bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Urban Forests as Nature-Based Solutions: a Comprehensive Overview of the National Forest City Action in China
Authors: Wang Cheng , Jin Jiali , Davies Clive , Chen Wendy Y.
Published: January 2024

Purpose of Review

In tandem with China’s rapid urbanisation and economic growth, some negative impacts on the eco-environment and human wellbeing have arisen, such as the urban heat island effect, air pollution and lack of recreational spaces. To address the degradation of urban eco-environment and improve residents’ quality of life simultaneously, China’s central government launched the National Forest City action in 2004, which essentially promotes urban forests as nature-based solutions (UF-NBS) and contributes to achieving sustainable development goals. Whilst this key national action has been implemented for about two decades, it has received limited scholarly attention within and beyond China. This paper is the very first to summarise comprehensively the development of the action, focusing on its rationale, evaluation and management.

Recent Findings

By establishing urban forests as cost-effective solutions to various environmental and social issues, the action integrates novel knowledge and best practices accumulated in Europe and North America into China’s traditional ideology, pertinent to the human-nature relationship in urban landscape design, and further adapts and renovates these to the country’s unique socioeconomic context. It highlights the multi-functionality of urban forests underpinned by a set of key performance indicators covering both qualitative and quantitative aspects of the National Forest City’s planning, construction, management and review. Additionally, it reflects a dynamic interaction within the science-policy-practice continuum hinged on field experiments, knowledge transfer, public engagement, policy agenda and greening actions. Challenges, such as unbalanced geographical distribution and KPIs on ecological integrity and functionality of urban forests, should be addressed for further refining and scaling-up this action.

China’s National Forest City action promotes UF-NBS as a pathway to sustainable urbanisation, serving as a demonstrative exemplar for other developing and developed countries that may wish to avoid their dependence on traditional development pathways. This paper sheds light on how to implement urban forests as effective and sustainable NBS to addresses global societal challenges.
M-Net: a novel unsupervised domain adaptation framework based on multi-kernel maximum mean discrepancy for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery
Authors: Yu Shihang , Song Limei , Pang Shanchen , Wang Min , He Xiao , Xie Pengfei
Published: January 2024

The intelligent fault diagnosis model has made a significant development, whose high-precision results rely on a large amount of labeled data. However, in the actual industrial environment, it is very difficult to obtain a large amount of labeled data. It will make it difficult for the fault diagnosis model to converge with limited labeled industrial data. To address this paradox, we propose a novel unsupervised domain adaptation framework (M-Net) for fault diagnosis of rotating machinery, which only requires unlabeled industrial data. The M-Net will be pretrained using the labeled data, which can be accessed through the labs. In this stage, we propose a multi-scale feature extractor that can extract and fuse multi-scale features. This operation will generalize the features further. Then, we will align the distribution of the labeled data and unlabeled industrial data using the generator model based on multi-kernel maximum mean discrepancy. This will reduce the distribution distance between the labeled data and the unlabeled industrial data. For now, the unsupervised domain adaptation problem has shifted to a semi-supervised domain adaptation problem. The results, obtained through experimental comparison, demonstrate that the M-Net can achieve an accuracy of over 99.99% with labeled data and a maximum transfer accuracy of over 99% with unlabeled industrial data.
The Outsourcing Wage Gap: Exploring the Interplay of Gender and Tasks Along the Job Distribution
Authors: Fana Marta , Giangregorio Luca , Villani Davide
Published: January 2024

This paper examines the wage penalty of outsourced workers in France, providing novel insights to the existing literature. First, it investigates the extent to which the wage penalty differs between outsourced male and female workers. Our results reveal that outsourced workers experience pronounced wage penalty, with this effect being stronger for women. Second, in contrast to most studies, we analyse outsourcing across the entire job distribution. We find that the wage penalty is significantly higher for outsourced workers employed in jobs at the lower end of the wage distribution compared to those employed at the top. Third, we assess whether the wage penalty experienced by outsourced workers can be attributed to the tasks they perform, such as repetitiveness, forms of control, and managerial duties. The results show that the tasks performed, while can alter the wage penalty, do not significantly reshape the main results. Thus, differences in tasks do not appear to be a determining factor in the wage penalty of outsourced workers. Longitudinal analysis strengthens the validity of the cross-sectional findings, highlighting that the wage penalty associated with outsourcing does not result from shifts in individual employee characteristics but rather from disparities in their job status and other time-invariant attributes. In summary, being an outsourced worker implies a degradation in wage treatment, which is exacerbated by gender. Given the increasing importance of this employment practice, it underscores the urgent need for policy interventions to address these critical issues.
Thermodynamic Modeling of Solid Flux Interactions with Molten Aluminum
Authors: Moodispaw Michael P. , Cinkilic Emre , Luo Alan A.
Published: January 2024

