bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A ‘Wicked Problem’ for the Municipality of Athens. The ‘Refugee Crisis’ from an Insider’s Perspective
Authors: Stratigaki Maria
Published: October 2022

In late 2014, the city of Athens began to receive large numbers of refugees and migrants from the Aegean islands, mainly ‘transit’ refugees who wanted to travel to Northern Europe. The political and socioeconomic situation in the country was difficult, as the effects of the economic crisis (2010) were still being felt. Squeezed between different and constantly changing legal frameworks, different levels of public governance and facing xenophobic reactions from local residents, the authorities of Athens had to face a new ‘wicked problem’ and find urgent solutions and innovative policies. This chapter discusses the main policies developed by the Municipality of Athens to provide basic goods and services for the survival and dignity of the large number of migrants and refugees, as well as to transform administrative structures and review policy priorities. Three important aspects of the ‘wicked problem’ are highlighted: (a) the clear political responses against xenophobic reactions (b) the innovation of the institutional and financial framework by ‘deviating’ from administrative rigidities, and (c) the coordination of the ‘Babel’ of multiple policy actors involved in addressing the ‘refugee crisis’ beyond the established public sector. The lack of a coherent national strategy forced the city government to find innovative solutions, raise funding from multiple sources and mobilise new social actors and policy networks. The case of the Municipality of Athens has highlighted that policy innovation, administrative reform, and institutional change under conditions of humanitarian emergency can be facilitated by mobilising untapped human and institutional forces and resources.
The ‘Virtual Return’ Option of the Highly Educated Immigrants: The Case of Greek PhD Holders
Authors: Labrianidis Lois , Karampekios Nikolaos
Published: October 2022

Highly educated human capital is crucial for economic development. This has created a situation where countries compete to attract the best and the brightest. Being the case that in developed countries the demand for skilled human capital is greater than the supply, such global policies risk the possibility of less developed ones losing a significant part of their human capital. In this chapter, we review the policies followed by the countries losing their human capital to counter this trend. Greece being such a case, herein we examine the relevant policies and present the results of a novel field research. Conducted on top-tier highly educated individuals (PhD holders) who received their doctorate degree in the period 1985–2018, we examine issues of physical and virtual option as well as return policies that can be extended by the state. In terms of findings, 14.8% of these individuals currently live abroad while 31.3% of them have lived and worked abroad in the past. They maintain strong ties with Greece and they believe that the state could do certain things to help them to return (return option) as well as to facilitate their connection to the Greek economy while they still reside abroad (‘virtual return’/ ‘diaspora option’).
Cognitive Maps, Cultural Distances and National Stereotypes in Times of Crises: Comparing Greece and Hungary
Authors: Fokas Nikos , Jelenfi Gábor , Tardos Róbert
Published: October 2022

This chapter centres on polarised rearrangements of the imageries of ‘Others’ both in the Greek and the Hungarian public, during a period witnessing the impacts of the global financial crisis and the so-called ‘refugee crisis.’ We examined varieties of imageries of ‘Others’ in crisis situations, based on an online survey that was conducted in parallel in Greece and Hungary. Concurrently, we analysed the auto-stereotypical features of Greeks and Hungarians, along with their hetero-stereotype characteristics concerning some key nationalities (Americans, Arabs, Germans and Russians) to capture emerging patterns of sympathies, perceived skills and cultural distances. We found a substantial core of positive expressive auto-stereotypes among the Greek population. Hungarian auto-stereotypes reflected somewhat more instrumental-oriented self-images. The cognitive maps outlined by the two-mode network methodology displayed groupings of nationalities with related stereotypical attributes, such as ‘Western,’ ‘Eastern’ or ‘Peripheral.’ We also examined the beliefs of certain segments of the overall population depending on their exposure to financial and refugee crises. Media analyses of various activity domains conducted correspondingly for the respective countries highlighted substantial shifts between pre- and post-crisis patterns regarding both these countries’ positions and their characteristic features, as portrayed in the Greek and the Hungarian public discourse.
Erratum zu: Altern als Zukunft – eine Studie der VolkswagenStiftung
Authors: Lang Frieder R. , Lessenich Stephan , Rothermund Klaus
Published: October 2022

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Vessel tapering is conserved along a precipitation gradient in tropical trees of the genus Cedrela
Authors: Chambers-Ostler Alexander , Gloor Emanuel , Galbraith David , Groenendijk Peter , Brienen Roel
Published: October 2022

Key message

The rate of vessel tapering is highly conserved across a precipitation gradient in tropical trees, pointing to a limit on tree height determined by a maximum basal vessel diameter.

