bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Visible‐Light Photoredox‐Catalyzed Three‐Component Difluoromethylative Heteroarylation of Unactivated Alkenes
Authors: Yuan Ya‐Ru , Li Lei , Bu Xiubin , Wang Xin , Sun Ran , Zhou Ming‐Dong , Wang He
Published: March 2022

A visible‐light photoredox‐catalyzed three‐component difluoromethylative heteroarylation of unactivated alkenes is reported. This reaction provides a highly efficient and chemo‐selective method for the synthesis of difluoroalkyl‐containing quinoxalin‐2(1H)‐ones by the formation of two new C‐C bonds in single step from readily available starting materials under mild reaction conditions. This three‐component reaction displays a synthetic simplicity, broad substrate scope, and excellent functional group compatibilities. The preliminary mechanistic investigation implies that a radical process was responsible for this three‐component transformation.
Touchspinning: Mechanically drawing polyacrylonitrile nanofibers
Authors: Coleman Brennan F. , Street Reva M. , Fitzsimons Thomas , Schauer Caroline L.
Published: March 2022

Electrospinning is the predominant method of polymer nanofiber production, though the technique is fraught with challenges. Mechanical drawing of nanofibers is a more facile method, but most research in this area produces a small quantity of fibers, unsuitable for scale‐up applications. The touchspinner, a new device made for continuous cold‐drawing of nanofibers, has the potential to produce fiber mats comparable to electrospinning in efficiency but with fewer drawbacks. Initial studies have been performed to characterize the effect of controllable parameters on produced nanofibers. Model polymer polyacrylonitrile was spun out of N,N‐dimethylformamide into nanofibrous mats via touchspinning while varying the main process controls: solution pump speed, touchspinner rotation speed, and polymer concentration in solution. Nanofibers produced from various combinations of these parameters varied in size from 60 to 3000 nm, and optimal spinning parameters resulted in efficient production of highly aligned nanofibers. Of the three processing controls polymer concentration, and to a lesser degree rotation speed, had the highest impact on the resulting fiber diameters.
Exploration of predictive biomarkers for postoperative recurrence of stage II/III colorectal cancer using genomic sequencing
Authors: Kishigami Fumishi , Tanaka Yosuke , Yamamoto Yoko , Ueno Toshihide , Kojima Shinya , Sato Kazuhito , Inoue Satoshi , Sugaya Saori , Ishihara Soichiro , Mano Hiroyuki , Kawazu Masahito
Published: March 2022

Postoperative recurrence of colorectal cancer (CRC) eventually leads to therapeutic failure; therefore, treatment strategies based on accurate prediction of recurrence are urgently required. To identify biomarkers that can predict treatment outcomes, we compared the mutational profiles of surgically resected specimens from patients with recurrent cancer with those from patients with non‐recurrent cancer. Target sequencing, whole‐exome sequencing (WES), or whole‐genome sequencing (WGS) was performed on 89 and 58 tumors from recurrent and non‐recurrent cases, respectively. WGS revealed the driver mutations that were not detected with target sequencing or WES, including the structural variations affecting ZFP36L2. Loss of function of ZFP36L2 was frequently observed in primary tumors from recurrent cases. Furthermore, the recurrence‐free survival of patients with loss of function of ZFP36L2 was significantly shorter relative to patients with no loss of ZFP36L2 function. In summary, the study demonstrated that detailed genomic analysis could help improve precision medicine for CRC.
Does large dam removal restore downstream riparian vegetation diversity? Testing predictions on the Elwha River, Washington, USA
Authors: Brown Rebecca L. , Thomas Cody C. , Cubley Erin S. , Clausen Aaron J. , Shafroth Patrick B.
Published: March 2022

Large dams and their removal can profoundly affect riparian ecosystems by altering flow and sediment regimes, hydrochory, and landform dynamics, yet few studies have documented these effects on downstream plant communities. Ecological theory and empirical results suggest that by altering disturbance regimes, reducing hydrochory, and shifting communities to later successional stages, dams reduce downstream plant diversity. Dam removal could reverse these processes, but the release of large volumes of sediment could have unexpected, transient effects. Two large dams were removed on the Elwha River in Washington State, USA, from 2011 to 2014, representing an unprecedented opportunity to study large dam removal effects on riparian plant communities. Our research objectives were to determine: (1) whether the Elwha River dams were associated with lower downstream plant diversity and altered species composition across riparian landforms pre‐dam removal, and (2) whether dam removal has begun to restore downstream diversity and composition. To address these objectives, we compared plant species richness and community composition in river segments above, below, and between the two dams. Plant communities were sampled twice before (2005 and 2010) and four times after (2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017) the start of dam removal, with 2013 and 2014 sampled while the upstream dam removal was ongoing. Prior to dam removal, native species richness was 41% lower below dams compared with the upstream segment; 6 years after dam removal began, it increased ~31% between the dams, whereas nonnative species richness and cover were not apparently affected by dams or their removal. Deposition caused by large volumes of released reservoir sediment had mixed effects on native species richness (increased on floodplains, decreased elsewhere) in the lowest river segment. Plant community composition was also different downstream from dams compared with the upstream reference, and has changed in downstream floodplains and bars since dam removal. In the long term, we expect that diversity will continue to increase in downstream river segments. Our results provide evidence that (1) large dams reduce downstream native plant diversity, (2) dam removal may restore it, and (3) given the natural dynamics of riparian vegetation, long‐term, multiyear before‐and‐after monitoring is essential for understanding dam removal effects.
Do metapopulations and management matter for relict headwater bull trout populations in a warming climate?
Authors: Isaak Daniel J. , Young Michael K. , Horan Dona L. , Nagel David , Schwartz Michael K. , McKelvey Kevin S.
Published: March 2022

