bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Influence of various DEM shape representation methods on packing and shearing of granular assemblies
Authors: Soltanbeigi Behzad , Podlozhnyuk Alexander , Kloss Christoph , Pirker Stefan , Ooi Jin Y. , Papanicolopulos Stefanos-Aldo
Published: March 2021

Realistic yet efficient representation of particle shape is a major challenge for the Discrete Element Method. This paper uses angle-of-repose and direct-shear test simulations to describe the influence of several shape representation methods, and their parameters, on the bulk response of granular assemblies. Three rolling resistance models, with varying coefficient of rolling friction, are considered for spherical particles. For non-spherical particles, superquadrics with varying blockiness and multi-spheres with varying bumpiness are used to model cuboids and cylinders of several aspect ratios. We present extensive quantitative results showing how the various ways used to represent shape affect the bulk response, allowing comparisons between different approaches. Simulations of angle-of-repose tests show that all three rolling friction models can model the avalanching characteristics of cube/cuboid and cylindrical particles. Simulations of direct-shear tests suggest that both the shear strength and the dilative response of the considered non-spherical particles (but not their porosity) can only be predicted by the elasto-plastic rolling resistance model. The quantitative nature of the results allows identifying values of the shape-description parameters that can be used to obtain similar results when using alternative shape representation methods.

Graphical abstract
The outbreak of illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon boosts deforestation
Authors: Siqueira-Gay Juliana , Sánchez Luis E.
Published: March 2021

Increased prices and political pressure are boosting illegal gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon, threatening forests, indigenous people, and conservation of biodiversity in protected areas. The rate of illegal mining deforestation increased more than 90% from 2017 to 2020, reaching 101.7 km2 annually in 2020 compared to 52.9 km2 annually in 2017. In that period, illegal mining deforestation rate grew more than the rate of clearing within mining leases. While formal mining is required to comply with environmental regulations, most small-scale or artisanal mining and especially illegal mining areas are abandoned after reserves are exhausted, without proper rehabilitation. Deforestation due to illegal mining is likely to increase in the next years, calling for coordination between local and regional policies as well as for strengthening and expanding international mechanisms to increase traceability of mineral supply chains with certification schemes to help to curb illegal mining.
The role of prosocial attitudes and academic achievement in peer networks in higher education
Authors: Brouwer Jasperina , Engels Maaike C.
Published: March 2021

After the transition to university, students need to build a new peer network, which helps them to adapt to university life. This study investigated to what extent students’ prosocial attitudes and academic achievement facilitate the embeddedness in friendship and help-seeking networks, while taking structural network characteristics into account. Participants were 95 first-year bachelor’s degree students and were part of learning communities consisting of 12 students at a university in the Netherlands. Measures included student-reports of prosocial attitudes, peer nominations of friendship and help-seeking networks, and officially registered grades (GPA). Longitudinal social network analysis, stochastic actor-based modeling with the package RSiena, revealed that both students’ own prosocial attitudes and achievement played a role in their friendship formation, whereas only students’ own achievement made the formation of their help-seeking relationships more likely. When students were friends, it was more likely that they approached each other for help and vice versa. Similarity in achievement level contributed to relationship formation in friendship and help-seeking networks. Overall, the results underscore the importance of both student’ prosocial attitudes and achievement for their social adjustment (i.e., making friends) and only achievement for their academic adjustment (i.e., seeking help) during the first year of university within the context of small-scale teaching.
Das Handwerk zwischen Corona-Krise und Rückvermeisterung
Authors: Haverkamp Katarzyna , Runst Petrik , Proeger Till
Published: March 2021

Das Handwerk zeigte vor der Corona-Krise eine sehr positive Geschäftslage. Im Verlauf der Krise kam es zur Überlagerung der Effekte der Lockdown-Maßnahmen und der Novellierung der Handwerksordnung, durch die zwölf Handwerke erneut meisterpflichtig wurden. Mit Hilfe der Daten der Handwerkskammern werden die Effekte beider Veränderungen auf die Betriebsdynamik analysiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass das Handwerk in der Krise bisher keinen strukturellen Schaden — d. h. einen Rückgang an Gründungen und einen Anstieg an Betriebsaufgaben — aufweist. Gleichzeitig wirkt sich die Re-Regulierung auf die Gründungsdynamik in den betroffenen Handwerken aus.
Inhärente Instabilität: zur Rolle der Output-Lücke im Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakt
Authors: Bender Christian M. , Heise Arne
Published: March 2021

Fiskalregeln im Allgemeinen und der Stabilitäts- und Wachstumspakt im Speziellen werden wiederholt ins Feld geführt, um Staatsverschuldung effektiv zu begrenzen und fiskalische Nachhaltigkeit zu erzeugen. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit verdient hierbei das Konzept der unbeobachtbaren Output-Lücke.
Recharge response and kinematics of an unusual earthflow in Liechtenstein
Authors: Aaron Jordan , Loew Simon , Forrer Markus
Published: March 2021

