bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Design and emotional responses: is there coherence between what is said and what is felt? A study using biofeedback and virtual reality
Authors: Tavares Ademario Santos , Soares Marcelo M. , Marçal Marcio A.
Published: March 2024

Identifying users’ experience when using products is one of the major challenges for design. Analyzing users’ psychophysiological reactions to an experience using biofeedback can produce more reliable results than using subjective evaluations, such as structured interviews and questionnaires. Two case studies were conducted to identify emotions users actually felt and to check whether there is some correspondence with what they reported after using two computational systems. The first system investigated users’ emotions during training on a vehicle driving simulator, and the second analyzed the emotions experienced during a car racing game, both in a virtual reality environment. User’s opinions about their emotional state were obtained using self-report techniques (using the Geneva Emotions Wheel—GEW and Positive and Negative Affective Schedule—PANAS questionnaires) and applying EEG (brain activity with Frontal Alpha Asymmetry Index—FAAI) and infrared thermography (facial thermograms). The training experiment presented the greater concordance between the psychophysiological and the self-report responses. Results evidenced the importance of undertaking multimodal studies in design research to determine users’ emotional experiences in a virtual reality context.
Modeling and forecasting mortality with economic, environmental and lifestyle variables
Authors: Dimai Matteo
Published: March 2024

Traditional stochastic mortality models tend to extrapolate, to focus on identifying trends in mortality without explaining them. Those that do link mortality with other variables usually limit themselves to GDP. This article presents a novel stochastic mortality model that incorporates a wide range of variables related to economic, environmental and lifestyle factors to predict mortality. The model uses principal components derived from these variables, extending the Niu and Melenberg (Demography 51(5):1755–1773, 2014) model to variables other than GDP, and is applied to 37 countries from the Human Mortality Database. Model fit is superior to the Lee–Carter model for 18 countries. The forecasting accuracy of the proposed model is better than that of the Niu–Melenberg model for half of the countries analyzed under various jump-off years. The model highlights the importance of economic prosperity and healthy lifestyle choices in improving lifespan, while the effect of environmental variables is mixed. By clarifying the specific contributions of different factors and thus making trade-offs explicit, the model is designed to facilitate scenario building and policy planning.
Tales of Turbulence: BERT-based Multimodal Analysis of FED Communication Dynamics Amidst COVID-19 Through FOMC Minutes
Authors: Taskin Bilal , Akal Fuat
Published: March 2024

This study analyzes Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes using state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing techniques. We sought to investigate the effect of the global COVID-19 crisis on the FOMC minutes’ pattern and the strength of the Federal Reserve to influence inflation expectations through its primary press releases. To this end, we first quantified minutes leveraging domain-specific pre-trained Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers models (FinBERTs). Then, we applied dynamic time warping to measure temporal sequence proximity over time. In addition, we built multivariable autoregressive integrated moving average models to verify our findings by injecting exogenous variables as indicator functions into the time series. The results suggest that the Federal Reserve has abstained from adjusting its tone and the forward-lookingness settings of its statements for the global pandemic. Therefore, the longstanding association of the FED's tone and forward-lookingness with consumers’ inflation expectations index has weakened during the global health crisis.
Cybernetic governance: implications of technology convergence on governance convergence
Authors: Zwitter Andrej
Published: March 2024

Governance theory in political science and international relations has to adapt to the onset of an increasingly digital society. However, until now, technological advancements and the increasing convergence of technologies outpace regulatory efforts and frustrate any efforts to apply ethical and legal frameworks to these domains. This is due to the convergence of multiple, sometimes incompatible governance frameworks that accompany the integration of technologies on different platforms. This theoretical claim will be illustrated by examples such as the integration of technologies on the “human platform” as it is referred to in the case of enhanced soldiers. Hence, successful governance might require new approaches borrowed from a distant relative, namely cybernetics. Insights gained from cybernetics for governance theories might be able to give guidance for a more efficient and adaptive governance approach that is able to deal with increasing complexity caused by technology and governance convergence. While cybernetics itself might be considered a governance approach, it has had surprisingly little reception in the wider field of governance within the area of social and political sciences. This article will develop cybernetic governance as a set of expandable governance principles that are applicable to an increasingly complex digital and smart society. It thereby tries to further galvanise what could be termed cybernetic governance theory as a subject of worthwhile insights from the combination of otherwise largely the disjoined fields of cybernetics and governance.
Depression and Personality Traits Across Adolescence—Within-Person Analyses of a Birth Cohort
Authors: Morken Ida Sund , Wichstrøm Lars , Steinsbekk Silje , Viddal Kristine Rensvik
Published: March 2024

