bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sustainability in Global Trade: Integrating Principles for Inclusive and Resilient Systems
Authors: Lumempouw Geysbert J
Published: May 2024

This paper examines the vital role of sustainability in global trade through a comprehensive literature review. It synthesizes existing research to explore the interplay between sustainability principles and international trade practices, focusing on environmental, social, and economic dimensions. Drawing from academic sources, the study analyzes the impact of sustainability standards on trade flows, the role of multinational corporations in promoting sustainable supply chains, and challenges and opportunities in mainstreaming sustainability in trade agreements. The findings underscore the necessity of integrating sustainability into trade policies and practices to foster inclusive, resilient, and environmentally sustainable global trade. Collaborative efforts among policymakers, businesses, and civil society stakeholders are essential to align trade objectives with sustainability goals and build a more sustainable future for global trade.
Evaluation of epididymal and frozen sperm to produce goat embryos through in vitro fertilization
Authors: AbdElkhalek A. S. , Ghanem N. , Soliman M. G. , Abu El Naga N. A. , Kamel A. M. , Shedeed H. A. , El Bahrawy K. A.
Published: May 2024

Preservation of the livestock genetic makeup could be performed by application of in vitro fertilization (IVF) using spermatozoa collected from cauda epididymis. Therefore, this study as sessed the development of goat embryos following IVF of spermatozoa collected from cauda epididy mis compared to those kept frozen. Oocytes were in vitro cultured in a maturation medium for 24 hours at a temperature of 38.5°C, 5% CO2, and 95% humidity. Following maturation, the oocytes (n = 370) were in vitro fertilized by fresh epididymal sperm (G1) and G2 frozen-thawed sperm, and the Fert-TALP medium was used as the IVF medium. In addition, in vitro developed embryos were cultured in GT-L medium. The fertilization rate, percentage of morula, and blastocytes (p<0.01) were significantly higher in oocytes inseminated with epididymal than in frozen sperm. In conclusion, in vitro embryo production of goat oocytes may be successfully performed using epididymal spermatozoa for IVF.
The effect of stocking density and crude protein level on performance, carcass characteristics, nitrogen use, and ammonia emissions of the Indonesian native chickens
Authors: Hantoro F. R. P. , Sunarti D. , Yudiarti T. , Sumarsih S. , Sinurat A.
Published: May 2024

This was study aimed to investigate the impact of stocking density and crude protein level on the performance, carcass characteristics, nitrogen (N) use, and ammonia emissions of Sentul Selected (Sensi)-1 Agrinak chickens. A total of 504 chickens were used in the 70-day analysis using a random ized block design with factorial pattern of 3 × 3 which was arranged in nine treatments and four repli cates. The administered treatment covered two factors, including stocking density (A) and crude pro tein level (B). The treatments were administered when chickens reached 5 weeks of age. The results showed that different stocking density significantly influenced (p<0.05) the average weekly feed con sumption per chicken at 6, 7, 8, and 9 weeks, but not at 5, 6, and 10 weeks. However, varying crude protein levels showed no significant effect on carcass weight, giblet weight, and total edible parts. There was also no significant interaction observed between stocking density and crude protein level in relation to carcass weight and edible parts. Furthermore, no significant differences were found in giblet and carcass weights between the two groups (p>0.05). The results showed that feeding Sensi-1 Agrinak chickens with a lower crude protein level of up to 14% did not compromise their performance, meat quality, protein digestibility, or ammonia emissions, but affected carcass characteristics.
GPTuner: A Manual-Reading Database Tuning System via GPT-Guided Bayesian Optimization
Authors: Lao Jiale , Wang Yibo , Li Yufei , Wang Jianping , Zhang Yunjia , Cheng Zhiyuan , Chen Wanghu , Tang Mingjie , Wang Jianguo
Published: May 2024

Modern database management systems (DBMS) expose hundreds of configurable knobs to control system behaviours. Determining the appropriate values for these knobs to improve DBMS performance is a long-standing problem in the database community. As there is an increasing number of knobs to tune and each knob could be in continuous or categorical values, manual tuning becomes impractical. Recently, automatic tuning systems using machine learning methods have shown great potentials. However, existing approaches still incur significant tuning costs or only yield sub-optimal performance. This is because they either ignore the extensive domain knowledge available (e.g., DBMS manuals and forum discussions) and only rely on the runtime feedback of benchmark evaluations to guide the optimization, or they utilize the domain knowledge in a limited way. Hence, we propose GPTuner, a manual-reading database tuning system that leverages domain knowledge extensively and automatically to optimize search space and enhance the runtime feedback-based optimization process. Firstly, we develop a Large Language Model (LLM)-based pipeline to collect and refine heterogeneous knowledge, and propose a prompt ensemble algorithm to unify a structured view of the refined knowledge. Secondly, using the structured knowledge, we (1) design a workload-aware and training-free knob selection strategy, (2) develop a search space optimization technique considering the value range of each knob, and (3) propose a Coarse-to-Fine Bayesian Optimization Framework to explore the optimized space. Finally, we evaluate GPTuner under different benchmarks (TPC-C and TPC-H), metrics (throughput and latency) as well as DBMS (PostgreSQL and MySQL). Compared to the state-of-the-art approaches, GPTuner identifies better configurations in 16x less time on average. Moreover, GPTuner achieves up to 30% performance improvement (higher throughput or lower latency) over the
best-performing
alternative.
Cloud-Native Database Systems and Unikernels: Reimagining OS Abstractions for Modern Hardware
Authors: Leis Viktor , Dietrich Christian
Published: May 2024