Understanding landslide behavior over medium and long timescales is crucial for predicting landslide hazard and constructing accurate landscape evolution models. The behavior of landslides in soil that undergo periodic displacements, termed earthflows or compound soil slides, is especially difficult to forecast at these timescales. This is because velocities can increase by orders of magnitude over annual to decadal timescales, due to processes such as changing recharge conditions, erosion of the landslide toe, and retrogression of the landslide head. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of the Schlucher landslide, an unusual earthflow that is perched above the village of Malbun, Liechtenstein. This landslide had been displacing by 10 to 20 cm/year until 2015, when displacements on the order of 2 m/year occurred from 2016 to 2018. These large displacements damaged landslide mitigation measures, caused numerous surface deformation features, and threatened the local population downstream of the earthflow. This landslide has an unusually long monitoring record, with accurate displacement and climatic data available since 1983. We analyze this nearly 40-year monitoring time series to estimate recharge from snowmelt and rainfall, and its correlation with displacement. We also analyze recently collected, high-resolution surface and subsurface data in order to understand landslide response to recharge, landslide kinematics through time, and catastrophic failure potential. We find that interannual displacements can be explained with variations in recharge; however, periodic surges with recurrence times of tens of years must be explained by other mechanisms. In particular, recharge into the landslide during the recent acceleration (2016 to 2018) was not anomalously high. Instead, we argue that loss of internal strength is responsible for this recent acceleration period, and that this mechanism should be considered when forecasting the surge potential for certain earthflows and soil slides.
The development and characterization of an E. coli O25B bioconjugate vaccine
Authors: Kowarik Michael , Wetter Michael , Haeuptle Micha A. , Braun Martin , Steffen Michael , Kemmler Stefan , Ravenscroft Neil , De Benedetto Gianluigi , Zuppiger Matthias , Sirena Dominique , Cescutti Paola , Wacker Michael
Published: March 2021

Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) cause a wide range of clinical diseases such as bacteremia and urinary tract infections. The increase of multidrug resistant ExPEC strains is becoming a major concern for the treatment of these infections and E. coli has been identified as a critical priority pathogen by the WHO. Therefore, the development of vaccines has become increasingly important, with the surface lipopolysaccharide constituting a promising vaccine target. This study presents genetic and structural analysis of clinical urine isolates from Switzerland belonging to the serotype O25. Approximately 75% of these isolates were shown to correspond to the substructure O25B only recently described in an emerging clone of E. coli sequence type 131. To address the high occurrence of O25B in clinical isolates, an O25B glycoconjugate vaccine was prepared using an E. coli glycosylation system. The O antigen cluster was integrated into the genome of E. coli W3110, thereby generating an E. coli strain able to synthesize the O25B polysaccharide on a carrier lipid. The polysaccharide was enzymatically conjugated to specific asparagine side chains of the carrier protein exotoxin A (EPA) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa by the PglB oligosaccharyltransferase from Campylobacter jejuni. Detailed characterization of the O25B-EPA conjugate by use of physicochemical methods including NMR and GC-MS confirmed the O25B polysaccharide structure in the conjugate, opening up the possibility to develop a multivalent E. coli conjugate vaccine containing O25B-EPA.
Ethico-Political Aspects of Conceptualizing Screening: The Case of Dementia
Authors: Gunnarson Martin , Kapeller Alexandra , Zeiler Kristin
Published: March 2021

While the value of early detection of dementia is largely agreed upon, population-based screening as a means of early detection is controversial. This controversial status means that such screening is not recommended in most national dementia plans. Some current practices, however, resemble screening but are labelled “case-finding” or “detection of cognitive impairment”. Labelled as such, they may avoid the ethical scrutiny that population-based screening may be subject to. This article examines conceptualizations of screening and case-finding. It shows how the definitions and delimitations of the concepts (the what of screening) are drawn into the ethical, political, and practical dimensions that screening assessment criteria or principles are intended to clarify and control (the how of screening, how it is and how it should be performed). As a result, different conceptualizations of screening provide the opportunity to rethink what ethical assessments should take place: the conceptualizations have different ethico-political implications. The article argues that population-based systematic screening, population-based opportunistic screening, and case-finding should be clearly distinguished.
Do policies and institutions matter for pre-tax income inequality? Cross-country evidence
Authors: Vergara Damián
Published: March 2021

Do policies and institutions matter for pre-tax income inequality? I build an annual panel of 43 countries for the period 1980–2016 to document cross-country facts. I find robust correlations between pre-tax income shares and economic policy—financial development, trade openness, government expenditure, and income taxation—even after controlling for economic development. I further find that proxies of institutional quality—e.g., state development, corruption, or political exclusion—mediate the relationship between top income shares and economic policy, in particular for trade openness and government expenditure. The role of institutions in allowing or limiting rent-seeking can rationalize the results.
Homeostatic Property Cluster Theory without Homeostatic Mechanisms: Two Recent Attempts and their Costs
Authors: Onishi Yukinori , Serpico Davide
Published: March 2021

