bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The green window view index: automated multi-source visibility analysis for a multi-scale assessment of green window views
Authors: Bolte Anna-Maria , Niedermann Benjamin , Kistemann Thomas , Haunert Jan-Henrik , Dehbi Youness , Kötter Theo
Published: March 2024

Context

Providing accessible urban green spaces is crucial for planning and ensuring healthy, resilient, and sustainable cities. The importance of visually accessible urban green spaces increases due to inner urban development processes.

Objectives

This article proposes a new index, the Green Window View Index (GWVI) for analyzing and assessing visible vegetation, that promotes an integrated planning of urban green spaces and buildings at different scales and levels. It is defined as the proportion of visible vegetation area in a field of view when looking out of a specific window with a defined distance to the window.

Methods

The method for estimating GWVI consists of three steps: (a) the modeling of the three-dimensional environment, (b) the simulation of the two-dimensional window views using modern rendering engines for three-dimensional graphics, (c) the computation of the GWVI. The method is proposed and tested through a case study of the urban area of Bonn, Germany, using a Digital Terrain Model (DTM), CityGML-based semantic 3D City Model at level of detail (LoD) 2, airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data, and 2D land use data from the official German property cadaster information system (ALKIS).

Results

With an average processing time of 0.05 s per window view, an average GWVI of 26.00% could be calculated for the entire study area and visualized in both 2D and 3D.

Conclusion

The proposed engine generates multi-scale visibility values for various vegetation shapes. These values are intended for use in participatory citizenship and decision-making processes for analysis by architects, real-estate appraisers, investors, and urban as well as landscape planners.
The Cologne ECMM Excellence Center: A Two-Year Analysis of External Consultation Service for Invasive Fungal Infections
Authors: Salmanton-García Jon , Koehler Philipp , Grothe Jan-Hendrik , Mellinghoff Sibylle C. , Sal Ertan , Simon Michaela , Stemler Jannik , Cornely Oliver A. , Sprute Rosanne
Published: March 2024

The European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM), formed due to the surge in invasive fungal infections (IFI), initiated the Excellence Centers program in 2016 to guide stakeholders to leading medical mycology sites. This report focuses on the Cologne ECMM Excellence Center, recognized with Diamond status for active global involvement in 2017. The center offers free consultation via email and phone, responding within 24 h for life-threatening IFI, collecting data on origin, pathogens, infection details, and more. Over two years, 189 requests were received globally, predominantly from Germany (85%), mainly involving Aspergillus spp., Mucorales, and Candida spp. Fungal mixed infections occurred in 4% of cases. The center's service effectively addresses IFI challenges, advocating for a comprehensive study encompassing all ECMM Excellence Centers to enhance global mycological care. Proactive expansion of consultancy platforms is crucial, with future analyses needed to assess expert advice's impact on patient outcomes.
The Iowa Gambling Task: Men and Women Perform Differently. A Meta-analysis
Authors: Zanini Ludovica , Picano Chiara , Spitoni Grazia Fernanda
Published: March 2024

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) was designed to assess decision-making under conditions of complexity and uncertainty; it is currently one of the most widely used tests to assess decision-making in both experimental and clinical settings. In the original version of the task, participants are given a loan of play money and four decks of cards and are asked to maximize profits. Although any single card unpredictably yields wins/losses, variations in frequency and size of gains/losses ultimately make two decks more advantageous in the long term. Several studies have previously suggested that there may be a sex-related difference in IGT performance. Thus, the present study aimed to explore and quantify sex differences in IGT performance by pooling the results of 110 studies. The meta-analysis revealed that males tend to perform better than females on the classic 100-trial IGT (UMD = 3.381; p < 0.001). Furthermore, the significant heterogeneity observed suggests high variability in the results obtained by individual studies. Results were not affected by publication bias or other moderators. Factors that may contribute to differences in male and female performance are discussed, such as functional sex-related asymmetries in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and amygdala, as well as differences in sensitivity to wins/losses.
SWattention: designing fast and memory-efficient attention for a new Sunway Supercomputer
Authors: Wu Ruohan , Zhu Xianyu , Chen Junshi , Liu Sha , Zheng Tianyu , Liu Xin , An Hong
Published: March 2024

In the past few years, Transformer-based large language models (LLM) have become the dominant technology in a series of applications. To scale up the sequence length of the Transformer, FlashAttention is proposed to compute exact attention with reduced memory requirements and faster execution. However, implementing the FlashAttention algorithm on the new generation Sunway Supercomputer faces many constraints such as the unique heterogeneous architecture and the limited memory bandwidth. This work proposes SWattention, a highly efficient method for computing the exact attention on the SW26010pro processor. To fully utilize the 6 core groups (CG) and 64 cores per CG on the processor, we design a two-level parallel task partition strategy. Asynchronous memory access is employed to ensure that memory access overlaps with computation. Additionally, a tiling strategy is introduced to determine optimal SRAM block sizes. Compared with the standard attention, SWattention achieves around 2.0x speedup for FP32 training and 2.5x speedup for mixed-precision training. The sequence lengths range from 1k to 8k and scale up to 16k without being out of memory. As for the end-to-end performance, SWattention achieves up to 1.26x speedup for training GPT-style models, which demonstrates that SWattention enables longer sequence length for LLM training.
A new thread-level speculative automatic parallelization model and library based on duplicate code execution
Authors: Martínez Millán A. , Fraguela Basilio B. , Cabaleiro José C. , Rivera Francisco F.
Published: March 2024

