bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Reliability tracking method of power system equipment based on Embedded Internet of things technology
Authors: Dai Zikuo , Xu Guohu , Xu Yan , Zhang Shiyang , Yu Zhengzhi
Published: May 2021

Power equipment is one of the most important transmission and transformation equipment in power system. Improving the reliability of power equipment is of great significance to the safe and reliable operation of the whole power grid. A reliability tracking method of power system equipment based on Embedded Internet of things technology is proposed. The minimum cut set algorithm of reliability index based on Embedded Internet of things technology is given. In this paper, a fault tree analysis method for power system equipment unreliability index is proposed. According to the analysis of equipment structure, component function and failure mode, the fault tree model of power system equipment is established, and the reliability tracking calculation example is analyzed. Experiments show that the method can track the order stably, determine the key components that affect the reliability of the equipment, and identify the weak links of the equipment.
Probabilistic switching can solve the problem of costly prosocial exclusion
Authors: Xie Wei-Wei , Liu Hong-Ye , Gao Feng , Zhang Jie-Ru
Published: May 2021

Public Goods Game (PGG) originates from “the Tragedy of Commons”, which is argued by the American scholar Hardin. PGG is a type of evolution game that these individuals in this game can affect each other, and reached a stable state. This paper demonstrates a new version PGG model which is an exclusion PGG model. Besides, combing Parrondo’s Paradox with this PGG model, and it also shows a similar “winning” outcome. Parrondo’s Paradox shows that two individual-losing games, when alternate, yield a winning outcome. Moreover, the additional periodic switching mechanism also applies to the PGG model and obtains a similar result when compared with that of conventional Parrondo’s Paradox. The biggest contribution of this paper is that Parrondo’s Paradox can fully applicable to the exclusion PGG model, and that simulation result also presents an effective result.
Analysis of rail acoustic model based on phased ultrasonic array
Authors: Zhang Xing Jia , Ren Wan Ting , Yang Yong Jie
Published: May 2021

In the traditional ultrasonic flaw detection, two forms of A scan and B scan are mainly used to check the echo information. The traditional method of defect analysis can only detect the existence of defects, but can not locate the exact position and shape of defects. In this paper, we will present a method of locating the defects in ultrasonic detection for rail. In this method, the position information and incidence angle of ultrasonic probe are obtained, and then the propagation path of primary wave and secondary wave of ultrasonic wave in rail is calculated by mathematical modeling. Finally, the internal defects of rail can be located by combining the echo information collected by ultrasonic probe.
Map style transfer using pixel-to-pixel model
Authors: Jin Weisheng , Zhou Shihui , Zheng Luhao
Published: May 2021

The image style transfer is a well-known task and it is applied commonly in the field of artificial intelligence, which converts an image to an image with a specific style without modifying the image content and can be applied to many fields such as changing styled automatically for photos in the cellphone and map wrapping. Recent works focus on a general image style transfer. In this paper, we aim to solve the problem in a navigation application, which is to transfer the satellite maps into map images automatically by deep learning techniques. The methodology we choose for this project is a special GAN named pix2pix model. We decide to use the satellite images as our inputs for the model and let the corresponding Google map images be the output sources. Similar to a traditional GAN, we train the discriminator and generator simultaneously and we attempt to run the training process for 50 epochs in total. PNSR and SSIM are two features we are going to use to test the performance of our results. Finally, the accuracy needs to be improved.
Research on Design and Dispatching of Circular Shuttle System
Authors: Wen Wen , Feng Changhuan
Published: May 2021

The shuttle is also called Rail Guide Vehicle (RGV). It has the characteristics of fast conveying speed, good flexibility, and high degree of automation. The circular RGV system is widely used in logistics network dispatching. The genetic operator of the ordinary partheno genetic algorithm is improved by the single-point transposition operator and the roulette method, and the improved partheno genetic algorithm is obtained. The improved partheno genetic algorithm is used to model and design the circular shuttle system.
Forecasting the Price of Fuel Oil: A STL-(ELM+ARIMA) Combination Approach
Authors: Yu Fangping , Liu Yanqing , Zhang Chenxi
Published: May 2021

Focusing on fuel oil price forecasting, we propose a “decomposition-prediction-integration” route and STL-(ELM+ARIMA) combination forecasting model. This model decomposes the fuel oil price time series by STL, and effectively combines the advantages of high frequency seasonal cycle and short-term fluctuation time series forecasting in ELM non-parametric model with the advantages of low frequency trend forecasting in ARIMA parametric model. Finally, this paper conducts an empirical study on the spot price of Singapore’s Platts fuel oil 180CST to verify the effectiveness of the proposed forecasting method. The results show that the forecasting accuracy of 180 CST fuel oil price model based on STL-( ELM (1) + ARIMA (2) +ELM (3)) is highest.
Properties to Determine Inscribed Ellipses of Polygons
Authors: Li Yarong
Published: May 2021

