bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Examining the Effectiveness of Catch Crops as a Nature-Based Solution to Mitigate Surface Soil and Water Losses as an Environmental Regional Concern
Authors: Cerdà Artemi , Franch-Pardo Iván , Novara Agata , Sannigrahi Srikanta , Rodrigo-Comino Jesús
Published: December 2021

The main goal of this research was to conduct a biophysical, economic, social, and perception-based approach to foresee the solutions that could be used to mitigate the soil loss problem cost-effectively in “La Ribera del Xúquer” district (Valencia Region, Spain). To achieve these goals, a farmer perception survey was carried out, and an assessment of the biophysical impact of catch crops on soil organic matter, bulk density, steady-state infiltration rate (double-ring infiltrometer) and runoff generation, and soil erosion (rainfall simulation experiments) was carried out in 2016. For the biophysical approach, two paired plots, i.e., catch crops vs. glyphosate herbicide treatment (in advance, control plot), were selected under clementine citrus production. The results show that soil organic matter increased from 1.14 to 1.63%, and bulk density decreased from 1.47 to 1.27 g cm−3 after 10 years of treatments using catch crops. They also facilitated higher infiltration rates from 16.7 to 171 mm h−1 and a delay in runoff generation from 149 to 654 s for control and catch crop plots. Both runoff rates (from 50.6 to 3.1%) and soil erosion (from 3.9 to 0.04 Mg ha−1 h−1) were reduced once the catch crops were deployed in the field. After surveying (2018–2019), farmers stated the use of catch crops as a speck of dirt and a cause of possible loss of reputation when used. Moreover, farmers (N = 73) would accept the catch crops as an effective nature-based alternative only if a subsidy of 131.17€ ha−1 would be paid. The survey results also demonstrated that the farmers' community would see catch crop more as a benefit for the planet's health and society. Few constraints, such as ageing of the farmers’ population, lack of education and negative perception for other management factors, are the critical detrimental factors for adopting catch crops as a nature-based solution to reduce soil and water losses. There is a need for an effective agrarian extension service to change the fate of the current agriculture and achieve sustainability by adopting new management strategies in contemporary agricultural practices.
Female Sexual Functioning in Women with a Symptomatic Pelvic Organ Prolapse; A Multicenter Prospective Comparative Study Between Pessary and Surgery
Authors: van der Vaart Lisa R. , Vollebregt Astrid , Pruijssers Bente , Milani Alfredo L. , Lagro-Janssen Antoine L. , Roovers Jan-Paul W.R. , van der Vaart Carl H.
Published: December 2021

Background

Female pelvic organ prolapse (POP) has a negative effect on female sexual functioning and with an increasing life expectancy female sexual dysfunction caused by POP will be an arising global issue.

Aim

Improvement in female sexual functioning, measured with the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire IUGA-Revised (PISQ-IR), 24-months after pessary or surgery, for both sexually active (SA) and sexually inactive women (NSA) presenting with POP.

Methods

A multicenter prospective comparative cohort study was conducted in 22 Dutch hospitals. Women referred with moderate to severe POP symptoms and POP stage ≥ 2 were included and chose either pessary therapy or surgical intervention. The PISQ-IR was filled in at baseline and 24-months, the delta of change was calculated and compared between both groups. Multivariate linear regression was performed to adjust for potential confounding factors in the association between the summary score of the PISQ-IR and therapy.

Outcomes

Change in PISQ-IR between pessary and surgical intervention.

Results

The delta of change at 24-months was calculated for 198 women in the pessary group and 129 women in the surgery group. SA women in the surgery group reported statistically significant more improvement on the condition-specific (-0.19 95%CI -0.35; -0.03, P = .02), and condition-impact (-0.48 95%CI -0.69; -0.28, P < .001) domains as well as on the summary score (-0.15 95%CI -0.23; -0.08, P < .001) as compared to the pessary group. No significant differences between pessary and surgery were found on the domains for NSA women. After controlling for potential baseline confounders, surgery still had a statistically significant effect on the summary score (B = 0.08; 95%CI interval 0.007–0.15, P = .03). Women having surgery had 2.62 times higher odds of changing from NSA to SA than pessary therapy.

Clinical implications

SA women who clearly express that POP-related symptoms limit their sexual functioning should be counseled that surgery results in a more remarkable improvement.

Strengths & Limitations

Our strengths include the large sample size, long-term follow-up, the use of the PISQ-IR as a validated outcome tool evaluating both SA and NSA women, and this study reflects real-life clinical practice that enhances the external validity of the findings. A limitation of our study is the considerable proportion of non-responders at 24-months follow-up.

