bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How to design a value-based Chatbot for the manufacturing industry: An empirical study of an internal assistance for employees
Authors: Berger Patrick , von Garrel Joerg
Published: November 2023

With regard to AI as a key technology, this scientific paper deals with the identification of user drivers on the purchase decision of a cooperative AI (as explainable AI—XAI), as well as the analysis of the willingness to pay in the context of value-based pricing. Besides the economic dimension with regard to usefulness and usability of the system, the focus is mainly on the (innovative) explainable character. The analysis is carried out by a choice-based conjoint analysis (CBC) using the example of an intelligent assistance system for employees that supports internal business processes and workflows in business organizations. For this purpose, fictitious purchase offers were created under which decision-makers in manufacturing business organizations in Germany made simulated purchase decisions. The analysis shows that the target group attach great utility value to transparency in the sense of explanatory content, in addition to a high degree of interactivity and a high level of reliability.
Operational envelope for planning cold flow production
Authors: Stanko Milan , Kvernland Martin , Lund Fredrik , Strømmegjerde Lars
Published: November 2023

The paper presents a method to determine an operational envelope for the cold flow technology with respect to producing gas–oil ratio (GOR) and water cut (WC). The cold flow technology is a flow assurance method that enables cold production flow in thermal equilibrium with the seabed temperature. Cold flow converts hydrate and wax into dry, non-plugging microparticles inside a subsea cold flow unit downstream the wellhead. The small particles travel along with the liquid in the form of a slurry to the receiving host. The operational envelope shows that if the production flow reaches certain combinations of GOR and Wc, the hydrate volume fraction in liquid and consequently the slurry’s effective viscosity could be too high for pipe transportation. This paper also investigates the case when the slurry is transported with remaining water, where there might be some emulsion phenomena. Results show that this could reduce the operational region of the cold flow envelope, particularly for GOR–Wc values around the inversion point volume fraction. Therefore, water–slurry emulsification should also be taken into consideration when considering the operational envelope. If the hydrate–oil mixture is found to be too viscous to transport it can be resolved by, for example, removing water from the production flow upstream the cold flow unit. GOR–WC profiles from a real field case are over-imposed on the operational envelope to see the development during the field lifetime. Tieback costs for the cold flow technology are found to be 20–30% less than conventional methods for a 100 km tieback. The relative cost reduction increases with increasing tieback distance.
The Effect of Body-Focused Positive Psychology Interventions on Behavioural Intentions, Body Esteem, and Body Compassion
Authors: Dennis Amelia , Ogden Jane
Published: November 2023

Positive psychology interventions increase well-being and some health outcomes. In this experimental study, we assessed three positive psychology interventions (nostalgia, gratitude, and best possible self (BPS) as a means to manage weight, diet and activity and increase body esteem. Participants (n = 178) who had gained weight during the pandemic were randomly assigned to one of four interventions: nostalgia, gratitude, BPS, or control. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention measures of behavioural intentions and body esteem, as well as outcome measures of body compassion and affect. The results showed significant differences by intervention for intention to lose weight, intention to diet, intention to exercise, body kindness, and positive and negative affect. The BPS intervention increased intention to lose weight, whereas the gratitude intervention increased intention to exercise, aspects of body compassion, positive affect, but reduced the intention to lose weight and negative affect. Overall, positive psychology interventions promote body compassion and positive health behaviour intentions and therefore may have the potential to help manage weight.
Social network analysis of manga: similarities to real-world social networks and trends over decades
Authors: Sugishita Kashin , Masuda Naoki
Published: November 2023

Manga, Japanese comics, has been popular on a global scale. Social networks among characters, which are often called character networks, may be a significant contributor to their popularity. We collected data from 162 popular manga that span over 70 years and analyzed their character networks. First, we found that many of static and temporal properties of the character networks are similar to those of real human social networks. Second, the character networks of most manga are protagonist-centered such that a single protagonist interacts with the majority of other characters. Third, the character networks for manga mainly targeting boys have shifted to denser and less protagonist-centered networks and with fewer characters over decades. Manga mainly targeting girls showed the opposite trend except for the downward trend in the number of characters. The present study, which relies on manga data sampled on an unprecedented scale, paves the way for further population studies of character networks and other aspects of comics.
Measuring social value orientation by model-based scoring
Authors: Mizuno Keiko , Shimizu Hiroshi
Published: November 2023

This study proposes a method of measuring social value orientation using model-based scoring and a task suitable for such scoring. We evaluated this method by means of parameter recovery simulation (Study 1), and we examined its retest reliability (Study 2) and its predictive validity (Study 3). The results indicate that the proposed method has low bias and sufficient predictive validity. While the improvement in predictive validity of altruism was negligible and comparable to previous scoring methods in terms of confidence intervals, the measurement of equality using the proposed model and task combination produced a moderate correlation that was not observed with other methods. Although SVO is a concept used primarily in psychology, the model assumed in this study is mathematically equivalent to a well-known economics model. We, therefore, suggest that this method may lead to cross-disciplinary research.
Generalization of graph network inferences in higher-order graphical models
Authors: Fei Yicheng , Pitkow Xaq
Published: November 2023

