bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Exploring the understanding, source of availability and level of access of cognitive enhancers among university students in the United Arab Emirates: A qualitative study
Authors: Sharif Safia , Fergus Suzanne , Guirguis Amira , Smeeton Nigel , Schifano Fabrizio
Published: December 2023

Objective

The use of prescription stimulants for cognitive enhancement by healthy university students, identified as the largest cohort of cognitive enhancer (CE) users, is of growing interest. The purpose of this study was to look at the understanding, perception, experience, and level of access of CEs among healthy university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Methods

The study was conducted in six highly competitive university programmes. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 18 university students to discuss their own experiences and those of their friends and peers regarding the use of prescription stimulants. In addition, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with seven teaching faculty staff members (registered pharmacists and medical doctors) to explore their views on the use of CEs in their university.

Results

Data were analysed thematically for the identification of themes and subthemes within the data using coding. It was found that, ‘Adderall’ was the most common prescribed CE drug and caffeine super strength pills were the most common non‐prescribed CE drug, both reported to enhance concentration, motivation, and meet academic deadlines.

Conclusions

It is expected that the findings of this study will be of interest to a wide range of services in UAE universities. This will enable them to raise awareness about the use of CEs among students.
Stability of high internal‐phase emulsions prepared from phycocyanin and small‐molecule sugars
Authors: Sun Xiaolin , Zhang Zhong , Li Wenjun , Tian Hongye , Yuan Li , Yang Xingbin
Published: December 2023

BACKGROUND

The use of high internal‐phase Pickering emulsions in the food industry is widespread due to their excellent stability and special rheological properties. Proteins are often used as food‐grade Pickering stabilizers due to their safety and nutritious properties. Nowadays, the development and efficient utilization of novel proteins as Pickering stabilizers has become a new challenge.

RESULTS

Phycocyanin complexes with small‐molecule sugars (SMS), formed as a result of non‐thermal interactions, can serve as stabilizers for high internal‐phase Pickering emulsions. The addition of SMS‐enabled gel‐like emulsions significantly reduced the amount of emulsifier used. When the SMS was sorbitol, the emulsion had excellent elastic properties and self‐supporting ability and was stable during long‐term storage, when subjected to centrifugation, and under different temperature conditions. The fluorescent property of phycocyanin was utilized to investigate the formation mechanism of the emulsion. Small‐molecule sugars were able to form ‘sugar‐shell’ structures on the surface of proteins to enhance the structural stability of proteins. Phycocyanin‐SMS‐stabilized emulsions provided superior protection for photosensitive and volatile substances. The retention rates of trans‐resveratrol and n‐hexane increased by 384.75% and 30.55%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

These findings will encourage the development of proteins that stabilize Pickering emulsions. They will also provide new ideas for protecting photosensitive and volatile substances. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.
A general unsteady Fourier solution for orthotropic heat transfer in 2D functionally graded cylinders
Authors: Delouei Amin Amiri , Emamian Amin , Ghorbani Saeed , He Fuli
Published: December 2023

In the present research, an analytical solution is presented for unsteady heat transfer in a two‐dimensional finite cylinder made of functionally graded Materials (FGM). The governing equation, as an unsteady partial differential equation (PDE), is solved with general boundary conditions (BCs). The thermal conductivity coefficients are considered as a power function of the radius, both in the longitudinal and radial directions of the FGM cylinder. The presence of non‐constant coefficients and general BCs will confront us with the challenge of solving an unsteady problem with high complexity. A combination of Laplace transform, Fourier transform, and meromorphic functions are utilized to deal with this complex PDE. The Laplace transform was applied to transform to the frequency domain, the Sturm–Liouville equation was used to extract the orthogonal basis Fourier series, and the meromorphic function was deployed to transform back from the frequency domain to the time domain. Results were well verified against previous research works. Results showed that the proposed analytical solution could well predict the temperature distribution. The current analytical solution is useful to better understand unsteady heat transfer in FGMs.
Preparation and characterization of shear thickening fluid/carbon nanotubes/Kevlar composite materials
Authors: Lu Chunrui , Li Siqi , Lu Xue , Ma Ji , Ma Wenlong , Wang Xiaodong , Ba Shuhong
Published: December 2023

Shear thickening fluid (STF), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are both promising in body protection and anti‐impact for the drastic viscosity change of STF and the extremely high tensile strength and elongation of CNTs. The excellent performance of the above two combined with traditional Kevlar fabrics can significantly improve the mechanical properties and reduce the number of layers used for body protection. This work reports a new method to prepare STF/CNTs/Kevlar with excellent tensile properties and anti‐impact performance by spraying method with 1 wt% polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) solution as a binder for better integration between CNTs and Kevlar. Surface morphology changes in the preparation process indicate the combined structure of PVA binder, CNTs, and STF, presenting a uniform macroscopic and nonuniform microscopic surface of STF/CNTs/Kevlar composite. The tensile strength and anti‐impact properties including punch residual velocity and energy absorbed were studied and results for STF/CNTs/Kevlar composite are 669.8 ± 18.1 MPa, 1.602 ± 0.045 m/s, and 21.683 ± 1.182 J in 12 ms, increased by 46.4%, 23.0%, and 240.2%, respectively, compared with neat Kevlar, owing to the improved tight bonding and friction between fabrics yarns caused by PVA adhesive and tangled CNTs, accompanied with the enhanced viscosity of STF under forces.