Mountain headwater streams have emerged as important climate refuges for native cold‐water species due to their slow climate velocities and extreme physical conditions that inhibit non‐native invasions. Species persisting in refuges often do so as fragmented, relict populations from broader historical distributions that are subject to ongoing habitat reductions and increasing isolation as climate change progresses. Key for conservation planning is determining where remaining populations will persist and how habitat restoration strategies can improve biological resilience to enhance the long‐term prospects for species of concern. Studying bull trout, a headwater species in the northwestern USA, we developed habitat occupancy models using a data set of population occurrence in 991 natal habitat patches with a suite of novel geospatial covariates derived from high‐resolution hydroclimatic scenarios and other sources representing watershed and instream habitat conditions, patch geometry, disturbance, and biological interactions. The best model correctly predicted bull trout occupancy status in 82.6% of the patches and included effects for: patch size estimated as habitat volume, extent of within‐patch reaches <9°C mean August temperature, distance to nearest occupied patch, road density, invasive brook trout prevalence, patch slope, and frequency of high winter flows. The model was used to assess 16 scenarios of bull trout occurrence within the study streams that represented a range of restoration strategies under three climatic conditions (baseline, moderate change, and extreme change). Results suggested that regional improvements in bull trout status were difficult to achieve in realistic restoration strategies due to the pervasive nature of climate change and the limited extent of restoration actions given their high costs. However, occurrence probabilities in a subset of patches were highly responsive to restoration actions, suggesting that targeted investments to improve the resilience of some populations may be contextually beneficial. A possible strategy, therefore, is focusing effort on responsive populations near more robust population strongholds, thereby contributing to local enclaves where dispersal among populations further enhances resilience. Equally important, strongholds constituted a small numerical percentage of patches (5%–21%), yet encompassed the large majority of occupied habitat by volume (72%–89%) and their protection could have significant conservation benefits for bull trout.
Machine‐Learning Analysis of Small‐Molecule Donors for Fullerene Based Organic Solar Cells
Authors: Janjua Muhammad Ramzan Saeed Ashraf , Irfan Ahmad , Hussien Mohamed , Ali Muhammad , Saqib Muhammad , Sulaman Muhammad
Published: March 2022

In recent years, development in organic solar cells speeds up and performance continuously increases. From the last few years, machine learning gains fame among scientists who are researching on organic solar cells. Herein, machine learning is used to screen the small‐molecule donors for organic solar cells. Molecular descriptors are used as input to train machine models. A variety of machine‐learning models are tested to find the suitable one. Random forest model shows best predictive capability (Pearson's coefficient = 0.93). New small‐molecule donors are also designed from easily synthesizable building units. Their power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) are predicted. Potential candidates with PCE > 11% are selected. The approach presented herein helps to select the efficient materials in short time with ease.
Self‐navigated prospective motion correction for 3D‐EPI acquisition
Authors: Bayih Samuel Getaneh , Jankiewicz Marcin , Alhamud A. , van der Kouwe André J. W. , Meintjes Ernesta M.
Published: March 2022

Purpose

Although 3D EPI is more susceptible to motion artifacts than 2D EPI, it presents some benefits for functional MRI, including the absence of spin‐history artifacts, greater potential for parallel imaging acceleration, and better functional sensitivity in high‐resolution imaging. Here we present a self‐navigated 3D‐EPI sequence suitable for prospective motion‐corrected functional MRI without additional hardware or pulses.

Methods

For each volume acquisition, the first 24 of the 52 partitions being acquired are accumulated to a new feedback block that was added to the image reconstruction pipeline. After zero‐filling the remaining partitions, the feedback block constructs a volumetric self‐navigator (vSNav), co‐registers it to the reference vSNav acquired during the first volume acquisition, and sends motion estimates to the sequence. The sequence then updates its FOV and acquires subsequent partitions with the adjusted FOV, until the next update is received. The sequence was validated without and with intentional motion in phantom and in vivo on a 3T Skyra.

Results

For phantom scans, the FOV was updated 0.704 s after acquisition of the vSNav partitions, and for in vivo scans after 0.768 s. Both phantom and in vivo data demonstrated stable motion estimates in the absence of motion. For in vivo acquisitions, prospective head‐pose estimates using the vSNav's and retrospective estimates with FLIRT (FMRIB's Linear Image Registration Tool) agreed to within 0.23 mm (< 10% of the slice thickness) and 0.14° in all directions.

