bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The corporate legal profession’s role in global corruption: obligations and opportunities for contributing to collective action
Authors: Elliott Jasmine
Published: September 2023

Key corruption issues, like lack of transparency in beneficial ownership and money laundering, are inherently transnational. They are facilitated by professional services, like corporate lawyers, who work with various standards, regulations, and global financial flows that can move the proceeds of crime across the world. This paper uses reflective equilibrium to analyze the tensions between the philosophical principles of complicity and collective responsibility and the principles found in the professional role of lawyers in society to reflect on the corporate legal profession’s role in enabling corruption. Furthermore, this paper explores how these tensions can be addressed and how lawyers can be situated in anti-corruption collective action theory and practical collective action initiatives. For example, the legal profession has a collective obligation to maintain and self-patrol the profession’s ethics, primarily through their regulating authorities, and it should be considered to what extent these authorities are promoting anti-corruption standards or reprimanding lawyers who are complicit in corrupt acts. There is also an opportunity for corporate lawyers to use their role in society to develop more collective action initiatives to address issues of transnational corruption, which may include enforcing a higher collective standard in providing advice or advocating for legislators to fix regulations and promote legislation that addresses corrupt practices.
Use of digital self-control tools in higher education – a survey study
Authors: Biedermann Daniel , Kister Stella , Breitwieser Jasmin , Weidlich Joshua , Drachsler Hendrik
Published: September 2023

Distractions are ubiquitous in today’s technology-saturated environments, an issue that significantly impacts learning contexts employing digital technologies and yields detrimental effects on learning. Digital self-control tools, which aim to assist users in their efforts to reduce digital distractions, are numerous and readily available. Despite several dedicated empirical studies focusing on specific tools, there remains a notable lack of information regarding their daily use and helpfulness. Furthermore, the sheer variety of these tools prompts questions about their universal helpfulness and the potential influence of individual differences.

To address these issues, we surveyed a sample of higher-education students, totaling 273 individuals. These students reported on their media use, satisfaction with learning, and experiences with features of digital self-control tools. Our study’s findings indicate a discrepancy in the perception and awareness of these features; those deemed most helpful are among the least known, and conversely, common features are often perceived as unhelpful.

Our research also uncovered a negative correlation between habitual media use and the use of less restrictive features. Another identified issue was constraints on the use of these tools for learning, as platforms often serve dual purposes for both education and entertainment. We delve into these practical problems and propose future research directions to further advance the understanding of digital self-control tools.
Molecular analysis of a Spanish isolate of chili pepper mild mottle virus and evaluation of seed transmission and resistance genes
Authors: Ontañón Clara , Ojinaga Mikel , Larregla Santiago , Zabala Joseba Andoni , Reva Anastasiia , Losa Alba , Heribia Rosario , Bertacca Sofia , Sanahuja Esmeralda , Alfaro-Fernández Ana , Font-San Ambrosio María Isabel , Corachán Lorena , Pallás Vicente , Sánchez-Navarro Jesús Ángel
Published: September 2023

An isolate of chili pepper mild mottle virus (CPMMV-Sp; GenBank OQ920979) with a 99% identity to CPMMV (GenBank MN164455.1) was found in symptomatic pepper plants in Spain. RACE analysis, performed using a stem-loop primer developed in this study to prime at the end of the introduced poly(A)/(U) tail, revealed the presence of an extra 22 nt at the 5' end, starting with a cytosine, which were essential to generate infectious clones. However, the 5' terminal cytosine was dispensable for initiating the infection. The design of two specific digoxigenin riboprobes targeting the more divergent area of CPMMV-Sp, compared to the closely related bell pepper mottle virus (BPeMV) (identity percentage of 80.6% and 75.8%, respectively), showed that both probes specifically detected CPMMV-Sp when the hybridization was performed at 68ºC and 60ºC, respectively. However, the BPeMV probe, targeting a region with an 89.4% identity percentage to CPMMV-Sp, showed cross-hybridization at 60ºC but not at 68ºC. The comparison of the detection limits between molecular hybridization and RT-PCR techniques revealed that the former was 125 times less sensitive than RT-PCR. The analysis of the vertical transmission of CPMMV-Sp using seeds from naturally or mechanically infected pepper plants revealed a transmission percentage ranging from 0.9% to 8.5%. Finally, the analysis of the resistance of capsicum species carrying different alleles of the L gene (L1, L2, L3, and L4) revealed that varieties with the L1 gene were infected by CPMMV-Sp (20–40% of inoculated plants), while varieties with the L2, L3, and L4 genes were resistant.
Improving access to emergency medical services using advanced air mobility vehicles
Authors: Espejo-Díaz Julián Alberto , Alfonso-Lizarazo Edgar , Montoya-Torres Jairo R.
Published: September 2023

