bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Online clustering-based multi-camera vehicle tracking in scenarios with overlapping FOVs
Authors: Luna Elena , SanMiguel Juan C. , Martínez José M. , Escudero-Viñolo Marcos
Published: January 2022

Multi-Target Multi-Camera (MTMC) vehicle tracking is an essential task of visual traffic monitoring, one of the main research fields of Intelligent Transportation Systems. Several offline approaches have been proposed to address this task; however, they are not compatible with real-world applications due to their high latency and post-processing requirements. This lack of suitable approaches motivates our proposal: A new low-latency online approach for MTMC tracking in scenarios with partially overlapping fields of view (FOVs), such as road intersections. Firstly, the proposed approach detects vehicles at each camera. Then, the detections are merged between cameras by applying cross-camera clustering based on appearance and location. Lastly, the clusters containing different detections of the same vehicle are temporally associated to compute the tracks on a frame-by-frame basis. The experiments show promising low-latency results while addressing real-world challenges such as the a priori unknown and time-varying number of targets and the continuous state estimation of them without performing any post-processing of the trajectories. Our code is available at http://www-vpu.eps.uam.es/publications/Online-MTMC-Tracking.
Comparison of numerical and computational aspects between two constraint-based contact methods in the description of wheel/rail contacts
Authors: Yu Xinxin , Aceituno Javier F. , Kurvinen Emil , Matikainen Marko K. , Korkealaakso Pasi , Rouvinen Asko , Jiang Dezhi , Escalona José L. , Mikkola Aki
Published: January 2022

The numerical and computation aspects of the Knife-edge Equivalent Contact (KEC) constraint and lookup table (LUT) methods are compared in this paper. The LUT method implementation uses a penetration-based elastic contact model for the flange and a constraint-based formulation at the wheel tread. For the KEC method, where an infinitely narrow rail contacts an equivalent wheel, regularization of the tread-flange transition is adopted to simultaneously account for tread and flange contacts using constraints. A comparison between the two methods is carried out using well-known numerical integrators to show the applicability and limitations of both methods.

Two fixed-step-size integrators, the explicit Runge–Kutta (RK4) and the predictor–corrector Adam–Bashforth–Moulton (ABM) methods, and two variable-step-size Matlab built-in function integrators, the explicit $ode45$
o
d
e
45
and implicit $ode15s$
o
d
e
15
s
, were applied to get the numerical solutions to the dynamic problems and study the relative numerical performance of the two contact description methods. To complete the railway vehicle model, both contact methods were implemented for the multibody model of a benchmark railway vehicle (the Manchester wagon 1). Numerical results were obtained for different railway tracks with and without irregularities. Profiles of the S1002 wheel and LB-140-Area rail, which demonstrate the two-point contact phenomenon, were considered. Both methods were implemented in Matlab and validated against commercial simulation software. The kinematic results for both approaches show good agreement, but the KEC method was up to 20% more efficient than the LUT method regardless of integrator used.
The role of family firm specific resources in innovation: an integrative literature review and framework
Authors: Heider Anne , Hülsbeck Marcel , von Schlenk-Barnsdorf Leopold
Published: January 2022

Family firms are the prevalent form of entrepreneurial organizations worldwide. While even long-lasting and successful family firms are said to invest less in innovation, their innovation output varies according to their heterogeneity often matching or even exceeding the output of other incumbent firms. These contradictory results have confused entrepreneurship and innovation researchers alike. Based on an integrative literature review we develop a conceptual framework to explain the role of family firm specific resources for innovation. Our analysis of 48 peer-reviewed empirical articles drawn from a body of 466 published empirical papers shows how our integrative perspective helps to solve these existing contradictions. We argue that higher investments into these family firm specific resources trigger a virtuous circle in family firm innovation.
Perceiving reduced physical activity during COVID-19 lockdown is related to lower quality of life: a cross-sectional study with young adults
Authors: Niermann Christina , Bollenbach Lukas , Kanning Martina
Published: January 2022

Physical activity and social participation are positively related to mental health and represent resources that strengthen individuals’ resilience. However, the measures aiming to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic included restrictions regarding these health resources. For many people, stay-at-home orders had a negative effect on mental health and health-related behaviors such as physical activity. Young adults seem to be a particularly vulnerable group. The study aimed to examine the relationship between changes in physical activity and perceived quality of life in young adults during lockdown conditions. We conducted an online survey during the second lockdown in Germany and assessed perceived changes in physical activity, social activities, quality of life (QoL), the perceived burden of changes in social activities, and current QoL in 212 young adults (63.7% women, mean age = 23.46, standard deviation = 3.63). Young adults that maintained or increased their physical activity level under lockdown conditions, rated their current QoL higher and perceived a less negative change of their QoL during lockdown compared to those with decreased physical activity. Furthermore, those who rated that their physical activity levels did not change or increased, perceived the reduction of their social activities as less burdening. The results indicate that physical activity is a beneficial health resource during lockdown conditions. This highlights the importance of gaining knowledge regarding the antecedents of reducing physical activity and developing strategies that support young adults to be physically active in challenging times such as the pandemic (e.g. ehealth/mhealth approaches).
Efficient Access Method for Multi-access Edge Servers in Dynamic Map Systems
Authors: Hosono Kohei , Maki Akihiko , Watanabe Yousuke , Takada Hiroaki , Sato Kenya
Published: January 2022