Conclusion

Depending when motion occurs during a volume acquisition, the proposed method fully corrects the FOV and recovers image quality within one volume acquisition.
Study on friction and wear of preform Z‐directional fiber
Authors: Guo Zitong , Shan Zhongde , Huang Jihua , Wang Dong , Huang Hao , Xue Debo , Hou Zhuojian
Published: March 2022

In order to reduce the wear and tear of Z‐yarn implantation into the preform, the frictional behavior of Z‐yarn during implantation into the preform was studied. According to the actual implantation conditions of Z‐yarns, we designed a guiding array clamping device and a tensile force sensor to study the changes of tensile strength of Z‐yarns at different implantation positions and implantation times, results show that the tensile strength of Z‐yarns decreases significantly after 25 implantations at the position of 4 N friction force, and it's necessary to replace Z‐yarns in time to avoid their fracture in the preform. The use of unadulterated solvent dimethyl silicone oil applied to the Z‐yarns, can significantly reduce their wear, the tensile strength of Z‐yarns after 60 implantations is only 5.6% lower than that of Z‐yarns after 10 implantations. Design the tension control system, and when the tension is 0.46 N, the tensile strength of Z‐yarns during implantation is 34.2% higher than without tension. Meanwhile, the relationship between the normal force applied to Z‐yarn and the implantation length and fiber bundle width are established by combining Hertzian theory and experimental data, and the friction coefficient algorithm during Z‐yarn implantation is derived by combining Howell's equation, which solves the problem that the fiber friction coefficient cannot be measured due to the complicated working condition of Z‐yarn implantation. The frictional wear mechanism of yarn during Z‐yarn implantation into the preform is revealed, and a method to reduce yarn wear and increase its continuous implantation number is proposed.
On the Auger parameter of Cu(II) compounds
Authors: Moretti Giuliano , Beck Horst P.
Published: March 2022

The Auger parameter (AP) of Cu(I) halides follow the trend: α′Cu(s) > α′CuI > α′CuBr > α′CuCl > > α′Cu(g), in agreement with the electronic polarizabilities of the nearest‐neighbor ligands of the core‐ionized Cu(I) ion. On the contrary, the AP of Cu(II) halides and other Cu(II) compounds are close to that of copper metal. We extend our simple AP semiempirical model, published in this journal in 2019, to try to understand the unusual results reported for the Cu(II) compounds.
Defect Nanostructure and its Impact on Magnetism of α‐Cr2O3 Thin Films
Authors: Veremchuk Igor , Liedke Maciej Oskar , Makushko Pavlo , Kosub Tobias , Hedrich Natascha , Pylypovskyi Oleksandr V. , Ganss Fabian , Butterling Maik , Hübner René , Hirschmann Eric , Attallah Ahmed G. , Wagner Andreas , Wagner Kai , Shields Brendan , Maletinsky Patrick , Fassbender Jürgen , Makarov Denys
Published: March 2022

Thin films of the magnetoelectric insulator α‐Cr2O3 are technologically relevant for energy‐efficient magnetic memory devices controlled by electric fields. In contrast to single crystals, the quality of thin Cr2O3 films is usually compromised by the presence of point defects and their agglomerations at grain boundaries, putting into question their application potential. Here, the impact of the defect nanostructure, including sparse small‐volume defects and their complexes is studied on the magnetic properties of Cr2O3 thin films. By tuning the deposition temperature, the type, size, and relative concentration of defects is tailored, which is analyzed using the positron annihilation spectroscopy complemented with electron microscopy studies. The structural characterization is correlated with magnetotransport measurements and nitrogen‐vacancy microscopy of antiferromagnetic domain patterns. Defects pin antiferromagnetic domain walls and stabilize complex multidomain states with a domain size in the sub‐micrometer range. Despite their influence on the domain configuration, neither small open‐volume defects nor grain boundaries in Cr2O3 thin films affect the Néel temperature in a broad range of deposition parameters. The results pave the way toward the realization of spin‐orbitronic devices where magnetic domain patterns can be tailored based on defect nanostructures without affecting their operation temperature.
Rationing of Personalised Cancer Drugs: Rethinking the Co-production of Evidence and Priority Setting Practices
Authors: Tranvåg Eirik Joakim , Strand Roger
Published: March 2022

Rising health care costs is a challenge for all health care systems, and new and expensive cancer drugs is an important contributor to this. Many countries – like Norway – have therefore established priority setting institutions and systems for drug appraisals where equal treatment, neutrality and transparency are key values. Despite this, controversy surrounding drug reimbursement decisions are persistent.

The development of personalised cancer medicine is seen by many as a potential solution to difficult priority setting decisions, by tailoring the right drug to the right patient at the right time. We, however, see personalised oncology and medicine in general not only as a solution, but also as a potential contributor high costs and to persisting controversy. We will argue that attempts to improve and strengthen the priority setting system – without accepting that a wider perspective on science and society is required – is likely to fuel even more controversy.

