bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Subjects of ectogenesis: are ‘gestatelings’ fetuses, newborns or neither?
Authors: Colgrove Nick
Published: July 2019

Subjects of ectogenesis—human beings that are developing in artificial wombs (AWs)—share the same moral status as newborns. To demonstrate this, I defend two claims. First, subjects of partial ectogenesis—those that develop in utero for a time before being transferred to AWs—are newborns (in the full sense of the word). Second, subjects of complete ectogenesis—those who develop in AWs entirely—share the same moral status as newborns. To defend the first claim, I rely on Elizabeth Chloe Romanis’s distinctions between fetuses, newborns and subjects of ectogenesis. For Romanis, the subject of partial ectogenesis ‘is neither a fetus nor a baby’ but is, instead, a ‘new product of human reproduction’. In this essay, I begin by, expanding upon Romanis’s argument that subjects of partial ectogenesis are not fetuses while arguing that those subjects are newborns. Next, I show that the distinction that Romanis draws between subjects of partial ectogenesis and newborns needs to be revised. The former is a kind of the latter. This leads us to an argument that shows why different moral statuses cannot be justifiably assigned to subjects of partial ectogenesis and subjects of complete ectogenesis, respectively. As subjects of partial ectogenesis share the same moral status as newborns, it follows that subjects of complete ectogenesis share the same moral status as newborns as well. Iconclude by considering implications that this essay may have for the research and development of AW technology and conceptual links between a subject’s moral status and birth.
A mixed-methods examination of the nature and frequency of medical error among junior doctors
Authors: O'Connor Paul , Lydon Sinéad , Mongan Orla , Connolly Fergal , Mcloughlin Aoibheann , McVicker Lyle , Byrne Dara
Published: July 2019

Purpose of the study

To examine junior doctors’ experience and perceptions of medical errors in which they had been involved.

Study design

A mixed-methods design, consisting of an error survey and critical incident technique (CIT) interviews, was used. The survey asked doctors in the first year of postgraduate training in Ireland whether they had made a medical error that had ‘played on (their) mind’, and if so, to identify factors that had contributed to the error. The participants in the CIT interviews were asked to describe a medical error in which they had been involved.

Results

A total of 201 out of 332 (60.5%) respondents to the survey reported making an error that ‘played on their mind’. 'Individual factors’ were the most commonly identified group of factors (188/201; 93.5%), with ‘high workload’ (145/201; 72.1%) the most commonly identified contributory factor. Of the 28 CIT interviews which met the criteria for analysis, ‘situational factors’ (team, staff, task characteristics, and service user factors) were the most commonly identified group of contributory factors (24/28; 85.7%). A total of eight of the interviews were judged by subject matter experts (n=8) to be of medium risk to patients, and 20 to be of high-risk to patients. A significantly larger proportion of high-risk scenarios were attributed to ‘local working conditions’ than the medium-risk scenarios.

Conclusions

There is a need to prepare junior doctors to manage, and cope with, medical error and to ensure that healthcare professionals are adequately supported throughout their careers.
Prevalence and associated factors of inappropriate repeat test
Authors: Kılınçarslan Mehmet Göktuğ , Şahin Erkan Melih , Korkmazer Başak
Published: July 2019

Background

The rate of laboratory test utilisation has been increasing unsustainably. Evaluating inappropriately repeated laboratory tests is promising because objective criteria are available to measure the rates while causes can be manipulated easily. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence, associated factors and financial burden of inappropriate repeat tests.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted on the results of 26 types of laboratory tests recorded in a laboratory database of a tertiary hospital between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2017. Minimum retest intervals were determined from the literature for each type of tests. If the time interval between the two tests was shorter than the minimum retest interval, then the later test was accepted an inappropriate repeat test. Binary logistic regression was performed after univariate analyses.

Results

Of a total of 673 794 tests, 109 370 (16.2%) were inappropriate repeat tests. Male gender, being ≥65 years old, being an inpatient, high-volume test and surgical clinic as the test-requesting clinic were associated with inappropriate repeat tests. Also, it was determined that US$66 761.3 had been wasted on inappropriate repeat tests for 3 years.

Discussion

There are several factors that increase the rate of inappropriate repeat tests. They should be considered during health policy making or planning interventions to reduce inappropriate repeat tests.
The Kanaka Creek fossil flora (Huntingdon Formation), British Columbia, Canada — paleoenvironment and evidence for Paleocene age using palynology and macroflora
Authors: Mathewes Rolf W. , Greenwood David R. , Love Renée L.
Published: July 2019