Conclusion

Sexual function in SA women with POP is superior in case surgery is performed as compared to pessary therapy.
The Archaeology of Egyptian Non-Royal Burial Customs in New Kingdom Egypt and Its Empire
Authors: Grajetzki Wolfram
Published: December 2021

This Element provides a new evaluation of burial customs in New Kingdom Egypt, from about 1550 to 1077 BC, with an emphasis on burials of the wider population. It also covers the regions then under Egyptian control: the Southern Levant and the area of Nubia as far as the Fourth Cataract. The inclusion of foreign countries provides insights not only into the interaction between the centre of the empire and its conquered regions, but also concerning what is typically Egyptian and to what extent the conquered regions were culturally influenced. It can be shown that burials in Lower Nubia closely follow those in Egypt. In the southern Levant, by contrast, cemeteries of the period often yield numerous Egyptian objects, but burial customs in general do not follow those in Egypt.
Bad Queers: LGBTQ People and the Carceral State in Modern America
Authors: De Orio Scott
Published: December 2021

The war on sex offenders was an American campaign against sex crime that began in the 1930s and is still ongoing. In this review essay, I argue that the architects and opponents of that war engaged in political struggles that—especially during the pivotal era of the long 1970s—produced, criminalized, and hierarchized multiple new categories of “good” and “bad” LGBTQ legal subjects. In making this argument, my aim is to bring the field of LGBTQ political and legal history—especially the work of George Chauncey ([1994] 2019) and Margot Canaday (2009)—into closer conversation with scholarship by queer theorists who are not historians—especially Gayle Rubin ([1984] 2011a) and Michael Warner (1999)—about the stigmatization of non-normative gender and sexual practices. While historians have examined the policing of multiple queer behaviors in the early twentieth century, their examinations of the post-1945 period have been concerned primarily with the consolidation of a starker social and legal binary between homo- and heterosexuality. As their narratives get closer to the present, the most stigmatized “bad” queers become more and more tangential. At least in part, this has been because historians have been under the same pressure as LGBTQ activists to distance LGBTQ identity from the stigma of sexual “deviance”—especially sex that violated age-of-consent statutes—in order to promote the political project of LGBTQ rights. Placing bad queers at the center of LGBTQ political and legal history diversifies who counts as a subject of this history and reveals an even bigger carceral state that governed them.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF AGE DISPARITIES IN CONIFER CHARCOAL FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES AND APPLICATIONS FOR TREE-RING-RADIOCARBON DATING
Authors: Kessler Nicholas V
Published: December 2021

Age disparities between charcoal samples and their context are a well-known problem in archaeological chronometry, and even small offsets could affect the accuracy of high-precision wiggle-matched dates. In many cases of taphonomic or anthropogenic loss of the outermost rings, sapwood-based methods for estimating cutting dates are not always applicable, especially with charcoal. In these instances, wiggle-matchedterminus post quem(TPQ) dates are often reconciled with subjective or ad hoc approaches. This study examines the distribution of age disparities caused by ring loss and other factors in a large dendroarchaeological dataset. Probability density functions describing the random distribution of age disparities are then fit to the empirical distributions. These functions are tested on an actual wiggle-matched non-cutting date from the literature to evaluate accuracy in a single case. Simulations are then presented to demonstrate how an age offset function can be applied in OxCal outlier models to yield accurate dating in archaeological sequences with short intervals between dated episodes, even if all samples are non-cutting dates.
ELECTRA LOST IN TRANSIT
Authors: Kasimis Demetra
Published: December 2021

Like all the tragedies about the House of Atreus, Euripides’ Electra dramatizes the political stakes of familial disorder. In the background lies the legendary story of Agamemnon who sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia and, after returning from Troy, was killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. Electra takes place sometime after that murder and political usurpation, with the couple scrambling to secure their rule against the potential threat of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's children. When the play opens, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus have already exiled Orestes from Argos and relocated Electra to its border where she lives in a forced countryside marriage to a poor farmer. Over the course of the play, the siblings reunite and plot the murders of their mother and her new husband. By its end, Orestes and Electra are prepared to say goodbye to each other for good and, under the stain of matricide, to embark on their respective forms of movement, wandering for him and a new marriage for her.
IS RED FIGURE THE NEW BLACK? THE IMPRISONMENT OF WOMEN IN CLASSICAL ATHENS
Authors: Folch Marcus
Published: December 2021

Were women imprisoned in classical Athens? To search for an answer to this question in the secondary literature is to be met with deafening silence. Few scholars have examined evidence for the incarceration of women in the ancient Mediterranean, and the little work that has been done remains focused in such marginal (from the vantage of traditional classics departments) areas as Late Antique studies and early Christianity. When classicists speak of prisoners and prisons, we mean men and the ways men control men.
PLATO'S THEORY OF INCARCERATION
Authors: Abolafia Jacob
Published: December 2021

In addition to its many famous innovations in popular government, the Athenian democracy seems to have also experimented with another, more ambivalent political institution familiar to modern societies—penal incarceration. In recent years, there has been renewed debate over the precise role of imprisonment in Athens, as an increasing number of voices, including Marcus Folch in this volume, make the case that imprisonment was an important point of contact between criminal punishment and democratic politics and society in Athens.
SHIFTING SISTERHOOD: ELECTRA AND CHRYSOTHEMIS IN SOPHOCLES’ELECTRA
Authors: Coo Lyndsay
Published: December 2021

