bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Telemedicine in sickle cell disease: Patient, parent, and provider perspectives
Authors: Speller‐Brown Barbara , Carhuas Carlos , Stone Andrew , Connolly Megan , Martin Brenda , Zhang Anqing , Pallapolu Manasa , Darbari Deepika S.
Published: December 2022

Introduction

Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) need frequent health maintenance visits and may face barriers accessing care. Telemedicine, during COVID pandemic, has provided a unique model of care to improve access; however, potential barriers and satisfaction with its use in SCD have not been fully evaluated.

Objective

To determine caregiver, patient, and healthcare provider (HCP) perspectives and satisfaction with telemedicine in healthcare delivery.

Methods

We surveyed patients with SCD, caregivers, and HCP, who participated in at least one telemedicine visit from March 2020 to June 2021, using the Telemedicine Usability Questionnaire (TUQ). We also accessed and compared the Press Ganey surveys completed by families who completed a telemedicine or in‐person visit. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics. The internal reliability of TUQ was assessed using Cronbach's coefficient alpha. Press Ganey data comparing satisfaction with telemedicine versus in‐person visits were analyzed by Mann–Whiney U test.

Results

Fifty‐two patients/caregivers and 10 HCP completed the survey. Patients/caregivers rated satisfaction “excellent” in the five areas (Usefulness, Ease of use, Effectiveness, Reliability and Satisfaction). HCP rated Usefulness, Ease of use, Effectiveness, Satisfaction as “good,” and Reliability as “excellent.” Press Ganey scores for satisfaction with care for telemedicine and in‐person visits were not statistically different (p > .05).

Discussion

We found high satisfaction for caregivers and patients as well as HCP in the delivery of clinical services via telemedicine for SCD. We suggest that telemedicine is a viable option for this population and may help overcome the barriers SCD families often face accessing care.
Self‐compassion and subjective well‐being: A moderated mediation model of online prosocial behavior and gratitude
Authors: Zeng Pan , Nie Jia , Geng Jingyu , Wang Hongxia , Chu Xiaoyuan , Qi Lin , Wang Pengcheng , Lei Li
Published: December 2022

Previous studies have shown that personal factors serve as mediators in the link between self‐compassion and subjective well‐being (SWB). However, these studies have neglected the possibility that online prosocial behavior (OPB) may serve as a mediator in the link between self‐compassion and SWB. Based on the PERMA theory of well‐being and the protective‐protective model, the current study examined whether OPB would mediate the association between self‐compassion and individual SWB, and whether gratitude would moderate the association between self‐compassion and OPB. A valid sample of 1488 college students (Mage = 19.84; SD = 1.61) filled out questionnaires regarding demographics, self‐compassion, OPB, gratitude, and SWB. Results showed that, after controlling for gender, age, daily online time, and social desirability, OPB mediated the association between self‐compassion and individual SWB, and gratitude strengthened the positive association between self‐compassion and OPB. These findings reveal that high self‐compassionate and grateful people can enhance their subjective well‐being through behaving prosocially online.
Dialkyl‐fluoroquinoxaline–based polymeric donor for binary and ternary organic solar cell applications
Authors: Agneeswari Rajalingam , Ahn Yoomi , Tamilavan Vellaiappillai , Shin Insoo , Shin Chnan‐gi , Park Sung Heum , Jin Youngeup
Published: December 2022

Here, we studied the potential of 2,3‐didodecyl‐6‐fluoroquinoxaline–based polymer as an electron‐donor in binary and ternary organic solar cell (OSC) applications. A new wide bandgap polymeric donor, namely poly(4,8‐bis(5‐(2‐ethylhexyl)thiophen‐2‐yl)benzo[1,2‐b:4,5‐b′]dithiophene‐alt‐2,3‐didodecyl‐6‐fluoro‐5,8‐di(thiophen‐2‐yl)quinoxaline) (P(BDTT‐TfQT)), is prepared. Polymer P(BDTT‐TfQT) showed intense absorption between 300 and 650 nm with an optical band gap of 1.83 eV. The determined highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (highest occupied molecular orbital/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital = −5.28 eV/−3.45 eV) for P(BDTT‐TfQT) are found to be suitable to utilize as an electron donor along with widely used fullerene and non‐fullerene acceptors. The OSCs prepared by using P(BDTT‐TfQT):fullerene blend gave a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.64%, and the PCE further increased to 6.77% by using a non‐fullerene acceptor instead of fullerene. Overall, the improved light absorption results in higher photo‐current and PCE for P(BDTT‐TfQT):non‐fullerene blend compared to that of P(BDTT‐TfQT):fullerene blend. In contrast, the inclusion of 10 vol% of P(BDTT‐TfQT) as a third component in a high energy converting polymer: non‐fullerene blend is found to lower the performance from 16.03% to 14.50% for the resulting ternary OSCs.
Hyperthermostable recombinant human heteropolymer ferritin derived from a novel plasmid design
Authors: Srivastava Ayush K. , Scalcione Lucas J. , Arosio Paolo , Bou‐Abdallah Fadi
Published: December 2022