Oxide and dross formation during aluminum melt processing results in a considerable amount of loss of metallic aluminum. The total melt loss generated during melt processing can be greatly reduced by efficient use of flux, particularly for melting aluminum scrap or secondary alloys. Effective use of cover fluxes can significantly reduce dross generation by creating a barrier between the metallic aluminum and the atmosphere. The amount of metallic aluminum trapped within the dross layer can also be reduced by up to 50% using drossing fluxes. However, reducing the industrial average melt loss has remained difficult. To evaluate flux ingredients used in the casting industry, computational thermodynamic software ThermoCalc was used to calculate the driving force for reactions between twenty-one flux ingredients and eighteen common alloying and impurity elements in foundry alloys. The thermodynamic calculations, combined with other properties, were used to provide a desirable list of cover and drossing ingredients, which are being experimentally validated.
Herkunftsspezifisches Passungserleben im Kita-Fachkraft–Eltern–Verhältnis
Authors: Schimmer Julia
Published: January 2024

Obwohl Bourdieus und Passerons These zur kulturellen Passung schon rund 50 Jahre besteht und mit einer gelungenen Bildungs- und Erziehungspartnerschaft große Hoffnungen für die Förderung von Bildungschancen verbunden werden, gerät das herkunftsspezifische Passungsverhältnis zwischen Kita-Fachkräften und Eltern erst in den letzten Jahren ins Blickfeld erziehungswissenschaftlicher Forschung. In der hier vorgestellten Querschnittstudie wird an die bisher vorwiegend qualitativen Forschungsbefunde angeknüpft und das Fachkraft-Eltern-Verhältnis vonN = 93 Vorschulkindern mit einem standardisierten Fragebogen untersucht.

Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Fachkräfte die Beziehung zu Eltern mit hoher ökonomischer und kultureller Kapitalausstattung im Vergleich zu Eltern mit niedriger Ausstattung positiver bewerten. Dagegen ist die Bewertung der Beziehung durch die Eltern unabhängig von deren Kapitalausstattung. Die kulturelle Herkunft der Eltern sowie deren Familiensprache haben weder bei den Fachkräften noch bei den Eltern selbst Einfluss auf die Beurteilung des Fachkraft-Eltern-Verhältnisses.
Food demand estimation from consumption and expenditure data: Meat demand in Nigeria
Authors: Aborisade Olumide , Carpio Carlos E. , Boonsaeng Tullaya
Published: January 2024

Hidden consumption is a potential problem when consumers’ expenditure data from household surveys are used in demand analyses. A solution is to collect and use actual consumption data. This study compares demand estimation using consumption and expenditure data and evaluates meat demand in Nigeria. Data are from a nationally representative panel from Nigeria. The results show the elasticities estimated across both datasets were very similar; thus, if the only objective of data collection is to estimate elasticity using a demand system framework, collection of both types of data (consumption and expenditures) may be unnecessary. The elasticity estimates classify poultry, beef, and processed seafood as luxuries, while other meat and unprocessed seafood are classified as necessities. Own-price elasticities from both datasets indicated that poultry, beef, and processed seafood were price-elastic, and poultry was the most price-elastic.
Tales of Migration in Medieval Hungary
Authors: Berend Nora
Published: January 2024

Medieval Hungary has been called a “guestland” because of the multiplicity of immigrant peoples living in the realm. Yet the real experiences of immigrants and narrative constructions about immigration were not always in sync. This article explores medieval tales of different types of migration into the Kingdom of Hungary: first, the mythic migration of the entire people (gens) from a supposed original homeland to a new territory; second, the family histories of noble immigrants; and finally representations of mass immigration into the Christian kingdom. To understand how medieval authors constructed such tales, we need to identify the models they used and the purposes such stories served. Biblical and literary sources inspired the story of “the Hungarians,” while noble families sought to increase their prestige by identifying early immigrant ancestors. In neither case can these medieval narratives be used as historical sources without fully engaging with their genesis. The analysis of explicit medieval reflections on the arrival of various groups into the Kingdom of Hungary also reveals how immigration could be seen in both positive and negative ways. Resting on these medieval foundations, tales of migration have persisted into the present, but they have also gained a sharper distinction: old migration is valorized, while new migration is demonized and instrumentalized in a brutally exclusionary way.
Globalizing Japanese Tuna Fisheries
Authors: Heé Nadin
Published: January 2024

This article argues that the territorialization of the ocean was one of the crucial inflection points of the twentieth century, transforming the sovereignty of states and profoundly reshaping their territories. In terms of scale, it is the most planetary of the many remappings that have marked the twentieth century. A close study of the globalization of the Japanese tuna industry serves to illustrate this transition and can help us understand why and how this process evolved. The Japanese Empire was a key actor in the transimperial hotspot of the Indo-Pacific, where multiple empires met and interacted. Transimperial “brokers”—both human migrants and migratory species such as tuna—moved across boundaries and created an open oceanic frontier dependent on shifting ecological conditions. These transimperial entanglements did not end in 1945. Their legacies weighed heavy in the decolonization process that followed the Second World War, with new states seeking to establish their territories at sea as well as on land. Japan’s success in maintaining access to fishing grounds shows how these entanglements transcended the so-called Age of Empires to influence the establishment of a new global order and a new oceanic sovereignty.
Analytical solution for laminar entrance flow in circular pipes
Authors: Kim Taig Young
Published: January 2024

