bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Neutrino masses and self-interacting dark matter with mass mixing Z − Z′ gauge portal
Authors: de la Vega Leon M. G. , Peinado Eduardo , Wudka José
Published: July 2023

Abstract

New light gauge bosons can affect several low-energy experiments, such as atomic parity violation or colliders. Here, we explore the possibility that a dark sector is charged under a new U(1) gauge symmetry, and the portal to the Standard Model is through a Z − Z′ mass mixing. In our approach, breaking the new gauge symmetry is crucial to generate neutrino masses. We investigate the parameter space to reproduce neutrino masses, the correct dark matter relic abundance, and to produce the observed core-like DM distribution in galactic centers.
Field theories on ρ-deformed Minkowski space-time
Authors: Hersent Kilian , Wallet Jean-Christophe
Published: July 2023

Abstract

We study one-loop perturbative properties of scalar field theories on the ρ-Minkowski space. The corresponding star-product, together with the involution are characterized from a combination of Weyl quantization and defining properties of the convolution algebra of the Euclidean group linked to the coordinate algebra of the ρ-Minkowski space. The natural integration measure linked to the Haar measure of the Euclidean group defines a trace for the star-product. One-loop properties of the 2-point and 4-point functions for families of complex-valued scalar field theories on ρ-Minkowski space are examined. For scalar theories with orientable interaction, the 2-point function is found to receive UV quadratically diverging one-loop corrections in 4 dimensions while no IR singularities generating UV/IR mixing appears. These however occur in the one-loop corrections to the 4-point function. As well, one-loop 2-point functions for theories with non-orientable interaction involve such IR singularities. These results are discussed.
Adherence to Antiretrovirals and HIV Viral Suppression Under COVID-19 Pandemic Interruption – Findings from a Randomized Clinical Trial Using Ingestible Sensors to Monitor Adherence
Authors: Wang Yan , Daar Eric S. , Huang Yilan , Xiong Di , Shen Jie , Zhou Linyu , Siqueiros Lisa , Guerrero Mario , Rosen Marc I. , Liu Honghu
Published: July 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on vulnerable populations, including people living with HIV. California implemented a coronavirus lockdown (stay-at-home order) in March 2020, which ended in January 2021. We evaluated the pandemic’s impact on both clinical outcomes of HIV RNA viral load (VL) and retention rate in a randomized clinical trial conducted from May 2018 to October 2020. The intervention group took co-encapsulated antiretrovirals (ARVs) with ingestible sensor (IS) pills from baseline through week 16. The IS system has the capacity to monitor adherence in real-time using a sensor patch, a mobile device, and supporting software. Both the IS and usual care (UC) groups were followed monthly for 28 weeks. Longitudinal mixed-effects models with random intercept and slope (RIAS) were used to fit log VL and self-reported adherence. The sample size of the study was 112 (54 in IS). Overall, the retention rate at week 28 was 86%, with 90% before the lockdown and 83% after the lockdown. The lockdown strengthened the associations between adherence and VL. Before the lockdown, a 10% increase in adherence was associated with a 0.2 unit decrease in log VL (β = -1.88, p = 0.004), while during the lockdown, the association was a 0.41-unit decrease (β = -2.27, p = 0.03). The pandemic did not have a significant impact on our adherence-focused intervention. Our findings regarding the intervention effect remain valid.

Trial Registration Number

NCT02797262. Date registration: September 2015.
N-list-enhanced heuristic for distributed three-stage assembly permutation flow shop scheduling
Authors: Ying Kuo-Ching , Pourhejazy Pourya , Fu Po-Jui
Published: July 2023

System-wide optimization of distributed manufacturing operations enables process improvement beyond the standalone and individual optimality norms. This study addresses the production planning of a distributed manufacturing system consisting of three stages: production of parts (subcomponents), assembly of components in Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) factories, and final assembly of products at the product manufacturer’s factory. Distributed Three Stage Assembly Permutation Flowshop Scheduling Problems (DTrSAPFSP) models this operational situation; it is the most recent development in the literature of distributed scheduling problems, which has seen very limited development for possible industrial applications. This research introduces a highly efficient constructive heuristic to contribute to the literature on DTrSAPFSP. Numerical experiments considering a comprehensive set of operational parameters are undertaken to evaluate the performance of the benchmark algorithms. It is shown that the N-list-enhanced Constructive Heuristic algorithm performs significantly better than the current best-performing algorithm and three new metaheuristics in terms of both solution quality and computational time. It can, therefore, be considered a competitive benchmark for future studies on distributed production scheduling and computing.
Supervised ranking approach to identify infLuential websites in the darknet
Authors: Al Nabki MHD Wesam , Fidalgo Eduardo , Alegre Enrique , Chaves Deisy
Published: July 2023

