bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The European GeoMetre project: developing enhanced large-scale dimensional metrology for geodesy
Authors: Pollinger Florian , Baselga Sergio , Courde Clément , Eschelbach Cornelia , García-Asenjo Luis , Garrigues Pascual , Guillory Joffray , Hedekvist Per Olof , Helojärvi Tuomas , Jokela Jorma , Kallio Ulla , Klügel Thomas , Köchert Paul , Lösler Michael , Luján Raquel , Meyer Tobias , Neyezhmakov Pavel , Pesce Damien , Pisani Marco , Poutanen Markku , Prellinger Günther , Sauthoff Anni , Seppä Jeremias , Truong Daniel , Underwood Robin , Wezka Kinga , Wallerand Jean-Pierre , Wiśniewski Mariusz
Published: February 2023

We provide a survey on the joint European research project “GeoMetre”, which explores novel technologies and their inclusion to existing surveying strategies to improve the traceability of geodetic reference frames to the SI definition of the metre. This work includes the development of novel distance meters with a range of up to 5 km, the realisation of optical multilateration systems for large structure monitoring at an operation distance of 50 m and beyond, and a novel strategy for GNSS-based distance determination. Different methods for refractivity compensation, based on classical sensors, on dispersion, on spectroscopic thermometry, and on the speed of sound to reduce the meteorological uncertainties in precise distance measurements, are developed further and characterised. These systems are validated at and applied to the novel European standard baseline EURO5000 at the Pieniny Kippen Belt, Poland, which was completely refurbished and intensely studied in this project. We use our novel instruments for a reduced uncertainty of the scale in the surveillance networks solutions for local tie measurements at space-geodetic co-location stations. We also investigate novel approaches like close-range photogrammetry to reference point determination of space-geodetic telescopes. Finally, we also investigate the inclusion of the local gravity field to consider the deviations of the vertical in the data analysis and to reduce the uncertainty of coordinate transformations in this complex problem.
NILRNN: A Neocortex-Inspired Locally Recurrent Neural Network for Unsupervised Feature Learning in Sequential Data
Authors: Van-Horenbeke Franz A. , Peer Angelika
Published: February 2023

Unsupervised feature learning refers to the problem of learning useful feature extraction functions from unlabeled data. Despite the great success of deep learning networks in this task in recent years, both for static and for sequential data, these systems can in general still not compete with the high performance of our brain at learning to extract useful representations from its sensory input. We propose the Neocortex-Inspired Locally Recurrent Neural Network: a new neural network for unsupervised feature learning in sequential data that brings ideas from the structure and function of the neocortex to the well-established fields of machine learning and neural networks. By mimicking connection patterns in the feedforward circuits of the neocortex, our system tries to generalize some of the ideas behind the success of convolutional neural networks to types of data other than images. To evaluate the performance of our system at extracting useful features, we have trained different classifiers using those and other learnt features as input and we have compared the obtained accuracies. Our system has shown to outperform other shallow feature learning systems in this task, both in terms of the accuracies achieved and in terms of how fast the classification task is learnt. The results obtained confirm our system as a state-of-the-art shallow feature learning system for sequential data, and suggest that extending it to or integrating it into deep architectures may lead to new successful networks that are competent at dealing with complex sequential tasks.
Anthropogenic Pseudokarstic Depressions on Mount Bocskor (Bakony Region, Hungary)
Authors: Veress Márton , Unger Zoltán , Vetési-Foith Szilárd
Published: February 2023

Surface forms above the mine (Ármin mine) of Mount Bocskor (Southern Bakony, Hungary) were examined. We made contour maps, plan maps, morphological maps and atectonic grike (cave) maps of some of the forms and their surroundings. We examined the distribution of the depth, length, elongation ratio in case of some depressions, the relation between the depth and the diameter of some depressions, the relationship between depression group directions and mine cut directions, the standard deviation of the direction differences of depression groups and of their depressions. The forms of the mountain related to surface mining can be separated to open and closed. The former are trenches and stairs, the latter are circular, elongated, and complex depressions. The formation of these forms can be related to the balancing movements of the vault over the mountain’s mine. At thin vault, stairs develop by collapses, while at the atectonic fissures of thicker vault, trenches and depressions are formed at the surface. In areas bordered by sinking (subsidence through) and downwardly cohesive faults, depression groups of diverse features are arranged in the marginal bands. Elongated depressions are formed at atectonic blocks bounded by dispersing faults in non-banded distribution. Where there is a superficial deposit, atectonic fissures can also be inherited directly by collapse to the surface and form depressions. They can also form indirectly over atectonic fissures by compaction, subsequent collapse and/or suffosion of the superficial deposit. The results of the study make it possible to analyse the material loss due to mining on the vault if the atectonic structures of the vault are partly or completely covered by superficial deposit.
Changes in Adhesion and the Expression of Adhesion Molecules in PBMCs after Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Relation to Cerebral Vasospasm
Authors: Revilla-González Gonzalo , Varela Lourdes María , Ruiz de Azua-López Zaida , Amaya-Villar Rosario , Pezzotti María Rosa , Castro María José , Ureña Juan , González-Montelongo María del Carmen , Castellano Antonio
Published: February 2023