Maximum tree height in the tropics decreases strongly with decreasing precipitation. The role of hydraulic architecture in controlling this variation in tree height remains unclear. The widening of conducting xylem vessels from the apex to the base of trees, also known as tapering, is important for maintaining the hydraulic conductivity along the tree stem. If in contrast vessel diameter were constant, then resistance would increase with path length constraining flow rates as tree height increases. Whilst previous research has shown that vessel diameter scales with tree height at a similar rate (similar power law exponent) across biomes and taxa, knowledge on these relationships across precipitation gradients within a single species is incomplete, especially for the tropics. Here we report how vessel density and diameter at the tree base differ for two tropicalCedrelaspecies across four sites varying in precipitation from 1014 to 2585 mm year−1. We find that maximum tree height decreases with decreasing precipitation across sites from 42 to 13 m. Despite the strong differences between sites in maximum tree height and water availability, tapering is indeed remarkably conserved and close to published scaling with height based on multi-species analyses. Thus, for a given tree height, basal vessel diameter does not vary between sites, whilst the maximum basal vessel size is two times smaller at the drier site (with the shortest trees) compared to the wettest site (with the tallest trees). This suggests a possible limitation of tree height determined by a maximum basal vessel diameter that can be sustained, given increasing embolism risk with increasing dryness. Our results show no hydraulic adaptation across this wetness gradient and reveal a clear relationship between maximum tree height and maximum basal vessel size.
Clinical exercise therapy program with multiple myeloma patients: Impacts on feasibility, adherence and efficacy
Authors: Wefelnberg Michael Mendes , Niels Timo , Holtick Udo , Jundt Franziska , Scheid Christoph , Baumann Freerk T.
Published: October 2022

Purpose

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a severe hemato-oncological disease with high mortality and increasing incidence rate. Since evidence on exercise therapy in MM patients remains limited, this study examines feasibility, adherence, and efficacy based on real-life data from an oncologic care structure.

Methods

A data evaluation of MM patients who participated in the oncologic exercise and movement therapy (OTT) at the Cologne University Hospital between 2012 and 2019 was conducted. The patient flow was incrementally reduced to four cohorts, intention-to-treat cohort (ITTC), safety cohort (SC), adherence cohort (AC), and efficacy cohort (EC). Cohorts were evaluated descriptively and by means of correlation analysis as well as group and time comparisons.

Results

Thirty patients registered at the OTT between 2012 and 2019 (ITTC). The SC (N = 26) attended exercise therapy on average about one session per week over a period of 8 months. One-third dropped out within 3 months. In the AC (N = 15), BMI at baseline exhibited a strong and very significant negative correlation with exercise adherence. In the EC (N = 8), a significant improvement in physical functioning and a tendency towards significance in fatigue reduction between two measurement points was observed. No adverse events were documented.

Conclusions

The present observatory study reveals safety and feasibility while indicating adherence and efficacy of exercising MM patients under real-life therapy circumstances. Found obstacles to exercising as well as improvements in questionnaire scale scores need to be further examined in confirmatory study designs.
Domestic value added as an indicator for sustainability assessment: a case study on alternative drivetrains in the passenger car sector
Authors: Harzendorf F. , Wulf C. , Haase M. , Baumann M. , Ersoy H. , Zapp P.
Published: October 2022

To strengthen the economic pillar in sustainability assessment, the indicator ‘domestic value added’ is introduced. It aims at comparing established and less developed technologies regarding their prospective value added in a country. This is done by classifying a technology’s value added to the developed categories: domestic, potential domestic and non-domestic. Within this paper, two methods for assessing this indicator are introduced focussing on their applicability in a sustainability assessment context. Both methods are tested on a case study comparing two alternative drivetrain technologies for the passenger car sector (battery and fuel cell electric vehicle) to the conventionally used internal combustion engine. The first method is life cycle cost-based whereas the second is based on Input Output analysis. If a life cycle cost assessment is already available for the technology under assessment, the easier to implement life cycle cost-based approach is recommended, as the results are similar to the more complex Input Output-based approach. From the ‘domestic value added’ perspective, the battery electric vehicle is already more advantageous than the conventional internal combustion engine over the lifecycle. Fuel cell electric vehicles have the highest potential to increase their ‘domestic value added’ share in the future. This paper broadens the economic pillar in sustainability assessment by introducing a new indicator ‘domestic value added’ and giving practical information on how to prospectively assess it for existing and less developed technologies or innovations.

Graphical abstract
On the Effects of Anisotropy in Detecting Flaws of Fibre-Reinforced Composites
Authors: Kromik Andreas , Javanbakht Zia , Miller Brenton , Underhill Ian , Hall Wayne
Published: October 2022

Herein, the effect of anisotropy on the thermal response of two carbon fibre-reinforced composite samples (unidirectional and cross-ply) is studied using step-heating thermography. An objective methodology is developed for qualitative and quantitative analyses of flaws using their aspect ratios and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The procedure uses principal component analysis, Gaussian filter, and binarisation for marking the candidate flaw locations. After experimenting on different heating/cooling regimes, single-phase cooling was nominated to further the study. It is found that short thermal excitations reveal surface flaws while increasing the heating period improves the visibility of deeper flaws. Anisotropy, due to fibre alignment, affects the aspect ratio of flaws, distorts their shape, and conjoins clustered flaws. In contrast, SNR values seem to be insensitive to anisotropy. The proposed method offers a quick and simple procedure for post-processing thermal images and highlights the implications of anisotropy therein.
A framework for conditional statement technical debt identification and description
Authors: Alhefdhi Abdulaziz , Dam Hoa Khanh , Nugroho Yusuf Sulistyo , Hata Hideaki , Ishio Takashi , Ghose Aditya
Published: October 2022