Depressive symptoms and personality traits covary in adolescents, but our understanding of the nature of this relation is limited. Whereas a predisposition explanation posits that specific personality traits increase the vulnerability for developing depression, a scar explanation proposes that depression may alter premorbid personality. Attempts to test these explanatory models have relied on analyses that conflate within-person changes and between-person differences, which limits the implications that can be drawn. Moreover, research on the early adolescent years is lacking. The present study therefore examined within-person associations between depressive symptoms and Big Five personality traits across ages 10 to 16. Children (n = 817; 49.9% boys) and parents from two birth cohorts in Trondheim, Norway, were assessed biennially with clinical interviews capturing symptoms of major depressive disorder and dysthymia, and self-reported Big Five personality traits. Analyses were conducted using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model, which accounts for all unmeasured time-invariant confounding effects. Increased Neuroticism predicted an increased number of depressive symptoms—and increased depressive symptoms predicted increased Neuroticism—across ages 10 to 14. Moreover, increased depressive symptoms forecast reduced Extraversion across ages 10 to 16, and reduced Conscientiousness from ages 12 to 14. Increases in Neuroticism may contribute to the development of depressive symptoms—in line with the predisposition model. As regards the scar model, depression may have an even wider impact on personality traits: increasing Neuroticism and reducing Extraversion and Conscientiousness. These effects may already be present in the earliest adolescent years.
Teaching Scientific Integrity in Academia: What and How Students Want to Learn?
Authors: Sira N. , Decker M. , Lemke C. , Winkens A. , Leicht-Scholten C. , Groß D.
Published: March 2024

Training in scientific integrity continues to be an important topic in universities and other research institutions. Its main goal is to prevent scientific misconduct and promote good scientific practice. However, there is still no consensus on how scientific integrity should be taught. Moreover, the perspective of those who receive such training is often underrepresented. Yet it is precisely their interests and needs that must be considered when developing educational programs. Against this backdrop, we conducted a mixed-methods study with the goal of capturing students’ perspectives on the teaching of scientific integrity. Using our online Scientific Integrity course, we explore what specific aspects of digital teaching on scientific integrity are valued, and explore other topics of interest from students’ perspectives on scientific integrity. The article presents (1) students’ self-assessment before (Q1) and after (Q2) taking the online Scientific Integrity course at the RWTH Aachen University in Germany (2) students’ feedback on the course format, video, exam, organization, and support (Q2) (3) a list of other topics of interest in the area of scientific integrity (Q2). The research outcomes demonstrate an improvement in the study participants’ self-assessment after following the online course and there is a general satisfaction among the students in regard to the course digital format and its components although a desire to have more exchange and discussion was expressed. Further topics of interest in the area of scientific integrity that study participants would like to learn about have a practical appeal and among others include research pressure, examples of applications, preventive measures, theory of science, citation rules, funding of university research. Although the results relate to our course, they provide insight into students’ perspectives on online teaching of scientific integrity. Thus, they may be helpful to higher education institutions developing online courses on scientific integrity that are tailored to university students.
Collaborative research in healthcare: uncovering the impact of industry collaboration on the service innovativeness of university hospitals
Authors: Huynh Thomas
Published: March 2024

In the face of the challenges of rising demand and increasing economic pressure, medical service innovations and university hospitals are becoming increasingly important as cornerstones for the continuous development of medical care. Simultaneously, increasing technological complexity, scarce funding, and resource-intensive technology development are forcing university hospitals to open up their internal innovation processes. Numerous studies have highlighted the beneficial effects of cross-sectoral collaboration on the innovation performance of industrial entities, while neglecting the perspective of academic institutions. The impact of industry collaborations on the service innovativeness of university hospitals in particular has not been addressed in previous research. Although the potential for nonlinear effects of university-industry collaborations has been discussed in research, adequate evidence, particularly in the healthcare context, has not been provided. Therefore, this study addresses the questions: (1) What is the impact of university-hospital-industry collaboration (UHIC) on the service innovativeness of university hospitals? (2) Can a nonlinear relationship between UHIC and university hospitals' service innovativeness be empirically verified? The hypotheses are tested based on an unbalanced panel data set, which combines three distinct data sources and comprises annual observations from 2011 until 2019 of all German university hospitals. The findings indicate that the UHIC intensity has a positive effect on university hospitals’ service innovativeness with a one-year time lag. Furthermore, a negative quadratic UHIC effect was found. In doing so, this study complements existing research and opens the black box by uncovering the downside of cross-sectoral collaboration for a more complete understanding of the underlying dynamics of this growing area of research, with a particular focus on university hospitals.
Isotopes: How did they all begin? Primordial nucleosynthesis: experimental study of the roles of neutrons
Authors: Shima Tatsushi
Published: March 2024

