bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Relationships between digital engagement and the mental health of older adults: Evidence from China
Authors: Liu Ziqiong , Li Ziwei
Published: August 2024

Based on the theory of socio-emotional selectivity, this study examines the effect of digital engagement on the mental health of older individuals using data from the 2018 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS). The results show that digital engagement has a significant effect on the mental health of older individuals, manifested by a decline in depression and an enhancement of cognitive abilities. The results are robust by Using instrumental variables to solve endogenous problem and the propensity score matching method to solve selective bias. The analysis of heterogeneity demonstrates that digital engagement can significantly reduce the depression level of older people without chronic diseases and at lower ages and promote the cognitive ability of older adults without chronic diseases and older adults of higher ages. Mechanistic analysis shows that digital engagement can reduce depression in older adults by alleviating loneliness and improving emotional well-being and cognitive performance by enhancing social support. Therefore, digital engagement gives older people a more positive emotional experience and more social support and thereby improves mental health, delivering proactive answers to the problems an aging population brings.
Oligodendroglia-to-pericyte conversion after lipopolysaccharide exposure is gender-dependent
Authors: Yu Qingting , Zhang Linyuan , Xu Ting , Shao Jiapeng , Yuan Falei , Yang Zuisu , Wu Yuncheng , Lyu Haiyan
Published: August 2024

To investigate the sex-dependent differentiation of Sox10 cells and their response to pathological conditions such as lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure or ischemia, we utilized Sox10 Cre-ERT2, tdTomato mice. Tamoxifen administration induced the expression of red fluorescent protein (RFP) in these cells, facilitating their subsequent tracking and analysis after LPS injection and ischemia via immunofluorescence staining. Propidium iodide (PI) was injected to label necrotic cells following LPS administration. We found that the conversion of Sox10 cells to pericytes in female mice was significantly higher than in male mice, especially in those exposed to LPS. After LPS injection, the number of PI+ necrotic cells were significantly greater in females than in males. Moreover, RFP+ cells did not co-localize with glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) or cluster of differentiation 11b (CD11b). Similarly, after brain ischemia, RFP+ cells did not express cluster of differentiation 13 (CD13), neuronal nuclei (NeuN), GFAP, or ionised calcium binding adaptor molecule 1 (Iba-1). These findings indicate that the conversion of Sox10 cells to pericytes following LPS exposure is sex-dependent, with neither male nor female groups showing differentiation into other cell types after LPS exposure or under ischemic conditions. The differences in LPS-induced necrosis of pericytes between sexes may explain the variations in the conversion of Sox10 cells to pericytes in both sexes.
Traffic jam by GPS: A systematic analysis of the negative social externalities of large-scale navigation technologies
Authors: Schade Eve , Savino Gian-Luca , Gunal Yasemin , Schöning Johannes
Published: August 2024

The increased usage of navigation technologies has caused conflicts in local traffic management, resulting in congested residential areas among other challenges for residents. This paper uses content analysis to investigate such negative social externalities within local communities and neighbourhoods. Through a corpus of 90 news articles about traffic incidents caused by navigation technologies, we identified negative traffic and safety-related externalities, including congestion, damage, pollution, and accidents. We also report on countermeasures by local communities and governments, including street closures, speed limit reduction, and turn bans. Based on our results, we discuss the implications for designing mobile navigation technologies that reduce negative social externalities.
Are protected characteristics associated with mental health care inequalities in the adult UK general population? a cross-sectional study
Authors: Wicks Claire , Booker Cara , Kumari Meena , Trotta Antonella , McPherson Susan
Published: August 2024

This study investigates the association between protected characteristics and inequalities in mental health care in the UK. Multinomial regression was used to model the association between protected characteristics and self-reported distress. Data was extracted from waves 6–10 (2014–2019) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study. Two risk categories were constructed: “undiagnosed distress” referred to a General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) score above “caseness” along with no history of mental health diagnosis; “diagnosis without self-report symptoms” referred to a GHQ-12 score consistently below “caseness” within the study time frame but having received a mental health diagnosis. Compared to people without a disability, people with a disability are at considerably greater risk of both undiagnosed distress (Relative risk ratios (RRR) 2.76; Confidence Interval (CI): 2.55, 2.99) and diagnosis without self-reported symptoms (RRR 3.61; CI: 2.80, 4.66). Likewise, women were more likely than men to report undiagnosed distress (RRR = 1.49; CI: 1.38,1.61) or a diagnosis without self-reported symptoms (RRR = 1.38; CI: 1.08, 1.76. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual people are at greater risk of undiagnosed distress compared with heterosexual people (RRR 1.42; CI: 1.19, 1.70). Adults aged 16–24 years were at greatest risk compared to all other age groups. People from a minority ethnic background had a reduced risk of diagnosis without self-report symptoms compared with people from a White ethnic background (RRR 0.34; CI: 0.20, 0.61). Education, employment and income variables moderated some of these associations. This is the first study to examine diagnosis without self-report symptoms alongside undiagnosed distress. Findings suggest that addressing inequality in mental health care requires increased understanding of the needs and strengths within different groups and to provide appropriate forms of social, medical or psychosocial intervention rather than a singular focus on increasing detection, diagnosis and treatment. People with a disability appear to be at greatest disadvantage, requiring greater attention in policy and practice.
Soil degradation and herbicide pollution by repeated cassava monoculture within Thailand’s conservation region
Authors: Popradit Ananya , Nakhokwik Yutthana , Robischon Marcel , Saiki Shin-Taro , Yoshimura Jin , Wanasiri Arichai , Ishida Atsushi
Published: August 2024