Technical Debt occurs when development teams favour short-term operability over long-term stability. Since this places software maintainability at risk, technical debt requires early attention to avoid paying for accumulated interest. Most of the existing work focuses on detecting technical debt using code comments, known as Self-Admitted Technical Debt (SATD). However, there are many cases where technical debt instances are not explicitly acknowledged but deeply hidden in the code. In this paper, we propose a framework that caters for the absence of SATD comments in code. Our Self-Admitted Technical Debt Identification and Description (SATDID) framework determines if technical debt should be self-admitted for an input code fragment. If that is the case, SATDID will automatically generate the appropriate descriptive SATD comment that can be attached with the code. While our approach is applicable in principle to any type of code fragments, we focus in this study on technical debt hidden in conditional statements, one of the most TD-carrying parts of code. We explore and evaluate different implementations of SATDID. The evaluation results demonstrate the applicability and effectiveness of our framework over multiple benchmarks. Comparing with the results from the benchmarks, our approach provides at least 21.35, 59.36, 31.78, and 583.33% improvements in terms of Precision, Recall, F-1, and Bleu-4 scores, respectively. In addition, we conduct a human evaluation to the SATD comments generated by SATDID. In 1-5 and 0–5 scales for Acceptability and Understandability, the total means achieved by our approach are 3.128 and 3.172, respectively.
The Interdisciplinary Responsible Management Competence Framework: An Integrative Review of Ethics, Responsibility, and Sustainability Competences
Authors: Laasch Oliver , Moosmayer Dirk C. , Antonacopoulou Elena P.
Published: October 2022

At the centre of responsible management (RM) learning is the development of managerial competence for ethics, responsibility, and sustainability (ERS). Important contributions have been made from each: the ethics, responsibility, and sustainability disciplines. However, we are yet to integrate these disciplinary contributions into a comprehensive interdisciplinary RM competence framework that corresponds to the interdisciplinary nature of RM challenges. We address this priority in this paper and report on the findings of an integrative structured literature review of 224 management competence articles across the ERS disciplines. Our thematic template analysis has produced an interdisciplinary RM competence framework of three layers of personal, behavioural, and intellectual competences and independent and interdependent competence dimensions. The resulting 3 × 2 competence matrix framework accommodates 33 interdisciplinary ERS competence themes and 90 subthemes in the six competence domains of being and becoming, acting and interacting, knowing and thinking. To the RM discussion, we contribute an interdisciplinary competence framework that enables the development of responsible managers who tackle the inherently interdisciplinary issues of RM. To the competence discussion, we contribute the interdependent competence dimension and future research directions through the lens of response-ability.

JBE Section: Business Ethics Learning and Education
Mechanobiology of the endothelium in vascular health and disease: in vitro shear stress models
Authors: Jackson Molly L. , Bond Andrew Richard , George Sarah Jane
Published: October 2022

In recent years, there has been growing evidence that vascular pathologies arise in sites experiencing an altered haemodynamic environment. Fluid shear stress (FSS) is an important contributor to vascular homeostasis and regulates endothelial cell (EC) gene expression, morphology, and behaviour through specialised mechanosensitive signalling pathways. The presence of an altered FSS profile is a pathological characteristic of many vascular diseases, with the most established example being the preferential localisation of atherosclerotic plaque development. However, the precise haemodynamic contributions to other vascular pathologies including coronary artery vein graft failure remains poorly defined. To evaluate potential novel therapeutics for the treatment of vascular diseases via targeting EC behaviour, it is important to undertake in vitro experiments using appropriate culture conditions, particularly FSS. There are a wide range of in vitro models used to study the effect of FSS on the cultured endothelium, each with the ability to generate FSS flow profiles through which the investigator can control haemodynamic parameters including flow magnitude and directionality. An important consideration for selection of an appropriate model of FSS exposure is the FSS profile that the model can generate, in comparison to the physiological and pathophysiological haemodynamic environment of the vessel of interest. A resource bringing together the haemodynamic environment characteristic of atherosclerosis pathology and the flow profiles generated by in vitro methods of applying FSS would be beneficial to researchers when selecting the appropriate model for their research. Consequently, here we summarise the widely used methods of exposing cultured endothelium to FSS, the flow profile they generate and their advantages and limitations in investigating the pathological contribution of altered FSS to vascular disease and evaluating novel therapeutic targets for the treatment and prevention of vascular disease.
How do value-judgements enter model-based assessments of climate sensitivity?
Authors: Undorf Sabine , Pulkkinen Karoliina , Wikman-Svahn Per , Bender Frida A.-M.
Published: October 2022

