bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Two-Dimensional Heavy Metal Migration in Soil with Adsorption and Instantaneous Injection
Authors: Ruishi Liang , Mat Isa Zaiton
Published: December 2023

This paper studies a two-dimensional transport model to investigate the behavior of heavy metal migration in porous media, specifically considering their transport in soil. The model takes into consideration the combination of adsorption term as well as instantaneous injection at the boundary. Also, the model accounts for both longitudinal and transverse movements, providing a comprehensive understanding of heavy metal transport phenomena. In order to obtain the analytical solution Laplace transform has been implemented. It is found that the peak concentration of heavy metals is found to be greatly affected by the changes in the instantaneous injection value. Additionally, a correlation is observed between retardation factors and heavy metal concentrations, with a decrease in retardation factors resulting in an increase in heavy metal concentration.
A Need Analysis of the Criteria Involved in Determining Suitable Locations for Photovoltaic Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in Malaysia
Authors: Farah R. N. , Syahirah N. A. , Misron N. , Azmi M. S. M. , Karim N. S. A. , Husin N.M.
Published: December 2023

The main concern is a lack of scientific planning for photovoltaic electric vehicle charging stations (PEVCS) that considers numerous main criteria and sub-criteria. PEVCS should be strategically positioned in an appropriate and ideal location to ensure that electric vehicle (EV) users may reach the stations within their driving range. While the adoption of solar is still minimal in Malaysia, Malaysia needs to move faster to allocate the PEVCS at the strategic locations. Regarding this matter, this study aims to determine the suitable criteria for allocating the location of PEVCS in Malaysia. 52 out of 177 sub-criteria and six main criteria items were selected for the Need Analysis in this study as part of the data collecting procedure, which involved 12 respondents. The result revealed that the Need Analysis was used to choose 41 of the sub-criteria, including society (8), economics (10), environment (7), technology (6), accessibility (6), and proximity (4). For future studies, it is recommended to use Likert scales for analysing the data from the Need Analysis, along with calculating the mean and standard deviation values, while utilizing GIS-based MCDM methods to allocate ideal PEVCS locations in Malaysia through the development of a new prediction location model.
Phytochemical Screening and Antioxidant Activities of Geniotrigona thoracica Propolis Extracts Derived from Different Locations in Malaysia
Authors: Idris Lini , Adli Muhammad Amirul , Yaacop Nurul Najihah , Mohd Zohdi Rozaini
Published: December 2023

Propolis, a natural resinous substance secreted by bees, has garnered considerable interest due to its diverse bioactive compounds and potential health benefits. Nevertheless, the phytochemical composition of propolis exhibits significant variation, influenced by multiple factors including geographical region, and botanical origin. These determinants exert profound effects on the distinctive properties and biological diversities of propolis. This study aimed to investigate the phytochemical composition and antioxidant activities of Geniotrigona thoracica propolis extracts collected from three apiary sites, designated as apiary A, apiary B, and apiary C, located in different regions within Selangor. The ethanolic extracts of propolis were prepared using 70% of ethanol and subjected to phytochemical screening to identify the presence of flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, steroids, and cardiac glycosides, whilst the total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) were measured using the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric and aluminium chloride methods, respectively. Additionally, the antioxidant activities of the propolis extracts were evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays. The phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids, terpenoids, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, steroids, and cardiac glycosides in all propolis extracts. The propolis from apiary A exhibited significantly higher TPC (302.21 ± 0.11 mg/mL GAE) and TFC values (99.08 ± 0.03 mg/mL QE) compared to apiary B and C. The results also indicated that propolis from apiary A possessed significantly higher antioxidant activities, with IC₅₀ value of DPPH at 25.27 μg/mL and FRAP value of 727.53 ± 0.09 μM Fe²+, in comparison to apiary B and C. A strong correlation was observed between TPC, TFC, and IC₅₀ of DPPH. This study highlights significant variations in the phytochemical compositions and antioxidant activities of propolis samples collected from different geographical and botanical sources. Further investigation is in progress to identify the specific phytochemical constituents responsible for these variations.
Effects of Bio-Amendment of Coconut Dust with Empty Fruit Bunch Compost on the Efficacy of Mycorrhizae Under Deficit Fertigation
Authors: Karim Mohd Fauzihan , Ismail Mohd Razi
Published: December 2023