Research and development on connected cars equipped with communication functions is being conducted, and dynamic maps are being researched and developed as an information and communication platform for cooperative automatic driving. There is a concern about scalability when dynamic maps are constructed on a cloud server to aggregate a wide range of vehicle information. The problem can be alleviated by deploying edge servers that divide the geographic area where vehicles travel and manage each of them. The IP addresses of the edge servers need to be resolved on the basis of the location information of the moving vehicles. Using TCP improves reliability but reduces efficiency because the vehicles move. In this study, we developed a novel method for accessing edge servers that achieves higher reliability and efficiency by adopting UDP using anycast for transmission from vehicle to edge server and implementing a retransmission function. The effectiveness of this access method was verified by using a vehicle driving simulation.
Auswirkungen des COVID-19-Lockdowns auf physische Leistungsparameter im professionellen Fußball
Authors: Friebe D. , Fischer M. , Giesche F. , Füzéki E. , Banzer W.
Published: January 2022

Hintergrund

Die staatlichen Maßnahmen zur Eindämmung des Coronavirus SARS-CoV‑2 im Jahr 2020 brachten den Trainings- und Wettkampfbetrieb im professionellen Fußball in vielen Ländern zum zeitweiligen Erliegen. In Folge des Lockdowns waren die Trainingsmöglichkeiten zumeist auf unspezifische heimbasierte Trainingsmethoden begrenzt. Es ist unklar, ob sich die fehlenden sportspezifischen Belastungsreize negativ auf die physische Leistungsfähigkeit der Fußballspielenden auswirkten.

Methodik

Im Rahmen eines narrativen Reviews wurde mittels einer selektiven Literaturrecherche in den Datenbanken PubMed, Google Scholar und BISp-Surf nach Studien gesucht, welche die Auswirkungen des Lockdowns auf physische Leistungsparameter bei erwachsenen professionellen Fußballspielenden untersuchten.

Ergebnisse

In die Übersichtsarbeit wurden sechs prospektive Längsschnittstudien eingeschlossen. In allen Studien kam während der Quarantäne ein heimbasiertes Ersatztraining zum Einsatz. Vier Studien verglichen die Leistungsfähigkeit der Fußballer/-innen mit Leistungsdaten aus vorherigen Spielzeiten. Zwei Studien ermittelten die Leistungsfähigkeit der Sportler/-innen unmittelbar vor und nach der Lockdownperiode.

Diskussion

Während die allgemeine Kraft- und Ausdauerleistung durch heimbasierte Ersatztrainingsprogramme erhalten werden kann, weisen die Studien darauf hin, dass sich die fehlenden spezifischen Belastungsreize vor allem negativ auf die Schnelligkeits- und Schnellkraftleistung der Fußballspielenden auswirken könnten. Bei Rückkehr in den regulären Trainingsbetrieb sollte daher auf eine progressive Belastungssteuerung insbesondere im Schnelligkeitstraining geachtet werden, um das Risiko für Verletzungen zu senken.
Comparison of Noble Gas Temperature with Recent Mean Annual Air and Soil Temperature in different regions of Hungary
Authors: Puskás-Preszner Anita , Szenász-Fekete Carmen , László Elemér , Kompár László , Hajnal Andor , Palcsu László
Published: January 2022

This paper describes the relation of noble gas temperature (NGT) and mean annual air (MAAT) and soil (MAST) temperature through studying water samples and meteorological data from six Hungarian regions. Alluvial plains, hilly and mountainous regions were studied to investigate the effects of geomorphological, hydrogeological and micro-climatic conditions. Water samples were collected from springs and wells fed from different aquifers. Comparing NGTs derived from these water samples with the MAAT and MAST values of the given region, we identified differences between the sampled areas. In case of the Geresd Hills, Mezőföld, Danube-Tisza Interfluves and Nyírség, the NGTs (13.0 ± 0.9 °C, 12.1 ± 1.1 °C, 12.1 ± 0.6 °C and 12.7 ± 1.6 °C, respectively) generally reflect MAST, however in karstic Bükk Mts. (6.8 ± 0.6 °C) and Mecsek Mts. (10.7 ± 1.9 °C) they are closer to MAAT. Consequently, it can be concluded that the direct relationship between noble gas temperature and mean annual air temperature is not always as well-defined as it is often assumed. It is shown that MAAT and MAST should be distinguished, especially when using NGT as a paleoclimate proxy.
Enhanced graph recommendation with heterogeneous auxiliary information
Authors: Yin Fulian , Ji Meiqi , Wang Yanyan , Yao Zebin , Feng Xiaoli , Li Sitong
Published: January 2022