Probabilistic graphical models provide a powerful tool to describe complex statistical structure, with many real-world applications in science and engineering from controlling robotic arms to understanding neuronal computations. A major challenge for these graphical models is that inferences such as marginalization are intractable for general graphs. These inferences are often approximated by a distributed message-passing algorithm such as Belief Propagation, which does not always perform well on graphs with cycles, nor can it always be easily specified for complex continuous probability distributions. Such difficulties arise frequently in expressive graphical models that include intractable higher-order interactions. In this paper we define the Recurrent Factor Graph Neural Network (RF-GNN) to achieve fast approximate inference on graphical models that involve many-variable interactions. Experimental results on several families of graphical models demonstrate the out-of-distribution generalization capability of our method to different sized graphs, and indicate the domain in which our method outperforms Belief Propagation (BP). Moreover, we test the RF-GNN on a real-world Low-Density Parity-Check dataset as a benchmark along with other baseline models including BP variants and other GNN methods. Overall we find that RF-GNNs outperform other methods under high noise levels.
Trends in frailty in brain tumor care during the COVID-19 pandemic in a nationwide hospital network in Germany
Authors: Hong Bujung , Allam Ali , Heese Oliver , Gerlach Rüdiger , Gheewala Hussain , Rosahl Steffen K. , Stoffel Michael , Ryang Yu-Mi , Burger Ralf , Carl Barbara , Kristof Rudolf A. , Westermaier Thomas , Terzis Jorge , Youssef Farid , Kuhlen Ralf , Hohenstein Sven , Bollmann Andreas , Dengler Julius
Published: November 2023

Purpose

Among brain tumor patients, frailty is associated with poor outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased frailty in the general population. To date, evidence on changes in frailty among brain tumor patients during the pandemic is lacking. We aimed to compare frailty among brain tumor patients in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic to the pre-pandemic era and to assess potential effects on brain tumor care.

Methods

In this retrospective observational study, we compared frailty among brain tumor patients hospitalized during the COVID-19 pandemic in years 2020 through 2022 to pre-pandemic years 2016 through 2019 based on administrative data from a nationwide network of 78 hospitals in Germany. Using the Hospital Frailty Risk Score (HFRS), frailty was categorized as low, intermediate, or high. We examined changes in frailty, patient demographics, the burden of comorbidity, rates of surgery, and mortality rates for different frailty groups during the pandemic and compared them to pre-pandemic levels.

Results

Of the 20,005 included hospitalizations for brain tumors, 7979 were during the pandemic (mean age 60.0 years (± 18.4); females: 49.8%), and 12,026 in the pre-pandemic period (mean age: 59.0 years [± 18.4]; females: 49.2%). Average daily admissions decreased from 8.2 (± 5.1) during pre-pandemic years to 7.3 (± 4.5) during the pandemic (p < 0.01). The overall median HFRS decreased from 3.1 (IQR: 0.9–7.3) during the pre-pandemic years to 2.6 (IQR: 0.3–6.8) during the pandemic (p < 0.01). At the same time, the Elixhauser Comorbidity Index (ECI) decreased from 17.0 (± 12.4) to 16.1 (± 12.0; p < 0.01), but to a larger degree among high compared to low frailty cases (by 1.8 vs. 0.3 points; p = 0.04). In the entire cohort, the mean length of stay was significantly shorter in the pandemic period (9.5 days [± 10.7]) compared with pre-pandemic levels (10.2 days [± 11.8]; p < 0.01) with similar differences in the three frailty groups. Rates of brain tumor resection increased from 29.9% in pre-pandemic years to 36.6% during the pandemic (p < 0.001) without differences between frailty levels. Rates of in-hospital mortality did not change during the pandemic (6.1% vs. 6.7%, p = 0.07), and there was no interaction with frailty.

Conclusion

Even though our findings are limited in that the HFRS is validated only for patients ≥ 75 years of age, our study among patients of all ages hospitalized for brain tumors in Germany suggests a marked decrease in levels of frailty and in the burden of comorbidities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Towards efficient video-based action recognition: context-aware memory attention network
Authors: Koh Thean Chun , Yeo Chai Kiat , Jing Xuan , Sivadas Sunil
Published: November 2023

Given the prevalence of surveillance cameras in our daily lives, human action recognition from videos holds significant practical applications. A persistent challenge in this field is to develop more efficient models capable of real-time recognition with high accuracy for widespread implementation. In this research paper, we introduce a novel human action recognition model named Context-Aware Memory Attention Network (CAMA-Net), which eliminates the need for optical flow extraction and 3D convolution which are computationally intensive. By removing these components, CAMA-Net achieves superior efficiency compared to many existing approaches in terms of computation efficiency. A pivotal component of CAMA-Net is the Context-Aware Memory Attention Module, an attention module that computes the relevance score between key-value pairs obtained from the 2D ResNet backbone. This process establishes correspondences between video frames. To validate our method, we conduct experiments on four well-known action recognition datasets: ActivityNet, Diving48, HMDB51 and UCF101. The experimental results convincingly demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed model, surpassing the performance of existing 2D-CNN based baseline models.