This paper explores the intersection of operating systems and database systems, focusing on the potential of specialized kernels for cloud-native database systems. Although the idea of custom, DBMS-optimized OS kernels is old, it is largely unrealized due to the demands of hardware compatibility and the reluctance of users to install specialized operating systems. However, the cloud and the database-as-a-service model make custom OS kernels realistic for the first time. Among specialized OS kernel architectures, unikernels stand out for relying on a single address space, eliminating the need for costly process isolation that is provided by general-purpose operating systems. They offer benefits such as the elimination of system call overhead, direct access to hardware, and reduced complexity. Beyond these immediate advantages, unikernels offer a unique opportunity: the possibility to revisit dated POSIX APIs. By allowing direct interaction with modern hardware primitives, unikernels pave the way for the development of novel abstractions that are not confined to the limitations of older APIs, opening doors to a new era of co-designed, high-performance cloud-native data processing systems and OS kernels.
Normalized solutions of NLS equations with mixed nonlocal nonlinearities
Authors: Zhang Zhenyu , Sun Juntao
Published: May 2024

We study the existence and nonexistence of normalized solutions for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with mixed nonlocal nonlinearities:

−
Δ
u
=
λ
u
+
μ

(

I

α

∗

∣
u
∣

p

)

∣
u
∣

p
−
2

u
+

(

I

α

∗

∣
u
∣

q

)

∣
u
∣

q
−
2

u

in

R

N

,

∫

R

N

∣
u
∣

2

d
x
=
c
,

\left\{\begin{array}{ll}-\Delta u=\lambda u+\mu \left({I}_{\alpha }\ast {| u| }^{p}){| u| }^{p-2}u+\left({I}_{\alpha }\ast {| u| }^{q}){| u| }^{q-2}u& \hspace{0.1em}\text{in}\hspace{0.1em}\hspace{0.33em}{{\mathbb{R}}}^{N},\\ \mathop{\displaystyle \int }\limits_{{{\mathbb{R}}}^{N}}{| u| }^{2}{\rm{d}}x=c,& \end{array}\right.

where

N
≥
1
,

N
+
α

N

≤
p
<
q
≤

N
+
α
+
2

N

N\ge 1,\frac{N+\alpha }{N}\le p\lt q\le \frac{N+\alpha +2}{N}

, the parameter

μ
∈
R

\mu \in {\mathbb{R}}

and

λ

\lambda

is a Lagrange multiplier. Furthermore, we prove the relationship between minimizers and ground state solutions under the Nehari manifold, which seems to be the first result in the nonlocal context.
Leadership among African Independent Churches
Authors: Oduro Thomas
Published: May 2024

African Independent Churches are known to be the fourth segment of Christianity in Africa – after Roman Catholics and Orthodox Churches, and Western Protestant Churches. The early leaders had no books to read about leadership, no Bible Colleges and Seminaries where they learned about leading people. They did not have the opportunity to attend conferences and seminars on leadership. The means of getting information were scant. Despite all these challenges, they commanded thousands and even millions of people today and are influential. Some of their leaders were and are deified. This paper looks at the leadership qualities and dynamics of African Independent Churches to the extent that some of their leaders were and are treated as demigods. They have introduced a new style of leadership to African Christianity, which is gradually becoming the norm in most churches.
Cooling Down to Level Up: Does Interset Palm or Sole Cooling Enhance Resistance Training Performance?
Authors: Burke Ryan , McMahon Gerard , Schoenfeld Brad J.
Published: May 2024

An emerging body of research has explored the potential ergogenic effects of noninvasive interset recovery strategies involving the application of cold substances to the extremities distal to exercising muscles (e.g., palms of the hands or the soles of the feet). It was suggested that such strategies may acutely enhance resistance training (RT) performance by augmenting excitation and motor unit recruitment of the working muscles through enhanced stimulation of the central nervous system, resulting in greater force production and the ability to perform more repetitions to fatigue. Moreover, peripheral stimuli such as distal cooling may acutely reduce the sensation of distress during RT, allowing individuals to tolerate more exercise and achieve higher training volumes. Although there is some evidence that interset distal cooling confers an ergogenic benefit during RT, certain methodological considerations, a paucity of longitudinal research, and contrasting findings call into question its effectiveness. Thus, the purpose of this review is to assess the current evidence regarding the effects of interset palm and sole cooling on RT performance outcomes.
Nuno Perez Sandeu...un trobador de Compostela? Documentos históricos e argumentos intertextuais
Authors: Ron Xabier
Published: May 2024

Nuno Perez Sandeu é considerado pola crítica especializada un trobador portugués, membro probablemente dunha parentela procedente de Asturias, se ben non se atopou aínda no país luso un documento coa presenza do trobador. Neste traballo realizamos a lectura dunha serie de documentos históricos procedentes do Tombo C da Catedral de Santiago e unha reflexión sobre os procesos dialóxicos e intertextuais do cancioneiro de Sandeu, que posibilitarían consideralo veciño de Santiago de Compostela.
Predictable risk factors for pre-hypertension among adults using neuman systems model
Authors: Kabore Talato , Fongwa Marie N , Lazrd John
Published: May 2024