Light nuclei with mass number of below 8 are considered to be produced by the so-called the Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) occurring in the early universe. Since BBN depends on various assumptions related to the origin of the universe and the laws of fundamental interactions and elementary particles, those assumptions can be verified by comparing the abundances of light isotopes calculated with BBN and the astronomically observed ones. Since the neutrons are the starting materials of BBN together with protons, and also they are electrically neutral, they play a unique and critical roles in BBN. In this paper status of the BBN analysis and experimental studies of the properties of neutrons relevant to BBN will be reviewed.
Learning fused lasso parameters in portfolio selection via neural networks
Authors: Corsaro Stefania , De Simone Valentina , Marino Zelda , Scognamiglio Salvatore
Published: March 2024

In recent years, fused lasso models are becoming popular in several fields, such as computer vision, classification and finance. In portfolio selection, they can be used to penalize active positions and portfolio turnover. Despite efficient algorithms and software for solving non-smooth optimization problems have been developed, the amount of regularization to apply is a critical issue, especially if we have to achieve a financial aim. We propose a data-driven approach for learning the regularization parameters in a fused lasso formulation of the multi-period portfolio selection problem, able to realize a given financial target. We design a neural network architecture based on recurrent networks for learning the functional dependence between the regularization parameters and the input data. In particular, the Long Short-Term Memory networks are considered for their ability to process sequential data, such as the time series of the asset returns. Numerical experiments performed on market data show the effectiveness of our approach.
Agro-ecosystem of honeybees as source for native probiotic yeasts
Authors: Agarbati Alice , Moretti Laura , Canonico Laura , Ciani Maurizio , Comitini Francesca
Published: March 2024

Probiotic microorganisms are used to improve the health and wellness of people and the research on this topic is of current relevance and interest. Fifty-five yeasts, coming from honeybee’s ecosystem and belonging to Candida, Debaryomyces, Hanseniaspora, Lachancea, Metschnikowia, Meyerozyma, Starmerella and Zygosacchromyces genera and related different species, were evaluated for the probiotic traits. The resistance to gastrointestinal conditions, auto-aggregation, cell surface hydrophobicity or biofilm formation abilities as well as antimicrobial activity against common human pathogenic bacteria were evaluated. The safety analysis of strains was also carried out to exclude any possible negative effect on the consumer’s health. The influence of proteinase treatment of living yeasts and their adhesion to Caco-2 cells were also evaluated. The greatest selection occurred in the first step of survival at the acidic pH and in the presence of bile salts, where more than 50% of the strains were unable to survive. Equally discriminating was the protease test which allowed the survival of only 27 strains belonging to the species Hanseniaspora guilliermondii, Hanseniaspora uvarum, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, Metschnikowia ziziphicola, Meyerozyma caribbica, Meyerozyma guilliermondii, Pichia kluyveri, Pichia kudriavzevii and Pichia terricola. An integrated analysis of the results obtained allowed the detection of seven yeast strains with probiotic aptitudes, all belonging to the Meyerozyma genus, of which three belonging to M. guillermondii and four belonging to M. caribbica species.
Learning more about derivative: leveraging online resources for varied realizations
Authors: Radmehr Farzad , Turgut Melih
Published: March 2024

Recent literature underlines the increasing use of online platforms in learning undergraduate mathematics, where students refer to these as supplementary resources to develop their mathematical understanding. Through an intrinsic case study, we focus on a highly viewed YouTube learning resource for learning derivative. The selected case is from 3Blue1Brown, a YouTube channel whose founder has received an award from the American Mathematical Society. The video has garnered more than 3.3 million views in the past couple of years. Reflecting on the relevant literature, a realization tree for derivative is developed and then used as an analytical tool to analyze this resource to explore what realizations have been used in it to facilitate students’ understanding of derivative. The findings indicate that the analyzed YouTube resource discusses various realizations of derivative, including all its five main realizations, and effectively utilizes new digital technology for discussing these realizations. Such an exceptional resource for learning mathematics leads us to suggest that mathematics lecturers raise their awareness about such online free resources and incorporate them into their teaching packages when appropriate to facilitate student learning.
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Heritage Festival Soundscapes—A Critical Review of Literature
Authors: Parker Murray , Spennemann Dirk H. R. , Bond Jennifer
Published: March 2024

Purpose of Review

The response to COVID-19 in the global community resulted in a disruption of usual sensory experiences associated with quotidian life and special events. While research has investigated urban and rural soundscape alteration/change during COVID and post-COVID, no summative work has focused on soundscapes of traditional (heritage) festivals. Research is warranted as cultural heritage festivals are significant and fundamental for human societal functioning, and associated soundscapes are a key aural reflection of these. This paper aims to critically review literature published from 2020 on the effect of COVID-19 on heritage festival soundscapes, with a particular focus on the loss of aural experience examined from a community perspective.

Recent Findings

We identified fourteen articles which covered heritage festival sounds or soundscapes, with the resultant aural experience being transformed, postponed or discontinued due to pandemic restrictions. There was a distinct lack of formal research investigating how communities perceived these changed soundscapes, with perceptions generally based on researcher’s own perspectives, either through informal conversations with community members or through content analysis. Furthermore, we identified no research which specifically targeted community perceptions of transformed heritage festival soundscapes.