When Sophocles wrote Electra's story, he gave her a sister, Chrysothemis. In their two scenes together, the sisters warn, entreat, cajole, insult, spar with, and proclaim affection for each other. While Electra maintains her public mourning for their father Agamemnon, Chrysothemis chooses not to openly defy his murderers, Aegisthus and their mother Clytemnestra, believing that resistance that accomplishes nothing is futile. Time has not been kind to this more pragmatic sister. In English-language criticism, she has acquired her own epithet, ‘timid’; her femininity has been dismissed as vacuous and her morality as driven by material self-interest. For many critics, she is a shallow and conventional figure whose main purpose is to act as a foil to the exceptional Electra. Since the pairing of a ‘stronger’ and a ‘weaker’ sister recurs in the depiction of Antigone and Ismene in Sophocles’Antigone, this portrait of two contrasting sisters has been recognised since antiquity as distinctively Sophoclean, and the corresponding reduction of the sister–sister bond to a template has frequently precluded deeper examination of this relationship in both plays.
SAILING TOGETHER: THE AGONISTIC CONSTRUCTION OF SISTERHOOD IN SOPHOCLES’ANTIGONE
Authors: Moro Valentina
Published: December 2021

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the meaning of kinship in Sophocles’ Theban plays has raised a great deal of interest in critical interpretations in the fields of philosophy, political theory, and psychoanalysis. From the 1970s onward,Antigonein particular has also become a staple of feminist theory, both as a philosophical and political gesturecontraHegel and Lacan, but also in connection with post-structuralism. Conversely, the topic of kinship in Athenian drama has attracted comparatively little attention from classical philologists. As a consequence, theorists have often been more inclined to discuss the theme with reference to modern conceptual frameworks, rather than to Sophocles’ language itself.
Ordinary Exemplars: Cultivating “the Everyday” in the Birthplace of Fascism
Authors: Heywood Paolo
Published: December 2021

This paper examines the ways in which “ordinariness” can come to be exemplified as a virtue. It does so by comparing the status of ordinariness in historical and present-day Predappio, the town in which Mussolini was born and is buried. It describes the ways in which Predappio was mobilized by the Fascist regime as an exemplar of an ordinary Italian town, rendered extraordinary by its wholesale reconstruction as a jewel in the crown of Fascist urban planning. In similar fashion, Mussolini’s ordinary rural upbringing was mobilized in the service of propagandizing his extraordinary and exemplary leadership. In contemporary Predappio, by contrast, ordinariness is what locals reach for to contest understandings of their home as irrevocably associated with the extraordinary Fascist heritage they have inherited. One of the ways in which they do so is to celebrate a local exemplar of this ordinariness, Giuseppe Ferlini, the town’s first postwar mayor. In contrast to Mussolini, Ferlini’s ordinariness is not a backdrop to future greatness, but exactly the quality for which he is celebrated. I assert that these cases demonstrate the need for vigilance in analytic usage of the category of “the ordinary,” which sometimes tacitly assumes the existence of “the ordinary” as a scale in itself, independent of human action. I argue instead that “the ordinary” may be the object of ethical labor, rather than its site, and that exemplification may be a form of such labor, in both our accounts and the lives of those we study.
Some generating functions and inequalities for the andrews–stanley partition functions
Authors: Chen Na , Chern Shane , Fan Yan , Xia Ernest X. W.
Published: December 2021

Let $\mathcal {O}(\pi )$ denote the number of odd parts in an integer partition $\pi$. In 2005, Stanley introduced a new statistic $\operatorname {srank}(\pi )=\mathcal {O}(\pi )-\mathcal {O}(\pi ')$, where $\pi '$ is the conjugate of $\pi$. Let $p(r,\,m;n)$ denote the number of partitions of $n$ with srank congruent to $r$ modulo $m$. Generating function identities, congruences and inequalities for $p(0,\,4;n)$ and $p(2,\,4;n)$ were then established by a number of mathematicians, including Stanley, Andrews, Swisher, Berkovich and Garvan. Motivated by these works, we deduce some generating functions and inequalities for $p(r,\,m;n)$ with $m=16$ and $24$. These results are refinements of some inequalities due to Swisher.
Local Content Requirements in Nigeria's Extractive Sector and the Implications for Sustainable Development
Authors: Abe Oyeniyi
Published: December 2021

This article examines the framework of Nigeria's local content laws and policy, and the implications for sustainable development. The legislation is geared towards safeguarding local productivity and aiding the progressive aspirations of Nigeria's citizens. While commendable in principle, there have been questions about policy articulation, implementation and enforcement mechanisms, especially with regard to the Sustainable Development Goals. The article examines the local content legislation in Nigeria, and how policies have shaped the community-corporate nexus. This exposes the challenges facing extractive resource governance in a jurisdiction such as Nigeria and the discourses that have permeated legal scholarship on the practical deference to local content by non-state actors. It considers that well designed and implemented local content requirements are catalysts for structural development. To achieve sustainable development of its extractive sector, Nigeria requires state-led determination to stimulate economic growth and development. The article argues for continuous consultation as a bedrock for meaningful engagement.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the Politics of Tragedy
Authors: Fromer Yoav
Published: December 2021

How does tragedy, primarily a dramatic-literary experience, shape politics? While scholars have mostly looked to classical tragedy and expressions of public mourning to answer this, I employ a policy-oriented case study to do so: the politics of Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Widely known for his data-driven social science, I want to suggest the counterintuitive claim that the popular senator from New York was ironically also influenced deeply by literary tragedy. This article demonstrates how Moynihan cultivated a set of tragic sensibilities that informed his realist political calculations and implanted in his policies a tragic awareness that limited the goals of what government could achieve, while helping define what it should and how. Rather than evaluate the validity of his controversial proposals from the 1960s, I offer a critical reexamination that highlights the tragic impulses coloring them. In the process, I conceptualize a politics of tragedy as a “tamed” form of postwar liberalism.
The non-anthropocentric informational agents: Codes, software, and the logic of emergence in cybersecurity
Authors: Fouad Noran Shafik
Published: December 2021