Loop-efficient automatic parallelization has become increasingly relevant due to the growing number of cores in current processors and the programming effort needed to parallelize codes in these systems efficiently. However, automatic tools fail to extract all the available parallelism in irregular loops with indirections, race conditions or potential data dependency violations, among many other possible causes. One of the successful ways to automatically parallelize these loops is the use of speculative parallelization techniques. This paper presents a new model and the corresponding C++ library that supports the speculative automatic parallelization of loops in shared memory systems, seeking competitive performance and scalability while keeping user effort to a minimum. The primary speculative strategy consists of redundantly executing chunks of loop iterations in a duplicate fashion. Namely, each chunk is executed speculatively in parallel to obtain results as soon as possible and sequentially in a different thread to validate the speculative results. The implementation uses C++11 threads and it makes intensive use of templates and advanced multithreading techniques. An evaluation based on various benchmarks confirms that our proposal provides a competitive level of performance and scalability.
Closed-loop recycling of lithium iron phosphate cathodic powders via citric acid leaching
Authors: Bruno Martina , Francia Carlotta , Fiore Silvia
Published: March 2024

Lithium recovery from Lithium-ion batteries requires hydrometallurgy but up-to-date technologies aren’t economically viable for Lithium-Iron-Phosphate (LFP) batteries. Selective leaching (specifically targeting Lithium and based on mild organic acids and low temperatures) is attracting attention because of decreased environmental impacts compared to conventional hydrometallurgy. This study analysed the technical and economic performances of selective leaching with 6%vv. H2O2 and citric acid (0.25-1 M, 25 °C, 1 h, 70 g/l) compared with conventional leaching with an inorganic acid (H2SO4 1 M, 40 °C, 2 h, 50 g/l) and an organic acid (citric acid 1 M, 25 °C, 1 h, 70 g/l) to recycle end of life LFP cathodes. After conventional leaching, chemical precipitation allowed to recover in multiple steps Li, Fe and P salts, while selective leaching allowed to recover Fe and P, in the leaching residues and required chemical precipitation only for lithium recovery. Conventional leaching with 1 M acids achieved leaching efficiencies equal to 95 ± 2% for Li, 98 ± 8% for Fe, 96 ± 3% for P with sulfuric acid and 83 ± 0.8% for Li, 8 ± 1% for Fe, 12 ± 5% for P with citric acid. Decreasing citric acid’s concentration from 1 to 0.25 M didn’t substantially change leaching efficiency. Selective leaching with citric acid has higher recovery efficiency (82 ± 6% for Fe, 74 ± 8% for P, 29 ± 5% for Li) than conventional leaching with sulfuric acid (69 ± 15% for Fe, 70 ± 18% for P, and 21 ± 2% for Li). Also, impurities’ amounts were lower with citric acid (335 ± 19 335 ± 19 of S mg/kg of S) than with sulfuric acid (8104 ± 2403 mg/kg of S). In overall, the operative costs associated to 0.25 M citric acid route (3.17€/kg) were lower compared to 1 M sulfuric acid (3.52€/kg). In conclusion, citric acid could be a viable option to lower LFP batteries’ recycling costs, and it should be further explored prioritizing Lithium recovery and purity of recovered materials.
Divine Power and Fluid Bodies: Tirunaṅkais in Tamil Nadu
Authors: Craddock Elaine
Published: March 2024

This article analyzes the complex ways in which religious practices influence the formation of identity and community among tirunaṅkais, male-to-female transgender people in Tamil Nadu. I argue that tirunaṅkais draw on longstanding religious resources to enact nonnormative identities that operate outside of the secular constructions of the modern subject that undergird governmental “uplift” efforts as well as the liberatory projects of Western feminist scholars such as Judith Butler. I focus in particular on three arenas in which tirunaṅkais negotiate their identities in specific religious and social contexts: the kinship network, the annual Kūttāṇṭavar festival, and public rituals associated with Hindu goddesses in Tamil Nadu. The tirunaṅkai kinship network deploys multiple religious rituals while at the same time transcending boundaries of religion, caste, and class in its inclusivity. The enactment of marriage and widowhood at the annual festival to Kūttāṇṭavar foregrounds the divinity of the male-female form that tirunaṅkais emulate. Serving as vehicles of the divine who embody particular goddesses through ritual possession in public temple spaces provides affirmation of their ritual efficacy and power to mediate between the human and divine worlds.
Acid-assisted subcritical blunt-tip crack propagation in carbonate rocks
Authors: Tang XiaoJie , Hu ManMan
Published: March 2024