Paleogene sediments of the Huntingdon Formation, a correlative to the Chuckanut Formation of neighbouring Washington State, USA, are exposed in the Greater Vancouver area, British Columbia, Canada. Palynology and plant macrofossils suggest the Kanaka Creek section is Paleocene rather than Eocene in age. Detrital zircon dating is less decisive, yet indicates the Kanaka rocks are no older than Maastrichtian. Analyses of plant macro- and micro-fossils suggest an early to middle Paleocene age for the Kanaka fossil flora. Paleocene indicators include macrofossils such as Platanus bella, Archeampelos, Hamamelites inequalis, and Ditaxocladus, and pollen taxa such as Paraalnipollenites, Triporopollenites mullensis, and Duplopollis. Paleogene taxa such as Woodwardia maxonii, Macclintockia, and Glyptostrobus dominate the flora. Fungal spores including the Late Cretaceous Pesavis parva and the Paleogene Pesavis tagluensis are notable age indicators. Physiognomy of 41 angiosperm leaf morphotypes from Kanaka Creek yields mean annual temperatures in the microthermal to lower mesothermal range (11.2 ± 4.3 to 14.6 ± 2.7 °C from leaf margin analysis; 14.8 ± 2.1 °C from Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program), with mild winters (cold month mean temperature 3.9 ± 3.4 °C). Paleoclimate was cooler than the upper Paleocene and Eocene members of the Chuckanut Formation. Mean annual precipitation is estimated at ∼140 cm with large uncertainties. The Kanaka paleoflora is reconstructed as a mixed conifer–broadleaf forest, sharing common taxa with other western North American Paleocene floras and growing in a temperate moist climate. Kanaka Creek is a rare coastal Paleocene plant locality that provides new insights into coastal vegetation and climate prior to the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.
A younger glacial Lake Iroquois in the Lake Ontario basin, Ontario and New York: re-examination of pollen stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating
Authors: Lewis C.F.M. , Anderson T.W.
Published: July 2019

Revision of palynochronologic and radiocarbon age estimates for the termination of glacial Lake Iroquois, mainly based on a currently accepted younger determination of the key Picea–Pinus pollen transition, shows agreement with recently established constraints for this late glacial event in the Lake Ontario basin at 13 000 cal years BP. The date of emergence or isolation of small lake basins reflects the termination of inundation by glacial lake waters. The increasing upward presence of plant detritus and the onset of organic sedimentation marks the isolation level in the sediments of a small lake basin. The upward relative decline and cessation of pollen from trees such as Pinus, Quercus, and other thermophilous hardwoods that were wind transported long distances from southern areas also mark the isolation of inundated small lake basins by the declining water level of Lake Iroquois as local vegetation grew and local pollen overwhelmed long-distance-transported pollen. Re-examination of data in small lake basins north of Lake Ontario using the above criteria shows that the age range for the termination of Lake Iroquois derived from these data overlaps other age constraints. These constraints are based on a varve-estimated duration of post-Iroquois phases before incursion of the Champlain Sea, a newly discovered late ice advance into northern New York State, and the age of a mastodon at Cohoes, New York. The new age (13 000 cal years BP) for Lake Iroquois termination is significantly younger than the previous estimate of 11 800 14C (13 600 cal) years BP.
TransgenicMiscanthus lutarioripariusthat co-expresses theCry 2Aa#andBargenes
Authors: Xia Yanan , Xu Jun , Duan Junyi , Liu Qingbo , Huang Hongmei , Yi Zili , Chen Zhiyong
Published: July 2019

Miscanthus lutarioriparius, a domestic species of China, belongs to the genus of perennial rhizomatous Miscanthus and is a promising energy crop for biomass production. To establish an Agrobacterium tumefaciens transformation protocol and obtain transgenic plants co-expressing the Cry 2Aa#and Bar genes, an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation method for M. lutarioriparius was developed in this study. To inhibit tissue browning, optimized callus induction and regeneration media were developed. Embryogenic calli were efficiently induced from immature inflorescences on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium containing 0.2 g L−1citric acid. Agrobacterium tumefaciens EHA105 carrying pC3300 with the Cry 2Aa#and Bar genes were introduced into embryogenic calli. Six transgenic lines were selected by Basta screening and confirmed by genomic PCR. The herbicide tolerance of M. lutarioriparius transgenic plants was verified by spraying with glufosinate and expression of the Cry 2Aa#protein by ELISA. Therefore, an Agrobacterium-mediated transformation protocol for M. lutarioriparius was established and the co-expression of herbicide tolerance and Cry 2Aa#was successfully introduced with the system.
Agronomic practices for red lentil in Alberta
Authors: Bowness R. , Olson M.A. , Pauly D. , McKenzie R.H. , Hoy C. , Gill K.S. , Bremer E.
Published: July 2019

Lentil was seldom grown in Alberta prior to 2015 due to the lack of demonstrated ability to achieve adequate yields, even though it was potentially well adapted to most agricultural regions within the province. We conducted field trials at five locations for 4 yr to determine potential productivity and optimum seeding rate, N management, and imidazolinone herbicide formulation for two imidazolinone-resistant red lentil cultivars across a broad geographic region in Alberta. Over the 4 yr of this study (2012–2015), the average yield potential of lentil ranged from 3000 to 3700 kg ha−1 at five locations. Maximum yield was consistently obtained when plant density exceeded 90 plants m−2. Lentil yield was not influenced by rhizobia inoculation, N fertilizer rate, or their interaction. Application of imidazolinone-based herbicide did not impact yield or nodulation of the lentil cultivars used in this study. High productivity of two imidazolinone-resistant red lentil cultivars was attainable over a broad geographic region in Alberta.
Ricci-Bourguignon flow coupled with harmonic map flow
Authors: Azami Shahroud
Published: July 2019

