bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Literature Review and Critical Analysis of Metaheuristics Recently Developed
Authors: Velasco Luis , Guerrero Hector , Hospitaler Antonio
Published: July 2023

Metaheuristic algorithms have applicability in various fields where it is necessary to solve optimization problems. It has been a common practice in this field for several years to propose new algorithms that take inspiration from various natural and physical processes. The exponential increase of new algorithms is a controversial issue that several researchers have criticized. However, their efforts to point out multiple issues involved in these practices have been insufficient since the number of existing metaheuristics continues to increase yearly. To know the current state of this problem, this paper analyzes a sample of 111 recent studies where so-called new, hybrid, or improved optimization algorithms are proposed. Throughout the document, the topics reviewed will be addressed from a general perspective to their specific aspects. Among the study’s findings, it is observed that only 43% of the analyzed papers make some mention of the No Free Lunch (NFL) theorem, being this significant result ignored by most of the studies where new algorithms are presented. Of the analyzed studies, 65% present an improved version of some established algorithm, which reveals that the trend is no longer to propose metaheuristics based on new analogies. Additionally, a compilation of solutions found in engineering problems commonly used to verify the performance of state-of-the-art algorithms is presented. To demonstrate that algorithms with a low level of innovation can be erroneously considered as new frameworks for years, the metaheuristics known as Black Widow Optimization and Coral Reef Optimization are analyzed. The study of its components reveals that they do not have any innovation. Instead, they are just deficient mixtures of different evolutionary operators. This result applies by extension to their recently proposed improved versions.
Asymmetries, uncertainty and inflation: evidence from developed and emerging economies
Authors: Anderl Christina , Caporale Guglielmo Maria
Published: July 2023

This paper examines the asymmetric impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and oil price uncertainty (OPU) on inflation by using a Nonlinear ARDL (NARDL) model, which is compared to a benchmark linear ARDL one. Using monthly data from the 1990s until August 2022 for a number of developed and emerging countries, we find that the estimated effects of both EPU and OPU shocks are larger when allowing for asymmetries in the context of the NARDL framework. Further, EPU shocks, especially negative ones, have a stronger impact on inflation than OPU ones and capture some of the monetary policy uncertainty, thereby reducing the direct effect of interest rate changes on inflation. Since EPU shocks reflect, at least to some extent, monetary policy uncertainty, greater transparency and more timely communications from monetary authorities to the public would be helpful to anchor inflation expectations.
ASH highlights 2022—multiple myeloma
Authors: Rüsing Lina Z. , Agis Hermine , Krauth Maria
Published: July 2023

The 64th annual meeting was held in New Orleans, Louisiana from December 10–13, 2022. More than 150 abstracts concerning multiple myeloma have been presented, mirroring the rapid progression, and deepening of our understanding of this disease.

Evolution in treatment options includes new therapeutic regimens incorporating established drugs as well as entirely newly discovered substances, targeting malignant plasma cells utilizing the power of the immune system. In the following, a personal shortcut of hot topics is presented, focusing on data from large clinical trials which have the potency to change clinical practice as well as on new treatment options which may impact future strategies to achieve deep and durable responses aiming to pave the way to potential cure.
Anomalous refinement and uniformization of grains in metallic thin films
Authors: Wang Lei , Wang Shu , Wang Xiaofeng , Zhang Jianming , Dong Jianjie , Wei Bin , Yang Haiguang , Wang Zhongchang , Zhang Ziyang , Guo ChuanFei , Liu Qian
Published: July 2023

When a laser beam writes on a metallic film, it usually coarsens and deuniformizes grains because of Ostwald ripening, similar to the case of annealing. Here we show an anomalous refinement effect of metal grains: A metallic silver film with large grains melts and breaks into uniform, close-packed, and ultrafine (∼ 10 nm) grains by laser direct writing with a nanoscale laser spot size and nanosecond pulse that causes localized heating and adaptive shock-cooling. This method exhibits high controllability in both grain size and uniformity, which lies in a linear relationship between the film thickness (h) and grain size (D), D ∝ h. The linear relationship is significantly different from the classical spinodal dewetting theory obeying a nonlinear relationship (D ∝ h5/3) in common laser heating. We also demonstrate the application of such a silver film with a grain size of ∼ 10.9 nm as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering chip, exhibiting superhigh spatial-uniformity and low detection limit down to 10−15 M. This anomalous refinement effect is general and can be extended to many other metallic films.
The Short- and Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on the Sharing Economy: Distinguishing Between “Symptomatic” and “Asymptomatic” Platforms
Authors: Nuttah Muntaser Mohamed , Roma Paolo , Lo Nigro Giovanna , Perrone Giovanni
Published: July 2023