It has been known that the application of beneficial fungi and compost, has a favourable effect on easing water deficiency stress in plants, hence helping to boost agricultural activities in times of climate uncertainty. In this study, the influence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in combination with oil palm empty fruit bunch compost (EFB) on the growth, yield, and physiology of chilli under deficit fertigation was investigated. Throughout the study, five-week-old chilli seedlings were fertigated daily with 100% and 60% of daily evapotranspiration (ET) readings. Three days after transplanting, 10g of sandy soil containing roughly 120-150 mycorrhizal spores was applied to the root zone. Physiological data such as real-time photosynthesis and stomatal conductance were measured at vegetative, early flowering, fruit setting, and maturity or harvesting stages. Meanwhile, yield and morphological measurements were recorded at the end of the study. It was discovered that the addition of EFB to the coconut coir dust media enhanced the beneficial effects of AMF on all parameters including total biomass, chlorophyll fluorescence Fv/Fm, total chlorophylls, photosynthesis rate and stomatal conductance regardless of fertigation levels. The study also revealed that AMF inoculation alone was less effective than non-inoculation + EFB. In conclusion, it is suggested that incorporation of AMF and EFB compost positively affect the yield, growth and physiology of chilli under deficit fertigation.
Asymptotic and Assouad–Nagata dimension of finitely generated groups and their subgroups
Authors: Sledd Levi
Published: December 2023

We prove that for all with , there exists a finitely generated group with a finitely generated subgroup such that , , and . This simultaneously answers two open questions in asymptotic dimension theory.
Assessment of modal density and free path distribution in central-planned halls
Authors: Fratoni Giulia , Garai Massimo , D'Orazio Dario
Published: December 2023

Central-planned halls are highly widespread in the historical architectures of the Western world, such as rotundae, Christian baptisteries, and Roman tombs. In such halls, whispering galleries, flutter echoes, and sound focusing are the acoustic phenomena mainly investigated by scholars. Instead, modal behaviour and free path distribution are generally less treated in literature. The present study explores the modal density at low frequencies and the relationship with the most recurrent free path lengths in three historical nearly circular spaces, here assessed as case studies. Acoustic measurements allowed the collection of objective experimental data, i.e., room impulse responses and the resulting room acoustics criteria. Wave-based numerical models allowed for the investigation of the eigenfrequencies distribution, while the free paths trend has been experienced through ray-based models. The main outcomes of both analyses show the prominence of the circular modes, rather than the diametral and the elevation ones. Moreover, the mean free path calculated using ray-tracing proves to be higher than the theoretical value commonly assumed for any kind of shape. The consequent longer reverberations compared to halls with other shapes and the same volume justify the significant support historically provided to sound signals by circular halls.
The Impact of Multimorbidity Patterns on Changes in Physical Activity and Physical Capacity Among Older Adults Participating in a Year-Long Exercise Intervention
Authors: Savikangas Tiina , Savolainen Taija , Tirkkonen Anna , Alén Markku , Hautala Arto J. , Laukkanen Jari A. , Rantalainen Timo , Törmäkangas Timo , Sipilä Sarianna
Published: December 2023

This study investigated the impact of multimorbidity patterns on physical activity and capacity outcomes over the course of a year-long exercise intervention, and on physical activity 1 year later. Participants were 314 physically inactive community-dwelling men and women aged 70–85 years, with no contraindications for exercise at baseline. Physical activity was self-reported. Physical capacity measurements included five-time chair-stand time, 6-minute walking distance, and maximal isometric knee-extension strength. The intervention included supervised and home-based strength, balance, and walking exercises. Multimorbidity patterns comprised physician-diagnosed chronic disease conditions as a predictor cluster and body mass index as a measure of obesity. Multimorbidity patterns explained 0%–12% of baseline variance and 0%–3% of the change in outcomes. The magnitude and direction of the impact of unique conditions varied by outcome, time point, and sex. Multimorbid older adults with no contraindications for exercise may benefit from multimodal physical training.
Predictive Factors for Compulsive Exercise in Adolescent Athletes: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Fortier Martine , Rodrigue Christopher , Clermont Camille , Gagné Anne-Sophie , Brassard Audrey , Lalande Daniel , Dion Jacinthe
Published: December 2023

Although exercise is generally considered a healthy lifestyle habit, it may be problematic for some people. This has led to growing research on compulsive exercise—an uncontrollable urge for physical activity despite its deleterious effects. A maintenance model of compulsive exercise has been developed for adults exhibiting weight and shape concerns, weight control behaviors, and specific psychological states (including depression and anxiety) as predictive factors. We identified predicting factors for compulsive exercise in adolescent athletes using the same model framework. These athletes completed the compulsive exercise test and several well-validated psychometric measures. Gender-specific multiple regression models identified stronger drive for thinness, perfectionism, and body image investment in sport as significant predictors of compulsive exercise in boys and girls. Among girls, asceticism and bulimia symptoms were also significantly associated with compulsive exercise. These findings support the relevance of the model for clinical intervention and research on compulsive exercise in adolescent athletes.
Quorum-sensing gene regulates hormetic effects induced by sulfonamides in Comamonadaceae
Authors: Lin Hui , Ning Xue , Wang Donglin , Wang Qiaojuan , Bai Yaohui , Qu Jiuhui
Published: December 2023