In contrast, our suggestion takes a different approach building on post-normal science. From a co-production perspective, scientific, technological and societal developments are causally entangled into each other. Alongside refining priority setting principles, one can and ought to raise normative questions about the trajectory of personalised cancer medicine and of how to create a well-functioning public sphere. How can we imagine a well-functioning system of technological development and health care priority setting? Which changes in research policy and funding could support such a system? And which properties could biomarkers have in order to help society manage the health gap?
On probability-raising causality in Markov decision processes
Authors: Baier Christel , Funke Florian , Piribauer Jakob , Ziemek Robin
Published: March 2022

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a notion of causality in Markov decision processes based on the probability-raising principle and to analyze its algorithmic properties. The latter includes algorithms for checking cause-effect relationships and the existence of probability-raising causes for given effect scenarios. Inspired by concepts of statistical analysis, we study quality measures (recall, coverage ratio and f-score) for causes and develop algorithms for their computation. Finally, the computational complexity for finding optimal causes with respect to these measures is analyzed.
Parameterized Analysis of Reconfigurable Broadcast Networks
Authors: Balasubramanian A. R. , Guillou Lucie , Weil-Kennedy Chana
Published: March 2022

Reconfigurable broadcast networks (RBN) are a model of distributed computation in which agents can broadcast messages to other agents using some underlying communication topology which can change arbitrarily over the course of executions. In this paper, we conduct parameterized analysis of RBN. We consider cubes, (infinite) sets of configurations in the form of lower and upper bounds on the number of agents in each state, and we show that we can evaluate boolean combinations over cubes and reachability sets of cubes in . In particular, reachability from a cube to another cube is a -complete problem.

To prove the upper bound for this parameterized analysis, we prove some structural properties about the reachability sets and the symbolic graph abstraction of RBN, which might be of independent interest. We justify this claim by providing two applications of these results. First, we show that the almost-sure coverability problem is -complete for RBN, thereby closing a complexity gap from a previous paper [3]. Second, we define a computation model using RBN, à la population protocols, called RBN protocols. We characterize precisely the set of predicates that can be computed by such protocols.
Separators in Continuous Petri Nets
Authors: Blondin Michael , Esparza Javier
Published: March 2022

Leroux has proved that unreachability in Petri nets can be witnessed by a Presburger separator, i.e. if a marking $$\boldsymbol{m}_\text {src}$$

m

src

cannot reach a marking $$\boldsymbol{m}_\text {tgt}$$

m

tgt

, then there is a formula $$\varphi $$
φ
of Presburger arithmetic such that: $$\varphi (\boldsymbol{m}_\text {src})$$

φ
(

m

src

)

holds; $$\varphi $$
φ
is forward invariant, i.e., $$\varphi (\boldsymbol{m})$$

φ
(

m

)

and $$\boldsymbol{m} \rightarrow \boldsymbol{m}'$$

m

→

m

′

imply $$\varphi (\boldsymbol{m}'$$

φ
(

m

′

); and $$\lnot \varphi (\boldsymbol{m}_\text {tgt})$$

¬
φ
(

m

tgt

)

holds. While these separators could be used as explanations and as formal certificates of unreachability, this has not yet been the case due to their (super-)Ackermannian worst-case size and the (super-)exponential complexity of checking that a formula is a separator. We show that, in continuous Petri nets, these two problems can be overcome. We introduce locally closed separators, and prove that: (a) unreachability can be witnessed by a locally closed separator computable in polynomial time; (b) checking whether a formula is a locally closed separator is in NC (so, simpler than unreachablity, which is P-complete).
Compiling Universal Probabilistic Programming Languages with Efficient Parallel Sequential Monte Carlo Inference
Authors: Lundén Daniel , Öhman Joey , Kudlicka Jan , Senderov Viktor , Ronquist Fredrik , Broman David
Published: March 2022

Probabilistic programming languages (PPLs) allow users to encode arbitrary inference problems, and PPL implementations provide general-purpose automatic inference for these problems. However, constructing inference implementations that are efficient enough is challenging for many real-world problems. Often, this is due to PPLs not fully exploiting available parallelization and optimization opportunities. For example, handling probabilistic checkpoints in PPLs through continuation-passing style transformations or non-preemptive multitasking—as is done in many popular PPLs—often disallows compilation to low-level languages required for high-performance platforms such as GPUs. To solve the checkpoint problem, we introduce the concept of PPL control-flow graphs (PCFGs)—a simple and efficient approach to checkpoints in low-level languages. We use this approach to implement RootPPL: a low-level PPL built on CUDA and C++ with OpenMP, providing highly efficient and massively parallel SMC inference. We also introduce a general method of compiling universal high-level PPLs to PCFGs and illustrate its application when compiling Miking CorePPL—a high-level universal PPL—to RootPPL. The approach is the first to compile a universal PPL to GPUs with SMC inference. We evaluate RootPPL and the CorePPL compiler through a set of real-world experiments in the domains of phylogenetics and epidemiology, demonstrating up to 6$$\times $$
×
speedups over state-of-the-art PPLs implementing SMC inference.
Concurrent NetKAT
Authors: Wagemaker Jana , Foster Nate , Kappé Tobias , Kozen Dexter , Rot Jurriaan , Silva Alexandra
Published: March 2022