Mammalian ferritins are predominantly heteropolymeric species consisting of 2 structurally similar, but functionally and genetically distinct subunit types, called H (Heavy) and L (Light). The two subunits co‐assemble in different H and L ratios to form 24‐mer shell‐like protein nanocages where thousands of iron atoms can be mineralized inside a hollow cavity. Here, we use differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to study ferritin stability and understand how various combinations of H and L subunits confer aspects of protein structure–function relationships. Using a recently engineered plasmid design that enables the synthesis of complex ferritin nanostructures with specific H to L subunit ratios, we show that homopolymer L and heteropolymer L‐rich ferritins have a remarkable hyperthermostability (Tm = 115 ± 1°C) compared to their H‐ferritin homologues (Tm = 93 ± 1°C). Our data reveal a significant linear correlation between protein thermal stability and the number of L subunits present on the ferritin shell. A strong and unexpected iron‐induced protein thermal destabilization effect (ΔTm up to 20°C) is observed. To our knowledge, this is the first report of recombinant human homo‐ and hetero‐polymer ferritins that exhibit surprisingly high dissociation temperatures, the highest among all known ferritin species, including many known hyperthermophilic proteins and enzymes. This extreme thermostability of our L and L‐rich ferritins may have great potential for biotechnological applications.
qNABpredict: Quick, accurate, and taxonomy‐aware sequence‐based prediction of content of nucleic acid binding amino acids
Authors: Wu Zhonghua , Basu Sushmita , Wu Xuantai , Kurgan Lukasz
Published: December 2022

Protein sequence‐based predictors of nucleic acid (NA)‐binding include methods that predict NA‐binding proteins and NA‐binding residues. The residue‐level tools produce more details but suffer high computational cost since they must predict every amino acid in the input sequence and rely on multiple sequence alignments. We propose an alternative approach that predicts content (fraction) of the NA‐binding residues, offering more information than the protein‐level prediction and much shorter runtime than the residue‐level tools. Our first‐of‐its‐kind content predictor, qNABpredict, relies on a small, rationally designed and fast‐to‐compute feature set that represents relevant characteristics extracted from the input sequence and a well‐parametrized support vector regression model. We provide two versions of qNABpredict, a taxonomy‐agnostic model that can be used for proteins of unknown taxonomic origin and more accurate taxonomy‐aware models that are tailored to specific taxonomic kingdoms: archaea, bacteria, eukaryota, and viruses. Empirical tests on a low‐similarity test dataset show that qNABpredict is 100 times faster and generates statistically more accurate content predictions when compared to the content extracted from results produced by the residue‐level predictors. We also show that qNABpredict's content predictions can be used to improve results generated by the residue‐level predictors. We release qNABpredict as a convenient webserver and source code at http://biomine.cs.vcu.edu/servers/qNABpredict/. This new tool should be particularly useful to predict details of protein–NA interactions for large protein families and proteomes.
Metabolic functional redundancy of the CYP9A subfamily members leads to P450‐mediated lambda‐cyhalothrin resistance in Cydia pomonella
Authors: Li Pei‐Rong , Shi Yu , Ju Di , Liu Yu‐Xi , Wang Wei , He Ying‐Shi , Zhang Yu‐Yun , Yang Xue‐Qing
Published: December 2022

BACKGROUND

The evolution of insect resistance to pesticides poses a continuing threat to sustainable pest management. While much is known about the molecular mechanisms that confer resistance in model insects and few agricultural pests, far less is known about fruit pests. Field‐evolved resistance to synthetic insecticides such as lambda‐cyhalothrin has been widely documented in Cydia pomonella, a major invasive pest of pome fruit worldwide, and the increased production of cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) has been linked to resistance in field‐evolved resistant populations. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of P450‐mediated insecticide resistance remain largely unknown.

RESULTS

Here we found that functional redundancy and preference of metabolism by P450s genes in the CYP9A subfamily confer resistance to lambda‐cyhalothrin in Cydia pomonella. A total of four CYP9A genes, including CYP9A61, CYP9A120, CYP9A121, and CYP9A122, were identified from Cydia pomonella. Among these, CYP9A120, CYP9A121, and CYP9A122 were predominantly expressed in the midgut of larvae. The expression levels of these P450 genes were significantly induced by a lethal dose that would kill 10% (LD10) of lambda‐cyhalothrin and were overexpressed in a field‐evolved lambda‐cyhalothrin resistant population. Knockdown of CYP9A120 and CYP9A121 by RNA‐mediated interference (RNAi) increased the susceptibility of larvae to lambda‐cyhalothrin. In vitro assays demonstrated that recombinant P450s expressed in Sf9 cells can metabolize lambda‐cyhalothrin, but with functional redundancy and divergence through regioselectivity of metabolism. CYP9A121 preferred to convert lambda‐cyhalothrin to 2′‐hydroxy‐lambda‐cyhalothrin, whereas CYP9A122 only generated 4′‐hydroxy metabolite of lambda‐cyhalothrin. Although possesses a relatively low metabolic capability, CYP9A120 balanced catalytic competence to generate both 2′‐ and 4′‐metabolites.

