bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Review of autonomous outdoor blimps and their applications
Authors: Bhat Shantanu S. , Anavatti Sreenatha G. , Garratt Matthew , Ravi Sridhar
Published: March 2024

Autonomous blimps have potential applications in surveillance, monitoring, and advertising. Due to their lower payload capacities and possible unstable flight profile, small blimps have been mostly used in indoor applications. However, recent advancements in their design and control have increased the prospects of deploying them for outdoor applications. This study presents a literature review of various aspects that encompass the unique elements of blimps’ design and operations followed by a discussion on the modern applications. The review focuses on advancements made in the fundamental attributes of blimps, including design, propulsion, navigation, and control. The review reveals that recent successes in using blimps for various missions, where heavier-than-air platforms have been usually used, highlight the potential for blimps to offer a lightweight and low-risk alternative. The relatively stable operation of blimps in low winds and longer-duration hovering capability can make them a preferred platform for rescue, source localization, and space applications. However, their stability in extreme environments is a challenge, in addition to their lower mobility and problems in accurately predicting control parameters. Thus, this review concludes with an overview of blimps’ futuristic applications of miniature blimps and recommendations to address the challenges in using them in real-world missions.
The Impact of Participating in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement and Potential Export Markets for Vietnamese Rice: An Application of Augmented Gravity Model
Authors: Chakradhar Jadhav , Thao Trinh Thanh
Published: March 2024

In this study, we investigate the potential effects of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement on Vietnam’s rice exports from 2000 to 2016. For this analysis, we employ the panel data augmented gravity model with some modifications. The estimated results suggest a positive relationship between Vietnam’s per capita export and the capita real gross domestic product (GDP) of the importer, Vietnam’s rice production, export price, and ASEAN dummy. We confirm that there is a negative relationship between Vietnam’s per capita rice export value and import country agricultural land and import tariffs. Additionally, this paper forecasts Vietnam’s rice export value per capita at each market in RCEP partners by using the autoregressive model. Our forecast results show that among RCEP members, Vietnam has potential markets if import tariff reductions are lowered in Singapore, Brunei, Korea, Japan, and Malaysia. To reap the benefits of rice exports’ potential, Vietnam must move from low-grade and cheap rice to high-quality rice production instead of expanding rice production and exports with the following implications: changing its present rice trading partners to potential markets and adopting market-oriented policies to meet the international demand and to increase the export elasticity of rice.
Kirigami
Authors: Boovaraghavan Sudershan , Zhou Haozhe , Goel Mayank , Agarwal Yuvraj
Published: March 2024

Audio-based human activity recognition (HAR) is very popular because many human activities have unique sound signatures that can be detected using machine learning (ML) approaches. These audio-based ML HAR pipelines often use common featurization techniques, such as extracting various statistical and spectral features by converting time domain signals to the frequency domain (using an FFT) and using them to train ML models. Some of these approaches also claim privacy benefits by preventing the identification of human speech. However, recent deep learning-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) models pose new privacy challenges to these featurization techniques. In this paper, we systematically evaluate various featurization approaches for audio data, assessing their privacy risks through metrics like speech intelligibility (PER and WER) while considering the utility tradeoff in terms of ML-based activity recognition accuracy. Our findings reveal the susceptibility of these approaches to speech content recovery when exposed to recent ASR models, especially under re-tuning or retraining conditions. Notably, fine-tuned ASR models achieved an average Phoneme Error Rate (PER) of 39.99% and Word Error Rate (WER) of 44.43% in speech recognition for these approaches. To overcome these privacy concerns, we propose Kirigami, a lightweight machine learning-based audio speech filter that removes human speech segments reducing the efficacy of ASR models (70.48% PER and 101.40% WER) while also maintaining HAR accuracy (76.0% accuracy). We show that Kirigami can be implemented on common edge microcontrollers with limited computational capabilities and memory, providing a path to deployment on a variety of IoT devices. Finally, we conducted a real-world user study and showed the robustness of Kirigami on a laptop and an ARM Cortex-M4F microcontroller under three different background noises.
Investigating Technology Adoption Soon After Sustaining a Spinal Cord Injury
Authors: Motahar Tamanna , Wiese Jason
Published: March 2024

A spinal cord injury (SCI) typically results in a sudden change to an individual's motor function. People's adoption of technology soon after a severe SCI is crucial, since they must relearn most technology interactions to adjust to their new physical abilities and regain independence. This study examines how individuals adopt technologies soon after sustaining a severe SCI. By qualitatively analyzing the perspectives of ten rehabilitation clinicians, three individuals who recently sustained an SCI, and two of those participants' family members, we surfaced a spectrum of individuals' motivations to adopt technology post-injury and highlight the challenges they face to adopt technology. Our findings highlight the need to incorporate the holistic experience---including technology literacy, perception of support, and acceptance of the "new-normal"---in technology design for individuals who have a sudden change to motor functions. Our findings show that technology adoption is a critical component for the overall adjustment of post-SCI life. Finally, we use the extended version of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to make recommendations for more inclusive assistive design.
SleepNet
Authors: Khalid Maryam , Klerman Elizabeth B. , McHill Andrew W. , Phillips Andrew J. K. , Sano Akane
Published: March 2024

