bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Free and forced vibration analysis of 3D printed bioinspired sandwich beam using HSDT: Numerical and experimental study
Authors: Gunasegeran Muthukumaran , Edwin Sudhagar P.
Published: April 2022

Sandwich structures are used in aircraft, automobiles, and naval industries. The sandwich cores have a substantial impact on their structural behavior. The core design is a significant influencing factor in sandwich structures, and the core selection is even more critical. This study investigates the free and forced vibration analysis of bioinspired sandwich beams. The bioinspired PLA core is 3D printed by fused deposition modeling, and GFRP skin is fabricated using hand layup techniques. The complex shear modulus of the bioinspired core and the elastic modulus of the skin is evaluated using the alternative dynamic method and ASTM E1876, respectively. Among various bioinspired composite sandwich beam configurations, BIM02 produces the highest stiffness, followed by BIM01, BIM04, and BIM03 because of the strain energy distribution. Pattern arrangement of the core in the bioinspired sandwich beam has a significant difference in the natural frequencies. Further, a parametric study of the sandwich beam for four different 3D printed bioinspired PLA cores and ply configuration of the GFRP skin using Higher Order Shear Deformation Theory (HSDT).
School nurse and COVID‐19 response
Authors: McIntosh Constance E. , Brelage Pamela K. , Thomas Cynthia M. , Wendel Janelle M. , Phelps Barbara E.
Published: April 2022

The role of the school nurse should not be understated when addressing the Covid‐19 pandemic and its effects on children and families. Knowledge surrounding this virus is rapidly changing and quick adaptation within the school system is required. In addition to the provision of direct care and education to students, school nurse responsibilities include the development and implementation of new policies; consideration of social and emotional well‐being; and effective communication with students, families, teachers, administrators, and community stakeholders. This article addresses current evidence related to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and the evolving role of the school nurse. A case study incorporates tips and suggestions for school nurses who will deliver professional care during this COVID‐19 crisis.
Registration of ‘CA 4014’ and ‘CA 4015’ cotton cultivars
Authors: Maeda Andrea B. , Kelly Carol , Wyatt Zane Cole , Hague Steve , Morgan Valerie , Dever Jane
Published: April 2022

Organic cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) production in the United States is steadily growing because of increased consumer demand, market premium prices, and regulatory shifts. As organic production expands in the United States, adventitious presence of genetically engineered (GE) traits caused by either pollen‐ or seed‐mediated gene flow from nonorganically grown sources of cotton raises concerns about maintenance of purity requirements, either when marketing cotton or producing planting seed. Adapted cultivars with simply inherited, codominant leaf shape (okra‐leaf) distinct from commercial GE cotton cultivars represent an alternative strategy for maintaining purity through visual roguing, instead of expensive molecular testing. The Texas A&M AgriLife Research cotton breeding program in Lubbock, TX, developed two okra‐leaf cultivars adapted to organic production in the Texas High Plains. Cotton accession (CA) is the designation used for material developed in the Lubbock program. Cultivars ‘CA 4014’ (Reg. no. CV‐147, PI 699625) and ‘CA 4015’ (Reg. no. CV‐146, PI 699626) derived from 2014 crosses, individual plant selection followed by modified bulk selection, and 3 yr of replicated performance testing. CA 4014 and CA 4015 have similar yield and fiber quality to the cultivars currently used in Texas organic cotton production, with the advantage of a distinct and uniform morphological marker (okra‐leaf) that enables the identification and elimination, in the field, of off‐types.
Long‐term grassland restoration exerts stronger impacts on the vertical distribution of labile over recalcitrant organic carbon fractions in Mollisols
Authors: Hao Xiangxiang , Han Xiao‐Zeng , Li Na , Lei Wanying , Chen Xu , Xing Baoshan
Published: April 2022

Land use change influences soil organic carbon (SOC) distribution in soil matrix. Conversion of cropland to grassland or forestland has the potential to sequester more carbon and influence the carbon allocation. Soil carbon sequestration happens within different physical and chemical fractions. This study aimed to investigate the vertical distribution of SOC fractions under 29‐yr of cropland, grassland, and forestland of a typical Mollisol and to derive specific factors for SOC fraction changes associated with land use conversion. Soil samples within 100 cm soil depth were fractionated by density and humic methods. Biomass of litter residues and plant roots were also measured. Together with plant root biomass, the contents of total SOC and organic carbon (OC) fractions decreased along soil profile under three land uses. At each soil depth, total SOC and OC fractions followed the same order of grassland > forestland > cropland except for higher OC contents in heavy fraction, fulvic acid, and humin in cropland than those in forestland at the 0–10 cm layer. Compared with forestland and cropland, 29‐yr grassland exerted stronger effects on the profile distribution of labile OC (water‐soluble and light OC fractions) than recalcitrant OC (humic and heavy fractions), significances were observed at 0–80 cm layers for the labile OC and at 0–40 cm layers for the recalcitrant OC (P< .05). Larger root biomass and better soil structure in grassland might facilitate such changes. Grassland restoration, with greater C sequestration potential and larger liable OC contents, may help improve soil quality better than forestland and cropland in this Mollisol region.
Assessing beam shear behavior with distributed longitudinal strains
Authors: Poldon Jack J. , Bentz Evan C. , Hoult Neil A.
Published: April 2022