The anonymity and high security of the Tor network allow it to host a significant amount of criminal activities. Some Tor domains attract more traffic than others, as they offer better products or services to their customers. Detecting the most influential domains in Tor can help detect serious criminal activities. Therefore, in this paper, we present a novel supervised ranking framework for detecting the most influential domains. Our approach represents each domain with 40 features extracted from five sources: text, named entities, HTML markup, network topology, and visual content to train the learning-to-rank (LtR) scheme to sort the domains based on user-defined criteria. We experimented on a subset of 290 manually ranked drug-related websites from Tor and obtained the following results. First, among the explored LtR schemes, the listwise approach outperforms the benchmarked methods with an NDCG of 0.93 for the top-10 ranked domains. Second, we quantitatively proved that our framework surpasses the link-based ranking techniques. Third, we observed that using the user-visible text feature can obtain comparable performance to all the features with a decrease of 0.02 at NDCG@5. The proposed framework might support law enforcement agencies in detecting the most influential domains related to possible suspicious activities.
A new paradigm: proactive biological control of invasive insect pests
Authors: Hoddle Mark S.
Published: July 2023

Invasive insect pests are a significant and accelerating threat to agricultural productivity, they degrade wilderness areas, and reduce quality of life in urban zones. Introduction biological control, the introduction, release, and establishment of host-specific efficacious natural enemies, is an effective management tool for permanently suppressing invasive pest populations over vast areas, often to levels that may no longer cause economic or environmental damage. However, introduction biological control programs are reactive: they are only initiated after an invasive pest has established, spread, and is causing damage that requires mitigation. Host specificity and host range testing of natural enemies for use in an introduction biological control program against an invasive pest can take years to complete. During this time, the target pest population continues to increase, invades new areas, and inflicts damage. Proactive biological control research programs identify prior to their establishment pest species that have high invasion potential and are likely to cause economic or environmental damage once established. Natural enemies are selected, screened, and if sufficiently host-specific, approved for release in advance of the anticipated establishment of the target pest. Following detection of the target pest and determination that incipient populations cannot be eradicated, natural enemies already approved for release are liberated into infested areas. This proactive approach to introduction biological control could significantly reduce project development time post-invasion, thereby lessening opportunities for pest populations to build, spread, and cause damage.
“Cooling credits” are not a viable climate solution
Authors: Diamond Michael S. , Wanser Kelly , Boucher Olivier
Published: July 2023

As the world struggles to limit warming to 1.5 or 2 °C below pre-industrial temperatures, research into solar climate interventions that could temporarily offset some amount of greenhouse gas-driven global warming by reflecting more sunlight back out to space has gained prominence. These solar climate intervention techniques would aim to cool the Earth by injecting aerosols (tiny liquid or solid particles suspended in the atmosphere) into the upper atmosphere or into low-altitude marine clouds. In a new development, “cooling credits” are now being marketed that claim to offset a certain amount of greenhouse gas warming with aerosol-based cooling. The science of solar climate intervention is currently too uncertain and the quantification of effects insufficient for any such claims to be credible in the near term. More fundamentally, however, the environmental impacts of greenhouse gases and aerosols are too different for such credits to be an appropriate instrument for reducing climate risk even if scientific uncertainties were narrowed and robust monitoring systems put in place. While some form of commercial mechanism for solar climate intervention implementation, in the event it is used, is likely, “cooling credits” are unlikely to be a viable climate solution, either now or in the future.
Off-the-Cuff Law-Making: Policing Pandemic Dispossession in Spain
Authors: Jiménez-Franco Daniel , Aguerri Jesús C. , Forero-Cuéllar Alejandro
Published: July 2023

This article presents a discussion concerning the role of police rationale(s) in Spain within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, where exceptionalist strategies aimed at curtailing the spread of the virus came to dramatically strengthen existing social divisions. In line with some authors who have already approached this phenomenon from different disciplines, our premise is that most serious emergencies boosted by Covid-19 were not a mere matter of public health, but rather a particularly harmful expression of accumulation by dispossession. Thus, rather than a flaw in the system produced by an exceptional friction between public security and public health, securitarian performances deployed by neoliberal states can be read as symbiotic strategies, from both law and order and business as usual approaches, to manage the social “externalities” of capitalist predatory strategies. As we will argue, phenomena such as the reinforcement of the policing consensus, police production of law, or the authoritarian turn favored by the Covid-19 health crisis must all be analyzed in this context.
Measuring cyber wisdom: preliminary validation of a new four-component measure
Authors: Harrison Tom , Polizzi Gianfranco , McLoughlin Shane , Moller Francisco
Published: July 2023

