bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
On the automorphism group of foliations with geometric transverse structures
Authors: Meersseman Laurent , Nicolau Marcel , Ribón Javier
Published: January 2022

We study the structure of some groups of diffeomorphisms preserving a foliation. We give an example of a $$C^\infty $$

C
∞

foliation whose diffeomorphism group has not a natural structure of Lie group. On the positive side, we prove that the automorphism group of a transversely holomorphic foliation or a Riemannian foliation is a strong ILH Lie group in the sense of Omori. We also investigate the relationship of the previous considerations with deformation problems in foliation theory. We show that the existence of a local moduli space for a given foliation imposes strong conditions on its automorphism group. They are not fulfilled in many cases, in particular they are not fulfilled by the foliation mentioned above.
Cell wall characterization of new Monastrell hybrid descendants and their phenolic wine composition
Authors: Moreno-Olivares Juan Daniel , Paladines-Quezada Diego Fernando , Giménez-Bañón María José , Cebrían-Pérez Ana , Férnandez-Férnandez José Ignacio , Gómez-Martínez José Cayetano , Bleda-Sánchez Juan Antonio , Gil-Muñoz Rocío
Published: January 2022

Monastrell grape variety is grown for the elaboration of quality red wines, but climate change has meant the study of new grape varieties from Monastrell, to adapt to the new edaphoclimatic scenario in hot climates. Three new varieties have recently been registered from Monastrell (M) from directed crosses with others such as Cabernet Sauvignon (C) and Syrah (S). These new varieties are MC80 known as Calnegre, MC98 Gebas, and MS10 Myrtia. In this work, cell wall characterization of these new varieties has been carried out. Results from three seasons showed high significant differences in the concentration of carbohydrates present in the Monastrell and MC80 cell walls. As for lignin concentration, MS10 was highlighted. However, the concentration of phenolic compounds and proteins was different as regards each variety and season studied. To find some correlation between the characterization of the walls and extractability of different compounds in the wine, the phenolic composition of these wines from these varieties was analysed following alcoholic fermentation. All crosses presented a higher concentration of total polyphenols (IPT) and total anthocyanins (AT) in addition to color intensity (IC), highlighting the high significant differences found in MS10.
A quantitative interspecies comparison of the respiratory mucociliary clearance mechanism
Authors: Burn Andreas , Schneiter Martin , Ryser Manuel , Gehr Peter , Rička Jaroslav , Frenz Martin
Published: January 2022

Collectively coordinated ciliary activity propels the airway mucus, which lines the luminal surface of the vertebrate respiratory system, in cranial direction. Our contemporary understanding on how the quantitative characteristics of the metachronal wave field determines the resulting mucociliary transport is still limited, partly due to the sparse availability of quantitative observational data. We employed high-speed video reflection microscopy to image and quantitatively characterize the metachronal wave field as well as the mucociliary transport in excised bovine, porcine, ovine, lapine, turkey and ostrich samples. Image processing techniques were used to determine the ciliary beating frequency (CBF), the velocity and wavelength of the metachronal wave and the mucociliary transport velocity. The transport direction was found to strongly correlate with the mean wave propagation direction in all six species. The CBF yielded similar values (10–15 Hz) for all six species. Birds were found to exhibit higher transport speeds (130–260 $$\upmu$$
μ
m/s) than mammals (20–80 $$\upmu$$
μ
m/s). While the average transport direction significantly deviates from the tracheal long axis in mammals, no significant deviation was found in birds. The metachronal waves were found to propagate at about 4–8 times the speed of mucociliary transport in mammals, whereas in birds they propagate at about the transport speed. The mucociliary transport in birds is fast and roughly follows the TLA, whereas the transport is slower and proceeds along a left-handed spiral in mammals. The longer wavelengths and the lower ratio between the metachronal wave speed and the mucociliary transport speed provide evidence that the mucociliary clearance mechanism operates differently in birds than in mammals.
Effects of ocean mesoscale eddies on atmosphere–sea ice–ocean interactions off Adélie Land, East Antarctica
Authors: Huot P.-V. , Kittel C. , Fichefet T. , Jourdain N. C. , Fettweis X.
Published: January 2022

Heat and momentum exchanges at the Southern Ocean surface are crucial for the Earth’s Climate, but the importance of the small-scale spatial variability of these surface fluxes is poorly understood. Here, we explore how small-scale heterogeneities of the surface conditions due in particular to ocean eddies affect the atmosphere–sea ice–ocean interactions off Adélie Land, in East Antarctica. To this end, we use a high-resolution regional atmosphere–sea ice–ocean coupled model based on the NEMO-LIM and MAR models. We explore how the atmosphere responds to small-scale heterogeneity of the ocean or sea ice surface conditions, how eddies affect the sea ice and atmosphere, and how the eddy-driven surface fluxes impact the heat, freshwater, and momentum budget of the ocean. The atmosphere is found to be more sensitive to small-scale surface temperature gradients above the ice-covered than above the ice-free ocean. Sea ice concentration is found to be weaker above anticyclonic than cyclonic eddies due to increased sea ice melting or freezing (0.8 cm/day) partly compensated by sea ice convergence or divergence. The imprint of ice-free eddies on the atmosphere is weak, but in the presence of sea ice, air warming (+ 0.3 $$^{\circ }$$