The demand on the longitudinal reinforcement due to shear has been traditionally based on statics but has rarely been measured. Empirical assumptions needed for the concrete stiffness and the variability of reinforcement strain due to cracking and disturbed regions complicate these measurements, and make the use of conventional strain gauges impractical. This paper investigates the use of distributed measurements from a large reinforced concrete beam test to study the effects of disturbed regions, forces at a crack, shrinkage, and the in situ modulus of elasticity of concrete. The increased demand due to shear on the longitudinal reinforcement was observed, and the Canadian code was shown to provide an accurate upper bound to the measured strain at service loads. The measured longitudinal strains were also used to estimate the average angle of principal compressive stress, and it was observed to decrease with applied load, reaching values as low as 14° near failure.
Prediction and uncertainty quantification of compressive strength of high‐strength concrete using optimized machine learning algorithms
Authors: Han Bing , Wu Yanqi , Liu Lulu
Published: April 2022

Compressive strength is considered to be one of the most important mechanical properties of high‐strength concrete (HSC). In this study, three machine learning models, ELM, PSO‐ANN, and GS‐SVR were employed to predict the compressive strength of HSC using 681 data records. The five ingredients and the compressive strength of HSC were regarded as input variable features and output target, respectively. Results indicated that the GS‐SVR model showed the best performance in forecasting with theRof 0.992, MAPE of 0.016, RMSE of 1.241, MAE of 0.842, and RRMSE of 0.024, which could be an alternative candidate for strength prediction. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis was performed within the GS‐SVR model to achieve an in‐depth examination of the effect of each single input variable on the compressive strength. The sensitivity of input variables demonstrated that the water is the most sensitive parameter to the compressive strength of HSC, while the superplasticizer is less sensitive. The research of this paper can provide reference and guidance for concrete design and construction.
On modeling of stress‐induced diffusion within micropolar and classical approaches
Authors: Frolova Ksenia P. , Vilchevskaya Elena N. , Bessonov Nikolay M.
Published: April 2022

The paper continues and summarizes our previous investigation on a description of the local increase of hydrogen in the vicinity of the border of a metal specimen after hydrogenation. The local increase is observed after artificial saturation of metal specimens and after operation of metal details in corrosive environments. It can worsen significantly the material properties and its behavior at the macro‐level. A stress‐induced diffusion process in a cylinder is modeled. The paper accounts for the inner stresses and strains by means of chemical potential and by means of the dependence of the diffusion coefficient on elastic strain energy. The stress–strain state is determined within the micropolar theory of elasticity, the results are compared with the ones obtained within the classical theory. Nonuniform fields of stresses and strains result in a nonuniform distribution of hydrogen. Accounting for the couple stress interactions between continuum particles results in a faster saturation of the boundary layer with hydrogen.
Cosmology and signals of light pseudo-Dirac dark matter
Authors: González Mariana Carrillo , Toro Natalia
Published: April 2022

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the cosmological evolution, allowed parameter space, and observational prospects for a dark sector consisting of thermally produced pseudo-Dirac fermions with a small mass splitting, coupled to the Standard Model through a dark photon. This scenario is particularly notable in the context of sub-GeV dark matter, where the mass-off-diagonal leading interaction limits applicability of both CMB energy injection constraints and standard direct detection searches. We present the first general study of the thermal history of pseudo-Dirac DM with splittings from 100 eV to MeV, focusing on the depletion of the heavier “excited” state abundance via scatterings and decays, and on the distinctive signals arising from its small surviving abundance. We analyze CMB energy injection bounds on both DM annihilation and decay, accelerator-based probes, and new line-like direct-detection signals from the excited DM down-scattering on either nuclei or electrons, as well as future search prospects in each channel. We also comment on the relevance of this signal to the few-keV Xenon1T electron excess and on possible diurnal modulation of this signal, and introduce a signal-strength parametrization to facilitate the comparison of future experimental results to theoretical expectations.
New superstrata from three-dimensional supergravity
Authors: Ganchev Bogdan , Houppe Anthony , Warner Nicholas P.
Published: April 2022

Abstract

We find a two-parameter family of generalized superstrata that emerge as smooth, supersymmetric solutions in three-dimensional gauged supergravity coupled to additional scalar fields. This new family of generalized superstrata are smooth microstate geometries and may be thought of as supersymmetric Coulomb-branch extensions of the original superstrata in which the underlying supertube undergoes an elliptical deformation. These solutions had already been obtained numerically, and as series solutions, to the equations of motion, and some of them were conjectured to be supersymmetric. Here we prove the supersymmetry of an entire two-parameter family and we obtain a highly non-trivial analytic and smooth solution for a one-parameter limit in which the global symmetry of the metric is enhanced to SO(3). We also confirm that the other known families of microstrata are not supersymmetric. We conclude with a cursory analysis of some of the singular brane distributions that can be accessed from three-dimensional gauged supergravity while preserving the same supersymmetries as the superstratum, and therefore of the three-charge black hole.
Destroying the event horizon of a nonsingular rotating quantum-corrected black hole
Authors: Yang Si-Jiang , Zhang Yu-Peng , Wei Shao-Wen , Liu Yu-Xiao
Published: April 2022