Cyber-wisdom is the ability to know and do the right thing at the right time, when using digital technologies, and is a concept that is gaining attention from educators. Whilst the theory and practice of cyber-wisdom education is established, to date there has been no attempt to investigate how the virtue of cyber-wisdom might be measured. This is a lacuna as it limits future research in the area, including, in particular, proximal evaluations of cyber-wisdom interventions. This article introduces a new four-component measure of cyber-wisdom, which is relevant to how the virtue may be cultivated in practice via formal education and the teaching of what is generally referred to as digital citizenship education. The measure was piloted with 1,331 13–16 year-olds. The findings provide initial evidence that cyber-wisdom literacy, reasoning, reflection, and motivation can be measured. This study provides preliminary validation of cyber-wisdom sub-measures that might be used in evaluations of educational interventions that seek to help children and adolescents live with wisdom in the digital age.
Union Status and Disability Pension
Authors: Christiansen Solveig Glestad , Kravdal Øystein
Published: July 2023

A lot is known about the association between marital status and mortality, and some of these studies have included data on cohabitation. Studies on the association with health problems, rather than mortality, are often based on self-reported health outcomes, and results from these studies are mixed. As cohabitation is now widespread, more studies that include data on cohabitation are needed. We use Norwegian register data that include detailed information about union status and all cases of disability pensioning from 2005 to 2016. We employ Cox regression analysis and a within-family design in order to control for hard to measure childhood characteristics. Compared to the married, the cohabiting have a somewhat higher risk of receiving disability pension due to mental disorders, and for men also due to physical disorders. Receipt of disability pension is most common among the never married, especially for men. The association between union status and disability pensioning is stronger for mental than for physical disorders.
Layering Segregation in Life and Death: The Social and Environmental Character of the Bois Marchand Cemetery, Mauritius
Authors: Čaval Saša
Published: July 2023

The Bois Marchand Cemetery in Mauritius was established in 1867 in response to the massive death toll exerted by a disastrous malaria epidemic that swept the island between 1866 and 1868. As all the aspects of Mauritian society are represented in the cemetery’s necrogeography, the still-active burial ground offers an ideal setting to examine life and death during the Indenture Period of the island’s history. This article examines the development, organization, environmental factors, and ecological aspects of this vast burial ground in view of the development of public health care and management.
Valuing the Contributions of Family Caregivers to the Care Economy
Authors: Fast Janet , Duncan Karen A. , Keating Norah C. , Kim Choong
Published: July 2023

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the monetary value of Canadians’ family care work, to highlight inequalities within the family care sector and place this work within the care economy. Using Statistics Canada’s 2018 General Social Survey, we estimated the replacement cost of the 5.7 billion hours of respondents’ care work at between $97.1 billion and $112.7 billion. We used descriptive, backward stepwise regression and dominance analyses to examine the distribution of care responsibilities among caregivers. Caregivers comprised 22.1% of the sample (6.8 million Canadians). Living arrangement explained most (81-83%) of the variance in the value of unpaid care work, followed by generation (14-15%), income (2%) and gender (1-2%). These findings provide powerful evidence of the economic value of family care work and of the inequalities among family caregivers in the magnitude of their contributions. Monetizing the value of family care makes it more visible, locates it in the context of the broader care economy and establishes its relationship to the much more visible and valued realm of paid care work. This contextualization also responds to global action plans and resolutions urging governments to create systems of long-term and continuing care for people with chronic conditions and disabilities rather than imposing sole responsibility on unpaid caregivers.
SFRP1 Expression is Inversely Associated With Metastasis Formation in Canine Mammary Tumours
Authors: Seitz Judith , Bilsland Alan , Puget Chloé , Baasner Ian , Klopfleisch Robert , Stein Torsten
Published: July 2023

Background

Canine mammary tumours (CMTs) are the most frequent tumours in intact female dogs and show strong similarities with human breast cancer. In contrast to the human disease there are no standardised diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers available to guide treatment. We recently identified a prognostic 18-gene RNA signature that could stratify human breast cancer patients into groups with significantly different risk of distant metastasis formation. Here, we assessed whether expression patterns of these RNAs were also associated with canine tumour progression.

Method

A sequential forward feature selection process was performed on a previously published microarray dataset of 27 CMTs with and without lymph node (LN) metastases to identify RNAs with significantly differential expression to identify prognostic genes within the 18-gene signature. Using an independent set of 33 newly identified archival CMTs, we compared expression of the identified prognostic subset on RNA and protein basis using RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry on FFPE-tissue sections.

Results

While the 18-gene signature as a whole did not have any prognostic power, a subset of three RNAs: Col13a1, Spock2, and Sfrp1, together completely separated CMTs with and without LN metastasis in the microarray set. However, in the new independent set assessed by RT-qPCR, only the Wnt-antagonist Sfrp1 showed significantly increased mRNA abundance in CMTs without LN metastases on its own (p = 0.013) in logistic regression analysis. This correlated with stronger SFRP1 protein staining intensity of the myoepithelium and/or stroma (p < 0.001). SFRP1 staining, as well as β-catenin membrane staining, was significantly associated with negative LN status (p = 0.010 and 0.014 respectively). However, SFRP1 did not correlate with β-catenin membrane staining (p = 0.14).