Philosophers argue that many choices in science are influenced by values or have value-implications, ranging from the preference for some research method’s qualities to ethical estimation of the consequences of error. Based on the argument that awareness of values in the scientific process is a necessary first step to both avoid bias and attune science best to the needs of society, an analysis of the role of values in the physical climate science production process is provided. Model-based assessment of climate sensitivity is taken as an illustrative example; climate sensitivity is useful here because of its key role in climate science and relevance for policy, by having been the subject of several assessments over the past decades including a recent shift in assessment method, and because it enables insights that apply to numerous other aspects of climate science. It is found that value-judgements are relevant at every step of the model-based assessment process, with a differentiated role of non-epistemic values across the steps, impacting the assessment in various ways. Scrutiny of current philosophical norms for value-management highlights the need for those norms to be re-worked for broader applicability to climate science. Recent development in climate science turning away from direct use of models for climate sensitivity assessment also gives the opportunity to start investigating the role of values in alternative assessment methods, highlighting similarities and differences in terms of the role of values that encourage further study.
POI recommendation with queuing time and user interest awareness
Authors: Halder Sajal , Lim Kwan Hui , Chan Jeffrey , Zhang Xiuzhen
Published: October 2022

Point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is a challenging problem due to different contextual information and a wide variety of human mobility patterns. Prior studies focus on recommendation that considers user travel spatiotemporal and sequential patterns behaviours. These studies do not pay attention to user personal interests, which is a significant factor for POI recommendation. Besides user interests, queuing time also plays a significant role in affecting user mobility behaviour, e.g., having to queue a long time to enter a POI might reduce visitor’s enjoyment. Recently, attention-based recurrent neural networks-based approaches show promising performance in the next POI recommendation task. However, they are limited to single head attention, which can have difficulty in finding the appropriate user mobility behaviours considering complex relationships among POI spatial distances, POI check-in time, user interests and POI queuing times. In this research work, we are the first to consider queuing time and user interest awareness factors for next POI recommendation. We demonstrate how it is non-trivial to recommend a next POI and simultaneously predict its queuing time. To solve this problem, we propose a multi-task, multi-head attention transformer model called TLR-M_UI. The model recommends the next POIs to the target users and predicts queuing time to access the POIs simultaneously by considering user mobility behaviours. The proposed model utilises POIs description-based user personal interest that can also solve the new categorical POI cold start problem. Extensive experiments on six real-world datasets show that the proposed models outperform the state-of-the-art baseline approaches in terms of precision, recall, and F1-score evaluation metrics. The model also predicts and minimizes the queuing time. For the reproducibility of the proposed model, we have publicly shared our implementation code at GitHub (https://github.com/sajalhalder/TLR-M_UI).
Modelling in Normative Ethics
Authors: Roussos Joe
Published: October 2022

This is a paper about the methodology of normative ethics. I claim that much work in normative ethics can be interpreted as modelling, the form of inquiry familiar from science, involving idealised representations. I begin with the anti-theory debate in ethics, and note that the debate utilises the vocabulary of scientific theories without recognising the role models play in science. I characterise modelling, and show that work with these characteristics is common in ethics. This establishing the plausibility of my interpretation. Taking methodological inspiration from modelling in science gives us new tools for managing idealisations, and a new perspective on pluralism. I think demonstrate why this interpretation is a fruitful way of interpreting ethics, by looking at three case studies. First, I return to the anti-theory debate and argue that modelling opens up a new middle ground. Second, I argue that a modelling lens offers a new way of understanding impossibility theorems in population ethics, and their bearing on ethics as a whole. Finally, I show how viewing our work as modelling can be deployed in debates within ethics, using the debate over prioritarianism as an example. I close with further methodological suggestions for those who choose to see themselves as modellers. I discuss the role of counterexamples, our responses to moral disagreement, and the training of new ethicists.
Extreme Temperature and Mortality by Educational Attainment in Spain, 2012–2018
Authors: Conte Keivabu Risto
Published: October 2022

Extreme temperatures are a threat to public health, increasing mortality in the affected population. Moreover, there is substantial research showing how age and gender shape vulnerabilities to this environmental risk. However, there is only limited knowledge on how socioeconomic status (SES), operationalized using educational attainment, stratifies the effect of extreme temperatures on mortality. Here, we address this link using Poisson regression and administrative data from 2012 to 2018 for 50 Spanish Provinces on individuals aged above 65 matched with meteorological data provided by the E-OBS dataset. In line with previous studies, results show that hot and cold days increase mortality. Results on the interaction between SES and extreme temperatures show a positive and significant effect of exposure to heat and cold for individuals with medium and low SES level. Conversely, for high SES individuals we do not find evidence of a robust association with heat or cold. We further investigate how the local climate moderates these associations. A warmer climate increases risks with exposures to low temperatures and vice versa for hot temperatures in the pooled sample. Moreover, we observe that results are mostly driven by low SES individuals being particularly vulnerable to heat in colder climates and cold in warmer climates. In conclusion, results highlight how educational attainment stratifies the effect of extreme temperatures and the relevance of the local climate in shaping risks of low SES individuals aged above 65.
The educational purposes of higher education: changing discussions of the societal outcomes of educating students
Authors: Ashwin Paul
Published: October 2022