Abstract

The destruction of the event horizon of a nonsingular black hole, which is not prevented by the weak cosmic censorship conjecture, might provide us the possibility to access quantum regime of gravity inside black hole. We investigate the possibility of overspinning a nonsingular rotating quantum-corrected black hole by a test particle and a scalar field in this paper, and analyse the effect of the quantum parameter on the destruction of the event horizon. For the test particle injection, both extremal and near-extremal black holes cannot be overspun due to the existence of the quantum parameter. And the larger the quantum parameter the harder the black hole to be overspun. It seems that the quantum parameter acts as a protector to prevent the black hole to be destroyed. However, for the test scalar field scattering, both extremal and near-extremal black holes can be destroyed. Due to the loop quantum gravity correction, the angular velocity of the extremal black hole shifts from that of the extremal Kerr black hole. This provides a small range of wave modes to destroy the event horizon of the quantum-corrected black hole.
Massless S matrices for AdS3/CFT2
Authors: Frolov Sergey , Sfondrini Alessandro
Published: April 2022

Abstract

The AdS3/CFT2 correspondence features massless non-relativistic modes on the string worldsheet in lightcone gauge. We study in detail these excitations and highlight how they naturally split between chiral (left-moving) and anti-chiral (right-moving) representations. In light of this split we discuss the constraints on the two-particle worldsheet S matrix imposed by braiding and physical unitarity, parity, time-reversal, and crossing invariance. We also comment on the implication of this split in the mirror kinematics.
KLT factorization of nonrelativistic string amplitudes
Authors: Yan Ziqi , Yu Matthew
Published: April 2022

Abstract

We continue our study of the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) factorization of winding string amplitudes in [1]. In a toroidal compactification, amplitudes for winding closed string states factorize into products of amplitudes for open strings ending on an array of D-branes localized in the compactified directions; the specific D-brane configuration is determined by the closed string data. In this paper, we study a zero Regge slope limit of the KLT relations between winding string amplitudes. Such a limit of string theory requires a critically tuned Kalb-Ramond field in a compact direction, and leads to a self-contained corner called nonrelativistic string theory. This theory is unitary, ultraviolet complete, and its string spectrum and spacetime S-matrix satisfy nonrelativistic symmetry. Moreover, the asymptotic closed string states in nonrelativistic string theory necessarily carry nonzero windings. First, starting with relativistic string theory, we construct a KLT factorization of amplitudes for winding closed strings in the presence of a critical Kalb-Ramond field. Then, in the zero Regge limit, we uncover a KLT relation for amplitudes in nonrelativistic string theory. Finally, we show how such a relation can be reproduced from first principles in a purely nonrelativistic string theory setting. We will also discuss connections to the amplitudes of string theory in the discrete light cone quantization (DLCQ), a method that is relevant for Matrix theory.
Combined Curvature and Wall Shear Stress Analysis of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm: An Analysis of Rupture Risk Factors
Authors: Teng Biyun , Zhou Zhijun , Zhao Yu , Wang Zhe
Published: April 2022

Purpose

To discuss the risk factors for abdominal aortic aneurysm rupture based on geometric and hemodynamic parameters.

Methods

We retrospectively reviewed the clinical data of those who were diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm by computed tomography angiography at our hospital between October 2019 and December 2020. Thirty-five patients were included in the ruptured group (13 patients) and the unruptured group (22 patients). We analyzed the differences and correlations of anatomical factors and hemodynamic parameters between the two groups using computational fluid dynamics based on computed tomography angiography.

Results

There were significant differences in the maximum diameter [(79.847 ± 10.067) mm vs. (52.320 ± 14.682) mm, P < 0.001], curvature [(0.139 ± 0.050) vs. 0.080 (0.123 − 0.068), P = 0.021], and wall shear stress at the site of maximal blood flow impact [0.549(0.839 − 0.492) Pa vs. (1.378 ± 0.255) Pa, P < 0.001] between the ruptured and unruptured groups, respectively. And in the ruptured group, wall shear stress at the rupture site was significantly different from that at the site of maximal blood flow impact [0.025 (0.049 − 0.018) Pa vs. 0.549 (0.839 − 0.492) Pa, P = 0.001]. Then, the maximum diameter and curvature were associated with rupture (maximum diameter: OR: 1.095, P = 0.003; curvature: OR: 1.142E + 10, P = 0.012). Most importantly, curvature is negatively correlated with wall shear stress (r = − 0.366, P = 0.033).