Conclusion

The study identified SFRP1 as a potential biomarker for metastasis formation in CMTs, but lack of SFRP1 was not associated with reduced membrane-localisation of β-catenin in CMTs.
The role of endocrine disruptors in female infertility
Authors: Silva Ana Beatriz P. , Carreiró Filipa , Ramos Fernando , Sanches-Silva Ana
Published: July 2023

Introduction

 According to the World Health Organization, infertility is a public health problem that affects around 48 million couples and 186 million individuals worldwide. Endocrine disruptors are one of the causes that raise more concern, given that it is a problem that has evolved with the progress of society. Many chemicals are used by food industry, entering food chain, and directly affecting human health. Endocrine disruptors have the capacity of interfering with the normal hormonal action, metabolism, and biosynthesis, which can lead to a variation of the normal hormonal homeostasis. Some of these endocrine disruptors are highly associated with diseases that are positively correlated with female infertility, such as polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis, irregular menstrual cycle and also disturbances on processes as steroidogenesis and development of the ovarian follicles.

Results

The present literature review covers various aspects of the possible relationship between endocrine disruptors and female infertility. Bisphenol A and its metabolites, phthalates, dioxins, organochlorine, and organophosphate compounds are groups of chemicals considered to have the capacity to disrupt endocrine activity and herein addressed. The results reported in in vivo studies and in clinical trials addressing endocrine disruptors and female infertility were discussed as well as their possible mechanism of action.

Conclusions

Large, double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trials are needed to better understand the mechanisms of action of endocrine disruptors in female infertility, as well as the doses and frequency of exposure responsible for it.
A review on visual privacy preservation techniques for active and assisted living
Authors: Ravi Siddharth , Climent-Pérez Pau , Florez-Revuelta Francisco
Published: July 2023

This paper reviews the state of the art in visual privacy protection techniques, with particular attention paid to techniques applicable to the field of Active and Assisted Living (AAL). A novel taxonomy with which state-of-the-art visual privacy protection methods can be classified is introduced. Perceptual obfuscation methods, a category in this taxonomy, is highlighted. These are a category of visual privacy preservation techniques, particularly relevant when considering scenarios that come under video-based AAL monitoring. Obfuscation against machine learning models is also explored. A high-level classification scheme of privacy by design, as defined by experts in privacy and data protection law, is connected to the proposed taxonomy of visual privacy preservation techniques. Finally, we note open questions that exist in the field and introduce the reader to some exciting avenues for future research in the area of visual privacy.
EmoMatchSpanishDB: study of speech emotion recognition machine learning models in a new Spanish elicited database
Authors: Garcia-Cuesta Esteban , Salvador Antonio Barba , Pãez Diego Gachet
Published: July 2023

In this paper we present a new speech emotion dataset on Spanish. The database is created using an elicited approach and is composed by fifty non-actors expressing the Ekman’s six basic emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise, plus neutral tone. This article describes how this database has been created from the recording step to the performed crowdsourcing perception test step. The crowdsourcing has facilitated to statistically validate the emotion of each collected audio sample and also to filter noisy data samples. Hence we obtained two datasets EmoSpanishDB and EmoMatchSpanishDB. The first includes those recorded audios that had consensus during the crowdsourcing process. The second selects from EmoSpanishDB only those audios whose emotion also matches with the originally elicited. Last, we present a baseline comparative study between different state of the art machine learning techniques in terms of accuracy, precision, and recall for both datasets. The results obtained for EmoMatchSpanishDB improves the ones obtained for EmoSpanishDB and thereof, we recommend to follow the methodology that was used for the creation of emotional databases.
Nowcasting from space: tropical cyclones’ impacts on Fiji’s agriculture
Authors: Noy Ilan , Blanc Elodie , Pundit Madhavi , Uher Tomas
Published: July 2023

Ground-based disaster damage assessments typically take the form of a team of experts being sent to the affected areas to conduct a survey. This approach is time-consuming, difficult, and costly. An alternative to this is an assessment based on satellite data, which can provide faster, cheaper, and possibly accurate insights into disaster’s specific impacts. An even timelier option of disaster ‘nowcasting’ is supposed to inform on impacts during or very shortly after the event. Typically, this has been done using risk models, but these usually do not account for compounding and cascading effects. We propose a novel nowcasting approach for tropical cyclones employing pre-existing socio-economic and demographic data and calibrated with satellite data. The method could be used to assess cyclone impacts based only on its known trajectory, and even before post-event satellite imagery is available. We investigate the feasibility of this approach focusing on Fiji and its agricultural sector. We link remote sensing data with available household surveys and the agricultural census data to identify potential correlates of vegetation damage from cyclones. If robust enough, these correlates could later be used for nowcasting cyclone impacts. We show that remote sensing data, when combined with pre-event socio-economic and demographic data, can be used for both nowcasting and post-disaster damage assessments.
The real cost of teaching in a refugee camp: Asking the difficult questions
Authors: Carron Djemila , Costa Alessandra , Do Sul Tatiana , O’Keeffe Paul , Ngabirano Maxim , Radjabu Assani
Published: July 2023