Purpose: Guided by Neuman Systems Model, the study was to ascertain the likelihood intrapersonal and extra-personal risk factors for pre-hypertensive event in adulthood. Design: A cross-sectional study included a convenience sample of 150 adults with pre-HTN in health district of Pissy. Methods: Data were collected by using the WHO STEPS, Spiritual Well-being Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and blood pressure measurement. Multiple Logistic Regressions and Structural Equation Modeling techniques were used to analyze data. Findings: Among the 150 participants, 41% had low and 59% had high pre-HTN. The analysis revealed income < $500 per month, elevated waist-to-hip ratio in women, obesity, and being widowed predicted pre-HTN SBP/DBP event. Physical inactivity in workplace and current smoke’s cigarette predicted pre-HTN SBP event. In the Spiritual/Religious Well-being Scale, failure in the belief that God is concerned about personal problems, OR=4.65 p<.01; not feeling most fulfilled when in close communion with God, OR=.33, p<.05; failure in relation with God contributes to personal sense of well-being, OR=6.34, p<.018 and OR=4.32, p<.006, predicted pre-HTN SBP/DBP events. In the Perceived Stress Scale, feeling nervous and stressed in the last month, OR=.43, p=.028 predicted pre-HTN SBP. The path analysis unveiled 10% of the variance in pre-HTN event was explained by the socio cultural factors; 4.3% by the psychological; 6.5% of the variance in pre-HTN SBP and 8.0% in pre-HTN DBP accounted for religious well-being factors, while 8.4% in pre-HTN SBP event was justified by existential well-being factors. Lastly, 22.7% of the variance in pre-HTN systolic/diastolic event accounted for the developmental factors. Conclusion: This study finding constitutes a basis for further research interventions tailoring prevention to reduce pre-hypertensive among adults in West Africa, Burkina Faso. Clinical relevance: A nursing model as a Neuman Systems Model provides a holistic assessment of likelihood risk factors for pre-hypertensive event among adults. The model can be used in community and clinical setting not only to assess risk factors and but also to guide quasi-experimental study for prevention as intervention to reduce modifiable diseases.
Male sexuality, medicalization and public health in Brazil
Authors: Rohden Fabiola
Published: May 2024

This article focuses on the articulation between male health and sexuality in Brazil. In recent decades there has been a marked medicalization of sexuality centered on the development of new technologies, diagnostic categories and intervention methods, including the creation of public policies in the Brazilian public health system. This process is best exemplified by a set of initiatives pursued under the banner of “sexual health as a portal to men’s health”. The core idea is that men, who would normally not look after their health, will be attracted to the health system via the treatment of erectile dysfunction. The public and political campaigns focusing on acceptance of the relative new diagnoses of erectile dysfunction and andropause (or androgen decline in the aging male) illustrate how, in the last two decades, a new focus on masculinity has taken shape via the pharmacologization of sexuality.
Coding and Payment in Pediatrics: The A, B, Cs of Being Paid for the Care You Give
Authors:   American Academy of Pediatrics
Published: May 2024

This article reviews key points from “Coding and Payment in Pediatrics: The A, B, Cs of Being Paid for the Care You Give,” an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) coding webinar presented by Shannon Fox-Levine, MD, FAAP, including the following:

How payment affects patient access Appropriate coding and billing practices Contract terms Avoiding and fighting inappropriate denials Looking beyond fee-for-service payment State and national resources for addressing payment issues
Damien B. Schlarb, Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America
Authors: Buch Neville
Published: May 2024

Damien B. Schlarb, Melville’s Wisdom: Religion, Skepticism, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. 252, US$86.00, ISBN 978-0-197-58556-6 (hbk).
A Psychological Approach to Zoroastrian Cosmogony
Authors: Mirjalili Farânak
Published: May 2024

Creation stories at times intertwine cosmogonic narratives of both creation and destruction, grounding the human psyche in its origins and providing cultural or faith-based meaning to the workings of the universe. The Zoroastrian creation story stands out with its unique dance between opposites, reflecting the stark dualities in Zoroaster’s teachings. Noteworthy is the place of ‘evil’ as Ahriman, the Zoroastrian evil twin of the truthful God Ohrmazd, is not only destructive but becomes the catalyst for the transfiguration and regeneration of earthly life. This article explores a new perspective on this cosmic drama by drawing on the insights from analytical psychology (psychoanalysis C. G. Jung) and its symbolic and introverted approach to ancient mythology. The work of Donald Kalsched, a contemporary Jungian author and clinician, offers a compelling psychological lens for interpreting these archetypal dichotomies that have captivated humanity for millennia through integrating recent studies on trauma and developmental psychology.
Urgensi Limitasi Masa Periode Anggota Legislatif di Indonesia
Authors: Abu Main Ahmad Zulal , Habiburrohman Muhammad
Published: May 2024

