bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ecological and human health risk assessment of heavy metals in sewage sludge produced in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland: a case study
Authors: Tytła Malwina , Widziewicz-Rzońca Kamila
Published: October 2023

This study aimed to assess the potential risks posed by heavy metals in sewage sludge (SS) produced by municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the most industrialized region in Poland, the Silesian Voivodeship. The ecological risk was assessed using three indices: the Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), Potential Ecological Risk Factor (ER), and Risk Assessment Code (RAC), while the health risk was estimated by using carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risk indices. The average concentrations of metals in the sludge samples were determined revealing that Zn was the predominant element, whereas Cd and Hg were present in the lowest concentrations. The study showed that the processes used in wastewater treatment plants influenced the overall metal content and chemical speciation. According to Igeo values, the dewatered sludge samples exhibited higher contamination levels of Cd and Zn, while Cu and Pb were upon to a lesser extent. The ER values suggest that Cd and Hg present the highest ecological risk. Considering the chemical forms and RAC values, Ni (26.8–37.2%) and Zn (19.8–27.0%) were identified to cause the most significant risks. The non-carcinogenic risk for adults and children was below acceptable levels. However, the carcinogenic risk associated with Ni (WWTP1) for both demographic groups and Cr and Cd (WWTP2), specifically for children, exceeded the acceptable threshold. Ingestion was the primary route of exposure. Although the dewatered SS met the standards for agricultural use, there is still a risk of secondary pollution to the environment and possible adverse health effects.
Revisiting the concept of highly skilled professionals: an analysis of support staff in Finnish universities
Authors: Irjala Outi
Published: October 2023

Changes in university staffing structures, the professionalisation of support staff and their increasing role in universities have been studied with varying perspectives and methods over the last two decades. The discussion has recently been enriched by the research conducted in different national settings. This paper contributes to the international debate and elaborates on the theme through two aims. The first is to investigate the emergence of a specific qualified professional group and its characteristics by analysing personnel data from Finnish universities. Second, the article seeks to indicate recent developments in the number and composition of professional staff in Finnish universities. The study is based on national official statistics on university personnel, some of which are previously unpublished, and on personnel data collected from all Finnish universities using an analytical framework built for this study. The results provide a comprehensive picture of the changing structure of the university workforce and a new insight into a previously studied occupational group through a lens of Finnish university system. The decline in the number of professional staff and the emergence of new kind of professionals in Finland reflect changes witnessed elsewhere, especially in Europe. Highly skilled professionals work in roles with specific knowledge, competences and responsibilities, which points out the differentiation of functions in the university system. This knowledge will support efforts to develop the university organisation by building on the competence of all staff.
Understanding general practitioners’ prescribing choices to patients with chronic low back pain: a discrete choice experiment
Authors: Hamilton Melanie , Christine Lin Chung-Wei , Arora Sheena , Harrison Mark , Tracy Marguerite , Nickel Brooke , Shaheed Christina Abdel , Gnjidic Danijela , Mathieson Stephanie
Published: October 2023

Background

Although NSAIDs are recommended as a first line analgesic treatment, opioids are very commonly prescribed to patients with low back pain (LBP) despite risks of harms.

Aim

This study aimed to determine factors contributing to general practitioners’ (GPs’) prescribing choices to patients with chronic LBP in a primary care setting.

Method

This discrete choice experiment (DCE) presented 210 GPs with hypothetical scenarios of a patient with chronic LBP. Participants chose their preferred treatment for each choice set, either the opioid, NSAID or neither. The scenarios varied by two patient attributes; non-specific LBP or LBP with referred leg pain (sciatica) and number of comorbidities. The three treatment attributes also varied, being: the type of opioid or NSAID, degree of pain reduction and number of adverse events. The significance of each attribute in influencing clinical decisions was the primary outcome and the degree to which GPs preferred the alternative based on the number of adverse events or the amount of pain reduction was the secondary outcome.

Results

Overall, GPs preferred NSAIDs (45.2%, 95% CI 38.7–51.7%) over opioids (28.8%, 95% CI 23.0–34.7%), however there was no difference between the type of NSAID or opioid preferred. Additionally, the attributes of pain reduction and adverse events did not influence a GP’s choice between NSAIDs or opioids for patients with chronic LBP.