Subcritical crack propagation in stressed carbonate rocks in a chemically reactive environment is a fundamental mechanism underlying many geomechanical processes frequently encountered in the engineering of geo-energy, including unconventional shale gas, geothermal energy, carbon sequestration and utilization. How a macroscopic Mode I crack propagates driven by a reactive fluid pressurizing on the crack surfaces with acidic agents diffusing into the rock matrix remains an open question. Here, the carbonate rock is modeled as an elasto-viscoplastic material with the mineral mass removal process affecting the rock properties in both elastic and plastic domains. A blunt-tip crack is considered to avoid any geometrically induced singularity problem and to allow a numerical analysis on the evolution of the chemical field being linked to the micro-cracking activities in front of the crack tip, affecting the delivery of acid. The model is capable of reproducing an archetypal three-region behavior of subcritical crack growth in a reactive environment. The crack propagation exhibits a prominent acceleration in Region III due to a two-way mutually enhancing feedback between mineral dissolution and the degradation process, which is most pronounced in front of the crack tip. With the consideration of initial imperfections in the rock, the macroscopic crack propagation is further accelerated with a secondary acceleration arising due to self-organization of micro-bands inside the chemically enabled plasticity zone.
A Lagrangian bounding and heuristic principle for bi-objective discrete optimization
Authors: Larsson Torbjörn , Quttineh Nils-Hassan , Åkerholm Ida
Published: March 2024

Lagrangian relaxation is a common and often successful way to approach computationally challenging single-objective discrete optimization problems with complicating side constraints. Its aim is often twofold; first, it provides bounds for the optimal value, and, second, it can be used to heuristically find near-optimal feasible solutions, the quality of which can be assessed by the bounds. We consider bi-objective discrete optimization problems with complicating side constraints and extend this Lagrangian bounding and heuristic principle to such problems. The Lagrangian heuristic here produces non-dominated candidates for points on the Pareto frontier, while the bounding forms a polyhedral outer approximation of the Pareto frontier, which can be used to assess the quality of the candidate points. As an illustration example we consider a facility location problem in which both CO2 emission and cost should be minimized. The computational results are very encouraging, both with respect to bounding and the heuristically found non-dominated solutions. In particular, the Lagrangian bounding is much stronger than the outer approximation given by the Pareto frontier of the problem’s linear programming relaxation.
The Effects of Type 2 Diabetes on Cognitive Performance: A Review of Reviews
Authors: Sola Teppo , Sola Fanny-Maria , Jehkonen Mervi
Published: March 2024

Background

Multiple systematic reviews have found that type 2 diabetes is associated with cognitive decrements. However, these reviews are heterogeneous in terms of methodology, quality and results, making it difficult for researchers and clinicians to build an informed overall picture. We therefore conducted a review of systematic reviews on the association between type 2 diabetes and cognitive decrements in relation to healthy controls.

Methods

Following a pre-registered research protocol, we searched four major databases. Nine systematic reviews met our inclusion criteria: seven were meta-analyses and two were narrative syntheses. We assessed the risk of bias in each review and reported all effect sizes and confidence intervals obtained.

Results

Type 2 diabetes was associated with cognitive decrements in all reviews, with small or negligible effect sizes obtained in the largest meta-analyses. The most studied cognitive domains were attention, executive functions, memory, processing speed and working memory. All reviews had methodological issues and were rated as having a high or an unclear risk of bias.

Conclusions

Type 2 diabetes appears to be associated with lower cognitive performance in several cognitive domains and in different age groups. However, high-quality meta-analyses on the subject are still needed. Future reviews must follow the PRISMA guidelines and take into account the risk of bias of the original studies through sensitivity analyses and the heterogeneity of the studies by conducting subgroup analyses for example according to age group and disease duration. The meta-analyses that aim to study the entire type 2 diabetes population without excluding severe comorbidities, should assess concept formation and reasoning, construction and motor performance, perception, and verbal functions and language skills in addition to the cognitive domains that have been most frequently analysed in the reviews conducted so far.
Trans Bans Expand: Anti-LGBTIQ+ Lawfare and Neo-fascism
Authors: Jones Tiffany
Published: March 2024

Introduction

Anti-fascist theories suggest different meanings for anti-LGBTIQ+ rights laws. This paper explores how 2023 increases in US anti-LGBTIQ+ bill attempts can be explained.

Methods

A Critical Discourse Analysis of 1054 US anti-LGBTIQ+ state-level bill submissions from 1 Jan 2018 to 31 December 2023, compared 2023 trends to previous data.

Results

The co-ordinated neofascist mobilisation behind US hyper-productivity and erratic contradictory justifications of anti-LGBTIQ+ bills expanded exponentially, emphasising less resisted campaigns. Initially smaller bills targeted political weak spots: transgender youth in primary schools, bathrooms and politically enabling Republican-governed states. Increasingly bills expanded in number, frequency, size, and punitive reach against LGBTIQ+ and other citizens’ rights, in wider contexts (higher education, public and Democrat-governed spaces). By 2023, bill strategies used hypocritical and hypothetical anti-LGBTIQ+ logics; replicated federally to thwart democratic and economic structures.