We introduce Concurrent (), an extension of with operators for specifying and reasoning about concurrency in scenarios where multiple packets interact through state. We provide a model of the language based on partially-ordered multisets (pomsets), which are a well-established mathematical structure for defining the denotational semantics of concurrent languages. We provide a sound and complete axiomatization of this model, and we illustrate the use of through examples. More generally, can be understood as an algebraic framework for reasoning about programs with both local state (in packets) and global state (in a global store).
Verified Security for the Morello Capability-enhanced Prototype Arm Architecture
Authors: Bauereiss Thomas , Campbell Brian , Sewell Thomas , Armstrong Alasdair , Esswood Lawrence , Stark Ian , Barnes Graeme , Watson Robert N. M. , Sewell Peter
Published: March 2022

Memory safety bugs continue to be a major source of security vulnerabilities in our critical infrastructure. The CHERI project has proposed extending conventional architectures with hardware-supported capabilities to enable fine-grained memory protection and scalable compartmentalisation, allowing historically memory-unsafe C and C++ to be adapted to deterministically mitigate large classes of vulnerabilities, while requiring only minor changes to existing system software sources. Arm is currently designing and building Morello, a CHERI-enabled prototype architecture, processor, SoC, and board, extending the high-performance Neoverse N1, to enable industrial evaluation of CHERI and pave the way for potential mass-market adoption. However, for such a major new security-oriented architecture feature, it is important to establish high confidence that it does provide the intended protections, and that cannot be done with conventional engineering techniques.

In this paper we put the Morello architecture on a solid mathematical footing from the outset. We define the fundamental security property that Morello aims to provide, reachable capability monotonicity, and prove that the architecture definition satisfies it. This proof is mechanised in Isabelle/HOL, and applies to a translation of the official Arm specification of the Morello instruction-set architecture (ISA) into Isabelle. The main challenge is handling the complexity and scale of a production architecture: 62,000 lines of specification, translated to 210,000 lines of Isabelle. We do so by factoring the proof via a narrow abstraction capturing essential properties of arbitrary CHERI ISAs, expressed above a monadic intra-instruction semantics. We also develop a model-based test generator, which generates instruction-sequence tests that give good specification coverage, used in early testing of the Morello implementation and in Morello QEMU development, and we use Arm’s internal test suite to validate our model.

This gives us machine-checked mathematical proofs of whole-ISA security properties of a full-scale industry architecture, at design-time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that that is feasible, and it significantly increases confidence in Morello.
The Trusted Computing Base of the CompCert Verified Compiler
Authors: Monniaux David , Boulmé Sylvain
Published: March 2022

is the first realistic formally verified compiler: it provides a machine-checked mathematical proof that the code it generates matches the source code. Yet, there could be loopholes in this approach. We comprehensively analyze aspects of where errors could lead to incorrect code being generated. Possible issues range from the modeling of the source and the target languages to some techniques used to call external algorithms from within the compiler.
Advances in Automatic Software Testing: Test-Comp 2022
Authors: Beyer Dirk
Published: March 2022

Test-Comp 2022 is the 4th edition of the Competition on Software Testing. Research competitions are a means to provide annual comparative evaluations. Test-Comp focusses on fully automatic software test generators for C programs. The results of the competition shall be reproducible and provide an overview of the current state of the art in the area of automatic test-generation. The competition was based on 4 236 test-generation tasks for C programs. Each test-generation task consisted of a program and a test specification (error coverage, branch coverage). Test-Comp 2022 had 12 participating test generators from 5 countries.
FuSeBMC v4: Smart Seed Generation for Hybrid Fuzzing
Authors: Alshmrany Kaled M. , Aldughaim Mohannad , Bhayat Ahmed , Cordeiro Lucas C.
Published: March 2022

FuSeBMC is a test generator for finding security vulnerabilities in C programs. In Test-Comp 2021, we described a previous version that incrementally injected labels to guide Bounded Model Checking (BMC) and Evolutionary Fuzzing engines to produce test cases for code coverage and bug finding. This paper introduces an improved version of FuSeBMC that utilizes both engines to produce smart seeds. First, the engines run with a short time limit on a lightly instrumented version of the program to produce the seeds. The BMC engine is particularly useful in producing seeds that can pass through complex mathematical guards. Then, FuSeBMC runs its engines with extended time limits using the smart seeds created in the previous round. FuSeBMC manages this process in two main ways. Firstly, it uses shared memory to record the labels covered by each test case. Secondly, it evaluates test cases, and those of high impact are turned into seeds for subsequent test fuzzing. In this year’s competition, we participate in the Cover-Error, Cover-Branches, and Overall categories. The Test-Comp 2022 results show that we significantly increased our code coverage score from last year, outperforming all tools in all categories.
On the Detection of Doped Software by Falsification
Authors: Biewer Sebastian , Hermanns Holger
Published: March 2022

Software doping is a phenomenon that refers to the presence of hidden software functionality, whose existence is only in the interest of the manufacturer. The most prominent example is the diesel emissions scandal. There is a need for methods that identify software doping, and such methods are bound to be applied to the final product with no or rare knowledge about its internals. Black-box analysis techniques have recently been developed for this purpose, harvesting the formal foundations of software doping. This paper integrates them with established falsification techniques for the purpose of real-world applicability. With a focus on the diesel scandal and emissions tests on chassis dynamometers we make the testing procedures significantly more effective in terms of time and cost. The theoretical results are implemented in a prototypical doping tester.
Direct serendipity and mixed finite elements on convex quadrilaterals
Authors: Arbogast Todd , Tao Zhen , Wang Chuning
Published: March 2022