This article asks difficult questions about higher-education courses provided by Western institutions to people living in refugee camps. It critically examines a blended-learning approach that incorporates a massive online open course (MOOC) into a scaffolded higher-education program—the University of Geneva’s Connected Blended Learning model—in the Kakuma refugee camp. It assesses the effectiveness of this approach in an accredited University of Geneva human-rights law course, which ran in the Kakuma camp from 2017 to 2020. On the basis of the long experience of the course leaders and research carried out with students who participated in the course, the article explores ways of improving this model by answering difficult questions about the real cost of teaching in a refugee camp. This paper was co-written by a professor, a researcher, and students who were involved in the course, two of whom are refugees living in Kakuma refugee camp.
Salicylate- and Noise-induced Tinnitus. Different Mechanisms Producing the same Result? An Experimental Model
Authors: Pavlidis Pavlos , Papadopoulou Kyriaki , Tseriotis Vasilis Spyridon , Karachrysafi Sophia , Sardeli Chrysanthi , Gouveris Haralampos , Papamitsou Theodora , Sioga Antonia , Kouvelas Dimitrios
Published: July 2023

Purpose: Tinnitus, the generation of phantom sounds, can be the result of noise exposure, however, understanding of its underlying mechanisms is limited. Purpose of the study was is to determine whether different concentrations of salicylate can cause tinnitus of different intensity. Methods: For the purposes of this study 50 male Wistar rats were used. The animals were divided into 5 groups (10 rats in each group). The animals that did not receive any substance were allocated to the control group (Group A). The second group (Group B) of rats received salicylate (Sigma Aldrich) intraperitoneally for 7 days (300 mg/Kg/day). The 3rd group (Group C) received salicylate intraperitoneally for 7 days, but at twice the concentration of the animals in the second group (600 mg/kg/d). The 4th group (Group D) simultaneously received salicylate (300 mg/Kg/day) and pure Memantine (Sigma Aldrich, 10 mg/kg/d) intraperitoneally for 7 days. The 5th group (Group E) did not receive any substance but was exposed for 168 consecutive hours (7 days) to sound to induce tinnitus. Cochlear activity was evaluated with the use of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAEs). At the end of the experimental period, the animals were sacrificed, and the right cochlea was removed and prepared for further histological and immunohistochemical studies. Results: The DPOAEs of animals treated either with salicylate as monotherapy or salicylate combined with memantine were indistinguishable from the noise floor, did not differ significantly compared to the animals of the control group or those expose to constant noise. The cochlear structures of Group E remained anatomically and functionally unaffected from the exposure to constant noise. Memantine does not seem to offer substantial protection to the cochlear structures, according to histological examination and hearing tests, however, the rats receiving it exhibited better results in behavioral tests. Conclusions: The administration of memantine does not contribute significantly to the reduction of tinnitus.
Advances in friction of aluminium alloy deep drawing
Authors: Gao Yiren , Li Hongxia , Zhao Danyang , Wang Minjie , Fan Xiaobo
Published: July 2023

Broad use of lightweight aluminium alloy parts in automobile manufacturing, aerospace, electronic communication, and rail transit is mainly formed through deep drawing process. Deep drawing friction is a key boundary condition for controlling the forming quality of aluminium alloy parts. However, due to the oxidation and adhesion tendency of aluminium alloys, the tribological situations of aluminium alloy deep drawing (AADD) system is more complicated than those of traditional deep drawing of steel sheets. Therefore, the study of AADD friction is essential for manufacturing high-performance aluminium alloy parts. Herein, aiming to provide a valuable reference for researchers in related fields, a comprehensive review of AADD friction is provided, including friction mechanism, influencing factors, friction measurement, friction model, friction simulation, and lubrication-free friction control. Finally, a brief conclusion and several current challenges were discussed.
In-situ formation of nitrogen doped microporous carbon nanospheres derived from polystyrene as lubricant additives for anti-wear and friction reduction
Authors: Wang Yixin , Lu Qi , Xie Huijie , Liu Shujuan , Ye Qian , Zhou Feng , Liu Weimin
Published: July 2023

