bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A deep learning and Monte Carlo based framework for bioluminescence imaging center of mass-guided glioblastoma targeting
Authors: Rezaeifar Behzad , Wolfs Cecile J A , Lieuwes Natasja G , Biemans Rianne , Reniers Brigitte , Dubois Ludwig J , Verhaegen Frank
Published: June 2022

Objective. Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a valuable tool for non-invasive monitoring of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) tumor-bearing small animals without incurring x-ray radiation burden. However, the use of this imaging modality is limited due to photon scattering and lack of spatial information. Attempts at reconstructing bioluminescence tomography (BLT) using mathematical models of light propagation show limited progress. Approach. This paper employed a different approach by using a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict the tumor’s center of mass (CoM). Transfer-learning with a sizeable artificial database is employed to facilitate the training process for, the much smaller, target database including Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of real orthotopic glioblastoma models. Predicted CoM was then used to estimate a BLI-based planning target volume (bPTV), by using the CoM as the center of a sphere, encompassing the tumor. The volume of the encompassing target sphere was estimated based on the total number of photons reaching the skin surface. Main results. Results show sub-millimeter accuracy for CoM prediction with a median error of 0.59 mm. The proposed method also provides promising performance for BLI-based tumor targeting with on average 94% of the tumor inside the bPTV while keeping the average healthy tissue coverage below 10%. Significance. This work introduced a framework for developing and using a CNN for targeted radiation studies for GBM based on BLI. The framework will enable biologists to use BLI as their main image-guidance tool to target GBM tumors in rat models, avoiding delivery of high x-ray imaging dose to the animals.
Deep residual-SVD network for brain image registration
Authors: Cui Kunpeng , Lin Yusong , Liu Yue , Li Yinghao
Published: June 2022

Objective. Medical image registration aims to find the deformation field that can align two images in a spatial position. A medical image registration method based on U-Net architecture has been proposed currently. However, U-Net architecture has few training parameters, which leads to weak learning ability, and it ignores the adverse effects of image noise on the registration accuracy. The article aims at addressing the problem of weak network learning ability and the adverse effects of noisy images on registration. Approach. Here we propose a novel unsupervised 3D brain image registration framework, which introduces the residual unit and singular value decomposition (SVD) denoising layer on the U-Net architecture. Residual unit solves the problem of network degradation, that is, registration accuracy becomes saturated and then degrades rapidly with the increase in network depth. SVD denoising layer uses the estimated model order for SVD-based low-rank image reconstruction. we use Akaike information criterion to estimate the appropriate model order, which is used to remove noise components. We use the exponential linear unit (ELU) as the activation function, which is more robust to noise than other peers. Main results. The proposed method is evaluated on the publicly available brain MRI datasets: Mindboggle101 and LPBA40. Experimental results demonstrate our method outperforms several state-of-the-art methods for the metric of Dice Score. The mean number of folding voxels and registration time are comparable to state-of-the-art methods. Significance. This study shows that Deep Residual-SVD Network can improve registration accuracy. This study also demonstrate that the residual unit can enhance the learning ability of the network, the SVD denoising layer can denoise effectively, and the ELU is more robust to noise.
A systematic study of the contribution of counting statistics to the final lineal energy uncertainty in microdosimetry
Authors: Parisi Gabriele , Schettino Giuseppe , Romano Francesco
Published: June 2022

Objectives. Microdosimetry is proving to be a reliable and powerful tool to be applied in different fields such as radiobiology, radiation protection and hadron therapy. However, accepted standard protocols and codes of practice are still missing. With this regard, a systematic and methodical uncertainty analysis is fundamental to build an accredited uncertainty budget of practical use. This work studied the contribution of counting statistics (i.e. number of events collected) to the final frequency-mean and dose-mean lineal energy uncertainties, aiming at providing guidelines for good experimental and simulation practice. The practical limitation of current technologies and the non-negligible probability of nuclear reactions require careful considerations and nonlinear approaches. Approach. Microdosimetric data were obtained by means of the particle tracking Monte Carlo code Geant4. The uncertainty analysis was carried out relying on a Monte Carlo based numerical analysis, as suggested by the BIPM's ‘Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement’. Final uncertainties were systematically investigated for proton, helium and carbon ions at an increasing number of detected events, for a range of different clinical-relevant beam energies. Main results. Rare events generated by nuclear interactions in the detector sensitive volume were found to massively degrade microdosimetric uncertainties unless a very high statistics is collected. The study showed an increasing impact of such events for increasing beam energy and lighter ions. For instance, in the entrance region of a 250 MeV proton beam, about 5 ∗ 107 events need to be collected to obtain a dose-mean lineal energy uncertainty below 10%. Significance. The results of this study help define the necessary conditions to achieve appropriate statistics in computational microdosimetry, pointing out the importance of properly taking into account nuclear interaction events. Their impact on microdosimetric quantities and on their uncertainty is significant and cannot be overlooked, particularly when characterising clinical beams and radiobiological response. This work prepared the ground for deeper investigations involving dedicated experiments and for the development of a method to properly evaluate the counting statistics uncertainty contribution in the uncertainty budget, whose accuracy is fundamental for the clinical transition of microdosimetry.
Quasi-analytical model of surface potential and drain current for trigate negative capacitance FinFET: a superposition approach
Authors: Chauhan Vibhuti , Samajdar Dip Prakash , Bagga Navjeet
Published: June 2022