The classical serendipity and mixed finite element spaces suffer from poor approximation on nondegenerate, convex quadrilaterals. In this paper, we develop families of direct serendipity and direct mixed finite element spaces, which achieve optimal approximation properties and have minimal local dimension. The set of local shape functions for either the serendipity or mixed elements contains the full set of scalar or vector polynomials of degree r, respectively, defined directly on each element (i.e., not mapped from a reference element). Because there are not enough degrees of freedom for global $$H^1$$

H
1

or $$H(\text {div})$$

H
(
div
)

conformity, exactly two supplemental shape functions must be added to each element when $$r\ge 2$$

r
≥
2

, and only one when $$r=1$$

r
=
1

. The specific choice of supplemental functions gives rise to different families of direct elements. These new spaces are related through a de Rham complex. For index $$r\ge 1$$

r
≥
1

, the new families of serendipity spaces $${\mathscr {DS}}_{r+1}$$

DS

r
+
1

are the precursors under the curl operator of our direct mixed finite element spaces, which can be constructed to have reduced or full $$H(\text {div})$$

H
(
div
)

approximation properties. One choice of direct serendipity supplements gives the precursor of the recently introduced Arbogast–Correa spaces (SIAM J Numer Anal 54:3332–3356, 2016. 10.1137/15M1013705). Other fully direct serendipity supplements can be defined without the use of mappings from reference elements, and these give rise in turn to fully direct mixed spaces. Our development is constructive, so we are able to give global bases for our spaces. Numerical results are presented to illustrate their properties.
Local boundedness for solutions of a class of nonlinear elliptic systems
Authors: Cupini Giovanni , Leonetti Francesco , Mascolo Elvira
Published: March 2022

In this paper we are concerned with the regularity of solutions to a nonlinear elliptic system of m equations in divergence form, satisfying p growth from below and q growth from above, with $$p \le q$$

p
≤
q

; this case is known as p, q-growth conditions. Well known counterexamples, even in the simpler case $$p=q$$

p
=
q

, show that solutions to systems may be singular; so, it is necessary to add suitable structure conditions on the system that force solutions to be regular. Here we obtain local boundedness of solutions under a componentwise coercivity condition. Our result is obtained by proving that each component $$u^\alpha $$

u
α

of the solution $$u=(u^1,...,u^m)$$

u
=
(

u
1

,
.
.
.
,

u
m

)

satisfies an improved Caccioppoli’s inequality and we get the boundedness of $$u^{\alpha }$$

u
α

by applying De Giorgi’s iteration method, provided the two exponents p and q are not too far apart. Let us remark that, in dimension $$n=3$$

n
=
3

and when $$p=q$$

p
=
q

, our result works for $$\frac{3}{2} < p {\le } 3$$

3
2

<
p
≤
3

, thus it complements the one of Bjorn whose technique allowed her to deal with $$p \le 2$$

p
≤
2

only. In the final section, we provide applications of our result.
What values should an agent align with?
Authors: Liscio Enrico , van der Meer Michiel , Siebert Luciano C. , Jonker Catholijn M. , Murukannaiah Pradeep K.
Published: March 2022

The pursuit of values drives human behavior and promotes cooperation. Existing research is focused on general values (e.g., Schwartz) that transcend contexts. However, context-specific values are necessary to (1) understand human decisions, and (2) engineer intelligent agents that can elicit and align with human values. We propose Axies, a hybrid (human and AI) methodology to identify context-specific values. Axies simplifies the abstract task of value identification as a guided value annotation process involving human annotators. Axies exploits the growing availability of value-laden text corpora and Natural Language Processing to assist the annotators in systematically identifying context-specific values. We evaluate Axies in a user study involving 80 human subjects. In our study, six annotators generate value lists for two timely and important contexts:Covid-19 measures and sustainableEnergy. We employ two policy experts and 72 crowd workers to evaluate Axies value lists and compare them to a list of general (Schwartz) values. We find that Axies yields values that are (1) more context-specific than general values, (2) more suitable for value annotation than general values, and (3) independent of the people applying the methodology.
Composite nanoparticles derived by self-assembling of hydrophobic polysaccharide derivatives and lignin
Authors: Gericke Martin , Bergrath Jonas , Schulze Margit , Heinze Thomas
Published: March 2022

Composite nanoparticles (NPs) consisting of lignin and different polysaccharide (PS) derivatives were prepared. In this synergistic approach, the PS derivative acts as biocompatible matrix that forms spherical NPs while lignin is a functional compound with therapeutic potential (e.g., antioxidative, antimicrobial, antiviral). Organosolv lignin and three different PS derivatives (cellulose acetate/CA, cellulose acetate phthalate/CAPh, xylan phenyl carbonate/XPC) were used in this study. Nanocomposites with particle sizes in the range of about 200–550 nm containing both types of biopolymers are accessible by dialysis of organic PS/lignin solutions against water. In particular, XPC and CAPh, which both contain aromatic substituents, were found to be suitable for incorporation of lignin within the PS nanomatrix. The present work paves the way for future studies in which the pharmaceutical potential and biocompatibility of composite NPs of lignin and PS derivatives with tailored properties are investigated.
Oat catch crop efficacy on nitrogen leaching varies after forage crop grazing
Authors: Malcolm B. J. , Cameron K. C. , Beare M. H. , Carrick S. T. , Payne J. J. , Maley S. C. , Di H. J. , Richards K. K. , Dalley D. E. , de Ruiter J. M.
Published: March 2022

