly, a single-angle-pair constraint that uses the same pair of angles at each G-QAOA round greatly reduces the classical computational overhead of optimizing the G-QAOA angles while preserving its quadratic speedup. We also find parameter clustering of the angles. The single-angle-pair protocol and parameter clustering significantly reduce obstacles to classical optimization of the G-QAOA angles.
Chemoresistive H2S sensor based on PANI/TiO2/CuCl2 nanocomposite impregnated conductive fabric using TOPSIS and Taguchi method
Authors: Cha Ho San , Pak Jong Sung
Published: October 2024

Conductive polymer/metal oxide nanocomposites have been widely used for chmoresistive gas sensors. PANI/TiO2/CuCl2 nanocomposite(PTCN) impregnated conductive fabric was prepared by in situ synthesis method. To improve the performance of PTCN impregnated fabric for detecting H2S gas, Taguchi orthogonal array(TOA) is used to experimental design, and best values of factors affecting to the sensing performance are determined using Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) and Taguchi optimization method. PTCNs were charactierized by SEM, XRD, FTIR. The sensing performances of the proposed sensor such as linear detection range, sensitivity, repeatability and effect of humidity for hydrogen sulfide gas were evaluated.
Effective low-exposure color image enhancement based on histogram equalization with spatial contextual information
Authors: Jada Lingaiah , Srikanth Rangu , Bikshalu Kalagadda
Published: October 2024

Color image enhancement refers to improving the visual quality of color images by adjusting various attributes such as brightness, contrast, sharpness, and color balance. This enhancement aims to make the images more visually appealing, precise, and easier to interpret, often by accentuating essential features or details while minimizing noise or distortion. Techniques vary from simple adjustments of brightness and contrast to sophisticated algorithms. Effective image enhancement is crucial in numerous fields like medical imaging; enhancing the medical image is vital for accurate diagnosis and treatment planning, as well as remote sensing for improved satellite and aerial imagery. In security and surveillance, enhanced clarity in footage from surveillance cameras, especially in low-light scenarios, is crucial for identifying subjects and activities. However, image enhancement faces several challenges, like noise amplification and Over-enhancement, leading to unnatural-looking images with exaggerated or distorted features. In this paper, low-exposed or night color images are considered for enhancement, and this paper introduces exposure-based recursive histogram equalization techniques along with an Energy Curve instead of the conventional histogram; the energy curve is similar to a histogram based on spatial Contextual Information of an image. The proposed methods are Recursive Exposure-based Sub-image Histogram Equalization, Recursively Separated Exposure-based Sub-image Histogram Equalization, and Exposure-based Sub-image Histogram Equalization techniques considering spatial contextual information of images using an Energy Curve to improve results. These methods were tested on several publicly available datasetswith low-contrast color images and compared with HE, BBHE, DSHE, CLAHE, ESIHE, R-ESIHE, and RS-ESIHE. The proposed techniques are evaluated using parameterslikeAMBE, PSNR, MSE, Entropy, SSIM, and FSIM. The average PSNR values for eight images (taken from TeV DICeneter https://tev.fbk.eu/resources/imageenhancement) using the techniques mentioned above were 9.10817, 20.80568, 12.82645, 10.39347, 16.27458, 15.19979, and 14.59595, respectively. In contrast, the proposed ESIHE with Energy Curve achieved a PSNR of 22.31585, outperforming other methods across multiple metrics, particularly excelling in noise reduction (PSNR), error minimization (MSE: 193.44), structural similarity (SSIM: 0.733319), and feature retention (FSIM: 0.917678). The comparison demonstrates that enhancement methods can be significantly improved by considering spatial contextual information.
Geometric neural operators (gnps) for data-driven deep learning in non-euclidean settings
Authors: Quackenbush B , Atzberger P J
Published: October 2024

We introduce Geometric Neural Operators (GNPs) for data-driven deep learning of geometric features for tasks in non-euclidean settings. We present a formulation for accounting for geometric contributions along with practical neural network architectures and factorizations for training. We then demonstrate how GNPs can be used (i) to estimate geometric properties, such as the metric and curvatures of surfaces, (ii) to approximate solutions of geometric partial differential equations on manifolds, and (iii) to solve Bayesian inverse problems for identifying manifold shapes. These results show a few ways GNPs can be used for incorporating the roles of geometry in the data-driven learning of operators.
Terrorist Informers in Northern Ireland
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