The homeostatic property cluster theory (HPC) is widely influential for its ability to account for many natural-kind terms in the life sciences. However, the notion of homeostatic mechanism has never been fully explicated. In 2009, Carl Craver interpreted the notion in the sense articulated in discussions on mechanistic explanation and pointed out that the HPC account equipped with such notion invites interest-relativity. In this paper, we analyze two recent refinements on HPC: one that avoids any reference to the causes of the clustering of properties and one that replaces homeostatic mechanisms with causal networks represented by causal graphs. We argue that the former is too slender to account for some inductive inference in science and the latter, thicker account invites interest-relativity, as the original HPC does. This suggests that human interest will be an un-eliminative part of a satisfactory account of natural kindness. We conclude by discussing the implication of interest-relativity to the naturalness, reality, or objectivity of kinds and indicating an overlooked aspect of natural kinds that requires further studies.
p-Kernel Stein Variational Gradient Descent for Data Assimilation and History Matching
Authors: Stordal Andreas S. , Moraes Rafael J. , Raanes Patrick N. , Evensen Geir
Published: March 2021

A Bayesian method of inference known as “Stein variational gradient descent” was recently implemented for data assimilation problems, under the heading of “mapping particle filter”. In this manuscript, the algorithm is applied to another type of geoscientific inversion problems, namely history matching of petroleum reservoirs. In order to combat the curse of dimensionality, the commonly used Gaussian kernel, which defines the solution space, is replaced by a p-kernel. In addition, the ensemble gradient approximation used in the mapping particle filter is rectified, and the data assimilation experiments are re-run with more relevant settings and comparisons. Our experimental results in data assimilation are rather disappointing. However, the results from the subsurface inverse problem show more promise, especially as regards the use of p-kernels.
Categorification of algebraic quantum field theories
Authors: Benini Marco , Perin Marco , Schenkel Alexander , Woike Lukas
Published: March 2021

This paper develops a concept of 2-categorical algebraic quantum field theories (2AQFTs) that assign locally presentable linear categories to spacetimes. It is proven that ordinary AQFTs embed as a coreflective full 2-subcategory into the 2-category of 2AQFTs. Examples of 2AQFTs that do not come from ordinary AQFTs via this embedding are constructed by a local gauging construction for finite groups, which admits a physical interpretation in terms of orbifold theories. A categorification of Fredenhagen’s universal algebra is developed and also computed for simple examples of 2AQFTs.
The social structure of Brexit and the crisis of globalisation
Authors: Dowling Emma
Published: March 2021

Despite much protracted debate, there is still no consensus among social scientists as to why a majority of Britons voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. This paper constructs a sociology of Brexit and seeks to interpret the fractious constellations on either side of the Brexit disjuncture. Taking as its point of the departure the resurgence of sociological interest in class in the wake of Brexit and with the rise of right-wing populisms in recent years, the paper argues for a compositional, intersectional and historically dynamic class analysis of Brexit’s political fault-lines within the context of Britain’s neoliberal restructuring. An analytical framework is proposed with which to explain how neoliberal globalisation has transformed British society and its concomitant class relations, accounting for the disarticulation of previous political allegiances. The paper explains the Brexit vote in terms of central social-structural components, including class, ethnicity, geographical region, age, and educational attainment. It is argued that the vote in 2016 to leave the European Union is best interpreted as a residue of a post-war class compromise, while the vote to remain in the European Union reflects a class constellation recomposed by neoliberal globalisation, which is unstable and in crisis. The article concludes with a discussion of the overall implications of the argument presented for a sociological reading of Brexit.
Effect of the Distance from Build Platform and Post-Heat Treatment of AlSi10Mg Alloy Manufactured by Single- and Multi-Laser Selective Laser Melting
Authors: Cerri Emanuela , Ghio Emanuele , Bolelli Giovanni
Published: March 2021

In the present study, AlSi10Mg samples produced by selective laser melting (SLM) were studied. Samples were machined from two types of bars obtained through different methods: either single laser (SL) or multiple laser (ML) machine setup. The bars were built perpendicular to the platform, which was pre-heated at 150 °C (working temperature), up to a height of 300 mm. The effect of the distance from the platform on the mechanical properties was investigated through tensile samples in as-built condition and after unconventional heat treatments (U-HT). Tensile strength changed by 80 MPa along the Z-axis (build direction) for SL case and by 100 MPa for ML case in the as-built samples. Vickers microhardness revealed an analogous gradient. This was correlated to a gradient in intra-granular precipitates' distribution along the Z-axis, as revealed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). An unconventional heat treatment at 175 °C for 6h slightly improves the mechanical strength; higher temperature treatments at 200 and 225 °C for the same duration cause a progressive decrease in strength with an increase in elongation. The amount and size of the precipitates and the thickness of eutectic Si change with the heat treatment temperature, justifying the mechanical behavior.
Suppression of MD2 inhibits breast cancer in vitro and in vivo
Authors: Zheng S. , Fu W. , Ma R. , Huang Q. , Gu J. , Zhou J. , Lu K. , Guo G.
Published: March 2021

Purpose

To explore the effects of the intervening measure targeting myeloid differentiation 2 (MD2) on breast cancer progression in vitro and in vivo.