In this paper, we extend the result of [1] by calculating some examples in detail, including the inscribed ellipses in triangles, quadrilaterals, and pentagons. We also improve the original proof and reduce the requirements through projective geometry methods in the quadrilateral and pentagon cases. Furthermore, we see the inscribed ellipse problems from the perspective of two projective planes simultaneously, which offers a new way to determine the inscribed ellipses in triangles. Also, we use python to realize the method provided in this paper of drawing inscribed ellipse.
Research on dynamic spectrum allocation method based on number of users in wireless communication system
Authors: Xia Yi , Cai Pengshuai
Published: May 2021

As wireless communication has developed rapidly, spectrum plays an essential role in system performance. How to allocate the limited spectrum is a critical problem. In this paper, we research spectrum allocation algorithms in the wireless system, such as Simultaneous Water-Filling (SWF), Fractional Frequency Reuse(FFR), and Forward-Looking Game(FLG). Then we combine the SWF and FFR to make a new method. We demonstrate the performance of each method. Our method saves spectrum in a wireless system, and it can also reduce the interference between different users. Our method, namely Dynamic Method, has an actual meaning because the number of users always changes in some cell, and this method can adjust to the wireless system dynamically. In this way, our method might have a more general use.
The supply chain coordination model based on sales return and efforts
Authors: Sun Yichuan , Huang Fei , Zhong Jiawei , Ma Le
Published: May 2021

Taking a two-stage supply chain model of a single manufacturer and a single retailer as the research object, this paper initially proposes the random demand function of retailers’ effort to establish an integrated supply chain model based on dual factors of retailer effort and selling price. Then it discusses how to optimize the reward and punishment contracts to realize the win-win situation of supply chain members under decentralized decision-making by analyzing the coordination and optimization of supply chain under centralized and decentralized conditions. Finally, the conclusion is verified by numerical simulation experiment, effort and quantity will decrease along with the increase of the distribution coefficient and will increase with the increase of the buy-back price’s coefficient.
Design of the Corn Field Straw Chopper Transmission System Based on Virtual Prototype Technology
Authors: Li Yanying , Liu Mengnan , Xu Liyou , Xiao Jinlong
Published: May 2021

The planting area of corn is large and the straw yield is high in our country. But the number of the straw returned to field is low at present, and the cost of returning straw to field is high. Thus, a set of corn straw returning machine whose productivity is high, cost is low and can be used together with self-propelled corn harvest machine is designed. This paper introduced the corn straw returning machine’s general parameters and drive system’s working process and design process. Then the virtual prototype model of the drive system is built, and virtual prototype technology is used to build the model of the drive system and to conduct kinematics simulation and dynamics simulation. The results show that the angular velocity and the stress of all sample points are all different in different working conditions. The response of the sample point is obvious when the pound load is big, and the response decayed to zero after three cycles of concussion. The relationships between angular velocity and stress of each sample point prove that the virtual prototype model’s validity. This study provides a new method and a way for the design and optimization of corn straw returning machine.
Global Dynamic Surface Control for a Class of Nonlinear System
Authors: Yang Zhou , Wenhan Dong , Zongcheng Liu , Yong Chen , Wenqian Zhang , Haoming Feng , Caihao Sun
Published: May 2021

The traditional dynamic surface control (DSC) method It can only guarantee the final boundedness of semi-global consistency of the system. Furthermore, the selection of filter time constant has significant influence on the DSC control performance. This paper presents a global dynamic surface control (GDSC) method, which constructs an automatically-updated filter time constant by using a first-order sliding mode differential estimator. Based on the GDSC method, a tracking controller is proposed for a class of nonlinear systems, and it is proved by the Lyapunov theorem that the controller can guarantee the global uniformly ultimately boundedness (GUUB) of the system.
An integral inlay type porthole extrusion die
Authors: Chen You peng , Deng Yu wen , Zhang Gui hao
Published: May 2021

A new porthole extrusion die named integral inlay in the male die for Al- profiles was presented. The porthole die structure is composed of four parts, which is different from the traditional structure. The key structure parameters of the new die were introduced. Mainly one male die was divided into two male dies, and the two dies were assembled by inlaying. Through a practical LED lamp aluminum profile, the characteristics of this product and the traditional die structure were analyzed. The selection of these parameters was described in detail, mainly including the structure of two male dies, the design of portholes, the structure of the front feeder plate, the chamber and the bearing belt. The results shows the new die structure is effective, the new die structure has the obvious advantages. Moreover, it can greatly improve the life of the die and simplify processing, as well as save materials. It is a die structure which is worth of being copied and popularized.
Preliminary Study on Data-driven Building Intelligent Design Program
Authors: Yin Weiling
Published: May 2021