Highlights

Composites were made by spraying PVA, CNTs, and STF onto Kevlar fabrics;

The tensile strength of the composite was 46.4% higher than Kevlar;

The energy absorbed in 12 ms in anti‐impact tests was improved by 240.2%;

Tight bonding and friction between yarns are reasons to improve properties;

The raised viscosity of STF under forces is useful for mechanical properties.
Study on the temperature field distribution of the interface and process parameter optimization for material extrusion of PLA
Authors: Wang Yanqing , Tang Mengke , Zhou Zheng , Wang Caijuan
Published: December 2023

Despite the significant development and wide application of 3D printing technology, there are rarely reports on the influence of the build plate temperature upon the manufactured products. By conducting transient thermal analysis and 3D printing experiments, researchers optimized the build plate temperature for reducing defects in printed samples formed through material extrusion (MEX). The temperature distribution near the bottom interface was analyzed using ANSYS parametric design language (APDL) numerical calculation, and the temperature variation at the key monitoring node was examined for different build plate temperatures. Standard samples were then prepared to study warping and tensile properties. The results indicated that sagging would occur when the key monitoring node's temperature exceeded the glass state temperature of the PLA filament, particularly at build plate temperatures of 55 and 60°C. This conclusion was verified through MEX experiments. Ultimately, without sagging, an optimal build plate temperature of 50°C was determined based on APDL calculations, warping measurements (0.42 mm), and tensile yield strength (39.63 MPa). Thus, research on this parameter of temperature field distribution will contribute to the realization of high‐quality and high‐precision 3D printing.

Highlights

Optimized the build plate temperature to reduce defects of MEX.

The temperature distribution of the interface near the bottom was analyzed by APDL and monitored.

Optimal temperature was discussed by combining the results of APDL and experiment data.
Integrative analysis of transcriptome and proteome profiles in primary and recurrent glioblastoma
Authors: Zhang Jiajie , Wang Guowei , Yan Bo , Yang Ge , Yang Qianqian , Hu Yaqin , Guo Jiuru , Zhao Ningning , Wang Liang , Wang Huijuan
Published: December 2023

Purpose

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and aggressive primary brain tumor characterized by poor prognosis and high recurrence. The underlying molecular mechanism that drives tumor progression and recurrence is unclear. This study is intended to look for molecular and biological changes that play a key role in GBM recurrence.

Experimental design

An integrative transcriptomic and proteomic analysis was performed on three primary GBM and three recurrent GBM tissues. Omics analyses were conducted using label‐free quantitative proteomics and whole transcriptome sequencing.

Results

A significant difference was found between primary GBM and recurrent GBM at the transcriptional level. Similar to other omics studies of cancer, a weak overlap was observed between transcriptome and proteome, and Procollagen C‐Endopeptidase Enhancer 2 (PCOLCE2) was observed to be upregulated at mRNA and protein levels. Analysis of public cancer database revealed that high expression of PCOLCE2 is associated with poor prognosis of patients with GBM and that it may be a potential prognostic indicator. Functional and environmental enrichment analyses revealed significantly altered signaling pathways related to energy metabolism, including mitochondrial ATP synthesis‐coupled electron transport and oxidative phosphorylation.

Conclusions and clinical relevance

This study provides new insights into the recurrence process of GBM through combined transcriptomic and proteomic analyses, complementing the existing GBM transcriptomic and proteomic data and suggesting that integrated multi‐omics analyses may reveal new disease features of GBM.
Cutoff estimation and construction of their confidence intervals for continuous biomarkers under ternary umbrella and tree stochastic ordering settings
Authors: Brewer Benjamin C. , Bantis Leonidas E.
Published: December 2023

Tuberculosis (TB) studies often involve four different states under consideration, namely, “healthy,” “latent infection,” “pulmonary active disease,” and “extra‐pulmonary active disease.” While highly accurate clinical diagnosis tests do exist, they are expensive and generally not accessible in regions where they are most needed; thus, there is an interest in assessing the accuracy of new and easily obtainable biomarkers. For some such biomarkers, the typical stochastic ordering assumption might not be justified for all disease classes under study, and usual ROC methodologies that involve ROC surfaces and hypersurfaces are inadequate. Different types of orderings may be appropriate depending on the setting, and these may involve a number of ambiguously ordered groups that stochastically exhibit larger (or lower) marker scores than the remaining groups. Recently, there has been scientific interest on ROC methods that can accommodate these so‐called “tree” or “umbrella” orderings. However, there is limited work discussing the estimation of cutoffs in such settings. In this article, we discuss the estimation and inference around optimized cutoffs when accounting for such configurations. We explore different cutoff alternatives and provide parametric, flexible parametric, and non‐parametric kernel‐based approaches for estimation and inference. We evaluate our approaches using simulations and illustrate them through a real data set that involves TB patients.
Statistical inference with large‐scale trait imputation
Authors: Ren Jingchen , Pan Wei
Published: December 2023