In this article, I examine the educational purposes of higher education in terms of the societal outcomes of educating students through higher education.Based on an analysis of the first 80 volume ofHigher Education, published from 1972 to 2020, I argue that discussions of societal educational purposes were dominated by authors from the Anglophone, global North and these authors were more likely to write as if the educational purposes under discussion were relevant to all higher education systems regardless of national context. This tendency increased over time. The overall models of the educational purposes in each contribution differed in terms of whether they focused on single, multiple, or differentiated sets of educational purposes. I argue that as higher education has become increasingly stratified, there has been less discussion of whether there are differences in the societal outcomes served by different forms of higher education. This is problematic because it obscures the potential differences in the educational purposes of higher education in different societies and the extent to which inequalities are perpetuated by differences in the forms of higher education to which students gain access. In order to address this, I argue there is a need to move away from a focus on the educational purposes of the institutional form of ‘the University’ to focus on the educational purposes that are served by different configurations of higher education systems.
A Fusion-Based Machine Learning Approach for Autism Detection in Young Children Using Magnetoencephalography Signals
Authors: Barik Kasturi , Watanabe Katsumi , Bhattacharya Joydeep , Saha Goutam
Published: October 2022

In this study, we aimed to find biomarkers of autism in young children. We recorded magnetoencephalography (MEG) in thirty children (4–7 years) with autism and thirty age, gender-matched controls while they were watching cartoons. We focused on characterizing neural oscillations by amplitude (power spectral density, PSD) and phase (preferred phase angle, PPA). Machine learning based classifier showed a higher classification accuracy (88%) for PPA features than PSD features (82%). Further, by a novel fusion method combining PSD and PPA features, we achieved an average classification accuracy of 94% and 98% for feature-level and score-level fusion, respectively. These findings reveal discriminatory patterns of neural oscillations of autism in young children and provide novel insight into autism pathophysiology.
Social-Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Emotion Perception in Daily Life and in a Formal Assessment Context
Authors: Löytömäki Joanna , Laakso Marja-Leena , Huttunen Kerttu
Published: October 2022

Children with neurodevelopmental disorders often have social-emotional and behavioural difficulties. The present study explored these difficulties in children (n = 50, aged 6–10 years) with autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and developmental language disorder. Parents, teachers and therapists evaluated children’s social-emotional and behavioural difficulties through a self-devised questionnaire and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Additionally, the children, along with their typically developing age peers (n = 106), completed six emotion discrimination tasks. Analysis revealed some impaired emotion discrimination skills that were predictive for behavioural challenges in daily life and associated with the parent-reported existence of friends. Timely intervention in these children is needed, and it should also include emotion perception training.
Using a plasma FIB system to characterise the porosity through the oxide scale formed on 9Cr-1Mo steel exposed to CO2
Authors: Coghlan L. , Shin Aya , Pearson Jonathan , Jepson Mark. A. E. , Higginson R. L.
Published: October 2022

Focused ion beam microscopy and scanning electron microscopy have been used to characterise the porosity of the oxide scale of an experimental 9Cr–1Mo steel sample exposed for 4580 h in a CO2-rich environment. The magnetite shows a high frequency of spherical pores (~ 1 µm3) with no interconnectivity. The Cr-rich spinel layer shows greater interconnectivity, but no single pore spans the total oxide scale. A mechanism for the formation of the different morphologies observed across the scale is proposed, linking porosity changes across the oxide scale to the carburisation and elemental segregation of Cr within the substrate.

Graphical abstract
Three-dimensional printed polylactic acid and hydroxyapatite composite scaffold with urine-derived stem cells as a treatment for bone defects
Authors: Zhang Xiang , Chen Jia-Lei , Xing Fei , Duan Xin
Published: October 2022