Indonesian lawmakers have not limited the periodicity of how many times a member may serve. It leads to a decline in the sensitivity of the members who have repeatedly acted to care more about the people. On the other hand, experienced legislature members are increasingly familiar with using budgets, further fueling the practices of abuses of power, corruption, collusion, and nepotism. This problem is interesting to examine, especially regarding the urgency limitation of legislative member terms in Indonesia. This study uses normative judicial research methods with conceptual, statute, and comparative approaches. The study results showed that the legislature deserved to have limited periods as a form of power limitation to prevent the practice of abuse of power and regeneration of political parties. It is confirmed by the data of abuse of power by several sitting legislatures and the course of limited periods imposed by other states.
Avaliação da Influência do Aporte Térmico na Microestrutura da Zona Afetada pelo Calor (ZAC) de Juntas Soldadas do Aço Inoxidável ENDUR 300
Authors: Quintão Bruno Martins , Correa Edmilson Otoni , Oliveira Leonardo Albergaria , Barbosa Reginaldo Pinto , Ferreira Elzeir Andrade , Winther Alisson Silva
Published: May 2024

Resumo Os aços inoxidáveis desfrutam de um cenário propicio para aplicações em variados campos da engenharia. A escolha adequada dos parâmetros de soldagem destes metais pode resultar numa maior produtividade através do aumento da vida útil dos equipamentos. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar a influência do aporte térmico na microestrutura presente na zona afetada pelo calor (ZAC) das juntas soldadas do aço, através de caracterização metalográfica e ensaios mecânicos. O material analisado são chapas de aço inoxidáveis, soldadas pelo processo GMAW, variando os aportes térmicos. Após essa etapa, as chapas foram cortadas, preparadas, realizadas análises metalográficas, ensaios mecânicos de tração e dobramento. A quantificação de fases presentes na zona afetada pelo calor, das três condições experimentadas, 4,2 kJ/cm, 6,7 kJ/cm 9,1 kJ/cm e metal base, foram realizadas nesse estudo, como também as propriedades mecânicas das juntas soldadas. Verificado que as taxas de resfriamento não foram suficientes para provocar mudanças microestruturais significativas no balanço das fases ferrita e martensita, encontradas na ZAC. Já às propriedades mecânicas prevaleceram estáveis nos ensaios de tração e dobramento, não havendo resultados que poderiam vir a impedir a aplicação do material por estar fora do limite de resistência exigido pelas normas de aplicação.
O direito à educação infantil do/no campo: um estudo sobre grupos de pesquisas no CNPq
Authors: Vieira Emilia Peixoto , Teles Isabela Fernandes
Published: May 2024

Resumo O artigo apresenta um mapeamento dos Grupos de Pesquisa que estudam a Educação Infantil do Campo e encontram-se cadastrados no CNPq. O interesse pela temática surgiu ao se constatar que a única pesquisa nacional sobre a Educação Infantil do Campo e a caracterização das práticas educativas com crianças de 0 a 6 anos de idade residentes em área rural no Brasil foi finalizada em 2012. Neste texto, emprega-se a metodologia de levantamento bibliográfico. Os resultados mostram que são poucos os grupos de pesquisa voltados para a Educação Infantil do Campo. Há a necessidade de estudos que priorizem as marcas, os espaços, as vivências de uma criança habitante do campo e a formação de professores para a Educação Infantil do/no Campo.
Política, (educação de) língua e cultura: questões interdisciplinares para a pesquisa e o ensino de língua portuguesa
Authors: Simões Pedro
Published: May 2024

Resumo: Neste artigo, abordamos a relação sujeito-língua no âmbito da educação linguística (Simões, 2006 ) e de políticas de ensino escolar de língua portuguesa no Brasil (Rajagopalan, 2013 ). Partindo de Bakhtin ( 1997 , 2010a , 2010b , 2015 ) e Volóchinov ( 2017 ), realizamos um diálogo teórico, sob o princípio de pesquisa interdisciplinar na Linguística Aplicada mestiça e ideológica (Moita Lopes, 2006 , 2013 ), com o objetivo de problematizar questões políticas e culturais em torno de língua e educação linguística (Rajagopalan, 2013 ; Simões, 2006 ; Bagno; Rangel, 2005 ; Guimarães, 2002 ). Tomamos para análise políticas de ensino de português, particularmente aquelas que se instituem no processo de escolarização do campo jornalístico: a Lei 5.692/1971, os PCN (Brasil, 1998 ) e a BNCC (Brasil, 2018 ).
Escrever para aprender: proposta de dispositivo pedagógico para o ensino fundamental – anos finais
Authors: Pinheiro Clemilton Lopes , David Karine Alves
Published: May 2024

Resumo: Este trabalho considera as dificuldades de aprendizagem no contexto específico do ensino fundamental – ano finais (6º ao 9º ano), sobretudo no ensino público, decorrentes da nova organização social e didática, da relação com professores especialistas e de novos deveres demandados próprios desse período, quando comparadas com os anos iniciais. Como uma forma de mediação dessas dificuldades, propomos o dispositivo Escrever para Aprender cujo propósito é explorar sistematicamente a função epistêmica da escritura. A ideia é a de que o dispositivo seja integrado como componente curricular à parte diversificada do mapa curricular.
Del campo, al campus: hábitos, roles y rutinas de exguerrilleros y exguerrilleras
Authors: Cifuentes Megudan Alexandra , Herrera Casamachin Dania Vanessa , Satizabal Reyes Melania , Ortíz Quiroga Diana Marcela
Published: May 2024