Negative capacitance (NC) obtained from the ferroelectric polarization switching is a widely adopted approach for the realization of low power, high-performance devices. In this paper, for the first time, we have developed a 3D quasi-analytical model for the surface potential and drain current of the trigate NC-FinFET using the superposition approach. Till date, only double gate (DG) uniformly doped NC-FinFET structures have been explored, which does not reveal the practicality of the device. Therefore, we perform an extensive device evaluation: (a) by solving the Poisson’s equation separately for the side gates (DG) and the top gate to acquire a complete model for trigate FinFET using the superposition principle; (b) to mimic the actual source/drain (S/D) doping, we included Gaussian doping in our proposed model; (c) with the incorporation of the laterally extended gate and S/D underlap. The model data are found in good agreement with the well-calibrated simulation data. We have taken the parabolic approximation method and appropriate boundary conditions to solve the Poisson’s equation.
Collisional microwave heating and wall interaction of an ultracold plasma in a resonant microwave cavity
Authors: van Ninhuijs M A W , Beckers J , Luiten O J
Published: June 2022

Recently, we introduced a resonant microwave cavity as a diagnostic tool for the study of ultracold plasmas (UCPs). This diagnostic allows us to study the electron dynamics of UCPs non-destructively, very fast, and with high sensitivity by measuring the shift in the resonance frequency of a cavity, induced by a plasma. However, in an attempt to theoretically predict the frequency shift using a Gaussian self-similar expansion model, a three times faster plasma decay was observed in the experiment than found in the model. For this, we proposed two causes: plasma–wall interactions and collisional microwave heating. In this paper, we investigate the effect of both causes on the lifetime of the plasma. We present a simple analytical model to account for electrons being lost to the cavity walls. We find that the model agrees well with measurements performed on plasmas with different initial electron temperatures and that the earlier discrepancy can be attributed to electrons being lost to the walls. In addition, we perform measurements for different electric field strengths in the cavity and find that the electric field has a small, but noticeable effect on the lifetime of the plasma. By extending the model with the theory of collisional microwave heating, we find that this effect can be predicted quite well by treating the energy transferred from the microwave field to the plasma as additional initial excess energy for the electrons.
A proposed test of quantum dissipation theory using Kapitza–Dirac electron diffraction
Authors: Puente Raul , Chen Zilin , Batelaan Herman
Published: June 2022

Decoherence can be provided by a dissipative environment as described by the Caldeira–Leggett equation. This equation is foundational to the theory of quantum dissipation. However, no experimental test has been performed that measures for one physical system both the dissipation and the decoherence. Anglin and Zurek predicted that a resistive surface could provide such a dissipative environment for a free electron wave passing close to it. We propose that the electron wave’s coherence and energy loss can be measured simultaneously by using Kapitza–Dirac scattering for varying light intensity.
Dynamics of atoms within atoms
Authors: Tiwari S , Engel F , Wagner M , Schmidt R , Meinert F , Wüster S
Published: June 2022

Recent experiments with Bose–Einstein condensates have entered a regime in which thousands of ground-state condensate atoms fill the Rydberg-electron orbit. After the excitation of a single atom into a highly excited Rydberg state, scattering off the Rydberg electron sets ground-state atoms into motion, such that one can study the quantum-many-body dynamics of atoms moving within the Rydberg atom. Here we study this many-body dynamics using Gross–Pitaevskii and truncated Wigner theory. Our simulations focus in particular on the scenario of multiple sequential Rydberg excitations on the same rubidium condensate which has become the standard tool to observe quantum impurity dynamics in Rydberg experiments. We investigate to what extent such experiments can be sensitive to details in the electron–atom interaction potential, such as the rapid radial modulation of the Rydberg molecular potential, or p-wave shape resonance. We demonstrate that both effects are crucial for the initial condensate response within the Rydberg orbit, but become less relevant for the density waves emerging outside the Rydberg excitation region at later times. Finally we explore the local dynamics of condensate heating. We find that it provides only minor corrections to the mean-field dynamics. Combining all these insights, our results suggest Bose–Einstein condensates as a viable platform for the in situ and real time interrogation of ultra-cold chemistry dynamics involving Rydberg states.
Some mathematical aspects of Anderson localization: boundary effect, multimodality, and bifurcation
Authors: Jia Chen , Liu Ziqi , Zhang Zhimin
Published: June 2022