Methods

The expression of MD2 in normal breast cells (Hs 578Bst) and three kinds of breast carcinoma cell lines (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 s and 4T1) were detected by western blot. MTT assay was used to detect the proliferation of 4T1 cells treated by L6H21, cell migration and invasion was measured by wound healing assay and trans-well matrigel invasion assay, respectively. In addition, to further study the role of MD2 in tumor progression, we assessed the effects of inhibition of MD2 on the progression of xenograft tumors in vivo.

Results

The expression of MD2 is much higher in MDA-MB-231 s and 4T1cells than that in normal breast cells (Hs 578Bst) or MCF-7 cells (p < 0.05). In vitro, suppression of MD2 by L6H21 has a significant inhibition of proliferation, migration and invasion in 4T1 cells in dose-dependent manner. In vivo, L6H21 pretreatment significantly improved survival of 4T1-bearing mice (p < 0.05). Additionally, we also observed that none of the mice died from the toxic effect of 10 mg kg−1 L6H21 in 60 days.

Conclusion

Overall, this work indicates that suppression of MD2 shows progression inhibition in vitro and significantly prolong survival in vivo. These findings provide the potential experimental evidence for using MD2 as a therapeutic target of breast carcinoma.
Psychometric evaluation of the mental health continuum – short form in Swedish adolescents
Authors: Söderqvist Fredrik , Larm Peter
Published: March 2021

The Mental Health Continuum – Short form (MHC-SF) is a self-report measure that has been increasingly used to monitor mental well-being at the population level. The aim of this study was to evaluate, for the first time, the psychometric properties of the MHC-SF in a population of Swedish adolescents. First, the evaluation was performed by examining face validity and test–retest reliability obtained in a pre-study. Then using data from the Survey of Adolescent Life in Vestmanland 2020 (n = 3880) we performed confirmatory factor analysis on different factor structures based on theory and previous research. Model-based estimates were calculated for assessing the internal reliability of the factor structure with the best fit. Convergent validity was assessed by bivariate as well as model-based correlations, and test–retest reliability was evaluated by intra-class correlation coefficients. The results show that the MHC-SF is best described with a bifactor model consisting of a dominant general well-being factor and three specific group factors of emotional, social and psychological well-being. Its overall reliability was high to very high, while the reliability of its subscales was low. A practical implication of the latter is that the subcales should not be used on their own because they are more likely to reliably measure the general well-being factor than the specific group factors. Test–retest reliability of the total scale was acceptable, and convergent validity was supported. In conclusion, we consider the Swedish MHC-SF to be a psychometrically sound instrument for monitoring overall mental well-being in Swedish adolescents.
Development and In Vitro Characterization of Transferrin-Decorated Nanoemulsion Utilizing Hydrophobic Ion Pairing for Targeted Cellular Uptake
Authors: Zaichik Sergey , Steinbring Christian , Friedl Julian David , Bernkop-Schnürch Andreas
Published: March 2021

Purpose

The aim of this study was to develop transferrin-conjugated nanoemulsions utilizing hydrophobic ion pairing for a targeted cellular uptake.

Methods

In the lipophilic phase of nanoemulsion composed of 60% oleic acid, 30% Capmul MCM EP and 10% Span 85, 1% cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) and 3% phosphatidic acid (PA) were incorporated. After emulsification, the resulting droplets were decorated with human protein transferrin via hydrophobic ion pairing with PA and characterized regarding droplet size and zeta potential. Subsequently, cellular uptake of transferrin-conjugated nanoemulsion was investigated on Caco-2 and HeLa cell lines and determined by flow cytometry, cell lysis method and live cell imaging using confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Results

The nanoemulsion showed a droplet size of 123.03 ± 2.1 nm and zeta potential of − 54.5 mV that changed because of the surface decoration with transferrin to 182.7 ± 0.2 and + 30.2 mV, respectively. Within the uptake studies utilizing flow cytometry, transferrin-conjugated nanoemulsion showed a 5.2-fold higher uptake in Caco-2 cells and twofold improvement in case of HeLa cells compared with unmodified formulation. The outcome was confirmed visually via live cell imaging.