Conclusion

GPs prefer prescribing NSAIDs over opioids for a patient with chronic low back pain regardless of patient factors of comorbidities or the presence of leg pain (i.e. sciatica).
Swimming Against the Current: Addressing Community Needs and Establishing Partnerships for the Prevention of Opioid and Methamphetamine use Among Parents
Authors: Singh Ryan R. , Peterson Jeffrey M. , Chapman Jason , Saldana Lisa
Published: October 2023

The opioid and methamphetamine crises in Oregon have a consequential impact on young families, as an increasing number of parents experience substance use disorder (SUD). As parental substance use escalates, the child welfare system (CWS) becomes overwrought with families who have complex needs. The burden placed on families and on the CWS indicates a need for prevention and treatment interventions for parental SUDs. In response to the worst statewide opioid and methamphetamine epidemics in the USA, a Hybrid Type 2 trial of PRE-FAIR—a prevention intervention for parents—is being implemented in five Oregon counties. Establishing strong partnerships within the communities helped identify the need to implement the evidence-based FAIR treatment model alongside PRE-FAIR. A strong focus on implementation includes meeting the needs of communities and establishing the infrastructure necessary for sustainment of the FAIR programs at the provider agencies. Despite implementation efforts to direct toward PRE-FAIR referrals, parents in need of treatment are being referred at a disproportionate rate, as are older parents who fall outside of study-eligibility. Both challenges have delayed the ability to enroll a sufficient number of participants for the prevention trial. This commentary describes the impact of the opioid and methamphetamine epidemics in Oregon as the crises relate to implementing prevention versus treatment interventions—highlighting the importance of addressing community needs and establishing strong partnerships, which has allowed creative strategies to increase PRE-FAIR recruitment.
Reporting of health-related quality of life in emergency laparotomy trials: a systematic review and narrative synthesis
Authors: Downey Candice L. , Lessing J. , Jayne D. G.
Published: October 2023

Purpose

Emergency laparotomy is associated with high morbidity for the surgical patient. Understanding patients’ health-related quality of life after their surgery is important to enhance the informed consent process, and to enable the evaluation and improvement of surgical care. This review aims to summarise the use of health-related quality of life tools in clinical trials involving patients undergoing emergency laparotomy.

Methods

A systematic review was undertaken of the scientific literature published in the MEDLINE® and PubMed databases between January 2011 and July 2021. A narrative synthesis approach was chosen to synthesise the diverse range of studies in a structured manner. All included papers were evaluated using the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias.

Results

Eleven studies were selected for inclusion. Most of the studies had a low risk of bias. Two of the studies used health-related quality of life as the primary outcome measure. A variety of health-related quality of life measurement tools were used; the EQ-5D tool was the most popular questionnaire. Protocol adherence was dependent on the length of time which had elapsed after emergency surgery.

Conclusion

There are many perceived challenges to collecting health-related quality of life data in the emergency surgery setting. Many of these can be offset with progressive trial designs. There is a need for further research in the systematic development of patient-reported outcomes for use in emergency surgery.
Recursivity in source-based writing: a process analysis
Authors: Tarchi Christian , Villalón Ruth , Vandermeulen Nina , Casado-Ledesma Lidia , Fallaci Anna Paola
Published: October 2023

In university settings, writing argumentative essays from reading conflicting source texts is a common task for students. In performing this synthesis task, they must deal with conflicting claims about a controversial issue as they develop their own positions. Argumentative synthesis is characterized by writers’ back-and-forth moves between reading source texts and writing their own texts—a self-regulatory process that can be termed recursivity. The present study investigated the recursive behavior of Italian university students as they wrote argumentative syntheses while reading conflicting sources. The 43 graduate students participating in the study read four source texts on a controversial topic, evaluation in academe, with the goal of writing an argumentative essay. Reading of the sources was studied through a think-aloud procedure, and recursivity in writing the syntheses was recorded through Inputlog software. Comparisons were made between 22 high-recursive and 22 low recursive writers for the quality of their argumentative essays and for the critical strategies that they had used in reading the sources. Descriptive and nonparametic analyses produced the following three findings: (1) The strategies most employed in prereading were all related to synthesis-related activities: voicing opinion, expressing agreement, and expressing doubts. (2) Recursivity occurred most often in the middle of the synthesis process, as writers developed their arguments, instead of at the beginning or end. (3) High-recursive writers surpassed low-recursive writers by producing argumentative essays of higher quality and obtained better recall scores. They also employed more critical processing relevant to synthesis when reading the sources. This study provides insight on how recursivity is involved in argumentative writing but still there is need for further research.
Early Career Innovations in Science Education Research: Introduction to the Special Issue
Authors: Georgiou Helen , Mills Reece , Wilson Kimberley
Published: October 2023

Science education research has typically been aligned with a collection of familiar topics and ideas. However, the field, like many others, is becoming ever more varied as it responds to a range of remarkable social, cultural, and technological changes. In this paper, the Guest Editors of Research in Science Education’s Special Issue ‘Early Career Innovations in Science Education Research’ reflect on the future directions of research represented in both the Early Career Researcher submissions to the Special Issue and a brief survey administered to the journal’s Editorial Board members. We report on trends related to new, divergent, and creative innovations, situating these innovations in the context of the history of the field as represented by one of the world’s leading science education journals.
Procedural Justice and the Design of Administrative Dispute Resolution Procedures
Authors: Wever Marc , Ybema Jan Fekke
Published: October 2023