Anderson localization is a famous wave phenomenon that describes the absence of diffusion of waves in a disordered medium. Here we generalize the landscape theory of Anderson localization to general elliptic operators and complex boundary conditions using a probabilistic approach, and further investigate some mathematical aspects of Anderson localization that are rarely discussed before. First, we observe that under the Neumann boundary condition, the low energy quantum states are localized on the boundary of the domain with high probability. We provide a detailed explanation of this phenomenon using the concept of extended subregions and obtain an analytical expression of this probability in the one-dimensional case. Second, we find that the quantum states may be localized in multiple different subregions with high probability in the one-dimensional case and we derive an explicit expression of this probability for various boundary conditions. Finally, we examine a bifurcation phenomenon of the localization subregion as the strength of disorder varies. The critical threshold of bifurcation is analytically computed based on a toy model and the dependence of the critical threshold on model parameters is analyzed.
Electroactive nanostructured antibacterial materials
Authors: Saraeva I N , Zayarny D A , Tolordava E R , Nastulyavichus A A , Khaertdinova L F , Kudryashov S I , Zhizhimova Y S , Ionin A A , Gonchukov S A
Published: June 2022

Thin nanostructured metal (Au, Ag) films, magnetron-sputtered on semiconductor (n-type Si) substrate under 6 V voltage exposure for 15 min, exhibit high antibacterial effect against the food pathogens S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Nanostructures were formed by femtosecond laser ablation, resulting in an array of microspots. The observed effect is caused by the emergence of submicron, laterally periodical static electric and magnetic fields, adjacent to the metal film, causing the abrupt voltage drops, which induce the hyperpolarization of the cell membrane and increase its permeability, resulting in the formation of pores (electroporation) in the membrane and the subsequent apoptosis of the bacterial cell. Additional factors, which enhance the antibacterial effect of the studied materials, are the volume convection in the liquid drop with bacterial culture, caused by the moderate heating of the substrate to 45 °C–50 °C during the electric current flow and electro-taxis of bacteria to the charged nanostructured metal film.
Evaluation of different methodologies for primary human dermal fibroblast spheroid formation: automation through 3D bioprinting technology
Authors: Quílez Cristina , Cerdeira Enrique , González-Rico Jorge , de Aranda Gonzalo , López-Donaire Maria Luisa , Jorcano José Luis , Velasco Diego
Published: June 2022

Cell spheroids have recently emerged as an effective tool to recapitulate native microenvironments of living organisms in an in vitro scenario, increasing the reliability of the results obtained and broadening their applications in regenerative medicine, cancer research, disease modeling and drug screening. In this study the generation of spheroids containing primary human dermal fibroblasts was approached using the two-widely employed methods: hanging-drop and U-shape low adhesion plate (LA-plate). Moreover, extrusion-based three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting was introduced to achieve a standardized and scalable production of cell spheroids, decreasing considerably the possibilities of human error. This was ensured when U-shape LA-plates were used, showing an 85% formation efficiency, increasing up to a 98% when it was automatized using the 3D bioprinting technologies. However, sedimentation effect within the cartridge led to a reduction of 20% in size of the spheroid during the printing process. Hyaluronic acid (HA) was chosen as viscosity enhancer to supplement the bioink and overcome cell sedimentation within the cartridge due to the high viability values exhibited by the cells—around 80%—at the used conditions. Finally, (ANCOVA) of spheroid size over time for different printing conditions stand out HA 0.4% (w/v) 60 kDa as the viscosity-improved bioink that exhibit the highest cell viability and spheroid formation percentages. Besides, not only did it ensure cell spheroid homogeneity over time, reducing cell sedimentation effects, but also wider spheroid diameters over time with less variability, outperforming significantly manual loading.
Hydrodynamic behavior of the two-TASEP
Authors: Cantini Luigi , Zahra Ali
Published: June 2022

We address the question of the hydrodynamic behavior of a two-species generalization of the TASEP, called two-TASEP, introduced by Derrida (1996 Statphys-19: 19th IUPAP Int. Conf. Statistical Physics) and Mallick (1996 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen.
29 5375). We find that the auxiliary variables, introduced previously in the literature to express the density dependence of particle currents, turn out to be the Riemann variables of the conservation equations. This allows us to work out quite explicitly the rarefaction and shock solutions and to completely solve the associated Riemann problem. Our theoretical results are confirmed by Monte Carlo simulations.
Satisfiability transition in asymmetric neural networks
Authors: Aguirre-López Fabián , Pastore Mauro , Franz Silvio
Published: June 2022