The latest advancements in electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles indicate that soon this technology will be available in multiple fields. One potential application of this new technology is in emergency medical services. These vehicles will be able to reach emergency sites faster than ground ambulances at lower costs than traditional helicopters. So in the following years, eVTOL vehicles could be used for aeromedical transportation. One crucial decision in implementing such a technology in emergency medical services is the location of their take-off and landing areas (vertiports). In this work, we propose a methodology for locating the vertiports in a healthcare network to improve emergency medical services coverage in hard-to-reach zones. We studied the system performance locating the vertiports for emergency services in existing healthcare facilities or outside them as auxiliary bases. In addition, we evaluated the performance of different operational scenarios regarding the use of emergency eVTOL. To do so, we used data analytics techniques (i.e., clustering algorithms) in conjunction with facility location models. The approach is tested using data from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in France. Results showed that locating the vertiports in existing healthcare facilities is the best choice in terms of coverage of hard-to-reach zones. However, on average, the response times increased compared to locating the vertiports as auxiliary bases outside the healthcare facilities. Besides, the results indicated that implementing eVTOL vehicles for aeromedical transportation can provide better access to emergency medical services in hard-to-reach zones. Still, the autonomy of such vehicles plays an essential role in their applicability.
Examining the Relation Between First-year University Students’ Intention to Drop-out and Academic Engagement: The Role of Motivation, Subjective Well-being and Retrospective Judgements of School Experience
Authors: Passeggia Raffaella , Testa Italo , Esposito Giovanna , Picione Raffaele De Luca , Ragozini Giancarlo , Freda Maria Francesca
Published: September 2023

This study examined the relationships between first-year university students’ academic motivation, retrospective evaluation of school experiences, subjective well-being, engagement and intention to drop out. Self-determination theory, the SInAPSi model of academic engagement, the hedonic approach, and the retrospective judgment process were used to frame the study. A final sample of 565 first-year Italian students enrolled in Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) courses (Biology, Biotechnologies, Chemistry, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics) was included. Three mediation models based on structural equations were tested to analyse the relationships between the proposed variables: motivation as an antecedent of dropout intention with only commitment as a mediator (model 1); model 1 + subjective well-being as a second mediator (model 2); model 2 + retrospective judgement as an antecedent (model 3). The results showed that in all models the more autonomous motivational styles predicted students’ engagement, which in turn directly and indirectly influenced their intention to drop out. In model 2, subjective well-being acted as a mediator of the relationships between motivation, engagement and dropout intentions. In model 3, we found that subjective well-being also fully mediated the relationships between retrospective judgement and engagement. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the mechanisms underlying student engagement and dropout at university and may inform university policy.
Mental measurement and the introspective privilege
Authors: Pauen Michael
Published: September 2023

According to a long-standing belief, introspection provides privileged access to the mind, while objective methods, which we denote as “extrospection”, suffer from basic epistemic deficits. Here we will argue that neither an introspective privilege exists nor does extrospection suffer from such deficits.

We will focus on two entailments of an introspective privilege: first, such a privilege would require that introspective evidence prevails in cases of conflict with extrospective information. However, we will show that this is not the case: extrospective claims can prevail in cases of conflict. These conflicts are resolved by an inference to the explanation that best accounts for the available evidence. This explanation may speak in favor of extrospection.

Second, given an introspective privilege, the development of extrospective measurement techniques should be restricted by the accuracy of introspective reports. We will argue that this problem is part of a more general issue that comes up with the establishment of measurement in the natural sciences. We will identify three strategies that have proven successful in dealing with the problem in the natural sciences. It will turn out that all these strategies are available for extrospective measurement as well. Consequently, the insufficiencies of introspective reports do not impose a limit on the accuracy of extrospective measurement methods.

We conclude that neither an introspective privilege nor basic extrospective deficits exist. This does not mean that extrospection will ever replace introspection. Rather, both approaches provide independent and indispensable forms of epistemic access to the mind.
Importance of Aquitard Response Time for Groundwater Management in Multi-Aquifer Systems Subject to Land Subsidence
Authors: Díaz-Nigenda Juan José , Morales-Casique Eric , Carrillo-García Mauricio , Vázquez-Peña Mario Alberto , Escolero-Fuentes Oscar
Published: September 2023

Groundwater management models have been widely applied to obtain optimal pumping strategies for land subsidence control, but most of them do not explicitly incorporate land subsidence variables (such as cumulative settlement and land subsidence rates) within the model constraints and neglect the transient effect due to aquitard storage. Here, three operating scenarios of a hypothetical multi-aquifer system, which include a highly compressible aquitard, were implemented with the aim of evaluating land subsidence and identifying management schemes with the support of an optimization model for groundwater management. In a 50-year management period, maximizing pumping while restricting drawdown to 10 m after year 25 stabilizes groundwater levels within the aquifer, but land subsidence continues to reach 4.8 m at year 50. The effect of reducing pumping rates and how early in the management period this is implemented is also analyzed. Restricting the pumping rate as early as year 6 leads to reduced land subsidence at year 50 by 17%. If pumping reduction is delayed, larger land subsidence rates occurred in the system (7.9, 8.3 and 9.6 cm/year in the tested cases); however, if the total settlement is evaluated as a proportion of the thickness of the aquitard, values of the order of 10% are presented. Our results highlight the importance of timely decisions for groundwater management based on the response time of the aquitards in multi-aquifer systems.
Low-cost materials for swine wastewater treatment using adsorption and Fenton’s process
Authors: Domingues Eva , Lincho João , Fernandes Maria J. , Gomes João , Martins Rui C.
Published: September 2023