Sleep behavior significantly impacts health and acts as an indicator of physical and mental well-being. Monitoring and predicting sleep behavior with ubiquitous sensors may therefore assist in both sleep management and tracking of related health conditions. While sleep behavior depends on, and is reflected in the physiology of a person, it is also impacted by external factors such as digital media usage, social network contagion, and the surrounding weather. In this work, we propose SleepNet, a system that exploits social contagion in sleep behavior through graph networks and integrates it with physiological and phone data extracted from ubiquitous mobile and wearable devices for predicting next-day sleep labels about sleep duration. Our architecture overcomes the limitations of large-scale graphs containing connections irrelevant to sleep behavior by devising an attention mechanism. The extensive experimental evaluation highlights the improvement provided by incorporating social networks in the model. Additionally, we conduct robustness analysis to demonstrate the system's performance in real-life conditions. The outcomes affirm the stability of SleepNet against perturbations in input data. Further analyses emphasize the significance of network topology in prediction performance revealing that users with higher eigenvalue centrality are more vulnerable to data perturbations.
AFace
Authors: Xu Zhaopeng , Liu Tong , Jiang Ruobing , Hu Pengfei , Guo Zhongwen , Liu Chao
Published: March 2024

User authentication on smartphones needs to balance both security and convenience. Many image-based face authentication methods are vulnerable to spoofing and are plagued by privacy breaches, so models based on acoustic sensing have emerged to achieve reliable user authentication. However, they can only achieve reasonable performance under specific conditions (i.e., a fixed range), and they can not resist 3D printing attacks. To address these limitations, we present a novel user authentication system, referred to as AFace. The system mainly consists of two parts: an iso-depth model and a range-adaptive (RA) algorithm. The iso-depth model establishes a connection between acoustic echoes and facial structures, while taking into account the influence of biological materials on echo energy, making it resistant to 3D printing attacks (as it's difficult to replicate material information in 3D printing). RA algorithm can adaptively compensate for the distance between the user and the smartphone, enabling flexible authentication modes. Results from experiments with 40 volunteers demonstrate that AFace achieves an average accuracy of 96.9% and an F1 score of 96.9%, and no image/video-based attack is observed to succeed in spoofing.
EarSlide
Authors: Wang Zi , Wang Yilin , Yang Jie
Published: March 2024

Ear wearables (earables) are emerging platforms that are broadly adopted in various applications. There is an increasing demand for robust earables authentication because of the growing amount of sensitive information and the IoT devices that the earable could access. Traditional authentication methods become less feasible due to the limited input interface of earables. Nevertheless, the rich head-related sensing capabilities of earables can be exploited to capture human biometrics. In this paper, we propose EarSlide, an earable biometric authentication system utilizing the advanced sensing capacities of earables and the distinctive features of acoustic fingerprints when users slide their fingers on the face. It utilizes the inward-facing microphone of the earables and the face-ear channel of the ear canal to reliably capture the acoustic fingerprint. In particular, we study the theory of friction sound and categorize the characteristics of the acoustic fingerprints into three representative classes, pattern-class, ridge-groove-class, and coupling-class. Different from traditional fingerprint authentication only utilizes 2D patterns, we incorporate the 3D information in acoustic fingerprint and indirectly sense the fingerprint for authentication. We then design representative sliding gestures that carry rich information about the acoustic fingerprint while being easy to perform. It then extracts multi-class acoustic fingerprint features to reflect the inherent acoustic fingerprint characteristic for authentication. We also adopt an adaptable authentication model and a user behavior mitigation strategy to effectively authenticate legit users from adversaries. The key advantages of EarSlide are that it is resistant to spoofing attacks and its wide acceptability. Our evaluation of EarSlide in diverse real-world environments with intervals over one year shows that EarSlide achieves an average balanced accuracy rate of 98.37% with only one sliding gesture.
Lateralization Effects in Electrodermal Activity Data Collected Using Wearable Devices
Authors: Alchieri Leonardo , Abdalazim Nouran , Alecci Lidia , Gashi Shkurta , Gjoreski Martin , Santini Silvia
Published: March 2024

Electrodermal activity (EDA) is a physiological signal that can be used to infer humans' affective states and stress levels. EDA can nowadays be monitored using unobtrusive wearable devices, such as smartwatches, and leveraged in personal informatics systems. A still largely uncharted issue concerning EDA is the impact on real applications of potential differences observable on signals measured concurrently on the left and right side of the human body. This phenomenon, called lateralization, originates from the distinct functions that the brain's left and right hemispheres exert on EDA. In this work, we address this issue by examining the impact of EDA lateralization in two classification tasks: a cognitive load recognition task executed in the lab and a sleep monitoring task in a real-world setting. We implement a machine learning pipeline to compare the performance obtained on both classification tasks using EDA data collected from the left and right sides of the body. Our results show that using EDA from the side that is not associated with the specific hemisphere activation leads to a significant decline in performance for the considered classification tasks. This finding highlights that researchers and practitioners relying on EDA data should consider possible EDA lateralization effects when deciding on sensor placement.
Matcha
Authors: Li Tianshi , Cranor Lorrie Faith , Agarwal Yuvraj , Hong Jason I.
Published: March 2024