Conclusions

Anti-fascist, Queer and critical socialist theories explained the 2023 bills’ increase as building upon past partisan mobilisation on wedge transgender state election issues; towards neofascist diminishment of increasingly wider-ranging and higher-level US democratic structures, rights protections, and economic functioning. Policy attacks on vulnerable social groups’ rights — particularly trans youth — can signal ‘early stages’ within neo-fascist strong-man state-identity creation supporting democratic structure diminishments.

Policy Implications

Multi-level multi-cultural pluralist democratic institutions and support structures with inter-reinforced rights recognition expansions should be required by and should protect the rights of all citizens.
Tribological and Structural Effects of Titanium Carbide and Hexagonal Boron Nitride Reinforcement on Aluminum Matrix Hybrid Composites
Authors: Horlu Merve , Macit Cevher Kursat , Aksakal Bunyamin , Tanyeri Burak
Published: March 2024

This research involves the synthesis of a hybrid composite by adding titanium carbide (TiC) and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) powders in certain weight ratios (2.5–5%) to pure aluminum (Al) powder. When previous studies were examined, it was seen that TiC and hBN powders were added separately to Al matrix powders; however, a hybrid composite was not produced as in this study. The obtained hybrid composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Microstructure, hardness and wear tests were carried out under 3 different loads (10 N, 20 N and 30 N) and dry conditions. Weight loss and coefficient of friction measurements were obtained for each hybrid composite during the wear tests. The TiC–hBN-reinforced specimen exhibited a significantly higher hardness value of 37.08% compared to the pure Al composite. It was also found that the synthesized Al–TiC–hBN hybrid composite exhibited a 59% reduction in the wear loss value for 10 N load, 30% for 20 N load and 60% for 30 N load compared to the pure Al sample. It is believed that the hybrid composites produced in this study have the ability to compete with Al matrix materials and exhibit the potential for longer durability and cost reduction in industries that use the production of aluminum parts.
Investigating the role of self-selected STEM projects in fostering student autonomy and self-directed learning
Authors: Tang Kok-Sing , McLure Felicity , Williams John , Donnelly Catherine
Published: March 2024

Research in STEM education has focussed on integrated STEM projects that combine knowledge and skills across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. These integrated STEM projects are typically designed by teachers or researchers addressing a limited range of topics that do not always cater well to the diversity of interest among children and adolescents. By contrast, self-selected projects where students have more choices and autonomy in selecting their own projects are relatively rare. Consequently, there is a gap in the literature on students’ learning experiences when they choose and develop their own STEM projects. This study aims to examine the classroom experience and enactment of a high school STEM course designed for Grade 9 and 10 students (14 to 16 years old) to carry out a project of their choice aligned with the theme of sustainability. A case study methodology was used to investigate eight students’ lived experiences in making connections to STEM. The study reveals the nature of students’ self-directed learning experiences as they chose their own topics of exploration and subsequently developed their respective STEM-related projects. It also illuminates the alignments and tensions between STEM integration and various aspects of students’ self-directed learning, including intrinsic motivation, open-ended tasks, goal setting, design thinking, collaboration with external partners, curriculum constraint, and time management. The implications of the study encompass student autonomy and agency, the significance of authentic problems and themes in STEM education, and the role of curriculum in facilitating self-selected projects.
‘I left the teaching profession … and this is what I am doing now’: a national study of teacher attrition
Authors: Brandenburg Robyn , Larsen Ellen , Simpson Alyson , Sallis Richard , Trần Dũng
Published: March 2024

Current teacher attrition in Australia and globally has created an untenable situation for many schools, teachers and the profession. This paper reports on research that examined the critical issue of teacher attrition from the perspective of former classroom teachers and school leaders. Although there is extensive national and global research related to teacher shortages and intentions to leave the teaching profession, minimal research has sought insights from those who have left the profession in Australia, including ascertaining what they are doing now. Using an online survey, data were collected from 256 former teachers from all states and territories, sectors and career stages who had left the profession between 2016 and 2022. Using descriptive statistical and thematic analysis, this study highlights the potential loss to teaching and the education profession more broadly due to teacher attrition. For these participants, the reasons for leaving were often multifaceted and the process of leaving was often protracted. Many of these former teachers have maintained links to the education profession occupying various associated roles and positions. We call for a reconsideration of the ways that strategies to ameliorate teacher attrition are conceptualised and implemented.
United Kingdom Copyright Decisions and Legislative Developments 2023
Authors: Lee Yin Harn
Published: March 2024

This report highlights the most significant UK copyright decisions in 2023 and provides an overview of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 and its implications for copyright law. The cases deal with copyright subject matter, originality, infringement, copyright ownership, and remedies (including blocking injunctions). It also discusses the first order made in the legal proceedings brought by stock photography supplier Getty Images against generative AI startup Stability AI.
United Kingdom Patent Decisions 2023
Authors: Trigg Robyn , West Ryan
Published: March 2024