Asymmetry in the synaptic interactions between neurons plays a crucial role in determining the memory storage and retrieval properties of recurrent neural networks. In this work, we analyze the problem of storing random memories in a network of neurons connected by a synaptic matrix with a definite degree of asymmetry. We study the corresponding satisfiability and clustering transitions in the space of solutions of the constraint satisfaction problem associated with finding synaptic matrices given the memories. We find, besides the usual SAT/UNSAT transition at a critical number of memories to store in the network, an additional transition for very asymmetric matrices, where the competing constraints (definite asymmetry vs memories storage) induce enough frustration in the problem to make it impossible to solve. This finding is particularly striking in the case of a single memory to store, where no quenched disorder is present in the system.
Hexagonal matching codes with two-body measurements
Authors: Wootton James R
Published: June 2022

Matching codes are stabilizer codes based on Kitaev’s honeycomb lattice model. The hexagonal form of these codes are particularly well-suited to the heavy-hexagon device layouts currently pursued in the hardware of IBM quantum. Here we show how the stabilizers of the code can be measured solely through two-body measurements that are native to the architecture. Though the subsystem code formed by these measurements has a trivial code space, the sequence in which they are measured allows the desired logical subspace to be preserved. This therefore achieves a result similar to the recently introduced Floquet codes, but via a completely different method. The process is then run on 27 and 65 qubit devices, to compare results with simulations for a standard error model. It is found that the results correspond well to simulations where the noise strength is similar to that found in the benchmarking of the devices. The best devices show results consistent with a noise model with an error probability of around 1.5%–2%.
Spiral phase plasma mirror
Authors: Porat Elkana , Lightman Shlomi , Cohen Itamar , Pomerantz Ishay
Published: June 2022

In this work we present a method for generating ultra-intense Laguerre–Gauss laser beams, using 3D direct laser writing of spiral phase plasma mirrors. These single-use mirrors provide an economical and scalable solution for arbitrary spatial beam shaping at ultra-high laser intensities. The use of these plasma-based optical devices is demonstrated for the case of an orbital angular momentum of

l
=
1

, with incident laser intensity of 1017 W cm−2. We conclude by discussing practical considerations for using these optical elements on petawatt-class laser systems
Analysis on thermal conductivity of green processed alumina nanofluid for thermal industries
Authors: Sa J , Nath G
Published: June 2022

The dual mechanism played by curry leaf extract on synthesis of alumina nanoparticles contributes a significant enhancement in thermal conductivity of alumina nanofluid with appreciably small volume fraction from 0.01%–0.05%. The most probable particle size of alumina nanoparticle dispersed in water of 3.12 nm observed from particle size analyser along with a strong absorption peak at λ
max around 238 nm confirms the alumina nanoparticles in the fluid. The increase of energy band gap from 4.8 to 5.12 eV indicates the decrease in size of the nanoparticle solely attributed to contribution of curry leaf extraction method of preparation of nanoparticles. The spherical shaped alumina nanoparticle has got high thermal conductivity with enhancement from 1.8% to 21.44% which is attributed to the significant contribution of H-atom as energy storage unit in water. With increase of sonication time, thermal conductivity varies appreciably from 0.531 W mK−1 to 0.736 W mK−1 with volume fraction of nanofluid. Therefore, the novel combinations of characterised properties of Al2O3 nanofluid have proved to be the best thermally stable heat transfer fluid compared to conventional cooling fluids.
Influence of heat treatments on microstructural and mechanical properties of Grade 5 titanium friction welds
Authors: Sri Ram Vikas K , Rao K Srinivasa , Rahul  , Reddy G Madhusudhan , Venkata Ramana V S N
Published: June 2022

Titanium and its alloys are extensively used in automobile, aerospace and biomedical applications. There are many problems associated with the fusion welding of titanium. Thus, friction welding is an alternative technique for joining titanium without defects. In this study, Ti-6Al-4V (Grade 5 -Titanium alloy) rods were welded using a rotary friction process. Before welding, pre-heat treatments were carried in α-β and β conditions followed by stress relieving on Grade 5 -Titanium alloy rods and some rods were stress relieved after welding. After several trials, friction welding at rotational speed, 1500 rpm and 5 kN upset force obtained defect-free joints. α-β heat treatment enhanced ductility as compared with β heat treatment. α-β heat treatment lead formation of bimodal microstructure in the base metal and β heat treatment produced lamellar Coarse β grains with colonies of α within β grains. Among different heat treatment conditions, high hardness was observed in the α-β heat treatment condition with stress-relieving. Stress-relieving of the welds resulted in an improvement in the hardness because of β precipitates. Fracture morphology is brittle in β treated conditions and ductile in α-β conditions. All welded samples failed away from the weld region irrespective of heat treatments applied, this shows that the weld region is much stronger than the base region due to acicular α and β phases. Mechanical properties were correlated as evidenced by microstructural features.
Estimation of UAV flight time and Battery Consumption for photogrammetric application using multiple machine learning algorithms
Authors: Bilgehan Makineci Hasan , Mustafa Hüsrevoğlu , Hakan Karabörk
Published: June 2022