Many theoretical approaches to cybersecurity adopt an anthropocentric conceptualisation of agency; that is, tying the capacity to act to human subjectivity and disregarding the role of the non-human in co-constructing its own (in)security. This article argues that such approaches are insufficient in capturing the complexities of cyber incidents, particularly those that involve self-perpetuating malware and autonomous cyber attacks that can produce unintentional and unpredictable consequences. Using interdisciplinary insights from the philosophy of information and software studies, the article counters the anthropocentrism in the cybersecurity literature by investigating the agency of syntactic information (that is, codes/software) in co-producing the logics and politics of cybersecurity. It specifically studies the complexities of codes/software as informational agents, their self-organising capacities, and their autonomous properties to develop an understanding of cybersecurity as emergent security. Emergence is introduced in the article as a non-linear security logic that captures the peculiar agential capacities of codes/software and the ways in which they challenge human control and intentionality by co-constructing enmity and by co-producing the subjects and objects of cybersecurity.
Analyzing the modes of reasoning in design using the SAPPhIRE model of causality and the Extended Integrated Model of Designing
Authors: Bhatt Apoorv Naresh , Majumder Anubhab , Chakrabarti Amaresh
Published: December 2021

Literature suggests that people typically understand knowledge by induction and produce knowledge by synthesis. This paper revisits the various modes of reasoning – explanatory abduction, innovative abduction, deduction, and induction – that have been proposed by earlier researchers as crucial modes of reasoning underlying the design process. First, our paper expands earlier work on abductive reasoning – an essential mode of reasoning involved in the process of synthesis – by understanding its role with the help of the “SAPPhIRE” model of causality. The explanations of abductive reasoning in design using the SAPPhIRE model have been compared with those using existing models. Second, the paper captures and analyzes various modes of reasoning during design synthesis with the help of the “Extended Integrated Model of Designing”. The analysis of participants' verbal speech and outcomes shows the model's ability to explain the various modes of reasoning that occur in design. The results indicate the above models to provide a more extensive account of reasoning in design synthesis. Earlier empirical validation of both the models lends further support to the claim of their explanatory capacity.
Longitudinal pathways between emotional difficulties and school absenteeism in middle childhood: Evidence from developmental cascades
Authors: Panayiotou Margarita , Finning Katie , Hennessey Alexandra , Ford Tamsin , Humphrey Neil
Published: December 2021

Emotional difficulties are associated with both authorized and unauthorized school absence, but there has been little longitudinal research and the temporal nature of these associations remains unclear. This study presents three-wave random-intercepts panel models of longitudinal reciprocal relationships between teacher-reported emotional difficulties and authorized and unauthorized school absence in 2,542 English children aged 6 to 9 years old at baseline, who were followed-up annually. Minor differences in the stability effects were observed between genders but only for the authorized absence model. Across all time points, children with greater emotional difficulties had more absences, and vice versa (authorized: ρ = .23–.29, p < .01; unauthorized: ρ = .28, p < .01). At the within-person level, concurrent associations showed that emotional difficulties were associated with greater authorized (β = .15–.17, p < .01) absence at Time 3 only, but with less unauthorized (β = −.08–.13, p < .05) absence at Times 1 and 2. In cross-lagged pathways, neither authorized nor unauthorized absence predicted later emotional difficulties, and emotional difficulties did not predict later authorized absence at any time point. However, greater emotional difficulties were associated with fewer unauthorized absences across time (β = −13–.22, p < .001). The implications of these findings are discussed.
Automated SEM Image Analysis of the Sphere Diameter, Sphere-Sphere Separation, and Opening Size Distributions of Nanosphere Lithography Masks
Authors: Riedl Thomas , Lindner Jörg K.N.
Published: December 2021

Colloidal nanosphere monolayers—used as a lithography mask for site-controlled material deposition or removal—offer the possibility of cost-effective patterning of large surface areas. In the present study, an automated analysis of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images is described, which enables the recognition of the individual nanospheres in densely packed monolayers in order to perform a statistical quantification of the sphere size, mask opening size, and sphere-sphere separation distributions. Search algorithms based on Fourier transformation, cross-correlation, multiple-angle intensity profiling, and sphere edge point detection techniques allow for a sphere detection efficiency of at least 99.8%, even in the case of considerable sphere size variations. While the sphere positions and diameters are determined by fitting circles to the spheres edge points, the openings between sphere triples are detected by intensity thresholding. For the analyzed polystyrene sphere monolayers with sphere sizes between 220 and 600 nm and a diameter spread of around 3% coefficients of variation of 6.8–8.1% for the opening size are found. By correlating the mentioned size distributions, it is shown that, in this case, the dominant contribution to the opening size variation stems from nanometer-scale positional variations of the spheres.
Declarative Approaches to Counterfactual Explanations for Classification
Authors: BERTOSSI LEOPOLDO
Published: December 2021