This study presents a nitrogen-doped microporous carbon nanospheres (N@MCNs) prepared by a facile polymerization–carbonization process using low-cost styrene. The N element in situ introduces polystyrene (PS) nanospheres via emulsion polymerization of styrene with cyanuric chloride as crosslinking agent, and then carbonization obtains N@MCNs. The as-prepared carbon nanospheres possess the complete spherical structure and adjustable nitrogen amount by controlling the relative proportion of tetrachloromethane and cyanuric chloride. The friction performance of N@MCNs as lubricating oil additives was surveyed utilizing the friction experiment of ball-disc structure. The results showed that N@MCNs exhibit superb reduction performance of friction and wear. When the addition of N@MCNs was 0.06 wt%, the friction coefficient of PAO-10 decreased from 0.188 to 0.105, and the wear volume reduced by 94.4%. The width and depth of wear marks of N@MCNs decreased by 49.2% and 94.5%, respectively. The carrying capacity of load was rocketed from 100 to 400 N concurrently. Through the analysis of the lubrication mechanism, the result manifested that the prepared N@MCNs enter clearance of the friction pair, transform the sliding friction into the mixed friction of sliding and rolling, and repair the contact surface through the repair effect. Furthermore, the tribochemical reaction between nanoparticles and friction pairs forms a protective film containing nitride and metal oxides, which can avert direct contact with the matrix and improve the tribological properties. This experiment showed that nitrogen-doped polystyrene-based carbon nanospheres prepared by in-situ doping are the promising materials for wear resistance and reducing friction. This preparing method can be ulteriorly expanded to multi-element co-permeable materials. Nitrogen and boron co-doped carbon nanospheres (B,N@MCNs) were prepared by mixed carbonization of N-enriched PS and boric acid, and exhibited high load carrying capacity and good tribological properties.
Sound-based sleep assessment with controllable subject-dependent embedding using Variational Domain Adversarial Neural Network
Authors: Fukui Ken-ichi , Ishimaru Shunya , Kato Takafumi , Numao Masayuki
Published: July 2023

Sleep quality assessment as an indicator of daily health care plays an important role in our physiological and mental activity. Sound during sleep contains rich information on biological activities, such as body movement, snoring, and sleep bruxism. However, sound features differ depending on individual and environmental differences. In order to develop a wide-rage applicable daily sleep assessment, this paper utilizes deep learning to ease individual and environmental differences of sound features. Firstly, by Variational Domain Adversarial Neural Network (VDANN) encodes sound events into latent representation, simultaneously eliminates subject-dependent features. Then, sleep pattern in the obtained latent space is trained by Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) with associated sleep assessment of one night. We performed age group estimation from normal sleep as an objective indicator of sleep comparing to their age group. The experiment with more than 100 subjects showed that VDANN is able to extract subject independent features, and the proposed method outperforms the conventional method for age group estimation from sleep sound even for new subjects. In addition, our model is able to personalize by controlling subject-dependent embedding when after data accumulation of the subject.
Students’ attitudes towards the environment and marine litter in the context of a coastal water quality educational citizen science project
Authors: Araújo José Luís , Morais Carla , Paiva João Carlos
Published: July 2023

This research focus on the evaluation of the impact on students’ attitudes towards the environment, fostered by their involvement in an educational citizen science project related to the monitoring of physicochemical properties and the detection of (micro)plastics in Portuguese coastal waters. We developed an attitude scale, comprising four dimensions (Collective, Personal, Recycling and Reuse and Microplastics), which was applied, as a pre-test and post-test, to 574 middle school students (aged 12–14): 442 in the experimental group and 132 in the control group. Initially, based on pre-test results, both groups revealed positive attitudes. In the experimental group, the post-test results revealed that significantly positive attitude changes were promoted in all dimensions, whereas, in the control group, this occurred only in the Personal dimension. The control group also exhibited significantly negative attitude changes in the collective dimension. Students’ engagement in sustainability-related citizen science projects can enhance environmentally literate society.
Optimal commissions and subscriptions in mutual aid platforms
Authors: Zhao Yixing , Zeng Yan
Published: July 2023

This paper investigates an operation mechanism for mutual aid platforms to develop more sustainably and profitably. A mutual aid platform is an online risk-sharing platform for risk-heterogeneous participants, and the platform extracts revenues by charging participants commission and subscription fees. A modeling framework is proposed to identify the optimal commissions and subscriptions for mutual aid platforms. Participants are divided into different types based on their loss probabilities and values derived from the platform. We present how these commissions and subscriptions should be set in a mutual aid plan to maximize the platform’s revenues. Our analysis emphasized the importance of accounting for risk heterogeneity in mutual aid platforms. Specifically, different types of participants should be charged different commissions/subscriptions depending on their loss probabilities and values on the platform. Participants’ shared costs should be determined based on their loss probabilities. Adverse selection occurs on the platform if participants with different risks pay the same shared costs. Our results also show that the platform’s maximum revenue will be lower if the platform charges the same fee to all participants. The numerical results of a practical example illustrate that the optimal commission/subscription scheme and risk-sharing rule result in considerable improvements in platform revenue over the current scheme implemented by the platform.
Personalised ecology and the future of biodiversity
Authors: Gaston Kevin J. , Phillips Benjamin B. , Soga Masashi
Published: July 2023