CONCLUSION

Collectively, these results reveal that metabolic functional redundancy of three members of the CYP9A subfamily leads to P450‐mediated lambda‐cyhalothrin resistance in Cydia pomonella, thus representing a potential adaptive evolutionary strategy during its worldwide expansion. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.
The ability of BC3 to remove Cs from nuclear wastewater
Authors: Zhou Nan , Qin Yong , Zhang Yang , Wu Feihong , Yu Wantang , Tan Jie , Cheng Jinjuan , Wu Xijun
Published: December 2022

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to conduct a systematic analysis of the adsorption characteristics of Cs on three two‐dimensional materials: graphene, C3N, and BC3. The adsorption energies of Cs were calculated, and the electronic structure of the system was analyzed. The dependence of adsorption energies on temperatures was taken into account, and the first‐principles‐derived adsorption energies were used to calculate the influence of temperature on the adsorption rate. It was discovered that BC3 is more stable than the other two materials, has good adsorption characteristics, and has performance that is not significantly degraded at high temperatures. The adsorption performances of other radionuclides I and Ag (which also have radionuclides) on BC3, were also calculated to compare with that of Cs. The results show that the adsorption capacity of Cs on BC3 is much greater than that of the two lighter elements. Based on this study, BC3 is a good candidate for removing Cs from nuclear wastewater.
Elevated, FcεRI-Dependent MRGPRX2 Expression on Basophils in Chronic Urticaria
Authors: Bartko Ewa A. , Elberling Jesper , Blom Lars H. , Poulsen Lars K. , Jensen Bettina M.
Published: December 2022

Background

Chronic urticaria (CU) is a skin condition driven by mast cells and basophils. The exact responsiveness profile of these cells, especially regarding the anti-IgE treatment, Omalizumab, is not fully investigated. We sought to characterize the surface activation profile of basophils in CU during Omalizumab treatment and their responsiveness to IgE and non-IgE stimulation.

Methods

Whole blood basophils from 11 CU patients and 10 healthy controls were stimulated with either medium, anti-IgE, fMLP, C5a, or Substance P for 30 min and characterized by flow cytometry.

Results

CU patients showed a broad range of basophil count as opposed to healthy subjects. An increased number of unstimulated CD69+ (p = 0.05), but not CD63+ basophils was observed in CU groups in comparison to healthy. The expression of CD203c and CD200R were comparable between all groups, whilst the FcεRI was reduced with the treatment. Both IgE and non-IgE mediated stimulations upregulated CD63, CD203c and CD200R, but not CD69 in all groups, however, no difference between the groups was observed. Among unstimulated basophils, expression of MRGPRX2 was higher in CU patients after Omalizumab treatment than in the healthy group (2.4% vs. 1.5%, p = 0.01). The anti-IgE stimulation increased the number of MRGPRX2-expressing basophils in the CU group before and after omalizumab as compared to the healthy (p = 0.003; p = 0.005). The fMLP and C5a stimulations showed a similar effect to the IgE-mediated stimulation. The MRGPRX2 ligand, Substance P did not activate basophils.

Conclusion

CU basophils show increased expression of MRGPRX2 after IgE and non-IgE stimulation.
Adjusting the 3d Orbital Occupation of Ti in Ti3C2 MXene via Nitrogen Doping to Boost Oxygen Electrode Reactions in Li–O2 Battery
Authors: Xu Haoyang , Zheng Ruixin , Du Dayue , Ren Longfei , Wen Xiaojuan , Wang Xinxiang , Tian Guilei , Shu Chaozhu
Published: December 2022

Rationally designing efficient catalysts is the key to promote the kinetics of oxygen electrode reactions in lithium‐oxygen (Li‐O2) battery. Herein, nitrogen‐doped Ti3C2 MXene prepared via hydrothermal method (N‐Ti3C2(H)) is studied as the efficient Li‐O2 battery catalyst. The nitrogen doping increases the disorder degree of N‐Ti3C2(H) and provides abundant active sites, which is conducive to the uniform formation and decomposition of discharge product Li2O2. Besides, density functional theory calculations confirm that the introduction of nitrogen can effectively modulate the 3d orbital occupation of Ti in N‐Ti3C2(H), promote the electron exchange between Ti 3d orbital and O 2p orbital, and accelerate oxygen electrode reactions. Specifically, the N‐Ti3C2(H) based Li‐O2 battery delivers large discharge capacity (11 679.8 mAh g−1) and extended stability (372 cycles). This work provides a valuable strategy for regulating 3d orbital occupancy of transition metal in MXene to improve the catalytic activity of oxygen electrode reactions in Li‐O2 battery.
Microparticle Impact Testing at High Precision, Higher Temperatures, and with Lithographically Patterned Projectiles
Authors: Reiser Alain , Schuh Christopher A.
Published: December 2022

In the first decade of high‐velocity microparticle impact research, hardly any modification of the original experimental setup has been necessary. However, future avenues for the field require advancements of the experimental method to expand both the impact variables that can be quantitatively assessed and the materials and phenomena that can be studied. This work explores new design concepts for the launch pad (the assembly that launches microparticles upon laser ablation) that can address the root causes of many experimental challenges that may limit the technique in the future. Among the design changes contemplated, the substitution of a stiff glass launch layer for the standard elastomeric polymer layer offers a number of improvements. First, it facilitates a reduction of the gap between launch pad and target from hundreds to tens of micrometers and thus unlocks a reproducibility in targeting a specific impact location better than the diameter of the test particle itself (±1.75 µm for SiO2 particles 7.38 µm in diameter). Second, the inert glass surface enables experiments at higher temperatures than previously possible. Finally—as demonstrated by the launch of thin‐film Au disks—a launch pad made of materials standard in microfabrication paves the way to facile microfabrication of advanced impactors.
Laminar flow in epicycloidal corrugated pipes
Authors: Lekner John
Published: December 2022