This report highlights a selection of the most important UK patent decisions from 2023, including: one Supreme Court judgment dealing with artificial intelligence; five Court of Appeal judgments (one relating to confidential information, one dealing with plausibility, two dealing with patent revocations and one addressing unjustified threats); seven Patents Court judgments (two undertaking a FRAND determination, one dealing with FRAND generally, three patent revocations and one dealing with experts’ duties); and one High Court decision from the Chancery Division regarding artificial intelligence.
The Evolving Protection of Geographical Indications Against Services: “Brand” New World?
Authors: Calabrese Bernardo
Published: March 2024

The EU regime for protecting geographical indications (GIs) is the most advanced – and at the same time the most debated – model of this sui generis intellectual property right in the world. The current reform is introducing innovations in many aspects of this regime, including that of digital markets. However, one very important aspect stemming from the evolution of EU case-law is missing – the extension of GI protection against services. EU case-law leaves open significant questions about this multi-faceted issue: not only how to construe the “front” side of directly excluding the (even evocative) use of a geographical name for services, but also, and mostly, how to deal with the “reverse” side of actively exploiting the same name on the market, following an authorization model resembling that for trademarks, as indeed the reform seems to admit elsewhere for the first time. There is also the “other” side of market services, where GIs act as intellectual property rights that affect the free movement of goods: here, ever more frequent references to “prestige” as a justification for protecting GIs further complicate the picture. This has potential implications for freedom of competition in the resale of typical products under the principle of exhaustion in terms of foreseeable legitimate reasons for opposition, again following the trademark model. This article aims to set out a more balanced approach tackling such new challenges, in order to make the EU regime fit for the future but still consistent with the founding principles of GIs as special intellectual property rights.
A prediction method for dynamic multiobjective optimization based on joint subspace and correlation alignment
Authors: Li Guoping , Liu Yanmin , Deng Xicai
Published: March 2024

Dynamic multiobjective optimization is a significant challenge in accurately capturing changes in Pareto optimal sets (PS), encompassing both location and manifold changes. Existing approaches primarily focus on tracking changes in the location of the PS, often overlooking the potential impact of changes in the PS manifold, which can be decomposed into rotation and distortion changes. Such oversights can lead to a reduction in the overall performance of an algorithm. To address this issue, a prediction method based on joint subspace and correlation alignment (PSCA) is proposed. PSCA leverages a subspace alignment strategy to effectively capture rotation change in the PS manifold while employing a correlation alignment strategy to capture distortion change. By integrating these two strategies, a quasi-initial population is generated that embodies the captured rotation and distortion change patterns in a new environment. Then, the promising individuals are selected from this quasi-initial population based on their nondominated relations and crowding degree to form the initial population in the new environment. To evaluate the effectiveness of PSCA, we conduct experiments on fourteen benchmark problems. The experimental results demonstrate that PSCA achieves significant improvements over several state-of-the-art algorithms.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Older Black and Hispanic Workers’ Perceptions of their Workplace
Authors: Jason Kendra , Sargent Amanda , Payne Julianne
Published: March 2024

This study provides insight into how having COVID-19 shifted Black and older Hispanic adults’ organizational perceptions and experiences. We used data from 30 Black and Hispanic full-time men and women over the age of 45 who have had COVID-19, and most have co-occurring physical and mental chronic illness, to examine how having COVID-19 shapes their perceptions of their workplace and organizational interactions. We examine how older Black and Hispanic adults’ intersectional identities further shape their work experiences. Further, we illuminate how COVID-19-related enhanced safety protocols impacted these workers’ emotional and interpersonal experiences by increasing feelings of safety and support, while simultaneously widening relational gaps among coworkers and increasing mental health concerns. We end with workplace practice recommendations, centering an intersectional and Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach, to reduce work-related health and safety hazards with efforts to promote and improve the well-being of older Black and Hispanic workers.
Geospatial modeling for groundwater potential zoning using a multi-parameter analytical hierarchy process supported by geophysical data
Authors: Mohammed Musaab A. A. , Mohammed Sarkhel H. , Szabó Norbert P. , Szűcs Péter
Published: March 2024