Hormesis is a toxicological phenomenon whereby exposure to low-dose stress results in the stimulation of various biological endpoints. Among these, the induction of cell proliferation by antibiotics is critical, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we showed that sulfonyl-containing chemicals (e.g., sulfonamides) can induce cell proliferation hormesis in
Comamonas testosteroni
. An investigation of the hormesis mechanism revealed that low-dose sulfonamides potentially interact with the
LuxR
-type quorum-sensing protein LuxR solo, thereby triggering the transcription of 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase, a key enzyme of fatty acid β-oxidation. This provides additional ATP, NADPH, and acetyl-CoA for macromolecule biosynthesis, allowing cells to synthesize sufficient nucleotides to support rapid cell growth. Our work reports on a previously unknown mechanism for the hormetic effect and highlights its generality in the Comamonadaceae family.

IMPORTANCE

Antibiotics can induce dose-dependent hormetic effects on bacterial cell proliferation, i.e., low-dose stimulation and high-dose inhibition. However, the underlying molecular basis has yet to be clarified. Here, we showed that sulfonamides play dual roles as a weapon and signal against
Comamonas testosteroni
that can modulate cell physiology and phenotype. Subsequently, through investigating the hormesis mechanism, we proposed a comprehensive regulatory pathway for the hormetic effects of
Comamonas testosteroni
low-level sulfonamides and determined the generality of the observed regulatory model in the Comamonadaceae family. Considering the prevalence of Comamonadaceae in human guts and environmental ecosystems, we provide critical insights into the health and ecological effects of antibiotics.
Characterization of the Entner-Doudoroff pathway in
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
catheter-associated urinary tract infections
Authors: El Husseini Nour , Mekonnen Solomon A. , Hall Cherisse L. , Cole Stephanie J. , Carter Jared A. , Belew Ashton T. , El-Sayed Najib M. , Lee Vincent T.
Published: December 2023

Pseudomonas aeruginosa
is an opportunistic nosocomial pathogen responsible for a subset of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). In a murine model of
P. aeruginosa
CAUTI, we previously demonstrated that urea within urine suppresses quorum sensing and induces the Entner-Doudoroff (E-D) pathway. The E-D pathway consists of the genes
zwf
,
pgl
,
edd
, and
eda
. Zwf and Pgl convert glucose-6-phosphate into 6-phosphogluconate. Edd hydrolyzes 6-phosphogluconate to 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG). Finally, Eda cleaves KDPG to glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate and pyruvate, which enters the citric acid cycle. Here, we generated in-frame E-D mutants in the strain PA14 and assessed their growth phenotypes on chemically defined and complex media. These E-D mutants have a growth defect when grown on glucose or gluconate as the sole carbon source, which is similar to results previously reported for PAO1 mutants lacking E-D genes. RNA-sequencing following short exposure to urine revealed minimal gene regulation differences compared to the wild type. In a murine CAUTI model, virulence testing of E-D mutants revealed that two mutants lacking
zwf
and
pgl
showed minor fitness defects. Infection with the ∆
pgl
strain exhibited a 20% increase in host survival, and the ∆
zwf
strain displayed decreased colonization of the catheter and kidneys. Consequently, our findings suggest that the E-D pathway in
P. aeruginosa
is dispensable in this model of CAUTI.

IMPORTANCE

Prior studies have shown that the Entner-Doudoroff pathway is up-regulated when
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
is grown in urine. Pseudomonads use the Entner-Doudoroff (E-D) pathway to metabolize glucose instead of glycolysis, which led us to ask whether this pathway is required for urinary tract infection. Here, single-deletion mutants of each gene in the pathway were tested for growth on chemically defined media with single-carbon sources as well as complex media. The effect of each mutant on global gene expression in laboratory media and urine was characterized. The virulence of these mutants in a murine model of catheter-associated urinary tract infection revealed that these mutants had similar levels of colonization indicating that glucose is not the primary carbon source utilized in the urinary tract.
Ameliorative effects of aqueous extract from rosemary on oxidative stress and inflammation pathways caused by a high-fat diet in C57BL/6 mice
Authors: de Oliveira e Silva Ana Mara , Pereira Raquel Oliveira , Oliveira Anne Karoline de Souza , Harris Fernanda Santana , de Melo Illana Louise Pereira , Almeida-Souza Thiago Henrique , Yoshime Luciana Tedesco , dos Santos Melo Caroline , Lopes dos Santos Jymmys , de Andrade-Wartha Elma Regina Silva , Cogliati Bruno , Granato Daniel , Mancini-Filho Jorge
Published: December 2023