In a national park in Northeast Thailand, agricultural land has been converted from natural forest by small-scale farmers for cassava agriculture. We hypothesise that long-termed cassava monoculture leads to the degradation of soil properties. To test the hypothesis, we conducted a five-year (2016–2020) study on the physical and chemical properties of soil in cassava farmland, and also examined the soil properties of its adjacent natural forests, as a control. The examined cassava farmland was converted from the natural forest during the five years from 2011 to 2015. The significant decrease in organic carbon and the increases in exchangeable potassium and bulk density were found in 2016, indicating that these soil properties varied quickly following the farmland conversion. On the other hand, the significant increase in soil nitrogen and the decrease in pH were found later in 2020, indicating that these soil properties were gradually altered by repeated agricultural activities, such as fertilizer application and trampling. In contrast, there were no significant differences in available phosphate, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity, and the soil texture (the fractions of sand, silt, and clay) among the forest and farmland soils. The cation exchange capacity was positively correlated to the fraction of clay, the organic carbon, and pH. The use of glyphosate and paraquat herbicides is prohibited within national parks in Thailand. However, in 2020, glyphosate was detected in farmland soil (up to 5.0 mg kg-1) during both the rainy and dry seasons, and glyphosate (up to 2.5 mg l-1) was detected in stream water from the farmland during the dry season at least in 2020. Soil degradation and herbicide pollution may carry a high risk of causing irreversible changes in terrestrial ecosystems. We discuss the root causes of this issue from perspectives of agricultural production, economy, and the environmental impact, and propose effective policy measures.
The impact of prenatal mental health on birth outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Anhui, China
Authors: Zhao Tianqi , Jhangri Gian S. , Dobson Keith S. , Li Jessica Yijia , Premji Shahirose S. , Tao Fangbiao , Zhu Beibei , Yamamoto Shelby S.
Published: August 2024

Adverse birth outcomes remain challenging public health problems in China. Increasing evidence indicated that prenatal depression and anxiety are associated with adverse birth outcomes, highlighting the importance and severity of prenatal depression and anxiety in China. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to further exacerbate prenatal mental health problems and increase the risk of adverse birth outcomes. The aim of this study is to assess and compare the impacts of prenatal mental health issues on birth outcomes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ma’anshan, Anhui, China. Participants in this study were women who visited local maternal and child health hospitals in Ma’anshan, Anhui, China. Two independent sets of individual maternal data (npre-pamdemic = 1148; npandemic = 2249) were collected. Prenatal depression and anxiety were measured online using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the General Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7). Adverse birth outcomes were determined using hospital-recorded infant birth weight and gestational age at delivery. In this study, we found that the pandemic cohort had lower mean EPDS and GAD-7 scores than the pre-pandemic cohort. The prevalence of prenatal depression (14.5%) and anxiety (26.7%) among the pandemic cohort were lower than the pre-pandemic cohort (18.6% and 36.3%). No significant difference was found in the prevalence of adverse birth outcomes comparing the two cohorts. Prenatal depression was associated with small gestational age only in the pandemic cohort (OR = 1.09, 95% CI 1.00–1.19, p = 0.042). Overall, this study highlighted an association between prenatal depression and small for gestational age in Anhui, China. Addressing prenatal depression may thus be key in improving birth outcomes. Future studies could focus on potential causal relationships.
Tamoya haplonema (F. Müller, 1859) (Cnidaria: Cubozoa): indicator of tropicalization in the Southwestern Atlantic?
Authors: Dutra Alicia , Lindner Alberto , Nagata Renato , Resgalla Júnior Charrid
Published: August 2024

Tamoya haplonema has been highlighted as a species of Cubozoa with a wide distribution in the western South Atlantic coast. However, recent studies highlight its preference for cold waters and its absence in the summer months in southern Brazil, being considered as having a subtropical distribution. In recent summer seasons, strandings of this species on beaches and stings of bathers have been observed, suggesting that T. haplonema may be responding to a more favorable thermal environment for its development on the coast of Uruguay, with possible increase in its occurrences to the north of Argentina. This possible poleward displacement, if proven, may be related to several factors, including a response to the tropicalization process of the oceans that has been observed worldwide.
Isolation and Characterization of Bacteria and Fungi Associated with Tomatoes Spoilage in Farin-Gada Market, Jos.
Authors: Ocholoda Moses , I. Njoku A.
Published: August 2024