Are certain characteristics of dispute resolution procedures associated with higher levels of procedural justice? We address this question through a quantitative analysis of real-world experiences of 194 professional legal representatives with the objection procedures of 81 Dutch administrative authorities. In our analysis, two general procedural characteristics are taken into account: the involvement of an independent third party and the extent to which the procedure is focused on the conciliation of competing interests. The involvement of an independent third party was not associated with higher levels of procedural justice. Procedures that were perceived to be more focused on the conciliation of competing interests were evaluated as more procedurally just, even more so in disputes where the administrative authority was perceived to have a higher degree of discretion and in disputes that ended in a negative result for the litigant.
Bodily sense and structural content
Authors: Skrzypulec Błażej
Published: October 2023

Bodily awareness seems to present the body as a topologically connected whole, composed of many parts. In consequence, the source of topological and mereological content of bodily awareness comes into question. In particular, it may be asked whether (a) such content is provided by the bodily sense, i.e., sensory mechanisms which, like proprioception, presents the body “from the inside,” or (b) it is a product of “exteroceptive” elements of bodily awareness, which represents the body “from the outside” in a similar way to that of other physical objects. This paper argues that while passive touch and proprioception are unlikely to present the body as a topological and a mereological whole, such content is likely to be provided by kinesthesis. In consequence, it is plausible that holistic topological and mereological bodily content is present in virtue of certain mechanisms of bodily sense.
Analysis of Charge Distributions in Functional Transition-Metal Tellurides
Authors: Steinberg Simon
Published: October 2023

The design of new materials showing the requested features for catalytic applications and future technologies demands a thorough knowledge of their electronic structures, because the interpretations of the electronic structures provide invaluable information regarding the materials properties. Such analyses of the electronic structures often include determinations of the distributions of charges, as many properties correspond to the transfers of charges. Therefore, an analytical tool was recently established to determine Mulliken and Löwdin charges from the results of quantumchemical computations based on the widely employed plane waves. Herein, the aforementioned population analytical tool is briefly introduced, and its recent applications to a series of functional (transition-metal) tellurides, i.e. SnTe, YTe, Cu7Te4, and Ag5 − xTe3 (− 0.25 ≤ x ≤ 1.44), are reviewed. While the tellurides are discussed with regard to their structural features, their electronic peculiarities, and the feasible fields of applications, the results of the quantumchemical explorations of these tellurides clearly indicate that the population analytical tool is a robust means to reveal the charge distributions in extended systems.
Evaluation of water from Lake Coatetelco in central-south Mexico and surrounding groundwater wells for drinking and irrigation, and the possible health risks
Authors: Roy Priyadarsi D. , García-Arriola Oscar Agesandro , Selvam Sekar , Vargas-Martínez Irma Gabriela , Sánchez-Zavala José Luis
Published: October 2023

Due to an increasing reduction of hydrological resources across Mexico and their growing contamination from global warming and anthropogenic activities, this study evaluated water from the perennial Lake Coatetelco (Ca–Mg–HCO3) in tropical central-southern Mexico and groundwater (Ca–Mg–HCO3 and Na–HCO3–Cl) from the surrounding wells for drinking as well as irrigation qualities. Comparison with the WHO guidelines and the estimated water quality indices (DWQI and IWQI) grouped almost all the samples collected after the warm season rainfall in excellent and good categories (DWQI < 100) for drinking, even though fluoride remained > 1.5 mg/L in 50% samples. Except for one groundwater sample, all showed > 25% permeability (classes I and II) in Donnen classification indicating their suitability for irrigation. USSL and Wilcox classifications, however, catalogued some in the high-salinity hazard group and some as doubtful for irrigating regular plants. Samples from about 53% wells were also in high and severe restriction categories of IWQI for the irrigation. Total Hazard Quotient Index (THQI) for estimating the non-carcinogenic risk (HQfluoride > 1) showed that at least one lake water sample and 53% of groundwater might expose the adult and child population to dental and skeletal fluorosis. This water quality assessment data posterior to the rainfall season could be useful as a baseline for both the short- and long-term monitoring in attention to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 6.
Innovation for improving climate-related data—Lessons learned from setting up a data hub
Authors: Doll Hendrik Christian , Alves Werb Gabriela
Published: October 2023

In this article, we present a framework to assess the challenges in the climate-related data landscape. From our perspective, we describe challenges and opportunities for innovation to close existing gaps in selected data quality dimensions for central banks and statistical offices. We further examine the role of networks in promoting innovation and international collaboration, highlighting practical experiences with a case study of the Sustainable Finance Data Hub at the Deutsche Bundesbank. Finally, we discuss how these lessons can provide avenues to enhance data quality in central banks and official statistics and outline directions for future research.
Impact of Fluoride Exposure on Rat Placenta: Foetal/Placental Morphometric Alterations and Decreased Placental Vascular Density
Authors: Guerrero-Arroyo Jonathan , Jiménez-Córdova Mónica I. , Aztatzi-Aguilar Octavio G. , Del Razo Luz M.
Published: October 2023