Apple and Google introduced their versions of privacy nutrition labels to the mobile app stores to better inform users of the apps' data practices. However, these labels are self-reported by developers and have been found to contain many inaccuracies due to misunderstandings of the label taxonomy. In this work, we present Matcha, an IDE plugin that uses automated code analysis to help developers create accurate Google Play data safety labels. Developers can benefit from Matcha's ability to detect user data accesses and transmissions while staying in control of the generated label by adding custom Java annotations and modifying an auto-generated XML specification. Our evaluation with 12 developers showed that Matcha helped our participants improved the accuracy of a label they created with Google's official tool for a real-world app they developed. We found that participants preferred Matcha for its accuracy benefits. Drawing on Matcha, we discuss general design recommendations for developer tools used to create accurate standardized privacy notices.
MetaFormer
Authors: Sheng Biyun , Han Rui , Xiao Fu , Guo Zhengxin , Gui Linqing
Published: March 2024

WiFi based action recognition has attracted increasing attentions due to its convenience and universality in real-world applications, whereas the domain dependency leads to poor generalization ability towards new sensing environments or subjects. The majority of existing solutions fail to sufficiently extract action-related features from WiFi signals. Moreover, they are unable to make full use of the target data with only the labelled samples taken into consideration. To cope with these issues, we propose a WiFi-based sensing system, MetaFormer, which can effectively recognize actions from unseen domains with only one labelled target sample per category. Specifically, MetaFormer achieves this by firstly constructing a novel spatial-temporal transformer feature extraction structure with dense-sparse input named DS-STT to capture action primary and affiliated movements. It then designs Meta-teacher framework which meta-pre-trains source tasks and updates model parameters by dynamic pseudo label enhancement to bridge the relationship among the labelled and unlabelled target samples. In order to validate the performance of MetaFormer, we conduct comprehensive evaluations on SignFi, Widar and Wiar datasets and achieve superior performances under the one-shot case.
UbiPhysio
Authors: Wang Chongyang , Feng Yuan , Zhong Lingxiao , Zhu Siyi , Zhang Chi , Zheng Siqi , Liang Chen , Wang Yuntao , He Chengqi , Yu Chun , Shi Yuanchun
Published: March 2024

We introduce UbiPhysio, a milestone framework that delivers fine-grained action description and feedback in natural language to support people's daily functioning, fitness, and rehabilitation activities. This expert-like capability assists users in properly executing actions and maintaining engagement in remote fitness and rehabilitation programs. Specifically, the proposed UbiPhysio framework comprises a fine-grained action descriptor and a knowledge retrieval-enhanced feedback module. The action descriptor translates action data, represented by a set of biomechanical movement features we designed based on clinical priors, into textual descriptions of action types and potential movement patterns. Building on physiotherapeutic domain knowledge, the feedback module provides clear and engaging expert feedback. We evaluated UbiPhysio's performance through extensive experiments with data from 104 diverse participants, collected in a home-like setting during 25 types of everyday activities and exercises. We assessed the quality of the language output under different tuning strategies using standard benchmarks. We conducted a user study to gather insights from clinical physiotherapists and potential users about our framework. Our initial tests show promise for deploying UbiPhysio in real-life settings without specialized devices.
Body-Area Capacitive or Electric Field Sensing for Human Activity Recognition and Human-Computer Interaction
Authors: Bian Sizhen , Liu Mengxi , Zhou Bo , Lukowicz Paul , Magno Michele
Published: March 2024

Due to the fact that roughly sixty percent of the human body is essentially composed of water, the human body is inherently a conductive object, being able to, firstly, form an inherent electric field from the body to the surroundings and secondly, deform the distribution of an existing electric field near the body. Body-area capacitive sensing, also called body-area electric field sensing, is becoming a promising alternative for wearable devices to accomplish certain tasks in human activity recognition (HAR) and human-computer interaction (HCI). Over the last decade, researchers have explored plentiful novel sensing systems backed by the body-area electric field, like the ring-form smart devices for sign language recognition, the room-size capacitive grid for indoor positioning, etc. On the other hand, despite the pervasive exploration of the body-area electric field, a comprehensive survey does not exist for an enlightening guideline. Moreover, the various hardware implementations, applied algorithms, and targeted applications result in a challenging task to achieve a systematic overview of the subject. This paper aims to fill in the gap by comprehensively summarizing the existing works on body-area capacitive sensing so that researchers can have a better view of the current exploration status. To this end, we first sorted the explorations into three domains according to the involved body forms: body-part electric field, whole-body electric field, and body-to-body electric field, and enumerated the state-of-art works in the domains with a detailed survey of the backed sensing tricks and targeted applications. We then summarized the three types of sensing frontends in circuit design, which is the most critical part in body-area capacitive sensing, and analyzed the data processing pipeline categorized into three kinds of approaches. The outcome will benefit researchers for further body-area electric field explorations. Finally, we described the challenges and outlooks of body-area electric sensing, followed by a conclusion, aiming to encourage researchers to further investigations considering the pervasive and promising usage scenarios backed by body-area capacitive sensing.
SpeciFingers
Authors: Huang Zeyuan , Gao Cangjun , Wang Haiyan , Deng Xiaoming , Lai Yu-Kun , Ma Cuixia , Qin Sheng-feng , Liu Yong-Jin , Wang Hongan
Published: March 2024