This research was carried out to determine the bacteria and fungi associated with tomato spoilage. Tomatoes are vulnerable to bacteria and fungi attack, causing spotting, rotting cankers, pitting, and discoloration. These have contributed to its poor shelf life, high perishability, and huge losses during postharvest, as observed in large heaps of rotten tomatoes in refuse dumps in local and urban markets. A total of 15 deteriorated tomatoes were collected aseptically from 3 different sellers at Farin-Gada Market, Jos. Isolation and characterization of bacteria and fungi were carried out using standard cultural techniques. Nutrient agar, eosine methylene blue agar, and sabourad dextrose agar were the growth media used for the isolation of bacteria and fungi. The bacteria identified include Pseudomonas sp., Proteus sp., E. coli, Staphylococcus sp., Micrococcus sp., and Klebsiella sp., while fungi were identified based on their colony morphology and microscopic characteristics and include Rhizopus sp., Fusarium sp., Aspergillus sp., and Geotrichum candidum. E. coli was predominantly isolated among the bacteria isolates, with a percentage occurrence of 26.78%, while Staphylococcus sp. occurred the least (7.14%). Rhizopus sp. (31%) had the highest occurrence among the fungi isolates, with Fusarium sp. having the lowest occurrence at 18%. Statistically, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in bacteria and fungi between locations in the market. E. coli being present shows that the source of water probably used in the irrigation of tomatoes was faecally contaminated. Also, Aspergillus sp. and Fusarium sp. suggest food poisoning, all of which calls for public health concern when consuming even healthy tomatoes from the market. Good agricultural practices and proper handling become inevitable to eliminate faecal contamination and reduce spoilage agents.
“Come into This Space and Take”
Authors: Farquhar Zoe C.
Published: August 2024

This essay navigates the complexities of visibility politics for Black counterpublics and enclave spaces. Specifically, this essay explores how the Netflix documentary starring Chelsea Handler, Hello, Privilege. It's Me, Chelsea (2019) illustrates how rhetorics of whiteness are deployed to enter Black spaces, exploit Black intellectual labor, and facilitate anti-blackness while purporting to do important anti-racist work. In a culture where anti-racism has become increasingly popular and profitable, Hello, Privilege exemplifies how the anti-racist industry commodifies Black culture, experiences, and struggles while bolstering white privilege.
Teacher’s Entry Motivation, Job Competence, and Satisfaction with Life: A Moderated Mediation Effect Model
Authors:   Center For Educational Research, Kim Eunbin , Shin SuYeong
Published: August 2024

Purpose: The aim of the study was to examine the relationships among teachers’ motives for career choice and satisfaction with life being a teacher, mediated by job competence. Special attention is given to the moderated mediation effect by job burnout.
Methods: To address the research questions we utilized data from the first wave of the Seoul Educational Longitudinal Study, including 2418 teachers in elementary/secondary education. A structural equation model was conducted and for the main analysis a Process Macro (59) was applied to examine the moderated mediation effect in the main model.
Results: Results indicate that a partial mediation effect of competence on the relationship between motivations and satisfaction. Also, the positive relationship of internal motivation and competence was moderated by job burnout. In sum, only internal motivation impacts teachers’ satisfaction with life and the competence’s mediation effect is moderated by job burnout (-).
Conclusion: The implications of thefindings are that teachers motivated by internal factors show higher satisfaction with life being a teacher and that job competence plays a positive role in the psychological process. However, job burnout limits the chance by reducing the internal motivation’s positive effect on competence. Policy implications are drawn based on the results of the study.
THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIALIZATION, APPLICATION SYSTEM QUALITY, APPLICATION USAGE KNOWLEDGE, AND THE USE OF THE E-SAMSAT APPLICATION AS A MEDIATION VARIABLE ON MOTOR VEHICLE TAXPAYER COMPLIANCE (CASE STUDY IN BEKASI CITY)
Authors: Wilander Jordy
Published: August 2024

This research was conducted as a case study in Bekasi City because revenue receipts, especially in vehicle taxes and the number of motorized vehicle owners, have increased significantly in 2018-2022. The government made an innovation in the form of an online application called "E-SAMSAT," which aims to reduce the number of taxpayers who do not comply with their motorized vehicle obligations and make it easier for taxpayers to carry out their obligations without the need to come to the SAMSAT office. This study examines the effect of socialization, the quality of the application system, and the knowledge of using the application on motor vehicle taxpayer compliance mediated by using the E-Samsat application. This research uses quantitative methods. The population in this study is the number of registered motor vehicle taxpayers in Bekasi City. Sampling using the random sampling method and the number of samples determined as many as 99 samples with the Slovin formula. We collected data using an e-survey with a questionnaire. This study used linear regression analysis and PROCESS by Hayes with the IBM SPSS 26 application. These results showed that socialization, application system quality, and application usage knowledge significantly affected motor vehicle taxpayer compliance mediated by the use of the E-Samsat application.
THE EFFECT OF FINANCIAL DISTRESS AND PROFITABILITY ON EARNING MANAGEMENT
Authors: Hanum Naila , Wardhani Dian Kusuma , Utami Rahmawati Ayu Budi
Published: August 2024