The future of biodiversity lies not just in the strategies and mechanisms by which ecosystems and species are practically best protected from anthropogenic pressures. It lies also, and perhaps foremost, in the many billions of decisions that people make that, intentionally or otherwise, shape their impact on nature and the conservation policies and interventions that are implemented. Personalised ecology – the set of direct sensory interactions that each of us has with nature – is one important consideration in understanding the decisions that people make. Indeed, it has long been argued that people’s personalised ecologies have powerful implications, as captured in such concepts as biophilia, extinction of experience and shifting baselines. In this paper, we briefly review the connections between personalised ecology and the future of biodiversity, and the ways in which personalised ecologies might usefully be enhanced to improve that future.
Sparse analytic systems
Authors: Cody Brent , Cox Sean , Lee Kayla
Published: July 2023

Erdős [7] proved that the Continuum Hypothesis (CH) is equivalent to the existence of an uncountable family

$\mathcal {F}$

of (real or complex) analytic functions, such that

$\big \{ f(x) \ : \ f \in \mathcal {F} \big \}$

is countable for every x. We strengthen Erdős’ result by proving that CH is equivalent to the existence of what we call sparse analytic systems of functions. We use such systems to construct, assuming CH, an equivalence relation

$\sim $

on

$\mathbb {R}$

such that any ‘analytic-anonymous’ attempt to predict the map

$x \mapsto [x]_\sim $

must fail almost everywhere. This provides a consistently negative answer to a question of Bajpai-Velleman [2].
Power-generation enhancements and upstream flow properties of turbines in unsteady inflow conditions
Authors: Wei Nathaniel J. , Dabiri John O.
Published: July 2023

Energy-harvesting systems in complex flow environments, such as floating offshore wind turbines, tidal turbines and ground-fixed turbines in axial gusts, encounter unsteady streamwise flow conditions that affect their power generation and structural loads. In some cases, enhancements in time-averaged power generation above the steady-flow operating point are observed. To characterize these dynamics, a nonlinear dynamical model for the rotation rate and power extraction of a periodically surging turbine is derived and connected to two potential-flow representations of the induction zone upstream of the turbine. The model predictions for the time-averaged power extraction of the turbine and the upstream flow velocity and pressure are compared against data from experiments conducted with a surging-turbine apparatus in an open-circuit wind tunnel at a diameter-based Reynolds number

$Re_D = 6.3\times 10^5$

and surge-velocity amplitudes up to 24 % of the wind speed. The combined modelling approach captures trends in both the time-averaged power extraction and the fluctuations in upstream flow quantities, while relying only on data from steady-flow measurements. The sensitivity of the observed increases in time-averaged power to steady-flow turbine characteristics is established, thus clarifying the conditions under which these enhancements are possible. Finally, the influence of unsteady fluid mechanics on time-averaged power extraction is explored analytically. The theoretical framework and experimental validation provide a cohesive modelling approach that can drive the design, control and optimization of turbines in unsteady flow conditions, as well as inform the development of novel energy-harvesting systems that can leverage unsteady flows for large increases in power-generation capacities.
Optimal coupling of jumpy Brownian motion on the circle
Authors: Connor Stephen B. , Merli Roberta
Published: July 2023

Consider a Brownian motion on the circumference of the unit circle, which jumps to the opposite point of the circumference at incident times of an independent Poisson process of rate
$\lambda$
. We examine the problem of coupling two copies of this ‘jumpy Brownian motion’ started from different locations, so as to optimise certain functions of the coupling time. We describe two intuitive co-adapted couplings (‘Mirror’ and ‘Synchronous’) which differ only when the two processes are directly opposite one another, and show that the question of which strategy is best depends upon the jump rate
$\lambda$
in a non-trivial way. We also provide an explicit description of a (non-co-adapted) maximal coupling for any jump rate in the case that the two jumpy Brownian motions begin at antipodal points of the circle.
An elementary approach to the inverse first-passage-time problem for soft-killed Brownian motion
Authors: Klump Alexander , Kolb Martin
Published: July 2023

We prove existence and uniqueness for the inverse-first-passage time problem for soft-killed Brownian motion using rather elementary methods relying on basic results from probability theory only. We completely avoid the relation to a suitable partial differential equation via a suitable Feynman–Kac representation, which was previously one of the main tools.
Comparing the cognitive load of gesture and action production: a dual-task study
Authors: Hostetter Autumn B. , Bahl Sonal
Published: July 2023

Speech-accompanying gestures have been shown to reduce cognitive load on a secondary task compared to speaking without gestures. In the current study, we investigate whether this benefit of speech-accompanying gestures is shared by speech-accompanying actions (i.e., movements that leave a lasting trace in the physical world). In two experiments, participants attempted to retain verbal and spatial information from a grid while describing a pattern while gesturing, while making the pattern, or while keeping hands still. Producing gestures reduced verbal load compared to keeping hands still when the pattern being described was visually present (Experiment 1), and this benefit was not shared by making the pattern. However, when the pattern being described was not visually present (Experiment 2), making the pattern benefited verbal load compared to keeping hands still. Neither experiment revealed a significant difference between gesture and action. Taken together, the findings suggest that moving the hands in meaningful ways can benefit verbal load.
“A Similar Detente”: Mexico’s Central American Policy, 1978–1982
Authors: Sánchez Nateras Gerardo
Published: July 2023