Our study presents a systematic literature review on the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on the different types of sharing economy platforms and the sharing economy phenomenon in its entirety. Our literature review helps understand how the characteristics of different services of the sharing economy combine with contingent factors, such as government-mandated lockdowns, changed consumer behaviors, and people’s fear of contagion, to determine the magnitude of the impact of COVID-19 on the sharing economy both in the short run and in the long run. By examining these factors, we distinguish between sharing economy services/platforms that were (and possibly will be) negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (referred to as “symptomatic” platforms) and those that were not (and possibly will not be) impacted at all or even benefit (referred to as “asymptomatic” platforms). We then propose a new framework that combines traditional dimensions of sharing economy with a dimension resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e., the level of physical interaction required to deliver the sharing economy service. Building upon the extant literature, the framework helps better understand how the sharing economy will evolve after the pandemic. It also helps identify important research gaps that both academics and practitioners working on the field of sharing economy should address in the near future.
Experimental quantification of the performance of a horizontal multi-pipe bulk separator of water and oil with crude spiking
Authors: Asaadian Hamidreza , Stanko Milan
Published: July 2023

Subsea water separation with pipe separators is crucial for ensuring efficient and environmentally responsible extraction of oil and gas from the seabed. In this study, in a process called as “crude oil spiking,” two concentrations of crude oil (e.g., 185 and 400 ppm) are added to Exxsol D60 to mimic the separation characteristics of real crude oil mixtures in a multi-parallel pipe separator. The pipe separator performance for water–oil bulk separation such as separation efficiency, water cut ratio, the flow pattern at the separator inlet, and the thickness and evolution of the fluid layers in the separator is evaluated and compared to the values when operating with unspiked Exxsol D60. Crude oil spiking significantly reduces the efficiency of the pipe separator and reduces the water cut ratio for oil continuous regimes (low water cuts) up to 49%. Water continuous regimes with water fractions 90% have the highest efficiency values; thus, these are not affected significantly by crude oil spiking. With crude spiking, the flow regime dispersion of oil in water and water in oil (Dw/o + Do/w) occupies more area in the flow pattern map than unspiked Exxsol D60. It was observed through visual inspection that crude oil spiking induces a thicker and more stable emulsion in higher flow rates (e.g., 700 L/min). Therefore, the spiked mixture needs more time to separate. The findings of this study can help in a better understanding of the applicability of pipe separators and the usage of spiked oils to extrapolate experimental results to real field conditions.

Graphical abstract
Prediction of barium sulfate precipitation in dynamic tube blocking tests and its inhibition for waterflooding application using response surface methodology
Authors: Khormali Azizollah , Ahmadi Soroush
Published: July 2023

Scale precipitation is one of the major problems in the petroleum industry during waterflooding. The possibility of salt formation and precipitation should be monitored and analyzed under dynamic conditions to improve production performance. Scale precipitation and its dependence on production parameters should be investigated before using scale inhibitors. In this study, the precipitation of barium sulfate salt was investigated through dynamic tube blocking tests at different injection rates and times. For this purpose, the pressure drop caused by salt deposition was evaluated at injection rates of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 mL/min. The software determined the worst conditions (temperature, pressure, and water mixing ratio) for barium sulfate precipitation. Moreover, during the experiments, the pressure drop caused by barium sulfate precipitation was measured without using scale inhibitors. The pressure drop data were evaluated by the response surface method and analysis of variance to develop a new model for predicting the pressure drop depending on the injection rate and time. The novelty of this study lies in the development of a new high-precision correlation to predict barium sulfate precipitation under dynamic conditions using the response surface methodology that evaluates the effect of injection rate and time on the possibility of salt precipitation. The accuracy and adequacy of the obtained model were confirmed by using R2 statistics (including R2-coefficient of determination, adjusted R2, and predicted R2), adequate precision, and diagnostic charts. The results showed that the proposed model could fully and accurately predict the pressure drop. Increasing the time and decreasing the injection rate caused an increase in pressure drop and precipitation of barium sulfate salt, which was related to the formation of more salt due to the contact of ions. In addition, in a short period of the injection process, the pressure drop due to salt deposition increased sharply, which confirms the need to use a suitable scale inhibitor to control salt deposition. Finally, the dynamic tube blocking tests were repeated in the presence of two well-known scale inhibitors, which prevented salt deposition in the tubes. At the same time, no pressure drop was observed in the presence of scale inhibitors at all injection rates during a long period of injection. The obtained results can be used for the evaluation of salt precipitation during oil production in the reservoirs, in which barium sulfate is precipitated during waterflooding. For this purpose, knowing the flow rate and injection time, it is possible to determine the amount of pressure drop caused by salt deposition.
Nonlinear system identification of a UAV model with distributed aerodynamics and flexible structure
Authors: Herrmann Benjamin , Theis Julian , Thielecke Frank
Published: July 2023

