bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
From mitigation to adaptation: Problematizing climate change in the maritime transport industry
Authors: Stockbruegger Jan , Bueger Christian
Published: June 2024

The literature on climate change in the maritime transport industry has grown rapidly in the last few years. Yet as the research agenda has progressed, scientific debates have become more isolated and fragmented, making it difficult to translate new findings into broader policy debates. This article draws on problematization methodology to help organize the scientific debate on maritime emissions and to identify analytical gaps and challenges. We argue that scholars investigate shipping's emission problem from four distinct analytical perspectives— (1) international laws and regulations, (2) markets and economics, (3) engineering and technology, and (4) authority and legitimacy. Each of these perspectives problematizes maritime emissions in specific ways, leading to different policies and strategies to address the problem. We call for better integrating these four literatures and highlight three crosscutting areas and problems for future research. First, developing institutions that facilitate market and engineering solutions; second, integrating climate mitigation and adaptation research; and third, focusing on justice concerns to ensure an equitable green transition in the maritime industry.

This article is categorized under:

Climate, History, Society, Culture > Thought Leaders

Policy and Governance > International Policy Framework

Policy and Governance > Private Governance of Climate Change
Entropy generation and heat transfer characteristics in MHD Casson fluid flow over a wedge with viscous dissipation and thermal radiation
Authors: Abrar Muhammad Nasir , Kosar Shahzana
Published: June 2024

This investigation outlines the significance of MHD Falkner–Skan flow of non‐Newtonian fluid flow over a wedge. To study the non‐Newtonian flow, Casson fluid is taken. Additionally, this study explores heat and mass transport under the influence of viscous dissipation, Joule heating, and thermal radiation. This heat and mass transport investigation is carried out under the influence of thermal and concentration slip factors. Moreover, the entropy generation is also computed using the second law of thermodynamics. A set of nonlinear partial differential equations arises from the mathematical formulation of the problem. Similarity variables are then introduced to achieve a similarity solution. The leading differential equations are solved numerically using the Runge–Kutta‐4 method in conjunction with shooting techniques. Graphical representations are employed to demonstrate the physical significance of relevant parameters. The investigation presents and discusses the impact of various parameters on velocity, temperature, concentration and entropy profiles for three different positions of the wedge: stationary, forward‐moving, and backward‐moving. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: (1) Enhancing the magnetic parameter and wedge angle parameter leads to higher fluid velocity, (2) elevating both the Eckert and magnetic number results in a rapid escalation of fluid energy, (3) Skin friction coefficient increases gradually with an increase in the power law Falkner–Skan parameter.
A novel protocol for three‐dimensional mapping of sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) enclosure use in aquaria: Implications for management
Authors: Metrione Lara C. , Pham Nancy Kim , Price Carol , Duskin Libbie , Stamper Andy M. , Penfold Linda M.
Published: June 2024

This study investigated sand tiger shark (STS; Carcharias taurus) spatial use and exclusion in public aquarium enclosures using a novel protocol for three‐dimensional mapping. Fifty‐one STS were observed in 14 enclosures, and swimming pattern, depth, and location were recorded in ZooMonitor. Data were converted into quantitative, three‐dimensional representations using ArcGIS® Pro v. 2.9. All observed STS except one swam in circular patterns, and 80% (n = 41) showed a directional swimming bias. Most STS (80%; n = 41) predominantly utilized the top two‐thirds of the enclosures, though 83% (n = 34) of those had swimming obstructions in the bottom of the enclosure. Avoidance of obstructed areas, sections <7 m wide, as well as behavioral spatial separation, resulted in utilization of between 27% and 66% of available enclosure space. STS underutilized corners, pinch‐points, and obstructed areas requiring abrupt directional changes and instead exhibited continual, unimpeded swimming patterns. In addition, this study found no relationship between directional swimming bias or use of smaller enclosure volumes and spinal deformity, a health issue affecting 26% of STS 10 years ago but now with an incidence of 6%. Using novel protocols for three‐dimensional mapping and volume estimation, this study demonstrated that enclosures facilitating unimpeded, continuous swimming are most usable for STS and provides important information that will be useful for future enclosure design.
Sustainability Through Efficiency
Authors: Werner Gijsbert D. A. , van Riel Arthur , Gijsberts Mérove I. L. , de Visser Marianne
Published: June 2024

An activity is considered efficient when relatively little input is needed to achieve its intended results. In health and social care, this means using the minimum possible human, material and financial resources to bring about a certain health benefit or a certain improvement to quality of life. Economists also refer to this approach specifically as productive efficiency: how do we “produce” better health at the lowest cost, in the broad sense of the word? Or in other words, how do we avoid “wastage” in the delivery of care? This contrasts with allocative efficiency, which is about whether people and other resources are deployed in the right place in the light of our society’s wishes and goals. That is the core theme of the third part of this report (Chaps. 7, 8, and 9), where we look at choices and prioritization in the Dutch health and social care system. Our focus in this chapter is productive efficiency, and in particular the potential for its improvement in terms of resource allocation or cost-effectiveness. In the next chapter we turn our attention to the human dimension of efficiency and home in on the issue of staffing sustainability.
Towards Better Choices in Care
Authors: Werner Gijsbert D. A. , van Riel Arthur , Gijsberts Mérove I. L. , de Visser Marianne
Published: June 2024