Conclusion

According to the results, transferrin-conjugated nanoemulsion might be considered as a promising drug delivery system for a selective receptor-mediated drug delivery.
Effective and Universal Pre-Processing for Multi-Angle CHRIS/PROBA Images
Authors: Wang Qiang , Pang Yong , Jia Weiwei , Zhang Haowei , Wang Chaoyang
Published: March 2021

Compared with traditional nadir observations, multi-angle hyperspectral remote sensing can obtain more spatial and spectral information and improve the inversion precision of structure information on the Earth’s surface. However, processing multi-angle remote-sensing images presents new challenges. Owing to the multi-angle sensors used to obtain multi-angle images, there are major differences in the spatial and spectral information between each angle in these images. Data from the Compact High-resolution Imaging Spectrometer (CHRIS) on Project for On-Board Autonomy (PROBA) should be pre-processed to extract the BRDF (Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions). Given the limitations of the pre-processing software currently available for CHRIS/PROBA images, and the lack of metadata and auxiliary origin schedules, some CHRIS multi-angle images cannot be pre-processed correctly. In the study, to promote the application of multi-angle data, a formula for calculating key parameters according to in-orbit geometric imaging relationships is derived to design a multi-angle image process flow including image rollovers, bad-line repairs, orthorectification and atmospheric corrections accounting for terrain effects. Test results indicate that the pre-processing method can quickly and effectively recover multi-angle hyperspectral information and obtain spectral characteristics of multi-angle observations.
Attention in Skilled Behavior: an Argument for Pluralism
Authors: Dayer Alex , Jennings Carolyn Dicey
Published: March 2021

Peak human performance—whether of Olympic athletes, Nobel prize winners, or you cooking the best dish you’ve ever made—depends on skill. Skill is at the heart of what it means to excel. Yet, the fixity of skilled behavior can sometimes make it seem a lower-level activity, more akin to the movements of an invertebrate or a machine. Peak performance in elite athletes is often described, for example, as “automatic” by those athletes: “The most frequent response from participants (eight athletes and one coach) when describing the execution of a peak performance was the automatic execution of performance” (Anderson et al. 2014). While the automaticity of skilled behavior is widely acknowledged, some worry that too much automaticity in skill would challenge its ability to exhibit human excellence. And so two camps have developed: those who focus on the automaticity of skilled behavior, the “habitualists,” and those who focus on the higher-level cognition behind peak performance, the “intellectualists.” We take a different tack. We argue that skilled behavior weaves together automaticity and higher-level cognition, which we call “pluralism.” That is, we argue that automaticity and higher-level cognition are both normal features of skilled behavior that benefit skilled behavior. This view is hinted at in other quotes about automaticity in skill—while expert gamers describe themselves as “playing with” automaticity (Taylor and Elam 2018), expert musicians are said to balance automaticity with creativity through performance cues: “Performance cues allow the musician to attend to some aspects of the performance while allowing others to be executed automatically” (Chaffin and Logan 2006). We describe in this paper three ways that higher-level cognition and automaticity are woven together. The first two, level pluralism and synchronic pluralism, are described in other papers, albeit under different cover. We take our contribution to be both distinguishing the three forms and contributing the third, diachronic pluralism. In fact, we find that diachronic pluralism presents the strongest case against habitualism and intellectualism, especially when considered through the example of strategic automaticity. In each case of pluralism, we use research on the presence or absence of attention (e.g., in mind wandering) to explore the presence or absence of higher-level cognition in skilled behavior.
Functional estrogen receptor signaling pathway activity in high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma as compared to estrogen receptor protein expression by immunohistochemistry
Authors: van der Ploeg Phyllis , van Lieshout Laura A. M. , van de Stolpe Anja , Bosch Steven L. , Lentjes-Beer Marjolein H. F. M. , Bekkers Ruud L. M. , Piek Jurgen M. J.
Published: March 2021

Purpose

Anti-estrogen therapy may be used as a palliative treatment option in high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas (HGSC). However, clinical implementation is limited as the use of estrogen receptor (ER) protein expression by immunohistochemistry remains insufficient in predicting therapy response. To determine the accuracy of ER protein expression as a marker for ER signaling pathway activity, we aimed to correlate ER protein expression to functional ER signaling pathway activity in HGSC.

Methods

Immunohistochemical ER protein expression was visually scored using total percentages of stained tumor cells and histoscores. Subsequently, mRNA was extracted, and RT-qPCR analysis was performed. Functional ER pathway activity was assessed by a computational Bayesian model inferring ER signaling pathway activity from mRNA levels of ER-specific target genes.

Results

Our analysis of 29 HGSCs shows that neither total percentage of ER protein expression, nor ER histoscores are significantly correlated to ER signaling pathway activity (respectively, p = 0.473 and p = 0.606). Classification of HGSC into three groups based on ER histoscores 0–100 (n = 6), 101–200 (n = 15) and 201–300 (n = 8) resulted in comparable mean ER signaling pathway activity among the groups (p = 0.356). Several samples in the higher ER histoscore groups had low ER signaling pathway activity, indicating that nuclear ER protein expression is not sufficient to describe transcriptional ER activation.