The inadequate use of finger properties has limited the input space of touch interaction. By leveraging the category of contacting fingers, finger-specific interaction is able to expand input vocabulary. However, accurate finger identification remains challenging, as it requires either additional sensors or limited sets of identifiable fingers to achieve ideal accuracy in previous works. We introduce SpeciFingers, a novel approach to identify fingers with the capacitive raw data on touchscreens. We apply a neural network of an encoder-decoder architecture, which captures the spatio-temporal features in capacitive image sequences. To assist users in recovering from misidentification, we propose a correction mechanism to replace the existing undo-redo process. Also, we present a design space of finger-specific interaction with example interaction techniques. In particular, we designed and implemented a use case of optimizing the performance in pointing on small targets. We evaluated our identification model and error correction mechanism in our use case.
The Universality of Functions in the Sciences at Large and in Computing
Authors: Boute Raymond
Published: March 2024

Universality
of a concept here means wide conceptual and practical usefulness in mathematics and applications. The
function
concept owes its universality to simplicity, generality, and powerful algebraic properties. Advantages proven in the sciences at large significantly benefit computing science as well.

Universality critically depends on the definitional choices. The first half of this article shows that a “function” in the sense prevalent throughout the sciences, namely, as fully specified by its
domain
and its
values
, entails the characteristics that most contribute to universality. This link is clarified by some less well-understood aspects, including the role of function types as partial specifications, the ramifications of having composition defined for any pair of functions, and unification by capturing various notions not commonly seen as functions. Simple but representative examples are given in diverse areas, mostly computing.

When a
codomain
appears at all in basic textbooks, it mostly involves a self-contradicting definition, corrected by the
labeled
function variant. Either way, it severely reduces universality, especially for composition. Yet, the axiomatization of category theory common in theoretical computing science offers no other choice.

The second half explores how waiving one axiom generalizes category theory to include a wider variety of concepts, primarily the conventional function variant. It is also shown how this can be done unobtrusively for typical categorical notions, such as products, coproducts, functors, natural transformations, adjunctions, Galois connections, and auxiliary concepts, illustrated by example definitions and technical comments.

Allowing the familiar function variant renders category theory more appealing to a wider group of scientists. A lesson for mathematics in general is Rogaway’s maxim: “Your definitional choices should be justified!”.
Comparative Analysis of Shear Strength Prediction Models for Reinforced Concrete Slab–Column Connections
Authors: Wahab Sarmed , Mahmoudabadi Nasim Shakouri , Waqas Sarmad , Herl Nouman , Iqbal Muhammad , Alam Khurshid , Ahmad Afaq
Published: March 2024

This research focuses on a comprehensive comparative analysis of shear strength prediction in slab–column connections, integrating machine learning, design codes, and finite element analysis (FEA). The existing empirical models lack the influencing parameters that decrease their prediction accuracy. In this paper, current design codes of American Concrete Institute 318‐19 (ACI 318‐19) and Eurocode 2 (EC2), as well as innovative approaches like the compressive force path method and machine learning models are employed to predict the punching shear strength using a comprehensive database of 610 samples. The database consists of seven key parameters including slab depth (ds), column dimension (cs), shear span ratio (av/d), yield strength of longitudinal steel (fy), longitudinal reinforcement ratio (ρl), ultimate load‐carrying capacity (Vu), and concrete compressive strength (fc). Compared with the design codes and other machine learning models, the particle swarm optimization‐based feedforward neural network (PSOFNN) performed the best predictions. PSOFNN predicted the punching shear of flat slab with maximum accuracy with R2 value of 99.37% and least MSE and MAE values of 0.0275% and 1.214%, respectively. The findings of the study are validated through FEA of slabs to confirm experimental results and machine learning predictions that showed excellent agreement with PSOFNN predictions. The research also provides insight into the application of metaheuristic models along with ANN, revealing that not all metaheuristic models can outperform ANN as usually perceived. The study also highlights superior predictive capabilities of EC2 over ACI 318‐19 for punching shear values.
Retrospective Analysis of the Efficacy and Safety of Ultrasound-Guided Radiofrequency Ablation in the Treatment of Papillary Thyroid Microcarcinoma: A Follow-Up Study of Continuous Postoperative Surveillance and Large-Sample Data
Authors: Zhou Gongli , Zhang Xuefeng , Xu Ke , Zhang Beibei , Su Ruiqing , Cai Tingting , Zhao Wei , Li Feng
Published: March 2024