This research aims to provide empirical evidence that is related to the effect of financial distress and profitability on earnings management. Earnings management is measured by the Jones Modified Model. Financial distress is measured by the Grover Model. Profitability is proxied by profit margin, return on assets, return on equity, and earnings per share. The research sample of this study is a consumer goods industry which is listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange 2015-2017. Purposive sampling was used as a sampling method and obtained 108 samples. The analysis technique used is panel regression analysis with Stata 14. The results of this study indicate that each of financial distress, return on equity, and earnings per share has an effect on earnings management while profit margin and return on assets do not affect earnings management.
Assessment of Crop water requirement using FAO CROPWAT 8.0 for Groundnut in South Odisha
Authors: Sumit Ray , Bandana Rani Barik , Sitabhra Majumder , Anamika Sinha , Devender M Reddy , Lalichetti Sagar , Supradip Sarkar
Published: August 2024

Water has a major impact on crop growth, output, and quality and increased production with less water consumption is crucial due to increased demand from domestic and industrial sectors. With evaporative demand-based irrigation scheduling the water consumption gets reduced and improves water productivity. The type of soil, growing season, weather, and crop type affect specific crops' water needs. To compute crop water requirement, irrigation requirement, and its schedule for groundnut cultivated during the rabi season in south Odisha, India, the FAO CROPWAT 8 program was used, with the meteorological data of Centurion University, Paralakhemundi, and NASA power. The water requirement for groundnut was 362.1 mm, the irrigation requirement for groundnut crops was 323.7 mm, and crop evapotranspiration (ETc) was 373.4 mm during rabi season. At 50% critical depletion of soil moisture and soil replenishment to field capacity, the yield did not decrease. These results indicate that irrigation schedules can be practiced for different regions' crops without experimental results by estimating crop water requirements and irrigation schedules obtained through the FAO CROPWAT 8 model.
Study of optimal nutritional conditions for Arbutin production from Bacillus subtilis NN2M
Authors: Noor M I , Nidhal M S
Published: August 2024

Arbutin is a combination of D-glucose and hydroquinone. Among the positive effects of arbutin are its antioxidant properties, antimicrobial properties and anti-inflammatory properties. Arbutin is one of the most important active compounds used to inhibit the enzyme tyrosinase, which causes enzymatic browning in many foods. Microbial fermentation has emerged as an up-and-coming technique for the production of arbutin in recent years. The aim of the study was the biological production of arbutin from Bacillus subtilis NN2M isolates. The isolates were confirmed and identified by Vitek and 16S rRNA and the nutritional conditions for production were improved to reach optimal conditions. To determine the best nutritional conditions for arbutin production, several conditions were studied, including the carbon source and its concentration, the nitrogen source and its concentration and the hydroquinone concentration. The results showed that the highest output of the active compound arbutin when using Molasses as a carbon source arbutin concentration was 23.34µg/mL. We also found the best concentration of the optimal carbon source, 4 % (w\v) arbutin concentration, was 27.62 µg/mL; furthermore, while using several nitrogen sources for producing arbutin, peptone was determined to be the optimum source, the concentration of arbutin was 47.3 µg/mL, the nitrogen source optimal Concentration was 2 % (w\v) arbutin concentration was 59.46 µg/mL, the optimum concentrations of hydroquinone was 2 % (w\v) arbutin concentration was 79.1 µg/mL.
On the intertextuality of Paria [The Pariah] by Chęciński and Moniuszko
Authors: Borkowska-Rychlewska Alina
Published: August 2024

Stanisław Moniuszko’s opera about Pariah which was based on Casimire Delavigne’s tragedy from 1821, expressed the composer’s dream of creating a cosmopolitan and ‘European’ work with universal message. Usually, the researchers review this aspect from the perspective of music and culture studies, e.g. searching for a relationship between The Pariahand Moniuszko’s contemporary opera music or focusing on the 19th-century views on the effect of class inequalities and social exclusion. However, equally interesting are the diverse and complex relationships of The Pariah’s libretto with 19th-century literature, rarely taken up and investigated in the research into Moniuszko’s legacy. Jan Chęciński’s text, apart from the obvious dependence of the story and playwriting on the French playwright’s tragedy, has its theme and linguistic style deeply rooted in Polish and European 19th-century literary tradition created, among others, by Mickiewicz, Malczewski, Byron and Scribe. Given Moniuszko’s desired cosmopolitanism and universality of The Pariah, this is an issue which is undoubtedly very important.
Wychowanie do człowieczeństwa Eduarda Sprangera
Authors: Zieliński Paweł
Published: August 2024

The author reconstructs and interprets the Education to Humanity by Eduard Spranger, a prominent German philosopher,  psychologist, and pedagogue, whose pedagogical work is little known in Poland. The barbarism of the Russian-Ukrainian War is a reminder of how topical the issue of realising the value of humanity is in contemporary education. Spranger not only answers the question of what humanity is, but points to specific, rather than general, methods of its formation in young people. He refers to selected teaching methods of Socrates, specifically to moral stories, and also to meditation, as in Zen Buddhism. He links a number of universal values to the formation of humanity, such as self-reflection, dignity of the person, self-criticism, responsibility, conscience, and love. Spranger’s theory of upbringing is holistic. Its teleology is oriented towards personality development, with an emphasis on altruistic values and human moral development. It is largely consistent with the pedagogical thought of Otto F. Bollnow, Abraham H. Maslow, Theodor Adorno, Hans Waldenfens, Andrzej Szyszko-Bohusz, Hilarion G. Petzold and other contemporary scholars – humanists. It also seems a continuation of Immanuel Kant’s, Johann H. Pestalozzi’s, Leo N. Tolstoy’s, Rudolf Steiner’s and even Mencius’s concepts of education, as well as those of Zen and Daoist teachers. Spranger opposed the idea of a transhumanism based on modern technology, as well as the instrumental and utilitarian treatment of nature, and the materialistic and technological trend, that is omnipresent in modern human life.
Teachers and Teaching Assistants – Teamwork as Prevention of School Failure of Pupils During Primary Education
Authors: Eliášková Klára , Kučerová Olga
Published: August 2024