Recently a nonparametric method called LS‐imputation has been proposed for large‐scale trait imputation based on a GWAS summary dataset and a large set of genotyped individuals. The imputed trait values, along with the genotypes, can be treated as an individual‐level dataset for downstream genetic analyses, including those that cannot be done with GWAS summary data. However, since the covariance matrix of the imputed trait values is often too large to calculate, the current method imposes a working assumption that the imputed trait values are identically and independently distributed, which is incorrect in truth. Here we propose a “divide and conquer/combine” strategy to estimate and account for the covariance matrix of the imputed trait values via batches, thus relaxing the incorrect working assumption. Applications of the methods to the UK Biobank data for marginal association analysis showed some improvement by the new method in some cases, but overall the original method performed well, which was explained by nearly constant variances of and mostly weak correlations among imputed trait values.
A Cleaner Approach for Controllable Synthesis of Au/TiO2 Nanocomposite as an Efficient Catalyst for 4‐Nitrophenol Reduction
Authors: Guzmán‐Cruz Andrés , Pal Mou , Paraguay‐Delgado Francisco , Vázquez‐Lepe Milton , Pal Umapada
Published: December 2023

Supported metal catalysts have attracted considerable attention because of their remarkably high catalytic activity and thermal stability. In this work, we report a facile and eco‐friendly method to synthesize porous Au/TiO2 nanocomposites with tunable size and different loading of Au nanoparticles. Porous TiO2 particles with average size of 20 nm were obtained using deep eutectic solvent‐assisted solvothermal method, in which Au NPs were immobilized by citrate reduction process. By adjusting the molar ratio of citrate and gold precursor, the size and loading of Au particles could be effectively controlled. The optimized nanocomposite with maximum Au loading and smallest particle size of 9 nm manifested the best catalytic activity in the 4‐nitrophenol reduction and excellent reusability. The superior catalytic performance can be ascribed to the strong interfacial interaction between small Au NPs and porous TiO2 support together with the high concentration of active sites at the interface.
Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide on Shirasu‐based Materials
Authors: Umegaki Tetsuo , Noguchi Daisuke , Fukumoto Tsubasa
Published: December 2023

This work investigated adsorption of carbon dioxide on Shirasu‐based materials with various pretreatment procedures. A Shirasu‐based material pretreated via calcination procedure followed by treatment in aqueous ammonia solution adsorbed significantly high amount of carbon dioxide compared with pristine Shirasu‐based material and the Shirasu‐based material pretreated via only solution treatment in aqueous ammonia solution. The ability improved through addition of appropriate amount of water before the adsorption process of carbon dioxide, and exhibited comparative adsorption amount of carbon dioxide with high performance materials previously reported.
Phase transition in von Neumann entropy from replica symmetry breaking
Authors: Jian Shao-Kai , Swingle Brian
Published: December 2023

Abstract

We study the entanglement transition in monitored Brownian SYK chains in the large-N limit. Without measurement the steady state n-th Rényi entropy is obtained by summing over a class of solutions, and is found to saturate to the Page value in the n → 1 limit. In the presence of measurements, the analytical continuation n → 1 is performed using the cyclic symmetric solution. The result shows that as the monitoring rate increases, a continuous von Neumann entanglement entropy transition from volume-law to area-law occurs at the point of replica symmetry unbreaking.
Krylov complexity of open quantum systems: from hard spheres to black holes
Authors: Mohan Vyshnav
Published: December 2023

Abstract

We examine the complexity of quasi-static chaotic open quantum systems. As a prototypical example, we analytically compute the Krylov complexity of a slowly leaking hard-sphere gas using Berry’s conjecture. We then connect it to the holographic complexity of a d + 1-dimensional evaporating black hole using the Complexity=Volume proposal. We model the black hole spacetime by stitching together a sequence of static Schwarzschild patches across incoming negative energy null shock waves. Under certain identification of parameters, we find the late time complexity growth rate during each quasi-static equilibrium to be the same in both systems.
Axion-de Sitter wormholes
Authors: Aguilar-Gutierrez Sergio E. , Hertog Thomas , Tielemans Rob , van der Schaar Jan Pieter , Van Riet Thomas
Published: December 2023

Abstract

We construct wormholes supported by axion flux in the presence of a positive cosmological constant. The solutions describe compact, one-handle bodies colloquially known as kettlebell geometries. The wormholes are perturbatively stable, but regularity of the Euclidean geometry implies an upper bound on the axion flux. Viewed as no-boundary saddle points, wormholes are suppressed relative to the round sphere. The symmetric kettlebell with maximal axion density has vanishing Euclidean action. Continuing into the Lorentzian across the equator, the solutions describe two expanding branches of de Sitter space filled with an axion field that rapidly dilutes and which are connected by a quantum bounce across which the arrow of time reverses.
Liouville theory and the Weil-Petersson geometry of moduli space
Authors: Harrison Sarah M. , Maloney Alexander , Numasawa Tokiro
Published: December 2023