In this paper, we study a coupled system of the Ricci–Bourguignon flow on a closed Riemannian manifold [Formula: see text] with the harmonic map flow. At the first, we will investigate the existence and uniqueness for solution of this flow on a closed Riemannian manifold and then we find evolution of some geometric structures of manifold along this flow.
b → cℓν anomalies in light of extended scalar sectors
Authors: Biswas Aritra , Ghosh Dilip Kumar , Patra Sunando Kumar , Shaw Avirup
Published: July 2019

Considering the recent experimental results on exclusive semileptonic [Formula: see text] meson decays showing sizable departure from their Standard Model prediction of lepton flavor universality and keeping ongoing and proposed nonstandard Higgs searches in mind, we explore the charged current flavor observables [Formula: see text], among other [Formula: see text] transitions, in the presence of a relevant scalar current effective new physics operator. We use [Formula: see text] lifetime and predicted bounds on the branching fraction of [Formula: see text] decay as constraints. We show the allowed parameter space in terms of the real and imaginary parts of the corresponding Wilson coefficients for such interactions. Under the light of obtained results, we study the prospect of two benchmark models, rendering the Wilson coefficients real (Georgi–Machacek (GM)) and complex (leptoquark (LQ)), respectively. We show that constraints from [Formula: see text] on GM parameters are consistent with other flavor constraints on the model, if we drop the Babar results. Including those that disfavors the model by more than [Formula: see text]. On the other hand, one benchmark LQ scenario, which gives rise to a single scalar current effective interaction, is still allowed within [Formula: see text] confidence level, albeit with a shrunk parameter space.
Light front Hamiltonian for boson form of QED (1 + 1) in Pauli–Villars regularization
Authors: Franke V. A. , Malyshev M. Yu. , Paston S. A. , Prokhvatilov E. V. , Vyazovsky M. I.
Published: July 2019

Light front (LF) Hamiltonian for QED in [Formula: see text] dimensions is constructed using the boson form of this model with additional Pauli–Villars-type ultraviolet regularization. Perturbation theory, generated by this LF Hamiltonian, is proved to be equivalent to usual covariant chiral perturbation theory. The obtained LF Hamiltonian depends explicitly on chiral condensate parameters which enter in a form of some renormalization of coupling constants. The obtained results can be useful when one attempts to apply LF Hamiltonian approach for [Formula: see text]-dimensional models like QCD.
Tuning the bandgap in Co-doped Mg(OH)2 nanoparticles
Authors: Raza Syed Masood , Rizwan Ali S. , Naeem M. , Uddin Zaheer , Qaseem Sadaf , Imran Ali S. , Naseem Shah S.
Published: July 2019

Cobalt (Co) doped magnesium hydroxide Mg(OH)2 nanoparticles are synthesized by a surfactant-free co-participation method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images show nanometer size Mg(OH)2 particles in spherically shaped particle-like morphology. Synthesis of these Mg(OH)2 nanocrystals involves the formation of monomeric MgOH[Formula: see text] ions as the precursor for the Mg(OH)2 nuclei which finally evolves in spherical particle-like morphology. X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms the hexagonal crystal structure of the samples. With increasing Co concentration, the absorption spectra of the samples show narrowing of the bandgap from 5.47 eV (for pure Mg(OH2)) to 5.26 eV (for 10% Co-doped Mg(OH2)) effect is attributed to changes in the interaction potentials between Co and the host Mg(OH)2 lattice due to dopant-induced lattice distortion and the presence of a mixed valance Co[Formula: see text]/Co[Formula: see text] state.
Averaged optical characteristics of an ensemble of metal nanoparticles
Authors: Tomchuk P. M. , Starkov V. N.
Published: July 2019

A theory for the averaged optical characteristics of an ensemble of metal nanoparticles with different shapes has been developed. The theory is applicable both for the nanoparticle size at which the optical conductivity of the particle is a scalar and for the nanoparticle size at which the optical conductivity should be considered as a tensor. The averaged characteristics were obtained taking into account the influence of nanoparticle shape on the depolarization coefficient and the components of the optical conductivity tensor. The dependences of magnetic absorption by a spheroidal metal nanoparticle on the ratio between its curvature radii and the angle between the spheroid symmetry axis and the magnetic field vector were derived and theoretically considered. An original variant of the distribution function for nanoparticle shapes, which is based on the combined application of the Gaussian and “hat” functions, was proposed and analyzed.
The AlInGaN back barrier effect on DC characteristics of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor
Authors: Wang Hai Li , Yang Peng , Xu Kun , Duan Xiang Yang , Sun Shu Xiang
Published: July 2019