Untreated swine wastewater (SW) discharge leads to serious consequences such as water quality decreasing related to eutrophication and proliferation of harmful algae containing cyanotoxins, which can cause acute intoxication in humans. The use of untreated pig farming effluent as fertilizer can lead to the accumulation of polluting compounds. Biological treatments can degrade organic matter but have the disadvantage of requiring large areas and high retention times and demonstrating low efficiencies in the degradation of refractory compounds such as pharmaceutical compounds. In this ambit, the performance of four low-cost materials was evaluated for treatment of a swine wastewater using physical–chemical processes such as adsorption and Fenton’s process. The tested materials are two natural resources, red volcanic rock from Canary (RVR) Islands and black volcanic rock (BVR) from Azores, and two industry residues, red mud (RM) and iron filings (IF). Among the tested materials, only IFs are catalytically active for Fenton’s peroxidation. Still, RVR, BVR, and RM were efficient adsorbents removing up to 67% of COD. The combination between adsorption followed by Fenton’s process using IF as catalyst showed interesting results. When RM is applied as adsorbent in the diluted effluent, it was able to remove 67% and 90% of COD for adsorption and adsorption followed by IF Fenton, respectively. At those conditions, the resultant treated effluent accomplishes the requirements for direct discharge in the natural water courses as well as the parameters for water reusing.
Curcumin-Laden Crosslinked Chitosan–PVA Films: The Synergistic Impact of Genipin and Curcumin on Accelerating Wound Closure
Authors: Ramdani Reteesha , Rao Anusha M. , Pokharel Mishal , Mateti Tarun , Likhith K. , Kumari Malti , Bhatt S. Supriya , Nune Manasa , Thakur Goutam
Published: September 2023

Wound dressings play a critical role in healing by maintaining a moist environment and protecting against infection. Here, we fabricate crosslinked films of chitosan–polyvinyl alcohol–genipin–curcumin to investigate the synergistic wound-healing effect of genipin and curcumin. The chemical bonding, morphology, strength, water retention capacity, curcumin release characteristics, and cytotoxicity of the films were investigated. The results showed a 192% increase in tensile strength and good water retention, and the infrared analysis and scanning electron microscopy micrographs confirmed genipin crosslinking and the presence of curcumin in the films, whose morphology was uniform and continuous. The curcumin-loaded films were found to have insignificant cytotoxicity against 3T3 fibroblast cells, proving their biocompatibility. The curcumin dissolution tests determined the amount of curcumin released from the films with time, and assessed the release characteristics to be sustained at all pH levels. In vivo trials were carried out on rodents to evaluate the wound-healing effects of the films, and the results showed that the curcumin-incorporated crosslinked films accelerated wound healing compared to the uncrosslinked and curcumin-absent films, confirming their effectiveness for wound healing.
Accurate Classification of Non-ischemic Cardiomyopathy
Authors: Wang Yifan , Jia Hao , Song Jiangping
Published: September 2023

Abstractt

Purpose of Review

This article aims to review the accurate classification of non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, including the methods, basis, subtype characteristics, and prognosis, especially the similarities and differences between different classifications.

Recent Findings

Non-ischemic cardiomyopathy refers to a myocardial disease that excludes coronary artery disease or ischemic injury and has a variety of etiologies and high incidence. Recent studies suggest that traditional classification methods based on primary/mixed/acquired or genetic/non-genetic cannot meet the precise needs of contemporary clinical management. This article systematically describes the history of classifications of cardiomyopathy and presents etiological and genetic differences between cardiomyopathies. The accurate classification is described from the perspective of morphology, function, and genomics in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, restrictive cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, left ventricular noncompaction, and partially acquired cardiomyopathy. The different clinical characteristics and treatment needs of these cardiomyopathies are elaborated. Some single-gene mutant cardiomyopathies have unique phenotypes, and some cardiomyopathies have mixed phenotypes. These special classifications require personalized precision treatment, which is worthy of independent research.

This article describes recent advances in the accurate classification of non-ischemic cardiomyopathy from clinical phenotypes and causative genes, discusses the advantages and usage scenarios of each classification, compares the differences in prognosis and patient management needs of different subtypes, and summarizes common methods and new exploration directions for accurate classification.
Sleep in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: Current Findings, Challenges, and Future Directions
Authors: O’Hora Kathleen P. , Schleifer Charles H. , Bearden Carrie E.
Published: September 2023

Purpose of Review

To summarize current literature available on sleep in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS; Velocardiofacial or DiGeorge Syndrome), a neurogenetic disorder caused by a hemizygous deletion in a genomic region critical for neurodevelopment. Due to the greatly increased risk of developmental psychiatric disorders (e.g., autism and schizophrenia) in 22q11.2DS, this review focuses on clinical correlates of sleep disturbances and potential neurobiological underpinnings of these relationships.