In recognising and understanding both the importance of sensory components in creating a festival atmosphere and the significance of heritage festivals to the community as a cultural signature, the COVID-19 pandemic gives us a chance to pause and consider festival sensory components as an experienced intangible form of heritage and to question how alteration of these sensory heritage experiences concerns the communities affected.

Graphical Abstract

Visual collage of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on heritage festival soundscapes

The response to COVID-19 resulted in a disruption of usual sensory experiences. In recognising the importance of festival sensory components in creating an atmosphere and the significance of heritage festivals to the community, the pandemic gives us an opportunity to consider festival sensory components as an experienced intangible form of heritage.
Technology development pathways: enigmas of appropriate technology choice
Authors: Bera Subhasis , Rahut Dil
Published: March 2024

The quest for technological development as a solution for sustainable development is the genesis of the multidimensional conflict between sustainability, competitive innovation and technological progress. Albeit persistent cognisance for appropriate technology solutions for a specific issue, the debate on the choice between short-run solutions and sustainability, local or global development, awareness and consumption, political gains, and citizens’ benefits remains inconclusive. This paper argues that the debate stems from misunderstanding the term sustainability and the strategic misrepresentation of technology for political gain. Concurrently, the inability of the market failure rationale to choose appropriate technology to minimise the divergence between the private and social benefit makes the policy formulation problem more intricate. Furthermore, despite increasing awareness regarding the environmental status, failure to alter their consumption pattern to reduce the energy requirement exacerbates the issues. These multidimensional aspects can obscure possibilities for true sustainability and socially deliberate technological futures.
MKTN: Adversarial-Based Multifarious Knowledge Transfer Network from Complementary Teachers
Authors: Zhang Xiaobing , Chang Heyu , Hao Yaohui , Chang Dexian
Published: March 2024

With the demands for light deep networks models in various front-end devices, network compression has attracted increasing interest for reducing model sizes yet without sacrificing much model accuracy. This paper presents a multifarious knowledge transfer network (MKTN) that aims to produce a compact yet powerful student network from two complementary teacher networks. Instead of learning homogeneous features, the idea is to pre-train one teacher to capture generative and low-level image features under a reconstruction objective, and another teacher to capture discriminative and task-specific features under the same objective as the student network. During knowledge transfer, the student learns multifarious and complementary knowledge from the two teacher networks under the guidance of the proposed adversarial loss and feature loss respectively. Experimental results indicate that the proposed training losses can effectively guide the student to learn spatial-level and pixel-level information as distilled from teacher networks. On the other hand, our study over a number of widely used datasets shows that transferring multifarious features from complementary teachers equipped with different types of knowledge helps to teach a compact yet powerful student effectively.
Relevance Logic
Authors: Logan Shay Allen
Published: March 2024

Relevance logics are a misunderstood lot. Despite being the subject of intense study for nearly a century, they remain maligned as too complicated, too abstruse, or too silly to be worth learning much about. This Element aims to dispel these misunderstandings. By focusing on the weak relevant logic B, the discussion provides an entry point into a rich and diverse family of logics. Also, it contains the first-ever textbook treatment of quantification in relevance logics, as well as an overview of the cutting edge on variable sharing results and a guide to further topics in the field.
Beyond “Geological Nature,” Fatalistic Determinism and Pop‐Anthropocene: Social, Cultural, and Political Aspects of the Anthropocene
Authors: Żuk Piotr , Żuk Paweł
Published: March 2024

The commentary encourages supplementing the geological and natural concept of the Anthropocene with a cultural and political aspect. These two perspectives are not mutually exclusive but are complementary. This approach can facilitate its transition from the language of academic debate to practical and necessary actions at the societal level. According to the authors, the slightly abstract and impersonal Anthropocene should be shown in the context of cultural, economic and political dependencies and choices that created it and continue to reproduce its logic. This turn also opens up a new area for analyzing the Anthropocene from the perspective of a critique of political economy (an analysis of the costs of economic policies that reproduce and accelerate successive stages of the ecological catastrophe) as well as of civic culture (research “anthropocentric awareness” or “anthropocentric citizenship” in entire societies). Thus, the authors suggest rejecting the fatalistic determinism of the Anthropocene as a process that, although originally caused by abstract (devoid of historical, economic and political contexts) humans, is now often treated as a phenomenon beyond the reach of social action.
A Sub‐relativistic Electron Three‐Belt Event in the Earth's Radiation Belts: Observation and Explanation
Authors: Chen Jia‐Li , Zou Hong , Hao Yi‐Xin , Ye Yu‐Guang , Miyoshi Yoshizumi , Matsuoka Ayako , Shinohara Iku , Teramoto Mariko , Xu Shi‐Ge
Published: March 2024