This article analyzes the basic characteristics, specific applications, and application experience of data-driven. The author studies the basic concepts, design ideas, basic positioning, application advantages, and application disadvantages of the building intelligent design program. This article analyzes the application points of rational selection of maintenance methods, Internet of Things technology, cloud computing technology, BIM technology, perception technology, and distributed processing technology. The purpose of this article is to improve the rationality of the content of intelligent building design and create good conditions for the orderly progress of subsequent construction activities.
Electronic structure of nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes under stress
Authors: Zhang Hanwen
Published: May 2021

Due to the demand for miniaturization and low energy consumption of electronic device, field-effect transistors based on carbon nanotubes have received extensive attention. However, the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, especially when subjected to stress and doping, are not very clear. In this study, first-principles calculations are used to investigate the deformation of carbon nanotubes under the action of nitrogen doping and tensile stress, as well as the changes in electronic energy bands. The results show that nitrogen atom doping will reduce the tensile strength of carbon nanotubes and increase the conductivity of carbon nanotubes, while stress helps to open the band gap. Our research has guiding significance for the prediction of electronic properties of carbon nanotubes under doping and stress.
Iterative Finite Element Method Applied to the Nonlinear Electric Field of ±400kV Converter Transformer Barrier System
Authors: Shiling Zhang , Yongliang Ji
Published: May 2021

The DC steady-state and the polarity reversal (PR) are typical states of composite insulation in converter transformer barrier system, and the insulation medium has the strong E-field and temperature nonlinear characteristic, so the DC steady-state and polarity reversal E-field will be affected by the variation of electric parameters under temperature gradient. The FEM was applied to the quantitative E-field analysis considering electric and temperature nonlinear factors simultaneously. First, the nonlinear relationship between conductivity with E-field and temperature of medium has been obtained by experiments. Then, the iterative FEM was proposed and verified by coaxial insulation with analytical solution. Finally, the full-scale model of ±400kV converter transformer barrier system has been established, the DC steady-state and polarity reversal E-field has been calculated with the proposed method. The results show that under linear and nonlinear conditions the E-field is quite different, and E-field non-linearity can inhibit the local high electric spot, temperature non-linearity can reduce the E-field in the high temperature area and increase that in the lower temperature area. Under the temperature gradient condition, the local high E-field spot is easy to occur in the PR process. The iterative FEM and calculation results can provide references for the design of converter transformer barrier system.
Wood Composite Plates with Reversible Humidity-driven Deformation
Authors: Mu Yumao , Zhang Qi , Guo Zhangxin , Li Yongcun
Published: May 2021

Four types of beech/spruce composite plates were fabricated from beech with different wood textures under different initial ambient relative humidity, and the impacts of the changes in ambient relative humidity on the deformation characteristics and mechanical properties of the composite plates were studied. It was found that the reversible bending deformation of the composite plates can be achieved by adjusting the ambient humidity. The bending deformation characteristics of the composite plates were related to the initial fabrication conditions and humidity expansion characteristics of the wood, and conformed to the improved Timoshenko theoretical model for bilayer humidity expansion materials. The experiments on humidity-driven deformation of the counter-balanced composite plates showed that external load would hinder the deformation of the composite plates driven by the ambient humidity, but the composite plates still had a good load-bearing capacity.
Fabrication and characterization of a novel environment-friendly inorganic fireproof adhesiveused for fire resistant doorsets
Authors: Xiang Zhang , Chaolu Yin , Pingli Li , Fuxin Fu
Published: May 2021

A novel environment-friendly inorganic fireproof adhesive was prepared with sodium silicate, fumed silica, light calcium carbonate, aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide by high-speed mixing and ball milling. The bond strength, formaldehyde and VOC emissions, thermal properties and fire performance of such adhesive were investigated. The bond strength of the adhesive was increased with the adding of the fumed silica, which reached 1.8 MPa when the amount of fumed silica was 1.5 wt.%. Formaldehyde and VOC emissions of this adhesive were far lower than those of the requirements in Chinese standards. The combustion grade of this adhesive could achieve A1 and its smoke toxicity grade could achieve AQ1, which was the safest grade of flammability for building materials.
A continuous integration and web framework in support of the ATLAS publication process
Authors: Araque Espinosa J.P. , Baldi Levcovitz G. , Bianchi R.M. , Brock I. , Carli T. , Castro N.F. , Ciocio A. , Colautti M. , Da Silva Menezes A.C. , De Oliveira da Fonseca G. , Domingues Macedo Alves L. , Hoecker A. , Lange Ramos B. , Lemos Lúcidi Pinhão G. , Maidantchik C. , Malek F. , McPherson R. , Picco G. , Teixeira Dos Santos M.
Published: May 2021

