bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Deprescribing practices, habits and attitudes of geriatricians and geriatricians-in-training across Europe: a large web-based survey
Authors: van Poelgeest Eveline P. , Seppala Lotta J. , Lee Jihoo M. , Bahat Gülistan , Ilhan Birkan , Lavan Amanda H. , Mair Alpana , van Marum Rob J. , Onder Graziano , Ryg Jesper , Fernandes Marília Andreia , Garfinkel Doron , Guðmundsson Aðalsteinn , Hartikainen Sirpa , Kotsani Marina , Montero-Errasquín Beatriz , Neumann-Podczaska Agnieszka , Pazan Farhad , Petrovic Mirko , Soulis George , Vankova Hana , Wehling Martin , Wieczorowska–Tobis Katarzyna , van der Velde Nathalie ,   On Behalf of the EuGMS SIG Pharmacology
Published: November 2022

Purpose

To provide an overview of the current deprescribing attitudes, practices, and approaches of geriatricians and geriatricians-in-training across Europe.

Methods

An online survey was disseminated among European geriatricians and geriatricians-in-training. The survey comprised Likert scale and multiple-choice questions on deprescribing approaches and practices, deprescribing education and knowledge, and facilitators/barriers of deprescribing. Responses to the survey questions and participant characteristics were quantified and differences evaluated between geriatricians and geriatricians-in-training and between European regions.

Results

The 964 respondents (median age 42 years old; 64% female; 21% geriatricians-in-training) were generally willing to deprescribe (98%) and felt confident about deprescribing (85%). Despite differences across European regions, the most commonly reported reasons for deprescribing were functional impairment and occurrence of adverse drug reactions. The most important barriers for deprescribing were patients’ unwillingness, fear of negative consequences, lack of time, and poor communication between multiple prescribers. Perceived risk of adverse drug reactions was highest for psychotropic drugs, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, cardiovascular drugs, and opioid analgesics. Only one in four respondents (23% of geriatricians and 37% of geriatricians-in-training) think education in medical school had sufficiently prepared them for deprescribing in clinical practice. They reported that their future deprescribing activities would probably increase with improved information sharing between various prescribers, deprescribing recommendations in guidelines, and increased education and training. Approximately 90% think that a paradigm shift is required for prescribers and patients, increasing focus on the possible benefits of deprescribing (potentially) inappropriate medications.

Conclusions

Based on the outcomes of this survey, we recommend investing in improved inter-professional communication, better education and evidence-based recommendations to improve future patient-centered deprescribing practices.
Trends and Characteristics of New Drug Approvals in China, 2011–2021
Authors: Su Ling , Liu Sen , Li Guanqiao , Xie Cuicui , Yang Huan , Liu Yang , Yin Chen , Chen Xiaoyuan
Published: November 2022

Background

In the past decade, the Chinese drug regulatory system has undergone many changes. A major reform starting in 2015 has significantly reshaped the regulatory processes. It was important to assess the impact of the reform on new drug approvals in China.

Method

We analyzed the temporal trends of regulatory characteristics of the new drugs approved by the Chinese regulatory agency from 2011 to 2021, using data collected in the Pharmcube database.

Results

A total of 353 new drugs were approved, including 220 small molecule drugs, 86 biological products and 47 vaccines. The annual number of new drug approvals increased dramatically since 2017, reaching a record high of 70 in 2021. The median NDA approval time was 15.4 months in 2017-2021, the shortest in the decade, and was significantly shorter than that in the pre-reform period. The newly instituted expedited pathways such as priority review (PR) and accelerated approval for urgently needed overseas drugs (UNOD) significantly reduced new drug application (NDA) approval times compared with standard review. For imported drugs, in 2017-2021, the median time difference between the first approval in the world and the approval in China was 5 years, representing significant “drug lag”. However, the proportion of the imported drugs approved in China within 3 years of its first foreign approval has increased to 24.4% in 2017-2021.

Conclusion

The regulatory reform has produced significant, positive immediate outcomes in several metrics of drug regulatory approval. China’s regulatory system will continue to evolve as there still are many areas requiring further reform and improvement.
Three Criteria for Evaluating Social Programs
Authors: García Jorge Luis , Heckman James Joseph
Published: November 2022

This article examines the economic foundations of three criteria used for evaluating the costs and benefits of social programs. Some criteria do not consider the scale of programs or address the costs associated with programs that expand or contract the total government budget. A recent addition to the list of evaluation criteria – the marginal value of public funds – does not adopt a social optimality perspective. It evaluates the optimality of expenditures assuming a predetermined aggregate budget without considering the social costs of raising that budget.
On the analytic explanation of experiments where turbulence vanishes in pipe flow
Authors: Javier García García F. , Fariñas Alvariño Pablo
Published: November 2022