Conclusions

Both curvature and wall shear stress can evaluate the rupture risk of aneurysm. Also, curvature can be used as the geometric substitution of wall shear stress.
A better but persistently low health status in women with fibromyalgia during the COVID-19 pandemic: a repeated cross-sectional data analysis
Authors: Koppert Tim Y. , van Middendorp Henriët , Geenen Rinie
Published: April 2022

Multiple overlapping and complementary theoretical arguments suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic could worsen health in fibromyalgia. The aim of this study was to determine mental and physical health in women with fibromyalgia before and during the pandemic. In a 3-sample, repeated cross-sectional design, we analyzed questionnaire data from Dutch women with fibromyalgia, collected in three independent samples: before the COVID-19 pandemic (2018; n = 142) and during the first acute (2020; n = 304) and prolonged (2021; n = 95) phases of the pandemic. Eight dimensions of mental and physical health were assessed using The RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (RAND SF-36). Compared to norm group data, both before and during the pandemic, women with fibromyalgia showed high levels of fatigue and pain and low levels of general health, social functioning, physical functioning, role physical functioning (d > 1.2, very large effect sizes), role emotional functioning, and mental health (0.71 < d < 1.2, medium to large effect sizes). Contrary to theoretical expectation, levels at five health variables before vs. during the pandemic did not differ (p > 0.05), and levels of pain (p < 0.001), role physical functioning (p < 0.001), and physical functioning (p = 0.03) (0.014 ≤ pη2 ≤ 0.042, small effect sizes) reflected a healthier status during than before the pandemic. These findings indicate a somewhat better but persistently low health status in women with fibromyalgia during the pandemic. This suggests that the pandemic may include changed circumstances that are favorable for some women with fibromyalgia.
Berechnung der kf-Werte geschichteter Aquifere aus geologischem Profil und Transmissivität
Authors: Rausch Randolf , Geiger Werner
Published: April 2022

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein einfaches Verfahren zur Abschätzung der kf-Werte (Durchlässigkeitsbeiwerte) geschichteter Grundwasserleiter aus geologischem Profil und Transmissivität von Grundwassermessstellen vorgestellt. Vorausgesetzt ist dabei, dass die Mächtigkeiten der einzelnen Schichten sowie die Transmissivitäten, bestimmt aus Pumpversuchen, bekannt sind und die Anzahl der Pumpversuche größer oder gleich der Anzahl der Schichten ist. Die Berechnung der kf-Werte erfolgt durch die numerische Lösung eines überbestimmten Gleichungssystems, das mit Excel berechnet werden kann.
Urbanization and child growth failure in Sub-Saharan Africa: a geographical analysis
Authors: Ru Yating , Haile Beliyou , Carruthers John I.
Published: April 2022

This paper raises a fundamental question about Sub-Saharan Africa: has urbanization there been accompanied by improvements in personal wellbeing? It then proceeds to open an investigation focused on child health—in the form of child growth failure, including (i) stunting; (ii) wasting; and (iii) underweight—that addresses the question. The main contribution of the work is to reconcile an array of data, collected across different spatial scales and over different timeframes, in a manner that enables some preliminary insight into the relationships explored. Evidence derived from the analysis suggests that the wave of urbanization breaking across Sub-Saharan Africa is associated with improvements in wellbeing, a finding that is qualified by need for further research.
Activation of Cadmium–Imidazole Buffering Coordination Polymer by Sulfur-Doping for the Enhancement of Photocatalytic Degradation of Cationic and Anionic Dyes Under Visible Light
Authors: Mohsen Mostafa , Tantawy Hesham , Naeem Ibrahim , Awaad Mohamed , Abuzalat Osama , Baraka Ahmad
Published: April 2022

The buffering Cadmium–Imidazole Coordination Polymer (Cd–Im-CP) was synthesized hydrothermally from cadmium chloride and imidazole at 70 °C and then was subjected to doping- by the non-metal sulfur using Na2S solution as a novel modification strategy to produce S–Cd–Im CPs. To investigate doping nature and its effects, Cd–Im CP and S–Cd–Im CPs were characterized applying different analyses techniques, FTIR, Raman, PXRD, SEM/EDX, TGA, and UV–Vis DRS analyses. Characterizations showed the successful chemical doping of sulfur. The inclusion of sulfur within chemical CP structure caused narrowing of material’s bandgap from 4.55 and 3.4 eV to 4.25 and 2.35 eV for S–Cd–Im CPs allowing it for photoresponse towards Visible-light. Both Cd–Im CP and S–Cd–Im CPs were applied for photocatalytic degradation of the selected dyes methylene blue (MB),and methyl orange (MO) employing visible and UV irradiations considering three different initial pH levels to investigate the consequence of sulfur doping. After eliminating the photolysis effect, the best degradation by S–Cd–Im CPs was recorded for MB at initial pH 4 being 13 fold that is for Cd–Im CP. The highest apparent turnover frequencies are 1.2 × 10−3 h−1 for MB at initial pH 10 and 1.03 × 10−4 h−1 for MO at initial pH 4 are given by 10S–Cd–IM CP under Visible-light. Generally, S–Cd–Im CPs remarkably improved photocatalysis degradation of both the dyes for all initial pH levels under Visible-light.
Wie entstehen Märkte? Ein Vergleich idealtypischer Erklärungsansätze in Ökonomie und Wirtschaftssoziologie
Authors: Aspers Patrik , Bengtsson Petter , Dobeson Alexander
Published: April 2022