We propose answer-set programs that specify and compute counterfactual interventions on entities that are input on a classification model. In relation to the outcome of the model, the resulting counterfactual entities serve as a basis for the definition and computation of causality-based explanation scores for the feature values in the entity under classification, namely responsibility scores. The approach and the programs can be applied with black-box models, and also with models that can be specified as logic programs, such as rule-based classifiers. The main focus of this study is on the specification and computation of best counterfactual entities, that is, those that lead to maximum responsibility scores. From them one can read off the explanations as maximum responsibility feature values in the original entity. We also extend the programs to bring into the picture semantic or domain knowledge. We show how the approach could be extended by means of probabilistic methods, and how the underlying probability distributions could be modified through the use of constraints. Several examples of programs written in the syntax of the DLV ASP-solver, and run with it, are shown.
Mean and Turbulent Characteristics of a Bottom Mixing‐Layer Forced by a Strong Surface Tide and Large Amplitude Internal Waves
Authors: Zulberti A. P. , Jones N. L. , Rayson M. D. , Ivey G. N.
Published: December 2021

We present 15 days of both mean and turbulent field observations bottom mixing‐layer at a gently sloping 250 m deep continental shelf site, energized by tides and nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs). The tidal frequency forcing was due to the combined effects of the barotropic tide and a mode‐1 internal tide (IT), while the NLIWs were predominantly mode‐1 waves of depression. The bottom mixing‐layer thickness varied at both semidiurnal and sub‐tidal ∼O(10)d frequencies, with an average thickness of around 10 m. Compression and expansion of the mixing‐layer by both the IT and NLIWs affected the mean velocity profiles in the mixing‐layer, while the phasing between the barotropic and baroclinic flows led to an asymmetry in mean velocity profiles between periods of rising and falling isotherms. With the exception of periods of flow reversal, the turbulent kinetic energy balance and turbulent stress observations were consistent with the existence of an inertial‐sublayer with thickness of approximately 10%–15% of the mixing‐layer thickness ( ∼1 m), even beneath NLIWs. In the outer portion of the mixing‐layer—that is, above the inertial‐sublayer—NLIWs modulated the local turbulence spectra. We discuss the observations in the context of a predictive model for mixing‐layer thickness. The analysis suggests that the high‐frequency variability in mixing‐layer thickness was dominated by internal wave pumping, though strength of the ambient stratification and the frequency of the forcing were important controls on the time‐averaged (sub‐tidal) variation.
Modeling Decadal Salt Marsh Development: Variability of the Salt Marsh Edge Under Influence of Waves and Sediment Availability
Authors: Willemsen P. W. J. M. , Smits B. P. , Borsje B. W. , Herman P. M. J. , Dijkstra J. T. , Bouma T. J. , Hulscher S. J. M. H.
Published: December 2021

Salt marshes can contribute to coastal protection, but the magnitude of the protection depends on the width of the marsh. The cross‐shore width of the marsh is to a large extent determined by the delicate balance between seaward expansion and landward retreat. The influence of the magnitude of daily occurring mild weather conditions and sediment availability on the variability of salt marsh width has not been systematically assessed. This paper investigates how the magnitude of homogeneous hydrodynamic forcing, combined with sediment availability, affects the biophysical development, and more specifically retreat and expansion of salt marshes. The dynamic extent of the salt marsh is assessed by modeling online‐coupled hydrodynamics, morphodynamics and vegetation growth using the numerical Delft3D‐Flexible Mesh model, and a vegetation growth module. Simulated patterns around the salt marsh edge resembled field observations, as well as the simulated temporal variability of the lateral position of the salt marsh edge. In the model, the salt marsh extended seaward at low wave forcing (0.00 m; 0.05 m), and retreated landward at higher wave forcing (0.10 m; 0.15 m). With increasing physical stress, the salt marsh edge was found at lower elevations, indicating an unhealthy system with a retreating marsh edge due to vegetation mortality, whereas decreasing physical stresses result in a higher salt marsh edge, enabling expansion. This balance suggests the importance of response time of vegetation to physical stress. Yet, the salt marsh forced with higher waves was able to switch from a retreating extent retrogradational to an expansional behavior as sediment supply increased.
A High‐Resolution Atlas of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Oxygen Deficient Zones
Authors: Kwiecinski Jarek V. , Babbin Andrew R.
Published: December 2021

Oxygen deficient zones (ODZs) are important biogeochemical provinces of the global oceans wherein standing dissolved oxygen concentrations decrease to nanomolar levels. Despite their confinement, these regions are disproportionally important to the ocean's role in modulating Earth's climate through the interactions between the marine nitrogen cycle and that of carbon. Moreover, the spatial domain of low oxygen regions of the ocean is predicted to change as a consequence of ocean warming, increased stratification, and changes in circulation and productivity. However, the expanse of the modern ODZs is poorly resolved due to a dearth of direct sampling compounded with errors that arise in the processing and gridding of the sparse measurements that do exist. Here, we take a novel approach to map the horizontal and vertical extent of the two major ODZs of the eastern tropical Pacific via analysis of meter‐scale resolution electrode sensors from both ship casts and Argo profiles, rather than from discretized bottle measurements. The resulting three‐dimensional data product is based on a compendium of nearly 15 million measurements taken across three decades and provides the precise locations of low oxygen water, elucidating the ODZs' three‐dimensional structures. It can be utilized by researchers to validate models, plan cruise occupations, and as a comparison for future change. Calculations made with this high‐resolution atlas also provide the volumes, layers of maximal areal extent, and other descriptive statistics for both Pacific ODZs. Finally, the atlas reveals fine‐scale features of oxygenated water mass intrusions and regional differences across these anoxic zones.
Synthetic Evaluation of Infrasonic Multipole Waveform Inversion
Authors: Iezzi Alexandra M. , Matoza Robin S. , Fee David , Kim Keehoon , Jolly Arthur D.
Published: December 2021