Recent Findings

Sleep disturbances are widely prevalent in 22q11.2DS and are associated with worse behavioral, psychiatric, and physical health outcomes. There are reports of sleep architecture and sleep neurophysiology differences, but the literature is limited by logistical challenges posed by objective sleep measures, resulting in small study samples to date.

Sleep disturbances in 22q11.2DS are prevalent and have a substantial impact on well-being. Further investigation of sleep in 22q11.2DS utilizing multimodal sleep assessments has the potential to provide new insight into neurobiological mechanisms and a potential trans-diagnostic treatment target in 22q11.2DS.
Do Nanoparticles of Calcium Disodium EDTA Minimize the Toxic Effects of Cadmium in Female Rats?
Authors: Saleh Safa M. , El-Tawil Osama S. , Mahmoud Manal B. , Abd El-Rahman Sahar S. , El-Saied Eiman M. , Noshy Peter A.
Published: September 2023

The present study aims to investigate the ability of CaNa2EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) macroparticles and nanoparticles to treat cadmium-induced toxicity in female rats and to compare their efficacies. Forty rats were divided into 4 equal groups: control, cadmium, cadmium + CaNa2EDTA macroparticles and Cd + CaNa2EDTA nanoparticles. Cadmium was added to the drinking water in a concentration of 30 ppm for 10 weeks. CaNa2EDTA macroparticles and nanoparticles (50 mg/kg) were intraperitoneally injected during the last 4 weeks of the exposure period. Every two weeks, blood and urine samples were collected for determination of urea, creatinine, metallothionein and cadmium concentrations. At the end of the experiment, the skeleton of rats was examined by X-ray and tissue samples from the kidney and femur bone were collected and subjected to histopathological examination. Exposure to cadmium increased the concentrations of urea and creatinine in the serum and the concentrations of metallothionein and cadmium in serum and urine of rats. A decrease in bone mineralization by X-ray examination in addition to various histopathological alterations in the kidney and femur bone of Cd-intoxicated rats were also observed. Treatment with both CaNa2EDTA macroparticles and nanoparticles ameliorated the toxic effects induced by cadmium on the kidney and bone. However, CaNa2EDTA nanoparticles showed a superior efficacy compared to the macroparticles and therefore can be used as an effective chelating antidote for treatment of cadmium toxicity.
Petrography and Geochemistry of Sullavai Sandstones of Kanpa-Tempa, Chandrapur District, Maharashtra, India
Authors: Murkute Y. A.
Published: September 2023

The data on petrography and geochemical behaviour of Neoproterozoic siliciclastic sandstones of Kanpa-Tempa area from Chandrapur District are presented here to determine the provenance, source rock weathering and tectonic setting. The major elemental composition reveals that the Neoproterozoic sandstones are mainly as litharenite. The interrelationship of Zr vs. TiO2, Y/ Ni vs. Cr/V, TiO2 vs. Al2O3, high LREE/HREE ratios (8.97 to 12.46) and negative Eu anomalies (Eu/Eu*= 0.52 to 0.79) suggest that the sandstones were mainly derived from the parent felsic igneous rocks. The higher values of paleo-weathering indices such as Plagioclase Index of Alteration (PIA), grading from 66.42 to 80.82 and Chemical Index of Weathering (CIW), ranging from 70.58 to 82.39 clearly point out that the sediments and their source rocks experienced moderate to intense weathering. The Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) values (ranging from 62.79 to 76.16) coupled with average content of K2O (1.66) is indicative of K-addition during diagenetic processes. Similarly lower values of K2O/Na2O ratio (0.52) suggest limited chemical maturity and SiO2-K2O/Na2O discrimination plot exhibits the active continental marginal tectonic settings.
Archaeometallurgy of Iron in and around Manpur, Salumber-Manpur-Ghatol Sector, Udaipur District, Rajasthan
Authors: Kumar Arvind , Chander Suresh , Bhattacharjee Santanu
Published: September 2023

The Palaeoproterozoic Aravalli Fold Belt and Mesoproterozoic Delhi Fold Belt, altogether make the Aravalli mountain range (AMR), which extends from Delhi in the north to Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh in the south, thus, it divides the state territory of Rajasthan into two distinctive regions-Thar Desert in the west and Vindhyan Plateau in the east. The AMR not only provided shelter to early human beings but also its valuable minerals gave them the opportunity to enhance their mining and metallurgical skills, which paved the path for the development of metal-based cultures in and around the AMR. More than one hundred and forty metallurgical sites alongwith old workings have been spotted so far, in the different mineralized zones of AMR. The study area of Salumber-Manpur-Ghatol sector in Udaipur district of Rajasthan, bears the similar features of ancient mining and metallurgical activities, especially for iron, the most common metal in pre-medieval. Occurrence of ferruginous capping, deep underground ancient workings with vertical opening and presence of slag heaps with tuyères and cylindrical blast furnaces indicate ancient mining activity in the area. The presence of tuyères, considered as a part of the bellows system, indicates that metallurgical activities took place in the medieval period. It is an endeavour to record the traditional scientific knowledge, acquired by early people in the field of mining and metallurgy, on the basis of irrefutable evidence, yielded in the form of old workings and slag in the study area.
Geochemical Survey: A Tool for Subsurface Geological Mapping in Alluvial Terrain
Authors: Sarkar Amrita , Dubey Jyoti , Bagchi Joyesh , Kumar Gautam
Published: September 2023