Groundwater plays a crucial role in Hungary sustaining ecosystems and meeting the growing demand for freshwater to fulfill domestic and agricultural needs. This study employs the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to delineate groundwater potential zones in the Debrecen area, Hungary. To ensure the robustness and reliability of the potential zoning, geophysical data are utilized for validation purposes. In the AHP modeling seven groundwater conditioning factors are integrated, including geology, topography, slope, land use/land cover, precipitation, drainage density, and lineament density. The integration of the normalized weights for each factor identified three groundwater potential zones (GWPZs) assigned as moderate, high, and very high potential. The result of the AHP model is further validated with geophysical data of gravity and wireline logging. Gravity data is subjected to spectral analysis and forward modeling to map the lineaments and detect the thickness of the sedimentary sequences. The forward modeling indicated that the thickness of these sequences varies between 1.25 and 2.7 km, with a deep local basin delimited by normal faults situated in the eastern part of the study area. Additionally, the analysis of the well-logging data using the Csókás method provided a continuous estimation of petrophysical and hydrogeological parameters along the main hydrostratigraphical units. Accordingly, a high and uniform distribution of hydraulic conductivity is observed in the eastern part of the study area due to the presence of coarse-grained incised valley deposits. The results of geophysical modeling showed a close agreement with that of AHP models. This interdisciplinary approach advanced the mapping of potential groundwater zones and provided valuable insights into the hydrogeological characteristics of the groundwater aquifers in the Debrecen area.
Fabrication and characterization of microporous soft templated photoactive 3D materials for water disinfection in batch and continuous flow
Authors: Vadala Miriana , Lupascu Doru C. , Galstyan Anzhela
Published: March 2024

Water cleaning can be provided in batch mode or in continuous flow. For the latter, some kind of framework must withhold the cleaning agents from washout. Porous structures provide an ideal ratio of surface to volume for optimal access of the water to active sites and are able to facilitate rapid and efficient fluid transport to maintain a constant flow. When functionalized with suitable photoactive agents, they could be used in solar photocatalytic disinfection. In this study, we have used the sugar cube method to fabricate PDMS-based materials that contain three different classes of photosensitizers that differ in absorption wavelength and intensity, charge as well as in ability to generate singlet oxygen. The obtained sponges are characterized by scanning electron microscopy and digital microscopy. Archimede’s method was used to measure porosity and density. We show that the materials can absorb visible light and generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) that are required to kill bacteria. The disinfection ability was tested by examining how irradiation time and operation mode (batch vs. flow) contribute to the performance of the material. The current strategy is highly adaptable to other (medium) pressure-driven flow systems and holds promising potential for various applications, including continuous flow photoreactions.

Graphical Abstract
Global Dilemma and Needs Assessment Toward Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Controlling Leishmaniasis
Authors: Bamorovat Mehdi , Sharifi Iraj , Khosravi Ahmad , Aflatoonian Mohammad Reza , Agha Kuchak Afshari Setareh , Salarkia Ehsan , Sharifi Fatemeh , Aflatoonian Behnaz , Gharachorloo Faranak , Khamesipour Ali , Mohebali Mehdi , Zamani Omid , Shirzadi Mohammad Reza , Gouya Mohammad Mahdi
Published: March 2024

Leishmaniasis is a disease of poverty that imposes a devastating medical, social, and economic burden on over 1 billion people nationwide. To date, no in-depth study to analyze the major global challenges and needs assessment has been carried out. This investigation aimed to explore a comprehensive narrative review of leishmaniasis’s main challenges and initially highlight obstacles that might impede the implementation of control measures. Also, we propose a specific list of priorities for needs assessment. The presence of socioeconomic factors, multiple clinical and epidemiological forms, various Leishmania species, the complexity of the life cycle, the absence of effective drugs and vaccines, and the lack of efficient vector and reservoir control make this organism unique and sophisticated in playing a tangled role to react tricky with its surrounding environments, despite extensive efforts and implementation of all-inclusive former control measures. These facts indicate that the previous strategic plans, financial support, and basic infrastructures connected to leishmaniasis surveillance are still insufficient. Strengthening the leishmaniasis framework in a context of accelerated programmatic action and intensification of cross-cutting activities along with other neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is confidently expected to result in greater effectiveness, cost–benefit, and fruitful management. Sensitive diagnostics, effective therapeutics, and efficacious vaccines are vital to accelerating advancement toward elimination, and reducing morbidity/mortality and program costs. Collective actions devoted by all sectors and policy-makers can hopefully overcome technical and operational barriers to guarantee that effective and coordinated implementation plans are sustained to meet the road map for NTDs 2021- 2030 goals.
Participants’ experiences of a counsellor-supported PTSD Coach intervention in a resource-constrained setting
Authors: Bröcker Erine , Scheffler Freda , Suliman Sharain , Olff Miranda , Seedat Soraya
Published: March 2024

We explored participants’ experiences of a counsellor-supported PTSD Coach mobile application intervention (PTSD Coach-CS) in a randomised controlled trial. PTSD Coach-CS participants, who received the intervention and self-completed a custom-designed questionnaire at intervention completion were included (n = 25; female = 20; ages 19–59; isiXhosa = 22). This questionnaire comprised questions regarding the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of the PTSD Coach-CS intervention, and general psychological support in our setting. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis. Three main themes emerged. (i) Participants’ largely positive experiences of treatment procedures included the safe space created by the counsellor support in combination with the PTSD Coach application, allowing them to learn about and understand their lived experiences, and to accept their PTSD diagnoses. (ii) Positive perceptions of the PTSD Coach application, yet raising important concerns (e.g., lack of family involvement) for future consideration. (iii) Intervention-specific and systemic treatment barriers (e.g., stigma) providing important information to inform and increase the usefulness of the PTSD Coach-CS intervention. The findings suggest that the PTSD Coach-CS intervention may help address the need for access to suitable care for South African adults with PTSD. Some contextual barriers must be considered in further intervention implementation.
Hegel, Colonialism and Postcolonial Hegelianism
Authors: Mascat Jamila M. H.
Published: March 2024