By using informers to provide intelligence on terrorism, the security and intelligence agencies who handle them gain knowledge of their offences. Charges may then be brought against them provided evidence supports this course of action. But if imprisoned, an informer no longer has access to the time-sensitive, potentially life-saving intelligence they once had. There is therefore a tension between continuing to use an informer to provide intelligence on terrorism and upholding the law. This tension is at the heart of this book. The book analyses prominent terrorist informers such as Agent Stakeknife, and lesser-known examples, who collectively were active throughout Northern Ireland from the 1970s to the present. It includes those involved with republican groups and with loyalist groups, and those working for the police, the armed forces, and MI5. Valuable pieces of the puzzle have been located in sources such as court judgments, official reports, and in interviews conducted by the author, maximising depth and breadth of coverage of the topic. The way successive governments, the police, the armed forces, and MI5 have addressed the issue of regulation for terrorist informers’ involvement in criminality is also analysed. So too are allegations of ‘collusion’ between informers on one hand and the security and intelligence agencies on the other. Accordingly, the book also assesses the varied retrospective investigations into the use of terrorist informers, and therefore the competing needs for secrecy and transparency. The book demonstrates that although there is a tension between intelligence and law, this can be successfully navigated.
Recruitment and Handling
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

It is possible to address the recruitment and handling of terrorist informers in Northern Ireland in more depth and breadth in this book than has hitherto been achieved. This chapter begins by identifying the reasons why some individuals with access to such intelligence become informers. Their motivations for informing can change over time, but potential motivations must be identified by those who seek to recruit them. The chapter then analyses the handling of informers, including the selection of appropriate individuals to work as recruiters or handlers. Finally, the chapter addresses the particularly under-researched area of the training given to recruiters and handlers. Novel interview data is used extensively in this chapter.
Intelligence vs the Law
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

This chapter addresses the ‘conundrum’ posed by differences between the two prisms through which terrorist informers can be viewed: the intelligence prism and the law and order prism. Not charging terrorist informers for their offences risks damaging the fundamental democratic principle of the rule of law and the principle that law should be applied equally to everyone. But imprisonment adversely affects their access to intelligence and risks deterring other potential informers. This chapter uses the examples of Informant 1 and Brian Nelson. Nelson was active as an informer in the 1980s and—against the wishes of the Defence Secretary—was prosecuted and later convicted for twenty offences after he stopped informing. Informant 1 was charged in respect of minor offences whilst working as an informer from 1991 to 2003, and charged with serious offences after he stopped informing.
Political Sensitivities and the Long Road to Regulation
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

This chapter and the one that follows it examine the slow evolution of the regulation of informers, identifying a progression over many decades from agency-specific guidelines on informers to statutory regulation that specifically provides for informers who commit offences. Chapter 6’s analysis begins with the first set of guidelines that were theoretically applicable during ‘the troubles’, namely the Home Office’s 1969 Circular. In the 1980s, the Northern Ireland Office responded positively to the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s request for guidelines by producing a draft. These guidelines remained a draft, but MI5 and the British Army chose to adopt them. MI5 used these guidelines until at least 2019. Political sensitivities caused successive governments to reject the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s and MI5’s calls to introduce legislation on informers. Yet obligations originating in Europe led to the enactment of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act in 2000. This chapter demonstrates that although the road to regulation of informers was a long one, the agencies that used informers persisted in seeking the benefits that regulation brings.
Establishing Investigations
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

The first of the book’s chapters to evaluate the myriad investigations into terrorist informers, this chapter first identifies the available forms of investigation. Broadly speaking, these investigations have one of two aims: to discover evidence of (suspected) offences, or to discover the truth. There is naturally some overlap between the two, as criminal justice proceedings reveal information about what happened, thereby contributing to truth-finding. Yet in any given case decisions have to be made regarding whether to prioritise a truth-finding investigation or criminal proceedings. The chapter then assesses Canadian Judge Peter Cory’s investigations into cases allegedly involving ‘collusion’. Informers were allegedly directly involved in five of the eight murders Cory investigated. The UK-based public inquiries that followed from Cory’s recommendations are also examined in this chapter, chiefly in respect of to what extent truth-finding or criminal justice were prioritised, and the influence of secrecy surrounding intelligence and informers upon these investigations.
Cross-Border Attacks and Investigations
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