In recent years, important research has been conducted in Machine Learning (ML), especially on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Adaptive-Network Based Fuzzy Inference Systems (ANFIS) and Particle Swarm Optimization-Fuzzy Inference System (PSO-FIS) algorithms are popular ML algorithms like ANN. In terms of their working architecture and results, ANN, ANFIS, and PSO-FIS algorithms can obtain useful solutions for different nonlinear problems. This study evaluated the performance of the ANN, ANFIS, and PSO-FIS algorithms and compared the estimation results. Regarding the application, the test and target data was obtained from the flights performed with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), including how long the UAV operates (i.e., Flight Time, FT) and how much battery the UAV consumes during the flight (i.e., Battery Consumption, BC). To obtain FT and BC outputs, sixty-five pre- and post-flight data tables were created. The best iterations for estimating the outputs using the three ML algorithms (considering the minimum/maximum values, RMSE, R, and R2) were determined and discussed based on the training, validation, and test estimations.
English Literature and the Ottoman and Persian Empires in the Renaissance
Authors: Niayesh Ladan
Published: June 2022

Far from being sheer proto-orientalist stereotypes of political tyranny, barbarous superstition, or sexual deviousness, literary portraits of the Ottoman and Persian empires in early modern English literature are varied, complex, and nuanced. Influenced by both classically inherited sources and contemporary travelers’ updates on diplomatic and commercial ties with eastern empires, literary works showcasing the two empires were inflected by the versatile genre of historical romance, be it in prose, poetic, or dramatic forms. The scenarios of interaction with which these works experiment range from fantasies of competing with otherness and overcoming it to assimilating and incorporating it, at a time when England was still in the process of sizing up the Islamic empires’ wealth and might from a perspective of “imperial envy” (in Gerald MacLean’s phrase) rather than from a posture of already established superiority. Topically presented as foils or alternatives to each other in the East, the Ottomans and Persians were seldom conflated for the readers or spectators, but rather demarcated along confessional and political divides entailing distinct literary and dramatic portraits. Finding their ways into the repertory history of English drama, the highly influential families of “Turk plays” and “Persian plays” also had a progeny well beyond the works officially listed by critics under those labels. Further study of performance history and editing of travel material hold the promise of research developments in these directions, bringing, in particular, English history plays into the conversation, with the Ottoman and Persian models allowing these plays’ larger articulations of the stages of history and forms of nationhood.
Early Cognitive Development: Five Lessons from Infant Learning
Authors: Hunnius Sabine
Published: June 2022

Young children develop at a breathtaking rate. Within just a few years, they change from helpless newborns into schoolchildren with all the abilities and skills needed to start formal education. To understand how such rapid cognitive development is at all possible, we can turn to five fundamental principles of infant learning: First, infants come into this world equipped to learn. From early on, they are sensitive to statistical information in their environment and readily detect and retain statistical structures they observe. Second, infants use this information to build predictive models of the world. Moreover, they are able to continuously and flexibly update these models in light of new information. Third, infant learning is fast and effective because it is supported by early existing attentional biases. Infants allocate attention to and preferably explore stimuli that are optimally informative. Fourth, adult interaction partners create ideal learning opportunities for infants by skillfully adapting their behavior to infants’ attentional preferences and learning capabilities. Fifth, infants’ learning is impacted by the development of their bodies and brains. These developmental changes modify the way infants engage with their environment and provide them with new learning experiences. In sum, the intricate interaction of infants’ basic learning mechanisms, their attentional and exploration biases, and their social exchanges brings about the astonishing developmental changes of early childhood.
An Overview of Sexual Differentiation of the Mammalian Nervous System and Behavior
Authors: Monks Ashley
Published: June 2022

There is growing appreciation for the numerous and often dramatic differences in the nervous system of males and females and the importance of these sex differences for behavioral traits. Sex differences in the nervous system and behavior result from a process of sexual differentiation that is carried out by the interplay of genetic, hormonal, and environmental factors throughout the life span. Although the preponderance of mechanistic study of mammalian sexual differentiation has occurred in traditional laboratory rodents, this field of study has benefitted from comparative studies, which highlight the diversity in sexual polymorphism in vertebrates and also point to strongly conserved mechanisms whereby these sexually differentiated traits develop.
Historical and Contemporary Impact of Joseph J. Schwab
Authors: Craig Cheryl J.
Published: June 2022