Inorganic fluoride is a geogenic and anthropogenic contaminant widely distributed in the environment and commonly identified in contaminated groundwater. There is limited information on the effect of fluoride exposure on pregnancy. The aim of this study was to evaluate possible placental alterations of fluoride exposure in a rat model simulating preconception and pregnancy exposure conditions in endemic areas. Fluoride exposure was administered orally to foetuses of dams exposed to 2.5 and 5 mg fluoride/kg/d. Foetal weight, height, foetal/placental weight ratio, placental zone thickness, levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) and vascular density in placental tissue were evaluated. The results showed a nonlinear relationship between these outcomes and the dose of fluoride exposure. In addition, a significant increase in the fluoride concentration in placental tissue was observed. The group that was exposed to 2.5 mg fluoride/kg/d had a greater increase in both MDA levels and VEGF-A levels than the higher dose group. A significant increase in the thickness of the placental zones and a decrease in the vascular density of the labyrinth zone area were also observed in the fluoride-exposed groups. In conclusion, the data obtained demonstrate that fluoride exposure results in morpho-structural alterations in the placenta and that non-monotonic changes in MDA, VEGF-A levels and placental foetal weight ratio were at environmentally relevant concentrations.
„Ich bin Umwege gegangen und schaffe es trotzdem Richtung Ziel“
Authors: Otuo Sarah A. Adjei , Gamper Markus
Published: October 2023

Neben der Reproduktion der Bildungsungleichheit rücken in jüngster Zeit immer häufiger Fragen nach Schulerfolgsmöglichkeiten und -bedingungen in den Fokus gesellschaftlicher und wissenschaftlicher Diskurse. Die Bedeutung von sozialen Netzwerken für Bildungsprozesse wird hierbei selten mitgedacht. Dabei können gerade soziale Beziehungen für den Zugang zu begehrten gesellschaftlichen Ressourcen ausschlaggebend sein. Im Rahmen des vom BMBF finanzierten laufenden Forschungsprojektes „gelB: Unwahrscheinliche Bildungskarrieren – Der Beitrag der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe zu gelingender Bildung unter Bedingung von besonderer Benachteiligung“, verbinden wir netzwerkanalytische Perspektiven und Zugänge mit bildungssoziologischen Fragestellungen. Wir gehen in diesem Beitrag der Frage nach, wie Adressat_innen der Heimerziehung, trotz der Bedingungen soziostruktureller Benachteiligungen und problematischer familiärer Verhältnisse Bildungserfolge und Bildungskarrieren gelingen und welche Rolle die Netzwerke für ihre Bildungsprozesse einnehmen. Aus der Sicht der Jugendhilfeadressat_innen werden helfende sowie hinderliche Faktoren im schulbiographischen Verlauf herausgearbeitet. Der Beitrag verfolgt das Ziel, das Erleben von bildungsbezogener Unterstützung und Barrieren aus der Adressat_innenperspektive in den Blick zu nehmen und in diesem Zusammenhang auch die Rolle der Heimerziehung für Bildungsprozesse zu beleuchten.
The Essential Facilities Doctrine, Intellectual Property Rights, and Access to Big Data
Authors: Dacar Rok
Published: October 2023

This paper analyzes the criteria for applying the essential facilities doctrine to intellectual property rights and the possibility of applying it in cases where Big Data is the alleged essential facility. It aims to answer the research question: “What are the specifics of the intellectual property criteria in essential facilities cases and are these criteria applicable to Big Data?” It points to the semantic openness of the “new product” and “technical progress” conditions that have been developed for assessing whether an intellectual property right constitutes an essential facility. The paper argues that the intellectual property criteria are not applicable in all access to Big Data cases because Big Data is not necessarily protected by copyright. While a set of Big Data could be protected by copyright if certain conditions are met, even in such cases the lack of intrinsic value of Big Data significantly limits the applicability of the intellectual property criteria.
Effects of Physical Education on Socializing and Communicating Among Children and Preadolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Authors: Huerta Ojeda Álvaro , Barahona-Fuentes Guillermo , Villagra Órdenes Franchesca , Mena Tapia Maríajosé , Yeomans-Cabrera María-Mercedes , Martínez-Líbano Jonathan
Published: October 2023

Physical education stimulates brain plasticity. However, the effect of physical education interventions on socialization and communication skills in children and preadolescents with autism spectrum disorder is unknown. To review and qualitatively describe studies published between 2012 and 2022 that intervened with physical education to generate changes in socialization and communication skills in children and preadolescents with autism spectrum disorder. The search was designed following the PRISMA® guidelines for systematic reviews and meta-analyses and performed in Web of Science, Scopus, and PubMed between 2012 and 2022. Fourteen studies were included in the systematic review and nine in the meta-analysis. Physical education was shown to be effective in increasing socialization and communication skills in children and preadolescents with autism spectrum disorder.
Hyponatremia, hypernatremia and impairment of functional, psychological and sexual domains
Authors: Norello D. , Rastrelli G. , Antonio L. , Bartfai G. , Casanueva F. F. , Giwercman A. , Huhtaniemi I. T. , O’Neill T. W. , Punab M. , Slowikowska-Hilczer J. , Tournoy J. , Vanderschueren D. , Wu F. C. W. , Maggi M. , Peri A.
Published: October 2023

Objective

To determine the influence of serum sodium on physical, psychologic and sexual function.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional survey on 3340 community-dwelling men aged 40–79 years from a prospective cohort study in eight European countries, the European Male Ageing Study (EMAS). Participants filled-out the Short Form-36 (SF-36), the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE), and the EMAS sexual function questionnaire. For all the analyses, serum sodium corrected for glycaemia ([Na+]G) was used.