This study tested the effect of oat catch crops on mineral nitrogen (N) leaching losses from cool season fodder beet grazing. Undisturbed soil monolith lysimeters were collected from two grassland sites with soils featuring contrasting texture and water holding capacity (WHC) characteristics. After simulated fodder beet grazing in late autumn or winter, synthetic dairy cow urine was applied. Nitrogen leaching losses were measured from lysimeters sown with oats after urine application and compared with those under fallow conditions until spring. Oat dry matter (DM) production and N uptake measurements were obtained. Sowing oats reduced total mineral N leaching losses by up to 59%. Reductions in mineral N leaching were inconsistently affected by soil type but were strongly influenced by urine application timing. Nitrogen uptake by oats (52–143 kg N ha−1) drove reductions in N leaching losses compared with fallow soil. Oats yielded 4–17 t DM ha−1, and both yield and N uptake were strongly affected by urine application timing (winter > autumn) and soil type (high WHC > low WHC). Sowing oats after fodder beet grazing instead of leaving the ground fallow can reduce the environmental impacts of these systems, while simultaneously increasing annual feed supply. Catch crop gains can be maximised by avoiding or delaying autumn grazing of fodder beet, particularly on low WHC soils.
The role of relatedness and strategic linkages between domestic and MNE sectors in regional branching and resilience
Authors: Landman Mattie , Ojanperä Sanna , Kinsella Stephen , O’Clery Neave
Published: March 2022

Despite the key role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in both international markets and domestic economies, there is no consensus on their impact on their host economy. In particular, do MNEs stimulate new domestic firms through knowledge spillovers? Here, we look at the impact of MNEs on the entry and exit of domestic industries in Irish regions before, during, and after the 2008 Financial Crisis. Specifically, we are interested in whether the presence of MNEs in a region results in knowledge spillovers and the creation of new domestic industries in related sectors. To quantify how related an industry is to a region’s industry basket we propose two cohesion measures, weighted closeness and strategic closeness which capture direct linkages and dense inter-industry links between local industries respectively. We use a dataset of government-supported firms in Ireland (covering 90% of manufacturing and exporting) between 2006 and 2019. We find that domestic industries are both more likely to enter and less likely to leave a region if they are related to so-called ‘overlapping’ industries containing both domestic and MNE firms. In contrast, we find a negative impact on domestic entry and survival from cohesion to ‘exclusive MNE’ industries, suggesting that domestic firms are unable to ‘leap’ and thrive in MNE-proximate industries likely due to a technology or know-how gap. Finally, the type of cohesion matters. During the economic recovery (2015–2019), it is strategic rather than weighted closeness to overlapping industries that is associated with both domestic industry entry and survival.
Assessing discards in an illegal small-scale fishery using fisher-led reporting
Authors: Mendo T. , Mendo J. , Ransijn J. M. , Gomez I. , Gil-Kodaka P. , Fernández J. , Delgado R. , Travezaño A. , Arroyo R. , Loza K. , McCann P. , Crowe S. , Jones E. L. , James M. A.
Published: March 2022

About a third of all marine fish in the world are caught in Small-Scale Fisheries (SSF). SSF are increasingly recognised as essential for food security and livelihoods for vulnerable and economically fragile communities globally. Although individual SSF vessels are usually perceived as having little impact on the ecosystem, the cumulative impact of gear type and number of vessels may be substantial. Bottom trawling is a common fishing method that can greatly influence the marine ecosystem by damaging the seafloor and generating high levels of discards. However, appropriate sampling coverage using on-board observer programmes to collect these data from SSF are rare, as they are expensive and pose logistical constraints. A mobile App was used to assess whether self-reporting by fishers could provide reliable fine-scale information on fishing effort and discards over time in an illegal shrimp trawling fishery in northern Peru. Maps depicting the spatial distribution of trawling effort and the proportion of discards from observers and fishers were compared using the Similarity in Means (SIM) Index, which ranges from 0 when spatial patterns differ completely to 1 when spatial patterns are very similar. High levels of agreement between spatio-temporal patterns of effort (SIM Index = 0.81) and discards (0.96) were found between fisher and observer maps. Moreover, far greater spatial coverage was accomplished by fishers, suggesting that self-reporting via an App represents a useful approach to collect reliable fisheries data as an initial step for effective monitoring and management of these fisheries.
New Evidence for Palaeo-wildfire in the Early Permian (Artinskian) of Gondwana from Wardha Valley Coalfield, India
Authors: Murthy Srikanta , Uhl Dieter , Jasper Andre , Sarate O.S. , Mishra Deveshwar P.
Published: March 2022