In the previous chapter we noted that the way choices are made in health and social care in the Netherlands, and thus the results of those choices, is not always ideal. Greater health gains could probably be achieved by deploying people and resources more effectively than is currently the case. The quality and accessibility of care could also be better assured, especially for vulnerable groups. Where limits are imposed upon the growth of care, this is not always done in the most prudent way. We also discussed five impediments to good choices and distribution in care.
Choosing Sustainability: Conclusions and Recommendations
Authors: Werner Gijsbert D. A. , van Riel Arthur , Gijsberts Mérove I. L. , de Visser Marianne
Published: June 2024

When the Dutch are asked what they consider important in life, one of the first answers is invariably “good health”. Sooner or later, however, we all face health problems. When that time comes, we trust that care will be available and that it will be good, close at hand and affordable. Only recently, the Covid-19 pandemic has reiterated how much we rely upon that provision. The WRR therefore regards quality and accessibility as the most important public values associated with care. So they need to be safeguarded, now and in the future. At the same time, despite the ever-increasing need for care and hence for people and resources to deliver it, it is important to avoid compromising other public policy domains. To achieve that, our health and social care system needs to remain sustainable regardless of what demographic, social, technological and economic developments lie ahead.
Application of Building Cube Method to Reproduce High-Resolution Hydrodynamics of a Dredged Borrow Pit in Osaka Bay, Japan
Authors: Hafeez Muhammad Ali , Inoue Tetsunori , Matsumoto Hiroki , Sato Tomoyuki , Matsuzaki Yoshitaka
Published: June 2024

Osaka Bay is a semi-enclosed water body suffering from water quality deterioration caused by numerous borrow pits being excavated during the era of the industrial revolution. To mitigate such conditions, backfilling is under consideration, and performance assessment of backfilling requires accurate numerical simulations of hydrodynamics. However, it is challenging to reproduce the hydrodynamics in a borrow pit due to its smaller size, and a coarse-resolution simulation is not enough to accurately capture bathymetry as well as the flow characteristics on a spatial scale. In this study, a non-hydrostatic 3-D hydrodynamic model is successfully used to accurately reproduce the hydrodynamics on both coarse and high-resolution mesh configurations. The advantage of this modeling framework is the inclusion of the building cube method that can locally modify the uniform structural grid to a part of the full simulation domain. This capability made this model quite handy and less time-consuming when it comes to high-resolution simulations focusing on small-scale barrow pits.
Geographical Distribution and Recent Change in the Meteorological Event Causing the Annual Maximum Wave Height and Storm Surge Around Japan
Authors: Watanabe Kunihiro , Kato Fuminori , Araki Kazuhiro , Sakamoto Daiki , Yoshimura Hideto
Published: June 2024

The meteorological events that induced the annual maximum wave heights and storm surges were collected from 35 wave observatories and 50 tide observatories in Japan. The geographical distributions of the meteorological events most responsible for the maximum wave height and storm surge were similar everywhere except the southern part of Hokkaido. The proportions of typhoon- and explosive cyclogenesis-induced maximum wave heights and storm surges increased at many observatories when comparing data collected before 1994 and after 1995. The potential contributions of climate change to these increases were subsequently investigated and discussed based on the results of a detailed analysis conducted in 10-year periods.
Evaluation of WRF Cloud Microphysics Schemes in Explicit Simulations of Tropical Cyclone ‘Fani’ Using Wind Profiler Radar and Multi-Satellite Data Products
Authors: Mohan P. Reshmi , Srinivas C. Venkata , Yesubabu V. , Rao T. Narayana , Venkatraman B.
Published: June 2024