The present research will provide an analytical explanation to experiments destabilising turbulence in pipe flow reported in Kuehnen et al. (Nat. Phys., vol. 14, 2018, 386–390). Those experiments show four methods by which turbulence vanishes from steady-state pipe flow, without decreasing its bulk velocity, until it becomes completely laminar. The explanation is based on our theory of underlying laminar flow (TULF), which has already been successfully applied to account for other uncommon experiments reported in the literature. The TULF is founded on the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations and thus is a theory of ensemble-averaged flows. The zero theorem for steady-state flow is introduced as a universal result that will help explain the laminarisation process described in experiments. After presenting the most comprehensive solution for the mean pipe flow governing equation that, to our knowledge, has ever been reported, we uncover a general sequence for laminarisation, called the laminarisation pattern, and we introduce a mathematical model for it. We show that a drastic decrease in a flow's mean-pressure gradient, while maintaining constant its Reynolds number, is necessary and sufficient to erase turbulence. Equations derived from our model are used to calculate the minimum pressure gradient necessary to cause complete laminarisation in each experiment. Results are then contrasted with reported experimental data, with noticeable agreement. We also propose a figure of merit to assess the efficiency of each laminarisation method. Having disclosed the intrinsic mechanism leading to complete laminarisation, we expect researchers will propose other ingenious methods to achieve it.
“It Now Exists”: The Birth of the Chilean Professional Legal Academia in the Wake of Neoliberalism
Authors: Wilenmann Javier , Gil Diego , Tschorne Samuel
Published: November 2022

This article analyzes the processes shaping the emergence of a professionalized legal academia in Chile. Through a case study informed by quantitative and qualitative evidence, the study shows that the control and orientation of a professional school is a contested space, where the interactions between the profession, the market, and the state shape the trajectory of the legal education field. The article argues that the neoliberal remaking of higher education of the 1980s created a regime that increasingly relies on performance indicators modeled on the paradigm of the research university, which have been used as an opportunity by law schools seeking elite status to increase their academic reputation through the formation of bodies of full-time legal scholars. This new institutional environment has produced, however, an important degree of malaise among the new professional legal academics, the majority of whom resent that their research is increasingly swayed by the standards imposed by governmental or university-wide bureaucratic structures rather than by the needs of legal practice.
Non-Gaussianity of optical emission lines in SDSS star-forming galaxies and its implications on galactic outflows
Authors: Yu B. P. Brian , Angthopo James , Ferreras Ignacio , Wu Kinwah
Published: November 2022

The shape of emission lines in the optical spectra of star-forming galaxies reveals the kinematics of the diffuse gaseous component. We analyse the shape of prominent emission lines in a sample of$\sim$53000 star-forming galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, focusing on departures from gaussianity. Departures from a single gaussian profile allow us to probe the motion of gas and to assess the role of outflows. The sample is divided into groups according to their stellar velocity dispersion and star formation rate (SFR). The spectra within each group are stacked to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the emission lines, to remove individual signatures, and to enhance the effect of SFR on the shapes of the emission lines. The moments of the emission lines, including kurtosis and skewness, are determined. We find that most of the emission lines in strong star-forming systems unequivocally feature negative kurtosis. This signature is present in$\mathrm{H}\unicode{x03B2}$,$\mathrm{H}\unicode{x03B1}$, [N ii], and [S ii] in massive galaxies with high SFRs. We attribute it as evidence of radial outflows of ionised gas driven by the star formation of the galaxies. Also, most of the emission lines in low-mass systems with high SFRs feature negative skewness, and we interpret it as evidence of dust obscuration in the galactic disk. These signatures are however absent in the [O iii] line, which is believed to trace a different gas component. The observed trend is significantly stronger in face-on galaxies, indicating that star formation drives the outflows along the galactic rotation axis, presumably the path of least resistance. The data suggest that outflows driven by star formation exert accumulated impacts on the interstellar medium, and the outflow signature is more evident in older galaxies as they have experienced a longer total duration of star formation.
Demographics and host-kill parameters of Diglyphus horticola Khan against Chromatomyia horticola (Goureau)
Authors: Katoch S. , Sharma P. L. , Verma S. C. , Chandel R. S. , Sharma P. , Sharma N.
Published: November 2022

The pea leafminer, Chromatomyia horticola (Goureau) (Diptera: Agromyzidae) is a polyphagous and serious pest of peas. In India, this pest is attacked by many parasitoids and among them Diglyphus horticola Khan (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) is an important one, however, demographics and pest-kill potential of this parasitoid has not been studied so far. This study presents the first report on its demographics and pest-kill potential on C. horticola. The parasitoid showed three modes of host-killing behaviour viz. host-feeding, parasitism and host-stinging. The parasitoid females killed more number of hosts by parasitism than host-feeding or host-stinging. The pre-adult survival, net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of increase (rm) and finite rate of increase (λ) were higher on the 5-days old host larvae than those reared on the 3-days old larvae. Demographics and pest-kill parameters of D. horticola were also better on 5-days old host larvae than on 3-days old host larvae. Based on the study, D. horticola appeared to be a promising biocontrol agent for the suppression of C. horticola in peas and could be promoted through conservation biological control. Further studies are required to standardize the mass production protocol and release rates to use the parasitoid by augmentation.
From Expellee to Refugee: Absolute Victimhood and the Dokumentationszentrum Flucht, Vertreibung, Versöhnung
Authors: Chu Winson
Published: November 2022