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is a neurovascular disease produced by extravasation of blood to the subarachnoid space after rupture of the cerebral vessels. After bleeding, the immune response is activated. The role of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in this response is a current subject of research. We have analysed the changes in PBMCs of patients with aSAH and their interaction with the endothelium, focusing on their adhesion and the expression of adhesion molecules. Using an in vitro adhesion assay, we observed that the adhesion of PBMCs of patients with aSAH is increased. Flow cytometry analysis shows that monocytes increased significantly in patients, especially in those who developed vasospasm (VSP). In aSAH patients, the expression of CD162, CD49d, CD62L and CD11a in T lymphocytes and of CD62L in monocytes increased. However, the expression of CD162, CD43, and CD11a decreased in monocytes. Furthermore, monocytes from patients who developed arteriographic VSP had lower expression of CD62L. In conclusion, our results confirm that after aSAH, monocyte count and adhesion of PBMCs increase, especially in patients with VSP, and that the expression of several adhesion molecules is altered. These observations can help predict VSP and to improve the treatment of this pathology.
Plethysms and operads
Authors: Cebrian Alex
Published: February 2023

We introduce the $${\mathcal {T}}$$
T
-construction, an endofunctor on the category of generalized operads, as a general mechanism by which various notions of plethystic substitution arise from more ordinary notions of substitution. In the special case of one-object unary operads, i.e. monoids, we recover the T-construction of Giraudo. We realize several kinds of plethysm as convolution products arising from the homotopy cardinality of the incidence bialgebra of the bar construction of various operads obtained from the $${\mathcal {T}}$$
T
-construction. The bar constructions are simplicial groupoids, and in the special case of the terminal reduced operad $$\textsf {Sym}$$
Sym
, we recover the simplicial groupoid of Cebrian (Algebraic Geom Topol 21(1):421–446, 2021), a combinatorial model for ordinary plethysm in the sense of Pólya, given in the spirit of Waldhausen S and Quillen Q constructions. In some of the cases of the $${\mathcal {T}}$$
T
-construction, an analogous interpretation is possible.
Flower choice by the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria is not influenced by colour-similarity to a higher-reward flower in the same patch
Authors: Forster Caitlyn Y. , Mourmourakis Faelan , Hochuli Dieter F. , White Thomas E. , Latty Tanya , Gloag Rosalyn
Published: February 2023

Floral choice by bees is influenced by the bees’ previous experience with flowers. For example, bees may learn to associate particular flower colours with rewards and prefer flowers of that colour in a given patch. In this study, we assessed whether floral choice by the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria was influenced by colour similarity to a high-quality neighbour flower, while it contained nectar, and then when it was empty of nectar. We trained T. carbonaria to visit highly rewarding artificial flowers (50% (v/v) honey solution) within a patch that also contained two types of less-rewarding artificial flowers (20% (v/v) honey solution): one of the same colour (though different pattern) as the high-quality flower and one a different colour (and pattern) to the other two flowers. Colonies were tested with blue and yellow colour sets, where either the blue flower was most rewarding and the yellow the least, or vice versa. We then compared preferences between the two equal-quality flowers in the patch under two conditions: (i) when nectar was available from the high-quality flower, and (ii) when the nectar was removed from the high-quality flower. We found that, when available, high-quality flowers were always visited more than low-quality flowers. Under this condition, adjacent lower-quality flowers in the patch received similar levels of visitation, regardless of their colour. When the reward was removed from the high-quality flower (simulating an emptied flower), foragers quickly switched to using the remaining two equal-quality flowers in the patch, but again showed no preference for the similar-coloured flower. Our results indicate that T. carbonaria are adaptable foragers capable of quickly learning and responding to floral reward changes in their foraging environment. At least under our experimental conditions, we found no evidence that T. carbonaria floral choice is influenced by colour similarity to a high-quality resource in the same foraging location.
Revisiting Leonardo on Muscles: Intimations of Mathematical Biology and Biomechanics
Authors: Kemp Martin
Published: February 2023