This paper investigates the topic of teacher-teaching assistant collaboration in supporting pupils who are at risk of school failure. This topic was addressed, as one of the subtopics, by a longitudinal research study investigating the causes of school failure/success among primary school pupils in the Czech Republic. The aim of the present study is to describe the activities that teaching assistants pursue in relation to “at-risk” pupils or in relation to other pupils in the classroom. The descriptive part of the paper also reviews various forms of teacher-teaching assistant collaboration during the teaching process. This empirical study consists of two parts. In the theoretical introduction, we describe the system of support and advisory services used to implement inclusive education in Czech schools. We also describe the legislative definition of the teaching assistant position and present his/her job description. The empirical part of the paper presents the conclusions of our research survey, which captures how teaching assistance is currently practiced in Czech primary education.
CIVET: Exploring Compact Index for Variable-Length Subsequence Matching on Time Series
Authors: Xiong Haoran , Zhang Hang , Wang Zeyu , He Zhenying , Wang Peng , Wang X. Sean
Published: August 2024

Nowadays the demands for managing and analyzing substantially increasing collections of time series are becoming more challenging. Subsequence matching, as a core subroutine in time series analysis, has drawn significant research attention. Most of the previous works only focus on matching the subsequences with equal length to the query. However, many scenarios require support for efficient variable-length subsequence matching. In this paper, we propose a new representation, Uniform Piecewise Aggregate Approximation (UPAA) with the capability of aligning features for variable-length time series while remaining the lower bounding property. Based on UPAA, we present a compact index structure by grouping adjacent subsequences and similar subsequences respectively. Moreover, we propose an index pruning algorithm and a data filtering strategy to efficiently support variable-length subsequence matching without false dismissals. The experiments conducted on both real and synthetic datasets demonstrate that our approach achieves considerably better efficiency, scalability, and effectiveness than existing approaches.
Trajectory Similarity Measurement: An Efficiency Perspective
Authors: Chang Yanchuan , Tanin Egemen , Cong Gao , Jensen Christian S. , Qi Jianzhong
Published: August 2024

Trajectories that capture object movement have numerous applications, in which similarity computation between trajectories often plays a key role. Traditionally, trajectory similarity is quantified by means of non-learned measures, e.g., Hausdorff, that operate directly on the trajectories. Recent studies exploit deep learning to map trajectories tod-dimensional vectors, called embeddings. Then, some distance measure, e.g., Manhattan, is applied to the embeddings to quantify trajectory similarity. The resulting similarities are inaccurate: they only approximate the similarities obtained using the non-learned measures. As embedding distance computation is efficient, focus has been on obtaining embeddings of high accuracy.

Adopting an efficiency perspective, we analyze the time complexities of both the non-learned and the learning-based approaches, finding that the time complexities of the former approaches are not necessarily higher. Through extensive experiments on open datasets, we find that only a few learning-based approaches can deliver the promised higher efficiency, when the embeddings can be pre-computed, while non-learned approaches are more efficient for one-off computations. Among the learning-based approaches, the self-attention-based ones are the fastest and the most accurate. These results have implications for the use of trajectory similarity approaches given different application requirements.
TFB: Towards Comprehensive and Fair Benchmarking of Time Series Forecasting Methods
Authors: Qiu Xiangfei , Hu Jilin , Zhou Lekui , Wu Xingjian , Du Junyang , Zhang Buang , Guo Chenjuan , Zhou Aoying , Jensen Christian S. , Sheng Zhenli , Yang Bin
Published: August 2024

Time series are generated in diverse domains such as economic, traffic, health, and energy, where forecasting of future values has numerous important applications. Not surprisingly, many forecasting methods are being proposed. To ensure progress, it is essential to be able to study and compare such methods empirically in a comprehensive and reliable manner. To achieve this, we propose TFB, an automated benchmark for Time Series Forecasting (TSF) methods. TFB advances the state-of-the-art by addressing shortcomings related to datasets, comparison methods, and evaluation pipelines: 1) insufficient coverage of data domains, 2) stereotype bias against traditional methods, and 3) inconsistent and inflexible pipelines. To achieve better domain coverage, we include datasets from 10 different domains : traffic, electricity, energy, the environment, nature, economic, stock markets, banking, health, and the web. We also provide a time series characterization to ensure that the selected datasets are comprehensive. To remove biases against some methods, we include a diverse range of methods, including statistical learning, machine learning, and deep learning methods, and we also support a variety of evaluation strategies and metrics to ensure a more comprehensive evaluations of different methods. To support the integration of different methods into the benchmark and enable fair comparisons, TFB features a flexible and scalable pipeline that eliminates biases. Next, we employ TFB to perform a thorough evaluation of 21 Univariate Time Series Forecasting (UTSF) methods on 8,068 univariate time series and 14 Multivariate Time Series Forecasting (MTSF) methods on 25 datasets. The results offer a deeper understanding of the forecasting methods, allowing us to better select the ones that are most suitable for particular datasets and settings. Overall, TFB and this evaluation provide researchers with improved means of designing new TSF methods.
Spectrum: Speedy and Strictly-Deterministic Smart Contract Transactions for Blockchain Ledgers
Authors: Chen Zhihao , Yang Tianji , Zheng Yixiao , Zhang Zhao , Jin Cheqing , Zhou Aoying
Published: August 2024