Conclusion

Positive immunohistochemical ER staining is not always indicative of an active ER signaling pathway and is, therefore, a poor predictor of anti-estrogen response. Further research is needed to prove the predictive value of ER signaling pathway activity regarding anti-estrogen sensitivity in HGSC patients.
The Criteria to Qualify a Geographical Term as Generic: Are We Moving from a European to a US Perspective?
Authors: de Almeida Alberto Ribeiro , Carls Suelen
Published: March 2021

This article discusses the transformation of a distinctive trade sign into a generic term. Any distinctive trade sign carries this risk, primarily if it benefits from a high level of reputation or prestige, and the product identified is unique in the market. This is probably the most critical danger for such signs, especially if they are industrial property rights. Several criteria have been developed to determine if a sign has been transformed into a generic term. These criteria have economic and political relevance, as genericness is not a trivial issue. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has taken a position in this matter, as have the European Union Regulations on trademarks and geographical indications. However, the bilateral and multilateral agreements are the critical arena for conflicts concerning geographical terms’ qualification as common terms. The European Union (EU) and the United States (US) have been in the spotlight for a long time, while China is also reaching a prominent place in this dispute. The most recent bilateral agreements have been twisting the criteria applied when assessing a geographical term’s genericness.
How great is the negative impact of masking and social distancing and how can we enhance communication skills in the elderly people?
Authors: Brotto Davide , Sorrentino Flavia , Agostinelli Anna , Lovo Elisa , Montino Silvia , Trevisi Patrizia , Favaretto Niccolò , Bovo Roberto , Martini Alessandro
Published: March 2021

During COVID-19 pandemic, protective measures such as social distancing and face masks posed a challenge in daily communication, in this context the elderly are one of the most at risk categories as widely exposed to hearing loss. This article focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected verbal communication, especially on those people that even in normal conditions present an increased difficulty in speech perception. Special attention has been paid to hearing aids and cochlear implant users, these devices indeed can be affected by a speech intelligibility reduction and could be uncomfortable if used together with face masks. Possible alternatives and solutions will be proposed to reduce the negative impacts of face coverings on communication, to enhance speech intelligibility and to manage wearability of hearing rehabilitation devices.
An exploration of frictional and vibrational behaviors of textured deep groove ball bearing in the vicinity of requisite minimum load
Authors: Vidyasagar K. E. Ch. , Pandey R. K. , Kalyanasundaram Dinesh
Published: March 2021

In case of lightly loaded radial ball bearings, failure mechanisms other than fatigue such as smearing of raceways due to increased frictional torque and vibrations often prevail. Hence, attempts have been made herein for reducing the frictional torque and minimizing the vibrations of a radial deep groove ball bearing employing surface textures at the inner race. Nanosecond pulsed laser was used to create texture (involving micro-dimples having different dimple area density) on the inner race of test bearings. Using an in-house developed test rig, frictional torque and vibrational parameters were measured at different speeds and light loads (i.e. in vicinity of 0.01C, where C is dynamic load capacity of radial ball bearing). Significant reduction in frictional torque and overall vibrations were found in the presence of micro-dimples on inner race at light loads irrespective of operating speeds. Even without satisfying the minimum load needed criteria for the satisfactory operation, substantial reduction in smearing marks was found on the races of textured ball bearings in comparison to conventional cases.
Venture Capital-Backed Firms, Unavoidable Value-Destroying Trade Sales, and Fair Value Protections
Authors: Nigro Casimiro A. , Stahl Jörg R.
Published: March 2021

This paper investigates the implications of the fair value protections contemplated by the standard corporate contract (i.e., the standard contract form for which corporate law provides) for the entrepreneur–venture capitalist relationship, focusing, in particular, on unavoidable value-destroying trade sales. First, it demonstrates that the typical entrepreneur–venture capitalist contract does institutionalize the venture capitalist’s liquidity needs, allowing, under some circumstances, for counterintuitive instances of contractually-compliant value destruction. Unavoidable value-destroying trade sales are the most tangible example. Next, it argues that fair value protections can prevent the entrepreneur and venture capitalist from allocating the value that these transactions generate as they would want. Then, it shows that the reality of venture capital-backed firms calls for a process of adaptation of the standard corporate contract that has one major step in the deactivation or re-shaping of fair value protections. Finally, it argues that a standard corporate contract aiming to promote social welfare through venture capital should feature flexible fair value protections.
Kompensation und Stabilisierung
Authors: Nolte Paul
Published: March 2021