Results

The relationship between [Na+]G and SF-36 physical function score (F = 3.99; p = 0.01), SF-36 mental health score (F = 7.69; p < 0.001), and PASE score (F = 14.95; p < 0.001) were best described by a quadratic equation, with worse scores for [Na+]G in either the lowest or the highest ends of the range. After dividing the sample into [Na+]G < 136 mmol/L (n = 81), 136–147 mmol/L (n = 3223) and > 147 mmol/L (n = 36), linear regression analyses with linear spline functions adjusted for confounders did not confirm these relationships. Similarly, erectile dysfunction and [Na+]G, were in a quadratic relationship (F = 9.00; p < 0.001). After adjusting for confounders, the linear regression with spline functions denoted a significantly worsened erectile function for increases in serum [Na+]G > 147 mmol/L (B = 0.15 [0.04;0.26], p < 0.01) but no relationship with [Na+]G < 136 mmol/L. Likewise, the relationship of [Na+]G with concerns about sexual dysfunction was confirmed only for men with serum [Na+]G > 147 mmol/L.

Conclusions

This is the first study supporting an association between [Na+]G and sexual function. A worsening of erection and concerns about sexual function were observed for the highest values of [Na+]G, independently of other relevant factors.
Shaping Conditions for Recovery: A narrative on a Homeless Man with Severe Mental Illness in a Modern Welfare State
Authors: van Everdingen Coline , Peerenboom Peter Bob , Gras Harry , Delespaul Philippe
Published: October 2023

Despite extensive research, interdependent problems such as severe mental illness and homelessness cause extreme disparities and health inequity. Handling complexity in careseeker–caregiver networks remains challenging. The local public health services in a Dutch city were enriched with a specialized team. An ethnographic policy evaluation was conducted to identify the essentials of an effective approach. We use the narrative of a homeless man who experiences psychoses for an in-depth analysis of the team’s functionality. The narrative data shows the challenges of caregiver networks and underlines the need to integrate care. It demonstrates how normal behavior, personal skills, and a socio-ecological system strategy merge into collaborative networks with the ability to diversify care and keep focus on recovery. This paper demonstrates the failure of the linear handicap model and the costs of overspecialized care systems. Building on socio-ecological recovery literature, it provides insight how care networks successfully can foster recovery.
LGP-YOLO: an efficient convolutional neural network for surface defect detection of light guide plate
Authors: Wan Yan , Li Junfeng
Published: October 2023

Light guide plate (LGP) is a key component of liquid crystal display (LCD) display systems, so its quality directly affects the display effect of LCD. However, LGPs have complex background texture, low contrast, varying defect size and numerous defect types, which makes realizing efficient and accuracy-satisfactory surface defect automatic detection of LGPS still a big challenge. Therefore, combining its optical properties, dot distribution, defect imaging characteristics and detection requirements, a surface defect detection algorithm based on LGP-YOLO for practical industrial applications is proposed in this paper. To enhance the feature extraction ability of the network without dimensionality reduction, expand the effective receptive field and reduce the interference of invalid targets, we built the receptive field module (RFM) by combining the effective channel attention network (ECA-Net) and reviewing large kernel design in CNNs (RepLKNet). For the purpose of optimizing the performance of the network in downstream tasks, enhance the network's expression ability and improve the network’s ability of detecting multi-scale targets, we construct the small detection module (SDM) by combining space-to-depth non-strided convolution (SPDConv) and omini-dimensional dynamic convolution (ODConv). Finally, an LGP defect dataset is constructed using a set of images collected from industrial sites, and a multi-round experiment is carried out to test the proposed method on the LGP detect dataset. The experimental results show that the proposed LGP-YOLO network can achieve high performance, with mAP and F1-score reaching 99.08% and 97.45% respectively, and inference speed reaching 81.15 FPS. This demonstrates that LGP-YOLO can strike a good balance between detection accuracy and inference speed, capable of meeting the requirements of high-precision and high-efficiency LGP defect detection in LGP manufacturing factories.
Cooperative coevolutionary surrogate ensemble-assisted differential evolution with efficient dual differential grouping for large-scale expensive optimization problems
Authors: Zhong Rui , Zhang Enzhi , Munetomo Masaharu
Published: October 2023