In Theorien des Ökonomischen wird die Frage nach der Entstehung von Märkten vergleichsweise randständig behandelt. Wie der Artikel zeigt, lassen sich die dominanten Erklärungsmuster in drei Gruppen zusammenfassen, die jeweils einem idealtypischen Leitkonzept der Marktgestaltung folgen: wechselseitige Anpassung, Organisation und soziale Felder. Während Theorien der wechselseitigen Anpassung von der quasi-natürlichen Genese von Märkten im Prozess reziproker Anerkennungsprozesse der Marktteilnehmer ausgehen, fokussieren Organisationstheorien die bewusste Gestaltung relevanter Institutionen, insbesondere, aber nicht nur durch den Staat. Die durch Bourdieu und Fligstein inspirierte Theorie sozialer Felder nimmt die außerökonomische Einbettung von Marktentstehungsprozessen in den Blick, liefert jedoch keinen genuinen Beitrag zur Interpretation solcher Prozesse im engeren Sinne. Der eingehende analytische Vergleich der jeweiligen Literatur zeigt die Anwendbarkeit der jeweiligen Erklärungsmuster. So betrifft das Phänomen der wechselseitigen Anpassung vor allem ungeplante Prozesse und Märkte mit starker Produktdifferenzierung, das Phänomen der Organisation hingegen vor allem „gerahmte“ Märkte für standardisierte Produkte sowie Wertpapiermärkte. Theorien sozialer Felder adressieren übergreifend den sozialen Kontext und die Machtkämpfe, in denen Märkte als politisch-kulturelle Strukturen ausgehandelt werden. Auf Basis dieser Beobachtung plädiert der Beitrag für eine integrierende Perspektive, die die Vorteile der jeweiligen Ansätze ohne Reduktion auf ein Paradigma in sich vereint.
Assessment of CrFeCoNi and AlCrFeCoNi High-Entropy Alloys as Bond Coats for Thermal Barrier Coatings
Authors: Ossiansson M. , Gupta M. , Löbel M. , Lindner T. , Lampke T. , Joshi S.
Published: April 2022

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) represent a relatively new group of multicomponent alloys that have shown great potential for applications requiring tribological and oxidation resistant properties. Consequently, thermally sprayed coatings of different HEA chemistries have received increasing research attention. In this paper, atomized equimolar CrFeCoNi and AlCrFeCoNi feedstocks were used for high velocity air-fuel spraying (HVAF) to produce overlay coatings using two different nozzle configurations. The microstructure, phase constitution and hardness of the coatings were analyzed along with the primary aim of testing the coatings for their oxidation behavior. The performance of the two HEA chemistries was compared with two commercial MCrAlY coatings that are well-established bond coat materials for thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). An investigation was conducted to test the coatings’ performance as bond coats by applying suspension plasma sprayed yttria-stabilized zirconia top coats and evaluating the thermal cycling behavior of the TBCs. The AlCrFeCoNi-coating was found to demonstrate a lower oxidation rate than the CrFeCoNi-coating. However, the AlCrFeCoNi-coating was found to form more rapid oxide scales compared with the commercial bond coat material that also contained reactive elements.
Radiotherapy update: current role of radiotherapy in the treatment of lymphomas
Authors: Waldstein Cora
Published: April 2022

Radiotherapy (RT) remains an important modality in the modern treatment of lymphomas. In Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), its role is stage-dependent. In early stage favorable HL, RT is an essential component of combined treatment. In early unfavorable and advanced stage HL, RT can be omitted if patients are positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) negative after chemotherapy. In non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL), RT can be used as definitive treatment of indolent lymphoma. In aggressive NHL, the role of RT is limited to consolidation therapy of bulky disease, extranodal involvement and in elderly patients. Overall, technology evolved from extended fields to involved-node (INRT) and involved-site radiotherapy (ISRT), with concurrent reduction in doses. This short review summarizes current evidence and provides a future outlook with regard to the role of RT in the treatment of lymphomas.
The Fiji Sugar Industry: Sustainability Challenges and the Way Forward
Authors: Dean Mohseen Riaz Ud
Published: April 2022

This paper examines the problems facing the sugar industry in Fiji. It expands on the difficulties of world trade and the macro- and micro-problems that affects the sugar industry sternly. It also discusses local challenges associated with sugarcane crop production and sugar manufacturing in the country. Additionally, it provides an overview of some of the specific issues directly facing smallholder sugarcane growers. This study is based on a customised mixed-methods research conducted in the year 2015 in the sugarcane-producing areas on the islands of Viti Levu and Vanua Levu in Fiji. The 33 farmers and members of their households in the study comprised both descendants of the Girmitiya community brought from India under the colonial rule and the native iTaukei sugarcane farmers, who rely primarily on cash incomes derived from the sale of sugarcane and other diversified farm products. This paper demonstrates that the sugar industry in Fiji is currently facing a ‘perfect storm’—wave after wave of major difficulties coming all at once—and the country is beginning to tackle these problems only as they reach crisis point.
Siamese coding network and pair similarity prediction for near-duplicate image detection
Authors: Fisichella Marco
Published: April 2022