This study introduces an analytical solution for the laminar entrance flow in circular pipes, aiming to confirm the occurrence of velocity overshoot. Velocity overshoot is characterised by the maximum axial velocity appearing near the pipe wall instead of the central axis. Similar to the previous studies, the analytical solution is derived from the parabolised Navier–Stokes equation; however, the specific approach used in linearising the momentum equation has not been attempted before. The accuracy of this analytical solution has been verified through a comprehensive comparison with various published experimental data. The existence of velocity overshoot at a short distance from the inlet, which is evident in numerous numerical calculations based on the full Navier–Stokes equations and corroborated by recent magnetic resonance (MR) velocimetry experiments, is identified analytically for the first time. The parabolised Navier–Stokes equation has inherent self-similarity with respect to the Reynolds number, implying that

$Re$

is incorporated into the dimensionless variables rather than serving as an independent flow parameter. According to both MR velocimetry measurements and the present analytical solution, the self-similarity is not valid immediately following the pipe inlet, and this becomes more evident as

$Re$

decreases; hence, the analytical solution derived from the parabolised Navier–Stokes equation cannot accurately predict the evolution of the velocity profile within this region near the pipe inlet.
Assessment of coupled bilayer–cytoskeleton modelling strategy for red blood cell dynamics in flow
Authors: Puthumana V. , Chen P.G. , Leonetti M. , Lasserre R. , Jaeger M.
Published: January 2024

The red blood cell (RBC) membrane is composed of a lipid bilayer and a cytoskeleton interconnected by protein junction complexes, allowing for potential sliding between the lipid bilayer and the cytoskeleton. Despite this biological reality, it is most often modelled as a single-layer model, a hyperelastic capsule or a fluid vesicle. Another approach involves incorporating the membrane's composite structure using double layers, where one layer represents the lipid bilayer and the other represents the cytoskeleton. In this paper, we computationally assess the various modelling strategies by analysing RBC behaviour in extensional flow and four distinct regimes that simulate RBC dynamics in shear flow. The proposed double-layer strategies, such as the vesicle–capsule and capsule–capsule models, account for the fluidity and surface incompressibility of the lipid bilayer in different ways. Our findings demonstrate that introducing sliding between the layers offers the cytoskeleton a considerable degree of freedom to alleviate its elastic stresses, resulting in a significant increase in RBC elongation. Surprisingly, our study reveals that the membrane modelling strategy for RBCs holds greater importance than the choice of the cytoskeleton's reference shape. These results highlight the inadequacy of considering mechanical properties alone and emphasise the need for careful integration of these properties. Furthermore, our findings fortuitously uncover a novel indicator for determining the appropriate stress-free shape of the cytoskeleton.
REGAININGLY APPROXIMABLE NUMBERS AND SETS
Authors: HERTLING PETER , HÖLZL RUPERT , JANICKI PHILIP
Published: January 2024

We call an

$\alpha \in \mathbb {R}$

regainingly approximable if there exists a computable nondecreasing sequence

$(a_n)_n$

of rational numbers converging to

$\alpha $

with

$\alpha - a_n < 2^{-n}$

for infinitely many

${n \in \mathbb {N}}$

. We also call a set

$A\subseteq \mathbb {N}$

regainingly approximable if it is c.e. and the strongly left-computable number

$2^{-A}$

is regainingly approximable. We show that the set of regainingly approximable sets is neither closed under union nor intersection and that every c.e. Turing degree contains such a set. Furthermore, the regainingly approximable numbers lie properly between the computable and the left-computable numbers and are not closed under addition. While regainingly approximable numbers are easily seen to be i.o. K-trivial, we construct such an

$\alpha $

such that

${K(\alpha \restriction n)>n}$

for infinitely many n. Similarly, there exist regainingly approximable sets whose initial segment complexity infinitely often reaches the maximum possible for c.e. sets. Finally, there is a uniform algorithm splitting regular real numbers into two regainingly approximable numbers that are still regular.
M2P2 I: Maser Monitoring Parkes Program data description and Stokes-I OH maser variability
Authors: Hafner Anita , Green James A. , Burdon Ashie , Popova Elena , Ladeyschikov Dmitry , Breen Shari , Burns Ross Alexander , Chibueze James O. , Gray M. D. , Kramer Busaba Hutawarakorn , MacLeod Gordon , Sobolev Andrey , Voronkov Maxim
Published: January 2024