This paper proposes a novel algorithm named surrogate ensemble assisted differential evolution with efficient dual differential grouping (SEADECC-EDDG) to deal with large-scale expensive optimization problems (LSEOPs) based on the CC framework. In the decomposition phase, our proposed EDDG inherits the framework of efficient recursive differential grouping (ERDG) and embeds the multiplicative interaction identification technique of Dual DG (DDG), which can detect the additive and multiplicative interactions simultaneously without extra fitness evaluation consumption. Inspired by RDG2 and RDG3, we design the adaptive determination threshold and further decompose relatively large-scale sub-components to alleviate the curse of dimensionality. In the optimization phase, the SEADE is adopted as the basic optimizer, where the global and the local surrogate model are constructed by generalized regression neural network (GRNN) with all historical samples and Gaussian process regression (GPR) with recent samples. Expected improvement (EI) infill sampling criterion cooperated with random search is employed to search elite solutions in the surrogate model. To evaluate the performance of our proposal, we implement comprehensive experiments on CEC2013 benchmark functions compared with state-of-the-art decomposition techniques. Experimental and statistical results show that our proposed EDDG is competitive with these advanced decomposition techniques, and the introduction of SEADE can accelerate the convergence of optimization significantly.
Influence of nanosized magnesia on the hydration of borehole-sealing cements prepared using different methods
Authors: Zou Quanle , Zhan Jinfei , Wang Xin , Huang Zhen
Published: October 2023

Gas drainage is an effective technology for gas control in coal mines. A high borehole-sealing quality is the fundamental precondition for efficient gas drainage. The expansibilities of cement pastes used in borehole-sealing processes are critical for the borehole-sealing effect. Nanosized magnesia expansive agents are used to improve the expansibilities of cement pastes and improve the borehole-sealing effect. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy were adopted to study the effects of nanosized magnesia on the hydration of borehole-sealing cements used with different preparation methods. The results showed that an increase in the mass fraction of the nanosized magnesia promoted cement hydration, and the mass fraction was positively correlated with the promotion effect. The use of different preparation methods did not change the water-phase distribution in the cement. When using the wet-mixing preparation method, nanosized magnesia promoted the induction, acceleration, and deceleration periods of hydration; when using the dry-mixing preparation method, the nanosized magnesia promoted the induction period of cement hydration, and the promotion effect was less obvious than that seen when using the wet-mixing method. When using the wet-mixing preparation method, the nanosized magnesia was uniformly dispersed, thus enlarging the surface area of the reaction, which provided more nucleation sites for the hydration products of the cement and therefore accelerated the hydration reaction. When using the dry-mixing preparation method, the nanosized magnesia powders were dispersed nonuniformly and aggregated. Under these conditions, only a few nanosized magnesia particles on the surfaces of the aggregated clusters took part in hydration, so only a small number of nucleation sites were provided for the hydration products of cement. This led to inconsistent hydration of cement pastes prepared using the dry-mixing method. The surface porosity of the cement prepared with the wet-mixing preparation method first decreased and then increased with increases in the mass fraction of the nanosized magnesia. The cement surface exhibited compact hydration products and few pores, and the surface was relatively smooth. In comparison, the surface porosity of the cement prepared using the dry-mixing method fluctuated with increasing mass fraction of the nanosized magnesia, resulting in a rough cement surface and microfractures on some surfaces. The two preparation methods both reduced the surface porosity of the cement. The wet-mixing preparation was more effective and consistent in improving the compactness of the cement than the dry-mixing preparation. These results provide important guidance on the addition of nanosized magnesia in borehole-sealing engineering and the selection of cement preparation methods, and they also lay a solid foundation for realizing safe and efficient gas drainage.
Spoil characterisation using UAV-based optical remote sensing in coal mine dumps
Authors: Thiruchittampalam Sureka , Singh Sarvesh Kumar , Banerjee Bikram Pratap , Glenn Nancy F. , Raval Simit
Published: October 2023

The structural integrity of mine dumps is crucial for mining operations to avoid adverse impacts on the triple bottom-line. Routine temporal assessments of coal mine dumps are a compliant requirement to ensure design reconciliation as spoil offloading continues over time. Generally, the conventional in-situ coal spoil characterisation is inefficient, laborious, hazardous, and prone to experts' observation biases. To this end, this study explores a novel approach to develop automated coal spoil characterisation using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based optical remote sensing. The textural and spectral properties of the high-resolution UAV images were utilised to derive lithology and geotechnical parameters (i.e., fabric structure and relative density/consistency) in the proposed workflow. The raw images were converted to an orthomosaic using structure from motion aided processing. Then, structural descriptors were computed per pixel to enhance feature modalities of the spoil materials. Finally, machine learning algorithms were employed with ground truth from experts as training and testing data to characterise spoil rapidly with minimal human intervention. The characterisation accuracies achieved from the proposed approach manifest a digital solution to address the limitations in the conventional characterisation approach.
Environmental Harshness and Unpredictability, Parenting, and Offspring Life History
Authors: Yang An Ting , Lu Hui Jing , Chang Lei
Published: October 2023