Rosemary is an herb exhibits biological properties, attenuates inflammation, oxidative stress, and improves lipid profile. Here, we evaluated the effects of rosemary aqueous extract (RE) on mice fed with a high-fat diet (HFD). Male C57BL/6 mice were administered a control diet or HFD for 10 weeks. The treated groups received RE in the diet at different concentrations: 25, 250, and 500 mg/100 g. After 10 weeks, serum concentrations of glucose, lipid, insulin, leptin, adiponectin, and cytokines were evaluated and the oxygen radical absorbance capacity was determined. Histological analysis was performed to determine the concentrations of triacylglycerides (TG), total cholesterol, cytokines, and antioxidant enzymes as well as the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation. The dietary RE ameliorated HFD-induced weight gain, adipose tissue weight, glucose intolerance, and insulin, leptin, and free fatty acid levels. Reduction in hepatic TG deposition was observed. The levels of inflammatory cytokines decreased, and the expression of genes involved in lipid metabolism increased. RE mitigated oxidative stress and reduced the production of reactive oxygen species in HepG2 and 3T3-L1 cells. Therefore, RE is a potential therapeutic agent for the prevention of inflammation and oxidative stress outcomes associated with obesity.
Segregation behavior of alloying elements at the fcc-Fe/TiC interface by first principles exploration
Authors: Guo Xin , Yang Ping , Zhang Jiayin , Ren Junqiang , Lu Xuefeng
Published: December 2023

In this paper, the effects of rare earth elements on the bonding strength and stability of TiC/fcc-Fe interface are explored by using the first-principles method based on density functional theory. The results show that the Ti terminal is more stable than the C terminal in the process of forming the interface. The alloying elements tend to segregate at position 2 on the side of fcc-Fe. The segregation of Mo, Nb, Cr and Ce alloying elements increases the interatomic electron cloud enrichment and consumption between the interfaces and enhances the Fe–Ti interactions. The d orbitals of Mo, Nb, Cr and Ce and f orbitals of Ce have strong hybridization with Fe-d orbitals and Ti-d orbitals electrons near the Fermi energy level, indicating an increase in bonding strength and stability of the interfaces. When Fe atoms are replaced by W, Ni and Al atoms, the covalent bond strength between interfacial atoms is reduced, thus weakening the interfacial bonding strength. This provides solid theoretical foundation with regard to further application in austenitic heat-resistant steel fields.
An End-to-End Video Coding Method via Adaptive Vision Transformer
Authors: Yang Haoyan , Zhou Mingliang , Shang Zhaowei , Pu Huayan , Luo Jun , Huang Xiaoxu , Wang Shilong , Cao Huajun , Wei Xuekai , Xian Weizhi
Published: December 2023

Deep learning-based video coding methods have demonstrated superior performance compared to classical video coding standards in recent years. The vast majority of the existing deep video coding (DVC) networks are based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), and their main drawback is that since CNNs are affected by the size of the receptive field, they cannot effectively handle long-range dependencies and local detail recovery. Therefore, how to better capture and process the overall structure as well as local texture information in the video coding task is the core issue. Notably, the transformer employs a self-attention mechanism that captures dependencies between any two positions in the input sequence without being constrained by distance limitations. This is an effective solution to the problem described above. In this paper, we propose end-to-end transformer-based adaptive video coding (TAVC). First, we compress the motion vector and residuals through a compression network built on the vision transformer (ViT) and design the motion compensation network based on ViT. Second, based on the requirement of video coding to adapt to different resolution inputs, we introduce a position encoding generator (PEG) as adaptive position encoding (APE) to maintain its translation invariance across different resolution video coding tasks. The experiment shows that for multiscale structural similarity index measurement (MS-SSIM) metrics, this method exhibits significant performance gaps compared to conventional engineering codecs, such as [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and VTM-15.2. We also achieved a good performance improvement compared to the CNN-based DVC methods. In the case of peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) evaluation metrics, TAVC also achieves good performance.
Charge radius relations derived from the nuclear masses for two neighboring isotopes
Authors: Jiao Bao-Bao
Published: December 2023