The Maser Monitoring Parkes Project (M2P2) is an ongoing project to observe masers towards high-mass star-forming regions (HMSFRs) using the 64 m CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang. In this paper, we outline the project and introduce Stokes-I data from the first two years of observations. For the 63 sightlines observed in this project we identify a total of 1 514 individual maser features: 14.4% of these (203) towards 27 sightlines show significant variability. Most of these (160/203) are seen in the main-line transitions of OH at 1665 and 1667 MHz, but this data set also includes a significant number of variable features in the satellite lines at 1 612 and 1 720 MHz (33 and 10, respectively), most of which (24 and 9, respectively) appear to be associated with the HMSFRs. We divide these features into 4 broad categories based on the behaviour of their intensity over time: flares (6%), periodic (11%), long-term trends (33%), and ‘other’ (50%). Variable masers provide a unique laboratory for the modelling of local environmental conditions of HMSFRs, and follow-up publications will delve into this in more detail.
On Symmetries and Springs
Authors: Murgueitio Ramírez Sebastián
Published: January 2024

Imagine that we are on a train, playing with some mechanical systems. Why can’t we detect any differences in their behavior when the train is parked versus when it is moving uniformly? The standard answer is that boosts are symmetries of Newtonian systems. In this article, I use the case of a spring to argue that this answer is problematic because symmetries are neither sufficient nor necessary for preserving its behavior. I also develop a new answer according to which boosts preserve the relational properties on which the behavior of a system depends, even when they are not symmetries.
A HOMERIC LESSON IN PLATO'S SOPHIST
Authors: Rodriguez Evan
Published: January 2024

Plato's closing reference to the Iliad in the Sophist has been largely overlooked in contemporary scholarship. The reference, a quotation from the confrontation between Glaucus and Diomedes in Book 6, forms part of a broader frame to the dialogue. The frame, with its recurring themes of identification and misidentification, helps us make better sense of the dialogue's final description of the sophist and its central concerns about the relationship between philosophy and sophistry. It also provides a revealing case study of Plato's use of Homer as part of a broader strategy for undermining simple appeals to authority.
WRITERS, RASCALS AND REBELS: INFORMATION WARS IN THE RES GESTAE OF AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS
Authors: Williams Guy
Published: January 2024

This article examines how the historian deals with ‘information’ broadly conceived, especially its acquisition, retention and loss. Ammianus details a complex interplay between those who control information and those who must work with an information deficit. Just as this dialogue plays out within the text, however, so too does it with respect to the author's methodology, which dances between the poles of incomplete and complete information depending on circumstance. Ammianus thus becomes an author as hard to pin down as many of his characters, by turns the omniscient narrator and the dumbfounded participant.
PLINY, TRAJAN AND THE INTRODUCTION OF THE ISELASTICVM FOR VICTORIOUS ATHLETES
Authors: Begass Christoph
Published: January 2024

In two letters, Pliny and Trajan discuss a petition sent to the governor by the guild of athletes concerning their rewards after winning contests (Plin. Ep. 10.118–19). In his request, Pliny refers to a regulation by which Trajan had settled the rights of the victorious athletes in regard to their home cities. In his response, Trajan repeats the case with slight variations. The two letters pose both philological and historical difficulties, which this article aims to solve. The relevant passage in Trajan's letter is corrupt. As scholarship has misunderstood the historical background of the letters, no satisfying solution for the restoration of the text has been found to date. The argumentation of this article is twofold. First, it offers a new reading of the corrupt passage in the emperor's letter which respects both the textual transmission and the historical situation. Second, it is argued that the two letters refer to a Trajanic law which settled the regulations of iselastic contests for the first time, but left some details undecided. In sum, this article proposes a new reading of a damaged passage in Plin. Ep. 10.119 as well as offering a historical commentary on agonistic activities in imperial Asia Minor.
STATVS THEORY AND CICERO'S DEFENCE OF TEACHING IN ORATOR 140–8
Authors: Stoner Rosalie
Published: January 2024

This article offers a structural analysis of Cicero's Orator, sections 140–8. Situating Cicero's defence of a form of educational activity in relation to his earlier denials that he is teaching anything, the article proposes an explanation for Cicero's apparent reversal of position rooted in status theory, the conceptual framework developed by Greek and Roman rhetorical theorists for schematizing the points at issue in a case and the corresponding lines of approach that a defender should take. Understanding the status-inspired organization of Cicero's self-defence affords readers smoother passage through a text that is often difficult and obscure. Furthermore, this analysis shows how Cicero deploys rhetorical techniques in defence of his educational endeavours both to support his claim to continued relevance and to exemplify the versatility of the ideal orator whom he portrays in the Orator.
The origin of the ultrahigh-pressure Tso Morari complex, NW Himalaya: implication for early Paleozoic rifting
Authors: Imayama Takeshi , Dutta Dripta , Yi Keewook
Published: January 2024

The origins and age distribution of the Himalayan high-pressure (HP) and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks are critical for understanding the pre-Himalayan history. Although the protoliths to the UHP Tso Morari eclogites in Ladakh, NW Himalaya are believed to be the Permian Panjal volcanics, the geochronological evidence is absent. Here, we demonstrate that the protoliths of the UHP Tso Morari Complex formed in a continental rift setting at the Indian margin associated with the northern East Gondwana during the Early Paleozoic. Zircon U–Pb dates from eight gneisses and one garnet amphibolite indicate the Early Paleozoic bimodal magmatism of 493–476 Ma, which could be associated with the separation of South China from North India. Except for arc-related eclogites found in the Nidar ophiolite, the eclogites and amphibolites are rift-related, exhibiting enriched light rare earth elements and high concentrations of incompatible elements, along with evidence for crustal contamination. Our findings support the previously reported diversity in the sources and ages of the protoliths of the Himalayan HP–UHP metamorphic rocks along the orogen.
Leopoldt-type theorems for non-abelian extensions of
$\mathbb{Q}$
Authors: Ferri Fabio
Published: January 2024