Objective. To retrospectively evaluate the efficacy and safety of ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in the treatment of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) through a follow-up study of continuous postoperative surveillance and large-sample data. Methods. The efficacy of ultrasound-guided RFA was evaluated by measuring the tumor volume reduction rate (VRR), tumor disappearance rate, and disease progression in 358 patients with low-risk unifocal PTMC who underwent ultrasound-guided RFA at Hangzhou Weja Hospital, while the safety was evaluated by measuring their complications. Results. The VRR was −745.69 ± 1012.69 (%), −150.35 ± 395.5 (%), 46.47 ± 138.74 (%), 92.95 ± 27.88 (%), 97.78 ± 10.99 (%), and 99.27 ± 3.82 (%), respectively, at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after RFA. The corresponding tumor disappearance rate was 1.68%, 9.78%, 43.85%, 82.68%, 92.59%, and 95.63%, respectively. No local recurrence, new tumors, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and deaths caused by recurrent/metastatic PTMC were found at the last follow-up. Except for 3 cases (0.84%) with thickening or hoarseness of voice and 3 cases (0.84%) with coughing during drinking water, no other complications were found. Conclusions. Ultrasound-guided RFA has good efficacy and safety for the treatment of low-risk unifocal PTMC and can be promoted for use in patients who meet the required indications.
Distributed Cooperative Driving Strategy for Connected Automated Vehicles at Unsignalized Intersections Based on Monte Carlo Method
Authors: Li Haoming , Dong Wei , Lu Linjun , Wang Ying , Wang Xianing
Published: March 2024

One of the most important goals of cooperative driving is to control connected automated vehicles (CAVs) passing through conflict areas safely and efficiently without traffic signals. As a typical application scenario, allocating right‐of‐way reasonably at unsignalized intersections can effectively avoid collisions and reduce traffic delays. Proposed here is a new cooperative driving strategy for CAVs at unsignalized intersections based on distributed Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS). A task‐area partition framework is also proposed to decompose the mission of cooperative driving into three main tasks: vehicle information sharing, passing order optimization, and trajectory control. Based on the schedule tree of the vehicle passing order, the root parallelization of MCTS combined with the majority voting rule is used to explore as many feasible passing orders (leaf nodes) as possible in a distributed way and find a nearly global‐optimal passing order within the limited planning time. The aim is for CAVs to perform proper trajectory adjustments based on the obtained passing order to minimize traffic delays while making the slightest acceleration adjustments. A coupled simulation platform integrating SUMO and Python is developed to construct the unsignalized intersection scenarios and generate the proposed distributed cooperative driving strategy. Comparative analysis with conventional driving strategies demonstrates that the proposed strategy significantly enhances efficiency, safety, comfort, and emission, aligning well with innovative and environmentally friendly urban mobility aspirations.
Optimized ST‐Moran’s I Model for Characterizing the Dynamic Evolution of Terminal Airspace Congestion
Authors: Chen Honghao , Zhu Xinping , Zou Yajun , Li Zhongkun , Zhang Tianxiong
Published: March 2024

This study aims to unveil the spatiotemporal evolution of congestion within terminal airspace, offering an in‐depth analysis of congestion concerns to effectively utilize airspace resources and devise targeted control strategies, thereby enhancing airspace operation safety and efficiency. Initially, converting segment flow rates into equivalent speeds serves as a quantitative benchmark for operational status. Subsequently, an enhanced version of the ST‐Moran’s I index model, specifically tailored to terminal airspace, is developed by incorporating improvements across spatial weight matrices, standard state parameters, and temporal dimensions. Validating this model with actual operational data from Chengdu’s terminal airspace, the research demonstrates significant advancements. Compared to conventional models, the proposed model enhances recognition rates for congestion in spatial and temporal dimensions by 62.5% and 43.61%, respectively. Congestion within terminal airspace predominantly occurs at the intersection of departure‐climb and approach‐departure segments, exhibiting evident spatiotemporal migration behavior. The proposed model accurately delineates the spatiotemporal characteristics of segment congestion, offering support for tailored congestion management strategies.
High‐Entropy Carbonates (Ni‐Mn‐Co‐Zn‐Cr‐Fe) as a Promising Electrocatalyst for Alkalized Seawater Oxidation
Authors: Kim Min Gi , Gaur Ashish , Jang Jin Uk , Na Kyeong-Han , Choi Won-Youl , Han HyukSu
Published: March 2024