Does longitudinal surface corrugation or roughness affect viscous fluid flow? To answer this question, we study viscous flows through the entire family of pipes with epicycloidal walls, which have n cusps, . We find that the flow becomes insensitive to the longitudinal wall corrugations due to the epicycloidal cusps as : surface roughness of the walls does not affect the flow if it is longitudinal. Exact flows in these corrugated pipes are compared with three ‘rules of thumb’ which give general but approximate formulae for the rate of flow through a pipe of given cross‐sectional shape. Upper and lower bounds on flow, based on circumscribed and inscribed circular boundaries, give even better estimates than the three rules of thumb. All the flow formulae, exact and approximate, apply also to the twisting of solid beams.
(In)Visible signatures of the minimal dark abelian gauge sector
Authors: Foguel Ana Luisa , Salla Gabriel M. , Funchal Renata Zukanovich
Published: December 2022

Abstract

In this paper we study the present and future sensitivities of the rare meson decay facilities KOTO, LHCb and Belle II to a light dark sector of the minimal dark abelian gauge symmetry where a dark Higgs S and a dark photon ZD have masses ≲ 10 GeV. We have explored the interesting scenario where S can only decay to a pair of ZD’s and so contribute to visible or invisible signatures, depending on the life-time of the latter. Our computations show that these accelerator experiments can access the dark Higgs (mass and scalar mixing) and the dark photon (mass and kinetic mixing) parameters in a complementary way. We have also discussed how the CMS measurement of the SM Higgs total decay width and their limit on the Higgs invisible branching ratio can be used to extend the experimental reach to dark photon masses up to ~ 10 GeV, providing at the same time sensitivity to the gauge coupling associated with the broken dark abelian symmetry.
Inclusive production cross sections at N3LO
Authors: Baglio Julien , Duhr Claude , Mistlberger Bernhard , Szafron Robert
Published: December 2022

Abstract

We present for the first time the inclusive cross section for associated Higgs boson production with a massive gauge boson at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD. Furthermore, we introduce n3loxs, a public, numerical program for the evaluation of inclusive cross sections at the third order in the strong coupling constant. Our tool allows to derive predictions for charged- and neutral-current Drell-Yan production, gluon- and bottom-quark-fusion Higgs boson production and Higgs boson associated production with a heavy gauge boson. We discuss perturbative and parton distribution function (PDF) uncertainties of the aforementioned processes. We perform a comparison of global PDF sets for a variety of process including associated Higgs boson production and observe 1σ deviations among predictions for several processes.
CGC for ultra-peripheral Pb+Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider: a more realistic calculation
Authors: Duan Haowu , Kovner Alexander , Skokov Vladimir V.
Published: December 2022

Abstract

We provide the first calculation of two-gluon production at mid-rapidity in ultra-peripheral collisions in the Color Glass Condensate framework. To estimate systematic uncertainty associated with poor understanding of the wave function of the nearly real photon, we consider two diametrically different models: the dilute quark-antiquark dipole approximation and a vector meson, in which color charge density is approximated by McLerran-Venugopalan model. In the experimentally relevant range, the target nucleus can be faithfully approximated by a highly saturated state. This simplification enables us to perform efficient numerical simulations and extract the two-gluon correlation functions and the associated azimuthal harmonics.
Note on graph-based BCJ relation for Berends-Giele currents
Authors: Du Yi-Jian , Wu Konglong
Published: December 2022

Abstract

Graph-based Bern-Carasso-Johansson (BCJ) relation for Berends-Giele currents in bi-adjoint scalar (BS) theory, which is characterized by connected tree graphs, was proposed in an earlier work. In this note, we provide a systematic study of this relation. We first prove the relations based on two special types of graphs: simple chains and star graphs. The general graph-based BCJ relation established by an arbitrary tree graph is further proved, through Berends-Giele recursion. When combined with proper off-shell extended numerators, this relation induces the graph-based BCJ relation for Berends-Giele currents in Yang-Mills theory. The corresponding relations for amplitudes are obtained via on-shell limits.
Stretch-orientation-induced reduction of friction in well-entangled bidisperse blends: a dual slip-link simulation study
Authors: Miyamoto Souta , Sato Takeshi , Taniguchi Takashi
Published: December 2022