In this paper, we investigated the impact of thickness and mole fraction AlInGaN back barrier on the DC performance of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) by numerical simulation. The simulations are performed using the hydrodynamic transport model (HD). The simulation results indicated that an inserted AlInGaN back barrier with increasing thickness and mole fraction could effectively confine the electron in the channel, resulting in a significant improvement of the channel current and transconductance. Additionally, the variation of conduction band offset and the increase of total number electron in the channel led to the threshold voltage moving toward a more negative value.
Tunable optical filter based on one-dimensional periodic structure composed of SiO2 and anisotropic metamaterial (AMM) with a liquid crystal defect layer sandwiched by two SiO2
Authors: Singh Pawan , Thapa Khem B. , Kumar Narinder , Yadav Anil K. , Kumar Devesh
Published: July 2019

This paper reports the tunable transmission properties of asymmetric one-dimensional periodic structure (1DPS) composed of SiO2 and anisotropic metamaterial (AMM) layers with defect of liquid crystal (LC) sandwiched by two SiO2 layers, i.e., (SiO[Formula: see text]AMM)[Formula: see text]SiO[Formula: see text]LC[Formula: see text]SiO[Formula: see text](SiO[Formula: see text]AMM)3 using the transfer matrix method (TMM). We have studied the optical properties of the periodic structure (SiO[Formula: see text]AMM)3 [Formula: see text]SiO[Formula: see text]LC[Formula: see text]SiO[Formula: see text](SiO[Formula: see text]AMM)3 with a different incident angle of the electromagnetic wave for particular director angle of LC molecules. The tunability of the transmission property of the considered 1DPS shows that the transmittance depends upon the orientation of LC molecules. Such an asymmetric periodic structure (1DPS) composed of SiO2 and AMM with a defect of LC sandwiched by two SiO2 layers, (SiO2 [Formula: see text]AMM)[Formula: see text]SiO[Formula: see text]LC[Formula: see text]SiO[Formula: see text](SiO[Formula: see text]AMM)3, may be used as a tunable optical filter and bi-stable device.
Comments on the paper entitled “Pressure variation of melting temperatures of alkali halides”
Authors: Vijay A.
Published: July 2019

The expressions for the pressure dependences of bulk modulus and the Grüneisen parameter used by Arafin and Singh [Int. J. Mod. Phys. B 30, 1750031 (2016)] in the Lindemann law for determining melting curves of 14 alkali halides have been found to yield no results which are consistent with the recent studies on equations of state. It is demonstrated here that Arafin–Singh’s expressions are physically not acceptable as they are shown here to give unrealistic values of bulk modulus and Grüneisen parameter for the materials at high pressures.
Gravity between Newton and Einstein
Authors: Hansen Dennis , Hartong Jelle , Obers Niels A.
Published: July 2019

Statements about relativistic effects are often subtle. In this essay we will demonstrate that the three classical tests of general relativity, namely perihelion precession, deflection of light and gravitational redshift, are passed perfectly by an extension of Newtonian gravity that includes gravitational time dilation effects while retaining a non-relativistic causal structure. This non-relativistic gravity theory arises from a covariant large speed of light expansion of Einstein’s theory of gravity that does not assume weak fields and which admits an action principle.
Environmental Stochasticity, Cournot Competition and the Prisoner’s Dilemma
Authors: Mamada Robert , Perrings Charles
Published: July 2019

The production of natural resource-based commodities is frequently affected by environmental uncertainty and the strategic response of producers to uncertainty. We ask when uncertainty induces cooperation. Using a model of Cournot competition under environmentally induced price uncertainty, we consider the conditions under which cooperation is favored over defection. We find that the probability of cooperation depends on the length of the time period over which production levels are adjusted to price shocks. When uncertainty is low, the probability of cooperation is monotonically increasing in the length of this adjustment period. When uncertainty is high, the probability of cooperation initially increases as the adjustment period lengthens, but beyond some threshold starts to fall. In this case, the expected outcome is defection. We consider the broader implications of these findings.
Theoretical and Experimental Studies of the Rain Load for Transmission Tower Based on Single-Raindrop Impinging Force
Authors: Fu Xing , Li Hong-Nan
Published: July 2019

Rain load has a substantial effect on the dynamic response of transmission tower-line systems, and studying the impinging force imparted by a single raindrop can provide a better understanding of the acting mechanism of rain load on these systems. In this study, a theoretical analysis of the impinging force of a raindrop is conducted, and a piezoelectric transducer has been developed to measure the impinging force versus time. Based on the principle of conservation of momentum, a formula for the force is derived under ideal conditions. However, the form of the equation is so complex that the force can only be obtained by numerical methods for non-spherical raindrop shapes. Then, the formula of raindrop impinging force was derived by considering the raindrop acceleration, the raindrop splashing, the water film, and the flow velocity of the impinged raindrop, of which the form is so complex that it cannot be solved directly. At last, a single-raindrop impinging experiment was carried out, and the results reveal that the raindrop impinging process exhibits both positive and negative forces and that the peak values are of the same order of magnitude. The negative force is caused primarily by the rebound of the raindrop. The positive force acts for only a short time, while the negative force acts much longer. When the transducer surface is wet, the positive force is greater than that under dry conditions, and the force acts for a longer period of time. This study is expected to expand the understanding of the rain load mechanism for transmission towers.
Stability and optimization error of stochastic gradient descent for pairwise learning
Authors: Shen Wei , Yang Zhenhuan , Ying Yiming , Yuan Xiaoming
Published: July 2019