The boom in the field of movies and TV programs, which is a kind of information overload, may lead to poor user experience and are detrimental to the healthy development of the industry, hence personalized program recommendation is crucial. Since program names, labels, and synopsis are highly condensed languages, to enable better semantic representations for personalized recommendations and enrich the completeness requirements of data resources, we propose an enhanced graph recommendation with heterogeneous auxiliary information (EGR-HA), focusing on auxiliary information knowledge representations, and graph neural network-based node updates. Firstly, multi-source heterogeneous auxiliary information knowledge is fused to supplement semantics of program and user to obtain initial representations that contain rich semantics, then user and program node embedding representations are aggregated in multiple layers through graph neural networks to model higher-order interaction history information and realize user and program representation update; finally, user viewing prediction is performed based on deep networks to realize personalized program recommendation. The final experiment results in indicators, such as normalized discounted cumulative gain (NDCG), hit rate (HR) and root mean square error (RMSE), verified the effectiveness of this method by comparing with various methods.
Fault-tolerant motion planning and generation of quadruped robots synthesised by posture optimization and whole body control
Authors: Cui Junwen , Li Zhan , Qiu Jing , Li Tianxiao
Published: January 2022

Quadruped robots are likely to fall into the fault joint state in outdoor explorations. The unexpected joint lock may suddenly happen when quadruped robots are implementing normal gaits, and maintaining the primal movement patterns to finish targeted tasks could be disastrous. In this paper, a fault-tolerant motion planning and generation method for quadruped robots with joint lock is proposed. Fault-tolerant cases on three types of joints on legs are investigated, and equivalent geometric models are proposed to reconstruct kinematics. To make unnecessary deformation of gait patterns as small as possible, the body posture and standing height of quadruped robots are to be optimized based on the nonlinear equivalent geometry models with constraints. The proposed fault-tolerant method is applicable to constructing a quasi-static whole-body controller, and it does not require additional operations and constraints of the fault leg. To validate the consistency and stability of the proposed fault-tolerant method, the experiments are implemented on the three joint lock failure scenarios for quadruped robots.
The Use of Technology in Corporate Management and Reporting of Climate-Related Risks
Authors: Miglionico Andrea
Published: January 2022

Sustainable finance and climate change have emerged as areas of renewed interest in the wake of the global financial crisis, when the assessment of companies’ risk management was shown to be the key to the prevention of systemic disruption. While many aspects of corporate disclosures were radically and quickly revised following the crisis, even several years later commentators have pointed to a continuing pressure for improvement to regulatory requirements in relation to financial statements. Much of the debate focuses on the need for expedited operational execution of reporting information. Over the past decade significant advances have taken place in digital technologies, especially with respect to the security and processing of granular data. This article examines how these new technologies can be deployed in a manner that will address the need to eliminate the vulnerabilities of the climate risk management process, which requires standardisation of data in order to improve managerial decision-making and the desired outcomes. It further explores the use of technology to enhance the evaluation of climate change impact on company exposures, and to advance transparency in regulatory reporting for financial institutions. Technology applications such as automated language systems offer opportunities to align corporate disclosure with climate change policy objectives, which in turn can increase sustainability in the performance of companies’ activities.
Adoption of Waste Heat Recovery Technologies: Reviewing the Relevant Barriers and Recommendations on How to Overcome Them
Authors: Christodoulides Paul , Aresti Lazaros , Panayiotou Gregoris P. , Tassou Savvas , Florides Georgios A.
Published: January 2022

The wide adoption of heat recovery technologies in industry is hampered by specific “barriers” related to both technical and non-technical issues. This paper attempts to determine these barriers and make recommendations on how to address them. First, a literature review of related material is presented. Among numerous barriers, the main ones identified are (i) lack of information, (ii) lack of technology knowledge, (iii) technology risks, (iv) high initial and running and maintenance costs, (v) lack of financial support and lack of governmental incentives, (vi) size and available space limitations, (vii) lack of available infrastructure, (viii) production constraints and risk of production disruptions, (x) risk of the system negative impact on the company operations, and (xi) policy and regulations restrictions. Then, based on the above, a structured questionnaire on barriers to the adoption of waste heat recovery (WHR) technologies was prepared and issued to a number of industries throughout the European Union. Upon analyzing the questionnaire, an assessment of the importance and negative impact of each of the above-mentioned barriers is made. Subsequently, strategies and recommendations on how to overcome the barriers is reported. These recommendations are hoped to be adopted as far as possible in the packaging, installation, commissioning, and demonstration of new and old WHR technologies.
Numerical and experimental study on forming preforms in a CNC skew rolling mill
Authors: Pater Zbigniew , Tomczak Janusz , Bulzak Tomasz , Walczuk-Gągała Patrycja
Published: January 2022