Resumen Introducción La terapia ocupacional colombiana ha trabajado fuertemente en investigaciones centradas en la caracterización ocupacional de población en condición de desplazamiento y víctima del conflicto armado y político. Sin embargo, son limitados los estudios acerca de la población excombatiente en el marco del post acuerdo. Objetivo Describir el proceso de habituación de exguerrilleros/as de las Fuerzas Alternativas Revolucionarias de Colombia Ejército del Pueblo (FARC-EP) que han ingresado a una Universidad del sur occidente colombiano. Método Investigación cualitativa, transversal y descriptiva entre agosto 2019 - diciembre 2020. Se hicieron entrevistas a profundidad a dos ex guerrilleros y una ex guerrillera, estudiantes activos de la Universidad. Se realizó un análisis de contenido temático. Resultados Los resultados permitieron identificar diferencias en los roles, hábitos y rutinas de los exguerrilleros durante su participación en la organización guerrillera, el proceso de reincorporación y en la Universidad. Conclusión Dentro de la permanencia en la organización guerrillera, los roles, hábitos y rutinas de los participantes de la investigación se encontraban supeditados al régimen militar y político de las FARC- EP. Se destaca una fuerte cohesión ideológica que construye identidades y fortalece lazos entre los guerrilleros. Mientras que, en el proceso de reincorporación a la vida civil, los exguerrilleros experimentan realidades y perspectivas diferentes a la vividas dentro de la organización, como las que se hallan en el marco de un partido político, la vida familiar, laboral, universitaria, entre otras; en las que pueden elegir aquello que les interesa ser y hacer.
Ehrlichia spp. infection worsens cardiac damage in dogs with canine visceral leishmaniasis
Authors: Zanfagnini Leticia Gomes , Reis Junior Janildo Ludolf , Rocha Vinícius Novaes , Souza Soraia Figueiredo , Hitara Karina Yukie , Marcondes Mary , Pacheco Acácio Duarte
Published: May 2024

Abstract In endemic areas for canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL), the occurrence of coinfection with other pathogens, such as Ehrlichia spp., has been associated with worsening of the clinical condition. The study aimed to evaluate the occurrence of histological changes in the myocardia of dogs naturally infected with Leishmania chagasi with or without coinfection with Ehrlichia spp.. We evaluated paraffin-embedded myocardial sections from 31 dogs, affected by either L. chagasi alone or coinfected with L. chagasi and Ehrlichia spp., to compare the extent and degree of cardiac damage. The blocks were divided into two groups. G1 (dogs infected only by L. chagasi) and G2 (dogs coinfected with L. chagasi and Ehrlichia spp.). The right atrium free wall, right ventricle free wall, left ventricle, and interventricular septum of all groups were evaluated. Cardiac alterations were observed in 41.93% (52/124) of the fragments evaluated and inflammatory infiltrate was the most common pattern found. The G2 group showed a higher incidence of myocarditis, with 61.53% (32/52), compared to the G1 group, in which 20 out of 72 cases (27.7%) exhibited histopathological changes (p <0.05). These findings confirmed that coinfection can potentiate cardiac damage in dogs.
The Effects of Group Sanctions on Participation and Toxicity: Quasi-experimental Evidence from the Fediverse
Authors: Colglazier Carl , TeBlunthuis Nathan , Shaw Aaron
Published: May 2024

Online communities often overlap and coexist, despite incongruent norms and approaches to content moderation. When communities diverge, decentralized and federated communities may pursue group-level sanctions, including defederation (disconnection) to block communication between members of specific communities. We investigate the effects of defederation in the context of the Fediverse, a set of decentralized, interconnected social networks with independent governance. Mastodon and Pleroma, the most popular software powering the Fediverse, allow administrators on one server to defederate from another. We use a difference-in-differences approach and matched controls to estimate the effects of defederation events on participation and message toxicity among affected members of the blocked and blocking servers. We find that defederation causes a drop in activity for accounts on the blocked servers, but not on the blocking servers. Also, we find no evidence of an effect of defederation on message toxicity.
Games and Beyond: Analyzing the Bullet Chats of Esports Livestreaming
Authors: Jiang Yukun , Shen Xinyue , Wen Rui , Sha Zeyang , Chu Junjie , Liu Yugeng , Backes Michael , Zhang Yang
Published: May 2024

Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games and has attracted more than 530 million audiences worldwide. To watch esports, people utilize online livestreaming platforms. Recently, a novel interaction method, namely "bullet chats," has been introduced on these platforms. Different from conventional comments, bullet chats are scrolling comments posted by audiences that are synchronized to the livestreaming timeline, enabling audiences to share and communicate their immediate perspectives. The real-time nature of bullet chats, therefore, brings a new perspective to esports analysis. In this paper, we conduct the first empirical study on the bullet chats for esports, focusing on one of the most popular video games, i.e., League of Legends (LoL). Specifically, we collect 21 million bullet chats of LoL from Jan. 2023 to Mar. 2023 across two mainstream platforms (Bilibili and Huya). By performing quantitative analysis, we reveal how the quantity and toxicity of bullet chats distribute (and change) w.r.t. three aspects, i.e., the season, the team, and the match. Our findings show that teams with higher rankings tend to attract a greater quantity of bullet chats, and these chats are often characterized by a higher degree of toxicity. We then utilize topic modeling to identify topics among bullet chats. Interestingly, we find that a considerable portion of topics (14.14% on Bilibili and 22.94% on Huya) discuss themes beyond the game, including genders, entertainment stars, non-esports athletes, and so on. Besides, by further modeling topics on toxic bullet chats, we find hateful speech targeting different social groups, ranging from professions, regions, etc. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first measurement of bullet chats on esports livestreaming. We believe our study can shed light on esports research from the perspective of bullet chats.
Examining Similar and Ideologically Correlated Imagery in Online Political Communication
Authors: Joshi Amogh , Buntain Cody
Published: May 2024