In this paper, we study the stability and its trade-off with optimization error for stochastic gradient descent (SGD) algorithms in the pairwise learning setting. Pairwise learning refers to a learning task which involves a loss function depending on pairs of instances among which notable examples are bipartite ranking, metric learning, area under ROC curve (AUC) maximization and minimum error entropy (MEE) principle. Our contribution is twofolded. Firstly, we establish the stability results for SGD for pairwise learning in the convex, strongly convex and non-convex settings, from which generalization errors can be naturally derived. Secondly, we establish the trade-off between stability and optimization error of SGD algorithms for pairwise learning. This is achieved by lower-bounding the sum of stability and optimization error by the minimax statistical error over a prescribed class of pairwise loss functions. From this fundamental trade-off, we obtain lower bounds for the optimization error of SGD algorithms and the excess expected risk over a class of pairwise losses. In addition, we illustrate our stability results by giving some specific examples of AUC maximization, metric learning and MEE.
Multi-Scale Collaborative Network for Human Pose Estimation
Authors: Guo Chunsheng , Zhou Jialuo , Du Wenlong , Zhang Xuguang
Published: July 2019

Human pose estimation is a fundamental but challenging task in computer vision. The estimation of human pose mainly depends on the global information of the keypoint type and the local information of the keypoint location. However, the consistency of the cascading process makes it difficult for each stacking network to form a differentiation and collaboration mechanism. In order to solve these problems, this paper introduces a new human pose estimation framework called Multi-Scale Collaborative (MSC) network. The pre-processing network forms feature maps of different sizes, and dispatches them to various locations of the stack network, with small-scale features reaching the front-end stacking network and large-scale features reaching the back-end stacking network. A new loss function is proposed for MSC network. Different keypoints have different weight coefficients of loss function at different scales, and the keypoint weight coefficients are dynamically adjusted from the top hourglass network to the bottom hourglass network. Experimental results show that the proposed method is competitive in MPII and LSP challenge leaderboard among the state-of-the-art methods.
Anomalous Decay and Decoherence in Atomic Gases
Authors: Tsabary A. , Kenneth O. , Avron J.E.
Published: July 2019

Pair collisions in atomic gases lead to decoherence and decay. Assuming that all the atoms in the gas are equally likely to collide one is led to consider Lindbladian of mean field type where the evolution in the limit of many atoms reduces to a single qudit Lindbladian with quadratic nonlinearity. We describe three smoking guns for nonlinear evolutions: power law decay and dephasing rates; dephasing rates that take a continuous range of values depending on the initial data and finally, anomalous flow of the Bloch ball towards a hemisphere.
Premature Ejaculation and Erectile Dysfunction in Male Partners of Infertile Couples: Prevalence and Correlation
Authors: Ho Thanh Tam Thi , Le Minh Tam , Truong Quang Vinh , Nguyen Vu Quoc Huy , Cao Ngoc Thanh
Published: July 2019

Objectives: The frequency of, and relationship between, the various manifestations of male sexual dysfunction in infertile couples have been poorly investigated, especially in Vietnam. Our study aims to assess the prevalence of premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction in infertile couples using validated instruments, and the relationship between these disorders.

Method: Cross-sectional descriptive study, using validated questionnaires including the Premature Ejaculation Diagnostic Tool (PEDT) and the International Index of Erectile Function-15 (IIEF-15), to measure the incidence of these problems in 255 male partners of infertile couples who were examined from January through December 2017, at the Center for Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility, Hue University Hospital.

Results: The prevalence of overt premature ejaculation was 4.7%, probable premature ejaculation was 7.1%, and erectile dysfunction was 26.3% (mild: 19.3%, mild-to-moderate: 3.9%, moderate: 2.7%, and severe: 0.4%). The PEDT total score was negatively correlated to IIEF-15-EFD and IIEF-15 total scores (r [Formula: see text]0.322 and r [Formula: see text]0.348, respectively).