Article Highlights

Recent human action recognition models are not yet ready for practical applications due to high computation needs.

We propose a 2D CNN-based human action recognition method to reduce the computation load.

The proposed method achieves competitive performance compared to most SOTA 2D CNN-based methods on public datasets.
AI and the quest for diversity and inclusion: a systematic literature review
Authors: Shams Rifat Ara , Zowghi Didar , Bano Muneera
Published: November 2023

The pervasive presence and wide-ranging variety of artificial intelligence (AI) systems underscore the necessity for inclusivity and diversity in their design and implementation, to effectively address critical issues of fairness, trust, bias, and transparency. However, diversity and inclusion (D&I) considerations are significantly neglected in AI systems design, development, and deployment. Ignoring D&I in AI systems can cause digital redlining, discrimination, and algorithmic oppression, leading to AI systems being perceived as untrustworthy and unfair. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the challenges and their corresponding solutions (guidelines/ strategies/ approaches/ practices) about D&I in AI and about the applications of AI for D&I practices. Through a rigorous search and selection, 48 relevant academic papers published from 2017 to 2022 were identified. By applying open coding on the extracted data from the selected papers, we identified 55 unique challenges and 33 unique solutions in addressing D&I in AI. We also identified 24 unique challenges and 23 unique solutions for enhancing D&I practices by AI. The result of our analysis and synthesis of the selected studies contributes to a deeper understanding of diversity and inclusion issues and considerations in the design, development and deployment of the AI ecosystem. The findings would play an important role in enhancing awareness and attracting the attention of researchers and practitioners in their quest to embed D&I principles and practices in future AI systems. This study also identifies important gaps in the research literature that will inspire future direction for researchers.
Long-term outcomes of COVID-19 survivors and an exploratory analysis of factors associated with sequela-free survival of patients treated at Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China
Authors: Huang Dan , Chen Caiyang , Xuan Wei , Pan Shuting , Fu Zhiwei , Chen Jian , Li Wenhui , Jiang Xin , Zhao Hongpan , Zhou Xun , Zhang Liyang , Chen Sihan , Feng Zhaoyan , Jiang Xuliang , Huang Lili , Zhang Xiao , Zhu Hui , Zhang Song , Yu Weifeng , Su Diansan
Published: November 2023

Purpose

While coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a global pandemic, millions of patients with COVID-19 have recovered and returned to their families and work, although the key factors of sequela-free survival remain unknown. Here we determine key factors associated with sequela-free survival of patients with COVID-19.

Methods

Sequela-free survival is defined as having none of the long-term sequelae measured with the Activity of Daily Living (ADL) Scale, modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) Dyspnoea Scale, New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification, Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Carcinologic Handicap Index (CHI) and Modified Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS-M). Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the key factors of sequela-free survival.

Results

The follow-up period for the 464 patients was 10 August to 30 September 2020. Of these, 424 patients completed the assessment of all scales. 30.2% (128 of 424) were categorised as sequela-free at follow-up. The most common sequelae were psychosocial problems (254 [57.7%]), respiratory function abnormality (149 [32.6%]) and cardiac function abnormality (98 [21.5%]). Risk factors associated with COVID-19 sequelae were anaemia on admission, longer duration from the onset of symptoms to admission and increasing of age, whereas anaemia treatment was a protective factor against sequelae. A haemoglobin level of < 113 g/L for female patients or < 92 g/L for male patients at admission discriminated a likely higher risk of any COVID-19 sequelae.

Conclusions

Only one third COVID-19 survivors were sequela-free. Anaemia on admission, longer duration from the onset of symptoms to admission and increasing of age were the risk factors of any long-term sequela. Anaemia treatment was associated with beneficial outcomes in COVID-19 survivors.
Klimasensible Gesundheitsberatung
Authors: Herrmann Alina , Mews Claudia , Hansen Heike , Lenzer Benedikt , Schwienhorst-Stich Eva-Maria , Quitmann Claudia
Published: November 2023