Bone defects still pose various challenges in osteology. As one treatment method for bone defects, tissue engineering requires biomaterials with good biocompatibility and stem cells with good differentiation. This study aimed to fabricate a 3D-printed polylactic acid and hydroxyapatite (PLA/HA) composite scaffold with urine-derived stem cells (USCs) to study its therapeutic effect in a rat model of skull defects. USCs were isolated and extracted from the urine of healthy adult males and inoculated onto PLA/HA and PLA scaffolds fabricated by 3D printing technology. A total of 36 skull defect models in eighteen Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group (no treatment of the defects), PLA group (treated with PLA scaffolds with USCs), and PLA/HA group (treated with PLA/HA scaffolds with USCs). The therapeutic efficacy was evaluated by real-time PCR, microcomputed tomography (micro-CT), and immunohistochemistry at 4, 8, and 12 weeks. We found that the PLA/HA scaffold loaded with USCs effectively promoted new bone regeneration in the defect area. CT images showed that in the PLA/HA group, the defect area was almost entirely covered by newly formed bone (coverage of 96.7 ± 1.6%), and the coverage was greater than that in the PLA group (coverage of 74.6 ± 1.9%) at 12 weeks. Histology and immunohistochemical staining showed the highest new bone formation on the PLA/HA scaffolds containing USCs in the defect site at 12 weeks. These findings demonstrate the broad application prospects of PLA/HA scaffolds with USCs in bone tissue engineering.
Implantation of heat treatment Ti6al4v alloys in femoral bone of Wistar rats
Authors: Chávez Díaz Mercedes Paulina , Henche Soledad Aguado , Yanchuck Mónica Rubio , de Arriba Celia Clemente , Sierra Román Cabrera , Rincón María Lorenza Escudero , Hallen José M.
Published: October 2022

Two heat treatments were carried out at below (Ti6Al4V800) and above (Ti6Al4V1050) the beta-phase transformation temperature (TTRANSUS = 980 °C), to study the effect of microstructural changes on osseointegration. The alloys were implanted in the femurs of hind legs of Wistar rats for 15, 30, and 60 days. Histology of the femur sections obtained for the first 15 days showed inflammatory tissue surrounding the implants and tissue contraction, which prevented osseointegration in early stages. After 30 days, trabecular bone, reduction of inflammatory tissue around the implants, and osseointegration were observed in Ti6Al4V as received and Ti6Al4V1050 alloys, while osseointegration was detected for the three alloys after 60 days. These results were supported through morphometric studies based on the analysis of Bone Implant Contact (BIC), where there was a larger bone contact after 60 days for the Ti6Al4V1050 alloy; indicating that microstructural features of the Ti6Al4V alloys influence their osseointegration, with the lamellar microstructure (Ti6Al4V1050), being the most responsive.
Differentiability of the Diffusion Coefficient for a Family of Intermittent Maps
Authors: Sélley Fanni M.
Published: October 2022

It is well known that the Liverani–Saussol–Vaienti map satisfies a central limit theorem for Hölder observables in the parameter regime where the correlations are summable. We show that when C2 observables are considered, the variance of the limiting normal distribution is a C1 function of the parameter. We first show this for the first return map to the base of the second branch by studying the Green-Kubo formula, then conclude the result for the original map using Kac’s lemma and relying on linear response.
Comparative European Institutions and the Little Divergence, 1385–1800
Authors: Henriques António , Palma Nuno
Published: October 2022

Why did the countries that first benefited from access to the New World – Castile and Portugal – decline relative to their followers, especially England and the Netherlands? The dominant narrative is that worse initial institutions at the time of the opening of the Atlantic trade explain the Iberian divergence. In this paper, we build a new dataset which allows for a comparison of institutional quality over time. We consider the frequency and nature of parliamentary meetings, the frequency and intensity of extraordinary taxation and coin debasement, and real interest rates together with spreads for public debt. We find no evidence that the political institutions of Portugal and Spain were worse until the English Civil War.
Improved Tafel-Based Potentiostatic Approach for Corrosion Rate Monitoring of Reinforcing Steel
Authors: Ramón José Enrique , Martínez Isabel , Gandía-Romero José Manuel , Soto Juan
Published: October 2022

Potential step voltammetry (PSV) was introduced in earlier works as an advantageous alternative to traditional methods for measuring corrosion rate in reinforced concrete. The present study aims to improve PSV to maximize its applicability in corrosion rate monitoring, that is, beyond the narrowly-defined steel–concrete systems in which was initially validated. It was therefore identified necessary to address the most suitable PSV pulse amplitudes to accurately obtain the Tafel lines and, therefore, corrosion rate in steel-mortar systems with well-differentiated ohmic drop. PSV findings were compared to reference methods, i.e. Tafel intersection and linear polarization resistance. As a novelty, we propose a procedure to improve the reliability of the PSV-determined Tafel lines, which is based on three protocols (P1, P2 and P3). P1 consists of a specific pulse sequence to accurately characterize the morphology of the polarization curve without disturbing the system. P2 consists of two short pulses for determining the ohmic drop compensation factor. Finally, P3 consists of a simple calculation procedure to accurately adjust the PSV pulse amplitudes (∆V) to the steel–concrete system assessed, thus obviating the need for preset values and, therefore, ensuring accurate corrosion rate results. The procedure proposed is intended to improve PSV with a view to its consolidation as a reliable tool for the unsupervised monitoring of real structures.
Abrupt diatom responses to recent climate and land use changes in the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain)
Authors: Gardoki Jon , Morellón Mario , Leira Manel , Ezquerra Francisco Javier , Remondo Juan , Tinner Willy , Canales María Luisa , van der Horst Anouk , Morales-Molino César
Published: October 2022