The expulsion of millions of people and the loss of Germany's eastern territories at the end of the Second World War have been a part of ongoing public discussions about Vergangenheitsbewältigung, or Germany's “mastering of the past.” These events have deeply shaped personal and family memories in East and West Germany, even if political discourse about them had been marginalized in the German Democratic Republic. In the Federal Republic, the issue of expellees has been especially fraught because it represents the intersection of two discourses of German victimhood: war victims and victims of communism—here specifically the postwar East European governments that organized postwar expropriation and “resettlements.” Memorials range from the eternal flame on Theodor-Heuss-Platz in Berlin to the small plaque affixed to the wall outside of Bayreuth's train station for the almost 40,000 expellees from the Sudeten region who arrived on thirty-three freight trains in 1946. The expulsions have made their way into popular culture as well, as can be seen in the works of artists who had had little or no direct experience in the “German East.” In the 1969 song “Erstes Morgenrot,” for example, Alexandra (born as Doris Treitz in 1942 in today's Lithuania) wistfully looks forward to the dawn that brings greetings from the land where “my cradle once stood.” Heinz Rudolf Kunze, born in 1956, emphasizes his uprootedness and a sense of not belonging in his 1985 song “Vertriebener.”
ALL ROADS LEAD TO BORDEAUX: PROVINCIAL GEOGRAPHY IN LATE ANTIQUITY
Authors: Schwennicke Alexander
Published: November 2022

This article explores the geographical outlook of the late antique author Ausonius of Bordeaux (c.310–395c.e.). It offers close readings of his poems on roads, oysters and cities, and situates him within the vibrant geographical debates of his day. Section I, on roads, argues that an overlooked passage inEpistula24 reflects attested routes through Gaul, and that other passages in Ausonius’ letters are similarly influenced by ‘hodological’ ways of thinking. Section II, on oysters, identifies a new geographic mode, ‘teleports’, inEpistula3, a poem in a long tradition of works that use oysters to chart imperial space and map cultural landscapes. Section III, on cities, brings the recent paradigm of ‘landmarks’ to bear on theOrdo nobilium urbium, arguing that Ausonius uses the catalogue form both to articulate imperial unity and to express pride in his homeland of Gaul. This article thus advances our understanding of three related aspects of late antique geography: it demonstrates the importance of literary texts for discussions of cultural geography; shows how conceptions of space were influenced by provincial identity; and provides further evidence of the great diversity of Roman understandings of space.
harmonic 1-forms on hypersurfaces with finite index
Authors: Chao Xiaoli , Shen Bin , Zhang Miaomiao
Published: November 2022

In the present note, we establish a finiteness theorem for
$L^p$
harmonic 1-forms on hypersurfaces with finite index, which is an extension of the result of Choi and Seo (J. Geom. Phys.129 (2018), 125–132).
A characterization of potent rings
Authors: Oman Greg
Published: November 2022

An associative ring R is called potent provided that for every
$x\in R$
, there is an integer
$n(x)>1$
such that
$x^{n(x)}=x$
. A celebrated result of N. Jacobson is that every potent ring is commutative. In this note, we show that a ring R is potent if and only if every nonzero subring S of R contains a nonzero idempotent. We use this result to give a generalization of a recent result of Anderson and Danchev for reduced rings, which in turn generalizes Jacobson’s theorem.
Labor and Finance: The Effect of Bank Relationships
Authors: Behr Patrick , Norden Lars , de Freitas Oliveira Raquel
Published: November 2022

We investigate whether firms’ number of credit relationships with financial institutions affects labor market outcomes. Using 5 million observations on matched credit and labor panel data from Brazil, we estimate IV regressions, employing exogenous variation in firm-lender relationships due to nationwide bank M&A activity. Firms with more relationships employ more workers and pay higher wage bills. Credit availability, cost of credit, and financial institution heterogeneity are economic channels. The firm-level results translate into positive macroeconomic effects in municipalities and states. The evidence is novel and indicates the positive effects of multiple relationships on labor market outcomes in an emerging economy.
A systematic scoping review of tiger conservation in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayas
Authors: Yadav Pramod K. , Brownlee Matthew T. J. , Kapoor Mohnish
Published: November 2022

In the last decade the tigerPanthera tigrispopulation in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayas has increased, while populations in other countries have remained below their conservation targets. Although there has been some research on tiger conservation in the Terai Arc Landscape and the Himalayas, scientists and managers have not catalogued and characterized tiger research in the region, with empirical findings scattered among disparate document types, journals and countries. Without a review of the tiger research in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayan region, it is difficult to analyse or change conservation policies, develop adaptation strategies, prioritize research, allocate resources or develop conservation strategies potentially employable elsewhere. We therefore conducted a systematic scoping review to identify focal research areas, the spatial and temporal distribution of study sites, general publication trends, the extent of empirical studies, and gaps in tiger conservation research in this region (which spans Bhutan, India and Nepal). Since 2000, 216 studies have been published on issues associated with tiger conservation in the Terai Arc Landscape and Himalayas, with an increasing number over time. Most empirical studies have focused on tiger habitat, ecology and conflicts in protected areas in the region's foothills. There are research gaps in high-altitude landscapes, social science investigations, conservation economics, and policy and institutional analyses.
How odd: Diverging effects of predictability and plausibility violations on sentence reading and word memory
Authors: Haeuser Katja I. , Kray Jutta
Published: November 2022