The cumulative research of Joseph J. Schwab contributed to undergraduate education, Jewish education, and secondary school science reform in addition to curriculum deliberations approached through his “Practical” papers, which were intended to mend the theory-practice divide. Schwab’s contributions to education have resulted in his continuing recognition as a leading curriculum figure. His career path features successes and challenges he faced, most often through the experiences and in the voices of those surrounding him. Six fine-grained exemplars from contemporary international research programs instantiate how Schwab’s scholarship continues to exert a major influence in the field. There are representative projects, chapters, and articles that represent Schwab’s ideas for (a) their currency (2010–2020), (b) their adequacy as Schwab-informed approaches, and (c) their ability to go beyond the simple exchange of research findings, which Schwab abhorred. The exemplars revolve around “The Practical” (Canada, China, Israel), Eros and education (U.S.), acts of teaching (U.S.), and connections among “The Practical,” Confucianism, and the German Didaktik (Singapore, U.K.) in addition to serial interpretation (U.S.). These robust exemplars originate with the research of students of Schwab, students of students of Schwab, national and international research teams and/or those who came to know his contributions and impact through the literature. Why Schwab’s scholarship has not been disseminated comprehensively has to do with its particularity and the challenge of generalizing approaches that were never intended to be prescriptions for large populations. Other obstacles include the fact that Schwab was ahead of his time. He defended what could be learned from practice and practitioners and vehemently opposed straight-laced forms of accountability and outcomes-based research.
Southeast Asian Trade in a Global Perspective, from Antiquity to the Modern Era
Authors: Heng Derek
Published: June 2022

Southeast Asia has been a critical nexus of the economic interactions between the Indian Ocean, China Seas, and the Pacific Ocean littoral. Trade and commerce developed from the early first to late second millennia involving shipping and commercial networks both within Southeast Asia and from further afield. Accompanying these networks were the region’s port cities, which held these networks together, pulling the subregional networks of trade and commerce into one regional economic sphere.

The nature of trade and commerce was affected by the different ecological and economic zones of Southeast Asia. This in turn affected the types of products that were traded and the communications links that connected the different subregions to the outside world. In addition, economic interactions with regions further afield and the geopolitical changes that these regions underwent also determined the types of products that flowed into and through Southeast Asia, as well as the way in which commerce was conducted.
Chronology of the Hominin Sites of Southern Africa
Authors: Herries Andy I.R.
Published: June 2022

The identification of the Taung Child Australopithecus africanus type specimen as an early human fossil (hominin) by Raymond Dart in 1924, followed by key discoveries at sites like Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, and Makapansgat in the 1930s and ’40s, was key to understanding that humans first arose in Africa, not Europe or Asia. Later discoveries in eastern Africa have shown that the earliest potential hominins (e.g., Orrorin tugenensis) date back to at least 6 million years ago. In contrast, the oldest fossils hominins in South Africa are those of Australopithecus from the sites of Taung and Makapansgat and are dated to between about 3.0 and about 2.6 million years ago (Ma); only one specimen, from Sterkfontein, potentially dates to earlier than this sometime between 3.7 and 2.2 Ma. However, the majority of early hominin fossils in southern Africa come from 2.8- to 1.8-million-year-old palaeocave remnants in the Malmani dolomite of the Gauteng province. These sites have a rich record of hominin species, including Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus sediba, Paranthropus robustus, and Homo erectus. Most of these species, except for Homo erectus, are endemic to South Africa. However, the DNH 134 specimen from Drimolen Main Quarry does represents the oldest fossil of Homo erectus anywhere in the world. This specimen occurs at a time around 2 Ma when there is a turnover in hominin species with the extinction of Australopithecus and the first occurrence of Homo, Paranthropus, and an archaeological record of Oldowan and bone tools. Acheulian technology occurs from at least 1.4 Ma and is associated with specimens simply attributed to early Homo. The oldest hominin fossil outside the northern Malmani dolomite karst is dated to between 1.1 and 1.0 Ma, at Cornelia-Uitzoek in the Free State, and also represents the last specimen defined as early Homo. Paranthropus is also last seen around 1 million years ago, when the first specimen attributed to Homo rhodesiensis may also have occurred at Elandsfontein in the Western Cape. There is a dearth of hominin fossils from the terminal Early Pleistocene until the late Middle Pleistocene when a high diversity of hominin species occurs between about 340,000 and about 240,000 years ago (c. 340 and c. 240 ka). This includes a late occurring specimen of Homo rhodesiensis from Broken Hill in Zambia, Homo helmei or early modern humans from Florisbad, and Homo naledi from Rising Star. This is also a period (post 435 ka) containing both late occurring Acheulian and early Middle Stone Age (MSA) technology, but none of these fossils is directly associated with archaeology. Definitively early modern human fossils are not found until after 180 ka in direct association with MSA technology, and the majority, if not all, of the record occurs during the last 120 ka.
Guest Workers in U.S. History
Authors: Griffith David
Published: June 2022