In this paper, we get the nuclear mass-density parameter of known mass and known charge radius by using the AME2020 nuclear mass database and the CR2013 nuclear charge radius database. For the nuclei with [Formula: see text], we obtained an empirical formula of the constant parameter equal to 0 for the difference of nuclear mass-density parameter between two neighboring isotope. That is, the nuclear mass-density parameter of the two neighboring isotopes was equal. By using this empirical formula combined with AME2020 and CR2013 databases, the calculated value of 625 nuclear charge radii was obtained. The root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) of nuclear charge radius that we have successfully obtained is [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]fm. In addition, one of the corrections is the neutron factor. This correction is the key improvement which reduces the RMSD to 0.0077[Formula: see text]fm. Considering the neutron shell effect, the different shell ranges were divided into two categories for correction, and the RMSD was reduced to 0.0056[Formula: see text]fm. Based on the revised empirical formula combined with the AME2020 database, the calculated and predicted values of nuclear charge radius were obtained with high accuracy. Some of these predictions are also very consistent with experimental values measured in recent years. In addition, we use BP neural network to study the difference of nuclear mass-density parameter on the basis of two categories. The RMSDs obtained are 0.0028[Formula: see text]fm and 0.0038[Formula: see text]fm, respectively. It can be seen that such a division has a certain degree of reliability and feasibility. These results show that the new relation proposed in this paper has simplicity and reliability, which can be compared with other local nuclear charge radius relations.
PORTFOLIO CHOICE WITH TIME HORIZON RISK
Authors: DIRER ALEXIS
Published: December 2023

I study the allocation problem of investors who hold their portfolio until reaching a target wealth. The strategy suppresses final wealth uncertainty but creates a time horizon risk. I begin with a classical mean variance model transposed in the duration domain, then study a dynamic portfolio choice problem with Generalized Expected Discounted Utility preferences. Using long-term US return data, I show in the mean variance model that a large amount of time horizon risk can be diversified away by investing a significant share of equities. In the dynamic model, more impatient investors are also more averse to timing risk and invest less in equities. The optimal equity share is downward trending as accumulated wealth approaches its target.
From Embodiment to Super-Embodiment: An Approach to Open-Ended and Human Aligned Intelligence/Mind
Authors: Kuniyoshi Yasuo
Published: December 2023

Embodiment is a key to solving the reliability and alignment issues in the current AI. This is because it imposes consistent constraints on the entire agent-environment interactions and accompanying information without specifying their actual contents, and the constraints are common to those with similar embodiment. The concept of embodiment should be generalized beyond mechanical properties of the body and information structure of sensory signals, encompassing internal organs and metabolism, mental processes, and inter-agent interactions, to “super-embodiment”. It can address sensibilities, values and morals toward artificial humanity, which will be critically important for the next generation AI. [Y. Kuniyoshi, Open-ended intelligence arises from emergence and development from embodiment, J. Robotics Soc. Jpn. 41(7) (2023) 585–590 (in Japanese); Y. Kuniyoshi, Fusing autonomy and sociality via embodied emergence and development of behaviour and cognition from fetal period, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B: Biol. Sci. 374 (2019) 20180031].
Solitary wave solution, traveling wave solution and other solutions of variable-coefficients Chiral Schrödinger equation
Authors: Yang Liu , Gao Ben
Published: December 2023

This paper investigates different kinds of exact solutions of variable-coefficients Chiral Schrödinger equation [Formula: see text]. In this equation, the fractional quantum Hall effect edge states are described. By the unified method, we successfully get the soliton, solitary and elliptic wave solutions. Through the [Formula: see text]-expansion and the exponential expansion methods, we acquire different traveling wave solutions. Using the extended [Formula: see text]-expansion method, we attain the Jacobi elliptic function solutions. So as to get more physical information about the exact solutions of VCCNLSE, [Formula: see text], density and contour maps are described.
A New Coherent Risk Measure of Entropic Value at Risk for Uncertain Systems
Authors: Jia Lifen
Published: December 2023

Uncertain risk analysis was initially explored by Liu, who introduced the concepts of loss function and risk index within uncertainty theory. Various risk measures, such as value at risk (VaR), tail VaR (TVaR), expected loss and entropic VaR (EVaR), have been proposed within probability theory. To date, Peng extended the concepts of VaR and TVaR, while Liu and Ralescu extended the notion of expected loss for uncertain systems. This paper mainly extends the concept of EVaR as a novel uncertain coherent risk measure. It will be demonstrated as the tightest upper bound one can find using Chernoff inequality for the VaR. In addition, we verify the properties of EVaR under uncertain measure, including positive homogeneity, translation invariance, monotonicity and subadditivity under independence. Furthermore, this paper provides a comparison of VaR, TVaR and EVaR under uncertain measure. Two examples will be given to illustrate this comparison.
Event Detection Techniques and Optimization for Earthquake Early Warning Application
Authors: Roy Anubrata , Sarkar Siddhartha , Goap Amarendra , Kumar Satish
Published: December 2023