This paper relates to a study on the formation of elongated preforms in a CNC skew rolling mill. First, a numerical analysis was performed to investigate forming processes for three different parts: a scraper, a connecting rod, and a hook. The shapes and dimensions of preforms were designed, and rolling and closed-died forging processes for producing these parts were simulated numerically. Distributions of temperature, effective strain and damage function were determined for rolled preforms. Loads and torques in the rolling process were measured. It was found that the forming process of preforms performed in a CNC skew rolling mill was characterized by relatively low force parameters in relation to the dimensions of formed parts. Numerical simulations of the forging process showed that all forged parts had the required shape, which indicates that the preforms were designed correctly. Following the numerical analysis, experiments were performed in which the preforms were rolled under laboratory conditions (in a scale of 1:2). Experimental results demonstrated that the rolled parts had no internal defects (cracks) and were characterized by high dimensional accuracy.
Two lower-bounding algorithms for the p-center problem in an area
Authors: Liu Yanchao
Published: January 2022

The p-center location problem in an area is an important yet very difficult problem in location science. The objective is to determine the location of p hubs within a service area so that the distance from any point in the area to its nearest hub is as small as possible. While effective heuristic methods exist for finding good feasible solutions, research work that probes the lower bound of the problem’s objective value is still limited. This paper presents an iterative solution framework along with two optimization-based heuristics for computing and improving the lower bound, which is at the core of the problem’s difficulty. One method obtains the lower bound via solving the discrete version of the Euclidean p-center problem, and the other via solving a relatively easier clustering problem. Both methods have been validated in various test cases, and their performances can serve as a benchmark for future methodological improvements.
Regeneration time: ancient wisdom for planetary wellbeing
Authors: Poelina Anne , Wooltorton Sandra , Blaise Mindy , Aniere Catrina Luz , Horwitz Pierre , White Peta J. , Muecke Stephen
Published: January 2022

In these regenerative times prompted by the Anthropocene, Aboriginal voices are situated to draw on ancient wisdom for local learning and to share information across the globe as ecological imperative for planetary wellbeing. In this paper, postqualitative research foregrounds the sentient nature of life as ancestral power and brings the vitality of co-becoming as our places into active engagement. It enables coloniality to surface and reveals how it sits in our places and lives, in plain sight but unnoticed because of its so-called common sense. Postqualitative research relates with ancient knowledges in foregrounding Country’s animacy and presence, revealing the essence of time as non-linear, cyclical and perpetual. In this way, we are places, weather and climate, not separate. Postqualitative research also relates with ancient knowledge in illustrating Country as agentic and time as multiple, free of constraint and directly involved in our everyday. Country is active witness in the lives of Aboriginal peoples, here always. This is a strong basis for decolonisation. We all have a responsibility to listen, to help create a new direction for the future in the present time.
Seizure in Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation: A Systematic Review
Authors: Emamikhah Maziar , Saiyarsarai Parisa , Schneider Susanne A. , Fasano Alfonso , Mohammadzadeh Nahid , Rohani Mohammad
Published: January 2022

Background:

Neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation (NBIA) is a rare genetic disorder. Its clinical manifestations comprise a wide spectrum mainly movement disorders. Seizure as a clinical manifestation is known to occur in some NBIAs, but the exact prevalence of epilepsy in each individual disorder is not well elucidated. The aim of this review was to investigate the frequency of seizures in NBIA disorders as well as to determine the associated features of patients with seizures.

Method:

The electronic bibliographic databases PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Google Scholar were systematically searched for all cases in any type of article from inception to December 16, 2019. All the reported cases of NBIA (with or without genetic confirmation) were identified. Case reports with an explicit diagnosis of any types of NBIA, which have reported occurrence (or absence) of any type of seizure or epilepsy, in the English language, were included. Seizure incidence rate, type, and age of onset were reported as frequencies and percentages.

Result:

1698 articles were identified and 51 were included in this review. Of 305 reported cases, 150 (49.2%) had seizures (phospholipase A2-associated neurodegeneration (PLAN) = 64 (50.8%), beta-propeller protein-associated neurodegeneration (BPAN) = 57 (72.1%), pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN) = 11 (23.4%), and others = 18 (very variable proportions)). The most frequent seizure type in NBIA patients was generalized tonic-clonic seizure with the mean age of seizure onset between 2 and 36 years. However, most of these papers had been published before the new classification of epilepsy became accessible. Affected patients were more likely to be females.