Abstract

Liouville theory describes the dynamics of surfaces with constant negative curvature and can be used to study the Weil-Petersson geometry of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces. This leads to an efficient algorithm to compute the Weil-Petersson metric to arbitrary accuracy using Zamolodchikov’s recursion relation for conformal blocks. For example, we compute the metric on $$ \mathcal{M} $$
M
0,4 numerically to high accuracy by considering Liouville theory on a sphere with four punctures. We numerically compute the eigenvalues of the Weil-Petersson Laplacian, and find evidence that the obey the statistics of a random matrix in the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble.
Resonant drivings in global AdS
Authors: Mas Javier , Mayo David Travieso
Published: December 2023

Abstract

We revisit the case of a real scalar field in global AdS4 subject to a periodic driving. We address the issue of adiabatic preparation and deformation of a time-periodic solution dual to a Floquet condensate. Then we carefully study the case of driving close to the normal mode resonant frequencies. We examine different slow protocols that adiabatically change the amplitude and/or the frequency of the driving. Traversing a normal mode frequency has very different results depending upon the sense of the frequency modulation. Generally, in the growing sense, the geometry reaches a periodically-modulated state, whereas in the opposite one, it collapses into a black hole. We study the suppression points. These are periodic solutions that are dual to a scalar field with vanishing v.e.v., 〈ϕ〉 = 0, instead of vanishing source. We also investigate quasi-periodic solutions that are prepared by driving with a combination of two normal resonant frequencies. We observe that, while the driving is on, the non-linear cascading towards higher frequencies is strongly suppressed. However, once the driving is switched off, the cascading takes over again, and in some cases, it eventually brings the solution to a collapse. Finally, we study the driving by a non-coherent thermal ensemble of resonant drivings that model stochastic noise. Our numerical results suggest the existence of stable regular solutions at sufficiently low temperature and a transition to collapse above some threshold.
Calculating composite-particle spectra in Hamiltonian formalism and demonstration in 2-flavor QED1+1d
Authors: Itou Etsuko , Matsumoto Akira , Tanizaki Yuya
Published: December 2023

Abstract

We consider three distinct methods to compute the mass spectrum of gauge theories in the Hamiltonian formalism: (1) correlation-function scheme, (2) one-point-function scheme, and (3) dispersion-relation scheme. The first one examines spatial correlation functions as we do in the conventional Euclidean Monte Carlo simulations. The second one uses the boundary effect to efficiently compute the mass spectrum. The third one constructs the excited states and fits their energy using the dispersion relation with selecting quantum numbers. Each method has its pros and cons, and we clarify such properties in their applications to the mass spectrum for the 2-flavor massive Schwinger model at m/g = 0.1 and θ = 0 using the density-matrix renormalization group (DMRG). We note that the multi-flavor Schwinger model at small mass m is a strongly coupled field theory even after the bosonizations, and thus it deserves to perform the first-principles numerical calculations. All these methods mostly agree and identify the stable particles, pions πa (JPG = 1−+), sigma meson σ (JPG = 0++), and eta meson η (JPG = 0−−). In particular, we find that the mass of σ meson is lighter than twice the pion mass, and thus σ is stable against the decay process, σ → ππ. This is consistent with the analytic prediction using the WKB approximation, and, remarkably, our numerical results are so close to the WKB-based formula between the pion and sigma-meson masses, Mσ/Mπ = $$ \sqrt{3} $$

3

.
Dreams of Declassification: The Early Cold War Quest for Nuclear Knowledge in The Netherlands and Norway
Authors: Kleemans Machiel
Published: December 2023

This article seeks to explore the relation between nuclear physics and secrecy in early Cold War Europe. After World War II, nuclear physics re-emerged from the Manhattan Project as a largely classified field. Over time, the boundary between secret and unclassified information set by the United States moved due to both political and scientific developments. This shifting boundary of secrecy is taken as a place to investigate power relations in the context of Cold War Science. The Netherlands and Norway are two countries with early nuclear programs that tried to move this boundary, in part by building a joint reactor in 1951. Whereas they requested classified information from the US in 1946, their programs developed to a point where the US made requests to classify nuclear information in Europe by 1960. Between 1954 and 1960, the joint reactor program became the site of a multilateral intelligence operation. Secrecy was used as an intelligence tool to spread nuclear disinformation to the Soviet Union. This history shows how (de)classification opened and closed windows of opportunity and sheds light on the effectiveness of classification.
Weather, weekday, and vacation effects on webcam recorded daily visitor numbers in the alpine winter season
Authors: Kloos Simon , Bigalke Carina , Neumair Matthias , Menzel Annette
Published: December 2023