Leonardo da Vinci’s extensive drawings and notes devoted to anatomy do not arise in a medical context. He does not engage with surgery or “physic.” Rather, his aim is to reveal what he understood to be the divine engineering of God’s greatest creation. His earliest anatomical drawings map the conduits for the “spirits” at a deep level not practiced by other artists interested in the human body. The first set of drawings he produced in 1489 describes skulls with brilliant draftsmanship. His notes for these drawings are predominantly concerned with the location of the “common sense” (sensus communis) at the geometrical center of the cranium. The next great set of drawings completed in ca. 1510 expounds the form and functions of the bones and muscles in meticulous mechanical detail, probably in collaboration with the young Paduan doctor, Marcantonio della Torre. Leonardo’s greatest realization of mathematics in anatomy comes when he looks at the valves of the heart; in studying the heart he also conceived a casting technique that he adapted to determine the form of the ventricles in the brain, radically revising the traditional arrangement of these structures. In a range of portrayals from diagrammatic to pictorial and from static to dynamic, Leonardo’s anatomical research is unrivalled in revealing the mechanics of the human body. His work in this context is an underappreciated precursor of the modern science of biomechanics. (Larger-sized versions of the Leonardo drawings presented here are available as supplementary material in the online version of this article.)
The importance of front-of-pack labels in improving health status and eating behavior
Authors: Muzzioli Luca , Mocini Edoardo , Pinto Alessandro
Published: February 2023

The aim of this Editorial is to give an overview on the multiple aspects of front-of-pack labels (FOPLs) and provide the readers a balanced view of the problems raised in this research field, placing them in a wider context. Furthermore, this editorial paper discusses whether and how the use of FOPLs can promote health status in relation to the individual eating pattern and which should be the next research scenarios to investigate to further improve and integrate these tools.
Early life influences on the development of food addiction in college attending young adults
Authors: Wattick Rachel A. , Olfert Melissa D. , Claydon Elizabeth , Hagedorn-Hatfield Rebecca L. , Barr Makenzie L. , Brode Cassie
Published: February 2023

Purpose

There is little investigation into the causes of food addiction. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of early life influences on the development of food addiction in college-attending young adults aged 18–29.

Methods

This study utilized a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design. College-attending young adults were invited to complete an online survey measuring Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), food addiction, depression, anxiety, stress, and demographic information. Correlations between food addiction and the other variables were analyzed and significant variables were placed into a nominal logistic regression model to predict the development of food addiction. Participants who met the criteria for food addiction were invited to participate in interviews to examine their childhood eating environment and when their symptoms emerged. Interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed. Quantitative analysis was conducted using JMP Pro Version 16.0 and qualitative analysis was conducted using NVIVO Software Version 12.0.

Results

Survey respondents (n = 1645) had an overall 21.9% prevalence of food addiction. Significant correlations were observed between food addiction and ACEs, depression, anxiety, stress, and sex (p < .01 for all). Depression was the only significant predictor of the development of food addiction (OR = 3.33 95% CI 2.19, 5.05). The most common eating environment described by interview participants (n = 36) was an emphasis on diet culture, ideal body image, and restrictive environments. Symptoms frequently emerged after transitioning into college and having the ability to make their own food choices.

Conclusion

These results show the impact of early life eating environments and young adulthood mental health on the development of food addiction. These findings contribute to the understanding of underlying causes of food addiction.

Level of evidence: Level V, Opinions of authorities, based on descriptive studies, narrative reviews, clinical experience, or reports of expert committees.
Forschendes Lernen im Lehramtsstudium Biologie. Dokumentarische Rekonstruktionen studentischer Experimentierprozesse
Authors: Olschewski Petra , Herzmann Petra , Schlüter Kirsten
Published: February 2023

Forschendes Lernen in den Naturwissenschaften intendiert, dass Lernende den wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisprozess selbst durchlaufen, um ihre Problemlösefähigkeiten zu schulen und ein Verständnis von Naturwissenschaft als Disziplin zu entwickeln. Wie sich die Gruppenarbeitsprozesse von Lernenden beim Experimentieren im Vergleich zu den programmatischen Erwartungen an das Forschende Lernen gestalten, ist die Fragestellung der vorliegenden Studie. Untersucht werden Experimentierprozesse von Lehramtsstudierenden des Faches Biologie. Bereits im Studium sind curriculare Angebote Forschenden Lernens vorgesehen, um angehenden Lehrpersonen eigene Erfahrungen und deren systematische Reflexion im Hinblick auf die spätere Anleitung forschungsbasierter Lernformen zu ermöglichen. Mittels der Dokumentarischen Methode streben wir an, die in-situ-Prozesse des Experimentierens – im Verhältnis zu mit der Aufgabenbearbeitung intendierten fachdidaktischen Zielen – zu rekonstruieren. Untersucht werden die handlungsleitenden Orientierungen der Studierendengruppen sowohl hinsichtlich der fachlichen Erkenntniswege als auch in Bezug auf ihre Interaktionsmodi. Im Ergebnis zeigen die Analysen für die Gruppen unterschiedliche Zugänge zur gestellten Aufgabe, die sich kontrastiv als hypothesen- und materialbasiert unterscheiden lassen. Hinsichtlich der Gruppeninteraktion können einvernehmliche und aushandlungsorientierte Modi rekonstruiert werden. Diskutiert werden die vorliegenden Befunde im Hinblick auf die Zielsetzungen Forschenden Lernens in den Naturwissenschaftsdidaktiken sowie den institutionellen Kontext der universitären Lehrer*innenbildung.
Performance and mechanism of bentonite in suppressing methane explosions in a pipeline network
Authors: Fengxiao Wang , Jinzhang Jia , Xiuyuan Tian
Published: February 2023