This paper presents the nonlinear system identification of a slightly flexible 25 kg fixed-wing UAV in the time-domain using a computationally efficient distributed aerodynamics model and a linear structural dynamics representation. The equations of motion are formed by making use of the free vibration modes of the structure and the mean axes formulation. The structural modes and mode shapes are determined from ground vibration tests. The distributed aerodynamics, accounting for elastic deformations, are modeled using a quasi-steady stability and control derivative approach and by applying strip theory. Initial distributions for the derivatives are obtained from vortex-lattice-method calculations. For matching the model response to the measured response, parameters for scaling the initial derivative distributions are introduced. The flexible model is subsequently identified based on flight test data using the output error method in the time-domain and maximum-likelihood estimation. A good overall identification result is achieved with a close match of the fast aircraft dynamics. Finally, an evaluation is given on the suitability of the identified model for real-time simulation, loads’ estimation, and active load control law design.
Comparing organic solvents in a combined water precipitation and liquid–liquid extraction process to recover lignin and furanics from a lactic acid: choline chloride deep eutectic solvent used as cooking liquor for cooking of spruce
Authors: Gholami Mahsa , Tijburg Jochem M. , Schuur Boelo
Published: July 2023

Extracting and purifying lignin from wood without compromising cellulose quality is a challenging process. Lactic acid: choline chloride is a deep eutectic solvent (DES) that has been identified as acceptable delignification solvent, producing lignin and hemicellulose as byproducts to the cellulose. Hemicellulose is partly transformed into furanic compounds (such as furfural and 5-HMF). While the larger lignin can be obtained by water precipitation from DES, smaller lignin molecules and furanics can be recovered by liquid–liquid extraction (LLX), either directly or after precipitation of the larger lignin molecules. The presence of water in the DES after water precipitation reduced the mutual miscibility with the solvents, allowing the use of a wider range of solvents in the LLX process. In the precipitation step, all the larger molecular weight lignin (Mw > 5000 Da) can be recovered when adding at least 3.5:1 [g/g] water to DES-black liquor. For the LLX step, guaiacol was found as suitable alternative to the previously published 2-methyltetrahedrofuran (2-MTHF). In addition, here we report the use of 2,2,5,5-Tetramethyl oxolane (TMO), a recent addition to the palette of (potentially) bio-based solvents. The distribution coefficients of smaller lignin molecules and furanics in LLX with guaiacol, TMO and 2-MTHF were compared, revealing that smaller lignin molecules (500–5000 Da) can be recovered with a reasonable distribution coefficient by 2-MTHF and guaiacol. Furfural showed distribution coefficients of at least 1.27 in all three solvents. Guaiacol and TMO both showed a significantly lower lactic acid leaching than 2-MTHF. This makes them potential alternatives for 2-MTHF in this technique.

Graphical abstract
Validity and diagnostics of the Italian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in non-demented Parkinson’s disease patients
Authors: D’Iorio Alfonsina , Aiello Edoardo Nicolò , Amboni Marianna , Vitale Carmine , Verde Federico , Silani Vincenzo , Ticozzi Nicola , Ciammola Andrea , Poletti Barbara , Santangelo Gabriella
Published: July 2023

Background

This study aimed at: (1) assessing, in an Italian cohort of non-demented Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, the construct validity of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) against both first- and second-level cognitive measures; (2) delivering an exhaustive and updated evaluation of its diagnostic properties.

Methods

A retrospective cohort of N = 237 non-demented PD patients having been administered the MoCA was addressed, of whom N = 169 further underwent the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and N = 68 the Parkinson’s Disease Cognitive Rating Scale (PD-CRS). A subsample (N = 60) also underwent a second-level cognitive battery encompassing measures of attention/executive functioning, language, memory, praxis and visuo-spatial abilities. Construct validity was assessed against both the PD-CRS and the second-level cognitive battery. Diagnostics were tested via receiver-operating characteristics analyses against a below-cut-off MMSE score.

Results

The MoCA was associated with both PD-CRS scores (p < .001) and the vast majority of second-level cognitive measures (ps < .003). Both raw and adjusted MoCA scores proved to be highly accurate to the aim of identifying patients with MMSE-confirmed cognitive dysfunctions. A MoCA score adjusted for age and education according to the most recent normative dataset and < 19.015 is herewith suggested as indexing cognitive impairment in this population (AUC = .92; sensitivity = .92; specificity = .80).

Discussion

The Italian MoCA is a valid and diagnostically sound screener for global cognitive inefficiency in non-demented PD patients. Further studies are nevertheless needed that confirm its diagnostic values against a measure other than the MMSE.
Exact neutrosophic analysis of missing value in augmented randomized complete block design
Authors: AlAita Abdulrahman , Talebi Hooshang
Published: July 2023