Chapter 10 focuses on the cross-border dimension of investigations into the use of terrorist informers. Regardless of whether they aim to establish the truth, or to result in criminal prosecutions, for these investigations to be as complete as the evidence allows and therefore to be as reliable and respected as possible, cross-border cooperation is necessary. A difficulty is posed by the fact that while a public inquiry has the power to compel the production of written evidence and to compel the cooperation of witnesses, this does not extend to another jurisdiction. Two cross-border attacks allegedly involving informers, and each of which resulted in more than one investigation, are the subject of this chapter: the IRA’s murder of the Royal Ulster Constabulary’s Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Robert Buchanan; and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which killed thirty-four people.
Successful Challenges to the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

Chapter 13 focuses on investigations into terrorist informers conducted by successive holders of the position of Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. The ‘public statement’ that resulted from the Ombudsman’s Office Operation Ballast investigation revealed enough information about a particular terrorist informer and the way informers are used that it caused considerable backlash from former police officers on security grounds. The way the ombudsmen have done their work has been ill-received at times, not only by police officers but also by survivors and victims’ families. Further, its work has been challenged in court and even overturned and redone. One of the case studies in this chapter—the office’s investigations into the 1994 murders at the Heights Bar in Loughinisland—is an extreme example, with the office’s original and replacement statements both being challenged in court, and a journalistic investigation into the office also taking place, which itself became the subject of police action and in turn became the subject of legal action.
Conclusion
Authors: Newbery Samantha
Published: October 2024

The book’s Conclusion directly addresses the themes that are central to the book’s analyses. These themes are evident throughout the activities that involve terrorist informers: from recruiting them, to meeting and collecting intelligence from them, to decisions relating to the use, exploitation, and management of their intelligence, to decisions regarding whether to arrest, charge, and prosecute them for alleged offences, to regulation of their use, and finally to the establishment and conduct of investigations into their use. Secrecy surrounding intelligence practices and intelligence itself, variety amongst terrorist informers, and cooperation between the security and intelligence agencies are recurring themes. So too is the relationship between the intelligence prism and the law and order prism through which terrorist informers in Northern Ireland can be viewed.
XV—Love’s Curiosity
Authors: Dover Daniela
Published: October 2024

Love naturally gives rise to cravings for epistemic security. At the same time, since human beings are responsive to our interpretations of them, our desire that they be knowable risks becoming oppressively self-fulfilling. I argue that ‘erotic curiosity’—understood not as a desire for stable knowledge but rather as a desire to engage in an indefinitely prolonged inquisitive activity—is central to a certain kind of love.
Revision Surgeries After Proton vs Photon Postmastectomy Radiation Therapy in Prepectoral Implant–Based Breast Reconstruction
Authors: Desai Anshumi , Mangal Rohan , Padilla Carolina , McClintock Kate , Choi Seraphina , Mella-Catinchi Juan R , Oeltjen John C , Singh Devinder P , Takita Cristiane , Kassira Wrood
Published: October 2024

Background

Postmastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) improves disease-free survival in breast cancer but reduces aesthetic satisfaction. Proton PMRT has gained popularity because it results in fewer systemic complications. There is a lack of data regarding revision surgeries for prepectoral implant–based breast reconstruction (PP-IBBR) following radiation.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to compare revision surgeries in PP-IBBR with photon vs proton PMRT.

Methods

A single-institution retrospective cohort study was performed that included breast cancer patients undergoing mastectomy and PP-IBBR with PMRT between January 2020 and October 2022. The mean follow-up duration for the cohort was 1056.4 days (2.89 years). Revision surgeries evaluated were fat grafting, conversion to autologous flaps, implant replacement, implant removal, capsulectomy, and scar revision.

Results

The 116 PP-IBBR subjects were divided into 2 cohorts, receiving either photon (75, 64.66%) or proton (41, 35.34%) radiation. Overall corrective surgeries were higher with photon therapy (27.5% overall; 32.4% photon vs 19.5% proton, P = .132). The odds of any revision surgery were nearly double with photon therapy (odds ratio [OR] = 1.98), and the conversion to an autologous flap was significantly more likely with photon therapy (OR = 4.55, P = .025). Multivariable analysis showed an increased tendency for photon therapy patients to require any revision surgeries (OR = 1.62, P = .359), autologous flaps (OR = 5.97, P = .049), fat grafting (OR = 1.52, P = .664), and scar revision (OR = 4.51, P = .273).

Conclusions

Compared to proton therapy, traditional photon therapy has a higher conversion rate to autologous flaps with PP-IBBR. Photon therapy had higher rates of overall revision surgeries, but the difference was not statistically significant. Proton therapy is safer and requires fewer revision surgeries, warranting larger studies and broader utilization.