The ATLAS collaboration defines methods, establishes
procedures, and organises advisory groups to manage the publication
processes of scientific papers, conference papers, and public notes.
All stages are managed through web systems, computing programs, and
tools that are designed and developed by the collaboration. A
framework called FENCE is integrated into the CERN GitLab software
repository, to automatically configure workspaces where each
analysis can be documented by the analysis team and managed by the
relevant coordinators. Continuous integration is used to guide the
writers in applying consistent and correct formatting when preparing
papers to be submitted to scientific journals. Additional software
assures the correctness of other aspects of each paper, such as the
lists of collaboration authors, funding agencies, and foundations.
The framework and the workflow therein provide automatic and easy
support to the researchers and facilitates each phase of the
publication process, allowing authors to focus on the article
contents. The framework and its integration with the most up to date
and efficient tools has consequently provided a more professional
and efficient automatized work environment to the whole
collaboration.
Intense agricultural irrigation induced contrasting precipitation changes in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Lo Min-Hui , Wey Hao-Wei , Im Eun-Soon , Tang Lois Iping , Anderson Ray G , Wu Ren-Jie , Chien Rong-You , Wei Jiangfeng , AghaKouchak Amir , Wada Yoshihide
Published: May 2021

Groundwater extraction has grown tremendously in Saudi Arabia to meet the irrigation water demand since the 1980s, and irrigation is one of the major anthropogenic factors modulating regional hydroclimate. However, the link between irrigation and hydroclimate is not well understood in a dry region such as Saudi Arabia. In this study, we utilize three different regional climate models to explore the physical mechanisms behind the irrigation impacts in this region. The results are robust across models and show that when irrigation is applied, wetter soil results in higher evapotranspiration and cools the lower atmosphere, leading to an anomalous pressure field and alters vapor transportation. Precipitation decreases locally because of the local cooling effect, whereas additional water vapor convergence enhances precipitation west to the irrigated region. This west–east contrast of precipitation change indicates a possible link between irrigation expansion in the 1980s and subsequent decadal precipitation variations in central Saudi Arabia. We further find from observations a decadal west–east contrast of precipitation changes in Saudi Arabia to support the similar finding in the models. This study implies the importance of including anthropogenic water management in climate models and provides a better understanding of how irrigation impacts local-to-regional climate.
The North Pacific Blob acts to increase the predictability of the Atlantic warm pool
Authors: Liu Yusen , Sun Cheng , Kucharski Fred , Li Jianping , Wang Chunzai , Ding Ruiqiang
Published: May 2021

The Atlantic warm pool (AWP) has profound impacts on extreme weather events and climate variability. Factors influencing the AWP and its predictability are still not fully understood. Other than local ocean–atmosphere feedbacks and El Niño Southern Oscillation, we find an extratropical precursor from the Northeast Pacific (known as the Blob), which leads the AWP by 1 year with a robust correlation (r = 0.68). A suite of Northeast Pacific pacemaker experiments successfully reproduces the leading influence of the Blob on the AWP. The preceding summer Blob-related sea surface temperature (SST) warming signal can be transmitted towards the lower latitudes through the seasonal footprint mechanism, leading to the central Pacific warming in the winter and following spring. Such a strong tropical Pacific SST heating excites an anomalous atmospheric wave train that resembles the Pacific/North American (PNA) teleconnection pattern. At the downstream portion of the PNA, the low sea surface pressure anomalies can be found over the AWP region during the following spring. The anomalous low initiates the AWP SST warming, and the AWP warmer SST can persist into summer and is further amplified due to ocean–atmosphere feedbacks. Our results show that the North Pacific Blob may act as a useful predictor of the AWP 1 year in advance through trans-basin interactions. A Blob-based prediction model shows considerable hindcast skill for the observed AWP SST anomaly.
Removal of fluoride using fly ash adsorbent
Authors: Chandraker Neeraj , Jyoti Ghoshna , Singh Thakur Raghwendra , Kumar Chaudhari Parmesh
Published: May 2021

Flouride (F) content in groundwater above 1.5 mg/L is a serious concern all over the world due to adverse health effects beyond that concentration. Hence, apart from its monitoring, an effective and low-cost removal technique is necessary. In this work, the removal of fluoride using fly ash has been studied. Batch adsorption studies, using laboratory shaker, were performed to examine the effect of pH in the range 2-10, adsorbent size (0.225 mm, 0.45 mm, and 0.90 mm), and adsorbent dose, varied from 2-6 g/L, for a contact time of 4 hours in all the experiments. The optimum condition for the F” removal was observed as pH:5, adsorbent size:0.225 mm and adsorbent dose: 5 mg/L, providing 67.20 % F“removal from the solution. Different kinetic models were tested and it was found that adsorption kinetics is of Pseudo second order and Elovich type. The study showed that fly ash can be effectively used for fluoride removal from water.
Environmental issues in karst terrain: an example from Central India
Authors: Singh Amit K , Jhariya D C , Singh Neelratan , Singh Yamuna , Dubey D P
Published: May 2021