The regional geochemical mapping was carried out in the Indo-Gangetic alluvial plain of the Western and Central India which was previously classified as Varanasi alluvium, a polycyclic sequence of large alluvial fans transported by perennial Himalayan Rivers. The results based on the geochemical dispersion pattern of major and minor oxides as well as trace elements conclude that there are four major factors determining the dispersion patterns of the variables which are: (1) the underlying lithology with a strike of NE-SW, (2) transport of sediments along the general slope of the study area towards south and south-west as reflected in the Digital Elevation Model, (3) formation of Reh and (4) anthro-pogenic influence. The present study focusing on the effect of the underlying geology on the geochemical signature of the study area infers that the geochemical distribution pattern of certain variables clearly follows the trend of the Delhi fold belt. It can be interpreted that the subsurface lithology belonging to Delhi Supergroup is present at a depth of 500m which is considerably shallower, imprinting its geochemical signature on the sediments. The presence of minor outcrops of quartzite belonging to the Delhi Supergroup with the NE-SW strike is also documented in the study area. Based on this study we propose to reclassify the Varanasi Alluvium sediments as equivalent to Banda Alluvium. The study also demonstrates the utility of geochemical mapping as a tool to map the subsurface geology of an alluvial terrain. The results of this study are also corroborated by the regional scale gravity survey.
Geochemical and Sedimentological Signatures of Ariyankuppam and Chunnambar Estuarine Sediments, Pondicherry, India: Implications on Weathering and Provenance
Authors: Kirubakaran N. , Sridharan M. , Nathan D. Senthil , Rajamanickam M. , Harikrishnan S.
Published: September 2023

Thirty surface sediment samples collected from Ariyankuppam (N = 12) and Chunnambar estuaries (N = 18) located along the coast of Pondicherry, India, are analyzed to understand the nature of weathering and provenance. The granulometric study reveals that sediments are poorly sorted, positively skewed and platykurtic to leptokurtic in nature. The abundance and inverse relationship of SiO2 with other major oxides signify the detention of silica within quartz. The Index of Chemical Variability (ICV) suggests that sediments are compositionally immature and are derived from less weathered source rock. The weathering indices such as the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA); Chemical Index of Weathering (CIW); Plagioclase Index of Alteration (PIA), and A-CN-K diagram also suggest less intense weathering of parent rocks. The major and trace element ratios viz. Al2O3/TiO2, TiO2/Zr, Cr/V and Y/Ni and discrimination diagrams indicate that estuarine sediment is derived from felsic and intermediate provenance.
Stability Criteria for Coarse Sediment in Natural Streams
Authors: Bhat Aamer Majid , Ahanger Manzoor Ahmad , Mohapatra Pranab Kumar
Published: September 2023

Shields dimensionless shear stress has been widely used in the field of fluvial hydraulics for the stability of mobile bed channels. Some researchers have suggested an alternative, the Movability Number, which includes more hydrodynamic information. This study evaluates the two quantities in the determination of stability for channel beds containing coarse sediment. Data obtained in natural channels from previous studies are analyzed for their stability. Three criteria are obtained from existing formulae: (i) Shields parameter, (ii) settling velocity, and (iii) stream power. Second and third criteria are based on Movability Number. The first two are comparable whereas the third one provides smaller critical sediment size considerably as compared to the first two. The settling velocity criterion based on Movability Number can be thought as the potential replacement of the Shields approach, however further study with larger data set can lead to more breakthroughs.
Investigating the Tectonic and Structural Controls on the Geomorphic Evolution of Shiriya River Basin, Southern India
Authors: Vidya K. M. , Manoharan A. N. , Deepchand V.
Published: September 2023