How do violations of predictability and plausibility affect online language processing? How does it affect longer-term memory and learning when predictions are disconfirmed by plausible or implausible words? We investigated these questions using a self-paced sentence reading and noun recognition task. Critical sentences violated predictability or plausibility or both, for example, “Since Anne is afraid of spiders, she doesn’t like going down into the … basement (predictable, plausible), garden (unpredictable, somewhat plausible), moon (unpredictable, deeply implausible).” Results from sentence reading showed earlier-emerging effects of predictability violations on the critical noun, but later-emerging effects of plausibility violations after the noun. Recognition memory was exclusively enhanced for deeply implausible nouns. The earlier-emerging predictability effect indicates that having word form predictions disconfirmed is registered very early in the processing stream, irrespective of semantics. The later-emerging plausibility effect supports models that argue for a staged architecture of reading comprehension, where plausibility only affects a post-lexical integration stage. Our memory results suggest that, in order to facilitate memory and learning, a certain magnitude of prediction error is required.
SUSTENANCE AND STRIFE. STANDARDS OF LIVING AND FAMILY VULNERABILITY DURING SPAIN'S INDUSTRIALISATION. THE BILBAO ESTUARY, 1914-1935
Authors: Houpt Stefan , Rojo Cagigal Juan Carlos
Published: November 2022

Did industrialisation improve standards of living in interwar industrial Spain? We seek to contrast this empirically with high frequency data from 1914 until 1936 for the Bilbao area, an emerging industrial centre. Contrary to existing historiography suggesting that overall standards of living improved, we find that welfare ratios remained at the same level and, at times, fluctuated significantly below sustenance levels. Demographic and socioeconomic variables were highly responsive to short-term real wage shocks driven by food price increases and the delay in nominal wage increases. Interwar industrialisation provided improvements, but did not provide protection from recurring deprivations and these may have constituted an important part of future political and socioeconomic polarisation and violence.
A class of non-zero-sum stochastic differential games between two mean–variance insurers under stochastic volatility
Authors: Zhang Jiannan , Chen Ping , Jin Zhuo , Li Shuanming
Published: November 2022

This paper studies the open-loop equilibrium strategies for a class of non-zero-sum reinsurance–investment stochastic differential games between two insurers with a state-dependent mean expectation in the incomplete market. Both insurers are able to purchase proportional reinsurance contracts and invest their wealth in a risk-free asset and a risky asset whose price is modeled by a general stochastic volatility model. The surplus processes of two insurers are driven by two standard Brownian motions. The objective for each insurer is to find the equilibrium investment and reinsurance strategies to balance the expected return and variance of relative terminal wealth. Incorporating the forward backward stochastic differential equations (FBSDEs), we derive the sufficient conditions and obtain the general solutions of equilibrium controls for two insurers. Furthermore, we apply our theoretical results to two special stochastic volatility models (Hull–White model and Heston model). Numerical examples are also provided to illustrate our results.
Popular Contention and Progressive Legal Repression in China
Authors: He Huan
Published: November 2022

How do state authorities cope with popular contention under authoritarian legality? Based on ethnographic fieldwork and legal repression cases in China, this article highlights that conflicting rules and signals regarding contention management can impose considerable pressure on governments and motivate them to respond cautiously, even though the prevailing rhetoric of law-based governance provides a convenient basis on which authorities can legitimize their coercive actions. This study further theorizes a discreet pattern of government reaction under authoritarian legality – progressive legal repression – that rests on bureaucratic processing to overcome political uncertainty and lower potential risks before formally employing criminal sanctions to achieve domination. Instead of directly using criminal penalties to deter unruly protesters and potential dissenters, the preferred state action is to induce them to engage in available legal-bureaucratic procedures. By reconceptualizing protesters’ claims and behaviour as unreasonable and signalling fulfilment of responsibilities, bureaucratic practices help officials to reduce the risks of damaging their political image and receiving disciplinary action, encouraging them to deploy legal repression. This study reveals more complicated dynamics of state repression under authoritarian legality and emphasizes the important effects of procedural practices on governmental responses and the regime's stability.
Proletarian Power Misplaced: The Worker Propaganda Teams in Shanghai during the Cultural Revolution
Authors: Chen Feng
Published: November 2022

In 1968, at the height of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (CR hereafter), Mao Zedong mobilized industrial workers to form Workers’ Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Teams (WPT hereafter) and to “occupy” the superstructure. This move empowered the working class in an unprecedented way. Did Mao's move bring about a new model of worker power under communism that was distinct from Lenin's vanguardist model and Rosa Luxemburg's model based on her perception of workers’ spontaneity and creativity? In contrast to the workers’ spontaneous rebel groups during the first two years of the CR, the WPTs were a quasi-institutionalized form of worker power created by the political elite to serve the CR agenda. It was also the Mao leadership's attempt to realize the leading role of the working class by absorbing workers into the structure of political authority, an attempt which reflected the Party's declared ideological principle. While the WPTs provided workers with opportunities to participate in politics, they were a misplacement of worker power in both social and organizational senses. The article examines the roots of this power misplacement and explores the dilemmas it brought for the Party as well as the working class itself, and why.
The Politics of the Bagatelle: Opera and Smallpox Inoculation in Enlightenment France
Authors: Doe Julia
Published: November 2022