Conclusions:In light of the identified prevalence of premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction in the studied population, screening for these conditions should be included in the evaluation of infertile couples. These two disorders could negatively reciprocal effect on each other.
Approximating Pairwise Correlations in the Ising Model
Authors: Goldberg Leslie Ann , Jerrum Mark
Published: July 2019

In the Ising model, we consider the problem of estimating the covariance of the spins at two specified vertices. In the ferromagnetic case, it is easy to obtain an additive approximation to this covariance by repeatedly sampling from the relevant Gibbs distribution. However, we desire a multiplicative approximation, and it is not clear how to achieve this by sampling, given that the covariance can be exponentially small. Our main contribution is a fully polynomial time randomised approximation scheme (FPRAS) for the covariance in the ferromagnetic case. We also show that the restriction to the ferromagnetic case is essential—there is no FPRAS for multiplicatively estimating the covariance of an antiferromagnetic Ising model unless RP = #P. In fact, we show that even determining the sign of the covariance is #P-hard in the antiferromagnetic case.
Governmentality and Language
Authors: Urla Jacqueline
Published: July 2019

This article reviews how the analytics of governmentality have been taken up by scholars in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics. It explores the distinctive logics of “linguistic governmentality” understood as techniques and forms of expertise that seek to govern, guide, and shape (rather than force) linguistic conduct and subjectivity at the level of the population or the individual. Governmentality brings new perspectives to the study of language ideologies and practices informing modernist and neoliberal language planning and policies, the technologies of knowledge they generate, and the contestations that surround them. Recent work in this vein is deepening our understanding of “language”—understood as an array of verbal and nonverbal communicative practices—as a medium through which neoliberal governmentality is exercised. The article concludes by considering how a critical sociolinguistics of governmentality can address some shortcomings in the study of governmentality and advance the study of language, power, and inequality.
Curving Cells Inside and Out: Roles of BAR Domain Proteins in Membrane Shaping and Its Cellular Implications
Authors: Simunovic Mijo , Evergren Emma , Callan-Jones Andrew , Bassereau Patricia
Published: July 2019

Many cellular processes rely on precise and timely deformation of the cell membrane. While many proteins participate in membrane reshaping and scission, usually in highly specialized ways, Bin/amphiphysin/Rvs (BAR) domain proteins play a pervasive role, as they not only participate in many aspects of cell trafficking but also are highly versatile membrane remodelers. Subtle changes in the shape and size of the BAR domain can greatly impact the way in which BAR domain proteins interact with the membrane. Furthermore, the activity of BAR domain proteins can be tuned by external physical parameters, and so they behave differently depending on protein surface density, membrane tension, or membrane shape. These proteins can form 3D structures that mold the membrane and alter its liquid properties, even promoting scission under various circumstances.As such, BAR domain proteins have numerous roles within the cell. Endocytosis is among the most highly studied processes in which BAR domain proteins take on important roles. Over the years, a more complete picture has emerged in which BAR domain proteins are tied to almost all intracellular compartments; examples include endosomal sorting and tubular networks in the endoplasmic reticulum and T-tubules. These proteins also have a role in autophagy, and their activity has been linked with cancer. Here, we briefly review the history of BAR domain protein discovery, discuss the mechanisms by which BAR domain proteins induce curvature, and attempt to settle important controversies in the field. Finally, we review BAR domain proteins in the context of a cell, highlighting their emerging roles in cell signaling and organelle shaping.
Autophagy in Neurons
Authors: Stavoe Andrea K.H. , Holzbaur Erika L.F.
Published: July 2019

Autophagy is the major cellular pathway to degrade dysfunctional organelles and protein aggregates. Autophagy is particularly important in neurons, which are terminally differentiated cells that must last the lifetime of the organism. There are both constitutive and stress-induced pathways for autophagy in neurons, which catalyze the turnover of aged or damaged mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, other cellular organelles, and aggregated proteins. These pathways are required in neurodevelopment as well as in the maintenance of neuronal homeostasis. Here we review the core components of the pathway for autophagosome biogenesis, as well as the cell biology of bulk and selective autophagy in neurons. Finally, we discuss the role of autophagy in neuronal development, homeostasis, and aging and the links between deficits in autophagy and neurodegeneration.
Importance of Pollinator-Mediated Interspecific Pollen Transfer for Angiosperm Evolution
Authors: Moreira-Hernández Juan Isaac , Muchhala Nathan
Published: July 2019

Understanding how pollen moves between species is critical to understanding speciation, diversification, and evolution of flowering plants. For co-flowering species that share pollinators, competition through interspecific pollen transfer (IPT) can profoundly impact floral evolution, decreasing female fitness via heterospecific pollen deposition on stigmas and male fitness via pollen misplacement during visits to heterospecific flowers. The pollination literature demonstrates that such reproductive interference frequently selects for reproductive character displacement in floral traits linked to pollinator attraction, pollen placement, and mating systems and has also revealed that IPT between given pairs of species is typically asymmetric. More recent work is starting to elucidate its importance to the speciation process, clarifying the link between IPT and current and historical patterns of hybridization, the evolution of phenotypic novelty through adaptive introgression, and the rise of reproductive isolation. Our review aims to stimulate further research on IPT as a ubiquitous mechanism that plays a central role in angiosperm diversification.
Social Synergies, Tradeoffs, and Equity in Marine Conservation Impacts
Authors: Gill David A. , Cheng Samantha H. , Glew Louise , Aigner Ernest , Bennett Nathan J. , Mascia Michael B.
Published: July 2019