This paper investigates visual media shared by US national politicians on Twitter, how a politician's variety of image types shared reflects their political position, and identifies a hazard in using standard methods for image characterization in this context.
While past work has yielded valuable results on politicians' use of imagery in social media, that work has focused primarily on photographic media, which may be insufficient given the variety of visual media shared in such spaces (e.g., infographics, illustrations, or memes).
Leveraging multiple popular, pretrained, deep-learning models to characterize politicians' visuals, this work uses clustering to identify eight types of visual media shared on Twitter, several of which are not photographic in nature.
Results show individual politicians share a variety of these types, and the distributions of their imagery across these clusters is correlated with their overall ideological position -- e.g., liberal politicians appear to share a larger proportion of infographic-style images, and conservative politicians appear to share more patriotic imagery.
Manual assessment, however, reveals that these image-characterization models often group visually similar images with different semantic meaning into the same clusters, which has implications for how researchers interpret clusters in this space and cluster-based correlations with political ideology.
In particular, collapsing semantic meaning in these pretrained models may drive null findings on certain clusters of images rather than politicians across the ideological spectrum sharing common types of imagery.
We end this paper with a set of researcher recommendations to prevent such issues.
Theme-Driven Keyphrase Extraction to Analyze Social Media Discourse
Authors: Romano William , Sharif Omar , Basak Madhusudan , Gatto Joseph , Preum Sarah Masud
Published: May 2024

Social media platforms are vital resources for sharing self-reported health experiences, offering rich data on various health topics. Despite advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) enabling large-scale social media data analysis, a gap remains in applying keyphrase extraction to health-related content. Keyphrase extraction is used to identify salient concepts in social media discourse without being constrained by predefined entity classes. This paper introduces a theme-driven keyphrase extraction framework tailored for social media, a pioneering approach designed to capture clinically relevant keyphrases from user-generated health texts. Themes are defined as broad categories determined by the objectives of the extraction task. We formulate this novel task of theme-driven keyphrase extraction and demonstrate its potential for efficiently mining social media text for the use case of treatment for opioid use disorder. This paper leverages qualitative and quantitative analysis to demonstrate the feasibility of extracting actionable insights from social media data and efficiently extracting keyphrases using minimally supervised NLP models. Our contributions include the development of a novel data collection and curation framework for theme-driven keyphrase extraction and the creation of SuboxoPhrase, the first dataset of its kind comprising human-annotated keyphrases from a Reddit community. We also identify the scope of minimally supervised NLP models to extract keyphrases from social media data efficiently. Lastly, we found that a large language model (ChatGPT) outperforms unsupervised keyphrase extraction models, showcasing its efficacy in this task.
HyperGraphDis: Leveraging Hypergraphs for Contextual and Social-Based Disinformation Detection
Authors: Salamanos Nikos , Leonidou Pantelitsa , Laoutaris Nikolaos , Sirivianos Michael , Aspri Maria , Paraschiv Marius
Published: May 2024

In light of the growing impact of disinformation on social, economic, and political landscapes, accurate and efficient identification methods are increasingly critical. This paper introduces HyperGraphDis, a novel approach for detecting disinformation on Twitter that employs a hypergraph-based representation to capture (i) the intricate social structures arising from retweet cascades, (ii) relational features among users, and (iii) semantic and topical nuances. Evaluated on four Twitter datasets -- focusing on the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic -- HyperGraphDis outperforms existing methods in both accuracy and computational efficiency, underscoring its effectiveness and scalability for tackling the challenges posed by disinformation dissemination. HyperGraphDis displays exceptional performance on a COVID-19-related dataset, achieving an impressive F1 score (weighted) of approximately 89.5%. This result represents a notable improvement of around 4% compared to the other state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, significant enhancements in computation time are observed for both model training and inference. In terms of model training, completion times are accelerated by a factor ranging from 2.3 to 7.6 compared to the second-best method across the four datasets. Similarly, during inference, computation times are 1.3 to 6.8 times faster than the state-of-the-art.
Hate Cannot Drive Out Hate: Forecasting Conversation Incivility following Replies to Hate Speech
Authors: Yu Xinchen , Blanco Eduardo , Hong Lingzi
Published: May 2024