Direct seawater splitting has attracted considerable attention as an alternative to conventional alkaline water electrolysis because the former avoids the use of limited freshwater resources. However, several challenges must be overcome to realize direct seawater electrolysis. Most importantly, electrocatalysts for the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) should exhibit high activity, stability, and selectivity in highly corrosive environments with abundant chloride ions. In this study, we developed high‐entropy carbonate (HEC) as a promising electrocatalyst for seawater oxidation. In HECs, physicochemical interactions among different elements can effectively suppress the corrosion of OER active sites, while polyanionic CO32- can act as a corrosion‐protective species by repelling negatively charged chloride ions during electrolysis. Consequently, HECs demonstrate outstanding catalytic activity, stability, and selectivity for seawater oxidation, surpassing those of ternary, quaternary, and quinary carbonates and even benchmark IrO2 catalysts.
FIGURE 5 from Single-Cell CD4 and CD8 T-Cell Secretome Profiling Reveals Temporal and Niche Differences in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Following Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy
Authors: Root Jessica L. , Desai Poonam N. , Ly Christopher , Wang Bofei , Jelloul Fatima Zahra , Zhou Jing , Mackay Sean , Alfayez Mansour , Matthews Jairo , Pierce Sherry , Reville Patrick K. , Daver Naval , Abbas Hussein A.
Published: March 2024

Single-cell cytokine and polyfunctional group analysis at baseline. Heat map of cytokine expression by cluster for A. CD4 T cells. Annotation bars show cluster breakdown by sample location and timepoint. Hierarchical clustering was used to create new polyfunctional groups (CD4-G1-5), which are highlighted by black boxes. B, Boxplots for CD4 T cells show the comparison of complete responders (CR, brown) and nonresponders (NR, blue) at baseline by sample location in these newly defined polyfunctional groups for T cells. C, Heat map of cytokine expression by cluster for CD8 T cells with hierarchical clustering creating new polyfunctional groups (CD8-G1-6). D, Boxplots for CD8 T cells show comparison of CR (brown) and NR (blue) at baseline.
FIGURE 2 from Single-Cell CD4 and CD8 T-Cell Secretome Profiling Reveals Temporal and Niche Differences in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Following Immune Checkpoint Blockade Therapy
Authors: Root Jessica L. , Desai Poonam N. , Ly Christopher , Wang Bofei , Jelloul Fatima Zahra , Zhou Jing , Mackay Sean , Alfayez Mansour , Matthews Jairo , Pierce Sherry , Reville Patrick K. , Daver Naval , Abbas Hussein A.
Published: March 2024

Baseline T-cell functional activity in PB and BM. A, Heat map of T-cell cytokine expression values in PB (n = 20) and BM (n = 16) samples at baseline split by cell subset and scaled by row with clinical characteristic and functional group annotations. ComplexHeatmap was used for data analysis and visualization. B, ComplexHeatmap comparing cytokine expression based on functional groups of CD4 and CD8 cells between TMEs at baseline in the PB and BM. C, Bar plot representation of the significant functional groups from B. Pairwise analysis using ggpaired shows differences based on functional group expression compared between TMEs (P < 0.05).
Low-Grade Glioma within Mature Cystic Teratoma in a Patient with Anti-N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor Encephalitis: A Case Report
Authors: Luo Wenwen , Zheng Jinyue , Su Bojin
Published: March 2024

Introduction: Mature cystic teratoma (MCT) is a common type of ovarian tumors that can, in rare cases, undergo malignant transformation. It has been discovered that MCT patients may experience psychiatric symptoms due to the presence of anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antibodies, which is the underlying cause of autoimmune encephalitis. Here, we present the first documented case of a patient with anti-NMDAR encephalitis who also had a morphology of low-grade glioma within MCT. Case Report: A 45-year-old woman presented with seizures, altered consciousness, abnormal NMDAR antibody IgG titers, and abnormal brain MRI findings confirm the diagnosis of anti-NMDAR encephalitis. Physical examination revealed an oval mixed echo mass measuring 54 × 37 mm in the left adnexal area on ultrasound of the uterine appendage. The patient underwent laparoscopic left ovarian and fallopian tube resection. The pathological gross examination revealed a pile of grayish-red cystic and solid fragmented tissue measuring 7 × 6 × 2.2 cm. Histological examination revealed characteristic components of MCT. Furthermore, the solid component of the gross tissue showed proliferative and densely arranged astrocytes with cellular atypia, which were positive for GFAP and Olig-2, negative for IDH1 and EMA. And the Ki67 index was approximately 10%, suggesting the presence of low-grade glioma lesions. The patient was diagnosed with malignant transformation of MCT into a morphology of low-grade glioma, not otherwise specified. After the removal of the ovarian tumor, the patient’s psychiatric symptoms improved. Conclusions: Low-grade glioma within MCT is a rare occurrence, and the presence of this malignant transformation in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis is even more uncommon.
EiDA: A lossless approach for dynamic functional connectivity; application to fMRI data of a model of ageing
Authors: de Alteriis Giuseppe , MacNicol Eilidh , Hancock Fran , Ciaramella Alessandro , Cash Diana , Expert Paul , Turkheimer Federico E.
Published: March 2024