Biodiversity conservation interventions often aim to benefit both nature and people; however, the social impacts of these interventions remain poorly understood. We reviewed recent literature on the social impacts of four marine conservation interventions to understand the synergies, tradeoffs, and equity (STE) of these impacts, focusing on the direction, magnitude, and distribution of impacts across domains of human wellbeing and across spatial, temporal, and social scales. STE literature has increased dramatically since 2000, particularly for marine protected areas (MPAs), but remains limited. Few studies use rigorous counterfactual study designs, and significant research gaps remain regarding specific wellbeing domains (culture, education), social groups (gender, age, ethnic groups), and impacts over time. Practitioners and researchers should recognize the role of shifting property rights, power asymmetries, individual capabilities, and resource dependency in shaping STE in conservation outcomes, and utilize multi-consequential frameworks to support the wellbeing of vulnerable and marginalized groups.
GEOTRACES: Accelerating Research on the Marine Biogeochemical Cycles of Trace Elements and Their Isotopes
Authors: Anderson Robert F.
Published: July 2019

The biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes (TEIs) constitute an active area of oceanographic research due to their role as essential nutrients for marine organisms and their use as tracers of oceanographic processes. Selected TEIs also provide diagnostic information about the physical, geological, and chemical processes that supply or remove solutes in the ocean. Many of these same TEIs provide information about ocean conditions in the past, as their imprint on marine sediments can be interpreted to reflect changes in ocean circulation, biological productivity, the ocean carbon cycle, and more. Other TEIs have been introduced as the result of human activities and are considered contaminants. The development and implementation of contamination-free methods for collecting and analyzing samples for TEIs revolutionized marine chemistry, revealing trace element distributions with oceanographically consistent features and new insights about the processes regulating them. Despite these advances, the volume and geographic coverage of high-quality TEI data by the end of the twentieth century were insufficient to constrain their global biogeochemical cycles. To accelerate progress in this field of research, marine geochemists developed a coordinated international effort to systematically study the marine biogeochemical cycles of TEIs—the GEOTRACES program. Following a decade of planning and implementation, GEOTRACES launched its main field effort in 2010. This review, roughly midway through the field program, summarizes the steps involved in designing the program, its management structure, and selected findings.
Lattice QCD and Three-Particle Decays of Resonances
Authors: Hansen Maxwell T. , Sharpe Stephen R.
Published: July 2019

Most strong-interaction resonances have decay channels involving three or more particles, including many of the recently discovered X, Y, and Z resonances. In order to study such resonances from first principles using lattice QCD, one must understand finite-volume effects for three particles in the cubic box used in calculations. We review efforts to develop a three-particle quantization condition that relates finite-volume energies to infinite-volume scattering amplitudes. We describe in detail the three approaches that have been followed, and present new results on the relationship between the corresponding results. We show examples of the numerical implementation of all three approaches and point out the important issues that remain to be resolved.
Understanding Adaptation, Coevolution, Host Specialization, and Mating System in Castrating Anther-Smut Fungi by Combining Population and Comparative Genomics
Authors: Hartmann Fanny E. , Rodríguez de la Vega Ricardo C. , Carpentier Fantin , Gladieux Pierre , Cornille Amandine , Hood Michael E. , Giraud Tatiana
Published: July 2019

Anther-smut fungi provide a powerful system to study host–pathogen specialization and coevolution, with hundreds of Microbotryum species specialized on diverse Caryophyllaceae plants, castrating their hosts through manipulation of the hosts’ reproductive organs to facilitate disease transmission. Microbotryum fungi have exceptional genomic characteristics, including dimorphic mating-type chromosomes, that make this genus anexcellent model for studying the evolution of mating systems and their influence on population genetics structure and adaptive potential. Important insights into adaptation, coevolution, host specialization, and mating system evolution have been gained using anther-smut fungi, with new insights made possible by the recent advent of genomic approaches. We illustrate with Microbotryum case studies how using a combination of comparative genomics, population genomics, and transcriptomics approaches enables the integration of different evolutionary perspectives across different timescales. We also highlight current challenges and suggest future studies that will contribute to advancing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying adaptive processes in populations of fungal pathogens.
Quantitative relations between transient BOLD responses, cortical energetics, and impulse firing in different cortical regions
Authors: Bennett M. R. , Farnell L. , Gibson W. G.
Published: July 2019

The blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging signal arises as a consequence of changes in blood flow (cerebral blood flow) and oxygen usage (cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen) that in turn are modulated by changes in neuronal activity. Much attention has been given to both theoretical and experimental aspects of the energetics but not to the neuronal activity. Here we use our previous theory relating the steady-state BOLD signal to neuronal activity and amalgamate it with the standard dynamic causal model (DCM, Friston) theory to produce a quantitative model relating the time-dependent BOLD signal to the underlying neuronal activity. Unlike existing treatments, this new theory incorporates a nonzero baseline activity in a completely consistent way and is thus able to account for both positive and negative BOLD signals. It can reproduce a wide variety of experimental BOLD signals reported in the literature solely by adjusting the neuronal input activity. In this way it provides support for the claim that the main features of the signals, including poststimulus undershoot and overshoot, are principally a result of changes in neuronal activity.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY A previous model relating the steady-state blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal to neuronal activity, both above and below baseline, is extended to account for transient BOLD signals. This allows for a detailed investigation of the role neuronal activity can play in such signals and also encompasses poststimulus undershoot and overshoot. A wide variety of experimental BOLD signals are reproduced solely by adjusting the neuronal input activity, including recent results regarding the BOLD signal in patients with schizophrenia.
Increased intramuscular coherence is associated with temporal gait symmetry during split-belt locomotor adaptation
Authors: Sato Sumire , Choi Julia T.
Published: July 2019