The species-general life history (LH) principle posits that extrinsic morbidity-mortality risks accelerate organisms’ pace of life and promotes fast LH-related traits (e.g., earlier sexual maturation and reproduction). Humans, however, have experienced uniformly decelerated LH due to their evolved abilities and efforts in controlling environmental contingencies. The present study proposes that the reason for the existence of such human-specific deceleration of LH may be rooted in human parenting, hence aims to explore the roles of parenting within the relationships between environmental adversities and children’ LH calibration. The present study used data from the NIMH Data Archive (NDA) reported by 2014 children and their caregivers, and examined the effects of parental investment in calibrating children’s LH behavioral manifestations, as well as in moderating the impacts of environmental harshness and unpredictability on children’ development of LH. The findings showed that parental investment negatively predicts the development of fast LH behavioral profiles in children and moderates the impacts of environmental adversities directly imposed on children. We conclude that human parental investment serves as an important pivot in down-regulating environmental effects on children’s LH calibration, providing an alternative insight into the species-specific deceleration of LH.
Atomic Cu Sites Engineering Enables Efficient CO2 Electroreduction to Methane with High CH4/C2H4 Ratio
Authors: Li Minhan , Zhang Fangzhou , Kuang Min , Ma Yuanyuan , Liao Ting , Sun Ziqi , Luo Wei , Jiang Wan , Yang Jianping
Published: October 2023

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 into high-value hydrocarbons and alcohols by using Cu-based catalysts is a promising and attractive technology for CO2 capture and utilization, resulting from their high catalytic activity and selectivity. The mobility and accessibility of active sites in Cu-based catalysts significantly hinder the development of efficient Cu-based catalysts for CO2 electrochemical reduction reaction (CO2RR). Herein, a facile and effective strategy is developed to engineer accessible and structural stable Cu sites by incorporating single atomic Cu into the nitrogen cavities of the host graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) as the active sites for CO2-to-CH4 conversion in CO2RR. By regulating the coordination and density of Cu sites in g-C3N4, an optimal catalyst corresponding to a one Cu atom in one nitrogen cavity reaches the highest CH4 Faraday efficiency of 49.04% and produces the products with a high CH4/C2H4 ratio over 9. This work provides the first experimental study on g-C3N4-supported single Cu atom catalyst for efficient CH4 production from CO2RR and suggests a principle in designing highly stable and selective high-efficiency Cu-based catalysts for CO2RR by engineering Cu active sites in 2D materials with porous crystal structures.
Integrity and the University
Authors: Cox Damian , Boaks Jacqueline , Levine Michael P.
Published: October 2023

This paper examines the idea of the integrity of academic practice. We offer an account of the integrity of professional practice in general before applying it to academic professional practice within the contemporary, western university. We then introduce the concept of integrity traps and explain how they can make it difficult for academics working within a contemporary university environment to maintain their integrity.
Measuring nature-based health interventions – a rapid review of instrumentation and outcomes
Authors: Reis Arianne , Gray Tonia , Mann Jeff , Mallinson Jessica , Katnoria Manisha , Seach William , Peel Nicole
Published: October 2023

Nature-based health interventions (NBHIs) are utilised to treat a range of physical and mental health conditions, and this rapid review sought to describe the breadth of instrumentation utilised to measure the effectiveness of NBHIs on the different domains of health and wellbeing. A total of 14,385 records were extracted from three databases, and a review of titles and abstracts and then of full text resulted in a final dataset of 167 articles that met the review criteria. NBHI settings were categorised as Garden/Horticulture, Blue Spaces, Urban Green Spaces, Wild Nature, and Camps/Residential. For each of these settings, major population groups included in the studies, health domains and outcomes addressed, as well as assessment tools used to measure NBHIs’ effectiveness were described and analysed in aggregate. A total of 336 measurement tools were utilised across the dataset, with only 29 being specifically designed to assess NBHIs. Most studies investigated mental health domains and measured the effectiveness of NBHIs to improve psychological factors and physical, behavioural, and healthy eating outcomes. Future research should interrogate how nature-based tools and outcome measurements could be used most effectively in NBHI settings.
A review on electrolytes for supercapacitor device
Authors: Mendhe Arpit , Panda H. S.
Published: October 2023

Electrodes and electrolytes have a significant impact on the performance of supercapacitors. Electrodes are responsible for various energy storage mechanisms in supercapacitors, while electrolytes are crucial for defining energy density, power density, cyclic stability, and efficiency of devices. Various electrolytes, from aqueous to ionic liquid, have been studied and implemented as potential electrolytes for supercapacitors. The ionic size, conductivity, mobility, diffusion coefficient, and viscosity of electrolytes affect the device’s capacitance. Electrode type and its interaction with electrolytes are other factors to consider when choosing an electrolyte for a supercapacitor. In this review, an attempt has been made to provide a comprehensive and straightforward overview of the numerous electrolytes widely used for supercapacitor study and how these electrolytes interact with the electrodes to improve the performance of the supercapacitors.
Prognostic analysis of prostaglandin D2 synthase in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
Authors: Wang Jiesong , Xu Yun , Yu Wei , Zheng Yanbin , He Hongming , Chen Daoguang , Zou Siping , Wang Chang , Chen Ying , Chen Ningbin , Wu Hui , Wang Jianchao , Lin Jianyang
Published: October 2023

Purpose

We aimed to analyse the correlation between prostaglandin D2 synthase (PTGDS) and a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) prognosis.