The multi-proxy study of sediment cores from Lake Isoba (43° 02′ N, 5° 18′ W; 1400 m a.s.l.) allows a detailed assessment of the past hydrological and environmental dynamics in north-western Iberia resulting from the interplay between climate variability and anthropogenic impact. The combination of diatom stratigraphy, sedimentology and high-resolution elemental geochemistry along with a robust chronological framework (established by 210Pb, 137Cs and 14C dating) provides a detailed environmental reconstruction for the past ~ 500 years. Abrupt changes in the fossil diatom assemblages indicate a high sensitivity of this small lake to past environmental change and allow identifying four major stages related to the main climate fluctuations of the Little Ice Age (LIA) and recent warming. High lake levels, enhanced runoff and higher productivity characterised the middle phase of the LIA (~ 1550 to 1630 CE), indicating an overall wet climate. Conversely, shallow lake levels, decreased runoff and relatively low productivity prevailed during the last phase of the LIA and the onset of the Industrial Era (~ 1630 to 1925 CE), likely due to colder and drier conditions. High lake levels and higher carbonate input occurred after ~ 1925 CE until the 1980s CE, when our data show an abrupt drop in lake levels probably caused by a regional negative rainfall anomaly related to climate warming during the past decades. Finally, since ~ 1997 CE a remarkable and abrupt increase in the lake nutrient load and turbidity is detected, probably associated with the replacement of transhumant sheep flocks with staying cattle. The main environmental changes reconstructed at Lake Isoba mostly agree with other palaeoclimatic records from northern Spain. However, the hydrological patterns reconstructed are opposed to those observed on the northern slopes of the Cantabrian Mountains. The recent and strong impact of land-use changes on the lake, causing more ecological disruptions than previous climate changes, is noteworthy and demonstrates the high sensitivity of mountain lakes to human activities in a global change context.
The Metalogic of Ground: Pure and Iterative Systems
Authors: Bevan Michael
Published: October 2022

I develop a graph-theoretic model theory for pure and iterative grounding logics.
Negative expectations regarding interpersonal interactions in daily life are associated with subclinical depressive symptoms in a student sample: A prospective experience sampling study
Authors: Lüdtke Thies , Westermann Stefan
Published: October 2022

Dysfunctional expectations and interpersonal problems are associated with depression, so we measured expected emotions towards interaction partners and compared them with actual emotions. We hypothesized that, between persons, individuals with higher subclinical depression would display stronger, more stable, and less accurate negative expectations. Within persons, we hypothesized that momentary negative expectations would predict subsequent negative affect. Fifty-three students completed 6 days of Experience Sampling, consisting of one morning expectation-assessment (9 am), three assessments on actual interpersonal emotions (1 pm, 5 pm, 9 pm), and six random affect-assessments. We regressed expected emotions, experienced emotions, expectation fluctuations, and expectation violations on subclinical depression. Using mixed model analyses, we further examined whether negative expectations preceded negative affect, and whether expectation violations preceded adjustments of expectations. Higher subclinical depression predicted more negative expectations. Within persons, worse-than-expected interpersonal interactions preceded negative affect whereas better-than-expected interactions preceded reductions of negative expectations. Despite problems with skewed data, our approach appears well-suited to examine interpersonal expectations in vivo.
Context-aware adaptation of mobile video decoding resolution
Authors: Machidon Octavian , Asprov Jani , Fajfar Tine , Pejović Veljko
Published: October 2022

While the evolution of mobile computing is experiencing considerable growth, it is at the same time seriously threatened by the limitations of battery technology, which does not keep pace with the evergrowing increase in energy requirements of mobile applications. Yet, with the limits of human perception and the diversity of requirements that individuals may have, a question arises of whether the effort should be made to always deliver the highest quality result to a mobile user? In this work we investigate how a user’s physical activity, the spatial/temporal properties of the video, and the user’s personality traits interact and jointly influence the minimal acceptable playback resolution. We conduct two studies with 45 participants in total and find out that the minimal acceptable resolution indeed varies across different contextual factors. Our predictive models inferring the lowest acceptable playback resolution, together with the reduced power consumption we measure at lower resolutions, open an opportunity for saving a mobile’s energy through context-adaptable approximate computing.
Completed sample correlations and feature dependency-based unsupervised feature selection
Authors: Liu Tong , Hu Rongyao , Zhu Yongxin
Published: October 2022