When walking on a split-belt treadmill where one belt moves faster than the other, the nervous system consistently attempts to maintain symmetry between legs, quantified as deviation from double support time or step length symmetry. It is known that the cerebellum plays a critical role in locomotor adaptation. Less is known about the role of corticospinal drive in maintaining this type of proprioceptive-driven locomotor adaptation. The objective of this study was to examine the functional role of oscillatory drive in relation to changes in spatiotemporal gait parameters during split-belt walking adaptation. Eighteen healthy participants adapted and deadapted on a split-belt treadmill; 13 out of 18 participants repeated the paradigm two more times to examine the effects of reexposure. Coherence analysis was used to quantify the coupling between electromyography (EMG) from the proximal (TAprox) and distal tibialis anterior (TAdist) muscle during the swing phase of walking. EMG-EMG coherence was examined within the alpha (8–15 Hz), beta (15–30 Hz), and gamma (30–45 Hz) frequencies. Our results showed that 1) beta- and gamma-band coherence (markers of corticospinal drive) increased during early split-belt walking compared with baseline walking in the slow leg, 2) beta-band coherence decreased from early to late split-belt adaptation in the fast leg, 3) alpha-, beta-, and gamma-band coherence decreased from first to third split-belt exposure in the fast leg, and 4) there was a relationship between higher beta coherence in the slow leg TA and smaller double support asymmetry. Our results suggest that corticospinal drive may play a functional role in the temporal control of split-belt walking adaptation.

NEW & NOTEWORTHY This is the first study to examine the functional role of intramuscular coherence in relation to changes in spatiotemporal gait parameters during split-belt walking adaptation. We found that the corticospinal drive measured by intramuscular coherence in tibialis anterior changes with adaptation and that the corticospinal drive is related to temporal but not spatial parameters. This study may give insight as to the specific role of the motor cortex during gait.
Robust Nonfragile H∞ Control of Lateral Semiactive Suspension of Rail Vehicles
Authors: Meng Jianjun , Xu Ruxun , Li Decang
Published: July 2019

This paper focuses on the riding comfort of railway vehicle. A nonfragile control strategy is proposed based on robust theory for semiactive suspension system. First, the rail vehicle dynamic model was simplified reasonably, the control model of rail vehicle train lateral semiactive suspension was built, which involved lateral-moving, head-shaking, and side-rolling of the vehicle body and the lateral-moving of the two bogies, and the robust nonfragile H∞ control of head-shaking and side-rolling were designed, respectively. Then the H∞ norm was used to reflect riding comfort; the sufficient conditions for the existence of robust nonfragile H∞ control were developed based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) approach. The design of a robust nonfragile H∞ control with gain perturbation was changed into an optimization issue with linear inequality constraint and a linear objective function. And then the damping effect of the robust nonfragile H∞ controller was evaluated, the wavelet packet analysis theory was used to decompose and reconstruct the acceleration signal, the fragility of the controller was analyzed, and the theory of mathematical statistics was adopted to analyze the influence of robust nonfragile H∞ controller on the probability distribution of vibration acceleration. Finally, the simulation results show that the proposed control strategy can ensure the riding comfort of railway vehicle efficiently and has a comparatively strong nonfragility.
Research on Pipeline Damage Imaging Technology Based on Ultrasonic Guided Waves
Authors: He Jian , Zhou Chen , Yang Liang , Sun Xiaodan
Published: July 2019

Pipeline structures are important structural components that cannot be replaced in actual engineering applications. Damage to a pipeline structure will create substantial safety hazards and economic losses in a project. Therefore, it is extremely important to study damaged pipeline structures. In this paper, L(0,2) mode guided waves are used to identify, locate, and image single and double defects in straight pipe structures. For the case where there is a single defect in the straight pipe section, the influence of different excitation frequencies on the reflection coefficient of L(0,2) modal guided wave is studied, and the optimal excitation frequency of L(0,2) guided wave is 70 kHz when single damage is determined. For the case of double defects in the straight pipe section, the double‐defect size, the distance between the defects, and the relative defect positions are studied, and the influence of the defect recognition effect is analyzed. The propagation path of the ultrasonic guided wave in the double‐defect pipe section is analyzed. Finally, the effectiveness of the three‐point axial positioning method and damage imaging method is verified by the single‐defect tube segment ultrasonic guided wave flaw detection experiment.