We investigated the rheological properties of bidisperse entangled-polymer blends under high-deformation-rate flows by slip-link simulations with a friction reduction mechanism. The friction reduction mechanism induced by the stretch and orientation (SORF) is important to predict the viscoelasticity under uniaxial elongational flows. To test the applicability of this mechanism for bidisperse systems, we incorporated an expression of friction reduction (Yaoita et al. Macromolecules 45:2773–2782 2012) into the Doi-Takimoto slip-link model (DT model) (Doi and Takimoto Philos Trans R Soc Lond A 361:641–652 2003). For six experimental bidisperse systems, i.e., four polystyrene blends and two polyisoprene blends, the extended DT model where the order parameter of the friction reduction mechanism is evaluated through the component averages succeeds in reproducing the data under uniaxial elongation and shear. This success is due to the suppression of the stretch of the longer chains using the statistical average over each component. Through this study, the SORF expression improves the rheological prediction for bidisperse entangled polymer melts under uniaxial elongational flows with strain rates comparable to or larger than the inverse of the Rouse relaxation time of the longer chains. Additionally, the predictions with the SORF using the component average for the stretches reproduce the steady viscosities because under elongational flows, the states of the components with different molecular weights clearly differ from each other depending on their Rouse relaxation time. The finding means that for chain dynamics, the friction coefficient is determined by the state of the surrounding polymer chains and the state of the chain.
The role of shade tree pruning in cocoa agroforestry systems: agronomic and economic benefits
Authors: Esche Laura , Schneider Monika , Milz Joachim , Armengot Laura
Published: December 2022

Cocoa-based agroforests are promoted to replace monocultures for the provision of ecosystem services. However, shade tree pruning, an important tool to sustain cocoa yields, is not commonly implemented. This study investigates the effect of pruning on both agronomic and economic performance. In Bolivia, four famers’ sites were divided in half, and shade trees pruned in one of the two plots. Pruning resulted in a significant increase in cocoa yield, from an average of 430 to 710 kg ha−1 by boosting flowering and pod production, but not reducing the proportion of damaged pods, and of those lost to cherelle wilt. Additionally, scenario calculations using international and organic premium cocoa prices were conducted to evaluate the economic feasibility of pruning. The minimum, mean and maximum yield of 22 local cocoa-based agroforestry farms were used as reference for 25, 50 and 75% yield increase scenarios. Offsetting the pruning costs highly depended on the initial yield levels. Using the minimum yield, all scenarios led to a lower net income compared with no pruning. For the mean yield level, the net income was equal to that obtained without pruning when the yield increase was above 51%. At the maximum yield level, all increase scenarios resulted in a higher net income. Our results prove the importance of pruning agroforestry trees to increase cocoa yields. However, with current farm-gate prices for cocoa, farmers alone cannot cover the extra management costs. The cocoa sector should discuss different strategies to support pruning for a broader adoption of agroforests.
Survival of epithelial ovarian cancer in Black women: a society to cell approach in the African American cancer epidemiology study (AACES)
Authors: Schildkraut Joellen M. , Johnson Courtney , Dempsey Lauren F. , Qin Bo , Terry Paul , Akonde Maxwell , Peters Edward S. , Mandle Hannah , Cote Michele L. , Peres Lauren , Moorman Patricia , Schwartz Ann G. , Epstein Michael , Marks Jeffrey , Bondy Melissa , Lawson Andrew B. , Alberg Anthony J. , Bandera Elisa V.
Published: December 2022

Purpose

The causes for the survival disparity among Black women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) are likely multi-factorial. Here we describe the African American Cancer Epidemiology Study (AACES), the largest cohort of Black women with EOC.

Methods

AACES phase 2 (enrolled 2020 onward) is a multi-site, population-based study focused on overall survival (OS) of EOC. Rapid case ascertainment is used in ongoing patient recruitment in eight U.S. states, both northern and southern. Data collection is composed of a survey, biospecimens, and medical record abstraction. Results characterizing the survival experience of the phase 1 study population (enrolled 2010–2015) are presented.

Results

Thus far, ~ 650 patients with EOC have been enrolled in the AACES. The five-year OS of AACES participants approximates those of Black women in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registry who survive at least 10-month past diagnosis and is worse compared to white women in SEER, 49 vs. 60%, respectively. A high proportion of women in AACES have low levels of household income (45% < $25,000 annually), education (51% ≤ high school education), and insurance coverage (32% uninsured or Medicaid). Those followed annually differ from those without follow-up with higher levels of localized disease (28 vs 24%) and higher levels of optimal debulking status (73 vs 67%).

Conclusion

AACES is well positioned to evaluate the contribution of social determinants of health to the poor survival of Black women with EOC and advance understanding of the multi-factorial causes of the ovarian cancer survival disparity in Black women.
Multicriteria task classification in human-robot collaborative assembly through fuzzy inference
Authors: Alessio Alessandro , Aliev Khurshid , Antonelli Dario
Published: December 2022

The advent of new technologies and their implementation in manufacturing is accelerating the progress of Industry 4.0 (I4.0). Among the enabling technologies of I4.0, collaborative robots (cobots) push factory reconfiguration and prompt for worker empowerment by exploiting the respective assets of both humans and robots. Indeed, human has superior dexterity, flexibility, problem-solving ability. Robot excels in strength, endurance, accuracy and is expendable for risky activities. Therefore, task assignment problem in a production line with coexisting humans and robots cannot limit to the workload balancing among workers but should make the most of everyone respective abilities. The outcomes should not be only an increased productivity, but also improved production quality, human safety and well-being. Task assignment strategy should rely on a comprehensive assessment of the tasks from the viewpoint of suitability to humans or robots. As there are several conflicting evaluation criteria, often qualitative, the study defines the set of criteria, their metrics and proposes a method for task classification relying on Fuzzy Inference System to map each task onto a set of collaboration classes. The outcome of the study is the formal description of a set of evaluation criteria with their metrics. Another outcome is a Fuzzy Classification procedure that support production managers to properly consider all the criteria in the assignment of the tasks. The proposed methodology was tested on a case study derived from a manual manufacturing process to demonstrate its application during the process planning.
Attitude verbs’ local context
Authors: Blumberg Kyle , Goldstein Simon
Published: December 2022