Near-duplicate detection in a dataset involves finding the elements that are closest to a new query element according to a given similarity function and proximity threshold. The brute force approach is very computationally intensive as it evaluates the similarity between the queried item and all items in the dataset. The potential application domain is an image sharing website that checks for plagiarism or piracy every time a new image is uploaded. Among the various approaches, near-duplicate detection was effectively addressed by SimPair LSH (Fisichella et al., in Decker, Lhotská, Link, Spies, Wagner (eds) Database and expert systems applications, Springer, 2014). As the name suggests, SimPair LSH uses locality sensitive hashing (LSH) and computes and stores in advance a small set of near-duplicate pairs present in the dataset and uses them to reduce the candidate set returned for a given query using the Triangle inequality. We develop an algorithm that predicts how the candidate set will be reduced. We also develop a new efficient method for near-duplicate image detection using a deep Siamese coding neural network that is able to extract effective features from images useful for building LSH indices. Extensive experiments on two benchmark datasets confirm the effectiveness of our deep Siamese coding network and prediction algorithm.
Time evaluation and its accuracy in eating disorders: differences in relation to interoceptive awareness
Authors: Meneguzzo Paolo , Mancini Cecilia , Ormitti Aurora , Bonello Elisa , Todisco Patrizia
Published: April 2022

Purpose

Time evaluation has been poorly studied in eating disorder (ED) patients despite its relationship with body awareness, which is a core psychopathological feature in EDs and is influenced by impulsivity, interoception, and working memory. This study aims to evaluate time estimation and its accuracy across the ED spectrum in connection with specific and general psychopathology.

Methods

A group of 215 women was enrolled in a computerized task involving the estimation of 1-min intervals. Impulsivity and body awareness constructs (self-monitoring, depersonalization, interoceptive deficit) were evaluated and examined for significant correlations with time estimation and the accuracy of the measure.

Results

Patients with EDs showed an impaired ability to estimate time, with an accuracy that positively correlated with compulsive self-monitoring (p = 0.03). Differences between diagnostic subgroups showed an overestimation of time in anorexia nervosa patients and an underestimation of time in binge eating disorder patients, whose time estimation was also less accurate.

Conclusion

The relationship between time estimation and compulsive self- monitoring might corroborate the presence of an imbalanced integration of information in patients with EDs that was not present in the community women included in the study. Time perception should be further evaluated in the ED field, and longitudinal changes due to psychopathological recovery or BMI changes should be examined.

Level of evidence

Level III: Evidence obtained from a well-designed cohort or case–control analytic study.
Insight into macroscale superlubricity of polyol aqueous solution induced by protic ionic liquid
Authors: Zheng Zhiwen , Liu Xiaolong , Yu Hongxiang , Chen Haijie , Feng Dapeng , Qiao Dan
Published: April 2022

Currently, macroscale liquid superlubricity remains limited to low applied loads and typical ceramic friction pairs. In this study, a robust macroscale superlubricity with a coefficient of friction (COF) of approximately 0.006 is realized at the bearing steel interface induced by protic ionic liquids (ILs) in propylene glycol aqueous solution, and the lubrication system exhibits excellent anti-corrosion properties. Results show that superlubricity can be achieved by employing ILs with longer alkyl chains over a wide load (< 350 N) and speed (> 700 r/min) range. By systematically investigating factors affecting superlubricity, including the IL structure, ionization degree, test conditions, polyol, water-to-alcohol ratio, and lubrication state, the superlubricity mechanism is discussed. Notably, a thicker and denser stern layer can be formed using ILs with longer alkyl chains, which participates in the tribochemical reaction with the metal substrate to form a tribofilm during rubbing. The hydrogen bond network layer formed by the hydrogen ion and polycol aqueous solution can withstand high applied loads. Water can be used to reduce the shear stress of polyols, and enable superlubricity to be achieved under high-speed rotations. Moreover, an inevitable running-in period serves as a dispersing contact stress and dynamically forms a lubricating film, where the lubrication state locates mixed lubrication and then transforms into boundary lubrication as the roughness of the contact surface increases. This study is expected to significantly promote the development and application of superlubricity in the engineering field.
Food Waste to Livestock Feed: Prospects and Challenges for Swine Farming in Peri-urban Sri Lanka
Authors: Jayathilake Nilanthi , Aheeyar Mohamed , Drechsel Pay
Published: April 2022

Using farm animals for their natural capability of “recycling” food waste (FW) that is unfit for direct human consumption can support a circular economy as shown in the case of Sri Lanka’s Western Province. The reuse of organic residues including FW as animal feed is a traditional agricultural practice in Sri Lanka but is less studied within an urban FW context. A survey of piggeries using FW in and around the rapidly urbanizing city of Colombo showed that FW is a major feed source in the farms accounting for on average 82% of total feed. About 40% of the farms collected the FW mainly from hotels, restaurants, and institutional canteens. Urban FW is supplied to farmers free of charge when collected directly from the sources, although 26% of the farmers collected FW via intermediaries against a fee. As FW is collected daily, the restaurants appreciate the reliable service, the farmers the low-cost feed, and the municipality the reduced FW volumes to be collected. However, this triple-win situation encounters challenges such as (tourist related) seasonal low supply, which was exacerbated under the Covid-19 lockdown of food services. Another area of concern refers to biosafety. Although the large majority of interviewed farmers boil FW which contains raw meat or fish, there is a paucity of related guidelines and control. Given the benefits of FW use, it is worthwhile to explore how far these informal partnerships could be scaled without increasing transport costs for farmers, while introducing biosafety monitoring. For now, the regulatory environment is highly siloed and does not support material transitions across sector boundaries towards a circular economy.
Exponentially convergent distributed Nash equilibrium seeking for constrained aggregative games
Authors: Liang Shu , Yi Peng , Hong Yiguang , Peng Kaixiang
Published: April 2022