Morphotectonic analysis of a river basin using geomorphic indices helps to identify tectonic deformation. The aim of the present work is to determine geomorphic indices from the digital elevation model and to examine the extent to which structural characteristics of the Shiriya River Basin (SRB) have influenced its drainage morphology. GIS techniques are used to calculate geomorphic indices of the SRB. Morphotectonic and geomorphic analyses were carried out, which included evaluating various geomorphic indices. Hypsometric curve and hypsometric integral (0.46) indicate youth stage of the basin, asymmetry factor (43.23) and transverse topographic symmetry factor (0.37) indicate asymmetry of the basin, basin shape index (2.05) depicts the basin as elongated, sinuosity index (1.47) indicate the sinuous nature of the basin, valley floor width to height ratio is 10.21 and stream length gradient index is 113.75. The entire basin is divided into 18 fourth-order sub-basins for detailed analysis of morphotectonics. Relative active tectonic indices are calculated to identify the subbasin that had undergone pronounced structural disturbance. Out of 18 subbasins 13 subbasin belongs to moderate tectonic active category (class-2) and 5 subbasin belongs to active category (class 2). From the morpho structural analysis following results were arrived, all of which point towards significant structural control: Lower-order streams have an orientation in accordance with significant structural elements of the basin, such as foliations and lineations (E-W). Similarly, the alignment of higher-order streams follows the direction of the major lineaments of the basin (NW-SE). Eight waterfalls/cascades are positioned within the basin, all directed in accordance with the lineament (NW-SE), earthquake recorded near the basin, asymmetry of the basin, acute bending of streams, entrenched meanders, changes in the sinuous river path in several locations where lineament intersect the stream and shrinkage of estuary area indicate neotectonics and structural control over the development of drainage system in the SRB. These findings are essential for understanding the development of river drainage and landform evolution.
Enhanced but Indeterminate? How Attention Colors our World
Authors: Lopez Azenet L. , Simsova Eliska
Published: September 2023

Attention makes things look brighter and more colorful. In light of these effects, representationalist philosophers propose that attentive experiences represent more determinate color properties than inattentive experiences. Although this claim is appealing, we argue that it does not hold for one of our best conceptualizations of content determinacy, according to which an experience has more determinate contents if it represents a narrower range of values within the relevant dimension. We argue that our current empirical evidence fails to show that attention has this kind of effect on color perception. We then offer an alternative, representationalist-friendly account of the attentional effects, as changes in vividness.
The Psychometric Properties of the Psychological Work Immersion Scale: An ESEM vs ICM-CFA Approach
Authors: van Zyl Llewellyn E. , Veldsman Dieter
Published: September 2023

This study investigates the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Psychological Work Immersion Scale (PWIS) scale within global organisational contexts. Data were gathered from 19134 working adults in the US, the UK, the Middle East, Africa, and Australia. To determine the best-fitting factorial model, a series of traditional ICM-CFA and less restrictive ESEM models were estimated and systematically compared. The results showed that a bifactor ESEM model, with one general factor of overall psychological work immersion and nine specific factors (strategic connection, manager credibility, appreciative feedback, enabling environment, team relations, strength use, employee voice, recognition and rewards, personal development) fitted the data best, was reliable and showed strong measurement invariance across genders and levels of education. The results show that psychological work immersion is a multidimensional construct that is both a function of yet separate from a dynamic interaction between the nine performance-enhancing conditions or enablers. Therefore, The PWIS can be used to measure psychological work immersion validly and reliably and could be used to make meaningful latent mean comparisons between genders and different levels of education.
Exploring temporal community evolution: algorithmic approaches and parallel optimization for dynamic community detection
Authors: Sattar Naw Safrin , Buluc Aydin , Ibrahim Khaled Z. , Arifuzzaman Shaikh
Published: September 2023

Dynamic (temporal) graphs are a convenient mathematical abstraction for many practical complex systems including social contacts, business transactions, and computer communications. Community discovery is an extensively used graph analysis kernel with rich literature for static graphs. However, community discovery in a dynamic setting is challenging for two specific reasons. Firstly, the notion of temporal community lacks a widely accepted formalization, and only limited work exists on understanding how communities emerge over time. Secondly, the added temporal dimension along with the sheer size of modern graph data necessitates new scalable algorithms. In this paper, we investigate how communities evolve over time based on several graph metrics under a temporal formalization. We compare six different algorithmic approaches for dynamic community detection for their quality and runtime. We identify that a vertex-centric (local) optimization method works as efficiently as the classical modularity-based methods. To its advantage, such local computation allows for the efficient design of parallel algorithms without incurring a significant parallel overhead. Based on this insight, we design a shared-memory parallel algorithmDyComPar, which demonstrates between 4 and 18 fold speed-up on a multi-core machine with 20 threads, for several real-world and synthetic graphs from different domains.
Rethinking curriculum implementation in time of COVID-19 and beyond: lessons learnt from rural science teachers
Authors: Doh Nubia W. , Blignaut Sylvan
Published: September 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the way teaching and learning is carried out in South African schools. Policy decisions to curb the spread of the virus were superficially conceived as a health problem as opposed to an understanding of the interconnectedness of education in society. For teaching and learning to continue, schools were compelled to either rotate their learners or embrace remote teaching. Irrespective of the numerous curriculum reforms, curriculum implementation in South Africa has been in a moribund state with little attention given to rural science teachers. In this article, we explore how science teachers in rural areas implemented the curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic and what lessons could be learnt from their experience to foster the curriculum implementation discussion in South Africa. We used a qualitative research approach and phenomenology as our research methodology. Nine rural science teachers were purposively selected for a semi-structured interview. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyse the data. Our findings revealed that the government’s response to the pandemic appeared to have overlooked already existing fundamental problems associated with curriculum implementation in rural areas. We learnt in this study that curriculum implementation is narrowly conceived as a classroom pedagogic exercise. As an implication, there is a need for curriculum implementation reforms in South Africa, one that would consider contextual curriculum theorising and the experiences of rural science teachers.
Natural Language Processing to Classify Caregiver Strategies Supporting Participation Among Children and Youth with Craniofacial Microsomia and Other Childhood-Onset Disabilities
Authors: Kaelin Vera C. , Boyd Andrew D. , Werler Martha M. , Parde Natalie , Khetani Mary A.
Published: September 2023