Extremely severe cyclonic storm (ESCS) ‘Fani’ formed in the North Indian Ocean and crossed at Puri in Orissa State on the east coast of India on 03 May 2019. In this study, we examine the sensitivity of convection permitting WRF simulations (3 km) of ‘Fani’ to cloud microphysics (CMP) schemes using radar and multi-satellite data products. Five CMP schemes, namely Thompson, Goddard, WSM6, Morrison and Lin are tested in WRF. Results show that the changes in the CMP schemes primarily affect the simulated intensity and have lesser impact on the track predictions. Simulations with Thompson followed by Goddard produced the best predictions for both track and intensity estimates. Our analysis reveals significant variations in vertical motions associated with Fani across different CMP schemes; the WSM6, Goddard and Lin schemes produced relatively stronger vertical motions. The explicit WRF simulations could reproduce the wind profiler radar observed intense convective motions during the transit of Fani between 1 and 2 May 2019 at Gadanki station. Experiments with Thompson and Goddard schemes simulated the mean vertical velocities in lower, middle and upper layers in better agreement with radar data. The Lin, WSM6 and Goddard CMP predicted stronger updraft velocities (~ 0.35 m/s); Thompson produced moderate updraft velocities (~ 0.25 m/s) in the upper troposphere over a relatively wider area of high theta-e (385–390 K) indicating the simulation of a convectively stronger and warmer core compared to Morrison. Our analysis suggests that the differences in vertical motions in various CMP simulations are mainly due to the variations in the warming in simulations. It has been found that WSM6, Lin and Goddard produced a deeper core (up to 200 hPa) with a stronger diabatic heating of ~ 6° C followed by Thompson, which simulated a moderately deep core extending to ~ 250 hPa with moderate heating of ~ 5 °C whereas Morrison produced a relatively weak core with a heating of ~ 4 °C limited to 300 hPa. The stronger simulated diabatic heating in Lin, WSM6 and Goddard produces stronger inflow, moisture convergence in the lower levels and stronger outflow and divergence in the upper levels leading to stronger convection in the core region in these cases. The Lin, WSM6 and Goddard mixed phase schemes with more solid hydrometeors simulated stronger radar reflectivities, and stronger eyewalls, due to more latent heat release leading to the development of a strong warm core in the upper troposphere and thus a stronger TC.
Coercive second-kind boundary integral equations for the Laplace Dirichlet problem on Lipschitz domains
Authors: Chandler-Wilde S. N. , Spence E. A.
Published: June 2024

We present new second-kind integral-equation formulations of the interior and exterior Dirichlet problems for Laplace’s equation. The operators in these formulations are both continuous and coercive on general Lipschitz domains in $$\mathbb {R}^d$$

R

d

, $$d\ge 2$$

d
≥
2

, in the space $$L^2(\Gamma )$$

L
2

(
Γ
)

, where $$\Gamma $$
Γ
denotes the boundary of the domain. These properties of continuity and coercivity immediately imply that (1) the Galerkin method converges when applied to these formulations; and (2) the Galerkin matrices are well-conditioned as the discretisation is refined, without the need for operator preconditioning (and we prove a corresponding result about the convergence of GMRES). The main significance of these results is that it was recently proved (see Chandler-Wilde and Spence in Numer Math 150(2):299–371, 2022) that there exist 2- and 3-d Lipschitz domains and 3-d star-shaped Lipschitz polyhedra for which the operators in the standard second-kind integral-equation formulations for Laplace’s equation (involving the double-layer potential and its adjoint) cannot be written as the sum of a coercive operator and a compact operator in the space $$L^2(\Gamma )$$

L
2

(
Γ
)

. Therefore there exist 2- and 3-d Lipschitz domains and 3-d star-shaped Lipschitz polyhedra for which Galerkin methods in $${L^2(\Gamma )}$$

L
2

(
Γ
)

do not converge when applied to the standard second-kind formulations, but do converge for the new formulations.
Transformation to a geminal basis and stationary conditions for the exact wave function therein
Authors: Sørensen Lasse Kragh
Published: June 2024

We show the transformation from a one-particle basis to a geminal basis, transformations between different geminal bases demonstrate the Lie algebra of a geminal basis. From the basis transformations, we express both the wave function and Hamiltonian in the geminal basis. The necessary and sufficient conditions of the exact wave function expanded in a geminal basis are shown to be a Brillouin theorem of geminals. The variational optimization of the geminals in the antisymmetrized geminal power (AGP), antisymmetrized product of geminals (APG) and the full geminal product (FGP) wave function ansätze are discussed. We show that using a geminal replacement operator to describe geminal rotations introduce both primary and secondary rotations. The secondary rotations rotate two geminals in the reference at the same time due to the composite boson nature of geminals. Due to the completeness of the FGP, where all possible geminal combinations are present, the FGP is exact. The number of parameters in the FGP scale exponentially with the number of particles, like the full configuration interaction (FCI). Truncation in the FGP expansion can give compact representations of the wave function since the reference function in the FGP can be either the AGP or APG wave function.
Different anatomic patterns of the indirect tendon of the rectus femoris
Authors: Mechó S. , Iriarte I. , Lisbona R. , Pérez-Andrés R. , Pruna R. , Rodríguez-Baeza A.
Published: June 2024

Purpose

The rectus femoris forms the anterior portion of the quadriceps muscle. It has a proximal tendinous complex, which is constituted by a direct tendon, an indirect tendon, and a variable third tendon. Direct and indirect tendons converge into a common tendon. The purposes of this study are to add anatomical knowledge about the proximal tendinous complex and describe anatomical variants of the indirect tendon and, on these basis, categorize different anatomical patterns.