We prove new results concerning the additive Galois module structure of wildly ramified non-abelian extensions
$K/\mathbb{Q}$
with Galois group isomorphic to
$A_4$
,
$S_4$
,
$A_5$
, and dihedral groups of order
$2p^n$
for certain prime powers
$p^n$
. In particular, when
$K/\mathbb{Q}$
is a Galois extension with Galois group
$G$
isomorphic to
$A_4$
,
$S_4$
or
$A_5$
, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the ring of integers
$\mathcal{O}_{K}$
to be free over its associated order in the rational group algebra
$\mathbb{Q}[G]$
.
Modernising vestibular assessment
Authors: Lennox-Bowley Amy , Dasgupta Soumit
Published: January 2024

Background

There is a high prevalence of dizziness, vertigo and balance symptoms in the general population. Symptoms can be generated by many inner-ear vestibular disorders and there are several diagnostic tests available that can help identify the site of the vestibular lesion. There is little consensus on what diagnostic tests are appropriate, with diagnostics either not completed or minimally performed, leading to missed diagnosis, unsatisfactory results for patients and costs to healthcare systems.

Methods

This study explored the literature for different neuro-vestibular diagnostic tests not currently considered in the traditional standard vestibular test battery, and examined how they fit effectively into a patient care pathway to help quickly and succinctly identify vestibular function.

Results

A vestibular patient care pathway is presented for acute and subacute presentation of vestibular disorders.

Conclusion

An accurate diagnosis following a rigorous anamnesis and vestibular testing is paramount for successful management and favourable outcomes.
Se ðe oðran naman wæs geciged: the Naming of Bishops and Clerics in Late Anglo-Saxon England
Authors: Lestremau Arnaud
Published: January 2024

In studying medieval societies, etymology can help us to understand words and their uses. Names, too, can be interpreted as having their own meanings. Moreover, between the Carolingian era and the Gregorian reform, clerics and monks belonged to increasingly distinct categories of society. As these assertions were often true in early medieval England, it is legitimate to ask whether the names of ecclesiastics were affected. Implicit norms affect the choice of their names, which seem less varied than those of the aristocrats. Their names, although belonging to the same culture as the ecclesiastics themselves, were often Latinised or accompanied by specific titles. Sometimes the name was changed when someone became a cleric (cloister name); sometimes double names were adopted; sometimes a child’s name reflected his parents’ intention for him to be an ecclesiastic (clerical name). The aim of this article is to assess the role of these practices in ninth- to eleventh-century England.
Drug and Natural Health Product Data Collection and Curation in the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging
Authors: Cossette Benoit , Griffith Lauren , Emond Patrick D. , Mangin Dee , Moss Lorraine , Boyko Jennifer , Nicholson Kathryn , Ma Jinhui , Raina Parminder , Wolfson Christina , Kirkland Susan , Dolovich Lisa
Published: January 2024

This study aimed to develop an efficient data collection and curation process for all drugs and natural health products (NHPs) used by participants to the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA). The three-step sequential process consisted of (a) mapping drug inputs collected through the CLSA to the Health Canada Drug Product Database (DPD), (b) algorithm recoding of unmapped drug and NHP inputs, and (c) manual recoding of unmapped drug and NHP inputs. Among the 30,097 CLSA comprehensive cohort participants, 26,000 (86.4%) were using a drug or an NHP with a mean of 5.3 (SD 3.8) inputs per participant user for a total of 137,366 inputs. Of those inputs, 70,177 (51.1%) were mapped to the Health Canada DPD, 20,729 (15.1%) were recoded by algorithms, and 44,108 (32.1%) were manually recoded. The Direct algorithm correctly classified 99.4 per cent of drug inputs and 99.5 per cent of NHP inputs. We developed an efficient three-step process for drug and NHP data collection and curation for use in a longitudinal cohort.
The predictive role of symptoms in COVID-19 diagnostic models: A longitudinal insight
Authors: Bird Olivia , Galiza Eva P. , Baxter David Neil , Boffito Marta , Browne Duncan , Burns Fiona , Chadwick David R. , Clark Rebecca , Cosgrove Catherine A. , Galloway James , Goodman Anna L. , Heer Amardeep , Higham Andrew , Iyengar Shalini , Jeanes Christopher , Kalra Philip A. , Kyriakidou Christina , Bradley Judy M. , Munthali Chigomezgo , Minassian Angela M. , McGill Fiona , Moore Patrick , Munsoor Imrozia , Nicholls Helen , Osanlou Orod , Packham Jonathan , Pretswell Carol H. , San Francisco Ramos Alberto , Saralaya Dinesh , Sheridan Ray P. , Smith Richard , Soiza Roy L. , Swift Pauline A. , Thomson Emma C. , Turner Jeremy , Viljoen Marianne Elizabeth , Heath Paul T. , Chis Ster Irina
Published: January 2024