This article aims to shed light on Hegel's conception of colonialism and its implications for the postcolonial reception of Hegel. Drawing on the abundant literature on the topic, it begins by engaging with Hegel's understanding of colonialism through a close reading of relevant passages of his works, in particular the Heidelberg Vorlesungen über Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft (1817–18), the Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (1821), the Vorlesungen über die Philosophie des Rechts (1819/20, 1821/22, 1822/23, 1824/25) and the Vorlesungen über die Philosophie der Weltgeschichte (1822/23, 1830). Having mapped and reconstructed Hegel's conception of colonialism through his writings and lectures, the article argues that his account of Europe's modern colonial expansion is based primarily on economic considerations, rather than on civilizational assumptions proclaiming the spiritual superiority of European peoples—to which Hegel nevertheless subscribes. The conclusion explores distinct and divergent postcolonial perspectives for engaging with the contemporary legacy of Hegelianism. It addresses, on the one hand, Tibebu's critical reading of Hegel's philosophical enterprise as ‘the coldest rationalisation of genocidal murder and carnage’ based on ‘paradigmatic apartheid’ and, on the other, Brennan's redemptive reading of Hegel, which values his theoretical contribution to the shaping of 20th century anticolonial thought. After contrasting these two interpretations, the article argues in favour of postcolonial strategies for critical reappropriation and sabotage of the legacy of Hegel's philosophy.
On the development and analysis of coupled surface–subsurface models of catchments. Part 2. A three-dimensional benchmark model and its properties
Authors: Morawiecki Piotr , Trinh Philippe H.
Published: March 2024

The objective of this three-part work is to formulate and rigorously analyse a number of reduced mathematical models that are nevertheless capable of describing the hydrology at the scale of a river basin (i.e. catchment). Coupled surface and subsurface flows are considered. In this second part, we construct a benchmark catchment scenario and investigate the effects of parameters within their typical ranges. Previous research on coupled surface–subsurface models have focused on numerical simulations of site-specific catchments. Here, our focus is broad, emphasising the study of general solutions to the mathematical models, and their dependencies on dimensionless parameters. This study provides a foundation based on the examination of a geometrically simple three-dimensional benchmark scenario. We develop a non-dimensional coupled surface–subsurface model and extract the key dimensionless parameters. Asymptotic methods demonstrate under what conditions the model can be reduced to a two-dimensional form, where the principal groundwater and overland flows occur in the hillslope direction. Numerical solutions provide guidance on the validity of such reductions, and demonstrate the parametric dependencies corresponding to a strong rainfall event.
Surface corrugations induce helical near-surface flows and transport in microfluidic channels
Authors: Kurzthaler Christina , Chase Danielle L. , Stone Howard A.
Published: March 2024

We study theoretically and experimentally pressure-driven flow between a flat wall and a parallel corrugated wall, a design used widely in microfluidics for low-Reynolds-number mixing and particle separation. In contrast to previous work, which focuses on recirculating helicoidal flows along the microfluidic channel that result from its confining lateral walls, we study the three-dimensional pressure and flow fields and trajectories of tracer particles at the scale of each corrugation. Employing a perturbation approach for small surface roughness, we find that anisotropic pressure gradients generated by the surface corrugations, which are tilted with respect to the applied pressure gradient, drive transverse flows. We measure experimentally the flow fields using particle image velocimetry and quantify the effect of the ratio of the surface wavelength to the channel height on the transverse flows. Further, we track tracer particles moving near the surface structures and observe three-dimensional skewed helical trajectories. Projecting the helical motion to two dimensions reveals oscillatory near-surface motion with an overall drift along the surface corrugations, reminiscent of earlier experimental observations and independent of the secondary helical flows that are induced by confining lateral walls. Finally, we quantify the hydrodynamically induced drift transverse to the mean flow direction as a function of distance to the surface and the wavelength of the surface corrugations.
Italy's diasporas: a discussion between Donna R. Gabaccia, Lucy Riall, Pamela Ballinger, and Konstantina Zanou
Authors: Zanou Konstantina
Published: March 2024

It has been over 20 years since Donna R. Gabaccia's seminal work Italy's Many Diasporas was published (London & New York, 2000), an overview of the social, cultural and economic history of Italy's various migrations. Much has changed since then, but this book remains a classic. In this roundtable, historians Lucy Riall, Pamela Ballinger and Konstantina Zanou reflect on the value of Gabaccia's work and on the historical moment of its production. They discuss with the author the developments in the historiography of Italian and other diasporas during the last two decades, and offer insights on new avenues of research including settler colonialism, race and belonging, migration and environmental change, global microhistory and biography, and the Mediterranean context of Italy's migrations.
Examples of hyperbolic spaces without the properties of quasi-ball or bounded eccentricity
Authors: You Qizheng , Zhang Jiawen
Published: March 2024