The Van Allen Probes mission contributed to the discovery of the relativistic (∼500 keV–2 MeV) and ultra‐relativistic (∼>2 MeV) electron three‐belt structure in Earth's radiation belts. This structure results from the partial depletion of the preexisting outer belt and the replenishment of a new outer belt. Ultra‐low frequency and very‐low frequency waves are believed to play important roles in these processes, and substorm injections are usually not responsible for the formation of the external outer belt. In this study, based on observations from the Arase and NOAA‐18 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration‐18) satellites, we report an electron three‐belt event in the energy range of ∼100–200 keV (i.e., sub‐relativistic electrons). According to the evolution of the phase space density and the dawn‐dusk asymmetric flux enhancement during this event, we conclude that the depletion of the upper part of the original outer belt was due to outward radial diffusion accompanied by magnetopause shadowing effect and convection, and the formation of the external outer belt was due to increased electron flux from convection as well as substorm injections. This discovery and its preliminary explanation may help understand the electron three‐belt structure in radiation belts more comprehensively.
Formation of In‐Cloud Aqueous‐Phase Secondary Organic Matter and Related Characteristic Molecules
Authors: Sun Wei , Zhang Guohua , Guo Ziyong , Fu Yuzhen , Peng Xiaocong , Yang Yuxiang , Hu Xiaodong , Lin Juying , Jiang Feng , Jiang Bin , Liao Yuhong , Chen Duohong , Chen Jianmin , Ou Jie , Wang Xinming , Peng Ping'an , Bi Xinhui
Published: March 2024

The formation process of in‐cloud aqueous‐phase secondary organic matter (aqSOM) and its characteristics are unclear. Herein, water‐soluble inorganic ions, oxalate, and water‐soluble organic carbon (WSOC) were determined in cloud water and aerosol (PM2.5) samples simultaneously collected at a remote mountain site in southern China during spring 2018 and winter 2020. The molecular compositions of water‐soluble organic matter (WSOM) in cloud water and aerosols were analyzed by a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer in negative electrospray ionization (ESI‐) mode. The results showed that the mean concentration of WSOC was 6.27–8.54 mg C L−1 in cloud water and 0.60–1.37 μg C m−3 in aerosols. The strong correlation observed between WSOM and aqueous secondary matter (e.g., NO3− and oxalate), the positive matrix factorization results, and the elevated WSOM/K+ ratios observed in cloud water suggested enhanced aqSOM formation in cloud water. According to random forest analysis, the factors related to in‐cloud WSOM variation mainly included secondary ions, K+, cloud water pH, and atmospheric NOx. Additionally, 37 characteristic in‐cloud aqSOM molecules, classified as ‐Ox, ‐NOx, ‐N2Ox, and ‐N1‐2OxS, mainly consisting of dicarboxylic acids, nitrophenols, and dinitrophenols, were identified using linear discriminant analysis effect size (LefSe). The characteristic N‐ and S‐containing molecules in in‐cloud aqSOM with carbon numbers >10 had low or extremely low volatility; therefore, they might contribute to secondary organic aerosol formation after droplet evaporation. The results revealed the modifying effects of in‐cloud processes on aerosol organic composition at the molecular level and could improve our understanding of aerosol–cloud interactions.
Climate Model Simulations of the Effects of Orbital Parameters on Glacier Equilibrium Line Altitude
Authors: O’Neill G. R. , Broccoli A. J.
Published: March 2024

The effects of obliquity and precession on conditions favorable for Northern Hemisphere glaciation are explored using an energy balance and mass balance model of equilibrium line altitude (ELA), the height on a glacier where accumulation and ablation are in balance annually. Climate forcing for the ELA model is obtained from idealized single‐forcing orbital simulations with two atm‐ocean general circulation models, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) CM2.1 and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Community Earth System Model version 1.2. Over Scandinavia and Baffin Island, the respective locations in which the Scandinavian and Laurentide ice sheets are thought to have originated, low obliquity and perihelion at the boreal winter solstice are associated with lower ELA values, as would be expected from the orbital theory of the ice ages. Linear reconstructions of ELA variations over the past 800 kyr indicate that precession dominated ELA variations in Scandinavia and Baffin Island in the GFDL model, and in Scandinavia in the NCAR model. Obliquity and precession played equal roles in Baffin Island in the NCAR model. A decomposition of the ELA responses finds that the effects of ablation on ELA are much larger than the effects of precipitation. Overall, the findings of this study point to precession being a more important factor in glacial inception than obliquity, which contrasts with previous findings in which obliquity had a slightly larger effect on positive degree days (PDDs), a simple metric for ablation. This is likely due to differences in seasonality of melt from the ELA model and PDDs.
Cross‐Polarization Gain Calibration of Linearly Polarized VLBI Antennas by Observations of 4C 39.25
Authors: Jaron F. , Martí‐Vidal I. , Schartner M. , González‐García J. , Albentosa‐Ruiz E. , Bernhart S. , Böhm J. , Gruber J. , Modiri S. , Nothnagel A. , Pérez‐Díez V. , Savolainen T. , Soja B. , Varenius E. , Xu M. H.
Published: March 2024