To investigate the symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection, their dynamics and their discriminatory power for the disease using longitudinally, prospectively collected information reported at the time of their occurrence. We have analysed data from a large phase 3 clinical UK COVID-19 vaccine trial. The alpha variant was the predominant strain. Participants were assessed for SARS-CoV-2 infection via nasal/throat PCR at recruitment, vaccination appointments, and when symptomatic. Statistical techniques were implemented to infer estimates representative of the UK population, accounting for multiple symptomatic episodes associated with one individual. An optimal diagnostic model for SARS-CoV-2 infection was derived. The 4-month prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 was 2.1%; increasing to 19.4% (16.0%–22.7%) in participants reporting loss of appetite and 31.9% (27.1%–36.8%) in those with anosmia/ageusia. The model identified anosmia and/or ageusia, fever, congestion, and cough to be significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Symptoms’ dynamics were vastly different in the two groups; after a slow start peaking later and lasting longer in PCR+ participants, whilst exhibiting a consistent decline in PCR- participants, with, on average, fewer than 3 days of symptoms reported. Anosmia/ageusia peaked late in confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (day 12), indicating a low discrimination power for early disease diagnosis.
Serological and molecular screening of arenaviruses in suspected tick-borne encephalitis cases in Finland
Authors: Alburkat Hussein Abas Thamer , Pulkkinen Emilia , Virtanen Jenni , Vapalahti Olli , Sironen Tarja , Jääskeläinen A. J.
Published: January 2024

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) is one of the arenaviruses infecting humans. LCMV infections have been reported worldwide in humans with varying levels of severity. To detect arenavirus RNA and LCMV-reactive antibodies in different geographical regions of Finland, we screened human serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples, taken from suspected tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) cases, using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunofluorescence assay (IFA). No arenavirus nucleic acids were detected, and the overall LCMV seroprevalence was 4.5%. No seroconversions were detected in paired serum samples. The highest seroprevalence (5.2%) was detected among individuals of age group III (40–59 years), followed by age group I (under-20-year-olds, 4.9%), while the lowest seroprevalence (3.8%) was found in age group IV (60 years or older). A lower LCMV seroprevalence in older age groups may suggest waning of immunity over time. The observation of a higher seroprevalence in the younger age group and the decreasing population size of the main reservoir host, the house mouse, may suggest exposure to another LCMV-like virus in Finland.
On degenerate reaction-diffusion epidemic models with mass action or standard incidence mechanism
Authors: Salako Rachidi B. , Wu Yixiang
Published: January 2024

In this paper, we consider reaction-diffusion epidemic models with mass action or standard incidence mechanism and study the impact of limiting population movement on disease transmissions. We set either the dispersal rate of the susceptible or infected people to zero and study the corresponding degenerate reaction-diffusion model. Our main approach to study the global dynamics of these models is to construct delicate Lyapunov functions. Our results show that the consequences of limiting the movement of susceptible or infected people depend on transmission mechanisms, model parameters and population size.
The identification and classification of candidate genes during the zygotic genome activation in the mammals
Authors: Hu Kaiyue , Li Wenbo , Ma Shuxia , Fang Dong , Xu Jiawei
Published: January 2024

Zygotic genome activation (ZGA) is a critical event in early embryonic development, and thousands of genes are involved in this delicate and sophisticated biological process. To date, however, only a handful of these genes have revealed their core functions in this special process, and therefore the roles of other genes still remain unclear. In the present study, we used previously published transcriptome profiling to identify potential key genes (candidate genes) in minor ZGA and major ZGA in both human and mouse specimens, and further identified the conserved genes across species. Our results showed that 887 and 760 genes, respectively, were thought to be specific to human and mouse in major ZGA, and the other 135 genes were considered to be orthologous genes. Moreover, the conserved genes were most enriched in rRNA processing in the nucleus and cytosol, ribonucleoprotein complex biogenesis, ribonucleoprotein complex assembly and ribosome large subunit biogenesis. The findings of this first comprehensive identification and characterization of candidate genes in minor and major ZGA provide relevant insights for future studies on ZGA.
Comments on Gabriele Gava, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason and the Method of Metaphysics
Authors: Land Thomas
Published: January 2024