The augmented randomized complete block design (ARCBD) is widely used in plant breeding programs to screen numerous new treatments. The error variance is estimated based on the replicated control treatments run over a randomized complete block design and is used to test the new treatments that are administrated each once in the extended units of the blocks. However, one or more observations corresponding to the control treatments may be missed in experiments, making difficulties, e.g., biased estimates. An approximate common approach to deal with this problem is the imputation of the estimated value which is with some uncertainties. Moreover, in real-life experiments, there are more sources of uncertainty that cause conflict-indeterminate, vague, imprecise, and erroneous data that increases the complexity of the analysis. In this paper, an exact scheme is utilized to deal with a missing control treatment in ARCBD. To overcome the problem of indeterminacies in data, a novel neutrosophic analysis approach is proposed. Specifically, the problem of a missing value in an ARCBD for an uncertain environment is resolved analytically by considering an augmented incomplete block design in the framework of neutrosophic statistics so-called neutrosophic augmented randomized complete block design (NARCBD). In this approach, by proposing the neutrosophic model, the neutrosophic estimations as well as the mathematical neutrosophic adjusted sums of squares are derived and the analysis of variance table is provided. The new model is applied to the neutrosophic genotype data example of safflower and assessed by a simulation study. Furthermore, a code in the R software was written to analyze the data based on the proposed approach to fill the calculation gap for data analysis in NARCBD with a missing value. In light of the results observed, it can be concluded that the neutrosophic exact proposed method performs better than the classic in the presence of uncertainty.
The role of luck in the success of social media influencers
Authors: Ionescu Stefania , Hannák Anikó , Pagan Nicolò
Published: July 2023

Motivation

Social media platforms centered around content creators (CCs) faced rapid growth in the past decade. Currently, millions of CCs make livable incomes through platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. As such, similarly to the job market, it is important to ensure the success and income (usually related to the follower counts) of CCs reflect the quality of their work. Since quality cannot be observed directly, two other factors govern the network-formation process: (a) the visibility of CCs (resulted from, e.g., recommender systems and moderation processes) and (b) the decision-making process of seekers (i.e., of users focused on finding CCs). Prior virtual experiments and empirical work seem contradictory regarding fairness: While the first suggests the expected number of followers of CCs reflects their quality, the second says that quality does not perfectly predict success.

Results

Our paper extends prior models in order to bridge this gap between theoretical and empirical work. We (a) define a parameterized recommendation process which allocates visibility based on popularity biases, (b) define two metrics of individual fairness (ex-ante and ex-post), and (c) define a metric for seeker satisfaction. Through an analytical approach we show our process is an absorbing Markov Chain where exploring only the most popular CCs leads to lower expected times to absorption but higher chances of unfairness for CCs. While increasing the exploration helps, doing so only guarantees fair outcomes for the highest (and lowest) quality CC. Simulations revealed that CCs and seekers prefer different algorithmic designs: CCs generally have higher chances of fairness with anti-popularity biased recommendation processes, while seekers are more satisfied with popularity-biased recommendations. Altogether, our results suggest that while the exploration of low-popularity CCs is needed to improve fairness, platforms might not have the incentive to do so and such interventions do not entirely prevent unfair outcomes.
Occurrence and distribution of Grapevine pinot gris virus and other grapevine viruses in German viticultural regions
Authors: Messmer Noemi , Bohnert Patricia , Askani Lars , Schumacher Stefan , Voegele Ralf T. , Fuchs René
Published: July 2023

To determine the occurrence and distribution of prevalent viruses in commercially important vineyards, a survey was carried out in all thirteen wine-growing regions in Germany. Results reveal that the recently emerged Grapevine pinot gris virus (GPGV) was the most abundant virus with a percentage of 18% prevalence, followed by 13% Grapevine fleck virus (GFkV), 9% Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 1 (GLRaV-1), 4% Grapevine fanleaf virus (GFLV), 2% Raspberry ringspot virus (RpRSV), 2% Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV) and 2% Grapevine leafroll-associated virus 3 (GLRaV-3). Distribution of some viruses varies greatly between individual regions, thus regional hotspots or gradients were detected. GPGV for example is mostly found in southeastern Germany, while its incidence decreases to the north along the river Rhine. The findings of this survey provide an overview of the allocation of the most prevalent grapevine viruses in Germany and can support regional virus management and national risk assessment especially GPGV.
Stance-Conveying Hashtag Functions in Organic Food Tweets: #youneedtoknow
Authors: Seitanidi Eleni , Simaki Vasiliki , Paradis Carita
Published: July 2023

This corpus-based study examines how writers of tweets about organic food use hashtags to direct readers towards the preferred tweet interpretation while expressing their stance to organic food. Our aim is to identify the functions stance-conveying hashtags serve in these tweets. To this end, we draw on Du Bois’ (2007) approach to stance and Francis’ (1994) analysis of metalinguistic labels. We analyse the tweets in which the sixteen most frequent stance-conveying hashtags occur in our corpus. We carry out a qualitative analysis where we identify four stance-conveying hashtag functions: (1) taking a stance, (2) expressing the tweet writer’s feelings, (3) invoking the reader’s stance and (4) indicating the intended tweet interpretation, which includes (4.1) expressing a directive and potentially presenting it as being of a specific type (deontic hashtags), and (4.2) commenting on the epistemic status of the information in the tweet (epistemic hashtags). We evaluate the categorisation scheme based on two annotation rounds and measure inter-annotator agreement. The study highlights the role of deontic hashtags (e.g., #advice) and epistemic hashtags (e.g., #truth) in directing the readers towards a particular interpretation, which may cause readers to ignore certain tweet aspects, thus homing in on the interaction between stance-taking hashtags and what is conveyed by the tweet in their scope. We offer explanations for the different roles of these hashtags as meta-discursive instructions, whereby tweeters point out to their readers what they should do, think or feel in relation to the message of the tweet. Our findings illustrate how hashtags are strategically exploited by writers for communicative purposes.
Performance evaluation of treated coconut fibre in cementitious system
Authors: Olonade Kolawole Adisa , Savastano Junior Holmer
Published: July 2023