Method

In this study, 48 hemipelvis from bodies donated to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have been dissected to examine the proximal tendinous complex of the rectus femoris.

Results

The following anatomical variants of the indirect tendon were described: inferior aponeurotic expansion in 23/48 cases (47.9%); superior aponeurotic expansion in 21/48 cases (43.7%); and an unusual origin of the myotendinous junction of the rectus femoris in the free portion of the indirect tendon in 19/48 cases (39.6%). On the basis of the aponeurotic expansions, the following anatomical patterns of the indirect tendon were defined: standard (19/48 cases, 39.6%), superior and inferior complex (15/48 cases, 31.2%), inferior complex (8/48 cases, 16.7%), and superior complex (6/48 cases, 12.5%).

Conclusion

We can categorize four different anatomical patterns of the indirect tendon, three of which are complex. We suggest that complex patterns can cause an increased stiffness of the indirect tendon and so be considered non-modifiable risk factors for rectus femoris injuries. Finally, it would be useful to identify complex patterns and perform injury prevention actions through specific physical preparation programs.
Prioritizing family-centered developmental care: insights from parents of children with critical congenital heart disease: a qualitative study
Authors: Sprong Maaike C. A. , Zwagerman Iza R. , Soeters Lotte , Slieker Martijn G. , Takken Tim , van den Hoogen Agnes , van Brussel Marco
Published: June 2024

As survivors of early cardiac surgery are at high risk of neurodevelopmental impairments, systematic health observations of children with critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) throughout childhood are recommended to enable early diagnosis and offer interventions to optimize neurodevelopment. A qualitative study using thematic analysis was performed to explore parents’ concerns, experiences, and needs regarding the development and received developmental care of their child (0–10 years) during hospital admission and beyond. Data were collected using semi-structured online interviews with 20 parents of children with CCHD. Four major themes were identified: (1) “impact of diagnosis and disease on the family-system,” (2) “parental concerns from diagnoses and beyond,” (3) “the need for information,” and (4) “the need for individualized and family-centered care.” The main themes can be divided into 13 sub-themes as impact, concerns, and needs are influenced by various impactful moments from diagnosis and afterwards.

     Conclusion: This study confirms the importance of early identification of neurodevelopmental problems by experienced healthcare professionals, especially in the early years when parental expectations and concerns about their child’s neurodevelopment are lower. A tailor-made family-centered follow-up program should be offered, which pays attention to both the neurodevelopment of patients with CCHD as well as the mental wellbeing of the entire family system. Furthermore, an online portal is recommended with a variety of reliable, controlled, understandable information from which parents can obtain the desired information to understand better the consequences of specific heart condition and to provide their child with the best possible guidance.

What is Known:• Survivors of early cardiac surgery are at high risk of neurodevelopmental impairments; systematic health observations of children with CCHD throughout childhood are strongly recommended.

What is New:• Parents need a tailor-made family-centered follow-up program, which pays attention to both the neurodevelopment of patients with CCHD as well as the mental wellbeing of the entire family system.• An online portal offering diverse, trustworthy information and sources would effectively meet parents’ needs by providing accessible insights into the potential consequences of specific heart conditions and guiding them in supporting their child optimally.
Self-training for handwritten word recognition and retrieval
Authors: Wolf Fabian , Fink Gernot A.
Published: June 2024

Handwritten text recognition and Word Retrieval, also known as Word Spotting, are traditional problems in the document analysis community. While the use of increasingly large neural network architectures has led to a steady improvement of performances it comes with the drawback of requiring manually annotated training data. This poses a tremendous problem considering their application to new document collections. To overcome this drawback, we propose a self-training approach that allows to train state-of-the-art models for HTR and word spotting. Self-training is a common technique in semi-supervised learning and usually relies on a small labeled dataset and training on pseudo-labels generated by an initial model. In this work, we show that it is feasible to train models on synthetic data that are sufficiently performant to serve as initial models for self-training. Therefore, the proposed training method does not rely on any manually annotated samples. We further investigate visual and language properties of the synthetic datasets. In order to improve performance and robustness of the self-training approach, we propose different confidence measures for both models that allow to identify and remove erroneous pseudo-labels. The presented training approach clearly outperforms other learning-free methods or adaptation strategies under the absence of manually annotated data.
Koszul Complexes and Relative Homological Algebra of Functors Over Posets
Authors: Chachólski Wojciech , Guidolin Andrea , Ren Isaac , Scolamiero Martina , Tombari Francesca
Published: June 2024