Die negativen Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf die Gesundheit werden zunehmend spürbar. Zudem liegt im Klimaschutz großes Potenzial für die Gesundheitsförderung. Im Praxisalltag können Themen zu Klimawandel und Gesundheit in die Beratung von Patient:innen integriert werden. Ziele sind der Schutz und die Förderung der individuellen und öffentlichen Gesundheit sowie weitere klima- und gesundheitsrelevante Aspekte. Inhalte einer solchen „klimasensiblen Gesundheitsberatung“ (KSGB) können Informationen über gesundheitliche Auswirkungen des Klimawandels und entsprechende Schutzmaßnahmen, Aufklärung zu gesunden und klimafreundlichen Lebensstilen oder seltener auch gesellschaftliche Aspekte sein. Bei der Integration von KSGB in Sprechstunde und Praxisabläufe finden bekannte Strategien aus der Gesundheits- und Klimawandelkommunikation Anwendung, v. a. patient:innenzentrierte Kommunikation, motivierende Gesprächsführung oder der differenzierte und offene Umgang mit klimabezogenen Gefühlen.
Real-world data to evaluate effects of a multi-level dissemination strategy on access, outcomes, and equity of monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19
Authors: Hamer Mika K. , Sobczak Chelsea , Whittington Lindsey , Bowyer Rachel L. , Koren Ramona , Begay Joel A. , Lum Hillary D. , Ginde Adit A. , Wynia Matthew K. , Kwan Bethany M.
Published: November 2023

Introduction:

Multi-level dissemination strategies are needed to increase equitable access to effective treatment for high-risk outpatients with COVID-19, particularly among patients from disproportionately affected communities. Yet assessing population-level impact of such strategies can be challenging.

Methods:

In collaboration with key contributors in Colorado, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to evaluate a multi-level dissemination strategy for neutralizing monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment. Real-world data included county-level, de-identified output from a statewide mAb referral registry linked with publicly available epidemiological data. Outcomes included weekly number of mAb referrals, unique referring clinicians, and COVID-19 hospitalization rates. We assessed weekly changes in outcomes after dissemination strategies launched in July 2021.

Results:

Overall, mAb referrals increased from a weekly average of 3.0 to 15.5, with an increase of 1.3 to 42.1 additional referrals per county in each post-period week (p < .05). Number of referring clinicians increased from a weekly average of 2.2 to 9.7, with an additional 1.5 to 22.2 unique referring clinicians observed per county per week beginning 5 weeks post-launch (p < .001). Larger effects were observed in communities specifically prioritized by the dissemination strategies. There were no observed differences in COVID-19 hospitalization rates between counties with and without mAb treatment sites.

Conclusion:

Real-world data can be used to estimate population impact of multi-level dissemination strategies. The launch of these strategies corresponded with increases in mAb referrals, but no apparent population-level effects on hospitalization outcomes. Strengths of this analytic approach include pragmatism and efficiency, whereas limitations include inability to control for other contemporaneous trends.
Much Ado About Nothing? Reflections on the European Commission’s Proposal for an Inter-institutional Ethics Body
Authors: Petropoulou Ionescu Danai , Năstase Andreea
Published: November 2023

On 8 June 2023, the European Commission published a long-awaited proposal for the establishment of an interinstitutional ethics body, meant to restore the public’s faith in the European Union’s administration following the Qatargate corruption scandal. Alas, the Commission’s proposal outlines a body that lacks investigative and sanctioning powers, has minimal administrative capacity and for the most part relies on the institution’s own policing. Put simply, it falls short of the promises made by the Commission’s President in her 2019 political guidelines, and much shorter of what was expected as a remedy to the European Union’s recent ethics-related scandals. In this short piece, we reflect on the Commission’s proposal for an inter-institutional ethics body in light of the overall ethics framework in the Union and provide a brief analysis of the Commission’s missed opportunity and of what could have been.
Active control of coupling and its effect on near-field pressure fluctuations in supersonic rectangular twin jets
Authors: Leahy R. , Esfahani A. , Webb N. , Samimy M.
Published: November 2023

Supersonic rectangular twin jets (SRTJ) are of interest for current and future generations of tactical aircraft. However, the adverse effects of screech-loop coupling have previously been documented to significantly increase the near-field (NF) pressure fluctuations. These high-amplitude pressure fluctuations have the potential to fatigue and damage nearby aft components of the aircraft. Previous studies have documented that the NF pressure fluctuation level depends on the coupling of the jets: in-phase coupling along the twin jets’ minor axes produces stronger NF pressure fluctuations than that of out-of-phase coupling. The objective of this work is to further investigate the effects of coupling modes on NF pressure fluctuations in SRTJ and to mitigate the adverse effects of coupling using active flow control. Localized arc filament plasma actuators are employed to alter the SRTJs’ coupling mode by leveraging natural flow instabilities with minimal power input. A NF microphone array is used for simultaneous coupling and NF pressure fluctuation measurements. Schlieren imaging and spectral proper orthogonal decomposition are used to assess the effects of control on the flow field. The effect of excitation at various frequencies and actuation patterns on coupling and NF pressure fluctuations in different flow regimes are explored and discussed.
On the settling of aligned spherical particles in various quiescent media
Authors: Kang Soohyeon , Hong Liu , Cheng Shyuan , Best James L. , Chamorro Leonardo P.
Published: November 2023

We investigated experimentally the settling behaviour of vertically aligned spherical particles within various quiescent media at different release frequencies. The particles had a diameter of

$d = 4$

mm and density of

$\rho _s = 2200$

kg m

$^{-3}$

, and were released near the free surface of water, ethanol, a G60 water–glycerine mixture (60 % glycerine by weight) and oil media at frequencies of