∘

C) and wind intensification (+ 0.1 m/s) are found above anticyclonic eddies, while cyclonic eddies have the opposite effects. Removing the interactions of eddies with the sea ice or atmosphere does not affect the total sea ice volume, but increases the ocean kinetic energy by 8% and weakens northward advection of sea ice, leading to a 15% decrease in freshwater flux north of 62.5 $$^{\circ }$$

∘

S and weaker ocean restratification.
Spatio-temporal distribution and habitat preference of necrophagous Calliphoridae based on 160 real cases from Switzerland
Authors: Hodecek Jiri , Jakubec Pavel
Published: January 2022

Necrophagous blowflies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) are of great importance particularly during investigations of suspicious deaths. Many studies have analyzed the distribution of blowflies based on pig experiments and baited trapping; however, data from real case scenarios are rarely used. In this article, the distribution of blowflies found during investigations of 160 real cases during 1993–2007 in Switzerland is evaluated based on habitat, altitude, and season. Ten species of blowflies were present in 145 out of the 160 cases. The most common species was Calliphora vicina, which occurs throughout the year and was present in 69 % of all cases. Lucilia sericata, Calliphora vomitoria, and L. caesar were identified among the rest of the flies as species of great forensic importance mainly due to their distributional patterns. After a comparison with a similar dataset from Frankfurt, Germany, some surprising differences were determined and discussed. The biggest discrepancies between our dataset and the German dataset were in the occurrences of L. sericata (30 % vs. 86 %, respectively), Phormia regina (5 % vs. 43 %), and L. ampullacea (1 % vs. 45 %). The life-history strategies and intraspecific behavioral variability of blowflies remain understudied, although they can be essential for an unbiased approach during a death investigation. Further research and comparison of occurrence patterns across the area of distribution of blowflies are therefore needed and recommended.
Analysis of strong-arm comparator with auxiliary pair for offset calibration
Authors: Li Shuowei , Xu Zule , Iizuka Tetsuya
Published: January 2022

This paper analyzes the principle of the input-referred off calibration using the auxiliary pair for Strong-Arm comparator as well as its impact from the additional common-mode current and parasitic capacitance on the input-referred noise, offset, and decision time in detail. The comparison with the simulation results demonstrates the accurate prediction with the proposed analysis. This paper also discusses the design guideline to optimize the Strong-Arm comparator with the auxiliary pair for offset calibration.
Wide-angle X-ray scattering studies on contemporary and ancient bast fibres used in textiles – ultrastructural studies on stinging nettle
Authors: Viljanen Mira , Suomela Jenni A. , Svedström Kirsi
Published: January 2022

Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) is a potential source material for industrial applications. However, systematic research on the ultrastructural properties of nettle fibres is lacking. Determining the ultrastructure of nettle and the other bast fibres also provides new insights into the studies of archaeological fibres and their usage. In this study, the nanostructure of modern and ancient nettle samples was studied using wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and compared to other bast fibres. The culturo-historical fibre samples consisted of nettle, flax, and hemp from White Karelian textiles collected 1894 as well as of 800–900-year-old archaeological textile fragments from Ravattula Ristimäki burial site, Finland. Using WAXS, the average cellulose crystallite widths, relative crystallinities and orientational order (including microfibril angle for the modern fibres) were determined and compared. The results also revealed the suitability of the WAXS analysis for fibre identification. The crystallite widths were of the similar size for all modern fibres (3.4–4.8 nm). Subtle differences in the relative crystallinities in descending order (from flax to nettle, and finally hemp) were observed. Also, subtle differences in the mean MFAs were observed (10 ± 1° for flax, 12 ± 1° for nettle, and 14 ± 1° for hemp). For the culturo-historical fibres, the values for crystallite widths and relative crystallinities were larger compared to the corresponding modern references. In addition, features due to the presence of non-cellulosic, crystalline substances (e.g., calcium oxalates) were detected in the WAXS patterns of all the modern nettle fibres. These features could potentially be used as a tool for identification purposes.

Graphical abstract
An innovative autonomous robotic system for on-site detection of heavy metal pollution plumes in surface water
Authors: De Vito-Francesco Elisabetta , Farinelli Alessandro , Yang Qiuyue , Nagar Bhawna , Álvarez Ruslan , Merkoçi Arben , Knutz Thorsten , Haider Alexander , Stach Wolfgang , Ziegenbalg Falko , Allabashi Roza
Published: January 2022