Today, blockchain ledgers utilize concurrent deterministic execution schemes to scale up. However, ordering fairness is not preserved in these schemes: although they ensure all replicas achieve the same serial order, this order does not always align with the fair, consensus-established order when executing smart contracts with runtime-determined accesses. To preserve ordering fairness, an intuitive method is to concurrently execute transactions and re-execute any order-violating ones. This in turn increases unforeseen conflicts, leading to scaling bottlenecks caused by numerous costly aborts under contention. To address these issues, we propose Spectrum, a novel deterministic execution scheme for smart contract execution on blockchain ledgers. Spectrum preserves the consensus-established serial order (so-called strict determinism) with high performance. Specifically, we leverage a speculative deterministic concurrency control to execute transactions in speculation and enforce an agreed-upon serial order by aborting and re-executing any mis-speculated ones. To overcome the scaling bottleneck, we present two key optimizations based on speculative processing: operation-level rollback and predictive scheduling, for reducing both the overhead and the number of mis-speculations. We evaluate Spectrum by executing EVM-based smart contracts on popular benchmarks, showing that it realizes fair smart contract execution by preserving ordering fairness and outperforms competitive schemes in contended workloads by 1.4x to 4.1x.
Distributed Shortest Distance Labeling on Large-Scale Graphs
Authors: Zeng Yuanyuan , Ma Chenhao , Fang Yixiang
Published: August 2024

Distance labeling approaches are widely adopted to speed up the shortest-distance query performance. Due to the explosive growth of data graphs, a single machine can hardly satisfy the requirements of both computational power and memory capacity, which causes an urgent need for efficient distributed methods. As the graph is distributed across different machines, it is inevitable to frequently exchange messages among different machines when deploying the existing centralized distance labeling methods on the distributed environment, thereby producing serious communication costs and weakening the scalability. To alleviate this problem, we design a distributed hop-based indexDH-Index, which is designed based on a newly proposed boundary graph structure and restricts the index-based hop number of each connected vertex pair within 4 hops. In addition, we propose a hierarchical algorithm to accelerate the index construction and reduce the communication cost. Furthermore, a bidirectional searching strategy is proposed to efficiently resolve the query tasks based on DH-Index. The comprehensive experimental results on eight real-world graphs demonstrate that DH-Index achieves up to 65.5× and 3 orders of magnitude speedup than the existing methods in indexing time and query performance respectively, and exhibits superior capabilities on memory space, communication cost, and scalability.
Mobile borders and chronotope of homeland
Authors: Smagulova Juldyz , Imyarova Zulfiya
Published: August 2024

In this article, we examine the imagining of homeland as one of the discursive practices of rearticulating belonging within new state borders. The study focuses on an under-researched diasporic group of the Dungan community in Kazakhstan and examines how the diaspora subjects make sense of shifting borders and legitimize their presence within an increasingly homogenizing nation-state. Specifically, our interrogation focuses on spatiotemporal frames for re-imagining the notion of homeland and belonging in the context of shifting borders and changing conditions of settlement. We show how the Dungan negotiate their social positioning by re-orienting themselves to their ancestral home and their current place by discursively constructing double loss – permanent dispersal from China, their ancestral homeland, and displacement from the home and ideal life they managed to build in the Soviet Union. This spatiotemporal perspective allows us to see that the notion of homeland, a defining feature of diaspora and often viewed as naturalized and fixed, is a fluid construct, and one which can be rooted in time just as much as in space. The study contributes to understanding of processes of diasporic imagination in response to sociopolitical changes, and shows us that feelings of displacement can arise without physical dispersal, that temporality is as important in the processes of constructing diasporas as spatial movement.
Using language in boundary-making: nation-state building in the early years of the Turkish Republic (1927–1965)
Authors: Ahn Elise S.
Published: August 2024