This article examines the production and reception history of C. S. Favart'sLa fête du château, commissioned by a French noblewoman, the Marquise of Monconseil, to mark her granddaughter's inoculation against smallpox in 1766. The first half of the article situates thevaudevillecomedy at the Bagatelle (Monconseil's private theatre), underscoring the gendered tropes that had accrued to the disease in the late eighteenth century and the function of elite sociability in promoting its prevention. The second half of the article reconstructs the public trajectory of the work, which was presented at Versailles after the controversial inoculation of Louis XVI in 1774. Notably, the agent behind this theatrical public-health campaign was the queen, Marie Antoinette. A consideration ofLa fête du château's popularity and influence broadens our understanding of the conditions under whichancien-régimeopera took on political meaning, as well as the role of women patrons and consumers in this process.
Endometrial cell-derived conditioned medium in combination with platelet-rich plasma promotes the development of mouse ovarian follicles
Authors: Taghizabet Neda , Rezaei-Tazangi Fatemeh , Mousavi Mahboubeh , Dehghani Farzaneh , Zareifard Nehleh , Shabani Soha , Bahmanpour Soghra , Aliakbari Fereshteh , Sadeghzadeh Zahra , Dortaj Hengameh , Chakerzehi Arezoo , Mohseni Gholamreza
Published: November 2022

Fertility preservation is one of the most important issues in assisted reproductive technology. Previous studies have shown that cytokines and growth factors can improve follicle growth. The endometrial stromal cells secrete various factors that are involved in maintaining the integrity of uterine and epithelial secretory function. The platelet-rich plasma contains a large assembly of platelets suspended in plasma that successfully improves the viability and growth of various cell lines. This work aimed to investigate the influences of conditioned medium (CM) and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) on the development of ovarian follicles in infertile mice due to cyclophosphamide (CYC) exposure. In this study, 65 healthy BALB/c female mice (∼28–30 g and 6-8 weeks old) in five groups were studied. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was used to detect growth differentiation factor 9 (GDF9)-positive cells. The mRNA expression levels of SMAD1, SMAD2, and BMP15 was assessed using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. The expression levels of SMAD1, GDF9, BMP15, and SMAD2 in the CM+PRP group was significantly more than in the CM and PRP groups. In addition, live birth occurred in the CM+PRP group. Treatment with CM+PRP in infertile mice due to Cy exposure increased fertility and live-birth rate. In general, our study suggested that the CM and PRP combination could improve the growth of mice ovarian follicles in vivo.
Adolescent exposure to food and beverage marketing on social media by gender: a pilot study
Authors: Amson Ashley , Pauzé Elise , Remedios Lauren , Pritchard Meghan , Potvin Kent Monique
Published: November 2022

Objective:

The objective of this research was to determine if, based on gender, adolescents were exposed to different marketing techniques that promoted food and beverages over social media.

Design:

A secondary analysis of adolescent boy (n 26) and girl (n 36) exposures (n 139) to food and beverage marketing was conducted. Mann–Whitney U and Fisher’s exact tests were conducted to compare the number, healthfulness and the marketing techniques of exposures viewed by boys and girls.

Setting:

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Participants:

Sixty-two adolescents aged 12–16 years.

Results:

Boys and girls were exposed to similar volumes of food marketing instances (median = 2 for both boys and girls, Mann–Whitney U = 237, P = 0·51) per 10-min period of social media use. More girls viewed products that were excessive in total fat compared to boys (67 % v. 35 %, P = 0·02). Boys were more likely to view instances of food marketing featuring a male as the dominant user (50 % v. 22 %, P = 0·03), appeals to achievement (42 % v. 17 %, P = 0·04), an influencer (42 % v. 14 %, P = 0·02) and appeals to athleticism (35 % v. 11 %, P = 0·03), whereas girls were more likely to view instances of food marketing featuring quizzes, surveys or polls (25 % v. 0 %, P = 0·01).

Conclusions:

Food and beverage companies utilise marketing techniques that differ based on gender. More research examining the relationship between digital food and beverage marketing and gender is required to inform the development of gender-sensitive policies aimed at protecting adolescents from unhealthy food marketing.
How international humanitarian law develops
Authors: Droege Cordula , Giorgou Eirini
Published: November 2022

This article takes a critical look at the development of international humanitarian law (IHL), from its early codification in the Hague and Geneva Conventions to the present day. It examines why and how IHL develops – through treaty, custom, interpretation and soft-law instruments, as well as the influence of jurisprudence and other branches of law. In doing so, it highlights some of the distinctive elements of IHL that set it apart from other bodies of law and explains how these elements influence IHL development. Turning to the present, it addresses some of the key arguments commonly heard against attempting any further development of IHL, by answering the following three key questions: Does IHL need to develop further? If so, how can this be achieved? And what are the prospects for such development in the near future? In answering these questions, the article argues that IHL will continue to develop in many ways, and that while the current environment does not appear propitious for new legally binding norms of IHL, they continue to be both necessary and possible.
What Mainly Drives the Interannual Climate Variability Over the Barents‐Kara Seas in Boreal Early Autumn?
Authors: Chang Le , Morioka Yushi , Behera Swadhin , Luo Jing‐Jia , Xu Haiming , Zhou Bing
Published: November 2022