In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight the nature of karst in central India and evaluate possible effects of environmental degradation of groundwater due to indiscriminate disposal of various types of wastes into karst terrains without subjecting them to any treatment before disposal. Karst features associated with carbonate rocks of the Proterozoic Vindhyan basin in central India and environmental issues related to the same area’s groundwater resources are briefly given. Based on the process of formation, karst may be categorized as True karst (holo-karst) and (ii) Fluvial karst. On the other hand, based on the types of cover, karsts are classified into three types: (i) Covered karst, (ii) Soddy karst, and (iii) Buried karst. Three types of karst landforms identified in carbonates rocks of the Vindhyans are (i) Superficial landforms (Karren), produced mainly by solution action on the rock surfaces, (ii) Landforms due to fluvial erosion, and (iii) Underground landforms, i.e., Caves. In a particular hydrogeologic setting, the groundwater system consists of minor secondary porosity modified by solution activities. Accordingly, two types of groundwater flow systems (diffuse and conduit) occur in carbonate rocks. Due to karstification, limestones constitute the most productive aquifer in the area. It is noted that untreated municipal and industrial wastes are disposed of directly in surface water bodies and streams and associated sinkhole depressions in limestone terrain. Secondary openings being interconnected with each other gradually carry these pollutants to groundwater reservoirs in karst aquifers. The continued influx of pollutants to groundwater reservoirs through interconnected secondary voids would cause severe groundwater pollution in the long run and degrade the groundwater quality in karst aquifers for various usages.
Experimental and numerical study on hydraulic characteristics of multi-level intake for diversion project
Authors: Wang Y H , Wang B , Lv Y C , Bao Z J
Published: May 2021

Multi-level intake as an inlet of diversions has the advantage of selective withdrawal. To further understand the hydraulic characteristics of this inlet hydraulic structure, experimental model test and numerical simulation were carried out. The results of this study show that the water flow in the diversion channel is stable, and the flow pattern in the lock chamber section is disordered. In addition, the pressure near the entrance of the tunnel is linear, and the water head loss of the upper layer is the largest. Further, the formation of potential vortex flow can be prevented by controlling and scheduling. The results presented in the current work provide new insights into the hydraulics of flow in stratified intake structure and can be used in the design and operation of similar hydraulic projects.
Management tool of urban sustainable development: establishment of an economy-resources-environment system dynamics model
Authors: Feng X , Cao G H
Published: May 2021

Economy-Resources-Environment (ERE) system is considered as a complex component for sustaining the urban development. System dynamics (SD) is a method to explain the behavior of complex component. According to the conceptual framework of urban sustainable development, this paper takes Chongqing of China as case study to develop an ERE-SD model for simulating the feedback process of economic development with resource restriction and environmental degradation. Firstly, conceptual framework and structure of ERE-SD model is established, and model test is carried out. Secondly, five scenarios, named natural growth, resource restriction, environment protection, smart development and economy, are selected to forecast the future results. Finally, the optimization scenario is selected for improving urban sustainable development. The results illustrate that the GDP level in five scenarios decreases in the following sequence: economy -, economy +, smart development, environment protection, resource restriction, economy -, natural growth; the net GDP level in five scenarios decreases in the following sequence: economy +, resource restriction, smart development, environment protection, economy -, natural growth. The adjustment of the economic development path is necessary to access sustainable development in Chongqing.
Singular and regular vortices on top of a background pulled to the center
Authors: Chen Zhaopin , Malomed Boris A
Published: May 2021

A recent analysis has revealed singular but physically relevant localized two-dimensional vortex states with density ∼r
−4/3 at

r
→
0

and a convergent total norm, which are maintained by the interplay of the potential of the attraction to the center, ∼−r
−2, and a self-repulsive quartic nonlinearity, produced by the Lee-Huang-Yang correction to the mean-field dynamics of Bose–Einstein condensates. In optics, a similar setting, with the density singularity ∼r
−1, is realized with the help of quintic self-defocusing. Here we present physically relevant antidark singular-vortex states in these systems, existing on top of a flat background. Numerical solutions for them are very accurately approximated by the Thomas–Fermi wave function. Their stability exactly obeys an analytical criterion derived from the consideration of small perturbations. The singular-vortex states exist as well in the case when the effective potential is weakly repulsive. It is demonstrated that the singular vortices can be excited by the input in the form of the ordinary nonsingular vortices, hence the singular modes can be created in the experiment. We also consider regular (dark) vortices maintained by the flat background, under the action of the repulsive central potential ∼+r
−2. The dark modes with vorticities l = 0 and 1 are completely stable. In the case when the central potential is attractive, but the effective one, which includes the centrifugal term, is repulsive, and, in addition, a weak trapping potential ∼r
2 is applied, dark vortices with l = 1 feature an intricate pattern of alternating stability and instability regions. Under the action of the instability, states with l = 1 travel along tangled trajectories, which stay in a finite area defined by the trap. The analysis is also reported for dark vortices with l = 2, which feature a complex structure of alternating intervals of stability and instability against splitting. Lastly, simple but novel flat vortices are found at the border between the anidark and dark ones.
Talking to multi-morbid patients about critical illness: an evolving conversation
Authors: Puthucheary Zudin A , Osman Magda , Harvey Dan J R , McNelly Angela S
Published: May 2021