Methods

We retrospectively collected two hundred paraffin-embedded tissue specimens that were pathologically diagnosed as DLBCL in the Fujian Tumour Hospital between January 2014 and December 2018. An abundance of paraffin-embedded tumour tissues were obtained. Twenty patients with lymphocyte-rich, benign, tissue-reactive, hypertrophic tonsillitis were selected as controls. Wax blocks were selected for primary cases and the controls were screened by professional pathologists. The levels of prostaglandin D2 synthase (PTGDS) and the EMT-related molecules, E-cadherin and vimentin, were detected by immunohistochemistry in clinical samples. A chi-square test revealed the correlations between PTGDS expression and clinicopathological characteristics, including age, sex, primary site, clinical stage, immunotyping, and International Prognostic Index (IPI) score. The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was performed, and the diagnostic value was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.

Results

A total of 138 cases (69%) were found to be PTGDS positive (> 30% positive cells). PTGDS staining was negative (< 30% positive cells) in 62 cases (31%). We collected the corresponding clinicopathological information and found that PTGDS expression was not significantly related to the patients’ age, tumour stage, presence of extranodal invasion, or IPI score. According to the follow-up data, patients with low PTGDS expression had poor progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), with 2-year PFS and OS rates of 41.7% and 50%, respectively. The 2-year PFS and OS rates of PTGDS-positive patients were 89.3% and 92.9%, respectively (P < 0.0001), and the differences were significant.

Conclusion

We found that the expression level of PTGDS is significantly correlated with the prognosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Founding Narratives and Men's Political Ambition: Experimental Evidence from US Civics Lessons
Authors: Clayton Amanda , O'Brien Diana Z. , Piscopo Jennifer M.
Published: October 2023

One oft-cited reason for women's political underrepresentation is that women express less political ambition than men. We reframe the puzzle of women's ambition deficit, asking why men have an ambition surplus. Drawing on the concept of symbolic representation, we theorize that political symbols convey to men their capacity for exceptional political leadership. We test our expectations with a US-based survey experiment in which respondents watch one of three ‘two-minute civics lessons’. Men who watched a video featuring the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers reported significantly more political ambition than men assigned to the control group. Additional studies indicate that the effects are specific to the Founding Fathers (as compared to early American statesmen). Men are also more likely than women to identify the Founding Fathers as inspiring figures and to feel pride when considering them. Our findings suggest how history is told contributes to men's persistent political overrepresentation.
Reconstructing the Labour of Care in Early Modern England
Authors: Mansell Charmian
Published: October 2023

Uncertainty about what constitutes work in the past has led to the labour of care occupying a shadowy place in the histories of both medicine and the economy. This article takes a microhistorical approach to shed new light on care in early modern England. Using depositions and other surviving records of a testamentary dispute heard in the Hereford diocesan church court in 1674–5, the article reconstructs the care received by a single, labouring man named Richard Howell. Focusing on forms of care that lay outside institutions, it unpicks the varieties of informal labour that society understood as care work in early modern England, including maintenance (provision of economic support for the sick, including lodging, food, and drink); physical or practical care (watching or attending the sick); and the emotional labour of care. The article challenges the idea that care work was simply undertaken by the family or carried out within a system of social obligation. It demonstrates that all forms of care in this pre-industrial society implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) held economic value, which could be leveraged as grounds for economic recompense in the early modern courts.
Judicial Reform or Abusive Constitutionalism in Israel
Authors: Roznai Yaniv , Dixon Rosalind , Landau David E
Published: October 2023

How should the constitutional reform in Israel be assessed in comparative terms? Comparative constitutional understandings point to the centrality of three key sets of norms as part of the ‘democratic minimum core’: (i) commitments to free and fair, regular multi-party elections; (ii) political rights and freedoms; and (iii) a system of institutional checks and balances necessary to maintain (i) and (ii). Any change in judicial power and independence must be assessed against the benchmark of the democratic minimum core, and by reference to its cumulative practical effect on a system of institutional checks and balances.

We claim that recent changes in Israel may already threaten these institutional checks, and have the potential to do more damage in the future, if given broad effect and if combined with further changes in the power and independence of the Supreme Court. On this basis, we suggest, the relevant changes should be viewed as either ‘abusive’ or ‘proto-abusive’ in nature. By threatening to undermine both the power and independence of the Supreme Court of Israel, they directly threaten the health of the constitutional checks and balances system and, hence, the ‘democratic minimum core’ in Israel.