Guest workers have been part of the economic and cultural landscapes of the United States since the founding of republics across the Americas, evolving from indentured servants to the use of colonial subjects to foreign nationals imported under a variety of intergovernmental agreements and U.S. visas. Guest worker programs became institutionalized with the Bracero Program with Mexico, which ran from 1942 to 1964, and with the British West Indies Temporary Alien Labor Program, which began in 1943. Both of these programs were established under the Emergency Farm Labor Supply Program to address real and perceived labor shortages in agriculture during World War II. Both programs were structurally similar to programs employed to import colonial subjects, primarily Puerto Ricans, for U.S. agriculture. Although the U.S. Departments of Labor and Agriculture oversaw the operation of the programs during the war, control over guest workers’ labor and the conditions of their employment increasingly became the responsibility of their employers and employer associations following the war. Nevertheless, U.S. government support for guest worker programs has been steady, if uneven, since the 1940s, and most new legislation addressing immigration reform has included some sort of guest worker provision. Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, for example, H-2A and H-2B visas were created to import workers primarily from Latin America and the Caribbean for low-wage work in agricultural (H-2A) and non-agricultural (H-2B) seasonal employment. In the Immigration Act of 1990, H-1 visas were added to import guest workers, primarily from India and China, for work in computer programming, higher education, and other skilled occupations. Although an unknown portion of the guest worker labor force resists the terms of their employment and slips into the shadow economy as undocumented immigrants, the number of legal guest workers in the United States has increased into the 21st century.
Gelukpa
Authors: Apple James B.
Published: June 2022

Gelukpa is the name of a Tibetan Buddhist school that gained political influence and control across the Tibetan cultural world after the 17th century. Gelukpa (dge lugs pa) in Tibetan literally means “Followers of the System of Virtue” and refers to a person associated with the Geluk (dge lugs) school of Tibetan Buddhism. Gelukpas are the latest among the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism to develop. There are no subschools within the tradition. The school has its beginnings among the disciples of Tsongkhapa (1357–1419) and was initially known as Gandenpa (dga’ ldan pa), “those of Ganden Monastery,” based on the founding of Riwo Ganden (ri bo dga’ ldan) monastery in 1409. Tsongkhapa advocated strict Buddhist monasticism enhanced by scholarly training among his followers. The charismatic Tsongkhapa also influenced the development of the school based on his institution-building skills in establishing networks of patronage and performance of public rituals. The tradition soon established the three monasteries of Ganden, Drepung (founded in 1416), and Sera (founded in 1419) that became known as the “three seats of learning” (gdan sa gsum) in central Tibet. A fourth monastic seat, Tashi Lhünpo (bkra shis lhun po), was founded in Tsang (gtsang) in western Tibet in 1447. These monastic institutions developed into intellectual and political centers of hegemonic power and influence within the later Geluk system of monasticism. The head of the Geluk monastic system is the Ganden Tripa (dga’ ldan khri pa), “Holder of the Ganden Throne,” regarded as the selected successors of Tsongkhapa. The Geluk system of monasticism, in part through its administrative organization and institution-building techniques, was able to establish influence throughout Tibet, constructing new monasteries and renewing old ones. Over time, the Gelukpas developed an elaborate institutional hierarchy and administrative bureaucratic apparatus that interconnected regional monasteries with the four Geluk monastic seats in central Tibet. The school gradually spread as a cultural force of Tibetan Buddhism from central Tibet across the Tibetan plateau and into Mongolia as well as regions of Inner and East Asia. The Geluk gained renown politically for its establishment of the Ganden Podrang (dga’ ldan pho brang) government in 1642 under the rulership of successive Dalai Lamas (dā la’i bla ma) until 1959. After the fourteenth and present Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho, b. 1935), escaped from the Chinese Communist invasion of Tibet in 1959, communities of refugee Geluk members (as well as non-Geluk Tibetans) re-established monasteries, nunneries, and colleges primarily in India and Nepal. Smaller versions of the three main monastic universities have been re-established in South India with over 10,000 monks. Although Geluk monastic communities still exist in the traditional geographical areas of Tibet, they do not resemble the pre-1959 institutions.
Toward a Holistic Environmental Aesthetic
Authors: Blanc Nathalie
Published: June 2022

Environmental aesthetics encompasses aesthetic relationships to and in the environment, including an urban aesthetic and an aesthetic of nature—which emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries both from the sciences and from the distinction from the scientific in the aesthetic observations of nature. Environmental aesthetics notably comprises philosophical, artistic, and geographical work. Increasingly since the 1990s, the social and environmental crisis, and particularly climate change, is and has been causing shifts within this field of research and reflection. As of the 2020s, the admiration humans can bear toward nature is not without fear of its disappearance caused by their own activities. Ethics is more and more linked to aesthetics as humans are morally affected by this catastrophic environmental degradation. Thus, a certain anxiety quickly reveals itself in the face of planetary transformations. What can the geographer do? Since the 1990s, the discipline has been inviting thought about the environment from the aesthetic experience, challenging or interrogating the perception, understanding, and relationship to the natural surroundings. The geographer has been attempting to apprehend through creative research—such as “psychogeographical” situational walks (dérive, situation of inquiry, influence map), and, more generally, artistic works firmly rooted in the whole landscape question—the ways of redefining local situations and places. The need is to face three major challenges. First, there is the necessity to explore how planetary threats transform the perceptions of the environment. Anxieties reflect the difficulties of politics. Second, an aesthetic of the ordinary should be investigated as an ordinary environmentalism, meaning that which is related to the daily creation of environments. Third, the importance of research creation and ecoplastic forms of art needs to be highlighted (art and environment-making processes).
Managerial Supervision
Authors: Tropman John E.
Published: June 2022