Distributed Nash equilibrium seeking of aggregative games is investigated and a continuous-time algorithm is proposed. The algorithm is designed by virtue of projected gradient play dynamics and aggregation tracking dynamics, and is applicable to games with constrained strategy sets and weight-balanced communication graphs. The key feature of our method is that the proposed projected dynamics achieves exponential convergence, whereas such convergence results are only obtained for non-projected dynamics in existing works on distributed optimization and equilibrium seeking. Numerical examples illustrate the effectiveness of our methods.
Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity
Authors: Derbew Sarah F.
Published: April 2022

How should articulations of blackness from the fifth century BCE to the twenty-first century be properly read and interpreted? This important and timely new book is the first concerted treatment of black skin color in the Greek literature and visual culture of antiquity. In charting representations in the Hellenic world of black Egyptians, Aithiopians, Indians, and Greeks, Sarah Derbew dexterously disentangles the complex and varied ways in which blackness has been co-produced by ancient authors and artists; their readers, audiences, and viewers; and contemporary scholars. Exploring the precarious hold that race has on skin coloration, the author uncovers the many silences, suppressions, and misappropriations of blackness within modern studies of Greek antiquity. Shaped by performance studies and critical race theory alike, her book maps out an authoritative archaeology of blackness that reappraises its significance. It offers a committedly anti-racist approach to depictions of black people while rejecting simplistic conflations or explanations.
The Child as Visual Artist
Authors: Winner Ellen , Drake Jennifer E.
Published: April 2022

This Element focuses on the development of drawing (and painting) in childhood. The author begins by examining children's representational drawing, a topic that has received quite wide attention from the nineteenth century on. The author then turns to issues that have received far less attention and discusses the aesthetic property of expression, weighing the claim that young children's highly expressive drawings bear an affinity to twentieth century modernist art. The author then examines the function of drawing for children's emotional development. Next, looking at art prodigies, the author turns to the how of drawing, considering the relation of drawing talent to IQ and to visual-spatial skills. Finally, the author considers the relation between development and education in art and how educators can best nurture children's artistic development.
Rapid response to a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a psychiatry hospital—Kanazawa City, Japan, March to April 2020
Authors: Kato Hirofumi , Seki Kikuno , Maeda Yoshiki , Noda Yoko , Iinuma Yoshitsugu , Kitaoka Masami , Kiso Keisuke , Koshida Rie , Kurosu Hitomi , Yamagishi Takuya , Shimada Tomoe , Suzuki Motoi , Sunagawa Tomimasa
Published: April 2022

A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a psychiatry hospital revealed specific challenges in its response such as difficulty in isolation, transfer, and identification of close contacts, suboptimal infection control practices, and shortage of personal protective equipment, which were overcome by support from the public health center and a neighboring university hospital.
On nudges that fail
Authors: Rela Nara
Published: April 2022

The aim of this study is to respond to Cass Sunstein's question: ‘Why are some nudges ineffective, or at least less effective than choice architects hope and expect?’—particularly in view not only of the rational basis in decision-making but also of the direct influence of emotions on the behavior of those who must choose. In this study, I used findings from psychology surveys, specifically considering the influence of emotions on the fallibility of nudges in social interactions when wealth is compared. Special attention is dedicated to vanity, a combined emotion that leads to emotional choices, which arises in self-presentation and self-comparison when external signs of wealth are displayed. Imagination plays an important role in simulation to the extent that it causes failure in further nudges. In conclusion, I argue that vanity impels people to act differently, as expected of choice architects.
Understanding the Limitations of Behavioralism: Lessons from the Field of Maritime Delimitation
Authors: Yildiz Ezgi , Yüksel Umut
Published: April 2022

Do states take court decisions into account when formulating policies? If so, how do they process new judicial input and make policies in response to them? While self-interest and incentives are the usual elements involved in a rational choice explanation of policymaking, behavioralist scholarship casts doubt on whether decisionmakers are able to identify and pursue their interests in a rational manner. We draw on rational and behavioral approaches to formulate different expectations about the process of policymaking and updating in the context of maritime delimitation. We focus on how states formulate policies about the appropriate method of maritime delimitation given relevant decisions of the International Court of Justice. Using a dataset of continental shelf delimitation policies, we find evidence that at least some states change policies in line with court decisions. However, we are unable to distinguish between mechanisms consistent with rational choice and those suggested by behavioralism. We discuss why behavioralist explanations of policymaking processes are difficult to test in a large-N setting. Moreover, we discuss why additional evidence from interviews also proves insufficient, notably due to actors’ tendency to rationalize state policies. We end by suggesting how these problems can be addressed in future research.
Regulators’ Mindsets, Ingroup Favoritism, and the National Treatment Obligation in World Trade Organization Law
Authors: Hirsch Moshe
Published: April 2022

Decision-making processes leading to governmental measures affecting international trade involve socio-cognitive processes, biases, and sociocultural factors. The legal prohibition of discrimination against imported products constitutes a fundamental principle of World Trade Organization (WTO) law, but discrimination against foreign products is widespread. This study explores the contribution of social cognitive and sociological literatures to international trade scholarship concerning the “national treatment” obligation. Ingroup favoritism bias, related cognitive biases, such as confirmation bias, and sociocultural processes, such as “loyalty norms”, facilitate and support discrimination against foreign products.