Conversations around critical illness outcomes and benefits from intensive care unit (ICU) treatment have begun to shift away from binary discussions on living versus dying. Increasingly, the reality of survival with functional impairment versus survival with a late death is being recognised as relevant to patients.

Most ICU admissions are associated with new functional and cognitive disabilities that are significant and long lasting. When discussing outcomes, clinicians rightly focus on patients’ wishes and the quality of life (QoL) that they would find acceptable. However, patients’ views may encompass differing views on acceptable QoL post-critical illness, not necessarily reflected in standard conversations.

Maintaining independence is a greater priority to patients than simple survival. QoL post-critical illness determines judgments on the benefits of ICU support but translating this into clinical practice risks potential conflation of health outcomes and QoL.

This article discusses the concept of response shift and the implication for trade-offs between number/length of invasive treatments and change in physical function or death. Conversations need to delineate how health outcomes (e.g. tracheostomy, muscle wasting, etc.) may affect individual outcomes most relevant to the patient and hence impact overall QoL.

The research strategy taken to explore decision-making for critically ill patients might benefit from gathering qualitative data, as a complement to quantitative data. Patients, families and doctors are motivated by far wider considerations, and a consultation process should relate to more than the simple likelihood of mortality in a shared decision-making context.
Darkness at Noon: On History, Narrative, and Domestic Violence
Authors: Neumeyer Joy
Published: May 2021

This essay is inspired by my experience of domestic violence while earning a PhD in Russian history. It applies the philosophy of history to escaping abuse, when crafting a compelling account becomes a matter of survival. As a scholar, I had taken my right to tell the story for granted; as a survivor, I could produce evidence about what happened, but other judges would weave it together to make meaning. The essay attempts to reconcile the conception of history as literature with the need to seek truth and justice. It also considers the role of narrative in the #MeToo movement and the Title IX system.
“The Vanished Power of the Usual Reign”: Jackson Lears, No Place of Grace, and the Struggle for Hegemony in History
Authors: Seal Andrew
Published: May 2021

This reappraisal essay on Jackson Lears’s No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920 (1981) considers the book’s substantial but diffuse influence among historians by examining it against the background of, and in conversation with, the new social history. The success of this subfield in the 1970s and—while morphing into cultural history—the 1980s created professional as well as theoretical problems for practitioners of “old fashioned” history, especially for intellectual historians. Especially confounding was the question of how to theorize the transmission of ideas from intellectual or cultural elites to the rest of society. “History from the bottom up” had posited far more cultural and intellectual autonomy for the subaltern classes than intellectual historians could grant without fundamental changes in method as well as choices of what to write about. No Place of Grace cut through this problem with an array of new theoretical and rhetorical moves, elevating the concept of cultural hegemony to an essential role in the further analysis of elite transmission of ideas. This essay ends by considering the effects of this conceptual breakthrough, including the costs of focusing on subtler forms of domination over the raw effects of physical force and material inequality.
Inter-lateral Referral of Sensation in Health and Disease Using a Mirror Illusion—A Scoping Review
Authors: Hagenberg Annegret , Lambert Dave G , Jussab Shifa , Maltby John , Robinson Thompson G
Published: May 2021

Objective

Perception of touch is expected at the location where it is applied. However, there are indications that being touched may be perceived on the contralateral side when seen as a reflection in a mirror at midline. Such inter-lateral referral of sensation (RS) lacks evidence, as mirror therapy research usually focusses on movement-based techniques. This study aimed to map out existing research across disciplines regarding the effect of RS in health and disease, and to understand whether there is rehabilitation potential in RS.

Method

A scoping review was conducted to map out concepts and keywords across disciplines interested in this topic, using keywords in several languages, and a wide range of databases and additional sources.

Results

The review revealed mostly cross-sectional experiments and included over 486 participants: healthy, or with stroke, complex regional pain syndrome, amputation, nerve graft surgery or radial fracture. Procedures varied regarding stimulation tool, time and location, with two stimulating replacements, one the face and one a variety of areas. Response rates ranged from 0 to 100%.