Under certain conditions, Koszul complexes can be used to calculate relative Betti diagrams of vector space-valued functors indexed by a poset, without the explicit computation of global minimal relative resolutions. In relative homological algebra of such functors, free functors are replaced by an arbitrary family of functors. Relative Betti diagrams encode the multiplicities of these functors in minimal relative resolutions. In this article we provide conditions under which grading the chosen family of functors leads to explicit Koszul complexes whose homology dimensions are the relative Betti diagrams, thus giving a scheme for the computation of these numerical descriptors.
Diagnostic yield of next-generation sequencing in suspect primary immunodeficiencies diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Chen Yingying , Li Dongrui , Yin Jiawen , Xiong Jinglin , Xu Min , Qi Qing , Yang Wenlin
Published: June 2024

To determine the diagnostic yield of Next-generation sequencing (NGS) in suspect Primary Immunodeficiencies Diseases (PIDs). This systematic review was conducted following PRISMA criteria. Searching Pubmed and Web of Science databases, the following keywords were used in the search: (“Next-generation sequencing”) OR “whole exome sequencing” OR “whole genome sequencing”) AND (“primary immunodeficiency disease” OR “PIDs”). We used STARD items to assess the risk of bias in the included studies. The meta-analysis included 29 studies with 5847 patients, revealing a pooled positive detection rate of 42% (95% CI 0.29–0.54, P < 0.001) for NGS in suspected PID cases. Subgroup analyses based on family history demonstrated a higher detection rate of 58% (95% CI 0.43–0.71) in patients with a family history compared to 33% (95% CI 0.21–0.46) in those without (P < 0.001). Stratification by disease types showed varied detection rates, with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency leading at 58% (P < 0.001). Among 253 PID-related genes, RAG1, ATM, BTK, and others constituted major contributors, with 34 genes not included in the 2022 IUIS gene list. The application of NGS in suspected PID patients can provide significant diagnostic results, especially in patients with a family history. Meanwhile, NGS performs excellently in accurately diagnosing disease types, and early identification of disease types can benefit patients in treatment.
Evaluation of the impact of a 20-week exercise referral scheme on Mauritian adults diagnosed with non-communicable diseases
Authors: Bholah Adisha , Somanah Jhoti , Putteeraj Manish , Garnett Daniel , Lutchumun Ritish , van Rensburg Christa Janse , Copeland Richard , Strike Siobhan
Published: June 2024

The escalating prevalence of non-communicable diseases (NCD) presents a concern in Mauritius. These diseases, caused by many factors, reflect the social, economic and environmental conditions within which people live and work. Type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and obesity are the most prevalent among Mauritian adults. Within the framework of a comprehensive systems approach aiming at addressing the social determinants of health, there is a need for customised strategies for both management and prevention of non-communicable diseases. One such example is exercise referral. Exercise referral schemes (ERS) represent an emerging tool for helping people become more physically active and healthier. Evidence of their effectiveness is equivocal and lacks contextual insight into their value in a Mauritian context. Hence, this study serves to bridge this gap. We report the outcomes of a 20-week ERS. Two hundred sixty consenting adults recruited from Area Health Centres (AHC) and Mediclinic’s around Mauritius were assigned to one of two groups: intervention group (ERS + guidance and support by exercise referral consultant) or control group (exercise ‘advice’ from a general practitioner). Body mass index (BMI), grip strength, waist circumference, fasting blood sugar (FBS), HbA1c, lipid profile and blood pressure were measured at week 0, 10 and 20. This quasi-experimental longitudinal study successfully demonstrated improvements in parameters associated with risk factors for coronary heart disease, particularly among women in the intervention group. Significant reductions in weight, waist circumference, FBS and BMI at week 10 and 20 were noted. A less pronounced decline in parameters was observed in men, except for waist circumference, which reached near significance (p = 0.076). Using female participants as a primary focal point, this study supports the notion of exercise referral as part of a holistic treatment plan to control NCDs. We advocate future ERS initiatives prioritise a patient-centred comprehensive approach in design and implementation to ensure successful outcomes.
Comparing the economic performance of poplar-based alley cropping systems with arable farming in Brandenburg under varying site conditions and policy scenarios
Authors: Thiesmeier Alma
Published: June 2024

Agroforestry can address multiple environmental challenges across the agricultural sector, for example biodiversity loss and soil degradation. However, agroforestry uptake remains low in Germany. Since economic considerations are important for farmer uptake, this paper compares the economic performance of conventional arable farming with silvoarable alley cropping in Brandenburg. Using a modelling approach, the net present value (NPV) is calculated to assess the competitiveness of alley cropping with poplar compared to arable farming under different scenarios. These scenarios cover a range of crops, rotation schedules, alley widths, woodchip prices, and yield levels. Additionally, policy measures that can compensate for potential economic losses associated with transitioning to agroforestry are considered. Results show that short rotation alley cropping had higher NPVs than medium rotation alley cropping, mainly due to cash-flow characteristics. Short rotation alley cropping can be competitive at high woodchip prices without policy support, while at low or average prices alley cropping needs subsidies to be competitive. Medium rotation systems at all price levels were not competitive unless policy support was provided. Current policy payments were unable to make silvoarable alley cropping competitive except at high woodchip prices. When subsidies increase, alley cropping can be competitive even at low or average woodchip prices and over a range of site conditions. Besides policy support, economic performance was strongly influenced by woodchip prices, relative yield potential of poplar and arable crops, and site conditions.
Turn on your self-compassion and turn on the webcam. Self-compassion, self-esteem, body esteem, gender, and discomfort related to using the camera affect students’ activity during synchronous online classes
Authors: Kocur Dagna Joanna , Jach Łukasz
Published: June 2024