$f_P = 4$

, 6 and 8 Hz, thereby allowing study of Galileo numbers,

$Ga \in [16, 976]$

. Particle tracking velocimetry quantified the motion of nearly 800 particles in a 600 mm high tank, and particle image velocimetry examined flow patterns around the particles. Results revealed that the centre of mass of the particle trajectories exhibited preferential in-plane motions, with significant lateral dispersion and large

$Ga$

in water and ethanol, and nearly vertical paths with low

$Ga$

in the G60 mixture and oil media. Varying degrees of particle separation resulted in higher terminal velocities than for a single particle. Hence, particle drag decreased in all cases, with the oil medium showing the highest drag reduction under the closest particle separation, reaching up to nearly 70 % of that for the single particle. The vertical and lateral pair dispersions,

$R^2_z$

and

$R^2_L$

, exhibited ballistic scaling, with dependences on the initial separation,

$r_0$

, and the type of medium. With large

$Ga$

,

$R^2_z$

displayed a ballistic regime followed by a slower rate, whereas with small

$Ga$

,

$R^2_z$

maintained a consistent ballistic regime throughout settling. Finally, normalized

$R^2_z$

demonstrated distinct scaling (exponent 2/3 and 1) dependent on the normalized initial separation and

$Ga$

.
Population monitoring of a Critically Endangered antelope, the mountain bongo, using camera traps and a novel identification scheme
Authors: Sandri Tommy , Prettejohn Mike , Omengo Fred , Cain Bradley , Jones Martin , Harris W. Edwin
Published: November 2023

Conservation monitoring is paramount for the gathering of information on species and populations in need of conservation actions. However, monitoring of the mountain bongo Tragelaphus eurycerus isaaci, a Critically Endangered antelope endemic to Kenya, has hitherto been limited to surveillance (i.e. focused on persistence of the species in particular areas), thus limiting the information that could be retrieved on the status and trends of these populations. Using a newly developed identification system, we implemented robust design mark–recapture using existing camera-trap records of four wild subpopulations of the bongo. We provide data on sex and age structure and the first estimates of population size in the wild. Males and calves seem to be suffering higher mortality than females, and only two of the four monitored populations include adults of both sexes and calves. The combined size of these two breeding populations is estimated to be 29–50. Our findings confirm the critical situation of the mountain bongo in the wild and highlight the need for conservation actions to reinforce the wild populations for the long-term conservation of this antelope.
White Coats with Blue Collars: Doctors’ Labor Protests and the Struggle for Democracy in Brazil, 1978–1982
Authors: Weinberg Eyal
Published: November 2023

This article explores the labor struggles of doctors in late 1970s and early 1980s Brazil, the final years of the nation's dictatorship. Health workers' protests for better salaries and working conditions were extensive and reflected a dramatic change in the way medical practitioners in Brazil perceived their professional and political identities. Fusing together histories of medicine and labor, the article shows how physicians not only led strikes and unionized by their tens of thousands but also collaborated with blue-collar sectors in a larger struggle for working rights, access to healthcare, and structural reforms. Dictatorship officials, the article reveals, were significantly concerned by hospital strikes and particularly by the emerging cross-sector alliance. In this sense, the doctors' movement played a significant role in challenging Brazil's military rule and advancing the nation's transition to democracy.
International memories in global politics: Making the case for or against UN intervention in Libya and Syria
Authors: Bachleitner Kathrin
Published: November 2023

This paper is interested in the role and function of memories in United Nations Security Council debates about humanitarian intervention. It posits that historical experiences and their lessons serve as interpretative devices for the abstract international norms and principles under discussion. The paper speaks of ‘international memories’ where the meaning and lessons derived from the past coalesce among a group of states. Empirically, its case study explores how the memories of totalitarianism/fascism and colonialism were employed in United Nations (UN) representatives’ verbal pleas to intervene in Libya and Syria after the Arab Spring. It finds that those who supported or opposed humanitarian intervention held different interpretations of these memories and their lessons. In each case, however, memories provided essential normative guidance to states when it came to implementing the abstract international principles, norms, and rights that underlie humanitarian intervention.
Learner engagement regulation of dual-user training based on deep reinforcement learning
Authors: Yang Yang , Liu Xing , Liu Zhengxiong , Huang Panfeng
Published: November 2023

The dual-user training system is essential for fostering motor skill learning, particularly in complex operations. However, the challenge lies in the optimal tradeoff between trainee ability and engagement level. To address this problem, we propose an intelligent agent that coordinates trainees’ control authority during real task engagement to ensure task safety during training. Our approach avoids the need for manually set control authority by expert supervision. At the same time, it does not rely on pre-modeling the trainee’s skill development. The intelligent agent uses a deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithm based on trainee performance to adjust adaptive engagement during the training process. Our investigation aims to provide reasonable engagement for trainees to improve their skills while ensuring task safety. Our results demonstrate that this system can seek the policy to maximize trainee participation while guaranteeing task safety.
Multi-modal interaction with transformers: bridging robots and human with natural language
Authors: Wang Shaochen , Zhou Zhangli , Li Bin , Li Zhijun , Kan Zhen
Published: November 2023