Schlenker (Semant Pragmat 2(3):1–78, 2009; Philos Stud 151(1):115–142, 2010a; Mind 119(474):377–391, 2010b) provides an algorithm for deriving the presupposition projection properties of an expression from that expression’s classical semantics. In this paper, we consider the predictions of Schlenker’s algorithm as applied to attitude verbs. More specifically, we compare Schlenker’s theory with a prominent view which maintains that attitudes exhibit belief projection, so that presupposition triggers in their scope imply that the attitude holder believes the presupposition (Karttunen in Theor Linguist 34(1):181, 1974; Heim in J Semant 9(3):183–221, 1992; Sudo in The art and craft of semantics: a festschrift for Irene Heim, MIT Press, 2014). We show that Schlenker’s theory does not predict belief projection, and discuss several consequences of this result.
Understanding mathematical texts: a hermeneutical approach
Authors: Carl Merlin
Published: December 2022

The work done so far on the understanding of mathematical (proof) texts focuses mostly on logical and heuristical aspects; a proof text is considered to be understood when the reader is able to justify inferential steps occurring in it, to defend it against objections, to give an account of the “main ideas”, to transfer the proof idea to other contexts etc. (see, e.g., Avigad in The philosophy of mathematical practice, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008). In contrast, there is a rich philosophical tradition dealing with the concept of understanding and interpreting texts, namely philosophical hermeneutics, represented, e.g., by Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger or Gadamer. In this tradition, “understanding” generally refers to the integration in a comprehensive (historical, existential, life-worldly, ...) context. In this article, we take some first steps towards exploring the question how the ideas from philosophical hermeneutics presented in Gadamer’s “Truth and Method” apply to mathematical texts and what (if anything) can be learned from these for the didactics and presentation of mathematics.
Spatio-Temporal Outdoor Lighting Aggregation on Image Sequences Using Transformer Networks
Authors: Lee Haebom , Homeyer Christian , Herzog Robert , Rexilius Jan , Rother Carsten
Published: December 2022

In this work, we focus on outdoor lighting estimation by aggregating individual noisy estimates from images, exploiting the rich image information from wide-angle cameras and/or temporal image sequences. Photographs inherently encode information about the lighting of the scene in the form of shading and shadows. Recovering the lighting is an inverse rendering problem and as that ill-posed. Recent research based on deep neural networks has shown promising results for estimating light from a single image, but with shortcomings in robustness. We tackle this problem by combining lighting estimates from several image views sampled in the angular and temporal domains of an image sequence. For this task, we introduce a transformer architecture that is trained in an end-2-end fashion without any statistical post-processing as required by previous work. Thereby, we propose a positional encoding that takes into account camera alignment and ego-motion estimation to globally register the individual estimates when computing attention between visual words. We show that our method leads to improved lighting estimation while requiring fewer hyperparameters compared to the state of the art.
The evolution of structural genomics
Authors: Standley Daron M. , Nakanishi Tokuichiro , Xu Zichang , Haruna Soichiro , Li Songling , Nazlica Sedat Aybars , Katoh Kazutaka
Published: December 2022

Structural genomics began as a global effort in the 1990s to determine the tertiary structures of all protein families as a response to large-scale genome sequencing projects. The immediate outcome was an influx of tens of thousands of protein structures, many of which had unknown functions. At the time, the value of structural genomics was controversial. However, the structures themselves were only the most obvious output. In addition, these newly solved structures motivated the emergence of huge data science and infrastructure efforts, which, together with advances in Deep Learning, have brought about a revolution in computational molecular biology. Here, we review some of the computational research carried out at the Protein Data Bank Japan (PDBj) during the Protein 3000 project under the leadership of Haruki Nakamura, much of which continues to flourish today.
To Protect and Serve? Race and Police Use of Force across Religious Contexts
Authors: Nie Fanhao
Published: December 2022

Background

While prior research has revealed a dynamic relationship between individual religiosity and punitiveness, much less is known about how religious context might affect attitudes toward punitiveness. In addition, even less is known about how religion, individual or contextual, might shape public attitudes toward an important aspect of punitiveness—police use of force, an issue that has evoked large-scale social movements in recent years.

Purpose

The present research aims to fill in the gap from prior research by examining the relationship between religious context and attitudes toward police use of force. Particularly, this study intends to investigate whether said relationship varies by race.

Methods

In this study, individual-level data from the General Social Survey (GSS) 2000–2018 were merged with contextual-level data from the U.S. Census 2000 and the Religious Congregations and Membership Study (RCMS) 2000 enabling a multilevel analysis of the religious effects on attitudes toward police use of force.

Results

Study results suggest that higher county-level Catholic population share was associated with less support for police use of force. In contrast, when county-level evangelical Protestant population share rose, residents, including Blacks, became more supportive of police use of force. However, the evangelical Protestant contextual effect was stronger for Whites than Blacks, and this White-Black difference grew when county-level evangelical Protestant population share increased.