In this note, we present examples of non-quasi-geodesic metric spaces which are hyperbolic (i.e., satisfying Gromov’s
$4$
-point condition) while the intersection of any two metric balls therein does not either ‘look like’ a ball or has uniformly bounded eccentricity. This answers an open question posed by Chatterji and Niblo.
Activism across Borders since 1870: A Review Dossier
Authors: Reinisch Jessica
Published: March 2024

This essay introduces a review dossier dedicated to Daniel Laqua's Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe (London, 2023). The dossier features comments by four historians – Constance Bantman, Georgina Brewis, Nicole Robertson, and Mark Hurst – as well as a response from Laqua himself. Laqua's book provides a framework for studying different forms of transnational activism in connection to one another.
Reflections on Activism across Borders: A Response
Authors: Laqua Daniel
Published: March 2024

This essay discusses different approaches to studying transnational activism in historical perspective. In doing so, it concludes a review dossier in which several historians have commented on aspects of Daniel Laqua's book Activism across Borders since 1870: Causes, Campaigns and Conflicts in and beyond Europe (London, 2023). The author responds to the preceding pieces by addressing the contributors’ questions and arguments, while also noting how their pieces have applied his book's framework to different causes (e.g. anarchism, feminism, human rights, humanitarianism, labour). Moreover, this essay raises several wider points regarding the subject under consideration. For example, it stresses that activists’ notions regarding the interconnectedness of different causes could generate fresh ruptures. The discussion highlights the amorphous nature of transnational activism, including its potential use by vastly different movements, and it situates the book within a broader, and developing, research agenda.
A new species of Hourstonius (Amphipoda: Amphilochidae) from Todos-os-Santos Bay, Bahia State, Brazil, with an overview of the genus across the globe
Authors: Alves Jessika , Neves Elizabeth G. , Johnsson Rodrigo
Published: March 2024

Amphilochidae comprises 92 species of small and colourful amphipods that live associated with sessile marine organisms. Hourstonius is one of the most diverse genera with 17 described species, most of the species are recorded from North Temperate Pacific and Tropical Atlantic and live in shallow waters. Only three species of Amphilochidae are recorded in Brazil, and from the genus Hourstonius, there is a single species, H. wakabarae. In the present work, we describe a new species of Hourstonius from Todos-os-Santos Bay, the second species of the genus to the country and the first record of this genus from Bahia State. A taxonomic key and an overview of the genus across the globe are also provided.
Rediscovery of the Neotropical orchid Porroglossum parsonsii and recommendations for its conservation
Authors: Parra-Sanchez Edicson , Moreno Juan Sebastián , Vieira-Uribe Sebastián , Baquero Luis , Edwards David P.
Published: March 2024

Understanding the distribution and habitat requirements of species is crucial for designing conservation actions, yet this information is not available for many plant species. We report the first confirmed wild populations of Porroglossum parsonsii, which, because of its horticultural value, is commercialized in national and international markets, from where it was first described to science. Our large-scale survey of 341 10 × 30 m plots spanning Andean forests, paramo habitats and pasturelands in Colombia suggests that P. parsonsii has a restricted geographical distribution in Andean forests with high forest cover (71.4–86.2%), where it occurs in low numbers (5–17 individuals per plot). Because of its market value (USD 18–20 per plant) there is a risk the species could be collected illegally, and therefore the habitat of the species in the Santuario de Fauna y Flora de Iguaque requires appropriate conservation.
Coinfection of slime feather duster worms (Annelida, Myxicola) by different gregarine apicomplexans (Selenidium) and astome ciliates reflects spatial niche partitioning and host specificity
Authors: Park Eunji , Leander Brian
Published: March 2024

Individual organisms can host multiple species of parasites (or symbionts), and one species of parasite can infect different host species, creating complex interactions among multiple hosts and parasites. When multiple parasite species coexist in a host, they may compete or use strategies, such as spatial niche partitioning, to reduce competition. Here, we present a host–symbiont system with two species of Selenidium (Apicomplexa, Gregarinida) and one species of astome ciliate co-infecting two different species of slime feather duster worms (Annelida, Sabellidae, Myxicola) living in neighbouring habitats. We examined the morphology of the endosymbionts with light and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and inferred their phylogenetic interrelationships using small subunit (SSU) rDNA sequences. In the host ‘Myxicola sp. Quadra’, we found two distinct species of Selenidium; S. cf. mesnili exclusively inhabited the foregut, and S. elongatum n. sp. inhabited the mid to hindgut, reflecting spatial niche partitioning. Selenidium elongatum n. sp. was also present in the host M. aesthetica, which harboured the astome ciliate Pennarella elegantia n. gen. et sp. Selenidium cf. mesnili and P. elegantia n. gen. et sp. were absent in the other host species, indicating host specificity. This system offers an intriguing opportunity to explore diverse aspects of host–endosymbiont interactions and competition among endosymbionts.