In general, RS was regarded as a phenomenon or even as a predictor of maladaptive neuroplasticity. There was little research into using RS stimulation as a modulatory tool to improve sensory perception.

Conclusions

RS challenges the understanding of touch perception and elicits a range of questions regarding neuro-processing. A modulatory approach using RS has not been described, requires investigation and, if promising, development as an intervention.
Strong sexual selection fails to protect against inbreeding-driven extinction in a moth
Authors: Parrett Jonathan M , Ghobert Veronica , Cullen Fenn S , Knell Robert J
Published: May 2021

Sexual selection is predicted to influence population persistence because skew in male reproductive success may facilitate the purging of mutation load. We manipulated the strength of sexual selection in populations of Indian meal moths, Plodia interpunctella, by adjusting adult sex ratios to be either male- or female-biased, leading to strong and weak sexual selection in males, respectively. After between 19 and 22 generations of experimental evolution, we examined whether mutation load differed between these populations by enforcing successive generations of inbreeding, tracking extinction events, offspring viability and assaying the effect of inbreeding on male mating success and female choice. We found no effect of the strength of sexual selection on the rate of extinction or offspring viability. We did, however, find changes in both male mating success and female choice, with both being influenced by the sex ratio treatment and the number of generations of inbreeding. Males from male-biased populations were more successful at mating with stock females, and mating success declined rapidly with inbreeding regardless of sex ratio treatment. Females from male-biased populations were less likely to mate with stock males at the onset of the experiment, but tended to mate more frequently with increasing inbreeding compared to females from female-biased populations. Our results demonstrate that while mating behaviors have diverged between male-biased and female-biased lines mutation loads remained similar. This suggests that the benefits of sexual selection to population fitness may be low or slow to accumulate under the benign environmental conditions in which these populations evolved.
Inferring the experimental design for accurate gene regulatory network inference
Authors: Seçilmiş Deniz , Hillerton Thomas , Nelander Sven , Sonnhammer Erik L L
Published: May 2021

Motivation

Accurate inference of gene regulatory interactions is of importance for understanding the mechanisms of underlying biological processes. For gene expression data gathered from targeted perturbations, gene regulatory network (GRN) inference methods that use the perturbation design are the top performing methods. However, the connection between the perturbation design and gene expression can be obfuscated due to problems, such as experimental noise or off-target effects, limiting the methods’ ability to reconstruct the true GRN.

Results

In this study, we propose an algorithm, IDEMAX, to infer the effective perturbation design from gene expression data in order to eliminate the potential risk of fitting a disconnected perturbation design to gene expression. We applied IDEMAX to synthetic data from two different data generation tools, GeneNetWeaver and GeneSPIDER, and assessed its effect on the experiment design matrix as well as the accuracy of the GRN inference, followed by application to a real dataset. The results show that our approach consistently improves the accuracy of GRN inference compared to using the intended perturbation design when much of the signal is hidden by noise, which is often the case for real data.

Availability and implementation

https://bitbucket.org/sonnhammergrni/idemax.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Clustering FunFams using sequence embeddings improves EC purity
Authors: Littmann Maria , Bordin Nicola , Heinzinger Michael , Schütze Konstantin , Dallago Christian , Orengo Christine , Rost Burkhard
Published: May 2021

Motivation

Classifying proteins into functional families can improve our understanding of protein function and can allow transferring annotations within one family. For this, functional families need to be ‘pure’, i.e., contain only proteins with identical function. Functional Families (FunFams) cluster proteins within CATH superfamilies into such groups of proteins sharing function. 11% of all FunFams (22 830 of 203 639) contain EC annotations and of those, 7% (1526 of 22 830) have inconsistent functional annotations.

Results

We propose an approach to further cluster FunFams into functionally more consistent sub-families by encoding their sequences through embeddings. These embeddings originate from language models transferring knowledge gained from predicting missing amino acids in a sequence (ProtBERT) and have been further optimized to distinguish between proteins belonging to the same or a different CATH superfamily (PB-Tucker). Using distances between embeddings and DBSCAN to cluster FunFams and identify outliers, doubled the number of pure clusters per FunFam compared to random clustering. Our approach was not limited to FunFams but also succeeded on families created using sequence similarity alone. Complementing EC annotations, we observed similar results for binding annotations. Thus, we expect an increased purity also for other aspects of function. Our results can help generating FunFams; the resulting clusters with improved functional consistency allow more reliable inference of annotations. We expect this approach to succeed equally for any other grouping of proteins by their phenotypes.