One of the most contested issues regarding the interpretation of GATT Article III concerns the role of regulators’ intention in establishing a violation of this provision. The approach undertaken by the WTO Appellate Body is characterized by a preference for the “objective” test of regulators’ intention (focusing on intention revealed in the regulatory measure itself), and a reluctance to take into account regulators’ “subjective” intentions, discerned from regulators’ statements and a variety of other sources. In contrast to the WTO Appellate Body’s approach, this contribution suggests that once presented with credible evidence regarding key-role regulators’ intentions, manifested in both the regulatory measure itself and in a variety of other items of evidence, it is desirable that WTO tribunals assign adequate probative weight to such intentions. In addition, where it is credibly proven that ingroup favoritism norms prevail in the key role regulator’s social environment, it is advisable to grant some probative weight to such social norms. Assigning a probative weight to regulators’ subjective intentions and relevant norms is justified by the significant influence of intentions and norms on the prospects of discriminatory behavior.

The article highlights three principal types of regulators’ mindsets: mindful, mindless, and bias-resisting. Mindful regulators deliberately intend to restrict internal sale of foreign goods through discriminatory measures. Mindless regulators do not aim to discriminate against imported goods, and the disparate impact influences of their regulations are relegated to the background. Bias-resisting regulators intend to grant equal treatment to domestic and imported products and resist ingroup biases.
Exploring the plume and shear effects in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection with effective horizontal buoyancy under streamwise and spanwise geometrical confinements
Authors: Zhang Lu , Dong Jing , Xia Ke-Qing
Published: April 2022

We present an experimental and numerical study of turbulent thermal convection in the presence of an effective horizontal buoyancy that generates extra shear at the boundary. Geometrical confinements are also applied by varying the streamwise and spanwise aspect ratios of the convection cell to condense the plumes. With these, we systematically explore the effects of plume and shear on heat transfer. It is found that a streamwise confinement results in increased plume coverage but decreased shear compared with spanwise confinement. The fact that streamwise confinement leads to a higher vertical heat transfer efficiency than the spanwise confined case suggests that the increase of plume coverage is the dominant effect responsible for the enhanced heat transfer. Our results highlight the potential applications of coherent structure manipulation in efficient passive heat transfer control and thermal engineering. We also analyse the energetics of the present system and derive the expression of mixing efficiency accordingly. The mixing efficiency is found to increase with both the buoyancy ratio and streamwise dimension.
Rayleigh–Bloch waves above the cutoff
Authors: Bennetts Luke G. , Peter Malte A.
Published: April 2022

Extensions of Rayleigh–Bloch waves above the cutoff frequency are studied via the discrete spectrum of a transfer operator for a channel containing a single cylinder with quasi-periodic side-wall conditions. Above the cutoff, the Rayleigh–Bloch wavenumber becomes complex valued and an additional wavenumber appears. For small- to intermediate-radius values, the extended Rayleigh–Bloch waves are shown to connect the Neumann and Dirichlet trapped modes before embedding in the continuous spectrum. A homotopy method involving an artificial damping term is proposed to identify the discrete spectrum close to the embedding. Moreover, Rayleigh–Bloch waves vanish beyond some frequency but reappear at higher frequencies for small and large cylinders. The existence and properties of the Rayleigh–Bloch waves are connected with finite-array resonances.
ON THE STRUCTURE OF COMPUTABLE REDUCIBILITY ON EQUIVALENCE RELATIONS OF NATURAL NUMBERS
Authors: ANDREWS URI , BELIN DANIEL F. , SAN MAURO LUCA
Published: April 2022

We examine the degree structure
$\operatorname {\mathrm {\mathbf {ER}}}$
of equivalence relations on
$\omega $
under computable reducibility. We examine when pairs of degrees have a least upper bound. In particular, we show that sufficiently incomparable pairs of degrees do not have a least upper bound but that some incomparable degrees do, and we characterize the degrees which have a least upper bound with every finite equivalence relation. We show that the natural classes of finite, light, and dark degrees are definable in
$\operatorname {\mathrm {\mathbf {ER}}}$
. We show that every equivalence relation has continuum many self-full strong minimal covers, and that
$\mathbf {d}\oplus \mathbf {\operatorname {\mathrm {\mathbf {Id}}}_1}$
needn’t be a strong minimal cover of a self-full degree
$\mathbf {d}$
. Finally, we show that the theory of the degree structure
$\operatorname {\mathrm {\mathbf {ER}}}$
as well as the theories of the substructures of light degrees and of dark degrees are each computably isomorphic with second-order arithmetic.