Conclusion:

Seizures are common in NBIA, particularly in PLAN and BPAN. In PKAN, the most common type of NBIA, around 10% of patients are affected by seizures. BPAN is the most possible NBIA accompanying seizure. Most of the findings regarding the seizure characteristics in the NBIAs are biased due to the huge missing data. Therefore, any conclusions should be made with caution and need further investigations.
The demand for gratitude as a restraint on the use of child labor: A hypothesis
Authors: Stark Oded , Budzinski Wiktor
Published: January 2022

We study a parent's demand for gratitude from his child. We view this demand as an intervening variable between the parent's earnings and the incidence of child labor. The demand for gratitude arises from the desire of a parent to receive care and support from his child late in life, while the inclination of the child to provide this support during his adulthood is determined by how the child was treated by his parent during childhood. Specifically, we model the child's gratitude as an inverse function of the intensity of his labor in childhood. We show that when we keep the child's (imputed) wage constant, the intensity of child labor decreases with the parent's earnings. However, when we make the child's (imputed) wage a function of the parent's earnings, then the outcome can be different. With the help of a numerical example, we show that the pattern of child labor related to the parent's earnings can be U-shaped.
Xenofeminist Hope and Dread, or How to Move Beyond Patriarchal Technocapitalism
Authors: Hoofd Ingrid
Published: January 2022

Who said manifestos are dead? Some thirty years after the publication of Donna Haraway's illustrious A Cyborg Manifesto (Haraway 1991), fifty years after Valerie Solanas's angry and delightful SCUM Manifesto (Solanas 1967), and 170 years after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's influential Communist Manifesto (Marx and Engels 1848), a new manifesto in town in fact bears traces of all these and then some: The Xenofeminist Manifesto. This manifesto, which comes in a gorgeously designed booklet version as well as in a colorful and nostalgic 80s computer-culture website with nerdy hexadecimal page numbers and related Twitter account, is a work from the “xenofeminist” collective Laboria Cuboniks. The name of this collective, whose members are from various parts of the globe, is actually an anagram of “Nicolas Bourbaki,” a largely French collective of mathematicians in the early 1900s who sought to affirm abstraction, rigor, and generalization (Laboria Cuboniks 2014). Together with a firm foot in cyberfeminism and a strong penchant for the abstract and universal by way of the logic of computing against the arguably flawed universal of “nature,” the manifesto also clearly bears the marks of feminist ecocriticism, new materialism, queer theory, and technological accelerationism. The two books under review bring various activisms and insights together in an original way, and do so clearly with an eye toward reviving the cyberfeminist spirit through, among others, ideas from Shulamith Firestone's Dialectics of Sex (Firestone 1970). This pairing certainly had me excited, since, as I argue elsewhere, I am, together with Haraway's original cyborg manifesto, firmly of the opinion that feminisms of all kinds should intervene in and contribute even more radically to contemporary techno-culture and philosophy of technology. This is because clearly, new media and genetic technologies are at present some of the most powerful techniques by which we live and probably will live in the near future, and because these technologies are intimately interwoven with Eurocentric masculinism, heterosexism, militarism, and capitalism (Hoofd 2016, 225, 229).
From Social Construction to Social Critique: An Interview with Sally Haslanger
Authors: Joaquin Jeremiah Joven B. , Biana Hazel T.
Published: January 2022

Sally Haslanger (b. 1955) is Ford Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leading contemporary feminist philosopher. She has worked on analytic metaphysics, epistemology, and ancient philosophy. Her areas of interest are social and political philosophy, feminist theory, and critical race theory. Her 2012 book, Resisting Reality: Social Construction and Social Critique, collects papers published over the course of twenty years that link work in contemporary metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of language with social and political issues concerning gender, race, and the family. It was awarded the 2014 Joseph B. Gittler Prize for “outstanding scholarly contribution in the field of the philosophy of one or more of the social sciences.” In this interview, done in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we discuss her ideas on social practices, social structure, and structural explanation. We also delve into her debunking project of elucidating the notion of ideology in a way that links it with contemporary work in epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind, and to do justice to the materiality of social practices and social structures.
Queer Belfast during the First World War: masculinity and same-sex desire in the Irish city
Authors: Hulme Tom
Published: January 2022

Queer history is still in its infancy in Ireland, with political approaches and the more recent past, and the gay rights movement particularly, providing the primary focus so far. This article takes a different approach by investigating the everyday experiences, identities and policing of men who had sex with men in the early twentieth century. Using two extraordinary case studies from Belfast during the First World War, I explore different lives ― from youth to adulthood, sexual encounter to arrest, and trial to life afterwards. I argue that queer culture in Belfast shared aspects with other western metropolises, particularly in terms of urban cruising, payment for sex and relationships structured by class. Public responses too, from newspaper to courtroom, were articulated through transnational formulations of respectability and masculinity. At the same time, however, Belfast's queer men were shaped by their movement within a peculiarly Irish network of places, both in and beyond the country's borders. Religious and political structures specific to Ulster also affected how such men fared in the legal system and in their lives following their trials. By detailing both the similarities yet divergences of queer experience in Belfast, I thus aim to raise a new agenda for studying male sexuality in the north of Ireland.
Round table: Decolonising Irish history? Possibilities, challenges, practices
Authors: Dháibhéid Caoimhe Nic , Akhtar Shahmima , Hassett Dónal , Kenny Kevin , McAtackney Laura , McBride Ian , McMahon Timothy G. , Ohlmeyer Jane
Published: January 2022