Winter tourism is an important economic factor in the European Alps, which could be exposed to severely changing meteorological conditions due to climate change in the future. The extent to which meteorology influences winter tourism figures has so far been analyzed mainly based on monthly or seasonal data and in relation to skier numbers. Therefore, we record for the first time daily visitor numbers at five Bavarian winter tourism destinations based on 1518 webcam images using object detection and link them to meteorological and time-related variables. Our results show that parameters such as temperature, cloud cover or sunshine duration, precipitation, snow depth, wind speed, and relative humidity play a role especially at locations that include other forms of winter tourism in addition to skiing. In the ski resorts studied, on the other hand, skiing is mostly independent of current weather conditions, which can be attributed mainly to artificial snowmaking. Moreover, at the webcam sites studied, weekends and vacation periods had an equal or even stronger influence on daily visitor numbers than the current weather conditions. The extent to which weather impacts the (future) visitor numbers of a winter tourism destination must therefore be investigated individually and with the inclusion of non-meteorological variables influencing human behavior.
Data-driven decadal climate forecasting using Wasserstein time-series generative adversarial networks
Authors: Bouteska Ahmed , Seranto Marco Lavazza , Hajek Petr , Abedin Mohammad Zoynul
Published: December 2023

Recent trends in global climate modeling, coupled with the availability of more fine-scale datasets, have opened up opportunities for deep learning-based climate prediction to improve the accuracy of predictions over traditional physics-based models. For this, however, large ensembles of data are needed. Generative models have recently proven to be a suitable solution to this problem. For a sound generative model for time-series forecasting, it is essential that temporal dynamics are preserved in that the generated data obey the original data distributions over time. Existing forecasting methods aided by generative models are not adequate for capturing such temporal relationships. Recently, generative models have been proposed that generate realistic time-series data by exploiting the combinations of unsupervised and supervised learning. However, these models suffer from instable learning and mode collapse problems. To overcome these issues, here we propose Wasserstein Time-Series Generative Adversarial Network (WTGAN), a new forecasting model that effectively imitates the dynamics of the original data by generating realistic synthetic time-series data. To validate the proposed forecasting model, we evaluate it by backtesting the challenging decadal climate forecasting problem. We show that the proposed forecasting model outperforms state-of-the- art generative models. Another advantage of the proposed model is that once WTGAN is tuned, generating time-series data is very fast, whereas standard simulators consume considerable computer time. Thus, a large amount of climate data can be generated, which can substantially improve existing data-driven climate forecasting models.
Association of clinicopathologic and molecular factors with the occurrence of positive margins in breast cancer
Authors: Praveen Kumar Anupama , Vicente Diego , Liu Jianfang , Raj-Kumar Praveen-Kumar , Deyarmin Brenda , Lin Xiaoying , Shriver Craig D. , Hu Hai
Published: December 2023

Purpose

To explore the association of clinicopathologic and molecular factors with the occurrence of positive margins after first surgery in breast cancer.

Methods

The clinical and RNA-Seq data for 951 (75 positive and 876 negative margins) primary breast cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) were used. The role of each clinicopathologic factor for margin prediction and also their impact on survival were evaluated using logistic regression, Fisher’s exact test, and Cox proportional hazards regression models. In addition, differential expression analysis on a matched dataset (71 positive and 71 negative margins) was performed using Deseq2 and LASSO regression.

Results

Association studies showed that higher stage, larger tumor size (T), positive lymph nodes (N), and presence of distant metastasis (M) significantly contributed (p ≤ 0.05) to positive surgical margins. In case of surgery, lumpectomy was significantly associated with positive margin compared to mastectomy. Moreover, PAM50 Luminal A subtype had higher chance of positive margin resection compared to Basal-like subtype. Survival models demonstrated that positive margin status along with higher stage, higher TNM, and negative hormone receptor status was significant for disease progression. We also found that margin status might be a surrogate of tumor stage. In addition, 29 genes that could be potential positive margin predictors and 8 pathways were identified from molecular data analysis.

Conclusion

The occurrence of positive margins after surgery was associated with various clinical factors, similar to the findings reported in earlier studies. In addition, we found that the PAM50 intrinsic subtype Luminal A has more chance of obtaining positive margins compared to Basal type. As the first effort to pursue molecular understanding of the margin status, a gene panel of 29 genes including 17 protein-coding genes was also identified for potential prediction of the margin status which needs to be validated using a larger sample set.
Harms and the Illegal Wildlife Trade: Political Ecology, Green Criminology and the European Eel
Authors: Gutierrez Laura , Duffy Rosaleen
Published: December 2023

This paper integrates political ecology and green criminology to examine the critical endangerment of the European eel. Using a harms-based approach, our research suggests that the identification of organised crime networks as the central perpetrators of illegal wildlife trade (IWT) and of IWT itself as the main threat to eels, neglects a myriad of practices—many of which are related to legal businesses and activities—that significantly contribute to the endangerment of the species. We suggest that, in order to better protect the European eel, we need more holistic conservation measures that go beyond a focus on fisheries and IWT.
Taste Fragmentalism
Authors: Spolaore Giuseppe , Iaquinto Samuele , Torrengo Giuliano
Published: December 2023