Macroscopic fossil charcoal fragments have been recovered from the borehole AK-19 (at a depth of 120.00 m) drilled at the Astona-Kothurna coal block, Wardha valley coalfield. In general, the occurrence of charcoal in sediments is accepted as a direct indicator for palaeo-wildfires. The charcoal fragments exhibits well preserved homogenized cell walls as well as anatomical details such as uniseriate and biseriate pitting patterns on tracheid walls under Field Emission Scanning Electronic Microscope (FESEM), suggesting a gymnospermous wood affinity of the studied material. The excellent preservation, their large size and almost unabraded edges of charcoal fragments suggest a par-autochthonous origin. These findings add further evidence for the widespread occurrence of such wildfires during the Early Permian not only in India, but on the entire Gondwana continent.
Study on Seismic Amplification Effect and Active Earth Pressure of Retaining Wall Based on Pseudo-Dynamic Method and Numerical Simulation
Authors: Deng Yahong , Yan Zuofei , He Nainan , Chang Jiang , Xuan You
Published: March 2022

In this paper, the finite element numerical analysis verified that the critical failure surface of the backfill under active conditions was curved, and it was consistent with the composite form of a logarithmic spiral and a straight line assumed by the study based on the pseudo-dynamic method. On the basis of the failure surface of the backfill as a curved surface, the seismic active earth pressure on the retaining wall was calculated by the pseudo-dynamic method and the finite element method respectively. Results showed that in the finite element analysis, the acceleration amplitude of the backfill had an obvious amplification effect along the depth of the retaining wall, and this amplification effect was related to many factors. Under the action of low-frequency seismic load, linear amplification effect occurred, while nonlinear amplification effect occurred under the action of high-frequency seismic load. The amplification factors increased with the increase of retaining wall height. According to the characteristics of the amplification effect, after modifying the input seismic acceleration in the pseudo-dynamic method, the distribution of seismic active earth pressure on the retaining wall was close to that obtained by finite element analysis.
Highland Malaria Transmission Dynamics in Space and Time Before Pre-elimination Era, Northwest Ethiopia
Authors: Ewnetu Yalemwork , Lemma Wossenseged
Published: March 2022

Background

Currently, the district-level malaria transmission stratification has indicated the Northern, Northwestern, Southern, and rift valley lowland and surrounding highland districts are almost entirely classified as high or moderate malaria transmission zones. Conducting malaria surveillance to track, test, and treat all malaria cases cannot be implemented in Ethiopia in the current situation.

Objective

To show malaria transmission dynamics in different health facilities located from 1800 to 2772 m altitudes during 2018–2021 in Northwest Ethiopia.

Methods

A total of 3.5 years (2018–2021) retrospective confirmed and treated malaria cases in 43 kebeles health posts and clinics in Gondar Zuria district were used for analysis.

Result

The total malaria count was 5893 for 2019 compared to 31, 550 for 2020 and 33, 248 for 2021. Mean monthly malaria incidence/1000 people in 2019 was 2.39 ± 5.4 and increased to 10.64 ± 16.99 in 2020 and 11.19 ± 16.59 in 2021. Annual malaria incidence increased from 24 cases/1000 people in 2019 to 139.08 cases/1000 people in 2021 and is alarming danger in malaria elimination program in the district or the country as a whole. Poisson and Negative binomial regressions models indicated 5.78- and 5.26-fold malaria cases increase, respectively, in 2021 compared to 2019. The sudden increase in malaria incidences (counts) in 2020 and 2021 coincided with the interruption of residual insecticide application in Gondar Zuria district during the transition period towards the malaria pre-elimination stage implicating the role of malaria control tools in suppressing transmission. Study on climate variability also indicated that the rainfall variability in different months might have also favored high malaria transmission in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2019. Thus, in addition to re-starting the use of malaria control tools, giving attention to climate anomalies (variability) that favors malaria transmission, for prompt interventional actions, is required. The malaria elimination program in Ethiopia might have not reached a pre-elimination stage as malaria cases per 1000 people have not decreased below five in the majority of Ethiopian districts. Tracing, confirming, and treating individual cases to stop further transmission is, almost, impossible. In a situation like this, the Ethiopian malaria elimination program should work intensively towards understanding malaria epidemiology at the district level to re-design a localized malaria control strategy. The renewed malaria control program should also consider altitudes above 2000 m.
Rape Myths, Catastrophe, and Credibility
Authors: Tilton Emily C.R.
Published: March 2022

There is an undeniable tendency to dismiss women's sexual assault allegations out of hand. However, this tendency is not monolithic – allegations that black men have raped white women are often met with deadly seriousness. I argue that contemporary rape culture is characterized by the interplay between rape myths that minimize rape, and myths that catastrophize rape. Together, these two sets of rape myths distort the epistemic resources that people use when assessing rape allegations. These distortions result in the unjust exoneration of people we cannot conceive of as monstrous, while making it too easy to believe that some marginalized people could be rapists. I also argue that rape myths enable a novel kind of epistemic injustice. This injustice concerns how our assessments of trustworthiness and our assessments of plausibility interact. I argue that rape myths can result in runaway credibility deflations that can explain both why people fail to believe most women, and also why people may unjustly believe false allegations that white women have been raped by black men.