Methane explosions threaten the safety of industrial security in modern society. To suppress such explosions, experiments were made through using different masses of bentonite power driven by CO2 within a pipe network set up in an independent way. The three factors, including the peak over-pressure of an explosion, the index of the explosion power, and the time length within which the first wave of flames reached the pipe network’s outlet, were measured to evaluate the performance. Moreover, an analysis on the mechanism of suppressing explosions was also conducted. According to the results, a gradual increase of the powder mass from 20 to 50 g could promote the effect of explosion suppression, but a further increase from50 g to 60 g only led to a slight improvement of the performance. Thus, it was concluded that the use of 50 g of bentonite powder worked best for the suppression of methane explosions when environmental conservation, energy saving as well as practicality were all taken into consideration. What was found in this study is supposed to shed theoretical light on how to transport methane safely with disaster risks reduced effectively.
Frictional stability and permeability evolution of fractures subjected to repeated cycles of heating-and-quenching: granites from the Gonghe Basin, northwest China
Authors: Cui Li , Zhang Fengshou , An Mengke , Zhuang Li , Elsworth Derek , Zhong Zhen
Published: February 2023

Fluid injection into enhanced geothermal system (EGS) reservoirs can reactivate subsurface fractures/faults and trigger earthquakes—requiring that frictional stability and permeability evolution characteristics are adequately evaluated. This behavior potentially becomes more complicated when the impacts of temperature and cycled thermal stresses, and the resulted damage accumulation on both stability and transport characteristics are getting involved. We conducted coupled shear-flow experiments on saw-cut fractures recovered from an analog surface outcrop representative of a reservoir at 2450 m in the Gonghe Basin of northwestern China. The rocks were subjected to variable numbers of repeated heating-quenching (25-180-25 °C) cycles for shear-flow experiments at an effective stress of ~ 3 MPa and with velocity stepped between 10-1-10-1-10 μm/s. The smooth fractures return frictional coefficients in the range ~ 0.69 to 0.72 and are little affected by the thermal cycling. The frictional stability parameter (a–b) decreases and the instantaneous permeability increases with an increase in the number of heating-quenching cycles, during which intergranular and intragranular microcracks were generated in fracture surface. The above results indicate that the heating-quenching cycles during hydraulic fracturing of geothermal reservoir could affect both the fracture frictional instability and permeability evolution.
Learning Weight Signed Network Embedding with Graph Neural Networks
Authors: Lu Zekun , Yu Qiancheng , Li Xia , Li Xiaoning , Yang Qinwen
Published: February 2023

Network embedding aims to map nodes in a network to low-dimensional vector representations. Graph neural networks (GNNs) have received much attention and have achieved state-of-the-art performance in learning node representation. Using fundamental sociological theories (status theory and balance theory) to model signed networks, basing GNN on learning node embedding has become a hot topic in signed network embedding. However, most GNNs fail to use edge weight information in signed networks, and most models cannot be directly used in weighted signed networks. We propose a novel signed directed graph neural networks model named WSNN to learn node embedding for Weighted signed networks. The proposed model reconstructs link signs, link directions, and signed directed triangles simultaneously. Based on the network representations learned by the proposed model, we conduct link sign prediction in signed networks. Extensive experimental results in real-world datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model over the state-of-the-art network embedding algorithms for graph representation learning in signed networks.
Feature selection on quantum computers
Authors: Mücke Sascha , Heese Raoul , Müller Sabine , Wolter Moritz , Piatkowski Nico
Published: February 2023

In machine learning, fewer features reduce model complexity. Carefully assessing the influence of each input feature on the model quality is therefore a crucial preprocessing step. We propose a novel feature selection algorithm based on a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization (QUBO) problem, which allows to select a specified number of features based on their importance and redundancy. In contrast to iterative or greedy methods, our direct approach yields higher-quality solutions. QUBO problems are particularly interesting because they can be solved on quantum hardware. To evaluate our proposed algorithm, we conduct a series of numerical experiments using a classical computer, a quantum gate computer, and a quantum annealer. Our evaluation compares our method to a range of standard methods on various benchmark data sets. We observe competitive performance.
The Costs and Benefits of Mindfulness and Reappraisal in Daily Life
Authors: Wenzel Mario , Blanke Elisabeth S. , Rowland Zarah , Brose Annette
Published: February 2023