Level of Evidence: 3 (Therapeutic)
AptaDiff: de novo design and optimization of aptamers based on diffusion models
Authors: Wang Zhen , Liu Ziqi , Zhang Wei , Li Yanjun , Feng Yizhen , Lv Shaokang , Diao Han , Luo Zhaofeng , Yan Pengju , He Min , Li Xiaolin
Published: October 2024

Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acid ligands, featuring high affinity and specificity to target molecules. Traditionally they are identified from large DNA/RNA libraries using $in vitro$ methods, like Systematic Evolution of Ligands by Exponential Enrichment (SELEX). However, these libraries capture only a small fraction of theoretical sequence space, and various aptamer candidates are constrained by actual sequencing capabilities from the experiment. Addressing this, we proposed AptaDiff, the first in silico aptamer design and optimization method based on the diffusion model. Our Aptadiff can generate aptamers beyond the constraints of high-throughput sequencing data, leveraging motif-dependent latent embeddings from variational autoencoder, and can optimize aptamers by affinity-guided aptamer generation according to Bayesian optimization. Comparative evaluations revealed AptaDiff’s superiority over existing aptamer generation methods in terms of quality and fidelity across four high-throughput screening data targeting distinct proteins. Moreover, surface plasmon resonance experiments were conducted to validate the binding affinity of aptamers generated through Bayesian optimization for two target proteins. The results unveiled a significant boost of $87.9\%$ and $60.2\%$ in RU values, along with a 3.6-fold and 2.4-fold decrease in KD values for the respective target proteins. Notably, the optimized aptamers demonstrated superior binding affinity compared to top experimental candidates selected through SELEX, underscoring the promising outcomes of our AptaDiff in accelerating the discovery of superior aptamers.
Taurine is essential for mouse uterine luminal fluid resorption during implantation window via the SCNN1A and AQP8 signaling
Authors: Zhou Yewen , Pei Shaona , Qiu Guobin , Zhang Jinglin , Guo Hongzhou , Cui Sheng , Liu Zongping , Zhang Di
Published: October 2024

Uterine fluid homeostasis during peri-implantation is crucial for successful embryo implantation. Taurine (Tau) plays a crucial role in regulating osmotic pressure and ion transport. However, the precise mechanisms underlying Tau-mediated regulation of uterine fluid homeostasis during peri-implantation in mice remain unclear. In this study, we generated a Tau-deficient mouse model by administering Tau-free diet to Csad knockout (Csad−/−) mice to block endogenous Tau synthesis and exogenous Tau absorption (Csad−/−-Tau free). Our findings demonstrated that Csad−/−-Tau free mice with diminished level of Tau exhibited decreased rates of embryo implantation and impaired fertility. Further analysis revealed that the expression of Scnn1a was down-regulated during the implantation window, while Aqp8 was upregulated in Csad−/−-Tau free mice, leading to uterine luminal fluid retention and defects in luminal closure, resulting in failed embryo implantation. Additionally, it was also found that E2 inhibited uterine Csad expression and Tau synthesis, while P4 promoted them. Therefore, our findings suggest that ovarian steroid hormones regulate Csad expression and Tau synthesis, thereby affecting release and resorption of uterine luminal fluid, ultimately impacting embryo implantation success.
Changepoint detection on daily home activity pattern: a sliced Poisson process method
Authors: Martínez-Hernández Israel , Killick Rebecca
Published: October 2024

The problem of health and care of people is being revolutionized. An important component of that revolution is disease prevention and health improvement from home. A natural approach to the health problem is monitoring changes in people’s behavior or activities. These changes can be indicators of potential health problems. However, due to a person’s daily pattern, changes will be observed throughout each day, with, eg, an increase of events around meal times and fewer events during the night. We do not wish to detect such within-day changes but rather changes in the daily behavior pattern from one day to the next. To this end, we assume the set of event times within a given day as a single observation. We model this observation as the realization of an inhomogeneous Poisson process where the rate function can vary with the time of day. Then, we propose to detect changes in the sequence of inhomogeneous Poisson processes. This approach is appropriate for many phenomena, particularly for home activity data. Our methodology is evaluated on simulated data. Overall, our approach uses local change information to detect changes across days. At the same time, it allows us to visualize and interpret the results, changes, and trends over time, allowing the detection of potential health decline.
Is seborrhoeic dermatitis of infancy and childhood related to maternal history of seborrhoeic dermatitis? A large population-based cohort study from the UK
Authors: Chiesa Fuxench Zelma C , Mitra Nandita , Grice Elizabeth , Hoffstad Ole , Margolis David J
Published: October 2024

Background

The pathophysiology of seborrhoeic dermatitis (SebD) is complex and is likely to be related to an interplay of the microbial colonization of the skin and local immunity. There are also genetic components to the illness. At least two forms of SebD exist, infantile (ISebD), which has onset early in life, and SebD with later onset.