Smart monitoring has been studied and developed in recent years to create faster, cheaper, and more user-friendly on-site methods. The present study describes an innovative technology for investigative monitoring of heavy metal pollution (Cu and Pb) in surface water. It is composed of an autonomous surface vehicle capable of semiautonomous driving and equipped with a microfluidic device for detection of heavy metals. Detection is based on the method of square wave anodic stripping voltammetry using carbon-based screen-printed electrodes (SPEs). The focus of this work was to validate the ability of the integrated system to perform on-site detection of heavy metal pollution plumes in river catchments. This scenario was simulated in laboratory experiments. The main performance characteristics of the system, which was evaluated based on ISO 15839 were measurement bias (Pb 75%, Cu 65%), reproducibility (in terms of relative standard deviation: Pb 11–18%, Cu 6–10%) and the limit of detection (4 µg/L for Pb and 7 µg/L for Cu). The lowest detectable change (LDC), which is an important performance characteristic for this application, was estimated to be 4–5 µg/L for Pb and 6–7 µg/L for Cu. The life span of an SPE averaged 39 measurements per day, which is considered sufficient for intended monitoring campaigns. This work demonstrated the suitability of the integrated system for on-site detection of Pb and Cu emissions from large and medium urban areas discharging into small water bodies.
CaO-B2O3-SiO2 glass fibers for wound healing
Authors: Yamaguchi Seiji , Takeuchi Tamaki , Ito Morihiro , Kokubo Tadashi
Published: January 2022

It was reported by Jung and Day in 2011 that a cotton-like glass fiber pad made of borate glass 13-93B3 demonstrated a remarkable wound healing effect. It was approved for sale as a novel wound dressing in the management of acute and chronic wounds in 2016. However, the detailed mechanism of its wound healing effect has not been reported. In the present study, glass fibers of different composition in the system CaO-B2O3-SiO2 were prepared and their in vitro properties investigated to determine the role of the constituent components in wound healing. Fine glass fibers that were 0.6–2.0 μm in diameter were obtained by a melt blown method. However, these fibers were accompanied by small glass beads because of the low viscosity of the glass melts. 13-93B3 glass released an appreciable amount of borate and calcium ions into simulated body fluid (SBF). The amounts of these released ions decreased with partial replacement of the B2O3 in 13-93B3 with SiO2. The addition of large amounts of the borate and calcium ions into the culture medium decreased the viability of the L929 fibroblasts. Partial replacement of the B2O3 in 13-93B3 with SiO2 induced the formation of an apatite-like phase amenable to the adsorption of biological components on its surface in SBF. The wound healing effect of these glass fibers of different composition is worth examining in future animal experiments.
Sex Pheromone of the Click Beetle Agriotes pilosellus (Schönherr, 1718)
Authors: Tolasch Till , von Fragstein Maximilian , Steidle Johannes L. M.
Published: January 2022

Agriotes pilosellus is a fairly common click beetle species distributed in open deciduous and mixed forests throughout a large area in Europe. To identify its sex pheromone, gland extracts of female beetles were analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The only volatile compounds present in the extracts were geranyl butanoate and (E)-8-hydroxygeranyl dibutanoate in a 1:3 ratio, identified by comparison with synthetic samples. Field experiments revealed a clear attraction of A. pilosellus - males towards traps baited with geranyl butanoate, which could be synergistically enhanced by the factor of almost ten by addition of (E)-8-hydroxygeranyl dibutanoate. The latter compound alone did not show any attractive effect. Both compounds correspond well to the structures known from other Agriotes species and may serve as an effective monitoring tool for entomofaunistic research.
Design of self-healing biodegradable polymers
Authors: Guadagno Liberata , Raimondo Marialuigia , Catauro Michelina , Sorrentino Andrea , Calabrese Elisa
Published: January 2022

A biodegradable thermoplastic polymer has been formulated by solubilizing Murexide (M) salts in a commercial biodegradable vinyl alcohol copolymer (HVA). The Murexide has been employed as a self-healing filler with the aim to impart the auto-repair ability to the formulated material. Three different percentages (1, 3, and 5 mass%) of filler have been solubilized in HVA to evaluate the effect of the filler concentration on the thermal and self-healing properties of the resulting polymeric materials. The samples have been thermally characterized by Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric Analyses (TGA), while their self-healing ability has been evaluated through the estimation of the storage modulus recovery, measured by Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA). The results of DSC analysis have highlighted that the increase of the amount of Murexide anticipates the thermal events such as glass transition, crystallization and melting. TGA measurements have evidenced that, although there is a reduction of thermal stability of the materials in the presence of a high concentration of M, the polymer still remains stable up to 270 °C. Healing efficiency higher than 80%, at a temperature beyond 60 °C, has been detected for the samples loaded with 3 and 5 mass% of Murexide, thus confirming the efficacy of this compound as an auto-repair agent and the relationship between the self-healing efficiency and its amount. For a temperature lower than 70 °C, the healing tests, carried out at different values of tensile deformation frequency, have highlighted a frequency-dependent healing efficiency. This dependence becomes negligible at higher temperatures for which the healing efficiency approaches the value of 100%.
Climate change impact on extreme precipitation and peak flood magnitude and frequency: observations from CMIP6 and hydrological models
Authors: Meresa Hadush , Tischbein Bernhard , Mekonnen Tewodros
Published: January 2022