An efficient, robust, reliable Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) can play a vital role in hazard mitigation by reducing false and missed alarms. This study represents a comparative analysis of state-of-the-art real-time event detection techniques for the EEW. In real-time event detection, a trade-off between detection reliability and delay in detection exists dominantly. This trade-off is the motivation behind the implementation and performance optimization of event detection techniques, namely Short-time-average over Long-time-average (STA/LTA), Multi-window Algorithm (MWA), and Modified Energy Ratio (MER) for EEW applicability. Earthquake data from the Kyoshin Network (K-NET), Japan along with noise events recorded by the Seismic Sensing Nodes (SSN) at the NCR, India is used for analysis and validation of detection techniques for the EEW system. The critical parameters such as signal window duration and threshold for event declaration are optimized for the detection techniques. An introspection of their performance measures in terms of delay in detection and detection accuracy for optimized parameters is presented. The median delay in detection is best for STA/LTA (0.53[Formula: see text]s) followed by MER (0.55[Formula: see text]s) and MWA (3.23[Formula: see text]s). The comparative analysis shows that MER provides the best results among the candidate techniques with a normalized balanced accuracy of 0.98 followed by STA/LTA (0.97) and MWA (0.82).
Efficient Video Transformers via Spatial-temporal Token Merging for Action Recognition
Authors: Feng Zhanzhou , Xu Jiaming , Ma Lei , Zhang Shiliang
Published: December 2023

Transformer has exhibited promising performance in various video recognition tasks but brings a huge computational cost in modeling spatial-temporal cues. This work aims to boost the efficiency of existing video transformers for action recognition through eliminating redundancies in their tokens and efficiently learning motion cues of moving objects. We propose a lightweight and plug-and-play module, namely Spatial-temporal Token Merger (STTM), to merge the tokens belonging to the same object into a more compact representation. STTM first adaptively identifies crucial object clues underlying the video as meta tokens. Similarity scores between input tokens and meta tokens are hence computed and used to guide the fusion of similar tokens in both spatial and temporal domains, respectively. To compensate for motion cues lost in the merging procedure, we compute the linear aggregation of spatial-temporal positions of tokens as motion features. STTM hence outputs a compact set of tokens fusing both appearance and motion features of moving objects. This procedure substantially decreases the number of tokens that need to be processed by each Transformer block and boosts the efficiency. As a general module, STTM can be applied to different layers of various video Transformers. Extensive experiments on the action recognition datasets Kinectics-400 and SSv2 demonstrate its promising performance. For example, it reduces the computation complexity of ViT by 38% while maintaining a similar performance on Kinectics-400. It also brings 1.7% gains of top-1 accuracy on SSv2 under the same computational cost.
Ensemble Learning Methods for Dirty Data: A Keynote at CIKM 2022
Authors: Liu Ling
Published: December 2023

Neural network ensemble is a collaborative learning paradigm that utilizes multiple neural networks to solve a complex learning problem. Constructing predictive models with high generalization performance is an important and yet most challenging goal for robust AI systems in the presence of dirty data. Given a target learning task, popular approaches have been dedicated to designing and finding the top performing model. However, it is difficult in general to estimate the best model when available data is finite, possibly dirty, or insufficient for the problem. The problem of dirty data in machine learning (ML) can be characterized by the out of distribution data and the digital or physical deception of data. Such dirty data may cause unintended or harmful behavior for well trained ML models. In this paper, a curated version of my keynote at ACM CIKM 2022, I will first give a brief overview of ensemble learning methodology. Then I will review different types of dirty data that could deceive well-trained ML models. Finally, I will describe a focal diversity optimized ensemble learning framework, developed at Georgia Tech, for measuring, enforcing, and combining multiple neural networks, delivering high generalization performance of ensemble learner, while maximizing ensemble utility and resilience to dirty data.

Date:
17 October 2022.
On a Few Responsibilities of (IR) Researchers (Fairness, Awareness, and Sustainability): A Keynote at ECIR 2023
Authors: Sakai Tetsuya
Published: December 2023

On the ECIR 2023 Virtual Day, I talked about three things: fairness, awareness, and sustainability. This extended abstract summarises the 50-minute talk and provides related resources.

Date:
31 March 2023.
Report on the 8th ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR 2023)
Authors: Gwizdka Jacek , Rieh Soo Young
Published: December 2023

The CHIIR 2023 conference was conducted as a hybrid event in Austin, TX, USA, attracting over 110 attendees both physically and virtually. The main conference program spanned over three days and comprised of single-track presentations. Two workshops were organized on the day prior to the main conference, while the doctoral consortium and tutorial took place one day after the main event. This report has been prepared by the conference General Co-Chairs.

Date:
19--23 March 2023.