The language-guided visual robotic grasping task focuses on enabling robots to grasp objects based on human language instructions. However, real-world human-robot collaboration tasks often involve situations with ambiguous language instructions and complex scenarios. These challenges arise in the understanding of linguistic queries, discrimination of key concepts in visual and language information, and generation of executable grasping configurations for the robot’s end-effector. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel multi-modal transformer-based framework in this study, which assists robots in localizing spatial interactions of objects using text queries and visual sensing. This framework facilitates object grasping in accordance with human instructions. Our developed framework consists of two main components. First, a visual-linguistic transformer encoder is employed to model multi-modal interactions for objects referred to in the text. Second, the framework performs joint spatial localization and grasping. Extensive ablation studies have been conducted on multiple datasets to evaluate the advantages of each component in our model. Additionally, physical experiments have been performed with natural language-driven human-robot interactions on a physical robot to validate the practicality of our approach.
Association between face mask use and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection: Cross-sectional study
Authors: Elgersma Ingeborg Hess , Fretheim Atle , Elstrøm Petter , Aavitsland Preben
Published: November 2023

We examined the association between face masks and risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 using cross-sectional data from 3,209 participants in a randomized trial exploring the effectiveness of glasses in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Face mask use was based on participants’ response to the end-of-follow-up survey. We found that the incidence of self-reported COVID-19 was 33% (aRR 1.33; 95% CI 1.03–1.72) higher in those wearing face masks often or sometimes, and 40% (aRR 1.40; 95% CI 1.08–1.82) higher in those wearing face masks almost always or always, compared to participants who reported wearing face masks never or almost never. We believe the observed increase in the incidence of infection associated with wearing a face mask is likely due to unobservable and hence nonadjustable differences between those wearing and not wearing a mask. Observational studies reporting on the relationship between face mask use and risk of respiratory infections should be interpreted cautiously, and more randomized trials are needed.
In vitro maturation in synthetic oviductal fluid increases gene expression associated with quality and lipid metabolism in bovine oocytes
Authors: Mendes Adriano Felipe , Puelker Raquel Zaneti , Souza Lilian Francisco Arantes de , Jacintho Andréa Renesto Coimbra , dos Santos Priscila Helena , Giometti Ines Cristina , Firetti Sheila Merlo , Castilho Anthony César de Souza , Zundt Marilice , Membrive Claudia Maria Bertan , Castilho Caliê
Published: November 2023

Traditionally, in vitro oocyte and embryo culture progresses through a series of varying culture medium. To investigate simplifying the in vitro production of bovine cumulus–oocyte complexes (COCs), this study used synthetic oviductal fluid (SOF) supplemented with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Special interest was placed on gene expression linked to lipid metabolism and oocyte maturation. COCs were matured in different media: Medium 199 (M199 group), M199 with 100 μM CLA (M199 + CLA group), SOF (SOF group), and SOF with 100 μM CLA (SOF + CLA group). COCs matured with SOF showed a higher relative abundance of mRNA of quality indicators gremlin 1 (GREM1) and prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 2 (PTGS2) in oocytes, and GREM1 in cumulus cells compared with in the M199 group. SOF medium COCs had a higher relative abundance of fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2) compared with the M199 group, which is essential for lipid metabolism in oocytes. Furthermore, the abundance of stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase 1 (SCD1) in oocytes matured with SOF was not influenced by the addition of CLA, whereas the relative abundance of SCD1 was reduced in M199 medium with CLA. We concluded that maturation in SOF medium results in a greater abundance of genes linked to quality and lipidic metabolism in oocytes, regardless of the addition of CLA.
Calibration of transition risk for corporate bonds
Authors: Sharpe J. , Ginghina F , Mehta G. , Smith A.D.
Published: November 2023

Under the European Union’s Solvency II regulations, insurance firms are required to use a one-year VaR (Value at Risk) approach. This involves a one-year projection of the balance sheet and requires sufficient capital to be solvent in 99.5% of outcomes. The Solvency II Internal Model risk calibrations require annual changes in market indices/term structure/transitions for the estimation of the risk distribution for each of the Internal Model risk drivers.

Transition and default risk are typically modelled using transition matrices. To model this risk requires a model of transition matrices and how these can change from year to year. In this paper, four such models have been investigated and compared to the raw data they are calibrated to. The models investigated are:

A bootstrapping approach – sampling from an historical data set with replacement.

The Vašíček model was calibrated using the Belkin approach.

The K-means model – a new non-parametric model produced using the K-means clustering algorithm.

A two-factor model – a new parametric model, using two factors (instead of a single factor with the Vašíček) to represent each matrix.

The models are compared in several ways:

1.

A principal components analysis (PCA) approach that compares how closely the models move compared to the raw data.