Reappraisal and mindfulness represent two fundamentally different but interconnected ways of dealing with one’s emotions: whereas reappraisal is aimed at changing one’s thoughts and emotions, mindfulness is aimed at not immediately changing, but appreciating them. Despite this difference, prior research has shown that both are beneficial for one’s affective well-being. However, research on the spontaneous use of reappraisal and mindfulness in daily life found that they might be differentially associated with positive and negative affect, with reappraisal and mindful attention being more strongly associated with increased positive affect and mindful acceptance with decreased negative affect. Moreover, the spontaneous use of reappraisal may be less effective than mindfulness in daily life given that it is more cognitively taxing. To compare these possibly different benefits (i.e., change in positive and negative affect) and costs (i.e., feeling depleted), we re-analyzed two experience sampling studies (N = 125 and N = 179). Regarding benefits, endorsing reappraisal and mindful attention was significantly associated with increases in positive affect, whereas endorsing mindful acceptance was significantly associated with decreases in negative affect. Regarding costs, we found that endorsing reappraisal led to more depletion and that reappraisal was selected less often than mindfulness in daily life. Our results demonstrate the importance of assessing not only the different benefits but also the costs of emotion regulation in daily life.
Policy-Based Holistic Application Management with BPMN and TOSCA
Authors: Calcaterra Domenico , Tomarchio Orazio
Published: February 2023

With the wide adoption of cloud computing across technology industries and research institutions, an ever-growing interest in cloud orchestration frameworks has emerged over the past few years. These orchestration frameworks enable the automated provisioning and decommissioning of cloud applications in a timely and efficient manner, but they offer limited or no support for application management. While management functionalities, such as configuring, monitoring and scaling single components, can be directly covered by cloud providers and configuration management tools, holistic management features, such as backing up, testing and updating multiple components, cannot be automated using these approaches. In this paper, we propose a concept to automatically generate executable holistic management workflows based on the TOSCA standard. The practical feasibility of the approach is validated through a prototype implementation and a case study.
Historical demography and climatic niches of the Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) in the Zambezian region
Authors: Hánová Alexandra , Bryja Josef , Goüy de Bellocq Joelle , Baird Stuart J. E. , Cuypers Laura , Konečný Adam , Mikula Ondřej
Published: February 2023

The Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis) is the most widespread rodent species in sub-Saharan Africa, often studied as an agricultural pest and reservoir of viruses. Its mitochondrial (Mt) phylogeny revealed six major lineages parapatrically distributed across open habitats of sub-Saharan Africa. In this study we used 1949 sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene to elaborate on distribution and evolutionary history of three Mt lineages inhabiting the open habitats of the Zambezian region (corresponding roughly to the African savannas south of the Equator). We describe in more detail contact zones between the lineages—their location and extent of co-occurrence within localities—and infer past population trends. The estimates are interpreted in the light of climatic niche models. The lineages underwent reduction in effective population size during the last glacial, but they spread widely after that: two of them after the last glacial maximum and the last one in mid-Holocene. The centers of expansion, i.e., possible long-term savanna refugia, were estimated to lie close to the Eastern Arc Mountains and lakes of the Great African Rift, geomorphological structures likely to have had long-term influence on geographical distribution of the lineages. Environmental niche modeling shows climate could also affect the broad scale distribution of the lineages but is unlikely to explain the narrow width of the contact zones. The intraspecific Mt differentiation of M. natalensis echoes phylogeographic patterns observed in multiple co-distributed mammal species, which suggests the mammal communities in the region are shaped by the same long-term processes.
Pepino mosaic virus antagonizes plant m6A modification by promoting the autophagic degradation of the m6A writer HAKAI
Authors: He Hao , Ge Linhao , Li Zhaolei , Zhou Xueping , Li Fangfang
Published: February 2023

Autophagy plays an active anti-viral role in plants. Increasing evidence suggests that viruses can inhibit or manipulate autophagy, thereby winning the arms race between plants and viruses. Here, we demonstrate that overexpression of an m6A writer from Solanum lycopersicum, SlHAKAI, could negatively regulate pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) infection, inhibit viral RNA and protein accumulations by affecting viral m6A levels in tomato plants and vice versa. The PepMV-encoded RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRP) directly interacts with SlHAKAI and reduces its protein accumulation. The RdRP-mediated decreased protein accumulation of SlHAKAI is sensitive to the autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine and is compromised by knocking down a core autophagy gene. Furthermore, PepMV RdRP could interact with an essential autophagy-related protein, SlBeclin1. RdRP, SlHAKAI, and SlBeclin1 interaction complexes form bright granules in the cytoplasm. Silencing of Beclin1 in Nicotiana benthamiana plants abolishes the RdRP-mediated degradation of SlHAKAI, indicating the requirement of Beclin1 in this process. This study uncovers that the PepMV RdRP exploits the autophagy pathway by interacting with SlBeclin1 to promote the autophagic degradation of the SlHAKAI protein, thereby inhibiting the m6A modification-mediated plant defense responses.
The influence of the digital divide on emergency remote student-centred learning during the COVID-19 pandemic: a case study of journalism education
Authors: Nkoala Sisanda , Matsilele Trust
Published: February 2023