Year‐to‐year forecasts of the Arctic climate conditions have drawn much interest in recent decades. This study investigates the primary drivers responsible for interannual variations (without multi‐decadal trends) of air temperature at 2 m (T2m) and sea ice concentration (SIC) over the Barents‐Kara Seas (BKS) during September from 1950 to 2021. The Arctic Dipole (AD), a leading factor in the BKS variability, plays an important role via influencing large‐scale atmospheric circulations and local thermodynamical feedbacks (i.e., vapor and albedo feedbacks). During a negative AD phase, the positive surface air temperature advection anomalies warm up the BKS region and promote sea ice melting, which in turn maintains the below‐normal sea ice and warmer‐than‐normal conditions via positive vapor and albedo feedbacks. Moreover, our results suggest that the sea surface temperature (SST) variability in the midlatitudes of the North Atlantic in the preceding month could also be an important driver of the SIC variability over the BKS area. The anomalous temperature advections from the surface to the upper troposphere are accompanied by a Rossby wave‐type atmospheric response, which intensifies the energy exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere. Local SST anomalies associated with the surface heat flux anomalies further persist in the following month and influence sea ice variations due to their long‐lasting memory. A better understanding of the mechanisms of interannual climate variabilities over the BKS region in boreal early autumn is helpful to improving the Arctic regional climate predictions.
Evaluation of the Role of Silt Content on the Flocculation Behavior of Clay‐Silt Mixtures
Authors: Xu C. , Odum B. , Chen Y. , Yao P.
Published: November 2022

The interactions and impacts of silt content on clay‐silt mixture flocculation processes and settling and floc properties were investigated from a series of laboratory experiments. The results demonstrate that the silt content in clay‐silt mixtures has an impact on the time‐evolution average floc size, peak floc size, and equilibrium floc size. Increasing the silt content reduces the floc strength, recovery factor, and average floc size. The silt fraction can present both cohesive and noncohesive characteristics in silt‐clay suspensions. The bulk concentration of clay‐silt mixtures was found to reasonably correlate with the average floc sizes under equilibrium conditions and with maximal floc sizes under both equilibrium and nonequilibrium conditions. The results also show that the flux‐settling velocities increase with increasing silt content. Specifically, the flux‐settling velocities are 0.66, 0.87, and 1.39 mm/s for mixing ratios of clay‐silt of 1:0.5, 1:1, and 1:2.5, respectively, under equilibrium conditions. Under growth‐breakup‐reflocculation (G‐B‐R) conditions, the percentage changes in the flux‐settling velocities of flocs during the regrowth period are 22%, 41%, and 42% less than those under equilibrium conditions. Therefore, both the silt content and hydrodynamic conditions need to be taken into consideration when determining the flux‐settling velocities under variable shear conditions. The findings from this research provide better insight into the highly complex role of silt in the flocculation process of clay‐silt mixtures in natural water environments.
Fine‐Sediment Erosion and Sediment‐Ribbon Morphodynamics in Coarse‐Grained Immobile Beds
Authors: Trevisson Michele , Eiff Olivier
Published: November 2022

In rivers, fine sediments are often transported over immobile coarse grains. With low sediment supply, they tend to aggregate in longitudinal ribbons. Yet, the long‐term evolution of such ribbons and the influence of immobile grains on the erosion of fine sediments are still not well understood. Flume experiments without sediment supply were therefore performed to investigate the erosion of an initially uniform fine‐sediment bed covering an immobile bed of staggered spheres through topographic and flow measurements. The topographic measurements yielded the spheres' protrusion above the fine sediment (P) and revealed long‐lived ribbons with ridges and troughs. The ridges are the main long‐term sediment source as the troughs are quickly eroded to a stable bed level resulting from the spheres' sheltering. The ridges stabilize with a spacing of 1.3 effective water depths, their number resulting from the integer number of wavelengths fitting into the effective channel width which excludes side‐wall accumulations. The ridges' erosion is damped by the local upflow of secondary current cells, which displaces the strongest sweep events above the bed. The upflow intensity is controlled by the ridges' height for low P, while for high P by the lateral roughness heterogeneity. The trends in erosion rates over ridges and troughs are similar and characterized by the following sequence of four regimes with increasing P: a drag sheltering, a turbulence‐enhancement, a wake‐interference sheltering, and a skimming‐flow sheltering regime. The critical P levels at the transitions are independent of the flow above the canopy, depending only on the geometrical configuration of the immobile bed.
Paleoproterozoic Plate Tectonics Recorded in the Northern Margin Orogen, North China Craton
Authors: Wu Chen , Wang Guosheng , Zhou Zhiguang , Haproff Peter J. , Zuza Andrew V. , Liu Wenyou
Published: November 2022