In this study, concentrated cement pore solution (CPS) was prepared and coconut fibre was soaked in it, to mimic worst condition of cementitious medium. Four coconut fibre samples were studied; the first was untreated fibre (NT), the second sample was NaOH treated fibre, while the third and fourth samples were NT and NaOH fibres soaked in CPS for 28 days, respectively. Each fibre was characterized by determining their physical and mechanical properties. Hydrophilic/hydrophobic characters were determined by measuring contact angles in water, while surface morphology of the fibre samples were studied with the aid of scanning electron microscopy. EDS was used to determine the elemental composition of the fibres, while Thermogravimetric analysis was performed to assess thermal stability of the fibre samples. Crystallinity of the fibres as well as the functional group composition present in each fibre samples, was determined using XRD and FTIR respectively. The results showed that fibres treated with NaOH and those exposed to CPS had higher densities (1.94 g/cm3) than untreated fibre (1.64 g/cm3), while the tensile strength was greatly increased by about 120%. SEM images of the fibres indicated that NaOH and CPS caused removal of lignin and hemicellulose, making the lumens to be smaller compared to untreated fibre. Similarly, crystallinity of the fibre was increased due to NaOH and CPS treatment, compared to the untreated fibres. CPS was found to improve thermal stability of the fibres. It was concluded that CPS did not pose any threat to performance of fibre.
Critical review on the application of artificial intelligence techniques in the production of geopolymer-concrete
Authors: Alaneme George Uwadiegwu , Olonade Kolawole Adisa , Esenogho Ebenezer
Published: July 2023

The need to employ technology that replaces traditional engineering methods which generate gases that worsen our environment has emerged in an era of dwindling ecosystem owing to global warming has a negative influence on the earth system’s ozone layer. In this study, the exact method of using artificial intelligence (AI) approaches in sustainable structural materials optimization was investigated to ensure that concrete construction projects for buildings have no negative environmental effects. Since they are used in the forecasting/predicting of an agro-waste-based green geopolymer concrete system, the intelligent learning algorithms of Fuzzy Logic, ANFIS, ANN, GEP and other nature-inspired algorithms were reviewed. A systematic literature search was conducted to identify relevant studies published in various databases. The included studies were critically reviewed to analyze the types of AI techniques used, the research methodologies employed, and the main findings reported. To meticulously sort the crucial components of aluminosilicate precursors and alkaline activators blend and to optimize its engineering behavior, laboratory methods must be carried out through the mixture experiment design and raw materials selection. Such experimental activities often fall short of the standards set by civil engineering design guidelines for sustainable construction purposes. At some instances, specific shortcomings in the design of experiments or human error may degrade measurement correctness and cause unforeseen discharge of pollutants. Most errors in repetitive experimental tests have been eliminated by using adaptive AI learning techniques. Though, as an extensive guideline for upcoming investigators in this cutting-edge and developing field of AI, the pertinent smart intelligent modelling tools used at various times, under varying experimental testing methodologies, and leveraging different source materials were addressed in this study review. The findings of this review study demonstrate the benefits, challenges and growing interest in utilizing AI techniques for optimizing geopolymer-concrete production. The review identified a range of AI techniques, including machine learning algorithms, optimization models, and performance evaluation measures. These techniques were used to optimize various aspects of geopolymer-concrete production, such as mix design, curing conditions, and material selection.
Age-related changes in the temporal structure of song in the common rosefinch Erythrina erythrina
Authors: Parapura Agnieszka , Mitrus Cezary , Golawski Artur
Published: July 2023

Bird species that have visual differences in plumage coloration between young and older males may also differ in their song parameters. We have studied the difference in song rate between yearlings vs. older males in the common rosefinch Erythrina erythrina, a species with delayed plumage maturation. Yearlings sang 2.3 more strophes per minute compared to older males, and the breaks between strophes were 1.3 s shorter in young males. The higher singing rate of yearling males is probably a form of compensation for lower age (male quality), which may be important in finding a mate or avoiding aggression from older males.
Comparison of treatment outcomes between growth-sparing instrumentation and definitive one-stage fusion for EOS patients ages 6–10 years
Authors: Johnston Charles E. , Thornberg David C. , Palmer Robert
Published: July 2023

Purpose

To compare objective outcomes for EOS patients age 6–10 years treated by growth-sparing (GS) surgery or definitive one-stage correction and fusion (DF).