I raise three objections for Gava’s thesis that the primary task of the Critique of Pure Reason is to develop a doctrine of method for metaphysics, understood as an account of the special kind of unity that a body of cognitions must exhibit to count as a science. First, I argue that this thesis has difficulty accommodating Kant’s concern with explaining the possibility of synthetic a priori judgements. This concern is motivated by a question that is prior to the issue of scientific unity. Second, I argue that the context of the passage in which Kant calls the Critique a treatise on method makes clear that the remark concerns the Copernican Turn. This suggests that the method treated in the book is the procedure required by the Copernican Turn. Third, I dispute Gava’s claim that the idea that confers unity on metaphysics is the cosmopolitan concept of philosophy.
The caged bird sings of freedom: Maya Angelou’s anti-colonial journalism in the United Arab Republic and Ghana, 1961–1965
Authors: White Alex
Published: January 2024

At the height of the ‘global 1960s’, hundreds of African Americans moved to Africa in search of a refuge from racism and the opportunity to participate in anti-colonial politics. One of the most prominent figures in this movement was Maya Angelou. Nine years before the publication of her first book, Angelou lived in Egypt, then known as the United Arab Republic, where she worked as a writer, editor, and broadcaster at state-directed media institutions. She continued this work in Ghana, where her journalism and political writing situated the civil rights struggle in the United States within wider campaigns against racism and imperialism. Using previously unexamined documents from Angelou’s personal archive and surviving records of her political writing, this article sheds light on the role of African American activists in global anti-colonial networks and the challenges faced by radical journalists across the decolonizing world.
“The Same Causes Occasioning the Same Effects”: The “Jewish Question”, the “Chinese Question” and the Global Precedents of Exclusion in Late Nineteenth Century Central Europe
Authors: Sorescu Andrei
Published: January 2024

Why was the “Chinese Question” of immigration control and exclusion in the United States imagined as an appealing precedent for dealing with the “Jewish Question” of emancipation and citizenship in fin-de-siècle Romania, Hungary, and Austria? The present article examines a vast corpus of parliamentary debates, press, and pamphlets, in order to demonstrate how thinking in terms of “questions” enabled historical actors to place themselves within a “global moment” by highlighting structural similarities that would justify the analogy. By rhetorically turning to an America that was placed at the forefront of “liberal” progress, yet now began to explicitly place limits to its inclusiveness, politicians in Central and Eastern Europe sought to present their own exclusionary policies as timely and acceptable, rather than anachronistic affronts to the spirit of the age. Drawing upon this global precedent was therefore hoped to ward off criticism: if “civilized” America could draw the line, be it as a matter of principle or pragmatism, then antisemitism could be justified with reference to Sinophobia.
Hegemonic constituent power: Fear of the people and lessons for Irish reunification
Authors: Greene Alan
Published: January 2024

This article introduces the concept of hegemonic constituent power to argue for a greater role for the people in the process of Irish reunification through the establishment of a constituent assembly. Hegemonic constituent power contends that, ideally, constituent power should be possessed by the people; however, descriptively, this is invariably not the case. Constituent power instead is best understood as the manifestation of hegemony – the dominant power base in a given legal order that legitimates and reinforces this power through institutions, prevailing ideas and culture. Hegemony performs an important function in descriptively explaining legitimacy formation while not necessarily conferring normative legitimacy on existing power structures or those who exercise constituent power. Legitimacy and illegitimacy are both embedded in this notion of hegemonic constituent power. This allows for constituent power to perform a legitimating function and its creative potential to be unleashed while still leaving space for critical contestation over how this power was exercised. In this way, hegemonic constituent power also seeks to address critiques of constituent power as enabling populism. The article then deploys this concept of hegemonic constituent power to argue that fears of invoking the will of the people in debates on Irish reunification are misplaced.
Convolutional Neural Networks Facilitate River Barrier Detection and Evidence Severe Habitat Fragmentation in the Mekong River Biodiversity Hotspot
Authors: Sun Jingrui , Ding Chengzhi , Lucas Martyn C. , Tao Juan , Cheng Hiuyi , Chen Jinnan , Li Mingbo , Ding Liuyong , Ji Xuan , Wang Yan , He Daming
Published: January 2024

Construction of river infrastructure, such as dams and weirs, is a global issue for ecosystem protection due to the fragmentation of river habitat and hydrological alteration it causes. Accurate river barrier databases, increasingly used to determine river fragmentation for ecologically sensitive management, are challenging to generate. This is especially so in large, poorly mapped basins where only large dams tend to be recorded. The Mekong is one of the world's most biodiverse river basins but, like many large rivers, impacts on habitat fragmentation from river infrastructure are poorly documented. To demonstrate a solution to this, and enable more sensitive basin management, we generated a whole‐basin barrier database for the Mekong, by training Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)–based object detection models, the best of which was used to identify 10,561 previously unrecorded barriers. Combining manual revision and merged with the existing barrier database, our new barrier database for the Mekong Basin contains 13,054 barriers. Existing databases for the Lower Mekong documented under ∼3% of the barriers recorded by CNN combined with manual checking. The Nam Chi/Nam Mun region, eastern Thailand, is the most fragmented area within the basin, with a median [95% CI] barrier density of 15.53 [0.00–49.30] per 100 km, and Catchment Area‐based Fragmentation Index value, calculated in an upstream direction, of 1,178.67 [0.00–6,418.46], due to the construction of dams and sluice gates. The CNN‐based object detection framework is effective and potentially can transform our ability to identify river barriers across many large river basins and facilitate ecologically‐sensitive management.
Impact‐Generated Permeability and Hydrothermal Circulation at the Vredefort Impact Structure, South Africa
Authors: Marchi S. , Alexander A. , Trowbridge A. , Koeberl C.
Published: January 2024