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many students refused to turn on their webcams during synchronous online classes. Students may intentionally remain invisible to teachers and colleagues for reasons related to their motivation and emotions. However, less is known about the relationships between students’ activity and frequency of turning on the webcam during synchronous online classes and their self-compassion. In our study (N = 450, Polish students aged 18 to 28), we examined the relationship between students’ self-compassion, self-esteem, body esteem, and discomfort when using webcams with their activity and frequency of turning on the webcam during synchronous online classes. We found that men scored higher than women on self-compassion, self-esteem, and body esteem, but lower on discomfort when using the webcam. In both genders, higher self-compassion was associated with higher self-esteem, higher body esteem, higher activity during synchronous online classes, and less discomfort when using the webcam. Moreover, in women, higher self-compassion was linked with more frequent turning on the webcam. We also observed that discomfort when using the webcam and self-esteem mediated relationships between self-compassion and activity and turning on the webcam during synchronous online classes. Our results indicate the importance of improving self-compassion in students during online education.
Association of infertility and recurrent pregnancy loss with the risk of dementia
Authors: Liang Chen , Dobson Annette J. , Chung Hsin-Fang , van der Schouw Yvonne T. , Sandin Sven , Weiderpass Elisabete , Mishra Gita D.
Published: June 2024

Emerging evidence has shown the association between female reproductive histories (e.g., menarche age, parity, premature and early menopause) and the risk of dementia. However, little attention has been given to infertility and pregnancy loss. To examine the associations of infertility, recurrent miscarriages, and stillbirth with the risk of dementia, this study used data from four cohorts in the International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events. Women with data on at least one of the reproductive exposures of interest, dementia, and all covariates were included. Histories of infertility, miscarriage, and stillbirth were self-reported. Dementia (including Alzheimer’s disease) was identified through surveys, aged care, pharmaceutical, hospital, and death registry data. Cause-specific Cox regression models were used to estimate the hazard ratios of dementia, accounting for well-established risk factors of dementia, study variability, and within-study correlation. Overall, 291,055 women were included at a median (interquartile range) age of 55.0 (47.0–62.0) at baseline. During the median (interquartile range) follow-up period of 13.0 (12.0–14.0) years, 3334 (1.2%) women developed dementia. Compared to women without stillbirth, a history of recurrent stillbirths (≥ 2) was associated with 64% higher risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.64, 95% confidence interval: 1.46–1.85). Compared to women without miscarriage, women with recurrent miscarriages (≥ 3) were at 22% higher risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.22, 95% confidence interval: 1.19–1.25). These findings suggest that recurrent stillbirths is a risk factor for dementia and may need to be considered in risk assessment of dementia in women.
Influence of soil organic matter, fertiliser formulation and season on fertiliser nitrogen use efficiency in temperate pastures
Authors: Belyaeva Oxana , Ward Graeme , Wijesinghe Thushari , Chen Deli , Suter Helen
Published: June 2024

Intensively grazed dairy systems use high inputs of fertiliser nitrogen (N), and often supplementary irrigation, to ensure adequate pasture production to support milk output and meet the growing food demand. However, the efficiency of N use in these systems can be low and potential environmental impacts high. This study aimed to test the hypothesis that (1) use of two inhibitors, the urease inhibitor N-(n-butyl) thiophosphorictriamide (NBTPT) and the nitrification inhibitor 3,4-Dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) reduced N loss and improved pasture production compared to conventional N fertiliser (urea) in irrigated temperate perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) dairy pasture, and (2) their efficiency was affected by soil and environmental parameters. The effect of repeated applications of urea, at different rates, and the inhibitors were studied on pasture production and agronomic apparent fertiliser N use efficiency (NUE) over 2.5 years. The fate of a single application of N was determined through recovery of 15N-labeled fertiliser applied at 20 and 40 kg N ha−1 was studied in the field for one year. The highest yield and NUE occurred in spring–summer (from August to February) reflecting optimal growing conditions. The highest NUE occurred at low rates of urea application (20 and 40 kg N ha−1). Mineralisation played a key role in supplying N to pasture with 64–82% of total plant N derived from soil organic matter (SOM). Less than 50% of the applied N was recovered in the pasture (37–43%) with a large component retained in the soil (26–43% after one year, 0–40 cm), and slowly released in small amounts (< 2%) to the pasture over time, highlighting the abundant capacity of the native soil N pool to supply pasture N. Loss of N fertiliser (14–31%) was attributed to primarily ammonia (NH3) volatilisation and nitrate (NO3−) leaching. Use of the inhibitors NBTPT and DMPP did not significantly affect pasture yield or NUE, most likely because fertiliser N saved with the inhibitors only played a minor role in plant nutrition with the majority of the plant nutrition provided by the soil organic matter pool.
Donor-induced electrically charged defect levels: examining the role of indium and n-type defect-complexes in germanium
Authors: Igumbor Emmanuel
Published: June 2024