Soziale Marktwirtschaft bezeichnet für die Geschichte der Bundesrepublik keine reale, sondern eine diskursive Ordnung. In der Corona-Pandemie folgte die Politik bislang einer hyperkeynesianischen Prämisse: Der Staat sieht sich in der Verantwortung, die ökonomische Krise bis zur Unspürbarkeit auszugleichen. Die Kosten dieser Stabilisierungspolitik sind noch nicht erkennbar. Die Corona-Krise kann zum Katalysator eines Ausbaus des Sozialstaats und der Umwelt- und Klimapolitik werden.
Associations between frailty, physical performance, and renal biomarkers in older people with advanced chronic kidney disease
Authors: Smith George , Avenell Alison , Band Margaret M. , Hampson Geeta , Lamb Edmund J. , Littleford Roberta C. , McNamee Paul , Soiza Roy L. , Sumukadas Deepa , Witham Miles D.
Published: March 2021

Purpose

Impaired physical performance and frailty are common in older people with advanced chronic kidney disease but it is unclear which metabolic derangements contribute to these impairments. We, therefore, examined associations between renal biochemical markers and both physical performance and frailty in older people with advanced chronic kidney disease.

Methods

Secondary analysis of data from the BiCARB trial, which enrolled non-dialysing patients aged 60 and over, with chronic kidney disease stage 4/5, with serum bicarbonate < 22 mmol/L. Participants undertook the Short Physical Performance Battery, maximum grip strength and six-minute walk test at baseline, 3, 6, 12 and 24 months. Renal biochemistry (serum creatinine, cystatin C, phosphate, and bicarbonate), haemoglobin, 25-hydroxyvitamin D and NT-pro-B-type natriuretic peptide were measured at baseline. Associations between baseline renal biochemistry and physical performance, and between baseline biochemistry and the monthly rate of change in physical performance were assessed.

Results

We analysed data from 300 participants (mean age 74 years; 86 [29%] women). 148 (49%) were pre-frail, 86 (29%) were frail. In multivariable cross-sectional baseline analyses, only age and BMI were significantly associated with baseline short physical performance battery; age, sex, body mass index, NT-pro-BNP and 25-hydroxyvitamin D were significantly associated with baseline six-minute walk distance. No significant associations were found between biochemical markers and change in physical performance over time, except between baseline 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration and change in six-minute walk distance.

Conclusions

Biochemical markers associated with chronic kidney disease did not consistently associate with baseline physical performance or the rate of change of physical performance measures.

Trial Registration: ISRCTN09486651
Future search algorithm for optimal integration of distributed generation and electric vehicle fleets in radial distribution networks considering techno-environmental aspects
Authors: Janamala Varaprasad , Kamal Kumar U. , Pandraju Thandava Krishna Sai
Published: March 2021

In this paper, a new nature-inspire meta-heuristic algorithm called future search algorithm (FSA) is proposed for the first time to solve the simultaneous optimal allocation of distribution generation (DG) and electric vehicle (EV) fleets considering techno-environmental aspects in the operation and control of radial distribution networks (RDN). By imitating the human behavior in getting fruitful life, the FSA starts arbitrary search, discovers neighborhood best people in different nations and looks at worldwide best individuals to arrive at an ideal solution. A techno-environmental multi-objective function is formulated using real power loss, voltage stability index. The active and reactive power compensation limits and different operational constraints of RDN are considered while minimizing the proposed objective function. Post optimization, the impact of DGs on conventional energy sources is analyzed by evaluating their greenhouse gas emission. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is presented using different case studies on Indian practical 106-bus agriculture feeder for DGs and 36-bus rural residential feeder for simultaneous allocation of DGs and EV fleets. Also, the superiority of FSA in terms of global optima, convergence characteristics is compared with various other recent heuristic algorithms.
Allocation of the oat powdery mildew resistance gene Pm3 to oat chromosome 1A
Authors: Mohler Volker
Published: March 2021

Besides the mode of inheritance, the knowledge of the chromosome location and allelic relationships are the essentials towards a successful deployment and stacking of divergent disease resistance genes for a given pathogen in breeding programs. Powdery mildew of oats, to which 11 major resistance genes in the host Avena sativa L. have been characterized so far, is a prevalent fungal disease of the crop in Northwestern Europe. In the present study, the resistance gene Pm3 was mapped by linkage analysis relative to molecular markers from oat consensus linkage group Mrg18 which was recently determined to represent oat chromosome 1A. Pm3 was located at 67.7–72.6 cM on Mrg18 of the oat consensus map, a position at which also stem and crown rust resistance genes Pg13 and Pc91 and a large cluster of resistance gene analogs have been previously mapped. The closely linked marker GMI_ES03_c2277_336 was found to be useful for the prediction of Pm3 in gene postulation studies. Although the major effect of the widespread gene got lost over time, the known genome location with associated markers will assist revealing in future genetic studies whether there is a possible residual effect of the gene contributing to adult plant resistance.
Nature-Based Solutions and Circularity in Cities
Authors: Atanasova Nataša , Castellar Joana A.C. , Pineda-Martos Rocío , Nika Chrysanthy Elisabeth , Katsou Evina , Istenič Darja , Pucher Bernhard , Andreucci Maria Beatrice , Langergraber Guenter
Published: March 2021