Methods

We reviewed surgical, radiographic, PFT’s, and EOSQ-24 outcomes for EOS patients > age 6 at index surgery treated at a single institution, minimum 2-year follow-up. Neuromuscular diagnoses were excluded.

Results

47 patients underwent index surgery between age 6 and 10.9 years. Twenty-one had DF, 26 had GS surgery (13 MCGR, 13 TGR). Diagnoses included 15 congenital, 15 idiopathic, 17 syndromic. Age at index was 9.1 years DF, 7.8 GS (p < .001). Follow-up was 63–78 months. 18/26 GS cases converted to DF, 13 due to complications, which occurred in 8/21 DF cases vs 19/26 GS (p = .016). DF patients had fewer post-index surgeries (0.6 vs 3.7, p < .001). At follow-up there were no differences in curve magnitudes, %correction, T1–12/T1-S1 segment lengths, EOSQ-24 scores or PFTs. 18 patients converting to DF after initial GS had equal outcomes as DF initially. 31 patients > age 8 at index (“tweeners”) were studied separately. 13 had GS surgery (7 MCGR), 18 had DF. At > 60 months follow-up, curve magnitudes, spine lengths, PFT’s, or EOSQ scores were equivalent. DF patients had fewer procedures and complications.

Conclusion

For patients age 6–10.9 years, outcomes were no different at > 5 year follow-up between DF and GS groups. DF patients had fewer total surgeries and complications. Equal outcomes also occurred for tweeners. As a result, GS treatment does not appear to benefit patients > age 8.
Big data and predictive analytics and Malaysian micro-, small and medium businesses
Authors: Vachkova Maya , Ghouri Arsalan , Ashour Haidy , Isa Normalisa Binti Md , Barnes Gregory
Published: July 2023

Innovative technologies such as big data and predictive analytics are facilitating a global revolution in operational management. The present study aims to investigate the extent of their adoption among micro-, small and medium enterprises. The context of choice is Malaysia—a growing economy hosting some of the relatively more technologically advanced enterprises in ASEAN union. The research plan of the present paper pursued three objectives. First, we aimed to identify the general rate of adoption of BDPA. Second, we explored the most common uses of this set of innovations in Malaysian micro-, small, and medium enterprises. Third, we strove to abstract the antecedents and consequences of BDPA in micro-, small, and large firms in the manufacturing and service sectors. We discovered that BDPA are almost never used to outsource suppliers or to optimise spending and purchasing. Conversely, the most frequent applications of BDPA are in customer relationship management and in warehouse and operations improvement. Moreover, we smaller firms are more resilient to the challenges of adopting BDPA than their smaller and larger counterparts. Thus, this paper presents a snapshot of the BDPA dissemination in the micro-, small and medium ecosystem in Malaysia in 2021, while exploring opportunities for the future development and dissemination of this set of innovations.
Losing Ground: Targeting Agricultural Land Take by Enabling a Circular Economy in Construction
Authors: Kourmouli Angeliki , Lesniewska Feja
Published: July 2023

Among the numerous causes of soil degradation, one of the most severe and difficult to reverse is land take. Land take results in the loss of valuable ecosystem services that negatively impact soil health, especially in agricultural areas. The main drivers of land take are increased provision of housing, schools, hospitals, industrial and commercial sites, transport networks and infrastructures, mines, quarries and waste dumpsites. Globally, the rate and scale of land take is increasing. Given the impact on soil ecosystem services such as the carbon, hydrological and nitrogen cycles, preventing agricultural land take is essential if the triple planetary ecological crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are to be addressed. Most countries use sustainable management techniques to limit land take by development projects. In this opinion paper, we argue that the circular economy concept could help to establish an alternative perspective on how to understand and address the agricultural land take problem. Law and policy need to foster a systemic transition to a circular economy throughout the entire construction sector’s multiple material life cycles if it is to significantly reduce land take. We use England as a case study to show how the UK government can revise and build on current policy to enable a transition to a more circular construction sector. The case study provides valuable lessons for other countries at a crossroad on land use policy on how fostering a circular construction economy can reduce land take and maintain agricultural soil’s ecological services.
Simple Models of Complex Mechanics for Improved Hypertension Care: Learning to De-stiffen Arteries
Authors: Pewowaruk Ryan J.
Published: July 2023