Acoustic source inversions estimate the mass flow rate of volcanic explosions or yield of chemical explosions and provide insight into potential source directionality. However, the limitations of applying these methods to complex sources and their ability to resolve a stable solution have not been investigated in detail. We perform synthetic infrasound waveform inversions that use 3‐D Green’s functions for a variety of idealized and realistic deployment scenarios using both a flat plane and Yasur volcano, Vanuatu as examples. We investigate the ability of various scenarios to retrieve the input source functions and relative amplitudes for monopole and multipole (monopole and dipole) inversions. Infrasound waveform inversions appear to be a robust method to quantify mass flow rates from simple sources (monopole) using deployments of infrasound sensors placed around a source, but care should be taken when analyzing and interpreting results from more complex acoustic sources (multipole) that have significant directional components. In the examples we consider the solution is stable for monopole inversions with a signal‐to‐noise ratio greater than five and the dipole component is small. For most scenarios investigated, the vertical dipole component of the multipole explosion source is poorly constrained and can impact the ability to recover the other source term components. Because multipole inversions are ill‐posed for many deployments, a low residual does not necessarily mean the proper source vector has been recovered. Synthetic studies can help investigate the limitations and place bounds on information that may be missing using monopole and multipole inversions for potentially directional sources.
Bayesian Model Calibration Using Surrogate Streamflow in Ungauged Catchments
Authors: Yoon Hae Na , Marshall Lucy , Sharma Ashish , Kim Seokhyeon
Published: December 2021

We present a novel approach for modeling streamflow in ungauged catchments. Because of their widespread availability and global coverage, remotely sensed data provide an attractive alternative to supplement the absence of streamflow data in hydrological model calibration. One observable signal holds particular appeal; the satellite‐derived calibration ratio‐measurement (C/M ratio) has been widely studied as a direct measurement of streamflow because of its physical relationship to streamflow and demonstrated correlation with in situ streamflow. This study identifies the challenges in calibrating a hydrological model using a satellite‐derived C/M ratio, presenting a rationale designed to account for the limitations that these data pose. A new Bayesian calibration approach is developed that uses the surrogate streamflow derived from the C/M ratio in place of direct streamflow observations. We assess and demonstrate our approach for three Australian Hydrologic Reference Stations, which can be considered free from anthropogenic effects, with distinct attributes. The results indicate the competency of the proposed approach, showing model performance with 0.54 ∼ 0.78 Nash‐Sutcliffe efficiency values, with the uncertainties in the model calibration quantified via Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling. Overall, our study finds the new model calibration promising for predictions in ungauged basins (PUB), as the global data coverage of satellite data and the suitability of the approach suggest significant improvements over traditional approaches to PUB.
Patch individual filter layers in CNNs to harness the spatial homogeneity of neuroimaging data
Authors: Eitel Fabian , Albrecht Jan Philipp , Weygandt Martin , Paul Friedemann , Ritter Kerstin
Published: December 2021

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs)—as a type of deep learning—have been specifically designed for highly heterogeneous data, such as natural images. Neuroimaging data, however, is comparably homogeneous due to (1) the uniform structure of the brain and (2) additional efforts to spatially normalize the data to a standard template using linear and non-linear transformations. To harness spatial homogeneity of neuroimaging data, we suggest here a new CNN architecture that combines the idea of hierarchical abstraction in CNNs with a prior on the spatial homogeneity of neuroimaging data. Whereas early layers are trained globally using standard convolutional layers, we introduce patch individual filters (PIF) for higher, more abstract layers. By learning filters in individual latent space patches without sharing weights, PIF layers can learn abstract features faster and specific to regions. We thoroughly evaluated PIF layers for three different tasks and data sets, namely sex classification on UK Biobank data, Alzheimer’s disease detection on ADNI data and multiple sclerosis detection on private hospital data, and compared it with two baseline models, a standard CNN and a patch-based CNN. We obtained two main results: First, CNNs using PIF layers converge consistently faster, measured in run time in seconds and number of iterations than both baseline models. Second, both the standard CNN and the PIF model outperformed the patch-based CNN in terms of balanced accuracy and receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC) with a maximal balanced accuracy (ROC AUC) of 94.21% (99.10%) for the sex classification task (PIF model), and 81.24% and 80.48% (88.89% and 87.35%) respectively for the Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis detection tasks (standard CNN model). In conclusion, we demonstrated that CNNs using PIF layers result in faster convergence while obtaining the same predictive performance as a standard CNN. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that introduces a prior in form of an inductive bias to harness spatial homogeneity of neuroimaging data.
Utilizing DeepSqueak for automatic detection and classification of mammalian vocalizations: a case study on primate vocalizations
Authors: Romero-Mujalli Daniel , Bergmann Tjard , Zimmermann Axel , Scheumann Marina
Published: December 2021