Radio telescopes with dual linearly polarized feeds regularly participate in Very Long Baseline Interferometry. One example is the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS), which is employed for high‐precision geodesy and astrometry. In order to achieve the maximum signal‐to‐noise ratio, the visibilities of all four polarization products are combined to Stokes I before fringe‐fitting. Our aim is to improve cross‐polarization bandpass calibration, which is an essential processing step in this context. Here we investigate the shapes of these station‐specific quantities as a function of frequency and time. We observed the extra‐galactic source 4C 39.25 for 6 hours with a VGOS network. We correlated the data with the DiFX software and analyzed the visibilities with PolConvert to determine the complex cross‐bandpasses with high accuracy. Their frequency‐dependent shape is to first order characterized by a group delay between the two orthogonal polarizations, in the order of several hundred picoseconds. We find that this group delay shows systematic variability in the range of a few picoseconds, but can remain stable within this range for several years, as evident from earlier sessions. On top of the linear phase‐frequency relationship there are systematic deviations of several tens of degrees, which in addition are subject to smooth temporal evolution. The antenna cross‐bandpasses are variable on time scales of ∼1 hr, which defines the frequency of necessary calibrator scans. The source 4C 39.25 is confirmed as an excellent cross‐bandpass calibrator. Dedicated surveys are highly encouraged to search for more calibrators of similar quality.
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor blockade reprograms macrophages and disrupts prosurvival signaling in acute myeloid leukemia
Authors: Spertini Caroline , Bénéchet Alexandre P. , Birch Flora , Bellotti Axel , Román-Trufero Mónica , Arber Caroline , Auner Holger W. , Mitchell Robert A. , Spertini Olivier , Smirnova Tatiana
Published: March 2024

The malignant microenvironment plays a major role in the development of resistance to therapies and the occurrence of relapses in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We previously showed that interactions of AML blasts with bone marrow macrophages (MΦ) shift their polarization towards a protumoral (M2-like) phenotype, promoting drug resistance; we demonstrated that inhibiting the colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor (CSF1R) repolarizes MΦ towards an antitumoral (M1-like) phenotype and that other factors may be involved. We investigated here macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) as a target in AML blast survival and protumoral interactions with MΦ. We show that pharmacologically inhibiting MIF secreted by AML blasts results in their apoptosis. However, this effect is abrogated when blasts are co-cultured in close contact with M2-like MΦ. We next demonstrate that pharmacological inhibition of MIF secreted by MΦ, in the presence of granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), efficiently reprograms MΦ to an M1-like phenotype that triggers apoptosis of interacting blasts. Furthermore, contact with reprogrammed MΦ relieves blast resistance to venetoclax and midostaurin acquired in contact with CD163+ protumoral MΦ. Using intravital imaging in mice, we also show that treatment with MIF inhibitor 4-IPP and GM-CSF profoundly affects the tumor microenvironment in vivo: it strikingly inhibits tumor vasculature, reduces protumoral MΦ, and slows down leukemia progression. Thus, our data demonstrate that MIF plays a crucial role in AML MΦ M2-like protumoral phenotype that can be reversed by inhibiting its activity and suggest the therapeutic targeting of MIF as an avenue towards improved AML treatment outcomes.
Development of beat-by-beat blood pressure monitoring device and nocturnal sec-surge detection algorithm
Authors: Kokubo Ayako , Kuwabara Mitsuo , Tomitani Naoko , Yamashita Shingo , Shiga Toshikazu , Kario Kazuomi
Published: March 2024

The nocturnal blood pressure (BP) surge in seconds (sec-surge) is defined as a brief, acute transient BP elevation over several tens of seconds, triggered by obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and sympathetic hyperactivity. Sec-surge imposes a significant strain on the cardiovascular system, potentially triggering cardiovascular events. Quantitative evaluation of sec-surge level could be valuable in assessing cardiovascular risks. To accurately measure the detailed sec-surge, including its shape as BP rises and falls, we developed a beat-by-beat (BbB) BP monitoring device using tonometry. In addition, we developed an automatic sec-surge detection algorithm to help identify sec-surge cases in the overnight BbB BP data. The device and algorithm successfully detected sec-surges in patients with OSA. Our results demonstrated that sec-surge was associated with left ventricular hypertrophy and arterial stiffness independently of nocturnal BP level or variability. Sec-surge would be worth monitoring for assessing cardiovascular risks, in addition to nocturnal BP level.
Manufacturing supported loose-nanofiltration polymeric membranes with eco-friendly solvents on an R2R System
Authors: Lu David , Jung Kwangjun , Shim Ju Young , Harris Tequila A. L. , Escobar Isabel C.
Published: March 2024