Changes in climate intensity and frequency, including extreme events, heavy and intense rainfall, have the greatest impact on water resource management and flood risk management. Significant changes in air temperature, precipitation, and humidity are expected in future due to climate change. The influence of climate change on flood hazards is subject to considerable uncertainty that comes from the climate model discrepancies, climate bias correction methods, flood frequency distribution, and hydrological model parameters. These factors play a crucial role in flood risk planning and extreme event management. With the advent of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 6, flood managers and water resource planners are interested to know how changes in catchment flood risk are expected to alter relative to previous assessments. We examine catchment-based projected changes in flood quantiles and extreme high flow events for Awash catchments. Conceptual hydrological models (HBV, SMART, NAM and HYMOD), three downscaling techniques (EQM, DQM, and SQF), and an ensemble of hydrological parameter sets were used to examine changes in peak flood magnitude and frequency under climate change in the mid and end of the century. The result shows that projected annual extreme precipitation and flood quantiles could increase substantially in the next several decades in the selected catchments. The associated uncertainty in future flood hazards was quantified using aggregated variance decomposition and confirms that climate change is the dominant factor in Akaki (C2) and Awash Hombole (C5) catchments, whereas in Awash Bello (C4) and Kela (C3) catchments bias correction types is dominate, and Awash Kuntura (C1) both climate models and bias correction methods are essential factors. For the peak flow quantiles, climate models and hydrologic models are two main sources of uncertainty (31% and 18%, respectively). In contrast, the role of hydrological parameters to the aggregated uncertainty of changes in peak flow hazard variable is relatively small (5%), whereas the flood frequency contribution is much higher than the hydrologic model parameters. These results provide useful knowledge for policy-relevant flood indices, water resources and flood risk control and for studies related to uncertainty associated with peak flood magnitude and frequency.
Reducing waste in collection of quality-of-life data through better reporting: a case study
Authors: McCreanor Victoria , Lum Elaine , Graves Nicholas , Luo Nan , Parsonage William , Barnett Adrian
Published: January 2022

Purpose

This study describes the reporting of the preference-based health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) instrument, the EQ-5D, and proposes strategies to improve reporting and reduce research waste. The EQ-5D is a validated instrument widely used for health economic evaluation and is useful for informing health policy.

Methods

As part of a systematic review of papers reporting EQ-5D utility weights in patients with coronary artery disease, we noted the reasons data from some papers could not be reused in a meta-analysis, including whether health utility weights and sufficient statistical details were reported. Research waste was quantified using: (1) the percentage of papers and sample size excluded, and (2) researcher time and cost reviewing poorly reported papers.

Results

Our search strategy found 5942 papers. At title and abstract screening 93% were excluded. Of the 379 full text papers screened, 130 papers reported using EQ-5D. Only 46% (60/130) of those studies reported utility weights and/or statistical properties enabling meta-analysis. Only 67% of included papers had reported EQ-5D in the title or abstract. A total sample size of 133,298 was excluded because of poor reporting. The cost of researcher time wasted estimated to be between $3816 and $13,279 for our review.

Conclusions

Poor reporting of EQ-5D data creates research waste where potentially useful data are excluded from meta-analyses and economic evaluations. Poor reporting of HRQOL instruments also creates waste due to additional time spent reviewing papers for systematic reviews that are subsequently excluded.

Recommendations

Studies using the EQ-5D should report utility weights with appropriate summary statistics to enable reuse in meta-analysis and more robust evidence for health policy. We recommend authors report the HRQOL instrument in the title or abstract in line with current reporting guidelines (CONSORT-PRO and SPIRIT-PRO Extensions) to make it easier for other researchers to find. Validated instruments should also be listed in the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to improve cataloguing and retrieval of previous research.
Pasireotide—a novel somatostatin receptor ligand after 20 years of use
Authors: Bolanowski Marek , Kałużny Marcin , Witek Przemysław , Jawiarczyk-Przybyłowska Aleksandra
Published: January 2022

Pasireotide, a novel multireceptor-targeted somatostatin receptor ligand (SRL) is characterized by a higher affinity to somatostatin receptor type 5 than type 2, unlike first-generation SRLs. Because of the broader binding profile, pasireotide has been suggested to have a greater clinical efficacy in acromegaly than first-generation SRLs and to be efficacious in Cushing’s disease. The consequence of this binding profile is the increased blood glucose level in some patients. This results from the inhibition of both insulin secretion and the incretin effect and only a modest suppression of glucagon. A monthly intramuscular formulation of long-acting release pasireotide has been approved for both acromegaly and Cushing’s disease treatment. This review presents data on the efficacy and safety of pasireotide treatment mostly in patients with acromegaly and Cushing’s disease. Moreover, other possible therapeutic applications of pasireotide are mentioned.
A highly optimized skeleton for unbalanced and deep divide-and-conquer algorithms on multi-core clusters
Authors: Martínez Millán A. , Fraguela Basilio B. , Cabaleiro José C.
Published: January 2022