Bioacoustic analyses of animal vocalizations are predominantly accomplished through manual scanning, a highly subjective and time-consuming process. Thus, validated automated analyses are needed that are usable for a variety of animal species and easy to handle by non-programing specialists. This study tested and validated whether DeepSqueak, a user-friendly software, developed for rodent ultrasonic vocalizations, can be generalized to automate the detection/segmentation, clustering and classification of high-frequency/ultrasonic vocalizations of a primate species. Our validation procedure showed that the trained detectors for vocalizations of the gray mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) can deal with different call types, individual variation and different recording quality. Implementing additional filters drastically reduced noise signals (4225 events) and call fragments (637 events), resulting in 91% correct detections (Ntotal = 3040). Additionally, the detectors could be used to detect the vocalizations of an evolutionary closely related species, the Goodman’s mouse lemur (M. lehilahytsara). An integrated supervised classifier classified 93% of the 2683 calls correctly to the respective call type, and the unsupervised clustering model grouped the calls into clusters matching the published human-made categories. This study shows that DeepSqueak can be successfully utilized to detect, cluster and classify high-frequency/ultrasonic vocalizations of other taxa than rodents, and suggests a validation procedure usable to evaluate further bioacoustics software.
Tracing contacts to evaluate the transmission of COVID-19 from highly exposed individuals in public transportation
Authors: Ponte Caio , Carmona Humberto A. , Oliveira Erneson A. , Caminha Carlos , Lima Antonio S. , Andrade José S. , Furtado Vasco
Published: December 2021

We investigate, through a data-driven contact tracing model, the transmission of COVID-19 inside buses during distinct phases of the pandemic in a large Brazilian city. From this microscopic approach, we recover the networks of close contacts within consecutive time windows. A longitudinal comparison is then performed by upscaling the traced contacts with the transmission computed from a mean-field compartmental model for the entire city. Our results show that the effective reproduction numbers inside the buses, $$Re^{bus}$$

R

e

bus

, and in the city, $$Re^{city}$$

R

e

city

, followed a compatible behavior during the first wave of the local outbreak. Moreover, by distinguishing the close contacts of healthcare workers in the buses, we discovered that their transmission, $$Re^{health}$$

R

e

health

, during the same period, was systematically higher than $$Re^{bus}$$

R

e

bus

. This result reinforces the need for special public transportation policies for highly exposed groups of people.
A triple-blind randomized clinical trial of different associations between dexamethasone and non-steroids anti-inflammatories for preemptive action in third molar extractions
Authors: Momesso Gustavo Antonio Correa , Grossi-Oliveira Gustavo Augusto , Silva William Phillip Pereira , Akira Renan , Chiba Fernando , Polo Tárik Ocon Braga , de Lima Neto Tiburtino José , Rios Bárbara Ribeiro , Bassi Ana Paula Farnezi , Sumida Doris Hissako , Han Michael , Miloro Michael , Faverani Leonardo Perez
Published: December 2021

The aim of this study is to evaluate the preemptive analgesic effects of dexamethasone (DEX) alone or combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in third molar surgeries. The subjects were divided into five groups (n = 20 teeth/group); subjects received only 8 mg of dexamethasone 1 h before the surgical procedure (DEX group), or in combination with etodolac (DEX + ETO), ketorolac (DEX + KET), ibuprofen (DEX + IBU), loxoprofen (DEX + LOX). Paracetamol 750 mg was provided as the number of rescue analgesics (NRA). Salivary PGE2 expression was measured preoperatively and at 48 h. Edema and Maximum mouth opening (MMO) were measured postoperatively at 48 h and 7 days. A visual analog scale (VAS) was performed postoperatively at 6, 12, 24, 48, 72 h, and 7 days. Salivary expression of PGE2 showed a decrease only for the DEX group. Edema and MMO and NRA consumption showed no significant differences among the groups (P > 0.05). The VAS showed a significantly lower pain perception at 6 h after the surgery for the DEX + ETO and DEX + KET groups (P < 0.05). The combination of DEX and NSAIDS should be considered for preemptive acute postsurgical pain management in third molar surgery. In some drug associations such as dexamethasone 8 mg + NSAIDS (ETO and KET) in the pre-operative time, only a few rescue analgesics are necessary.
A facile online multi-gear capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector for an automatic and wide range monitoring of high salt in HPLC
Authors: Liu Weiwen , Liang Ziqi , Wang Yuanyu , Cao Jun , Zhang Qiang , Liu Xiaoping , Wang Yuxing , Cao Chengxi
Published: December 2021

Sensing the electrolyte solution or aqueous–organic mixture has attracted much interest in chemical separation, pharmaceutical engineering, bioprocess, and biochemical experiments.
Progress in quantification of nicotine content and form distribution in electronic cigarette liquids and aerosols
Authors: Lu Lehua , Xiang Menghui , Lu Haoran , Tian Zhixin , Gao Yihan
Published: December 2021