In this study, loose nanofiltration membranes made of polysulfone dissolved in co-solvents PolarClean and gamma-Valerolactone were prepared via slot die coating (SDC) on a roll-to-roll (R2R) system by directly coating them onto a support layer or free standing. A solution flow rate of 20 mL/min, substrate speed of 17.1 mm/s, and coating gap of 0.1 mm resulted in the formation of membranes without structural defects. Pre-wetting the support layer with dope solution minimized shrinkage of membrane layer thickness and improved interfacial adhesion. Membrane samples produced using SDC exhibited properties and performance consistent with bench-scale doctor blade extruded samples; pre-wetted and uncompressed samples (SDC-3) exhibited the highest rejection of bovine serum albumin (99.20% ± 1.31%) and along with adequate mean permeability during filtration (70.5 ± 8.33 LMH/bar). This study shows that combining sustainable materials development with SDC provides a holistic approach to membrane separations to bridge materials discovery and membrane formation.
Brain metabolism response to intrahospital transfers in neurocritical ill patients and the impact of microdialysis probe location
Authors: Pedrosa Leire , Hoyos Jhon , Reyes Luis , Mosteiro Alejandra , Zattera Luigi , Topczewski Thomaz , Rodríguez-Hernández Ana , Amaro Sergio , Torné Ramon , Enseñat Joaquim
Published: March 2024

Intrahospital transfer (IHT), a routine in the management of neurocritical patients requiring imaging or interventions, might affect brain metabolism. Studies about IHT effects using microdialysis (MD) have produced conflicting results. In these studies, only the most damaged hemisphere was monitored, and those may not reflect the impact of IHT on overall brain metabolism, nor do they address differences between the hemispheres. Herein we aimed to quantify the effect of IHT on brain metabolism by monitoring both hemispheres with bilateral MD. In this study, 27 patients with severe brain injury (10 traumatic brain injury and 17 subarachnoid hemorrhage patients) were included, with a total of 67 IHT. Glucose, glycerol, pyruvate and lactate were measured by MD in both hemispheres for 10 h pre- and post-IHT. Alterations in metabolite levels after IHT were observed on both hemispheres; although these changes were more marked in hemisphere A (most damaged) than B (less damaged). Our results suggest that brain metabolism is altered after an IHT of neurocritical ill patients particularly but not limited to the damaged hemisphere. Bilateral monitorization may be more sensitive than unilateral monitorization for detecting metabolic disturbances not directly related to the course of the disease.
Thermal performance augmentation in a pipe employing hybrid nanofluid and a plate as turbulator with V-shaped double-winglet ribs
Authors: Fan Zhongmian , Wang Lingxiao , Liu Changjun , Abdollahi Seyyed Amirreza
Published: March 2024

This article employs a plate with V-shape ribs inside a tube as turbulator to augment the heat transfer rate. The utilized vortex generators are double-winglets arranged in a V-shape placed on both sides of the plate. The proposed system’s suggested working fluids are water-based hybrid nanofluids, including Al2O3–Cu/water, Cu–CuO/water, and Cu–TiO2/water. This work involves a numerical evaluation of the effects of the type and volume concentration of the examined hybrid nanofluids on the enhancement of heat transfer. The experimental results are used to validate the numerical model. It is worth mentioning that all the obtained numerical results are compared with the simple tube, without any turbulator (vortex generator) and in the presence of water instead of the hybrid nanofluids. Based on the numerical results, it can be concluded that all employed hybrid nanofluids showed improved thermal performance compared to pure water. Furthermore, the differences between the models are more substantial for higher Reynolds numbers than for lower Reynolds numbers. In Re = 30,000, the Cu–TiO2/water exhibits the lowest thermal performance improvement (augmentation of about 0.3%), while the Cu–CuO/water at Re = 50,000 exhibits the largest thermal performance improvement (augmentation of approximately 5.7%), in the case of ∅1 = ∅2 = 0.5%. For ∅1 = ∅2 = 1%, the Cu–TiO2/water at Re = 30,000 has the lowest thermal performance improvement (augmentation of around 1.1%), while the Cu–CuO/water at Re = 50,000 has the most thermal performance improvement (augmentation of roughly 8.7%). According to the augmentation of around 2.8% at Re = 30,000 for Cu–TiO2/water and approximately 10.8% at Re = 50,000 for Cu–CuO/water, the thermal performance increase in the scenario of ∅1 = ∅2 = 1.5% is the lowest. In Conclusion, the Cu–CuO/water hybrid nanofluid with a volume concentration of ∅1 = ∅2 = 1.5% has the greatest thermal performance value of all the hybrid nanofluids studied.
Automatic analysis of the continuous edges of stone tools reveals fundamental handaxe variability
Authors: Muller Antoine , Sharon Gonen , Grosman Leore
Published: March 2024