Dynamic Functional Connectivity (dFC) is the study of the dynamic patterns of interaction that characterise brain function. Numerous numerical methods are available to compute and analyse dFC from high-dimensional data. In fMRI, a number of them rely on the computation of the instantaneous Phase Alignment (iPA) matrix (also known as instantaneous Phase Locking). Their limitations are the high computational cost and the concomitant need to introduce approximations with ensuing information loss. Here, we introduce the analytical decomposition of the iPA. This has two advantages. Firstly, we achieve an up to 1000-fold reduction in computing time without information loss. Secondly, we can formally introduce two alternative approaches to the analysis of the resulting time-varying instantaneous connectivity patterns, Discrete and Continuous EiDA (Eigenvector Dynamic Analysis), and a related set of metrics to quantify the total amount of instantaneous connectivity, drawn from dynamical systems and information theory. We applied EiDA to a dataset from 48 rats that underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at four stages during a longitudinal study of ageing. Using EiDA, we found that the metrics we introduce provided robust markers of ageing with decreases in total connectivity and metastability, and an increase in informational complexity over the life span. This suggests that ageing reduces the available functional repertoire that is postulated to support cognitive functions and overt behaviours, slows down the exploration of this reduced repertoire, and decreases the coherence of its structure. In summary, EiDA is a method to extract lossless connectivity information that requires significantly less computational time, and provides robust and analytically principled metrics for brain dynamics. These metrics are interpretable and promising for studies on neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.
The left posterior angular gyrus is engaged by autobiographical recall not object-semantics, or event-semantics: Evidence from contrastive propositional speech production
Authors: Humphreys Gina F. , Halai Ajay D. , Branzi Francesca M. , Lambon Ralph Matthew A.
Published: March 2024

The angular gyrus (AG) has been implicated in a myriad of cognitive functions. Using the previously under-studied naturalistic task of propositional speech production, we investigated the engagement of the left posterior AG (pAG) by three forms of memory: 1) episodic/autobiographical memory, 2) object semantic-memory, and 3) event-semantic knowledge. We conducted an ALE meta-analysis, followed by an functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. The meta-analysis showed that pAG is only engaged as part of the propositional speech network when the task carries an autobiographical component. This finding was supported by the fMRI results, which also showed that: 1) pAG was positively engaged during autobiographical memory retrieval; 2) pAG was strongly deactivated for definitions of object semantics and non-propositional speech; 3) pAG activation increased with the degree to which the event descriptions relied on autobiographical information; and 4) critically, the pAG showed a different pattern to known semantic representation regions (e.g., ventral anterior temporal lobe (vATL)), thereby providing clear evidence that the pAG is not acting as a semantic hub. Instead, the pAG activation profile directly mirrored that found in the wider autobiographical retrieval network. We propose that information stored elsewhere in the episodic system is temporally buffered online in the pAG during autobiographical retrieval/memory construction.
Ein Beitrag Martin Hartmanns: „Japan und der Islam“
Authors: Knüppel Michael , Sugawara Jun
Published: March 2024

In this article, the authors give an edition of an article by the famous Orientalist Martin Hartmann (1851–1918), one of the founding fathers of the journal Die Welt des Islams, accompanied by an introduction and commentaries. In Hartmann’s text, which has remained unpublished, he comments on the possible consequences of the Russo-Japanese War (1904/05) and its outcome for Japan’s relationship with the Islamic world in general and the Muslims of China in particular. Hartmann takes a clear stance here against the Russian Empire on the one hand, but also against the policies of the European powers towards Japan on the other, and urges a prudent approach to the victor of the aforementioned war. This should be understood, among other things, against the background of the problematic relations between the German Empire and Japan since the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the German Empire’s efforts to push Japan out of China. The original manuscript of this unpublished article is kept in the archives of the University of Halle.
The Sanskrit Auxiliary sthā- ‘stand’, with a Note on Avestan stā-
Authors: Grieco Beatrice
Published: March 2024

Traditional grammars of Sanskrit briefly address the periphrastic use of the verbs i- ‘go’, car- ‘move’, ās- ‘sit’ and sthā- ‘stand’ plus participle or gerund, which convey the meaning ‘to be continually/habitually x’ (x = participle or gerund), but an in-depth analysis of this set of auxiliaries remains a desideratum. This paper specifically addresses the periphrasis formed with the posture verb sthā- ‘stand’. I will investigate the diachronic development of this construction from the Rig-Veda to the Late Vedic period, and I will additionally offer a brief overview of the construction in the Epic Sanskrit language. On the basis of a large diachronically-oriented corpus, I will show that the Rig-Veda does not provide clear evidence of periphrases, whereas in Late Vedic periphrases with sthā- have unambiguously emerged. Furthermore, the data will be compared with the Avestan stā- periphrasis, showing that these two periphrases share certain affinities. This analysis aims to show that there exists a close relationship between this set of periphrases and the intensive category.
From Satélite to the World Screen: Alonso Ruizpalacios’ Museo (2018)
Authors: Ryan Lily
Published: March 2024