The occurrence of plate tectonic processes on Earth during the Paleoproterozoic is supported by ca. 2.2–1.8 Ga subduction‐collision orogens associated with the assembly of the Columbia‐Nuna supercontinent. Subsequent supercontinent breakup is evidence by global ca. 1.8–1.6 Ga large igneous provinces. The North China craton is notable for containing Paleoproterozoic orogens along its margins, herein named the Northern Margin orogen, yet the nature and timing of orogenic and extensional processes of these orogens and their role in the supercontinent cycle remain unclear. In this contribution, we present new field observations, U‐Pb zircon and baddeleyite geochronology dates, and major/trace‐element and isotope geochemical analyses from the northern margin of the North China craton that detail its Paleoproterozoic tectonic and magmatic history. Specifically, we record the occurrence of ca. 2.2–2.0 Ga magmatic arc rocks, ca. 1.9–1.88 Ga tectonic mélange and mylonitic shear zones, and folded lower Paleoproterozoic strata. These rocks were affected by ca. 1.9–1.8 Ga granulite‐facies metamorphism and ca. 1.87–1.78 Ga post‐collisional, extension‐related magmatism along the cratonal northern margin. We interpret that the generation and emplacement of these rocks, and the coupled metamorphic and magmatic processes, were related to oceanic subduction and subsequent continent‐continent collision during the Paleoproterozoic. The occurrence of ca. 1.77–1.73 Ga mafic dykes and ca. 1.75 Ga mylonitic shear zones along the northern margin of the North China craton may have been related to a regional mantle plume event. Our results are consistent with modern style plate tectonics, including oceanic subduction‐related plate convergence and continent‐continent collision, operating in the Paleoproterozoic.
Effect of Ambient Humidity on the Elasticity and Deformation of Unweathered Granite
Authors: Li Y. , Leith K. , Perras M. A. , Loew S.
Published: November 2022

Moisture variation has been noted as a driver of strains in both natural and anthropogenic bedrock environments. Similarly, increasing water content has been shown to reduce elastic stiffness in a variety of rock materials, though evidence for granites is limited. This study presents strains of an axially stressed (0.1 MPa) Herrnholz granite cylinder with ambient relative humidity alternating between 20% and 90% in a stepwise manner. At each ambient humidity level, the Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio were determined by performing a series of load and unload cycles at 1–12 hr intervals. We observed that when the ambient humidity increased from 20% to 90%, Young's modulus declined by 13% on average, and nearly returned to the initial dry value when the ambient humidity was reduced to 20%. Poisson's ratio increased by 130% in response to the same humidity change, and approximately 60% of it was reversed when dried. These changes occurred linearly with a volumetric strain of up to 8 × 10−4 of the tested sample, equivalent to 24.5 MPa internal stress. This stress change is attributed to the generation of nanoscale adsorption stress, which includes surface adhesion pressure along pore walls and capillary pressures within characteristic pore spaces. Using a modified adsorption model, the two contributions were estimated to be 8.5 and 16 MPa, respectively. The agreement between laboratory‐derived and modeled stress change validates the proposed mechanism of adsorption‐induced strains and elastic property variations in unweathered granite.
The Impact of a Southern Ocean Cyclonic Eddy on Mesopelagic Micronekton
Authors: Della Penna Alice , Llort Joan , Moreau Sebastien , Patel Ramkrushnbhai , Kloser Rudy , Gaube Peter , Strutton Peter , Boyd Philip W.
Published: November 2022

Mesoscale eddies shape the foraging ecology of predators such as marine mammals and seabirds. A growing number of animal tracking studies show that predators alter their swimming, diving, and foraging behavior within mesoscale eddies. However, little is known about how Southern Ocean eddies influence the distribution of mesopelagic micronekton (fish, squid, and crustaceans), which are major prey items of megafauna. Studies in other oceanic regions have found that eddies can influence the abundance and community composition of micronekton. Here, we analyze acoustic observations from a 14‐day survey of a cyclonic mesoscale eddy, its surrounding waters, and the Polar Frontal Zone (PFZ) waters where the eddy formed. We report and interpret spatial patterns of acoustic backscatter at 18 and 75 kHz, proxies indicating combined changes in species, size, and abundance of micronekton. We find that the vertical distribution of acoustic backscatter matched the underwater light conditions characteristic of the eddy core, periphery, and surrounding waters, at scales smaller than 10 km. The median water‐column integrated acoustic backscatter values in the eddy core were only half of those measured in the Sub‐Antarctic Zone waters surrounding the eddy, but similar to those measured in the PFZ, where the eddy originated 27 days prior. These results suggest that, as for physical and chemical tracers, the eddy maintained its biological characteristics from its source waters creating a unique habitat compared to its surroundings.
Inferring Dynamic Fragmentation Through the Particle Size and Shape Distribution of a Rock Avalanche
Authors: Jin Kaiping , Xing Aiguo , Chang Wenbin , He Junyi , Gao Ge , Bilal Muhammad , Zhang Yanbo , Zhuang Yu
Published: November 2022