Efficiently implementing the divide-and-conquer pattern of parallelism in distributed memory systems is very relevant, given its ubiquity, and difficult, given its recursive nature and the need to exchange tasks and data among the processors. This task is noticeably further complicated in the presence of multi-core systems, where hybrid parallelism must be exploited to attain the best performance, and when unbalanced and deep workloads are considered, as additional measures must be taken to load balance and avoid deep recursion problems. In this manuscript a parallel skeleton that fulfills all these requirements while providing high levels of usability is presented. In fact, the evaluation shows that our proposal is on average 415.32% faster than MPI codes and 229.18% faster than MPI + OpenMP benchmarks, while offering an average improvement in the programmability metrics of 131.04% over MPI alternatives and 155.18% over MPI + OpenMP solutions.
Gold nanoparticles and electromagnetic irradiation in tissue culture systems of bleeding heart: biochemical, physiological, and (cyto)genetic effects
Authors: Kulus Dariusz , Tymoszuk Alicja , Jedrzejczyk Iwona , Winiecki Janusz
Published: January 2022

This study aimed to analyze the effect of various mutagens on the in vitro development, physiological activity, acclimatization efficiency, and genetic integrity of Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Valentine’. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), microwaves, and X-rays were used at different doses. The profiles of primary and secondary metabolites and the enzymatic activity in the produced plants were studied. The usefulness of various genetic markers in the detection of mutations in the species was compared. The genome size of L. spectabilis was estimated for the first time. It was found that the addition of AuNPs into the culture medium had a positive impact on the in vitro development and multiplication of plants. All of the shoots regenerated adventitious roots, but plants subjected to the longest microwave irradiation (3 × 9 s) and the non-treated control had the lowest acclimatization efficiency. Application of mutagens significantly affected the activity and profile of most enzymes and phytochemicals studied, however, the final effect depended on the agent type and dose. Mutations were detected by DAMD, RAPD, and SCoT markers in 7.5% of plants, but not by ISSRs. Phenotype variation in leaf shape was found in four plants. The genome size of L. spectabilis was found to be very small; about 1281 Mbp.
Variations in growth traits and wood physicochemical properties among Pinus koraiensis families in Northeast China
Authors: Zhang Qinhui , Pei Xiaona , Lu Xianbo , Zhao Chunli , Dong Guangzhi , Shi Wanling , Wang Liankui , Li Yanlong , Zhao Xiyang , Tigabu Mulualem
Published: January 2022

This study aimed to explore and improve the different economic values of Pinus koraiensis (Siebold and Zucc.) by examining the variations in 6 growth traits and 9 physicochemical wood properties among 53 P. koraiensis half-sib families. Growth traits assessed included height, diameter at breast height, volume, degree of stem straightness, stem form, and branch number per node, while wood properties assessed included density, fiber length and width, fiber length to width ratio, and cellulose, hemicellulose, holocellulose, lignin, and ash contents. Except for degree of stem straightness and branch number per node, all other traits exhibited highly significant variations (P < 0.01) among families. The coefficients of variation ranged from 5.3 (stem form) to 66.7% (ash content), whereas, the heritability ranged from 0.136 (degree of stem straightness) to 0.962 (ash content). Significant correlations were observed among growth traits and wood physicochemical properties. Principal component analysis identified four distinct groups representing growth traits, wood chemical and physical properties, and stem form traits. Multi-trait comprehensive evaluation identified three groups of elite families based on breeding objectives, including rapid growth, improved timber production for building and furniture materials, and pulpwood production. These specific families should be used to establish new plantations.
Systematic review and meta-analysis of the 2010 ASGE non-invasive predictors of choledocholithiasis and comparison to the 2019 ASGE predictors
Authors: Wang Louie , Mirzaie Sarah , Dunnsiri Tavit , Chen Formosa , Wilhalme Holly , MacQueen Ian T. , Cryer Henry , Eastoak-Siletz Anaar , Guan Michelle , Cuff Callie , Tabibian James H.
Published: January 2022

In 2019, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) guideline on the endoscopic management of choledocholithiasis modified the individual predictors of choledocholithiasis proposed in the widely referenced 2010 guideline to improve predictive performance. Nevertheless, the primary literature, especially for the 2019 iteration, is limited. We performed a systematic review with meta-analysis to examine the diagnostic performance of the 2010, and where possible the 2019, predictors. PROSPERO protocol CRD42020194226. A comprehensive literature search from 2001 to 2020 was performed to identify studies on the diagnostic performance of any of the 2010 and 2019 ASGE choledocholithiasis predictors. Identified studies underwent keyword screening, abstract review, and full-text review. The primary outcomes included multivariate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals for each criterion. Secondary outcomes were reported sensitivities, specificities, and positive and negative predictive value. A total of 20 studies met inclusion criteria. Based on reported ORs, of the 2010 guideline “very strong” predictors, ultrasound with stone had the strongest performance. Of the “strong” predictors, CBD > 6 mm demonstrated the strongest performance. “Moderate” predictors had inconsistent and/or weak performance; moreover, all studies reported gallstone pancreatitis as non-predictive of choledocholithiasis. Only one study examined the new predictor (bilirubin > 4 mg/dL and CBD > 6 mm) proposed in the 2019 guideline. Based on this review, aside from CBD stone on ultrasound, there is discordance between the proposed strength of 2010 choledocholithiasis predictors and their published diagnostic performance. The 2019 guideline appears to do away with the weakest 2010 predictors.
Why Context Matters: The Influence of Application Domain on Preferred Degree of Anthropomorphism and Gender Attribution in Human–Robot Interaction
Authors: Roesler Eileen , Naendrup-Poell Lara , Manzey Dietrich , Onnasch Linda
Published: January 2022