The nature of Ireland's place within the British Empire continues to attract significant public and scholarly attention. While historians of Ireland have long accepted the complexity of Ireland's imperial past as both colonised and coloniser, the broader public debate has grown more heated in recent months, buffeted by Brexit, the Decade of Centenaries and global events. At the same time, the imperatives of social movements such as Black Lives Matter and Decolonising the Curriculum have asked us to reflect on the assumptions, hierarchies and norms underpinning the structures of society, including the production of knowledge and the higher education system. This round table brings together scholars from diverse disciplinary and methodological backgrounds to examine the prospects, possibilities and challenges of what decolonising Irish history might mean for our field. It sets these discussions within broader frameworks, considering both the relationship of Irish historical writing to postcolonial theory and the developments in the latter field in the last twenty years. It also reflects on the sociology of our discipline and makes suggestions for future research agendas.
Climate change and mental health: time for action and advocacy
Authors: Power Emmet , McCarthy Niamh , Kelly Ina , Cannon Mary , Cotter David
Published: January 2022

Climate change poses an existential threat to our planet and our health. We explore the intersections of climate change and mental health which has been under-recognised to date. Climate change can affect mental health directly through the effects of extreme weather events such as heat, drought and flooding, and indirectly through increasing rates of migration and inequality. Vulnerable individuals with neuropsychiatric disorders will be particularly at risk. Emerging evidence is also showing effects of air pollution on brain development. Mitigation efforts related to reducing carbon emissions will have both direct and indirect effects on mental health. A further consideration demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic is that the spread of infectious disease can have substantial effects on the mental health of the population. With climate change and biodiversity loss, pandemics could recur in the future with increasing frequency. It is now essential that mental health professionals be equipped as agents for climate action.
AUTOMORPHISM AND OUTER AUTOMORPHISM GROUPS OF RIGHT-ANGLED ARTIN GROUPS ARE NOT RELATIVELY HYPERBOLIC
Authors: KIM JUNSEOK , OH SANGROK , TRANCHIDA PHILIPPE
Published: January 2022

We show that the automorphism groups of right-angled Artin groups whose defining graphs have at least three vertices are not relatively hyperbolic. We then show that the outer automorphism groups are also not relatively hyperbolic, except for a few exceptional cases. In these cases, the outer automorphism groups are virtually isomorphic to either a finite group, an infinite cyclic group or
$\mathrm {GL}_2(\mathbb {Z})$
.
Dietary inflammation index and osteoarthritis in the elderly: is there a mediating role of physical activity?
Authors: Wang Haoyi , Liao Runzhi , Tang Weifeng , Su Weiping , Zeng Min , Yang Junxiao , Fan Xiaolei , Xie Jie , Hu Yihe
Published: January 2022

We examined whether physical activity (PA) explains the association between dietary inflammatory potential and osteoarthritis (OA) in the elderly. A total of 1249 elderly people (≥65 years) were eligible for this study from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 2011 to 2016. The semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) and Global PA Questionnaire (GPAQ) were used to evaluate the diet and PA of the elderly, respectively. The multivariable logistic regression model estimated the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) between Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII) and OA. The interaction of E-DII and PA on depressive events was tested, and the mediation analysis of PA was performed. The average E-DII in this study was +0.68 (SE 0.08), and the score ranges from -5.32 (most anti-inflammatory) to +4.26 (most pro-inflammatory). In comparison with the first quartile, the elderly from the second quartile (OR: 1.16 [95% CI: 1.06, 1.68]) to the fourth quartile (OR: 1.64 [95% CI: 1.13, 2.37]) had a higher risk of OA before adjustment for PA. An interaction was observed between E-DII and PA in terms of the risk of OA (PInteraction < 0.001). The whole related part was mediated by PA (20.08%). Our findings indicated that the higher pro-inflammatory potential of diet was associated with a higher risk of OA, and low PA was an important part of the mediating factor in the relationship between systemic low-grade dietary inflammation and the risk of OA.
Optimal biochar application rates for mitigating global warming and increasing rice yield in a subtropical paddy field
Authors: Yang Xiang , Vancov Tony , Peñuelas Josep , Sardans Jordi , Singla Ankit , Alrefaei Abdulwahed Fahad , Song Xu , Fang Yunying , Wang Weiqi
Published: January 2022