Conclusions and Implications

The findings suggest that religious effects on attitudes toward punitiveness are multilevel. Religious context exerts independent and divergent influences on one's perceptions of police use of force above and beyond important individual characteristics. Therefore, religious contextual characteristics may need to be considered in the ongoing debate on police brutality and reform.
The Twelve Principles of Circular Hydrometallurgy
Authors: Binnemans Koen , Jones Peter Tom
Published: December 2022

In this academic position paper, we propose the 12 Principles of a novel and more sustainable approach to hydrometallurgy that we call “circular hydrometallurgy.” The paper intends to set a basis for identifying future areas of research in the field of hydrometallurgy, while providing a “sustainability” benchmark for assessing existing processes and technological developments. Circular hydrometallurgy refers to the designing of energy-efficient and resource-efficient flowsheets or unit processes that consume the minimum quantities of reagents and result in minimum waste. The application of a circular approach involves new ways of thinking about how hydrometallurgy is applied for both primary and secondary resources. In either case, the emphasis must be on the regeneration and reuse of every reagent in the process. This refers not only to the acids and bases employed for leaching or pH control, but also any reducing agents, oxidizing agents, and other auxiliary reagents. Likewise, the consumption of water and energy must be reduced to an absolute minimum. To consolidate the concept of circular hydrometallurgical flowsheets, we present the 12 Principles that will boost sustainability: (1) regenerate reagents, (2) close water loops, (3) prevent waste, (4) maximize mass, energy, space, and time efficiency, (5) integrate materials and energy flows, (6) safely dispose of potentially harmful elements, (7) decrease activation energy, (8) electrify processes wherever possible, (9) use benign chemicals, (10) reduce chemical diversity, (11) implement real-time analysis and digital process control, and (12) combine circular hydrometallurgy with zero-waste mining. Although we realize that the choice of these principles is somewhat arbitrary and that other principles could be imagined or some principles could be merged, we are nevertheless convinced that the present framework of these 12 Principles, as put forward in this position paper, provides a powerful tool to show the direction of future research and innovation in hydrometallurgy, both in industry and in academia.

Graphical Abstract
Risk factors for extended length of stay and non-home discharge in adults treated with multi-level fusion for lumbar degenerative pathology and deformity
Authors: Arora Ayush , Wague Aboubacar , Srinivas Ravi , Callahan Matt , Peterson Thomas A. , Theologis Alekos A. , Berven Sigurd
Published: December 2022

Purpose

To identify independent risk factors, including the Risk Assessment and Prediction Tool (RAPT) score, associated with extended length of stay (eLOS) and non-home discharge following elective multi-level instrumented spine fusion operations for diagnosis of adult spinal deformity (ASD) and lumbar degenerative pathology.

Methods

Adults who underwent multi-level ($$\ge 3$$

≥
3

segments) instrumented spine fusions for ASD and lumbar degenerative pathology at a single institution (2016–2021) were reviewed. Presence of a pre-operative RAPT score was used as an inclusion criterion. Excluded were patients who underwent non-elective operations, revisions, operations for trauma, malignancy, and/or infections. Outcomes were eLOS (> 7 days) and discharge location (home vs. non-home). Predictor variables included demographics, comorbidities, operative information, Surgical Invasiveness Index (SII), and RAPT score. Fisher’s exact test was used for univariate analysis, and significant variables were implemented in multivariate binary logistic regression, with generation of 95% percent confidence intervals (CI), odds ratios (OR), and p-values.

Results

Included for analysis were 355 patients. Post-operatively, 36.6% (n = 130) had eLOS and 53.2% (n = 189) had a non-home discharge. Risk factors significant for a non-home discharge were older age (> 70 years), SII > 36, pre-op RAPT < 10, DMII, diagnosis of depression or anxiety, and eLOS. Risk factors significant for an eLOS were SII > 20, RAPT < 6, and an ASA score of 3.

Conclusion

The RAPT score and SII were most important significant predictors of eLOS and non-home discharges following multi-level instrumented fusions for lumbar spinal pathology and deformity. Preoperative optimization of the RAPT’s individual components may provide a useful strategy for decreasing LOS and modifying discharge disposition.
Petroleum and Progress in Iran
Authors: Brew Gregory
Published: December 2022

From the 1940s to 1960s, Iran developed into the world's first 'petro-state', where oil represented the bulk of state revenue and supported an industrializing economy, expanding middle class, and powerful administrative and military apparatus. Drawing on both American and Iranian sources, Gregory Brew outlines how the Pahlavi petro-state emerged from a confluence of forces – some global, some local. He shows how the shah's particular form of oil-based authoritarianism evolved from interactions with American developmentalists, Pahlavi technocrats, and major oil companies, all against the looming backdrop of the United States' Cold War policy and the coup d'etat of August 1953. By placing oil at the centre of the Cold War narrative, Brew contextualises Iran's pro-Western alignment and slide into petrolic authoritarianism. Synthesising a wide range of sources and research methods, this book demonstrates that the Pahlavi petro-state was not born, but made, and not solely by the Pahlavi shah.
Underspecification in time
Authors: Idsardi William
Published: December 2022