This paper explores the emergency remote learning experiences of journalism students. It discusses how disparities in access to digital tools and participation in online learning, caused by the digital divide, influenced how some benefitted from the student-centred learning approaches adopted while others could not. The study seeks to answer this question: To what extent did the digital divide influence the experiences of journalism students with emergency remote student-centred learning adopted due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic? The study uses Van Dijk’s theory of the usage gap to argue that the unequal access to digital technologies experienced by some students brought about unequal participation in learning. This is despite the use of more student-centred approaches, which, according to existing literature, are supposed to foster greater engagement and participation. The data consisted of 113 vlogs created by second and third-year students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, South Africa, between June 1, 2020, and June 30, 2020.
Eruditing from indigenous adaptation strategies for resilient and sustainable coastal erosion management in southeastern Ghana
Authors: Gbedemah Shine Francis
Published: February 2023

Ghana is witnessing an increase in the construction of coastal flood defence walls on its coast but the effects of the coastal defence on people have not been well documented. This paper explores two issues: (1) indigenous strategies for preventing sea erosion and (2) the effects the modern coastal flood defence structures constructed along the southeastern coast of Ghana are having on the people. This study provides new insights into the understanding of indigenous methods that were used to address coastal flooding in the eastern section of Ghana and the effects the modern coastal defence structures are having on the people. Through multiphase sampling, a sample of 282 residents living in 17 communities affected by sea erosion in the Keta, Anloga, and Ada East District Assemblies where coastal defence structures were constructed were selected. Questionnaires were administered to these 282 respondents. Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) were also held in three communities, namely Keta, Atorkor and Totepe where coastal defence structures were constructed. The planning officers of the 3 district assemblies, the chief fishermen in the 3 communities where the FGDs were held, leaders of salt winners and 3 elders in each community were the key informants. Using descriptive statistics, the study revealed that, indigenous strategies like filling the beach with sand, building away from the seashore, and raising the foundations of buildings were used to protect the houses and communities from sea erosion but these strategies are no longer working thereby forcing the government to construct ‘modern’ coastal flood defence wallson the coast. The ‘modern’ coastal defence structures are in some places protecting the people and the land since they no longer experience sea erosion on a large scale. However, in places where armour rocks are used to protect the land, people now see them as preventing them from enjoying the natural beach as they used to and as a hindrance to their livelihoods of fishing. It is recommended that, as far as possible, soft engineering strategies like beach nourishment or sand dunes which are in line with the indigenous methods be used since they can lead to easy adaptation for sustainability.
The Brazilian (Non)perspective on national strategy for artificial intelligence
Authors: Filgueiras Fernando , Junquilho Tainá Aguiar
Published: February 2023

This article examines the design dynamics and process of the Brazilian National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (EBIA). We argue that Brazil has a long history of policies for digital development, covering a range of policies that encourage research and development and deploy AI-based digital technologies in industry and governments. Specifically for the AI policy, we analyze how these policies are fragmented into different initiatives without an approach to integrating the instruments and their mixes. We analyze how and why the Brazilian National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence design fails to implement and create an integrated perspective of these policies. This perspective for AI policy in Brazil results in fragmentation and failures to involve actors in the formulation and implementation process. The article concludes that the Brazilian perspective for artificial intelligence, emerging with EBIA, reproduces a situation of path dependence without promoting significant policy changes for the development and application of this technology in society.
Numerical simulation on exploring influencing factors of wind-driven natural ventilation effect in large indoor dock
Authors: Li Jialu , Deng Hui , Pan Xinyu , Zeng Fanxing , Gao Naiping
Published: February 2023

The shipbuilding industry is booming and the health problems of workers caused by the harsh indoor dock environment force us to explore efficient and reasonable ventilation methods suitable for large workshops. Due to the strong specificity of large workshops, general or local ventilation methods cannot be universally applied. It has great potential and good economy to improve indoor environment by changing natural ventilation design. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has gradually become a powerful tool for predicting indoor and outdoor airflow organization and optimizing indoor ventilation. This paper adopts CFD to study the effect of the inflow wind speed, the position of the side wall shutters, the area ratio and form of roof ventilators on the effectiveness of natural ventilation in a large shipyard driven by wind pressure. The results show that the influence on total ventilation volume is more obvious when the intake side is shaded than the exhaust side. Different incoming wind speeds will affect the wind pressure at the ventilation position, which is the decisive external factor affecting the natural ventilation of docks. When the area ratio of roof ventilators increases to a certain extent, its continued increase has an insignificant effect on the total ventilation volume. The influence of changing the arrangement of the roof ventilator on the natural ventilation effect can be neglected when the area ratio is kept constant.
Relational Health
Authors: Richman Laura S.
Published: February 2023