Availability and implementation

Code and embeddings are available via GitHub: https://github.com/Rostlab/FunFamsClustering.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
ProteoMill: efficient network-based functional analysis portal for proteomics data
Authors: Rydén Martin , Englund Martin , Ali Neserin
Published: May 2021

Functional analysis has become a common approach to incorporate biological knowledge into the analysis of omics data, and to explore molecular events that govern a disease state. It is though only one step in a wider analytical pipeline that typically requires use of multiple individual analysis software. There is currently a need for a well-integrated omics analysis tool that performs all the steps. The ProteoMill portal is developed as an R Shiny application and integrates all necessary steps from data-upload, converting identifiers, to quality control, differential expression and network-based functional analysis into a single fast, interactive easy to use workflow. Further, it maintains annotation data sources up to date, overcoming a common problem with use of outdated information and seamlessly integrates multiple R-packages for an improved user-experience. The functionality provided in this software can benefit researchers by facilitating the exploratory analysis of proteomics data.

Availability and implementation

ProteoMill is available at https://proteomill.com.
Social Work under COVID-19: A Thematic Analysis of Articles in ‘SW2020 under COVID-19 Magazine’
Authors: Sen Robin , Kerr Christian , MacIntyre Gillian , Featherstone Brid , Gupta Anna , Quinn-Aziz Abyd
Published: May 2021

This article presents a thematic analysis of 100 articles which appeared in ‘SW2020 under COVID-19’ online magazine, authored by people with lived experience, practitioners, students and academics. The magazine was founded by an editorial collective of the authors of this article and ran as a free online magazine during the period of the first UK COVID-19 lockdown period (March–July 2020). It contained a far higher proportion of submissions from the first three groups of contributors, above, than traditional journals. The analysis is organised under four analytic themes: ‘Hidden populations; Life, loss and hope; Practising differently and Policy and system change’. The article concludes by describing the apparent divergence between accounts that primarily suggest evidence of improved working relationships between social workers and those they serve via digital practices, and accounts suggesting that an increasingly authoritarian social work practice has emerged under COVID-19. We argue that, notwithstanding this divergence, an upsurge in activism within social work internationally during the pandemic provides a basis for believing that the emergence of a community-situated, socially engaged social work is possible post-pandemic.
Educating Social Workers in the Midst of COVID-19: The Value of a Principles-led Approach to Designing Educational Experiences during the Pandemic
Authors: Crisp Beth R , Stanford Sonya , Moulding Nicole
Published: May 2021

Social work education in Australia in the midst of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) would not have been possible under our pre-pandemic accreditation standards due to assumptions about best practice in higher education that were not possible to enact during the pandemic. Rather than immediately arguing for a new set of standards, as Heads of Social Work programmes the authors of this paper promoted a principles-led approach to inform ‘the right’ way—in an ethical sense—of ensuring social work education could continue in Australia during the pandemic. This meant conceptualising the challenges of delivering social work education in a pandemic as being not only practical but also ethical in their nature. Using examples of how this approach guided the design of adaptive online teaching and field education placements at our universities, we consider the future possibilities for ethical and rules-based governance approaches to social work education. How students learn is changing and what they are learning will help them respond to the immediate and future needs arising from the pandemic. As such, rather than having their education compromised by COVID-19, social work students at the time of the pandemic and into the future may in fact benefit from the changes that have emerged during this period.
BNT162b2 Messenger RNA Vaccination Did Not Prevent an Outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Variant 501Y.V2 in an Elderly Nursing Home but Reduced Transmission and Disease Severity
Authors: Bailly Benoit , Guilpain Luc , Bouiller Kevin , Chirouze Catherine , N’Debi Melissa , Soulier Alexandre , Demontant Vanessa , Pawlotsky Jean-Michel , Rodriguez Christophe , Fourati Slim
Published: May 2021

We report an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 501Y.V2 in a nursing home. All nonvaccinated residents (5/5) versus half of those vaccinated with BNT162b2 (13/26) were infected. Two of 13 vaccinated versus 4 of 5 nonvaccinated residents presented severe disease. BNT162b2 did not prevent the outbreak, but reduced transmission and disease severity.
Reduced BNT162b2 Messenger RNA Vaccine Response in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–Naive Nursing Home Residents
Authors: Canaday David H , Carias Lenore , Oyebanji Oladayo A , Keresztesy Debbie , Wilk Dennis , Payne Michael , Aung Htin , St. Denis Kerri , Lam Evan C , Rowley Christopher F , Berry Sarah D , Cameron Cheryl M , Cameron Mark J , Wilson Brigid , Balazs Alejandro B , Gravenstein Stefan , King Christopher L
Published: May 2021

After BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccination, antibody levels to spike, receptor-binding domain, and virus neutralization were examined in 149 nursing home residents and 110 healthcare worker controls. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)–naive nursing home residents’ median post–second vaccine dose antibody neutralization titers are one-quarter that of SARS-CoV-2–naive healthcare workers.