Objectives

We aimed to improve our understanding of SebD by evaluating whether maternal history of SebD is associated with increased risk of ISebD or childhood-onset SebD (CSebD, with onset after 5 years of life).

Methods

We performed a prospective cohort study of mother–child pairs using data from a large UK primary care electronic medical records database.

Results

We analysed 1 023 140 children with linked maternal data. The mean (SD) time of follow-up for the children was 10.2 (7.9) years for a total follow-up of more than 10 million person-years. Proportional hazards models [HRs (95% confidence intervals)] were used to examine the association between presence of SebD in mothers and SebD in the child. Maternal history of SebD was associated with development of SebD [1.99 (1.91–2.09)], ISebD [1.86 (1.74–1.99)] and CSebD [2.12 (1.97–2.29)] in their children. However, ISebD in a child was not associated with that child later developing CSebD [0.91 (0.82–1.01)].

Conclusions

Maternal history of SebD is a risk factor for the development of SebD in children. While we cannot fully differentiate SebD risk due to mother’s genetics (inheritance) from a newborn’s environment, our results lend credence to the possible role of genetics in SebD. A child with ISebD does not appear to be at risk for developing CSebD.
Diagnostic accuracy of MRI for detecting nerve injury in brachial plexus birth injury
Authors: Brooks James , Hardie Claire , Wade Ryckie , Teh Irvin , Bourke Grainne
Published: October 2024

Objectives

To determine the diagnostic accuracy of MRI for diagnosing nerve injury in brachial plexus birth injury (BPBI).

Methods

Electronic databases were searched from inception to February 15, 2023 for studies reporting the accuracy of MRI (index test) compared to surgical exploration (reference standard) in detecting the target conditions of: root avulsion, any nerve abnormality, and pseudomeningocele (as a marker of root avulsion) in children with BPBI. Meta-analysis using a bivariate model was performed where data allowed.

Results

Eight studies met the inclusion criteria. In total, 116 children with BPBI were included. All included studies were at risk of bias. The mean sensitivity and mean specificity of MRI for detecting root avulsion was 68% (95% CI: 55%, 79%) and 89% (95% CI: 78%, 95%), respectively. Pseudomeningocele was not a reliable marker of avulsion. Data were too sparse to determine the diagnostic accuracy of MRI for any nerve abnormality.

Conclusions

At present, surgical exploration should remain as the diagnostic modality of choice for BPBI due to the modest diagnostic accuracy of MRI in detecting root avulsion. The diagnostic accuracy of MRI needs to be close to 100% as the results may determine whether a child undergoes invasive surgery.

Advances in knowledge

Previous research regarding MRI in detecting BPBI is highly variable and prior to our study the overall diagnostic accuracy was unclear. Through conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis, we were able to reliably determine the overall sensitivity and specificity of MRI for detecting root avulsion.
Deuterated-alkylation reagents based on sulfonium salts as cation and radical sources
Authors: Ban Kazuho , Tokunaga Jin , Yoshimura Sota , Akai Shuji , Sawama Yoshinari
Published: October 2024

The replacement of C–H bonds with more stable C–D bonds at the α-position of heteroatoms, which is the typical metabolic site for cytochrome P450, is important in drug discovery. Recently, we have developed dn (deuterated)-alkylated sulfonium salts (1a-dn), which were easily prepared by deuteration (H/D exchange reaction) with D2O of the corresponding alkyl diphenylsulfonium salts (1a), as electrophilic dn-alkylating reagents (cation sources). Herein, we newly report an improved preparation method of 1a and one-pot synthesis of dn-alkylated compounds via the deuteration of 1a with D2O and the subsequent nucleophilic substitution under basic conditions. Additionally, dn-alkyl thianthrenium salts (1b-dn) were also found to work as dn-alkylating reagents (cation sources). Furthermore, 1b-dn served as radical sources under photo-induced reaction conditions with Ir photocatalyst, Hantzsch ester, or triphenylamine to obtain various regioselectively deuterium-incorporated alkyl compounds. These dn-alkylating reagents will contribute to advance the drug discovery.