Arteries can stiffen via different mechanisms due to the distending effects of blood pressure, the extracellular (ECM) and vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC). This short review discusses how these simple models can be applied to the complex biomechanics of arteries to gain physiological insight into why an individual’s arteries are stiff and identify new therapeutic strategies. In the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, the important question of whether arteries stiffen with aging due to load-dependent or structural stiffening was investigated. Structural stiffening was consistently observed with aging, but load-dependent stiffening was highly variable. Importantly, the high load-dependent stiffness was associated with future cardiovascular disease events, but structural stiffness was not. Clinical studies in older, hypertensive adults surprisingly show that decreasing vascular smooth muscle tone can cause clinically significant increases in arterial stiffness. To understand this paradox, the author developed a model simple enough for clinical data but with biologically relevant extracellular matrix (ECM) and vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) stiffness parameters. The effect of VSMC tone on arterial stiffness depends on the ECM–VSMC stiffness ratio. Future research is needed to develop a framework that incorporates both the blood pressure dependence of arterial stiffness and the VSMC–ECM interaction on hemodynamics. This could result in personalized arterial stiffness treatments and improved CVD outcomes. The subtitle of this review is “Learning to De-Stiffen Arteries” because our results have so far only shown that we can acutely make arteries stiffer. We are optimistic though that the findings and the analytic techniques covered here will be one of the many steps along the path of the arterial stiffness research community learning how to de-stiffen arteries.
Intimate Partner Femicide–Suicide in Eswatini: Offenders, Victims, Incident Characteristics and Sociocultural Contexts
Authors: Adinkrah Mensah
Published: July 2023

The current article reports the results of a systematic study of 42 intimate partner femicide–suicides with 91 fatal casualties in Eswatini, Africa, from 2009 to 2022. The study used a media-surveillance methodology to identify the 42 cases from a major local online newspaper. Information on all identified cases was subjected to careful criminological analyses. Six of the cases involved seven collateral, or corollary, homicide victims. Results indicate that assailants and victims were generally of lower socio-economic background; assailants tended to be older than their victims; stabbing with a knife, shooting with a gun and slashing with a machete were the dominant homicide methods; ingestion of weevil tablets and other poisons, hanging and shooting with a firearm were the predominant suicide means. The results further show that femicide incidents overwhelmingly involved overkill, with the assailant using inordinately high levels of aggression against the victim. Male sexual jealousy, rage over the female partner’s abrogation of the relationship, and interpersonal disputes of variable origin were the major precipitants. It is recommended that deterrent sentences should be used to teach wife assaulters and would-be assaulters that society does not tolerate assaultive behaviour within intimate relationships. More resources should be provided for women who are victims of domestic violence. This should include legal aid, financial resources and refuges for women in danger and their children. Measures should be taken to control the proliferation of firearms in society.
Masked transformer through knowledge distillation for unsupervised text style transfer
Authors: Scalercio Arthur , Paes Aline
Published: July 2023

Text style transfer (TST) aims at automatically changing a text’s stylistic features, such as formality, sentiment, authorial style, humor, and complexity, while still trying to preserve its content. Although the scientific community has investigated TST since the 1980s, it has recently regained attention by adopting deep unsupervised strategies to address the challenge of training without parallel data. In this manuscript, we investigate how relying on sequence-to-sequence pretraining models affects the performance of TST when the pretraining step leverages pairs of paraphrase data. Furthermore, we propose a new technique to enhance the sequence-to-sequence model by distilling knowledge from masked language models. We evaluate our proposals on three unsupervised style transfer tasks with widely used benchmarks: author imitation, formality transfer, and polarity swap. The evaluation relies on quantitative and qualitative analyses and comparisons with the results of state-of-the-art models. For the author imitation and the formality transfer task, we show that using the proposed techniques improves all measured metrics and leads to state-of-the-art (SOTA) results in content preservation and an overall score in the author imitation domain. In the formality transfer domain, we paired with the SOTA method in the style control metric. Regarding the polarity swap domain, we show that the knowledge distillation component improves all measured metrics. The paraphrase pretraining increases content preservation at the expense of harming style control. Based on the results reached in these domains, we also discuss in the manuscript if the tasks we address have the same nature and should be equally treated as TST tasks.
Validation of the Japanese version of the full and short form Trust in Oncologist Scale
Authors: Asai Mariko , Fujimori Maiko , Kamo Yuiko , Hillen Marij A. , Oishi Takayuki , Miyashita Mitsunori , Mori Masanori , Morita Tatsuya , Uchitomi Yosuke
Published: July 2023

Objectives

This study aimed to validate the Japanese versions of the Trust in Oncologist Scale (TiOS-J) and the TiOS-Short Form (TiOS-SF-J).

Methods

A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among cancer patients in Japan. The forward-backward translation method was used to develop the TiOS-J. The web-based survey was mailed to 633 people, of whom 309 responded. After 2 weeks, 103 among the 156 first-time respondents completed the second survey to verify the reliability of the retest method. The validity was evaluated by exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), Spearman’s correlation coefficients between the Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-Japanese, willingness to recommend the oncologist, trust in health care, and number of oncological consultations. To evaluate reliability, Cronbach’s α and test–retest correlation were calculated.