The application of anthropomorphic design features is widely believed to facilitate human–robot interaction. However, the preference for robots’ anthropomorphism is highly context sensitive, as different application domains induce different expectations towards robots. In this study the influence of application domain on the preferred degree of anthropomorphism is examined. Moreover, as anthropomorphic design can reinforce existing gender stereotypes of different work domains, gender associations were investigated. Therefore, participants received different context descriptions and subsequently selected and named one robot out of differently anthropomorphic robots in an online survey. The results indicate that lower degrees of anthropomorphism are preferred in the industrial domain and higher degrees of anthropomorphism in the social domain, whereas no clear preference was found in the service domain. Unexpectedly, mainly functional names were ascribed to the robots and if human names were chosen, male names were given more frequently than female names even in the social domain. The results support the assumption that the preferred degree of anthropomorphism depends on the context. Hence, the sociability of a domain might determine to what extent anthropomorphic design features are suitable. Furthermore, the results indicate that robots are overall associated more functional, than gendered (and if gendered then masculine). Therefore, the design features of robots should enhance functionalities, rather than specific gendered anthropomorphic attributes to avoid stereotypes and not further reinforce the association of masculinity and technology.
An Integrated-Plasmonic Chip of Bragg Reflection and Mach-Zehnder Interference Based on Metal-Insulator-Metal Waveguide
Authors: Zeng Liang , Li Jiaqi , Cao Chengyi , Li Xudong , Zeng Xinyuan , Yu Quanhao , Wen Kunhua , Yang Jun , Qin Yuwen
Published: January 2022

In this paper, a Bragg reflector is proposed by placing periodic metallic gratings in the center of a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide. According to the effective refractive index modulation caused by different waveguide widths in a period, a reflection channel with a large bandwidth is firstly achieved. Besides, the Mach-Zehnder interference (MZI) effect arises by shifting the gratings away from the waveguide center. Owing to different optical paths with unequal indices on both sides of the grating, a narrow MZI band gap will be obtained. It is interesting to find out that the Bragg reflector and Mach-Zehnder interferometer are immune to each other, and their wavelengths can be manipulated by the period and the grating length, respectively. Additionally, we can obtain three MZI channels and one Bragg reflection channel by integrating three different gratings into a large period. The performances are investigated by finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations. In the index range of 1.33–1.36, the maximum sensitivity for the structure is as high as 1 500 nm/RIU, and it is believed that this proposed structure can find widely applications in the chip-scale optical communication and sensing areas.
Life cycle assessment of hydrogen-powered city buses in the High V.LO-City project: integrating vehicle operation and refuelling infrastructure
Authors: Pederzoli Davide W. , Carnevali Cristina , Genova Riccardo , Mazzucchelli Maurizio , Del Borghi Adriana , Gallo Michela , Moreschi Luca
Published: January 2022

During the project High V.LO-City, which ended in December 2019, 14 hydrogen fuel cell buses were operated in four European cities. This paper aims at presenting total emissions through the lifetime of fuel cell buses with different hydrogen production options, including the refuelling stations. The environmental assessment of such bus system is carried out using the life cycle assessment methodology. Three hydrogen production pathways are investigated: water electrolysis, chlor-alkali electrolysis and steam methane reforming. Fuel economy during bus operation is around 10.25 KgH2/100 km, and the refuelling station energy demand ranges between 7 and 9 KWh/KgH2. To support the inventory stage, dedicated software tools were developed for collecting and processing a huge amount of bus data and refuelling station performance, for automating data entry and for impacts calculation. The results show that hydrogen-powered buses, compared to a diesel bus, have the potential to reduce emissions during the use phase, if renewables resources are used. On the other hand, impacts from the vehicle production, including battery pack and fuel cell stack, still dominate environmental load. Consequently, improving the emission profile of fuel cell bus system requires to promote clean electricity sources to supply a low-carbon hydrogen and to sharpen policy focus regarding life cycle management and to counter potential setbacks, in particular those related to problem shifting and to grid improvement. For hazardous emissions and resource use, the high energy intensity of mining and refining activities still poses challenges on how to further enhance the environmental advantages of fuel cells and battery packs.
Influence of different methods of application of effective microorganisms in nutrition of wheat on weight by 1000 grains, yield, and content of crude wheat proteins (TRITICUM SP)
Authors: Cvijanović Vojin , Cvijanović Gorica , Rajičić Vera , Marinković Jelena , Đukić Vojin , Bajagić Marija , Đurić Nenad
Published: January 2022