Website:
https://sigir.org/chiir2023/.
Report on the 1st Workshop on Query Performance Prediction and Its Evaluation in New Tasks (QPP++ 2023) at ECIR 2023
Authors: Faggioli Guglielmo , Ferro Nicola , Mothe Josiane , Raiber Fiana , Fröbe Maik
Published: December 2023

Query Performance Prediction (QPP) is currently primarily applied to ad-hoc retrieval tasks. The Information Retrieval (IR) field is reaching new heights thanks to recent advances in large language models and neural networks, as well as emerging new ways of searching, such as conversational search. Such advancements are quickly spreading to adjacent research areas, including QPP, necessitating a reconsideration of how we perform and evaluate QPP. This workshop sought to elicit discussion on three topics related to the future of QPP: exploiting advances in IR to improve QPP, instantiating QPP on new search paradigms, and evaluating QPP on new tasks.

Date:
6 April 2023.

Website:
https://qpp.dei.unipd.it/.
Modelling and Explaining IR System Performance Towards Predictive Evaluation
Authors: Faggioli Guglielmo
Published: December 2023

Information Retrieval (IR) systems play a fundamental role in many modern commodities, including search engines (SEs), digital libraries, recommender systems, and social networks.

The IR task is particularly challenging because of the volatility of IR systems performance: users' information needs change daily, and so do the documents to be retrieved and the concept of what is relevant to a given information need. Therefore, the empirical offline evaluation of an IR system is a costly and slow post-hoc procedure, that happens after the system deployment. Given the challenges linked to empirical IR evaluation, predicting a system's performance before its deployment would add significant value to the development of an IR system.

In this manuscript, we place the cornerstone for the prediction of IR performance, by considering two closely related areas: the modeling of IR systems performance and the Query Performance Prediction (QPP). The former area allows us to identify those features that impact the most on the performance and that can be used as predictors, while the latter provides us with a starting point to instantiate the predictive task in IR.

Concerning the modeling of IR performance, we first investigate one of the most popular statistical tools, ANOVA. In particular, we compare traditional ANOVA with a recent approach, bootstrap ANOVA, and observe the different conclusions that can be achieved using these two different statistical tools [Faggioli and Ferro, 2021]. Secondly, using ANOVA, we study the concept of topic difficulty and observe that the topic difficulty is not an intrinsic property of the information need but stems from the formulation used to represent the topic [Culpepper et al., 2022]. Finally, we show how to use Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) as an alternative to the traditional linear modeling of IR performance [Faggioli et al., 2022]. We show how GLMs provide more powerful inference with comparable stability.

Our analyses on the QPP domain start with developing a predictor used to select among a set of reformulations for the same information need, the best-performing one for the systematic review task [Di Nunzio and Faggioli, 2021]. Secondly, we investigate how to classify queries as either semantic or lexical to predict whether neural models will perform better than lexical ones. Finally, given the challenges shown in the evaluation of the previous approaches, we devise a new evaluation procedure, dubbed sMARE [Faggioli et al., 2021]. sMARE allows moving from a single point estimation of the performance to a distributional one, allowing us to achieve improved comparisons between QPP models and more precise analyses.

Awarded by:
University of Padova, Padova, Italy on 20 March 2023.

Supervised by:
Nicola Ferro.

Available at:
https://www.research.unipd.it/handle/11577/3472979.
From the Editor-in-Chief
Authors: Gorla Daniele
Published: December 2023

After a summer full of scientific events, we are now at the last issue of 2023. This issue is quite rich, with two interesting technical columns and the report of the conference organizers of LICS'23, the SIGLOG flagship conference, and of CADE/FSCD.
Complexity Column
Authors: Bulatov Andrei
Published: December 2023

Algorithmic problems in groups and semigroups are a classic research area that has attracted quite a bit of attention since the seminal works by Markov and others. These results demonstrated that very natural questions such as the Group Membership problem can be undecidable even in groups of matrices, and even in decidable cases can be hard. Moreover, the exact complexity of such problems can be difficult to determine. The collection of computational problems being studied is rich and include, apart from the Group and Semigroup Membership problems, the Word problem, the Intersection problem for subgroups and subsemigroups, and many more.
Conference Reports
Authors: Katoen Joost-Pieter
Published: December 2023

After the pandemic, it is great that conferences and workshops are more or less "back to normal". I really enjoy meeting colleagues - some of them for the first time after four years - in person, listening to their talks, having entertaining chats, and nice dinners. Thanks to Daniele, Igor and Marco, this SIGLOG newsletter includes two conference reports. Daniele reports on CADE-29 and FSCD 2023 that were jointly held in Rome in early July. It was the first time that these conferences were co-located and this joiner was a success; I am sure that more of such joint events will happen in the near future. Igor and Marco report on LICS 2023 that was held end of July in Boston. This was the 38th edition of LICS, the flagship conference of SIGLOG.
CADE and FSCD: A Successful Joint Venture in 2023
Authors: Gorla Daniele
Published: December 2023