Defect levels induced by defect-complexes in Ge play important roles in device fabrication, characterization, and processing. However, only a few defect levels induced by defect-complexes have been studied, hence limiting the knowledge of how to control the activities of numerous unknown defect-complexes in Ge. In this study, hybrid density functional theory calculations of defect-complexes involving oversize atom (indium) and n-type impurity atoms in Ge were performed. The formation energies, defect-complex stability, and electrical characteristics of induced defect levels in Ge were predicted. Under equilibrium conditions, the formation energy of the defect-complexes was predicted to be within the range of 5.90–11.38 eV. The defect-complexes formed by P and In atoms are the most stable defects with binding energy in the range of 3.31-3.33 eV. Defect levels acting as donors were induced in the band gap of the host Ge. Additionally, while shallow defect levels close to the conduction band were strongly induced by the interactions of Sb, P, and As interstitials with dopant (In), the double donors resulting from the interactions between P, As, N, and the host atoms including In atom are deep, leading to recombination centers. The results of this study could be applicable in device characterization, where the interaction of In atom and n-type impurities in Ge is essential. This report is important as it provides a theoretical understanding of the formation and control of donor-related defect-complexes in Ge.
An examination of pre-service mathematics teachers’ course-taking, beliefs, and preferred assessment practices
Authors: Wellberg Sarah
Published: June 2024

This study uses structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships between pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) course-taking history, beliefs about mathematics, beliefs about students’ mathematical ability, and opinions about (1) how student errors should be addressed when they occur and (2) how much emphasis should be given to various forms of assessment. The results indicate that some types of courses are strongly associated with beliefs about the nature of mathematics. Specifically, PSTs who have taken more mathematics courses are more likely to see mathematics as a set of rules. PSTs’ views about mathematics strongly predict their beliefs about who can do high-level mathematics, how they think student errors should be addressed, and which forms of assessment they think are most appropriate. Implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed.
Analysis of historical and future cooling degree days over Türkiye for facade design and energy efficiency in buildings
Authors: Bilgili Ayşegül , Çelik Kasım , Bilgili Mehmet
Published: June 2024

In today’s examination of optimal facade design for buildings, facade performance has a significant influence on cooling energy consumption. Cooling degree days (CDD) is regarded as a basic and straightforward approach for predicting building cooling energy consumption. Accurate seasonal trend forecasting of the CDD plays a vital role in estimating the energy demand for building cooling. Unfortunately, there are no published statistics or research on Turkey’s CDD data for the following years. The monthly mean CDD data of Türkiye were created in this study utilizing data from the Turkish State Meteorological Service for the historical period from 1991 to 2022. The Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) approach was used to model the CDD data, and a time series forecast was performed. The SARIMA model was used to forecast the future trend of CDD from 2023 to 2040. The monthly and yearly CDD statistics were presented as figures, while the yearly CDD maps for Türkiye were created using the ArcGIS software program. Finally, CDD zones that require more attention to the most appropriate facade design in terms of energy efficiency for buildings in Türkiye were identified and classified.
StereoThermoLegs: label propagation with multimodal stereo cameras for automated annotation of posterior legs during running at different velocities
Authors: Andrés López Daniel , Hillen Barlo , Nägele Markus , Simon Perikles , Schömer Elmar
Published: June 2024