Results

The theoretically driven four-factor model and the EFA-driven one-factor model of the full-form TiOS-J (18 items) did not result in an acceptable fit; however, CFA supported the one-dimensionality of the 5 items from the TiOS-SF-J (χ2 (5) = 12.36, p = 0.03, goodness-of-fit index = 0.984, adjusted goodness-of-fit index = 0.952, comparative fit index = 0.991, and root mean square error of approximation = 0.069). With regard to the reliability of TiOS-J and TiOS-SF-J, the Cronbach’s alpha values were 0.94 and 0.89, respectively; the test–retest values were 0.82 and 0.78.

Significance of Results

This study indicated that the TiOS-J and TiOS-SF-J are valid and reliable instruments for measuring patients’ trust in their oncologists and can be used to assess trust in oncologists for both clinical and research purposes.
Water-energy-food-environment nexus in action: Global review of precepts and practice
Authors: Shah Tushaar
Published: July 2023

Using water-energy-food-environment (WEFE) nexus as the prism, this review explores evolution of groundwater governance in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, China, Bangladesh and India – which together account for two-thirds of the global groundwater-irrigated area. Global discourse has blamed widespread water scarcity squarely on supply-side policymaking and advocated a broader template of water governance instruments. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) presented just such a template – with pricing, participation, rights and entitlements, laws, regulations, and river basin organizations – as additional water governance tools. However, the IWRM template faced disillusionment and pushback in many emerging economies. WEFE nexus, the new paradigm, prioritizes system-level optima over sectoral maxima by harnessing synergies and optimizing trade-offs between food, water, energy, soil, and eco-system sustainability within planetary boundaries. Realizing this vision presents a complex challenge in groundwater governance. Global groundwater economy comprises three sub-economies: (a) diesel-powered unregulated, as in Nepal terai, eastern India, Bangladesh, Pakistan Punjab and Sind, and much of Sub-Saharan Africa, where use-specific energy subsidies are impractical; (b) electricity-powered regulated, as in North America and Europe, where tubewells are authorized, metered and subject to consumption-linked energy charges; and (c) electricity-powered unregulated, as in geographies covered by our review – barring China, Bengal and Bangladesh – where unmeasured electricity subsidies have created a bloated groundwater economy. This last sub-economy represents the heartland of global groundwater malgovernance, least equipped to meet the sustainability challenge. It has an estimated 300 million horsepower of grid-connected electric pumps that are either unauthorized and/or unmetered and/or use free or heavily subsidized or pilfered power for irrigating 50–52 million hectares, nearly half of global groundwater-irrigated area. In (a) and (b), groundwater scarcity inspires water-energy saving behavior via increased energy cost of pumping. In sub-economy (c), users are immune to energy costs and impervious to groundwater depletion. Here, the WEFE nexus has remained blind to the irrigation realpolitik that catalyzes or constrains policy action. We explore why the political costs of rationalizing subsidies are prohibitive and exemplify how a smart transition from fossil to solar energy for pumping may offer an opportunity to turn the perverse WEFE nexus into a virtuous one.
Assessing Unequal Airborne Exposure to Lead Associated With Race in the USA
Authors: Laidlaw Mark A. S. , Mielke Howard W. , Filippelli Gabriel M.
Published: July 2023

Recent research applied the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Chemical Speciation Network and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments monitoring stations and observed that mean concentrations of atmospheric lead (Pb) in highly segregated counties are a factor of 5 higher than in well‐integrated counties and argument is made that regulation of existing airborne Pb emissions will reduce children's Pb exposure. We argue that one of the main sources of children's current Pb exposure is from resuspension of legacy Pb in soil dust and that the racial disparity of Pb exposure is associated with Pb‐contaminated community soils.
Intervalence charge transfer of Cr3+-Cr3+ aggregation for NIR-II luminescence
Authors: Liu Shengqiang , Du Jingxuan , Song Zhen , Ma Chonggeng , Liu Quanlin
Published: July 2023

The increasing demand for high-contrast biological imaging, non-destructive testing, and infrared night vision can be addressed by the development of high-performance NIR light-emitting materials. Unlike lanthanide (Ln3+) with sharp-line multiplets and isolated Cr3+with NIR-I emission, this study reports the first-ever NIR-II broadband luminescence based on the intervalence charge transfer (IVCT) of Cr3+-Cr3+aggregation in gallate magentoplumbite. In particular, LaMgGa11O19:0.7Cr3+exhibits dual-emission (NIR-I, 890 nm and NIR-II, 1200 nm) with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 626 nm under 450 nm blue LED excitation. Moreover, this dual-emission exhibits anti-thermal quenching behavior (432% @ 290 K), attributed to the energy transfer among multiple Cr3+centers. Cryogen absorption spectra, lifetimes decay (2.3 ms), and electron paramagnetic experiments reveal the NIR-II luminescence of the Cr3+-Cr3+→ Cr2+-Cr4+IVCT transition. The application of LaMgGa11O19:0.7Cr3+in NIR-II biological imaging as an optical contrast agent, non-destructive testing, and night vision is demonstrated. This work provides new insights into broadband NIR-II luminescence under UV-NIR excitation based on the IVCT of Cr3+-Cr3+aggregation.