Customizing participation-focused pediatric rehabilitation interventions is an important but also complex and potentially resource intensive process, which may benefit from automated and simplified steps. This research aimed at applying natural language processing to develop and identify a best performing predictive model that classifies caregiver strategies into participation-related constructs, while filtering out non-strategies. We created a dataset including 1,576 caregiver strategies obtained from 236 families of children and youth (11–17 years) with craniofacial microsomia or other childhood-onset disabilities. These strategies were annotated to four participation-related constructs and a non-strategy class. We experimented with manually created features (i.e., speech and dependency tags, predefined likely sets of words, dense lexicon features (i.e., Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts)) and three classical methods (i.e., logistic regression, naïve Bayes, support vector machines (SVM)). We tested a series of binary and multinomial classification tasks applying 10-fold cross-validation on the training set (80%) to test the best performing model on the held-out test set (20%). SVM using term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) was the best performing model for all four classification tasks, with accuracy ranging from 78.10 to 94.92% and a macro-averaged F1-score ranging from 0.58 to 0.83. Manually created features only increased model performance when filtering out non-strategies. Results suggest pipelined classification tasks (i.e., filtering out non-strategies; classification into intrinsic and extrinsic strategies; classification into participation-related constructs) for implementation into participation-focused pediatric rehabilitation interventions like Participation and Environment Measure Plus (PEM+) among caregivers who complete the Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY).
A hybrid technique based on Lucas polynomials for solving fractional diffusion partial differential equation
Authors: Kawala A. M. , Abdelaziz H. K.
Published: September 2023

This paper presents a new numerical technique to approximate solutions of diffusion partial differential equations with Caputo fractional derivatives. We use a spectral collocation method based on Lucas polynomials for time fractional derivatives and a finite difference scheme in space. Stability and error analyses of the proposed technique are established. To demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of our new technique, we applied the method to a number of examples. The new technique is simply applicable, and the results show high efficiency in calculation and approximation precision.
HG-Induced sEVs Mediate Biomechanics of HK-2 Cells
Authors: Yang Fan , Wang Jiajia , Ju Tuoyu , Wang Shuwei , Qu Kaige , Song Zhengxun , Chen Yujuan , Wang Zuobin
Published: September 2023

Small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) participate in the pathological progression of high glucose (HG)-induced kidney injury, which is closely related to diabetic nephropathy. How sEVs specifically mediate the cell biomechanics underlying HG injury is unclear. Herein, we utilized a versatile atomic force microscope to determine the contributions of sEVs in HG-induced cellular injury. The sEVs extracted from the culture medium of human proximal tubule kidney (HK-2) cells treated by HG for 72 h (HG-induced sEVs) were verified and analyzed by multiple techniques, and the results indicated the effective production and the effect of dehydration on the shape of HG-induced sEVs. Further investigation on the morphologies of HK-2 cells treated by HG-induced sEVs showed that the surface roughness of the HK-2 cells increased, and their pseudopodia transitioned from lamellipodia to filopodia, with almost doubled mean pseudopodia length. Quantitative analysis of the mechanical responses of the cells revealed that the mean Young’s modulus increased by 26.2%, and the mean adhesion decreased by 36.8%. The indirect mediation of cellular biomechanics guided by HG-induced sEVs was evaluated by comparing it with previously studied direct HG injury. The HG-induced sEVs caused a greater reduction in cell adhesion and an increase in Young’s modulus compared with direct HG stimulation. This work suggested the ability of HG-induced sEVs to elicit specific biomechanical responses during HG injury, advancing the understanding of the injury mechanism caused by HG. The comparison of the cellular biomechanics between direct and indirect HG stimulations through HG-induced sEVs can be beneficial for the diagnosis and treatment of kidney injury.
Gibberellic Acid and Salicylic Acid Dual Application Improves Date Palm Fruit Growth by Regulating the Nutrient Acquisition, Amino Acid Profile, and Phytohormone Performance
Authors: Talaat Neveen B. , Nesiem Mohamed R. A. , Gadalla Ezz G. , Ali Shaimaa F.
Published: September 2023