2.

A backtesting approach that compares how each model’s extreme percentile compares to regulatory backtesting requirements.

3.

A commentary on the amount of expert judgement in each model.

4.

Model simplicity and breadth of uses are also commented on.
Species distribution modelling and population genetic analysis ofYushania anceps; an endemic temperate woody bamboo of the Uttarakhand Himalayas
Authors: Meena Rajendra K. , Negi Nitika , Bhandari Maneesh S. , Shankhwar Rajeev , Yadav Abhishek , Kant Rama , Pandey Shailesh , Sharma Rajesh
Published: November 2023

Yushania ancepsis a temperate woody bamboo taxon of high socio-economic importance occurring in the sub-alpine zone of the western Himalayas. This study was carried out to delineate the potential distribution ofY. ancepsin the western Himalayas through species distribution modelling (SDM), and genetic characterization using sequence-tagged microsatellite (STMS) markers. The present study revealed an endemic distribution of this species in the Uttarakhand Himalayas, with an estimated area of 211.59 km2. The maximum probability of occurrence was recorded in the moderately dense forests between the altitudinal ranges of 2500 and 2700 m. The model output was well supported with high values of different statistical measures, such as the AUC (0.911) and Kappa coefficient (K= 0.513). Environmental variables related to precipitation, temperature and topography were identified as the most contributory in current SDM. In addition, diversity measures, namely allelic richness (Ar), expected heterozygosity (He), and fixation index (FST), were calculated in five sampled populations with eight STMS markers, which indicated high genetic diversity (Ar = 4.24; He = 0.689) and little differentiation (FST= 0.062). The diversity maps displayed that the populations located in the Kumaon region captured relatively more genetic diversity than the Garhwal region. Further, genetic clustering and STRUCTURE analysis revealed a substantial level of genetic admixing across the analysed populations, and as a result, no sub-structuring was detected. Due to the rare and endemic distribution ofY. anceps, it requires immediate conservation measures, and the knowledge base generated here will be of paramount importance to forest managers, researchers and policymakers.
Reappraising the Narrative of Dato Mogul and Singora's Early History
Authors: Khoo Benjamin J.Q. , Dalrymple Graham H.
Published: November 2023

This article surveys and analyses the available materials on Dato Mogul, the putative first ruler of Singora (present-day Songkhla) in the early seventeenth century. It argues that the narrative in Thailand surrounding Dato Mogul and his emergence is sketchy at best. In reviewing the literature and drawing on new and extant primary sources, we argue that Dato Mogul was likely a Malay governor authorised by Ligor. This reappraisal presents a more accurate biographical narrative and provides greater insight on polity formation in Lower Siam in the period under review.
Losing Awareness of Our Surroundings?
Authors: Riggs Elizabeth E. , Knobloch-Westerwick Silvia
Published: November 2023

Abstract: Narrative messages have demonstrated consistent effects on attitude change, with transportation as one of the most prominent explanations for their effects. However, the transportation process has yet to be fully understood. The present study investigated how attentional changes during audio narrative exposure, operationalized as secondary task reaction times, related to postexposure self-reports of transportation. Results demonstrated, unexpectedly, that faster reaction times were associated with increased transportation. Additionally, the study investigated multitasking propensity as a moderator, finding that low multitaskers exhibited slower reaction times during narrative compared to nonnarrative exposure whereas high multitaskers showed no differences in reaction time for narratives compared to nonnarratives. There were no differences in self-reported transportation for high and low multitaskers. The findings revealed limitations of the transportation self-report measure to capture attention, while highlighting the nuanced relationship between attention and transportation.
A Deformed Wedge‐Top Basin Inverted During the Collapse of the Variscan Belt: The Permo‐Carboniferous Lorraine Basin (NE France)
Authors: Hemelsdaël R. , Averbuch O. , Beccaletto L. , Izart A. , Marc S. , Capar L. , Michels R.
Published: November 2023

A new structural model is presented for the Permo‐Carboniferous Lorraine Basin (NE France), a major intramountain basin that developed during the latest stages of the Variscan orogeny (ca. 315–270 Ma). Digitalized well logs and reprocessed seismic data were used to decipher the kinematic evolution of this basin located along the Rhenohercynian orogenic suture zone. The basin was initiated during the late collision stage (Early to Middle Pennsylvanian) in a wedge‐top position upon the Saxothuringian retro‐wedge. The syn‐orogenic sequence is delimited to the north by the major SE‐verging Metz Thrust, which is part of the backthrust system that propagated during Middle Pennsylvanian (Late Westphalian). Seismic data provide evidence of negative tectonic inversion, allowing the formation of syn‐rift depocenters (Late Pennsylvanian‐Early Permian) above the former anticlines. Erosion of these anticlines results in a major unconformity marking the onset of post‐orogenic collapse. The late Early Permian shortening (Saalian phase) is suggested to reactivate former thrusts and normal faults, thus generating late uplift of the basin. The post‐orogenic phase is complex and diachronous at basin scale, and both compression and extension can be recorded in the same area over a short period (<10 Myr). The Late Carboniferous negative tectonic inversion along the Rhenohercynian suture zone is proposed to result from the lithospheric delamination of the Variscan orogenic roots. The associated upwelling of asthenospheric material is recorded by intense magmatic activity, and can be, in turn, considered as the main trigger for the subsequent thermal subsidence of the Mesozoic Paris Basin.
A Sea State Dependent Gas Transfer Velocity for CO2 Unifying Theory, Model, and Field Data
Authors: Zhou Xiaohui , Reichl Brandon G. , Romero Leonel , Deike Luc
Published: November 2023