The 2.02 billion year old Vredefort impact structure in South Africa offers a unique opportunity to study large‐scale impact processes on Earth. Vredefort's large size (∼250 km in diameter) and eroded topography provides the opportunity to study the effects of shock physics at depth and post‐formation hydrothermal alteration. In this work, we simulate the formation of the Vredefort structure building upon recent shock physics (iSALE) simulations. We expand those simulations to cover a wider range of input conditions, and compute impact‐driven porosity and permeability. The latter quantities are used to perform fluid mobility simulations (HYDROTHERM). We find that the Vredefort event produced significant impact‐generated porosity (up to 30%) in an annulus from about 50 to 100 km from the center and up to several kilometers in depth. The corresponding estimated permeability (up to 10−12 m2) would have allowed for large scale subsurface fluid flows. Our hydrothermal calculations show that the Vredefort impact event could have generated a complex crustal fluid pattern within the crater rim that lasted for hundreds of thousand years, with localized flow concentration regions, opening a new interpretation for the mobilization and location of the ore deposits in the Witwatersrand basin. The combined approach utilizing impact and hydrothermal simulations constitute a powerful tool to understand geochemical processes at Vredefort, as well as to assess the ability of large impacts to drive crustal chemistry with far‐reaching consequences for the prebiotic evolution of the early Earth.
Improving Boreal Summer Precipitation Predictions From the Global NMME Through Res34‐Unet
Authors: Tong Xuan , Zhou Wen , Xia Jiangjiang
Published: January 2024

Global warming and climate change have increased the frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, limiting economic development and threatening human survival. Therefore, accurate global forecasts well in advance of precipitation are essential to facilitate timely adaptation. Current seasonal forecasts are based mainly on numerical models, but raw forecasts suffer from systematic bias and under/overdispersion problems and cannot be directly used in applications. In addition, bias correction methods for global forecasts need to be further developed. Based on a fusion of ResNet34 and Unet, called Res34‐Unet, deep learning post‐processing is proposed to correct global precipitation forecasts of the North American Multi‐Model Ensemble (NMME). Compared with raw global NMME predictions, post‐processed precipitation predictions can be improved by up to 45%, which is significant at different latitudes. Feature importance analysis shows that precipitation itself, meridional wind, and sea surface temperature are key factors.
Subduction Initiation at the Corner of Small Oceanic Basins
Authors: Dong Miao , Hao Tianyao , Li Yue , Zhang Jian , Fang Gui
Published: January 2024

In Southeast Asia, emerging subduction zones often appear to begin at the corners of small oceanic basins, which have a triangular‐indenter continent–ocean boundary geometry. To investigate the influence of a triangular corner on subduction initiation, we performed a series of three‐dimensional numerical simulations with varying corner angles and base lengths. The results show that the apex of the corner constitutes the initial location of subduction, irrespective of the angle or the extent of the corner. Smaller angle corners are more likely to facilitate subduction initiation. At the same time, wide acute angle corners are difficult to form. Our findings suggest that triangular corner structures may facilitate subduction initiation in smaller basins; however, the role such corners in subduction initiation is limited in larger basins. Our results emphasize the importance of accounting for the three‐dimensional geometry of a subduction zone when examining its subduction dynamics and geological features.
Statistical Characteristics of Total Electron Content Intensifications on Global Ionospheric Maps
Authors: Meng X. , Verkhoglyadova O. P. , Chapman S. C. , Watkins N. W. , Cafolla M.
Published: January 2024

Global ionospheric total electron content (TEC) maps exhibit TEC intensifications and depletions of various sizes and shapes. Characterizing key features on TEC maps and understanding their dynamic coupling with external drivers can significantly benefit space weather forecasting. However, comprehensive analysis of ionospheric structuring over decades of TEC maps is currently lacking due to large data volume. We develop feature extraction software based on image processing techniques to extract TEC intensification regions, that is, contiguous regions with sufficiently elevated TEC values than surrounding areas, from global TEC maps. Applying the software to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Global Ionospheric Map data, we generate a TEC intensification data set for years 2003–2022 and carry out a statistical study on the number and strength of TEC intensifications. We find that the majority of the TEC maps (about 86%) are characterized with one or two intensification(s), while the rest of the TEC maps have three or more intensifications. Both the number and strength of TEC intensifications exhibit semi‐annual variation that peaks near equinoxes and dips near solstices, as well as an annual asymmetry with larger values around December solstice compared to June solstice. The number and strength of intensifications increase with enhanced solar extreme‐violet irradiance. The strength of intensifications also increases with elevated geomagnetic activity, but the number of intensifications does not. In addition, the number of intensifications is not correlated with the strength of intensifications.