We tend to credit the healthy for good habits and discipline, and assign blame to the sick. All too often we view our health as a product of individual inputs rather than through a lens of interconnected, relational health. The relational health perspective offers an alternative way to view how our health is shaped and what the most productive avenues are for achieving long-term positive outcomes. This book draws on empirical research that illuminates how social relationships affect health outcomes, with a focus on three specific health problems: obesity, opioid use disorder, and depression in older adults. It incorporates examples of the untapped potential of community resources, social networks, and varied partnerships. The research presented is supplemented by perspectives from healthcare providers, patients and their families, and health policy experts, examining the role of relationships in health production and maintenance.
Environmental Strategy for Businesses
Authors: Potoski Matthew
Published: February 2023

There are as many ways for companies to improve their environmental performance as there are stakeholders who are calling upon them to do so. If companies make the right choices, they can satisfy their stakeholders, enhance their financial position, and help address the climate crisis. The wrong choices invite stakeholder scorn and risk wasting valuable resources. What problems do companies need to solve, and how can they solve them, to achieve the promise of shared value environmental performance? This book presents a framework for companies to design, develop and implement an effective environmental strategy that identifies environmental improvements, enables value exchanges with stakeholders, and improves competitive advantage. The step-by-step guide through this framework, illustrated with many examples, shows the promise of environmental initiatives that align with strategic opportunities and resources and the pitfalls of those that do not.
Music, Senior Centers, and Quality of Life
Authors: Lehmberg Lisa J. , Fung C. Victor
Published: February 2023

Lisa Lehmberg and Victor Fung present a groundbreaking look at quality of life via the music participation of older adults in diverse US senior centers. The state of musical activities in senior centers pre- and mid-pandemic is elucidated through original research conducted in senior centers across six states. Featured are older adults' stories told in their own words; insights from senior center activity leaders, manage-ment, and staff; and data, analyses, and syntheses from the authors' senior center visits and a survey of center managers. The authors document the adjustment process undergone by these centers during the pandemic and leading into a new normal. Recommendations are oﬀered for policy makers, school and community music educators, music activity leaders, older adults, caregivers, and service providers to enhance the quality of life of older adults. The critical role that music plays in supporting their quality of life is emphasized.
Coleridge and the Geometric Idiom
Authors: Colley Ann C.
Published: February 2023

When Coleridge described the landscapes he passed through while scrambling among the fells, mountains, and valleys of Britain, he did something unprecedented in Romantic writing: to capture what emerged before his eyes, he enlisted a geometric idiom. Immersed in a culture still beholden to Euclid's Elements and schooled by those who subscribed to its principles, he valued geometry both for its pragmatic function and for its role as a conduit to abstract thought. Indeed, his geometric training would often structure his observations on religion, aesthetics, politics, and philosophy. For Coleridge, however, this perspective never competed with his sensitivity to the organic nature of his surroundings but, rather, intermingled with it. Situating Coleridge's remarkable ways of seeing within the history and teaching of mathematics and alongside the eighteenth century's budding interest in non-Euclidean geometry, Ann Colley illuminates the richness of the culture of walking and the surprising potential of landscape writing.
Catharine Macaulay: Political Writings
Authors: Macaulay Catharine
Published: February 2023

The writings of republican historian and political pamphleteer Catharine Macaulay (1731–91) played a central role in debates about political reform in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution. A critical reader of Hume's bestselling History of England, she broke new ground in historiography by defending the regicide of Charles I and became an inspiration for many luminaries of the American and French revolutions. While her historical and political works engaged with thinkers from Hobbes and Locke to Bolingbroke and Burke, she also wrote about religion, philosophy, education and animal rights. Influencing Wollstonecraft and proto-feminism, she argued that there were no moral differences between men and women and that boys and girls should receive the same education. This book is the first scholarly edition of Catharine Macaulay's published writings and includes all her known pamphlets along with extensive selections from her longer historical and political works.
Design for communication: how do demonstrators demonstrate technology?
Authors: Bobbe Tina , Opeskin Lenard , Lüneburg Lisa-Marie , Wanta Helge , Pohlmann Joshwa , Krzywinski Jens
Published: February 2023

The importance of inter- and transdisciplinary research for addressing today’s complex challenges has been increasingly recognised. This requires new forms of communication and interaction between researchers from different disciplines and nonacademic stakeholders. Demonstrators constitute a crucial communication tool in technology research and development and have the potential to leverage communication between different bodies of knowledge. However, there is little knowledge on how to design demonstrators. This research aims to understand how demonstrators from the fields Internet of Things and Robotics are designed to communicate technology. The goal is to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of demonstrator practice with readily implemented design knowledge and to advance theoretical knowledge in the field of communicating artefacts. We thematically analysed 28 demonstrator design cases, which led to a typology that assists in categorising and understanding 13 key design principles. The typology is built from three perspectives: First, in terms of the overall goal communication, second, in terms of visitor engagement goals (attraction, initial engagement, deep engagement) and third, in terms of resource-related goals (low effort in development and operation). With this typology, we have taken a significant step towards understanding demonstrator design principles for effective technology communication between different stakeholders.
Social divisions and risk perception drive divergent epidemics and large later waves
Authors: Harris Mallory J. , Cardenas Kimberly J. , Mordecai Erin A.
Published: February 2023