This article examines Alonso Ruizpalacios’ 2018 film Museo with a principal focus on place. It looks at the architectural history of protagonist Juan’s hometown, Ciudad Satélite, and the history of Mexico City’s Museum of Anthropology. What is the historical significance of Ciudad Satélite, which was designed by famed architect Mario Pani? What motivates Juan’s journey across Mexico? In answering these questions, it seeks to address how Museo illustrates Mexican national identity and Juan’s sense of mexicanidad. This study also considers how Museo depicts indigenous culture, spaces, and language in relation to Juan’s crime. The final portion of this article looks at Museo’s commercial distribution data. Using world cinema and festival theory, I consider how Ruizpalacios’ work illuminates the nuanced presence of Mexican cinema in global festivals.
New synonyms in yellow Camellia (Theaceae): Camellia erubescens and C. thanxaensa
Authors: ZHAO DONG-WEI
Published: March 2024

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Thriving in dry conditions: on the Neotropical spider genus Galapa (Araneae: Pholcidae)
Authors: HUBER BERNHARD A. , MENG GUANLIANG , GARCÍA JIMMY CABRA , CARVALHO LEONARDO S.
Published: March 2024

The genus Galapa Huber, 2000 includes tiny spiders (body length <1.5 mm) restricted to semi-arid habitats. It has long been thought to be endemic to the Galapagos Islands until G. spiniphila Huber, 2020 was described from the Venezuelan Paraguaná Peninsula. Here, we support this generic assignment with molecular (CO1) data and describe two new species from Colombia (G. gabito Huber sp. n.) and Costa Rica (G. murphyi Huber sp. n.), showing that the genus is actually widely distributed. Distribution modelling identifies several high suitability areas for Galapa, all of which are poorly sampled with respect to Pholcidae (ranging from Nicaragua to northern Peru and Guiana). Our results suggest a strong sampling bias against spiders restricted to dry tropical regions and habitats.
Synthesis of Activated Carbon from Cassava Peeling and Its Applications for Removal of Methylene Blue
Authors: Faouzou Ouro-Agoro , Amenuvevega Dougna Akpénè , Ibrahim Tchakala , Samadou Sanni , Tomkouani Kodom , Seyf-Laye Alfa-Sika Mande , Moctar Bawa Limam
Published: March 2024

The present work aims to increase the value of cassava peelings by its transformation in activated carbon. The activated carbon was prepared by chemical activation using 40% of phosphoric acid solution as activation agent with an impregnation rate equal to 1.5 g of acid/g of precursor. The carbonization was carried out at 400°C for 90 minutes. Bohem titration and the Lopez-Ramon method were used to determine the chemical characteristics of the prepared activated carbon (ACCP), while surface area of the sample was estimated by methylene blue and iodine index methods. The best kinetic model that describes the adsorption reaction of MB on ACCP activated carbon is the pseudo-second-order model. Adsorption isotherm was also evaluated. Activated carbon (ACCP) has the following characteristics: pHPZC= 3.9; Iodine index value equal to 914.4 mg/g and methylene blue index value equal to 643.72 mg/l. ACCP has more acid functions (5.95 meq/g) than basic function (1.3 meq/g). The “batch method” was used for pollutant removal and it reveals that the contact time value is equal to 40 minutes. The influence of activated carbon mass on its methylene blue adsorption capacity was studied. The experimental data are in agreement with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The maximum adsorption capacity obtained using Langmuir isotherm model was 75.93 mg/g.
The Influence of the Green Density on the Quality of ZTA Zirconia Toughened Alumina Plungers
Authors: Subasic Zlata Ibrisimovic , Cejvan Minela
Published: March 2024

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the green density (ρg) on the sintered density (ρs), shrinkage according height and diameter (HS, DS), relative density, porosity and hardness of ZTA ceramic plungers. Zirconia toughened alumina is characterized by excellent properties of hardness, toughness, thermal and chemical resistance, which make composite material interesting for multiple applications. Some of the significant applications of ZTA ceramics are in the production of biomedical implants, cutting tools, parts for pumps and others. The material is composed of high purity alumina 90% and 10% of zirconium oxide. This material successfully compensate fragility of the alumina and zirconium oxide price. After 24 hours of milling in a ball mill (Dorst, Germany) slurry with a specific surface 25 832 cm2/g was transferred into a mixer with addition of binders (PVA + soap based binder) through a vibrating sieve (British and Foreign Patents). Solid content (%) of the slurry in amount of 69.16 was confirmed by thermogravimetric and differential gravimetric analyzes. The 1000 kg of the powder dried by spray drying (Spray dryer Niro) contains 2.6% of binders and 0.2% of moisture. Three sets of plungers with outer diameter of 3.6 cm, inner diameter of 2.0 cm and height of 7.6 cm were produced by cold isostatic pressing (CIP) using different pressures. The first set marked as 'A' was pressed by pressure of 80 MPa, the second set marked as 'B' was pressed by pressure of 100 MPa, and third set marked as 'C', was pressed by pressure of 150 MPa. According to statistical data processing, comparison and analysis of the results it is concluded that the quality of the ZTA plungers, in specific presented case, significantly depends on the green density (ρg).