Application of biochar to rice has shown to elicit positive environmental and agricultural impacts due to its physicochemical properties. However, the relationship between greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, rice yield, and soil nutrient status under biochar amendment remains unclear. In this study, rice yield and methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions were quantified in response to biochar application rate (0, 10, 20, and 40 t ha−1) to early and late subtropical rice cropping systems. We found that application of 10 t of biochar ha−1 to early rice reduced average CH4 emission fluxes, while all biochar application rates diminished average emissions in late rice paddy. Total global warming potential (GWP) and GHG intensity (GHGI) were inherently greater in late rice than early rice cropping. In early rice, GWP and GHGI were found to be similar between soil control, 10 and 20 t of biochar ha−1 treatments, although the largest occurred in the 40 t of biochar ha−1 treatment, whereas in late rice cropping, they were not affected by biochar application rates. Compared to the nil-biochar application, biochar application at varied rates did not affect rice yield. However, compared to 10 t biochar ha−1, increasing biochar application rate to 40 t ha−1 significantly decreased total rice yield (sum of early and late cropping). Generally, application of biochar increased soil salinity and total Fe and Fe2+ content while reducing soil bulk density. Temporal effects of biochar application were noted on CH4 emission flux, soil temperature, and soil Fe2+ and Fe3+ in early rice; and soil temperature, salinity, NH4+-N, NO3−-N, and soil Fe2+ and Fe3+ in late rice. This study confirms that the application of biochar at the lower rate of 10 t ha−1 is optimal for maintaining rice yield while reducing GHG emissions. Moreover, the study demonstrates the potential benefit of biochar in sustainable subtropical rice production.
Constructing the Legitimacy of Governance in Hong Kong: “Prosperity and Stability” Meets “Democracy and Freedom”
Authors: Wong John D.
Published: January 2022

The current political crisis in Hong Kong is characterized by a level of social unrest that the city has not seen since the riots of 1966–67. After that earlier round of turmoil, the British colonial regime secured legitimacy through socioeconomic improvement in Hong Kong. “Prosperity and Stability” became the hallmark of Hong Kong's success, which extended into the period of political uncertainty in the 1980s. Transcending the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, this catchphrase was adopted as the slogan of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government in its bid for legitimacy through socioeconomic appeals. Against this perennial state rhetoric, grassroots protesters began to demand “Democracy and Freedom” around June Fourth. These public demands have escalated since the Umbrella Movement in an environment of socioeconomic regression. Examining these two pairs of keywords—prosperity/stability and democracy/freedom—this article underscores the contention in the legitimacy of governance in Hong Kong since the closing decades of British rule. This analysis indicates that it would be unproductive for the governing authorities or the protesters to deny the earnestness of either the political or socioeconomic assertions in the ongoing contention of legitimacy to govern Hong Kong.
New non-native ornamental octocorals threatening a South-west Atlantic reef
Authors: Menezes N. M. , McFadden C. S. , Miranda R. J. , Nunes J. A. C. C. , Lolis L. , Barros F. , Sampaio C. L. S. , Pinto T. K.
Published: January 2022

Invasive species are leading to ecosystem changes and socioeconomic deterioration around the globe. In 2018, unknown soft corals were noticed forming a massive ‘blue carpet’ on a shallow reef environment at Todos os Santos Bay, South-west Atlantic. In this study we identified the species, quantified their distribution and abundance as a first step for baseline invasion monitoring, and discussed origin, vector and impacts on native competitors. Coral samples were identified based on morphology and a multilocus DNA barcode, and benthic structure was characterized using digital photoquadrats. Our results revealed two new harmful non-native octocorals in this tropical rocky reef, the ‘blue polyps’ genus Sarcothelia (Xeniidae), native to Hawaii but likely an undescribed cryptic species, and Briareum hamrum (Briareidae), native to the Indian Ocean. Sarcothelia sp. was the dominant taxon in the rocky reef (mean cover 23.66% ± 21.46), exhibiting high coverage as well in the sandy and patch reef habitats (15.83% ± 15.81), however, only three colonies of B. hamrum were found, all outside the sampling area. These octocorals were in physical contact with native benthic organisms, mainly with the most abundant group, but apparently avoid turf algae in sandy and patch reef habitats. We suggest that irresponsible marine aquarium releases likely introduced these species to Brazilian reefs. After identifying the aquarium trade as the main vector of octocoral introductions, we reinforce the importance of inspecting marine species importation and the urgent need to implement a government plan to mitigate invasive species' impacts on the natural reefs of Brazil.
Rational framing effects: A multidisciplinary case
Authors: Bermúdez José Luis
Published: January 2022

Frames and framing make one dimension of a decision problem particularly salient. In the simplest case, framesprimeresponses (as in, e.g., the Asian disease paradigm, where the gain frame primes risk-aversion and the loss frame primes risk-seeking). But in more complicated situations frames can function reflectively, by making salient particular reason-giving aspects of a thing, outcome, or action. For Shakespeare's Macbeth, for example, his feudal commitments are salient in one frame, while downplayed in another in favor of his personal ambition. The role of frames in reasoning can give rise torational framing effects. Macbeth can prefer fulfilling his feudal duty to murdering the king, while also preferring bravely taking the throne to fulfilling his feudal duty, knowing full well that bravely taking the throne just is murdering the king. Such patterns ofquasi-cyclicalpreferences can be correct and appropriate from the normative perspective of how one ought to reason. The paper explores three less dramatic types of rational framing effects: (1) Consciously framing and reframing long-term goals and short-term temptations can be important tools for self-control. (2) In the prototypical social interactions modeled by game theory, allowing for rational framing effects solves longstanding problems, such as the equilibrium selection problem and explaining the appeal of non-equilibrium solutions (e.g., the cooperative solution in the Prisoner's Dilemma). (3) Processes for resolving interpersonal conflicts and breaking discursive deadlock, because they involve internalizing multiple and incompatible ways of framing actions and outcomes, in effect create rational framing effects.
Party cues or policy information? The differential influence of financial and economic literacy on economic policy preferences
Authors: Magistro Beatrice
Published: January 2022