This paper explores taste fragmentalism, a novel approach to matters of taste and faultless disagreement. The view is inspired by Kit Fine’s fragmentalism about time, according to which the temporal dimension can be constituted—in an absolute manner—by states that are pairwise incompatible, provided that they do not obtain together. In the present paper, we will apply this metaphysical framework to taste states. In our proposal, two incompatible taste states (such as the state of rhubarb’s being tasty and the state of rhubarb’s being distasteful) can both constitute reality in an absolute manner, although no agent can have joint access to both states. We will then develop a formalised version of our view by means of an exact truthmaker semantics for taste assertions. Within this framework—we argue—our linguistic and inferential practices concerning cases of faultless disagreement are elegantly vindicated, thus suggesting that taste fragmentalism is worth of further consideration.
Measurement of Thermal Transport in Solids with the Hot Disc Method
Authors: Gustafsson Silas E. , Mihiretie Besira M. , Gustavsson Mattias K.
Published: December 2023

This experimental method was first proposed in 1991 and is presently being used for determining thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, thermal effusivity, and volumetric heat capacity of solids. Under special and well-controlled conditions, it is possible to measure thermal conductivity over approximately six orders of magnitude at temperatures ranging from 25 K up to 1500 K. A feature of this method is the possibility to obtain both the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity from one single transient recording and in that way to open up convenient measurements of thermal transport of certain anisotropic materials. A further advantage of using a transient method relates to the possibility to eliminate the influence of the contact resistances always present between the heating element, functioning also as the temperature recorder, and the surface of the substrate under investigation. This review will touch upon the limitations of the method with an estimation of the measuring uncertainty together with a discussion on the influence of the difference between the experimental arrangement and the assumption made in the development of the analytical theory used for analyzing the experimentally recorded data. The method has turned out to be useful not only in measurements of the thermal transport but also for special quality control situations. It is used in both academic institutions and in industrial laboratories and has so far generated some 5000 scientific papers in international journals.
Enhanced modelling of planar radial-loaded deep groove ball bearings with smooth-contact formulation
Authors: Gismeros Moreno Raúl , Marques Filipe , Corral Abad Eduardo , Meneses Alonso Jesús , Flores Paulo , Castejon Cristina
Published: December 2023

Bearings are mechanical components designed to restrict the relative rotary motion between moving parts and transmit loads with low friction. Their performance directly impacts the durability, efficiency and reliability of various machinery. Therefore, bearing failures can lead to economic costs, repair/stoppage times, accidents and regulatory compliance issues. In the context of Industry 4.0, the development of detailed and reliable computational models for simulating bearings’ dynamics plays a crucial role in establishing digital twins and implementing advanced predictive maintenance strategies.

This work focuses on modelling radial-loaded deep groove ball bearings under the multibody systems dynamics framework and the components of the bearing (inner and outer rings, rolling elements, and cage) are treated as separate bodies. A smooth contact approach is utilised to characterise the contact/impact phenomena, providing flexibility and efficiency in monitoring the whole contact event. In this sense, suitable normal and friction contact force models are used to describe those interactions between the contacting bodies. The main contribution of this work relies on the modelling strategies to represent the cage/rolling element interaction.

Having that in mind, several multibody models of radial-loaded deep groove ball bearings are developed considering different modelling assumptions, resulting in dynamic analyses with various levels of complexity. The underlying simplifications are described, and their main advantages and shortcomings are discussed. The simulation results demonstrated the significant impact of accurately selecting the modelling parameters. The promising results of this study pave the way for future investigations, extending to other geometries of rolling contact bearings and working conditions.
Influence of body mass index on health complains and life satisfaction
Authors: Prieto-Latorre Claudia , Lopez-Agudo Luis Alejandro , Marcenaro-Gutierrez Oscar David
Published: December 2023

Purpose

This research work investigates the influence of children’s weight status on well-being and school context in a sample of Spanish adolescences.

Methods

The Spanish records from the 2013–14 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Survey are used, which gathers 9,565 adolescences aged 11, 13 and 15. Studies do not usually address the endogeneity of body mass index when analysing their effect on life satisfaction and health complaints, thus resulting in biased estimates. Considering the endogeneity of body mass index, we use the frequency of alcohol consumption as an instrumental variable in order to obtain consistent estimates of its influence.

Results

The two-stage least squares estimation shows that children’s body mass index has a significant negative influence on health complaints and it conditions the way children relate to each other at school. Likewise, results report significant influence on children’s subjective well-being and their self-assessment of general health.