In sports science, thermal imaging is applied to investigate various questions related to exercise-induced stress response, muscle fatigue, anomalies, and diseases. Infrared thermography monitors thermal radiation from the skin’s surface over time. For further analysis, regions of interest are extracted and statistically analyzed. Although computer vision algorithms have grown in recent years due to data-driven approaches, this is not the case for detailed segmentation in thermal images. In a supervised manner, machine learning optimizations require a large amount of training data with input and ground truth output data. Unfortunately, obtaining annotated data are a costly problem that increases with the complexity of the task. For semantic segmentation, pixel-wise label masks must be created by experts. Few datasets meet the needs of sports scientists and physicians to perform advanced applications of thermal computer vision during physical activity and generate new insights in their fields. In this paper, a new method is introduced to transfer segmentation masks from the vision domain to the thermal domain with a stereo-calibrated time-of-flight camera and high-resolution mid-wave infrared camera. A post-processing procedure is then utilized to obtain dense pixel masks for the posterior legs during walking and running on a treadmill. The developed StereoThermoLegs dataset is based on 14 participants and includes 11 subjects for training with 12,826 thermograms and the remaining three individuals for testing with 3433 images. A deep neural network was trained with the DeepLabv3+ architecture, the AdaBelief optimizer, and Dice loss as a benchmark. After 29 epochs, the test set achieved an average intersection over union of 0.66. The analysis of the posterior leg region, specifically the left and right calf, offered the most insights, with values of 0.83 and 0.83, respectively. The first multimodal stereo dataset containing synchronized visual and thermal images of a runner’s back provides a starting point for data-driven segmentation tasks in sports science and medicine. Our technique allows for automatic production of customized datasets for deep learning, accelerating the implementation of baseline outcomes for newly identified areas of interest in thermal imaging, while bypassing the requirement for extensive manual annotation. The approach is not exclusive to stereo rig and segmentation tasks utilizing RGBD and thermal cameras, but can be applied to other imaging tasks and modalities.
The Soulsification of video games
Authors: Guzsvinecz Tibor
Published: June 2024

The Soulsification process emerged during video game development and it influenced both player experience and industry practices. This phenomenon began to manifest following the commercial success of early Souls games such as Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, which are renowned for their punishing gameplay difficulty, complex level design, and methodical combat mechanics. This process reshapes the design of video games by making them similar to those mentioned above, and it is increasingly adopted by developers. Consequently, they become so-called Soulslike games which are influenced by FromSoftware’s Souls series. To understand this phenomenon, the number of Soulslike video game releases is analyzed. Furthermore, to understand player opinions about these games, a questionnaire was created and completed by 100 participants. The results indicate that the Soulsification process commenced in 2014, persists, and will likely continue into the future. Similarly, players generally embrace this genre and report an overall positive experience with it. These findings can inform the development of future Soulslike games.
Speed limits in traffic emission models using multi-objective optimization
Authors: Göttlich Simone , Herty Michael , Ulke Alena
Published: June 2024

Climate change compels a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, yet vehicular traffic still contributes significantly to the emission of air pollutants. Hence, in this paper we focus on the optimization of traffic flow while simultaneously minimizing air pollution using speed limits as controllable parameters. We introduce a framework of traffic emission models to simulate the traffic dynamic as well as the production and spread of air pollutants. We formulate a multi-objective optimization problem for the optimization of multiple aspects of vehicular traffic. The results show that multi-objective optimization can be a valuable tool in traffic emission modeling as it allows to find optimal compromises between ecological and economic objectives.
M-truncated fractional form of the perturbed Chen–Lee–Liu equation: optical solitons, bifurcation, sensitivity analysis, and chaotic behaviors
Authors: Kopçasız Bahadır , Yaşar Emrullah
Published: June 2024

This investigation discusses the modified M-truncated form of the perturbed Chen–Lee–Liu (pCLL) dynamical equation. The pCLL equation is a generalization of the original CLL equation, which describes the propagation of optical solitons in optical fibers. The pCLL equation includes additional terms that account for various influences such as chromatic dispersion, nonlinear dispersion, inter-modal dispersion, and self-steepening. A new version of the generalized exponential rational function method is utilized to obtain multifarious types of soliton solutions. Moreover, the planar dynamical system of the concerned equation is created using a Hamiltonian transformation, all probable phase portraits are given, and sensitive inspection is applied to check the sensitivity of the considered equation. Furthermore, after adding a perturbed term, chaotic and quasi-periodic behaviors have been observed for different values of parameters, and multistability is reported at the end. Numerical simulations of the solutions are added to the analytical results to better understand the dynamic behavior of these solutions. The study’s findings could be extremely useful in solving additional nonlinear partial differential equations.
Effects of Demonstrating Consensus Between Robots to Change User’s Opinion
Authors: Sakai Kazuki , Mitsuda Koh , Yoshikawa Yuichiro , Higashinaka Ryuichiro , Minato Takashi , Ishiguro Hiroshi
Published: June 2024

In recent years, the research of humanoid robots that can change users’ opinions has been conducted extensively. In particular, two robots have been found to be able to improve their persuasiveness by cooperating with each other in a sophisticated manner. Previous studies have evaluated the changes in opinions when robots showed consensus building. However, users did not participate in the conversations, and the optimal strategy may change depending on their prior opinions. Therefore, in this study, we developed a system that adaptively changes conversations between robots based on user opinions. We investigate the effect on the change in opinions when the discussion converges to the same position as the user and when it converges to a different position. We conducted two subject experiments in which a user and virtual robotic agents talked to each other using buttons in a crowded setting. The results showed that users with confidence in their opinions increased their confidence when the robot agents’ opinions converged to the same position and decreased their confidence when the robot agents’ opinions converged to a different position. This will significantly contribute to persuasion research using multiple robots and the development of advanced dialogue coordination between robots.