Cities worldwide are facing a number of serious challenges including population growth, resource depletion, climate change, and degradation of ecosystems. To cope with these challenges, the transformation of our cities into sustainable systems using a holistic approach is required. The pathway to this urban transition is adopting the concept of circular economy for resource management. In this way, resources are kept and reused within the city. Nature-based solutions can be implemented for these tasks, and besides the circularity, they can provide additional benefits for the urbanites and the urban environment in general. This paper describes which urban challenges related to circularity can be addressed through nature-based solutions. This systematic review was developed within the COST Action CA17133 Circular City that investigates how nature-based solutions can be used to progress the circular economy in the urban built environment.
Effects of COVID-19 on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Authors: Shulla Kalterina , Voigt Bernd-Friedrich , Cibian Stefan , Scandone Giuseppe , Martinez Edna , Nelkovski Filip , Salehi Pourya
Published: March 2021

Global crises caused by the pandemic of COVID-19, since early 2020, can compromise the world commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This study discusses critical aspects of the global pandemic for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). More precisely, we analyze how the new circumstances created by the pandemic have affected the interdependencies between SDGs. Following a synopsis of the current literature, we focus on effects regarding SDG3 (Health & Well-Being), SDG4 (Quality Education), SDG8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth), SDG12 (Consumption & Production) and SDG13 (Climate Action). Following a qualitative research approach, we based our analysis on moderated focus group discussions (FGD). Our observations reveal a unique pattern of interconnectedness between SDGs that can be related to COVID-19 consequences. Qualitative interpretations of focus group discussions also depict, that additional spillover effects can be obstacles for achieving SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 9 (Infrastructure & Innovation) and SDG 10 (Reducing Inequalities), SDG 17 (partnerships for the goals), SDG 11 (sustainable cities). Therefore, we consider the interdependent implications and recent trends in international development related to sustainability as a useful framework in the post-pandemic recovery period.
Long-Time Trajectorial Large Deviations and Importance Sampling for Affine Stochastic Volatility Models
Authors: Grbac Zorana , Krief David , Tankov Peter
Published: March 2021

We establish a pathwise large deviation principle for affine stochastic volatility models introduced by Keller-Ressel (2011), and present an application to variance reduction for Monte Carlo computation of prices of path-dependent options in these models, extending the method developed by Genin and Tankov (2020) for exponential Lévy models. To this end, we apply an exponentially affine change of measure and use Varadhan’s lemma, in the fashion of Guasoni and Robertson (2008) and Robertson (2010), to approximate the problem of finding the measure that minimizes the variance of the Monte Carlo estimator. We test the method on the Heston model with and without jumps to demonstrate its numerical efficiency.
Branching processes with interactions: subcritical cooperative regime
Authors: González Casanova Adrián , Pardo Juan Carlos , Pérez José Luis
Published: March 2021

In this paper, we introduce a family of processes with values on the nonnegative integers that describes the dynamics of populations where individuals are allowed to have different types of interactions. The types of interactions that we consider include pairwise interactions, such as competition, annihilation, and cooperation; and interactions among several individuals that can be viewed as catastrophes. We call such families of processes branching processes with interactions. Our aim is to study their long-term behaviour under a specific regime of the pairwise interaction parameters that we introduce as the subcritical cooperative regime. Under such a regime, we prove that a process in this class comes down from infinity and has a moment dual which turns out to be a jump-diffusion that can be thought as the evolution of the frequency of a trait or phenotype, and whose parameters have a classical interpretation in terms of population genetics. The moment dual is an important tool for characterizing the stationary distribution of branching processes with interactions whenever such a distribution exists; it is also an interesting object in its own right.
Unravelling moral cognition in acquired brain injury: a scoping review
Authors: Lloyd Beth , Montoya Estrella R. , de Voogd Lycia D. , Oudman Erik
Published: March 2021

Background:

Acquired brain injury (ABI) is accompanied by impairments in social, emotional, cognitive and behavioural skills and highly prevalent in the population. Social and emotional skills are crucial for moral cognition, but the extent to which moral cognition contributes to social competence deficits in people with ABI is largely unclear.

Method:

To provide more insight on this topic, we conducted a scoping review according to the PRISMA guidelines. After screening 1269 articles that we obtained via PubMed and Scopus, we found 27 articles on moral cognition in ABI.

Results:

We encountered four important topics across these studies which include traumatic brain injury (TBI) versus non-TBI, the influence of the different approaches used to measure moral cognition in ABI, the role of age of onset and the role of location of the injury. Overall, evidence suggests that the earlier the brain damage occurred, the more this leads to impairments in moral cognitive functioning. The location of the injury furthermore seems to differentially affect the way impairments are manifested. Finally, we found that the use of different measurement approaches can heavily influence the interpretation of the impairment.

Conclusion:

We conclude that impairments in moral cognition in people with ABI are derived from a complex interplay between the age of onset, the location and the approach used to index moral cognition.