Conclusions

The results of this study provide compelling evidence that BMI plays a crucial role in shaping adolescents’ well-being and their interactions with peers at school. These findings underscore the importance of addressing childhood overweight and promoting healthy body mass index levels. Furthermore, the study highlights the need for targeted policy interventions to combat the social stigma associated with being overweight, fostering a more inclusive and supportive school environment for all students.
The impact of the Paycheck Protection Program on the risk-taking behaviour of US banks
Authors: Filomeni Stefano
Published: December 2023

The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic placed many small businesses across the US in financial distress. In response to this, in March 2020 the US government introduced, as part of the CARES Act, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) intended to provide relief to small businesses and to preserve jobs during the pandemic. The latter resulted in three waves of funding distributed to small businesses through SBA approved lenders, mainly represented by US banks. By using a panel dataset of 4610 banks over the period Q1 2019–Q4 2020 and by employing a difference-in-differences approach (DiD), I investigate whether participation in the Paycheck Protection Program affected community banks’ credit risk-taking behaviour in the post-PPP period, compared to their non-community banking counterparts in the US. I find that the Paycheck Protection Program led community banks to decrease their risk appetite outside of the program relative to non-community banks, consistent with their greater exposure to the commercial real estate sector, heavily hit by the pandemic. My results are robust to a battery of robustness tests and identification strategies. In this research article, I offer novel evidence on the indirect impact of the Paycheck Protection Program as a government-funded stimulus program administered through banks by investigating the indirect effect of the Paycheck Protection Program on the risk-taking of US community banks that dominate lending of PPP loans as a result of their competitive advantage in soft information-intensive small business lending. Such evidence is informative to policymakers as they weigh the merits of various program options to combat the economic damage imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and as they consider the design of economic stimulus programs in response to future economic crises.
Ancient Potato Varieties of the Canary Islands: Their History, Diversity and Origin of the Potato in Europe
Authors: Ríos Domingo , Devaux André , Ruiz de Galarreta José Ignacio
Published: December 2023

The journey of the potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) from South America to the rest of the world has generated a prolific literature regarding the discovery of this crop, its early consumption and cultivation in the Old World. An important part of that literature concerns the Canary Islands. The islands were the only exception to the Spanish trade monopoly with the New World, which reserved Seville as the only port for imports and exports to the colonies. The first potatoes to arrive from America, both from the Andes and the Chiloé archipelago, passed through the Canary Islands, and it is likely that the islands were initially the place where this crop became acclimatised. The orography, the volcanic soils, the climate and the intermediate photoperiods of the islands contributed to the acclimatisation of potatoes that came from various origins of America. The current biodiversity of potatoes in the Canary Islands includes different cultivars, such as local ones that arrived from South America after the conquest, which have evolved on the islands and are taxonomically classified as Solanum ssp. tuberosum, Solanum ssp. andigena and Solanum chaucha. These potatoes have been preserved by farmers, generation after generation, with between 600 and 800 ha being devoted to their cultivation (mainly on the island of Tenerife), in a traditional way, though with low productivity, often due to high virus pressure. This article traces the history of ancient potatoes in the Canary Islands and investigates in depth the introduction of potatoes in Europe through the Canary Islands. It contributes to describing the cultivated plant genetic resources of the Solanum spp. as well as their current situation and cultivation. It also describes traditional cultivation practices, the importance of the in situ conservation of theses varieties and the threats that affect them such as the Guatemalan potato moth.
Daten gegen Leistung
Authors: Kühling Jürgen , Schwartz Paul M.
Published: December 2023

Das Modell ,,Daten gegen Leistung‘‘ ist nach der DSGVO unter strengen Voraussetzungen zulässig.
In den USA ist das kalifornische Datenschutzrecht Vorreiter bei der Fundierung und Einhegung dieses Ansatzes.
Zur Monetarisierbarkeit der (weniger personalisierten, aber) gleichwertigen Alternative
Authors: Schmid Christian , Späth Cajetan
Published: December 2023

Mit wenigen Worten bringt der EuGH die in der Europäischen Union operierenden TechGiganten in
schwere Bedrängnis. Indem er mit seinem Urteil in der Rechtssache Meta Platforms marktbeherrschenden
Unternehmen verbietet, ihre Dienste ausschließlich nach einem alternativlosen Datenentgeltmodell anzubieten,
steht nichts weniger als deren bisheriges Geschäftsmodell auf dem Spiel. Die für die Entscheidung
maßgebliche DS-GVO ermöglicht den Akteuren, für die obligatorisch anzubietende weniger daten-hungrige,
jedoch gleichwertige Variante ein ,,angemessenes Entgelt,, zu fordern. Der Digital Markets Act verfolgt
das gleiche Ziel, legt den Torwächtern dabei aber engere Fesseln an. Sie dürfen die weniger personalisierte
Alternative des Plattformdienstes nicht schlechter ausgestalten als das datenintensive Pendant. Beide Steuerungsansätze
können unzweifelhaft einen effektiveren Datenschutz gewährleisten. Allerdings könnten sie
auch die Zukunft der ,,kostenlosen`` Internetdienste besiegeln.
A new approach based on VIKOR and Monte-Carlo algorithms for determining the most efficient enhanced oil recovery methods: EOR screening
Authors: Hajinorouz Maryam , Alavi Seyed Enayatollah
Published: December 2023