Wave breaking induced bubbles contribute a significant part of air‐sea gas fluxes. Recent modeling of the sea state dependent CO2 flux found that bubbles contribute up to ∼40% of the total CO2 air‐sea fluxes (Reichl & Deike, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020gl087267). In this study, we implement the sea state dependent bubble gas transfer formulation of Deike and Melville (2018, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl078758) into a spectral wave model (WAVEWATCH III) incorporating the spectral modeling of the wave breaking distribution from Romero (2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl083408). We evaluate the accuracy of the sea state dependent gas transfer parameterization against available measurements of CO2 gas transfer velocity from 9 data sets (11 research cruises, see Yang et al. (2022, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.826421)). The sea state dependent parameterization for CO2 gas transfer velocity is consistent with observations, while the traditional wind‐only parameterization used in most global models slightly underestimates the observations of gas transfer velocity. We produce a climatology of the sea state dependent gas transfer velocity using reanalysis wind and wave data spanning 1980–2017. The climatology shows that the enhanced gas transfer velocity occurs frequently in regions with developed sea states (with strong wave breaking and high significant wave height). The present study provides a general sea state dependent parameterization for gas transfer, which can be implemented in global coupled models.
Understanding the Contributions of Paleo‐Informed Natural Variability and Climate Changes to Hydroclimate Extremes in the San Joaquin Valley of California
Authors: Gupta Rohini S. , Steinschneider Scott , Reed Patrick M.
Published: November 2023

To aid California's water sector to better understand and manage future climate extremes, we present a method for creating a regionally consistent ensemble of plausible daily future climate and streamflow scenarios that represent natural climate variability captured in a network of tree‐ring chronologies, and then embed anthropogenic climate change trends within those scenarios. We use 600 years of paleo‐reconstructed weather regimes to force a stochastic weather generator, which we develop for five subbasins in the San Joaquin Valley of California. To assess the compound effects of climate change, we create temperature series that reflect projected scenarios of warming and precipitation series that have been scaled to reflect thermodynamically driven shifts in the distribution of daily precipitation. We then use these weather scenarios to force hydrologic models for each of the five subbasins. The paleo‐forced streamflow scenarios highlight periods in the region's past that produce flood and drought extremes that surpass those in the modern record and exhibit large non‐stationarity through the reconstruction. Variance decomposition is employed to characterize the contribution of natural variability and climate change to variability in decision‐relevant metrics related to floods and drought. Our results show that a large portion of variability in individual subbasin and spatially compounding extreme events can be attributed to natural variability, but that anthropogenic climate changes become more influential at longer planning horizons. The joint importance of climate change and natural variability in shaping extreme floods and droughts is critical to resilient water systems planning and management in the San Joaquin.
Ecosystem CO2 Exchange and Its Economic Implications in Northern Permafrost Regions in the 21st Century
Authors: Mu Cuicui , Mo Xiaoxiao , Qiao Yuan , Chen Yating , Wei Yuguo , Mu Mei , Song Jinyue , Li Zhilong , Zhang Wenxin , Peng Xiaoqing , Zhang Guofei , Zhuang Qianlai , Aurela Mika
Published: November 2023

Climate warming increases carbon assimilation by plant growth and also accelerates permafrost CO2 emissions; however, the overall ecosystem CO2 balance in permafrost regions and its economic impacts remain largely unknown. Here we synthesize in situ measurements of net ecosystem CO2 exchange to assess current and future carbon budgets across the northern permafrost regions using the random forest model and calculate their economic implications under the Shared Socio‐economic Pathways (SSPs) based on the PAGE‐ICE model. We estimate a contemporary CO2 emission of 1,539 Tg C during the nongrowing season and CO2 uptake of 2,330 Tg C during the growing season, respectively. Air temperature and precipitation exert the most control over the net ecosystem exchange in the nongrowing season, while leaf area index plays a more important role in the growing season. This region will probably shift to a carbon source after 2,057 under SSP5‐8.5, with a net emission of 17 Pg C during 2057–2100. The net economic benefits of CO2 budget will be $4.5, $5.0, and $2.9 trillion under SSP1‐2.6, SSP2‐4.5, and SSP5‐8.5, respectively. Our results imply that a high‐emission pathway will greatly reduce the economic benefit of carbon assimilation in northern permafrost regions.