Political economy theories tell us that policy preferences are driven by economic self-interest and that party cues can be a rational decision-making strategy. But does citizens’ ability to assess their self-interest influence the sources of information they rely on and their policy choices? I hypothesise that financial and economic literacy influences the type of information individuals are responsive to, and ultimately, their economic policy preferences. Using a survey experiment on price controls in Italy, I manipulate whether citizens receive party cues or policy information. I show that financially and economically literate individuals are more likely to understand information concerning the costs and benefits of the policy under analysis, and to be responsive to it. This is not the case for financially and economically illiterate individuals, who are more receptive to party cues, even when such cues are misleading and lead them to support welfare-reducing policies.
Joint Efforts in the Fight against Franco: Protest and Repression during the Spanish Long ’68
Authors: Casanellas Pau
Published: January 2022

As in many other countries, Spanish society also underwent its own ’68. In response, the Franco regime increased repression: it became much harsher, and much broader. After that, opposition to state brutality became the anti-Franco movement's main cause and a unifying element for its many different actors. This is the process addressed by this article. Specifically, it aims to explore how repression facilitated the encounters between activists coming from different social movements and political organisations. At the same time, it tries to show the importance of diversifying the analyses on the long ’68 – focusing on different countries, regions and cities – in order to grasp its transnational nature.
Characterisation of Deficits and Sex Differences in Verbal and Visual Memory/Learning in Bipolar Disorder
Authors: Gogos Andrea , Son Jinwon , Rossell Susan L. , Karantonis James , Furlong Lisa S. , Felmingham Kim , Van Rheenen Tamsyn E.
Published: January 2022

Objective:

Cognitive impairment is consistently reported in bipolar disorder (BD), but few studies have characterised which memory component processes are affected. Further, it is unknown whether the component processes underlying memory impairment are moderated by sex. The present study examined diagnosis and sex differences in both verbal and visual memory/learning domains in patients with BD and psychiatrically healthy controls.

Method:

Verbal and visual memory/learning were measured using the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R) and Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R). 114 patients with BD (n = 50 males, n = 64 females), were compared to 105 psychiatrically healthy controls (n = 42 males, n = 63 females).

Results:

Patients with BD had worse performance in verbal and visual immediate and total recall, verbal and visual delayed free recall, and verbal recognition discrimination scores, but there were no group differences in learning slopes and cumulative learning index scores. There were trends for BD females to outperform BD males in visual memory/learning free recall and cumulative learning, but these results did not survive multiple testing correction. These findings did not change in a secondary sensitivity analysis comparing only strictly euthymic BD patients to controls (n = 64).

Conclusion:

The present study found trait-like verbal and visual memory/learning impairment in BD that was attributable to deficient encoding and/or consolidation processes rather than deficits in learning. We did not find marked sex differences in either visual or verbal memory/learning measures, although some trend level effects were apparent and deserve exploration in future studies.
The Role of Silence in Verbal Fluency Tasks – A New Approach for the Detection of Mild Cognitive Impairment
Authors: Balogh Réka , Imre Nóra , Gosztolya Gábor , Hoffmann lldikó , Pákáski Magdolna , Kálmán János
Published: January 2022

Objective:

Most recordings of verbal fluency tasks include substantial amounts of task-irrelevant content that could provide clinically valuable information for the detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). We developed a method for the analysis of verbal fluency, focusing not on the task-relevant words but on the silent segments, the hesitations, and the irrelevant utterances found in the voice recordings.

Methods:

Phonemic (‘k’, ‘t’, ‘a’) and semantic (animals, food items, actions) verbal fluency data were collected from healthy control (HC; n = 25; Mage = 67.32) and MCI (n = 25; Mage = 71.72) participants. After manual annotation of the voice samples, 10 temporal parameters were computed based on the silent and the task-irrelevant segments. Traditional fluency measures, based on word count (correct words, errors, repetitions) were also employed in order to compare the outcome of the two methods.

Results:

Two silence-based parameters (the number of silent pauses and the average length of silent pauses) and the average word transition time differed significantly between the two groups in the case of all three semantic fluency tasks. Subsequent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed that these three temporal parameters had classification abilities similar to the traditional measure of counting correct words.

Conclusion:

In our approach for verbal fluency analysis, silence-related parameters displayed classification ability similar to the most widely used traditional fluency measure. Based on these results, an automated tool using voiced-unvoiced segmentation may be developed enabling swift and cost-effective verbal fluency-based MCI screening.