During infectious disease outbreaks, individuals may adopt protective measures like vaccination and physical distancing in response to awareness of disease burden. Prior work showed how feedbacks between epidemic intensity and awareness-based behaviour shape disease dynamics. These models often overlook social divisions, where population subgroups may be disproportionately impacted by a disease and more responsive to the effects of disease within their group. We develop a compartmental model of disease transmission and awareness-based protective behaviour in a population split into two groups to explore the impacts of awareness separation (relatively greater in- vs. out-group awareness of epidemic severity) and mixing separation (relatively greater in- vs. out-group contact rates). Using simulations, we show that groups that are more separated in awareness have smaller differences in mortality. Fatigue (i.e. abandonment of protective measures over time) can drive additional infection waves that can even exceed the size of the initial wave, particularly if uniform awareness drives early protection in one group, leaving that group largely susceptible to future infection. Counterintuitively, vaccine or infection-acquired immunity that is more protective against transmission and mortality may indirectly lead to more infections by reducing perceived risk of infection and therefore vaccine uptake. Awareness-based protective behaviour, including awareness separation, can fundamentally alter disease dynamics.

Social media summary: Depending on group division, behaviour based on perceived risk can change epidemic dynamics & produce large later waves.
In vitro characterization of anti-inflammatory activities of 3RS, 7R, 11R-phytanic acid
Authors: Nakanishi Tomonori , Izumi Mikihisa , Suzuki Ryoji , Yamaguchi Kohta , Sugamoto Kazuhiro , Erickson Laurie , Kawahara Satoshi
Published: February 2023

The aim of the research described here was to investigate the in vitro immunomodulatory effects of 3RS, 7R, 11R-phytanic acid (3RS-PHY) from the perspective of efficacy against autoimmune diseases. 3RS-PHY is a milk component with strong agonist activity at the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR). As PPAR is a therapeutic target for several human diseases, 3RS-PHY intake may have possible health benefits. Recently, we chemically synthesized a preparation of 3RS-PHY and demonstrated that 3RS-PHY inhibited T-cell production of interferon (IFN)-γ. However, the overall immunomodulatory effects were not evaluated. In this study, mouse splenocytes, purified T-cells and B-cells were stimulated by mitogens and incubated with 3RS-PHY, followed by evaluation of cytokine and antibody production. A macrophage-like cell line J774.1 was also incubated with 3RS-PHY to evaluate nitric oxide production. 3RS-PHY decreased mRNA levels not only of IFN-γ but also of interleukin (IL)-2, IL-10 and IL-17A in splenocytes and similar effects were confirmed at the protein level. In addition, 3RS-PHY had a direct action on T-cells with preferential inhibitory effects on Th1 and Th17 cytokines such as IFN-γ and IL-17A. Furthermore, 3RS-PHY suppressed antibody secretion by B-cells and nitric oxide production by J774.1 almost completely, indicating that 3RS-PHY is a bioactive fatty acid with anti-inflammatory properties. These findings encourage further investigations, including in vivo experiments, to evaluate whether 3RS-PHY actually shows the potential to prevent autoimmune diseases, and provide basic information to produce milk and dairy products with an increased 3RS-PHY concentration.
Women and the Rwandan gacaca courts: gender, genocide and justice
Authors: Brewer Beth
Published: February 2023

This article examines the gacaca trials of women accused of perpetrating the Rwandan genocide, asking whether and how ideas about their gender impacted their defences, testimonies and experiences as defendants. It uses court reports of the trials of 91 accused women; a set of sources that provides novel insights into the role of gender in an African transitional justice system. These sources reveal that ideas about gender – particularly female peacefulness and passivity – were commonly invoked by both accused women and wider trial participants. These gendered ideas not only helped women to achieve acquittals, but they also contributed to the Rwandan state's construction of a ‘truth’ narrative that ordinary Rwandan women are not capable of genocide violence. Additionally, women's trials reveal a further function of the gacaca process: as a political tool that made moral judgements about contemporary Rwandan women's domestic roles and place within the household.
What’s in a Name? An Examination of Current Definitions of Resource Churches
Authors: Shepherd Jack
Published: February 2023

This article is the first in a trilogy exploring the concept of resource churches, providing a starting point to develop a comprehensive understanding of their implications for the Church of England. The scene is set by introducing the impact of this recent model of church planting, which has become widespread since the ambitious programme of church development in London in the 1990s. This opening piece examines understanding of what constitutes a resource church and identifies flaws in the existing definition. The existence of resource churches as a distinct model is demonstrated by comparison to concepts of hub churches, megachurches, minster churches and resourcing churches. The need to discuss such distinctions provides evidence that an unambiguous definition for ‘resource church’ is needed. Evaluation of the five core elements in Bishop Ric Thorpe’s definition of resource churches establishes the need for research to determine beliefs and practices of current resource churches.