This article explores Mexico’s overlooked importance in the Central American armed conflict, the limits of its influence, and its connection to the late Cold War. Mexico’s policy toward Central America attempted to prevent an American and Cuban military intervention in the area and avoid a Cold War confrontation along its southern border. Mexico attempted to build detente in the region and prevent a global escalation of tension between the great powers. Meanwhile, it sought to propose a “third way” for the revolutionary actors shaped after Mexico’s political system and history. Studying Mexico’s efforts to create detente-like arrangements can shed light on the efforts of peripheral actors and their projects to influence the international system despite the actions of hegemonic powers.
Spartans or Samaritans? Revealing the Creativity of the Author of 1 Maccabees
Authors: Orian Matan
Published: July 2023

A majority of scholars view the Hasmonean-Spartan correspondence, reported in 1 Maccabees, as inauthentic, since it contains many improbabilities, including the assertion that the Jews and the Spartans are fraternal nations. However, its patent implausibility also renders it unimaginable that the correspondence was intended to be understood literally. Hence, the binary choice offered in research, whereby it is either a bizarre fabrication or an authentic correspondence, despite all its peculiarities, is problematic. The Hasmonean-Spartan correspondence thus remains a conspicuous, unresolved enigma in the research of 1 Maccabees and the early Hasmonean period. Based on a textual clue, this article proposes a solution, namely, that the correspondence is, in fact, an ingenious derision of the Jews’ authentic ethnic “brothers”—the Samaritans. This suggestion provides new insights into the history of the early Hasmoneans and the literary creativity of the author of 1 Maccabees.
‘Compliments from the Housewives’: Contesting White Public Space in Late-Colonial Nairobi
Authors: Ference Meghan E.
Published: July 2023

This article examines the racial politics of decolonization in late-colonial Nairobi in the decade before independence through the unique space of the colonial bus using archival letters from a group of European women who called themselves ‘The Housewives’. In letters to Nairobi's mayor and the Kenya Bus Service (KBS), the Housewives argued against a newly proposed transportation policy that would make all seating on the colonial buses the same price, doing away with the first-class section. The letters reveal that African bus riders, particularly Muslim women riders, were centrally important in this crucial time in Kenya's urban history. With Nairobi still under a ‘State of Emergency’ as military operations against the Land and Freedom Army (Mau Mau) were coming to an end, these letters show colonial buses as battlegrounds during the final years of British colonial rule in Kenya with extremely porous social borders and transportation vehicles serving as rich sites of urban life.
Autocracies and policy accumulation: the case of Singapore
Authors: Aschenbrenner Christian , Knill Christoph , Steinebach Yves
Published: July 2023

The tendency of vote-seeking politicians to produce ever-more policies in response to the citizens’ demands has been identified as a central driver of the process of “policy accumulation.” If we accept this premise, policy accumulation should be a central feature of modern democracies but overall be less pronounced in autocracies. Due to its highly ambivalent nature, policy accumulation and its implications may thus constitute an important but so far neglected facets of the new system competition between democracies and autocracies. In this article, we test this argument in the context of the authoritarian regime of Singapore. Singapore is one of the very few autocracies that display elements of political competition and has a level of socio-economic development that is comparable to advanced democracies. Singapore thus constitutes a least-likely case for low levels of policy accumulation. By studying changes in Singapore’s environmental policy over a period of more than four decades (1976 to 2020) and by contrasting the patterns observed with the policy developments in 21 OECD democracies, we find that autocratic regimes do indeed tend to accumulate less than democratic regimes. More precisely, we find that Singapore (1) has only produced about one-fourth of the environmental policy measures of an “average” democracy and (2) is constantly the country with the lowest level of policy accumulation in our sample. These findings hold even when controlling for alternative explanations, such as the effectiveness of the administration and the government’s ability to opt for stricter and more hierarchical forms of intervention.
Frequent vs. infrequent words shape toddlers’ real-time sentence comprehension
Authors: POTTER Christine E. , LEW-WILLIAMS Casey
Published: July 2023

We examined how noun frequency and the typicality of surrounding linguistic context contribute to children’s real-time comprehension. Monolingual English-learning toddlers viewed pairs of pictures while hearing sentences with typical or atypical sentence frames (Look at the… vs. Examine the…), followed by nouns that were higher- or lower-frequency labels for a referent (horse vs. pony). Toddlers showed no significant differences in comprehension of nouns in typical and atypical sentence frames. However, they were less accurate in recognizing lower-frequency nouns, particularly among toddlers with smaller vocabularies. We conclude that toddlers can recognize nouns in diverse sentence contexts, but their representations develop gradually.