Sample correlations and feature relations are two pieces of information that are needed to be considered in the unsupervised feature selection, as labels are missing to guide model construction. Thus, we design a novel unsupervised feature selection scheme, in this paper, via considering the completed sample correlations and feature dependencies in a unified framework. Specifically, self-representation dependencies and graph construction are conducted to preserve and select the important neighbors for each sample in a comprehensive way. Besides, mutual information and sparse learning are designed to consider the correlations between features and to remove the informative features, respectively. Moreover, various constraints are constructed to automatically obtain the number of important neighbors and to conduct graph partition for the clustering task. Finally, we test the proposed method and verify the effectiveness and the robustness on eight data sets, comparing with nine state-of-the-art approaches with regard to three evaluation metrics for the clustering task.
Effects of negative emotional valence on readers’ text processing and memory for text: an eye-tracking study
Authors: Arfé Barbara , Delatorre Pablo , Mason Lucia
Published: October 2022

Comprehension of stories requires readers to take the perspective of the story characters and imagine or feel their cognitive and affective states. The study investigated how variations in emotional valence within a literary text affected readers’ global text processing, as reflected in their eye movements during the first and second-pass reading, and their memory for text. Processes of reading were also examined in relation to readers’ dispositional empathy. Undergraduate students (N = 42) were assigned to an emotionally negative or neutral reading condition. They read a natural text passage from a suspense story while their ocular behavior was registered. After reading, they responded to multiple-choice questions assessing their memory of the text. Results revealed longer first-pass fixation times for content evoking negative emotions than for neutral content, which could be suggestive of a more analytical processing of the former. These effects were however local and did not impact the processing of the text at global level. Memory for the emotionally negative content was more accurate than memory for the neutral content. Dispositional empathy did not contribute to reading processes and outcome. Findings are discussed against the mixed results in the current literature and practical implications are also outlined.
Hydrogen as Carbon-Free Reducing Agent in Non-ferrous Slag Fuming
Authors: Attah-Kyei Desmond , Klemettinen Lassi , Michallik Radoslaw , Salminen Justin , Taskinen Pekka , Lindberg Daniel
Published: October 2022

In this work, pyrometallurgical treatment of non-ferrous iron residue was studied. This approach aimed to recover the valuable metals and convert the residue into reusable benign slag using hydrogen as a non-fossil reducing agent. The pyrometallurgical treatment for this type of residue involves pretreatment prior to two stages, oxidation and reduction. Hydrogen was employed as a reducing agent in slag cleaning. The reduction tests were performed at temperatures of 1200 °C, 1250 °C, and 1300 °C using H2 and N2 gases to form the reducing gas atmosphere. The results show that H2 is an effective reductant because reduction proceeded rapidly, forming speiss droplets within the slag already after 10 minutes. The laboratory-scale experiments suggest that slags or other residues obtained from metallurgical processes can be further cleaned in a fuming process using hydrogen and its mixtures to obtain environmentally friendly cleaner slag with respect of volatile metals. The results also show that one can tune the reduction and control the formation of metallic iron during the process. Thermodynamic modeling was also performed to simulate the fuming stage, i.e., reduction of the slag. Metal alloy formation as well as elemental distributions between metal and slag were studied, and results from thermodynamic modeling agree well with experimental results.
Modeling the stochastic within-host dynamics SARS-CoV-2 infection with discrete delay
Authors: Elbaz I. M. , Sohaly M. A. , El-Metwally H.
Published: October 2022

In this paper, a new mathematical model that describes the dynamics of the within-host COVID-19 epidemic is formulated. We show the stochastic dynamics of Target-Latent-Infected-Virus free within the human body with discrete delay and noise. Positivity and uniqueness of the solutions are established. Our study shows the extinction and persistence of the disease inside the human body through the stability analysis of the disease-free equilibrium $$E_0$$

E
0

and the endemic equilibrium $$E^*$$

E
∗

, respectively. Moreover, we show the impact of delay tactics and noise on the extinction of the disease. The most interesting result is even if the deterministic system is inevitably pandemic at a specific point, extinction will become possible in the stochastic version of our model.
Comparison of different resolutions of six free online DEMs with GPS elevation data on a new 6th of October City, Egypt
Authors: Aziz Khaled Mahmoud Abdel , Rashwan Karim Samir
Published: October 2022

The Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are used to represent the topographic surface of the earth as it is used in many applications. Nowadays, many free DEMs are available online. This study aims to assess the accuracy of six free DEMs. This research uses the GPS observations to determine the elevation stations in the study area by using the Post-Processing Kinematic (PPK) technique and compares these elevations against the elevations computed at the same stations by using six free online Digital Elevation Models (DEMs): SRTM 1 Arc-Second, ASTER 1 Arc-Second, NASADEM 1 Arc-Second, SRTM 3 Arc-Second, GTOPO30, and ALOS PALSAR 12.5 m to find the best results from the free DEMs. The elevations of all stations of different data sources were calculated using the geoid model EGM96. The results indicate that the DEMs that give the best results in this study are obtained from NASADEM 1 Arc-Second, where (RMSE is 2.99 m, and the SD is 2.97 m), and SRTM 3 Arc-Second, where the (RMSE is 3.70 m, and the SD is 3.53 m).