User-generated counter hate speech is a promising means to combat hate speech, but questions about whether it can stop incivility in follow-up conversations linger. We argue that effective counter hate speech stops incivility from emerging in follow-up conversations—counter hate that elicits more incivility is counterproductive. This study introduces the task of predicting the incivility of conversations following replies to hate speech. We first propose a metric to measure conversation incivility based on the number of civil and uncivil comments as well as the unique authors involved in the discourse. Our metric approximates human judgments more accurately than previous metrics. We then use the metric to evaluate the outcomes of replies to hate speech. A linguistic analysis uncovers the differences in the language of replies that elicit follow-up conversations with high and low incivility. Experimental results show that forecasting incivility is challenging. We close with a qualitative analysis shedding light into the most common errors made by the best model.
Emoji Promotes Developer Participation and Issue Resolution on GitHub
Authors: Zhou Yuhang , Lu Xuan , Gao Ge , Mei Qiaozhu , Ai Wei
Published: May 2024

Although remote working is increasingly adopted during the pandemic, many are concerned by the low-efficiency in the remote working. Missing in text-based communication are non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and body language, which hinders the effective communication and negatively impacts the work outcomes. Prevalent on social media platforms, emojis, as alternative non-verbal cues, are gaining popularity in the virtual workspaces well. In this paper, we study how emoji usage influences developer participation and issue resolution in virtual workspaces. To this end, we collect GitHub issues for a one-year period and apply causal inference techniques to measure the causal effect of emojis on the outcome of issues, controlling for confounders such as issue content, repository, and author information. We find that emojis can significantly reduce the resolution time of issues and attract more user participation. We also compare the heterogeneous effect on different types of issues. These ﬁndings deepen our understanding of the developer communities, and they provide design implications on how to facilitate interactions and broaden developer participation.
SocialDrought: A Social and News Media Driven Dataset and Analytical Platform towards Understanding Societal Impact of Drought
Authors: Shang Lanyu , Chen Bozhang , Vora Anav , Zhang Yang , Cai Ximing , Wang Dong
Published: May 2024

Drought poses significant challenges to sustainability across various sectors in our society, leading to substantial consequences on agriculture, environments, ecosystems, public health, and socioeconomic stability. While prior work has studied the impacts of drought using professionally measured data sources, the societal perspectives of drought impacts remain largely under-explored. In this work, we present SocialDrought, a novel and comprehensive dataset to facilitate research on the societal impacts of drought. In particular, SocialDrought consists of three major components: 1) over 1.5 million social media posts, 2) over 1,400 news articles collected and verified by domain experts, and 3) over 31,000 meteorological records from the U.S. Drought Monitor about drought severity. In addition, we also introduce an online analytical platform that enables interactive and real-time data exploration to gain timely insights into the societal impacts of drought. Our interdisciplinary dataset integrates both conventional meteorological data and unconventional social and news media data to provide a holistic understanding of drought impacts. SocialDrought opens new opportunities to study the societal impacts of drought through the lens of social and news media.
Effect of surfactant PEG on the property control of Bi2O3 and its photocatalytic activity
Authors: Zhu Sipin , Zhang Xiuwen , Wang Zhaopeng , Gao Yan , Luo Xianping , Wang Chunying
Published: May 2024

A detailed investigation into the effect of the poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) addition mass on the bismuth (III) oxide (Bi2O3) photocatalyst is limited but necessary. Bismuth (III) oxide/PEG photocatalysts with different morphologies were prepared with different PEG mass via the solvothermal method and characterized for phase, morphology, optical absorption properties, elemental composition and specific surface area. The results indicated that all bismuth (III) oxide photocatalysts with different additions (Bi2O3/PEG-m x ) were pure β-bismuth (III) oxide phases, comprising larger platelike and smaller particle-like particles. Enhanced photocatalytic activity was attributed to increased larger specific surface area with PEG below 10 g. With 12 g of PEG, the formation of surface pores on plate-like bismuth (III) oxide impoved light penetration and utilization. Bi2O3/PEGm12 exhibited optimal photocatalytic activity, achieving over 90% bisphenol A(BPA) degradation after 180 min at 0.6 g·L−1 under visible light. Bismuth (III) oxide /PEG-ty prepared below 140°C showed poor activity, while above 160°C, high activity was observed. Bismuth (III) oxide/PEG effectively mineralize over 80% of bisphenol A into inorganic molecules and water under the co-oxidation of superoxide radicals (·O2 −) and holes (h+). This is the first detailed research on the regulation and modification of β-bismuth (III) oxide by PEG, which may provide new insights into the photocatalytic technology.
Centrifuge modelling of supported excavations using an improved in-flight excavation tool
Authors: Ma Xianfeng , Cao Mingyang , Zhang Liang , Wang Lei
Published: May 2024

A modified tool for simulating the entire process of supported excavation in centrifuge modelling was developed based on a Cambridge type of excavating system. Utilising the modified tool, a series of centrifuge tests of braced excavations in sand and clay soils were conducted to investigate the impacts of staged excavation on the characteristics of retaining wall displacement and ground settlement. The experimental results show that before the struts were installed, the movement of the retaining wall follows a cantilever movement pattern, in which the wall rotates about a fixed point near the toe and the maximum wall deflection occurs at the wall crest. For the strut installation process of a multi-strutted excavation, the wall deformation pattern changes to a concave profile. The maximum wall displacement in a multi-strutted excavation in sand is located slightly above the bottom of the excavation; while it is slightly below the bottom of the excavation in clay. The differences between the deformation pattern for multi-strutted excavations in sand and clay are clarified using the profiles of the ground settlement against distance from the wall. The results from this study can provide useful references for predictions of excavation-induced deformations and understanding the associated deformation mechanisms.
Effect of basicity on physical properties of ladle slags of CaO ‒ SiO2 ‒ Ce2O3 ‒ Al2O3 ‒ MgO system
Authors: Upolovnikova A. G. , Shartdinov R. R. , Smetannikov A. N.
Published: May 2024