Gibberellic acid (GA3) and salicylic acid (SA) are crucial phytohormones that support fruit development. The objective of this study was to investigate the mechanism of spraying 100 mg L−1 GA3 and 100 mg L−1 SA in improving the Phoenix dactylifera, cv. Zaghloul fruit yield and quality. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design during two successive growing seasons and four treatments [control (distilled water spray), 100 mg L−1 GA3, 100 mg L−1 SA, and 100 mg L−1 GA3 + 100 mg L−1 SA] were sprayed at the Hababouk and Kimri stages of date palm “Zaghloul” cv. The findings revealed that the GA3 and/or SA applications are necessary for improving the growth and development of “Zaghloul” fruit, which were associated with an increase in the content of dry matter, crude fiber, ash, total soluble solids, total soluble sugars, carbohydrate, protein, and essential nutrients. Moreover, compared with the control treatment, GA3 and/or SA exogenous treatments improved the activity of peroxidase and catalase, as well as the content of amino acids and phytohormones, while decreasing the content of moisture, total acidity, total phenol, and tannins. The results provide evidence that using GA3 in conjunction with SA has the greatest effect on improving “Zaghloul” fruit yield by up regulating the sugar accumulation, amino acid profile, nutrient acquisition, antioxidant capacity, and phytohormone performance. Consequently, combining GA3 with SA can be an effective strategy for enhancing fruit yield and quality.
Computationally Efficient Labeling of Cancer-Related Forum Posts by Non-clinical Text Information Retrieval
Authors: Agerskov Jimmi , Nielsen Kristian , Pedersen Christian Fischer
Published: September 2023

Modern societies produce vast amounts of digital data and merely keeping up with transmission and storage is difficult enough, but analyzing it to extract and apply useful information is harder still. Almost all research within healthcare data processing is concerned with formal clinical data. However, there is a lot of valuable but idle information in non-clinical data too; this information needs to be retrieved and activated. The present study combines state-of-the-art methods within distributed computing, text retrieval, clustering, and classification into a coherent and computationally efficient system that is able to clarify cancer patient trajectories based on non-clinical and freely available online forum posts. The motivation is: well informed patients, caretakers, and relatives often lead to better overall treatment outcomes due to enhanced possibilities of proper disease management. The resulting software prototype is fully functional and build to serve as a test bench for various text information retrieval and visualization methods. Via the prototype, we demonstrate a computationally efficient clustering of posts into cancer-types and a subsequent within-cluster classification into trajectory related classes. Also, the system provides an interactive graphical user interface allowing end-users to mine and oversee the valuable information.
Changes in the Vaginal Microbiome During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period in South African Women: a Longitudinal Study
Authors: Li Katherine T , Li Fan , Jaspan Heather , Nyemba Dorothy , Myer Landon , Aldrovandi Grace , Joseph-Davey Dvora
Published: September 2023

Pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa have high rates of maternal morbidity. There is interest in the impact of the vaginal microbiome on maternal health, including HIV and sexually transmitted infection (STI) acquisition. We characterized the vaginal microbiota of South African women ≥ 18 years with and without HIV in a longitudinal cohort over two visits during pregnancy and one visit postpartum. At each visit, we obtained HIV testing and self-collected vaginal swabs for point-of-care testing for STIs and microbiota sequencing. We categorized microbial communities and evaluated changes over pregnancy and associations with HIV status and STI diagnosis. Across 242 women (mean age 29, 44% living with HIV, 33% diagnosed with STIs), we identified four main community state types (CSTs): two lactobacillus-dominant CSTs (dominated byLactobacillus crispatusandLactobacillus inersrespectively) and two diverse, non-lactobacillus-dominant CSTs (one dominated byGardnerella vaginalisand one by diverse facultative anaerobes). From the first antenatal visit to the third trimester (24–36 weeks gestation), 60% of women in theGardnerella-dominant CST shifted to lactobacillus-dominant CSTs. From the third trimester to postpartum (mean 17 days post-delivery), 80% of women in lactobacillus-dominant CSTs shifted to non-lactobacillus-dominant CSTs with a large proportion in the facultative anaerobe-dominant CST. Microbial composition differed by STI diagnosis (PERMANOVAR2= 0.002,p= 0.004), and women diagnosed with an STI were more likely to be categorized as L. iners-dominant orGardnerella-dominant CSTs. Overall, we found a shift toward lactobacillus dominance during pregnancy and the emergence of a distinct, highly diverse anaerobe-dominant microbiota profile in the postpartum period.
The threshold of instability of Taylor–Couette flow of a Newtonian fluid in quasi-periodic modulation with two immense frequencies using spectral Chebychev collocation methods
Authors: El Harfouf Amine , Hayani Mounir Sanaa , Abouloifa Walid , Mes-Adi Hassane , Jbira Najwa
Published: September 2023

This study investigates the dynamic flow of a Newtonian fluid through two coaxial cylinders, each rotating at speeds $${\Omega }_{1}(t)$$

Ω
1

(
t
)

(inner cylinder) and $${\Omega }_{2}(t)$$

Ω
2

(
t
)

(outer cylinder). We derive equations of motion for disturbances in balance, yielding a controlled system characterized by parameters such as Taylor number, wave number, frequency ratio, and interior cylinder frequency. We introduce numerical techniques for solving this system, employing spectral Chebychev collocation for spatial resolution and a combined approach of Floquet theory and Runge–Kutta method for temporal resolution. Our refined approach enables comprehensive analysis of fluid dynamics within the rotating coaxial cylinders, showcasing the interplay of various control parameters.