Substance-free phonology or SFP (Reiss 2017) has renewed interest in the question of abstraction in phonology. Perhaps the most common form of abstraction through the absence of substance is underspecification, where some aspects of speech lack representation in memorized representations, within the phonology or in the phonetic implementation (Archangeli 1988, Keating 1988, Lahiri and Reetz 2010 among many others). The fundamental basis for phonology is argued to be a mental model of speech events in time, following Raimy (2000) and Papillon (2020). Each event can have properties (one-place predicates that are true of the event), which include the usual phonological features, and also structural entities for extended events like moras and syllables. Features can be bound together in an event, yielding segment-like properties. Pairs of events can be ordered in time by the temporal logic precedence relation represented by ‘<’. Events, features and precedence form a directed multigraph structure with edges in the graph interpreted as “maybe next”. Some infant bimodal speech perception results are examined using this framework, arguing for underspecification in time in the developing phonological representations.
Axisymmetric displacement flows in fluid-driven fractures
Authors: Tanikella Sri Savya , Dressaire Emilie
Published: December 2022

Displacement flows are common in hydraulic fracturing, as fracking fluids of different composition are injected sequentially in the fracture. The injection of an immiscible fluid at the centre of a liquid-filled fracture results in the growth of the fracture and the outward displacement of the interface between the two liquids. We study the dynamics of the fluid-driven fracture, which is controlled by the competition between viscous, elastic and toughness-related stresses. We use a model experiment to characterize the dynamics of the fracture for a range of mechanical properties of the fractured material and fracturing fluids. We form the liquid-filled pre-fracture in an elastic brittle matrix of gelatin. The displacing liquid is then injected. We record the radius and aperture of the fracture, and the position of the interface between the two liquids. In a typical experiment, the axisymmetric radial viscous flow is accommodated by the elastic deformation and fracturing of the matrix. We model the coupling between elastic deformation, viscous dissipation and fracture propagation, and recover the two fracturing regimes identified for single-fluid injection. For the viscous-dominated and toughness-dominated regimes, we derive scaling equations that describe the crack growth due to a displacement flow and show the influence of the pre-existing fracture on the crack dynamics through a finite initial volume and an average viscosity of the fluids in the fracture.
Diversity, networks, and innovation: A text analytic approach to measuring expertise diversity
Authors: Lungeanu Alina , Whalen Ryan , Wu Y. Jasmine , DeChurch Leslie A. , Contractor Noshir S.
Published: December 2022

Despite the importance of diverse expertise in helping solve difficult interdisciplinary problems, measuring it is challenging and often relies on proxy measures and presumptive correlates of actual knowledge and experience. To address this challenge, we propose a text-based measure that uses researcher’s prior work to estimate their substantive expertise. These expertise estimates are then used to measure team-level expertise diversity by determining similarity or dissimilarity in members’ prior knowledge and skills. Using this measure on 2.8 million team invented patents granted by the US Patent Office, we show evidence of trends in expertise diversity over time and across team sizes, as well as its relationship with the quality and impact of a team’s innovation output.
Connecting the Revolutionary with the Conventional: Rethinking the Differences between the Works of Brouwer, Heyting, and Weyl
Authors: Kish Bar-On Kati
Published: December 2022

Brouwer’s intuitionism was a far-reaching attempt to reform the foundations of mathematics. Although the mathematical community was reluctant to accept Brouwer’s work, its response to later-developed brands of intuitionism, such as those presented by Hermann Weyl and Arend Heyting, was different. The article accounts for this difference by analyzing the intuitionistic versions of Brouwer, Weyl, and Heyting in light of a two-tiered model of the body and image of mathematical knowledge. Such a perspective provides a richer account of each story and points to a possible connection between the community’s reaction and the changes each mathematician had proposed.
GALOIS LCD CODES OVER
Authors: AGRAWAL ASTHA , VERMA GYANENDRA K. , SHARMA R. K.
Published: December 2022

Wu and Shi [‘A note on k-Galois LCD codes over the ring
$\mathbb {F}_q + u\mathbb {F}_q$
’, Bull. Aust. Math. Soc.104(1) (2021), 154–161] studied
$ k $
-Galois LCD codes over the finite chain ring
$\mathcal {R}=\mathbb {F}_q+u\mathbb {F}_q$
, where
$u^2=0$
and
$ q=p^e$
for some prime p and positive integer e. We extend the results to the finite nonchain ring
$ \mathcal {R} =\mathbb {F}_q+u\mathbb {F}_q+v\mathbb {F}_q+uv\mathbb {F}_q$
, where
$u^2=u,v^2=v $
and
$ uv=vu $
. We define a correspondence between the
$ l $
-Galois dual of linear codes over
$ \mathcal {R} $
and the
$ l $
-Galois dual of their component codes over
$ \mathbb {F}_q $
. Further, we construct Euclidean LCD and
$ l $
-Galois LCD codes from linear codes over
$ \mathcal {R} $
. We prove that any linear code over
$ \mathcal {R} $
is equivalent to a Euclidean code over
$\mathbb {F}_q$
with
$ q>3 $
and an
$ l $
-Galois LCD code over
$ \mathcal {R}$
with
$0<l<e$
and
$p^{e-l}+1\mid p^e-1$
. Finally, we investigate MDS codes over
$ \mathcal {R}$
.