In 1927, the nascent Turkish Republic engaged in its first endeavor as a nation-state to systematically account for all its citizens. Included on this census were a number of different attributes the Turkish government wanted to know about its citizenry, including language. In the Turkish context, examining the language categories on the census between 1927 and 1965 and how – they changed over time – provides insight into how the new republic was imagining its citizenry (and by extension, itself). The dynamic nature of the language categories not only reflected an ambiguity that the nascent nation-state had regarding what constituted salient ethnolinguistic category for governing purposes, it also reflected the realization and subsequent politicization of minoritized populations over time. After examining the history of the development of the Turkish census, the article outlines the use of running records like censuses to provide insight into how state apparatuses were creating taxonomies to realize (or visualize) its citizenry and the value of utilizing such unobtrusive measures in Durkheimian social facts such as those who are “Us” and those who are “Other”. This article then situates the census data in its geographical context and demonstrates how the delineation of historic parts of the country that were settled by non-Turkish communities were ones that were then later demarcated into smaller administrative borders, allowing for closer government and military oversight. While this article is an exploratory case study of the Turkish census as part of its state building process, I contend that looking at how language categories were used in the 1927–1965 censuses provides insight into the nature of the Turkish government’s imaginings regarding its citizenry. In particular, the use of language data as a proxy for ethnicity was concomitant with processes of internal border demarcation that was taking place to increase government oversight in particular non-Turkish contexts, resulting in a “new” form of minoritization and marginalization in the Turkish Republic.
Design and simulation analysis of an extrusion structure based on screw extrusion 3D printing
Authors: Liu Biaoqiang , Qian Bo , Hu Zhentao , Liang Yuxin , Fan Hongri
Published: August 2024

In response to the problems of 3D printing, such as uneven wire discharge and easy clogging of printing nozzles in FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printing technology, this paper develops a screw extrusion 3D printing melting deposition system based on simulation. The simulation results show that the maximum deformation of the screw occurs at the tail end, with a maximum value of 0.04 mm, while the fluid pressure and the pressure on the surface of the screw gradually increase along the direction of extrusion, and the maximum pressure occurs near the nozzle, with a value of 0.13 MPa. The fluid pressure is positively correlated with the screw speed and negatively correlated with the screw pitch. The fitting formula is obtained by numerical simulation of the screw speed and the flow velocity at the nozzle outlet. Using a self-made screw extrusion 3D printing equipment, relevant experiments are conducted to explore the influence of different layer thicknesses and line spacings on the mechanical properties of printed samples, as well as the influence of printing speed on surface quality. It is found that layer thickness has a significant impact on the bending strength of printed samples, with a maximum value of 24.74 MPa and a minimum of 19.21 MPa. The bending strength decreases by 28.79 % from 0.6 mm to 1.0 mm layer thickness. The line spacing has a significant impact on the tensile strength of printed samples, with a maximum value of 27.22 MPa and a minimum of 21.16 MPa. As the printing speed increases, the surface roughness of the printed piece also gradually increases from Ra = 389.28 μm at v = 30 mm/s to Ra = 535.45 μm at v = 70 mm/s, an increase of 37.55 %.
The (in)justice of EMI: a critical discourse analysis of two key stakeholders’ views on the Polytechnic University of Milan court case
Authors: Zuaro Beatrice , Yuksel Dogan , Wingrove Peter , Nao Marion , Hultgren Anna K.
Published: August 2024

While English-medium Instruction (EMI) continues to be appealing for various stakeholders, it also raises some epistemological and ethical concerns, which have in the past found expression in polarized debates. A well-known example is the 2012 Milan court case, in which the academic staff sued the Polytechnic University of Milan over its attempt to promote an EMI-only policy. Now almost ten years after the case, the motivations of the key proponents and opponents of the policy are yet to be explored in depth. In order to explain how different interpretations of EMI could result in such unreconcilable positions, in this paper we adopt a new analytical angle, focusing on twoelite participants: the rector who promoted the policy and the lawyer (also a faculty member) who represented the lecturers in court. Via a critical discourse analysis of interviews to these participants, we aim to unveil how different stakeholders from the same context frame EMI in relation to ideas of justice/injustice. Results indicate that, despite comparable personal commitment to education and similar understandings of language/power interactions, the participants evaluate English against different frames of reference (i.e. a horizon of globalized education, versus the traditional national understanding of the goals of education). This leads to diametrically opposite evaluations of the growing presence of English in higher education.
Crystal structure of 1,8-dihydroxy-3-{[(triphenylstannyl)oxy]carbonyl} anthracene-9,10-dione, C33H22O6Sn
Authors: Xue Sheng-Cai , Lü Shuang
Published: August 2024

C33H22O6Sn, triclinic, P1̄ (no. 2), a = 9.5394(11) Å, b = 10.2394(12) Å, c = 15.3202(18) Å, α = 105.195(3)°, β = 91.321(2)°, γ = 105.703(3)°, V = 1383.1(3) Å3, Z = 2, Rgt
(F) = 0.0452, wRref
(F
2) = 0.1115, T = 298(2) K.
The crystal structure of 6-amino-pyridinium-2-carboxylate, C6H6N2O2
Authors: Li-Hua Wang , Gui-Quan Song , Xi-Shi Tai
Published: August 2024

C6H6N2O2, monoclinic, P21/n (no. 14), a = 3.6915(7) Å, b = 19.265(5) Å, c = 8.1468(16) Å, β = 92.47(2)°, V = 578.8(2) Å3, Z = 4, R

gt
(F) = 0.0468, wRref
(F
2) = 0.1254, T = 150 K.
Enhanced removal of toxic Disperse Blue 35 dye through cloud point extraction: influence of parameters and solvent regeneration
Authors: Benkhedja Houaria , Ghouas Halima , Benderrag Abedelkader , Haddou Boumediene
Published: August 2024