On 28 August 2017, a large catastrophic rock avalanche occurred in Nayong, Guizhou Province, China. It claimed 35 lives and caused large property losses. The Nayong rock avalanche provides a rare opportunity to infer the dynamic fragmentation of rock masses from deposits. Field surveys combined with an uncrewed aerial vehicle image analysis system were performed to investigate the particle size and shape distribution along the runout path of the Nayong rock avalanche. The Weibull particle size distribution (PSD) model was tested and possesses the highest accuracy and capability over the entire range of the Nayong rock PSD, and it shows that the median size (D50) values of the particles range from 0.16 to 16.31 m along the runout path. Moreover, the evolution of D50 along the runout path confirms that the degree of rock fragmentation varies greatly in different regions. Additionally, the relative breakage (BR) of particles in the deposition area is 0.191. Particle R values increase significantly from 0.55 to 0.78 along the runout path, which indicates that the rock grinding (shape change) process continuously occurs throughout the avalanche path. The image analysis results confirm that the dominance of rock fragmentation and grinding alternates during granular flow transport. Based on these results, the classic fragmentation‐spreading model for long‐runout rock avalanches is optimized by taking into account the method by which grinding rocks increases the speed of avalanches.
CaTSM: A Pseudo‐Spectral Thermodynamically Consistent Model of Compressible Flows
Authors: Brown Justin M. , Dewar William , Radko Timour
Published: November 2022

We introduce a pseudo‐spectral algorithm that includes full compressible dynamics with the intent of simulating near‐incompressible fluids, CaTSM (Compressible and Thermodynamically consistent Spectral Model). A semi‐implicit scheme is used to model acoustic waves in order to evolve the system efficiently for such fluids. We demonstrate the convergence properties of this numerical code for the case of a shock tube and for Rayleigh‐Taylor instability. A linear equation of state is also presented, which relates the specific volume of the fluid linearly to the potential temperature, salinity, and pressure. This permits the results to be easily compared to a Boussinesq framework in order to assess whether the Boussinesq approximation adequately represents the relevant exchange of energy to the problem of interest. One such application is included, that of the development of a single salt finger, and it is shown that the energetic behavior of the system is comparable to the typical canonical development of the problem for oceanographic parameters. However, for more compressible systems, the results change substantially even for low‐Mach number flows.
The Treatment of Uncertainty in Hydrometric Observations: A Probabilistic Description of Streamflow Records
Authors: de Oliveira Debora Y. , Vrugt Jasper A.
Published: November 2022

In this paper, we introduce a relatively simple data‐driven method for the representation of the uncertainty in daily discharge records. The proposed method relies only on hourly discharge data and takes advantage of a nonparametric difference‐based estimator in the characterization of random errors in discharge time series. We illustrate with corrupted streamflow data that the nonparametric estimator provides an accurate characterization of the nature (homoscedastic or heteroscedastic) and magnitude of these errors. In addition, we demonstrate the practical usefulness of the estimator using discharge time series of 500+ watersheds of the Catchment Attributes and MEteorology for Large‐sample Studies data set. This analysis reveals that the magnitude of errors of aleatory nature in the investigated discharge records is rather small (less than 3% for 80% of the records). We then combine the effect of random errors and measurement frequency into a daily variance estimate, which serves as input to a streamflow generation approach. This procedure produces replicates of the discharge record which portray accurately the assigned streamflow uncertainty, preserve key statistical properties of the discharge record and are hydrologically realistic. The proposed method facilitates Bayesian analysis and supports tasks such as model diagnostics, data assimilation, uncertainty quantification and regionalization.
A Global Implementation of Single‐ and Dual‐Source Surface Energy Balance Models for Estimating Actual Evapotranspiration at 30‐m Resolution Using Google Earth Engine
Authors: Jaafar H. H. , Mourad R. M. , Kustas W. P. , Anderson M. C.
Published: November 2022

Evapotranspiration (ET) provides a robust connection between hydrological cycles and surface energy balance. Accurate and near‐daily ET estimation has utility in water resources, agricultural management applications, crop yields and drought monitoring. This study describes the implementation of an ET modeling system based on a Priestley‐Taylor version of the Two‐Source (soil and vegetation) Energy Balance Model (TSEB‐PT) within Google Earth Engine environment. TSEB‐PT performance was compared with the simpler single‐source HSEB (Hybrid Surface Energy Balance) ET model to assess relative advantages and disadvantages for operational application. Results were evaluated across multiple biomes and climatic zones across the US, Europe, and Australia in comparison with eddy covariance data from 30 flux tower sites. Both models produced similar results when considering all biomes at daily, weekly, and monthly timescales. Daily ET metrics for all sites combined yielded comparable results for both models, with a slightly lower root‐mean‐square error for TSEB‐PT (HSEB) of 1.2 (1.3) mm/d and a higher correlation (r) of 0.83 (0.80), but a larger mean percent bias error (MPBE = −9%) than HSEB (MPBE = 1%). TSEB‐PT performance was lowest for sites in warm summer humid continental and hot semi‐arid climates and in evergreen broadleaf forest cover, while HSEB showed lowest performance in tropical savanna hot semi‐arid climates and in savanna covers. Model performance was improved for both cropland and non‐cropland sites when TSEB‐PT and HSEB ET estimates were combined through simple averaging due to cancellation of opposing errors, showing a promise as potential tools for water resource management on a global scale.