The edges of stone tools have significant technological and functional implications. The nature of these edges–their sharpness, whether they are concave or convex, and their asymmetry–reflect how they were made and how they could be used. Similarly, blunt portions of a tool’s perimeter hint at how they could have been grasped or hafted and in which directions force could be applied. However, due to the difficulty in accurately measuring the complex 3D geometry of tool edges with traditional methods, their attributes are often overlooked. When they are analyzed, they have traditionally been assessed with visual qualitative categories or unreliable physical measurements. We introduce new computational 3D methods for automatically and repeatably measuring key attributes of stone tool edges. These methods allow us to automatically identify the 3D perimeter of tools, segment this perimeter according to changes in edge angles, and measure these discrete edge segments with a range of metrics. We test this new computational toolkit on a large sample of 3D models of handaxes from the later Acheulean of the southern Levant. Despite these handaxes being otherwise technologically and morphologically similar, we find marked differences in the amount of knapped outline, edge angle, and the concavity of their edges. We find many handaxes possess blunt portions of perimeter, suitable for grasping, and some handaxes even possess more than one discrete sharp edge. Among our sample, sites with longer occupations and more diverse toolkits possessed handaxes with more diverse edges. Above all, this paper offers new methods for computing the complex 3D geometry of stone tool edges that could be applied to any number of artifact types. These methods are fully automated, allowing the analysis and visualization of entire assemblages.
Brain temperature and free water increases after mild COVID-19 infection
Authors: Sharma Ayushe A. , Nenert Rodolphe , Goodman Adam M. , Szaflarski Jerzy P.
Published: March 2024

The pathophysiology underlying the post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 remains understudied and poorly understood, particularly in healthy adults with a history of mild infection. Chronic neuroinflammation may underlie these enduring symptoms, but studying neuroinflammatory phenomena in vivo is challenging, especially without a comparable pre-COVID-19 dataset. In this study, we present a unique dataset of 10 otherwise healthy individuals scanned before and after experiencing mild COVID-19. Two emerging MR-based methods were used to map pre- to post-COVID-19 brain temperature and free water changes. Post-COVID-19 brain temperature and free water increases, which are indirect biomarkers of neuroinflammation, were found in structures functionally associated with olfactory, cognitive, and memory processing. The largest pre- to post-COVID brain temperature increase was observed in the left olfactory tubercle (p = 0.007, 95% CI [0.48, 3.01]), with a mean increase of 1.75 °C. Notably, the olfactory tubercle is also the region of the primary olfactory cortex where participants with chronic olfactory dysfunction showed the most pronounced increases as compared to those without lingering olfactory dysfunction (adjusted pFDR = 0.0189, 95% CI [1.42, 5.27]). These preliminary insights suggest a potential link between neuroinflammation and chronic cognitive and olfactory dysfunction following mild COVID-19, although further investigations are needed to improve our understanding of what underlies these phenomena.
Natural resource-derived NiO nanoparticles via aloe vera for high-performance symmetric supercapacitor
Authors: Bulla Mamta , Kumar Vinay , Devi Raman , Kumar Sunil , Sisodiya Avnish Kumar , Dahiya Rita , Mishra Ajay Kumar
Published: March 2024

This investigation reported a one-step green synthesis of nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) using aloe vera leaves extract solution for their application in a supercapacitor. This method used aloe vera leaves as a reducing agent, which is very simple and cost-effective. The synthesized NPs were thoroughly characterized using various techniques. The X-ray diffraction analysis unequivocally confirmed the crystalline nature; field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images showed different shapes and forms of an agglomerated cluster of synthesized NPs. The absorption spectra were recorded from UV visible spectroscopy, while Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy provided insights into the functional groups present. Electrochemical assessments were carried out via cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charging-discharging and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. These experiments were performed using a 2 M KOH electrolyte within a 1.0 V potential window. Impressively, the single electrode displayed a remarkable specific capacitance of 462 F g−1 at a scan rate of 1 mV s−1 and 336 F g−1 at a current density of 0.76 A g−1. Further, a symmetric two-electrode device (NiO||NiO) has been successfully fabricated by employing a separator between the electrodes. The device exhibited an exceptional specific capacitance of approximately 239 F g−1, along with an energy density of 47.8 Wh kg−1 and a power density of 545 W kg−1 at 1 A g−1 current density within a 1.2 V potential window. The fabricated device also shows a retention capacity of 89% at 10 A g−1 after 2000 cycles with 114% of columbic efficiency. The present study underscores the effectiveness of the green synthesis approach in producing NiO NPs and establishes their potential as highly promising candidates for supercapacitor applications, showcasing both excellent electrochemical performance in a three-electrode system and remarkable stability in a practical two-electrode device. The results collectively highlight the efficacy of the green approach in producing NiO NPs, establishing its potential as a highly promising candidate for supercapacitor application.