The release of the dye Disperse Blue 35 (DB35) into water has serious environmental and health consequences, due to its toxicity and resistance to degradation. This paper investigates the effectiveness of cloud point extraction (CPE) to remove this industrial dye from aqueous solution by Lutensol AO7 and Triton X-114, two environmentally friendly nonionic surfactants. First, the partial phase diagrams of the water–surfactant binary systems are constructed. Then, the effects of pollutants, sodium sulfate and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide on the cloud point temperature (T
c) are determined. The experimental results are expressed by four responses: Extraction efficiency (E), residual concentrations of solute and surfactant in the dilute phase (X
s,w and X
t,w, respectively) and the volume fraction of coacervate (Ф
c). An empirical smoothing method was applied. For each parameter, the results obtained were modeled using the response surface methodology (RSM) and represented on three-dimensional diagrams. The results show that the efficiency of dye extraction with Lutensol AO7 and Triton X-114 at a concentration of 6 wt% is about 95 % and 82 %, respectively. The influence of salt and ionic surfactant on the effectiveness of CPE for the removal of DB 35 dye was determined. The regeneration of surfactant was only achieved by pH adjustment.
African Environmental Ethics and Its Ontological Foundations
Authors: Dübgen Franziska
Published: August 2024

The article carves out a tripartite ontology and related cosmological views, prevalent in many African philosophical accounts, and shows their significance for environmental ethics. It presents distinct cultural practices towards non-human animals and the environment such as totemism, taboos, and the sacralization of natural sites. In a next step, the author identifies specific moral principles that can be derived from this complex ontology and its related cultural practices, such as sufficiency, care, and sharing. This approach in environmental ethics can be situated as constituting a ‘plural holism’. Finally, the article contrasts this plural holism with neoliberal and neo-colonial practices prevalent in the contemporary world and calls for a consideration of these ethical values to guide the necessary transformation of our societies.
Japanese Gardens: Time of Letting – Time of Growth
Authors: Obert Mathias
Published: August 2024

From a transcultural stance the contribution explores an access to the problem of nature and time which relies on our embodied experience of our environment. By means of a phenomenological investigation into distinctive features of Japanese gardens, such as rocks and trees, the specific temporalities incorporated in these elements become elucidated. The intention is to invalidate the Eurocentric opposition of nature and culture, as the “natural” environment grows together with “cultural” activities, and cannot be separated from human engagement, in the case of Japanese gardening. There “nature” cannot become objectified or conceptually determined. It can only be disclosed by our bodily getting involved in an environment, encompassing a peculiar way of “becoming time”. This mode of temporalization exhibits significant similarities with Martin Heidegger’s Gelassenheit. Therefore, time and nature in a Japanese garden both request and set forth, a specific existential attitude towards our life environment.
O HERÓI E O FORASTEIRO: NARRAÇÃO E METAFÍSICA NAS CONFISSÕES
Authors: Novaes Moacyr
Published: August 2024

O trabalho examina a escolha da narração autobiográfica no plano geral de composição das Confissões. Para isso, indica primeiro o papel que cumprirá para o desenvolvimento da obra, ao longo da qual outras formas de linguagem serão apresentadas e discutidas, para depois destacar o processo de transformação da própria narração como forma específica de linguagem filosófica, desde o final do prólogo geral da obra (I vi 7) até o início do que caracterizamos como parte metafísica da obra, os livros X-XIII.
Diagramas para o Antilogismo de Ladd
Authors: Sautter Frank Thomas
Published: August 2024

Christine Ladd (aka Christine Ladd-Franklin) propôs, em 1881, um tratamento da Silogística Categórica, conhecido como “Antilogismo”, que consiste no teste de inconsistência da tríade de proposições categóricas formada pelas premissas e pela negação da conclusão de um Silogismo. A vantagem desse tratamento consiste em utilizar uma única forma válida, se o Antilogismo é expresso em termos algébricos. Utilizo ideias incorporadas em métodos diagramáticos que desenvolvi para a Silogística Categórica – o Método de Gardner e o Método de Gardner-Peirce – para fornecer uma expressão gráfica ao Antilogismo de Ladd.
O contrato originário no Direito político de Kant
Authors: Pellizzaro Nilmar
Published: August 2024

O presente estudo mostra que entre os comentadores há duas leituras acerca do contrato originário em Kant. Uma primeira leitura pensa o contrato como um conceito teórico-constitutivo; uma segunda, como uma ideia prático-reguladora da ação política. Defende-se a tese de que a segunda leitura é mais fidedigna do pensamento de Kant e isso em virtude de dois argumentos: primeiro, porque já existe no estado de natureza um direito privado provisório, o qual é regulado pela ideia de um consenso ideal (a vontade unificada a priori) e assim o contrato torna-se desnecessário enquanto um fundamento constitutivo do Estado; segundo, porque é somente numa perspectiva prática que uma ideia pode ser demonstrada como necessária e assim qualquer afirmação teórica sobre ela será sempre dependente da possibilidade ou não de se afirmar a sua realidade prática. Mostra-se ainda, a partir dos textos de Kant, que o núcleo conceitual do contrato originário é a ideia de uma vontade unificada a priori.