The content and form distribution of nicotine in e-liquids and aerosols are closely related to safety and addiction and this article provides a comprehensive review of quantitative analytical methods of nicotine.
Construction of a sequentially responsive nanocarrier for chemotherapy and cascade amplified NIR photodynamic therapy
Authors: Yan Tao , Ren Linlin , Li Fengyan , Tian Feng , Jiang Chengfang , Wang Qi , Song Xinyue , Zhang Shusheng
Published: December 2021

A nanotheranostic agent was prepared using UCNPs@mSiO2/MB coated with a DNA nanoshell to construct tumor microenvironment responsive chemotherapy and cascade amplified PDT.
Ultralow lattice thermal conductivity at room temperature in 2D KCuSe from first-principles calculations
Authors: Xu Zhiyuan , Wang Cong , Wu Xuming , Hu Lei , Liu Yuqi , Gao Guoying
Published: December 2021

The ultralow lattice thermal conductivity at room temperature for monolayer KCuSe.
Through structural isomerism: positional effect of alkyne functionality on molecular optical properties
Authors: Nagaraju Nakka , Kushavah Dushyant , Kumar Sunil , Ray Rajeev , Gambhir Diksha , Ghosh Subrata , Pal Suman Kalyan
Published: December 2021

Spectroscopic experiments and theoretical calculations are combined to study the effect of the position of alkyne functionality on the photophysical and electron donating behaviour of structurally isomeric molecular dyes.
ZIF-67 derived hierarchical hollow Co3S4@Mo2S3 dodecahedron with an S-scheme surface heterostructure for efficient photocatalytic hydrogen evolution
Authors: Li Junke , Li Mei , Jin Zhiliang
Published: December 2021

Using ZIF-67 as a template, and the continuous temperature-raising hydrothermal method to built a heterojunction between Co3S4 and Mo2S3, this strategy synthesized a highly efficient Co3S4@Mo2S3 composite with a stable rhombohedral structure.
Cyanide–alkene competition in a diiron complex and isolation of a multisite (cyano)alkylidene–alkene species
Authors: Bresciani Giulio , Schoch Silvia , Biancalana Lorenzo , Zacchini Stefano , Bortoluzzi Marco , Pampaloni Guido , Marchetti Fabio
Published: December 2021

A cyanide addition/decarbonylation sequence in a diiron (allyl)amino-alkylidyne complex results in the formation of an unusual alkylidene–alkenyl species as an isolable intermediate along the route leading to stable metal coordination of the cyanide.
Preparation of antibacterial nanofibers by electrospinning polyvinyl alcohol containing a luteolin hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex
Authors: Wang Xiaoyan , Hu Xiaona , Li Shiqing , Shi Wenhui , Li Shujing , Zhang Yuxi
Published: December 2021

Nanofibers have exhibited excellent water solubility, significant antibacterial effects and effective concentration in vitro release.
Green and facile synthesis of iron-doped biomass carbon dots as a dual-signal colorimetric and fluorometric probe for the detection of ascorbic acid
Authors: Fan Pengfei , Liu Can , Hu Congcong , Li Feifei , Lin Xi , Yang Shengyuan , Xiao Fubing
Published: December 2021

A new method based on biomass Fe-CDs with fluorescence properties and simulated oxidase activity colorimetric and fluorometric dual-readout assay for highly effective detection of AA was established.
Cu/Fe-mediated N(sp2)-arylation/alkenylation of pyridines with aryl-/alkenylboronic acids to yield versatile cationic materials
Authors: Wang Yuzhou , Yu Yu , Xie Rongrong , Tian Ya-Nan , Huang Lingyu , Lv Shihai , Meng Xiaona , Kong Xiangfei , Li Shiqing
Published: December 2021

Cu/Fe-mediated N(sp2)-arylation/alkenylation of pyridines with aryl-/alkenylboronic acids to yield length-controllable and multi-responsive pyridinium salts is disclosed.
N-Alkylation of organonitrogen compounds catalyzed by methylene-linked bis-NHC half-sandwich ruthenium complexes
Authors: Moutaoukil Zakaria , Serrano-Díez Emmanuel , Collado Isidro G. , Jiménez-Tenorio Manuel , Botubol-Ares José Manuel
Published: December 2021

An efficient and scalable Ru-catalysed N-alkylation of amines, amides and sulfonamides with alcohols has been developed.
BaLaIr double mixed metal oxides as competitive catalysts for oxygen evolution electrocatalysis in acidic media
Authors: Li Haisen , Liu Huihui , Qin Qing , Liu Xien
Published: December 2021

The prepared double mixed metal oxide BaIrO2.937/La3IrO7 with a surface of IrOx formed by Ba and La leaching exhibits excellent performance for boosting the OER in acidic media.
Magnetically driven in-plane modulation of the 3D orientation of vertical ferromagnetic flakes
Authors: Le Ferrand Hortense , Arrieta Andres F.
Published: December 2021

Rotating magnetic fields can orient magnetically responsive colloidal microplatelets vertically with set in-plane directions.
Molecular dynamics studies of entropic elasticity of condensed lattice networks connected with uniform functionalityf= 4
Authors: Hagita Katsumi , Murashima Takahiro
Published: December 2021

The linear region of entropic elasticity was investigated for the regular network structure with long strands and with uniform tetra-functionality.