The authors studied the physical properties of the slags of CaO ‒ SiO2 ‒ Al2O3 ‒ MgO system containing cerium oxide. The developed slags are based on a calcium silicate system, the basicity (CaO)/(SiO2) of which has a great influence on the slag properties. Generalization of the performed studies results allowed obtaining new data on the effect of basicity in cerium-containing slags of the studied oxide system on viscosity, temperature of crystallization onset and structure. Experimental studies of the physical properties of cerium-containing slags showed that with an increase in basicity of 2.0 ‒ 5.0, an increase in temperature of crystallization onset and viscosity is observed associated with structure of the formed slags. An increase in basicity from 2.0 to 5.0 contributes to an increase in viscosity from 0.20 to 0.41 Pa·s at 1500 °C and an increase in the crystallization temperature from 1397 to 1497 °C. The structural analysis showed that the structure of the cerium-containing slag is influenced by both the Si4+ ion and the Al3+ ion, which are grid-forming agents. Silicon ions in this system are present in the form of [SiO4 ]-tetrahedra, whereas aluminum ions are present in form of [AlO4]-tetrahedra and [AlO6]-octahedra. With an increase in basicity 2.0 to 2.5, the silicon structure becomes more complicated, and then at a basicity of 3.5 ‒ 5.0 it becomes simpler, whereas the aluminate one becomes more complicated due to an increase in the content of CaO, which participates in charge compensation of polymerized structural units [AlO4 ]-tetrahedra with the formation of a more stable tetrahedral structure, and as a result of increased slag viscosity. Slags of the studied oxide system containing 15 % Ce2O3 are characterized by a sufficiently high liquid mobility in the considered basicity range.
Increasing the corrosion properties of duplex steel with REM modification
Authors: Karasev V. S. , Kodzhaspirov G. E. , Fedorov A. S. , Al’khimenko A. A. , Zhitenev A. I.
Published: May 2024

Duplex stainless steels are a modern class of materials with a unique combination of high corrosion and mechanical properties. Due to this, they can be widely used in machine parts and aggregates in fields with aggressive oil and gas production conditions. One of the disadvantages of these materials is their tendency to local corrosion damage on non-metallic inclusions, other things being equal, formed during smelting and casting. To control the purity of steel in conditions of open induction smelting, it is effective to use modification with rare earth metals (REM). Therefore, the purpose of this work was to determine the optimal content of REM in duplex steel to increase corrosion properties. Thermodynamic modeling of the formation of nonmetallic inclusions in duplex corrosion-resistant steel S32750 was carried out and the results of calculations were compared with the experimental data. It is shown that there is an optimal concentration of REM at which contamination with inclusions is minimal due to favorable conditions for their removal, and with a further increase in consumption it increases due to coagulation of a large number of refractory oxides. Electrochemical tests were performed and parameters such as corrosion potential, pitting formation potential and the basis of pitting resistance of experimental steels were determined. Therefore, the corrosion properties of the investigated duplex steel are significantly improved when treated with REM. The electro­chemical potentials of different types of inclusions are evaluated on a qualitative level. Based on the obtained results on corrosion resistance and contamination of the studied castings, the optimal amount of REM introduced for modifying inclusions is 0.05 % (0.65Ce + 0.35La).
Rational application of high quality manganese concentrate
Authors: Rybenko I. A. , Rozhikhina I. D. , Nokhrina O. I. , Golodova M. A.
Published: May 2024

The article presents the results of theoretical and experimental studies of manganese reduction processes from oxides of high-quality manganese concentrate obtained by hydrometallurgical enrichment of ferromanganese ores, as well as, from marokite (product of thermal synthesis of concentrate and dolomite) with carbon and silicon. The method of thermodynamic modeling with TERRA software complex determined the optimal temperatures and costs of reducing agents that ensure the complete reduction of manganese. It was found that any of the above-mentioned reducing agents, or a combination thereof in certain ratios, can be utilized as a reducing agent when using oxide manganese-containing materials for steel treatment. The results of experimental studies made it possible to develop technology for the production of marokite-manganite concentrate and monophase synthetic material (CaMnO3 ). They can be obtained using the technology developed by the authors, which includes mechanical and thermal treatment of a mixture of high-quality manganese concentrate and calcined dolomite or lime. Marokite-manganite concentrate is useful for alloying steel with manganese when it is smelted in an electric furnace or in a ladle furnace unit, and a monophasic synthetic material is efficient for the production of metal manganese. Based on the results of thermodynamic calculations and experimental studies, technological parameters for processing steel with marokite-manganite concentrate in an electric furnace and a ladle furnace unit are proposed. Monophasic synthetic material CaMnO3 should be used as the charge component for the production of metal manganese by the out-of-furnace aluminum thermal treatment, which will increase the terminality of the process, as well as the extraction of manganese at the level of 90 %. The results of experimental studies were obtained using modern research methods with laboratory and analytical equipment, as well as statistical processing methods.