The research was carried out in three vegetative seasons 2015/16, 2016/17, and 2018/19, on an experimental plot in Padinska Skela, Belgrade, Serbia. The supplement included four NPK treatments (kg ha−1) and foliar treatment with effective microorganisms (EM 7 l ha−1) T1-129: 60: 60; T2-129: 60: 60 + 1 EM; T3-106: 60: 60 + 2 EM ; T4-83: 60: 60 + 3 EM. Four wheat genotypes were sown (Ratarica, Pobeda, Nogal, and Apache). Thousand grain weight and grain yield were determined. The thousand grain weight (TGW) was in the variety Pobeda 43.73 g, and the highest grain yield was in the variety Ratarica 7.02 tha−1. Both varieties are medium late, bread varieties. The treatments have different effects on the studied variables. The TGW was the highest in the T2 treatment of 40.81 g and the grain yield in T3 of 6.62 t ha−1, which was at the level of statistical significance of p > 0.01. The crude protein content was highest in the treatment of T2 13.93% (p > 0.01).
Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Cyberbullying-Free Online Social Networks in Smart Cities
Authors: Al-Marghilani Abdulsamad
Published: January 2022

In recent years, smart city services have moved the existence of people from the physical to the virtual world (cyberspace), e.g., online banking, e-commerce, telemedicine, etc. Along with the benefits of smart cities, the problems of the physical world are also moved to the cyber world, like cyberbullying in online social networks (OSN). Automated cyberbullying detection techniques need to be designed to remove the potential tragedies in OSNs. The recent advent of artificial intelligence (AI) models like machine learning and deep learning (DL) models can be employed for the detection of cyberbullying in the OSN. With this motivation, this paper develops an AI-enabled cyberbullying-free OSN (AICBF-ONS) technique in smart cities. The proposed AICBF-ONS technique involves chaotic salp swarm optimization (CSSO)-based feature selection technique to derive a useful set of features from the OSN data. In addition, stacked autoencoder model is used as a classification model to allocate appropriate class labels of the OSN data. To improve the detection performance of the SAE model, a parameter tuning process take place using the mayfly optimization (MFO) algorithm. An extensive experimental analysis ensured the supremacy of the proposed AICBF-ONS technique.
The influence of members’ attachment style on group cohesion in substance use therapy groups
Authors: Naeli Anissa , Skentzos Melina , Hronis Anastasia
Published: January 2022

Group cohesion is an important factor in group therapy as it influences treatment outcomes and group processes. One’s attachment style has been found to impact experiences of group cohesion, however research into this relationship in substance use disorder (SUD) group treatment is lacking. This is of particular concern as insecure attachment presentations are more prevalent in this clinical population and group therapy is often treatment of choice. The current study sought to determine whether attachment style significantly predicted group cohesion. It also provided a qualitative exploration of factors that promote group cohesion in SUD group treatment. Participants (N = 38) attending a SUD therapy program completed self-report measures. Attachment avoidance was a significant negative predictor of positive bonding and positive working, and a significant positive predictor of negative relationships. Attachment anxiety was a significant negative predictor of negative relationships, however, unexpectedly did not significantly predict positive bonding or positive working. The current findings highlight the importance of group therapists tailoring group treatment to meet the attachment needs of individuals to promote a group therapy environment conducive to recovery.
Deep Learning Meets Deep Democracy: Deliberative Governance and Responsible Innovation in Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Buhmann Alexander , Fieseler Christian
Published: January 2022

Responsible innovation in artificial intelligence (AI) calls for public deliberation: well-informed “deep democratic” debate that involves actors from the public, private, and civil society sectors in joint efforts to critically address the goals and means of AI. Adopting such an approach constitutes a challenge, however, due to the opacity of AI and strong knowledge boundaries between experts and citizens. This undermines trust in AI and undercuts key conditions for deliberation. We approach this challenge as a problem of situating the knowledge of actors from the AI industry within a deliberative system. We develop a new framework of responsibilities for AI innovation as well as a deliberative governance approach for enacting these responsibilities. In elucidating this approach, we show how actors from the AI industry can most effectively engage with experts and nonexperts in different social venues to facilitate well-informed judgments on opaque AI systems and thus effectuate their democratic governance.
A RegTech Approach to Fintech Sustainability: The Case of Spain
Authors: Cruz Rambaud Salvador , Expósito Gázquez Ariana
Published: January 2022

Framework:

It is well known that the financial technology (Fintech) industry has great potential not only to transform the financial system, but also to build an equitable and sustainable society. In effect, if this technology is applied in the right way, it could be used to overcome the social and economic gaps that exist worldwide.

Justification:

However, until now, the specific legal regimes (RegTech) that have been established for Fintech have, in addition to the general lack of confidence in new technologies, made its implementation more difficult. Nevertheless, in order to consolidate Fintech, it is necessary to design suitable regulation to transform these new technologies into ordinary instruments of our financial system.

Objective:

Therefore, in order to promote an appropriate RegTech that allows for the progress of Fintech, it is necessary to analyse the legal problems that restrict their expansion by using an analytical methodology and a bibliographic compilation of legal resolutions.