Supervision is an important life skill with many applications, all of which involve the provision of helpful guidance to others. Guidance may come in the form of encouraging self-realization or the explanation of specific procedures. Generally, supervisory encounters involve one or two issues or their combination: counseling problems and coaching problems, broadly conceived. Counseling problems involve issues of attitude, more or less. Coaching problems involve issues of information.

A supervisory framework includes the identification of stairs of supervisee competence: novice, beginner, competent, proficient, expert, master, and maestro (a master who can motivate others and blend the individual skills into a larger collective product) (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986). Each stair, or stage, has its own "flow chart," where the complexity of tasks is matched by the level of competence. When the supervisee gets to 8/9 or 9/9, it is time to move to the next level. Supervisors need to know the six supervisory competencies: professional supervision (clinical/educational), managerial, supportive, career development, reflective supervision, and coaching.

Being well supervised helps the supervisee be a better supervisor. There are several guidelines to follow to be a good supervisor: Consider what makes a supervisor “great” or a supervisor “awful” and apply what is learned to one’s supervisory practice. Organize each upcoming supervisory meeting and plan an agenda for it. It is helpful to be aware of “wicked problems” (which are multisided and complex, and often without simple resolution). Know the difference between professional work and emotion work, and between formal and informal managerial supervision. Finally, consider 19 common supervisory questions and suggestions.
Gebreselassie, Seyoum
Authors: Kebede Wassie
Published: June 2022

Seyoum Gebreselassie was a founder of the first effort to establish an African Association of Schools of Social Work and served as a vice president of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). He was one of the leaders in the reestablishment of social work education in Ethiopia in the 21st century and achieved the highest academic rank, full professor, in 1995.
Translating Stephen King’s The Stand to Quality TV
Authors: Lynch Andrew
Published: June 2022

Released in 1978 and updated in 1990, the post-apocalyptic epic fantasy novel The Stand remains one of author Stephen King’s most significant works. The Stand tells a quasi-religious story of good and evil after the USA is devastated by a potent strain of influenza known as ‘Captain Trips’. Two camps of survivors emerge, one under the benevolent direction of an old woman named Mother Abigail, and the other lorded over by a devilish Tyrant named Randall Flagg. Like so much of King’s writing, it has been adapted to screen. It was first adapted into a four-part broadcast television miniseries event for broadcast network ABC in 1994. The Stand was adapted to television once again in 2020, this time as a limited series (nine episodes) for subscription video on demand (SVOD) service Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access). This article uses these two adaptations of The Stand to examine the similarities and differences between two eras of US ‘quality’ television. ‘Quality TV’ describes a broad range of TV series, linked by their intention to be received as prestigious and therefore culturally valuable. By comparing two adaptations of the same original story, we can better understand how these series adapted from Stephen King’s work served and were shaped by the commercial and cultural imperatives of the broadcast and post-broadcast eras of US TV.
A Crowdsourced Evaluation of Facial Averageness and Attractiveness
Authors: Amaya Joshua , Wen Y Edward , Shang Zhiguo , Jamieson Andrew , Aly Al
Published: June 2022

Background

Evolutionary psychologists have demonstrated that humans are attracted to individuals who possess average anatomy for the population.

Objectives

The aim of this study was to prove that a composite of average facial features would be more attractive to raters than the cohort utilized to create the composite.

Methods

The male and female cohorts each consisted of 41 standardized frontal-view monochrome photographs, with 1 composite image derived from the other 40 real images. Amazon Mechanical Turk, a widely used crowdsourcing platform, was utilized to obtain ratings of images ranging from 1 to 7, with 1 and 7 being least and most attractive, respectively. The strength of the preference for the composite over the real images was assessed by the difference between the mean rating of the composite and real images.

Results

In total, 870 and 876 respondents were recruited to rate the male and female cohorts, respectively. For the male and female cohorts, the composite image was rated significantly higher than the rest of the cohort overall and across all ages, genders, and countries of residence (all P < 0.0001). For both cohorts, the strength of the preference was significantly higher for European respondents and lower for South American and nonbinary respondents (all P < 0.05).

Conclusions

This study reveals that average facial anatomy is perceived as most attractive across all demographics, a finding that is hoped to serve as a stepping stone for further studies leading to objective cosmetic quantifications and integrating evidence-based medicine into aesthetic surgery.