Most of oil reservoirs in the world have faced decrease in production and they are in the second half of their life cycle. Therefore, tertiary and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are needed for continuous production from these reservoirs. As choosing the most appropriate EOR methods for a reservoir is a challenging task for reservoir engineers, screening of EOR approaches is of high importance before any full field simulation and experiments. Enhanced oil recovery screening is a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem and hence, a systematic statistical algorithm based on MCDM can be used for this purpose. In this study, for the first time, a new EOR screening method is proposed by using VIKOR and Monte-Carlo algorithms. The approach used a large database of successful EOR projects around the world and was applied to 12 various EOR methods including a wide range of conditions and properties. Pre-processing was performed on the gathered database and then based on reservoir engineering analyses and using a pairwise comparison matrix, initial weights were considered for the parameters in each EOR method. Afterward, these weights were used in the proposed VIKOR MCDM calculation algorithm and the corresponding numerical values of EOR techniques for each reservoir were obtained. Finally, the EOR method with the highest corresponding value was selected as the most suitable method. Results demonstrated that by using the presented approach, a high classification accuracy of 98% was obtained for different cases, which shows the proficiency and robustness of the developed screening algorithm. In addition, the reliability of the developed method was validated using data obtained from 11 oil reservoirs in the southwest of Iran. Also, the results were compared with the results of previous studies and they were in a very good match. The developed approach is less expensive and faster than full field simulation method and can be used as an efficient EOR screening approach for reservoirs with different properties in the world.
Low-viscosity oligoether esters (OEEs) as high-efficiency lubricating oils: Insight on their structure–lubricity relationship
Authors: Wang Hanwen , Wang Ying , Wen Ping , Ma Lin , Fan Mingjin , Dong Rui , Zhang Chunhua
Published: December 2023

Development of energy-efficient lubricants is a way to reduce energy consumption for transportation, with the tendency to design molecules that are beneficial in reducing the viscosity of synthetic oils. Oligoether esters (OEEs), as a low-viscosity ester base oil, have characteristics such as simple synthesis and excellent lubrication effect, however, the application of OEEs in tribology field has rarely been investigated. The objective of the present study is to investigate the effect of structure on the lubricating performance of OEEs and to develop a predictive model for OEEs based on quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) through a combination of experiment and statistical modeling. Results showed that glycol chains contribute positively to lubrication with the ether functional groups increasing the sites of adsorption. Compared to branched-chain OEEs, straight-chain OEEs exhibited reduced wear, which was mainly due to the thicker adsorption film formed by the straight-chain structure. Furthermore, carbon films were detected on lightly worn surfaces, indicating that OEEs underwent oxidation during the friction process. Based on the results of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS), it could be found that the predictive models of viscosity–temperature performance, thermal stability performance, coefficient of friction (COF), and wear volume (WV) performed well and robustly. Among them, COF and WV can be best predicted with an R2 of about 0.90.
A reappraisal of Nemavermes mackeei from the Mazon Creek fossil site expands Carboniferous cyclostome diversity
Authors: McCoy Victoria E. , Wittry Jack , Sadabadi Hamed , Mayer Paul
Published: December 2023

Nemavermes mackeei Schram, 1973, found in the Mazon Creek fossil site and the Bear Gulch Limestone, was described initially as a free-living marine nematode. Here we investigate 13 specimens of N. mackeei from the Mazon Creek to reassess its morphology and identity, and also two specimens originally identified as Gilpichthys greenei Bardack and Richardson, 1977. Based on the extensive morphological variation among these specimens, N. mackeei encompasses multiple species that are only distantly related. The holotype of N. mackeei is a proboscis of Tullimonstrum gregarium Richardson, 1966, making N. mackeei a junior synonym of T. gregarium. However, the other specimens that we investigated could not be attributed to T. gregarium. We name a new species from these specimens: Squirmarius testai new genus new species, a cyclostome. One specimen is likely a juvenile G. greenei. Other specimens were not identified during this study but represent a variety of vermiform bilaterians.

UUID: http://zoobank.org/d8c63f6a-0ef4-4a34-8dbd-c1d9099589cc
“This expulsion is explained in many ways”: Ottoman Greek Orthodox internal exiles during the Great War (1914–1918)
Authors: Minasidis Charalampos
Published: December 2023

This article investigates the Ottoman Greek Orthodox internal exiles, focusing on the deportees’ experiences and the intricacies of their agency during the Great War (1914–18). It does so by examining deportees’ understudied ego-documents, taken either from the collections of the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens or from family archives. Organized into labor-battalions or housed in open internment camps in town quarters, the inland exiles were deported to secure the rear front and homogenize the country, but their deportation was characterized by local influences and inconsistencies. Several of the Greek Orthodox exiles managed to survive and maintain their cultural ties by exploiting such inconsistencies, either by selling their skills or by resisting exile through solidarity, desertion, and resistance.