Main conclusion:

Legal personal data protection is the main obstacle that must be overcome by paying attention to the guarantees inherent to this fundamental right. In this way, if the legal system is to be ready for the Digital Revolution, society must not be worried about either the loss of rights or increases in inequalities.
An improved adjoint-based ocean wave reconstruction and prediction method
Authors: Wu Jie , Hao Xuanting , Shen Lian
Published: January 2022

We propose an improved adjoint-based method for the reconstruction and prediction of the nonlinear wave field from coarse-resolution measurement data. We adopt the data assimilation framework using an adjoint equation to search for the optimal initial wave field to match the wave field simulation result at later times with the given measurement data. Compared with the conventional approach where the optimised initial surface elevation and velocity potential are independent of each other, our method features an additional constraint to dynamically connect these two control variables based on the dispersion relation of waves. The performance of our new method and the conventional method is assessed with the nonlinear wave data generated from phase-resolved nonlinear wave simulations using the high-order spectral method. We consider a variety of wave steepness and noise levels for the nonlinear irregular waves. It is found that the conventional method tends to overestimate the surface elevation in the high-frequency region and underestimate the velocity potential. In comparison, our new method shows significantly improved performance in the reconstruction and prediction of instantaneous surface elevation, surface velocity potential and high-order wave statistics, including the skewness and kurtosis.
Building a weak shockwave from linear modes
Authors: Bret Antoine , Narayan Ramesh
Published: January 2022

In shockwave theory, the density, velocity and pressure jumps are derived from the conservation equations. Here, we address the physics of a weak shock the other way around. We first show that the density profile of a weak shockwave in a fluid can be expressed as a sum of linear acoustic modes. The shock so built propagates at the speed of sound and matter is exactly conserved at the front crossing. Yet, momentum and energy are only conserved up to order 0 in powers of the shock amplitude. The density, velocity and pressure jumps are similar to those of a fluid shock, and an equivalent Mach number can be defined. A similar process is possible in magnetohydrodynamics. Yet, such a decomposition is found impossible for collisionless shocks due to the dispersive nature of ion acoustic waves. Weakly nonlinear corrections to their frequency do not solve the problem. Weak collisionless shocks could be inherently nonlinear, non-amenable to any linear superposition. Or they could be non-existent, as hinted by recent works.
Step roots of Littlewood polynomials and the extrema of functions in the Takagi class
Authors: HAN XIYUE , SCHIED ALEXANDER
Published: January 2022

We give a new approach to characterising and computing the set of global maximisers and minimisers of the functions in the Takagi class and, in particular, of the Takagi–Landsberg functions. The latter form a family of fractal functions
$f_\alpha:[0,1]\to{\mathbb R}$
parameterised by
$\alpha\in(-2,2)$
. We show that
$f_\alpha$
has a unique maximiser in
$[0,1/2]$
if and only if there does not exist a Littlewood polynomial that has
$\alpha$
as a certain type of root, called step root. Our general results lead to explicit and closed-form expressions for the maxima of the Takagi–Landsberg functions with
$\alpha\in(-2,1/2]\cup(1,2)$
. For
$(1/2,1]$
, we show that the step roots are dense in that interval. If
$\alpha\in (1/2,1]$
is a step root, then the set of maximisers of
$f_\alpha$
is an explicitly given perfect set with Hausdorff dimension
$1/(n+1)$
, where n is the degree of the minimal Littlewood polynomial that has
$\alpha$
as its step root. In the same way, we determine explicitly the minima of all Takagi–Landsberg functions. As a corollary, we show that the closure of the set of all real roots of all Littlewood polynomials is equal to
$[-2,-1/2]\cup[1/2,2]$
.
Return to normal pre-COVID-19 life is delayed by inequitable vaccine allocation and SARS-CoV-2 variants
Authors: Liu Feng , Zhao Zebin , Ma Chunfeng , Nie Xiaowei , Wu Adan , Li Xin
Published: January 2022

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether and when the world can reach herd immunity and return to normal life and a strategy for accelerating vaccination programmes constitute major concerns. We employed Metropolis–Hastings sampling and an epidemic model to design experiments based on the current vaccinations administered and a more equitable vaccine allocation scenario. The results show that most high-income countries can reach herd immunity in less than 1 year, whereas low-income countries should reach this state after more than 3 years. With a more equitable vaccine allocation strategy, global herd immunity can be reached in 2021. However, the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants means that an additional 83 days will be needed to reach global herd immunity and that the number of cumulative cases will increase by 113.37% in 2021. With the more equitable vaccine allocation scenario, the number of cumulative cases will increase by only 5.70% without additional vaccine doses. As SARS-CoV-2 variants arise, herd immunity could be delayed to the point that a return to normal life is theoretically impossible in 2021. Nevertheless, a more equitable global vaccine allocation strategy, such as providing rapid vaccine assistance to low-income countries/regions, can improve the prevention of COVID-19 infection even though the virus could mutate.