CADE-29 and FSCD2023 took place in Rome, from July 1st to 6th, 2023; this was the first time that the two conferences were joint. The colocation was organized in such a way that the two conferences and their associated workshops overlapped. In particular, CADE started the first four days, first in parallel with FSCD pre-workshops and then with FSCD itself; the latter was run in the last four days of the event, overlapping in the last two days with CADE post-workshops.
Fixed-Point Results for Mappings Satisfying Implicit Relation in Orthogonal Fuzzy Metric Spaces
Authors: Sonam  , Rathore Vandana , Pal Amita , Bhardwaj Ramakant , Narayan Satyendra
Published: December 2023

This research paper introduces a comprehensive study on fixed points in orthogonal fuzzy metric spaces. The primary objective is to establish the existence and uniqueness of fixed points for self-mappings satisfying implicit relation criteria in complete orthogonal fuzzy metric spaces. By doing so, our proven results extend and generalise well-known findings in the field of fixed-point theory. To demonstrate the significance of the established results, several related examples are provided, serving to support and validate the theoretical findings in orthogonal fuzzy metric spaces. The implications of these results are discussed, shedding light on their potential applications in various practical scenarios. In addition to theoretical advancements, the paper also demonstrates a practical application of our established results in solving integral equations. This application exemplifies the effectiveness and versatility of the proposed approach in real-world problem-solving scenarios.
Pathologic Femur Fracture in an Immunocompetent Healthy Young Adult due to Acute Osteomyelitis
Authors: Goyette Evan R. J. , Georgantzoglou Natalia , Kerr Darcy A. , Cheung Yvonne , Henderson Eric R. , Linos Konstantinos
Published: December 2023

An immunocompetent 33-year-old woman presented with a pathologic femur fracture after one month of progressively worsening right thigh pain. Open biopsy demonstrated acute suppurative osteomyelitis despite the lack of clinical risk factors. The polymicrobial infection was successfully treated with three operative procedures and culture-specific antibiotic agents. Acute osteomyelitis, while an uncommon cause of pathologic fracture, must always be on the differential diagnosis, even when no obvious predisposing factors are present. When investigating for an infectious etiology in cases such as our own, considering immunodeficiency syndromes alongside the more typical causes of osteomyelitis is encouraged.
TROP2 Is Associated with Primary Resistance to Immune Checkpoint Inhibition in Patients with Advanced Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer
Authors: Bessede Alban , Peyraud Florent , Besse Benjamin , Cousin Sophie , Cabart Mathilde , Chomy François , Rey Christophe , Lara Oren , Odin Ophélie , Nafia Imane , Vanhersecke Lucile , Barlesi Fabrice , Guégan Jean-Philippe , Italiano Antoine
Published: December 2023

Purpose:

Mechanisms of primary resistance to inhibitors of the programmed cell death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) signaling axis in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are still poorly understood. While some studies suggest the involvement of trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (TROP2) in modulating tumor cell resistance to therapeutic drugs, its specific role in the context of PD-1/PD-L1 axis blockade is not definitively established.

Experimental Design:

We performed high-throughput analysis of transcriptomic data from 891 NSCLC tumors from patients treated with either the PD-L1 inhibitor atezolizumab or chemotherapy in two large randomized clinical trials. To confirm our results at the protein level, we complemented this transcriptional approach by performing a multiplex immunofluorescence analysis of tumor tissue samples as well as a proteomic profiling of plasma.

Results:

We observed a significant association of TROP2 overexpression with worse progression-free survival and overall survival on PD-L1 blockade, independent of other prognostic factors. Importantly, we found increased TROP2 expression to be predictive of survival in patients treated with atezolizumab but not chemotherapy. TROP2 overexpression was associated with decreased T-cell infiltration. We confirmed these results at the proteomic level both on tumor tissue and in plasma.

Conclusions:

Our results suggest an important contribution of TROP2 expression to the primary resistance to PD-L1 blockade in NSCLC. TROP2-biomarker–based strategy may be relevant in selecting patients with NSCLC who are more likely to benefit from a combination of immunotherapy and an anti-TROP2 agent.
Self-Reported Fatigue by the Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire and Mortality in Brazilian Hemodialysis Patients: The PROHEMO
Authors: Gutiérrez-Peredo Gabriel Brayan , Silva Martins Márcia Tereza , da Silva Fernanda Albuquerque , Lopes Marcelo Barreto , Lopes Gildete Barreto , Norris Keith C. , Lopes Antonio Alberto
Published: December 2023

Background: The existing data support the Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire (CFQ-11) as a valid instrument to assess fatigue in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. The objective of this work was to investigate whether self-reported fatigue can serve as an independent prognostic indicator for mortality in MHD patients. Methods: The data are from 233 adult patients enrolled in the cohort “The Prospective Study of the Prognosis of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients” (PROHEMO) developed in Salvador, BA, Brazil. The Brazilian version of the validated CFQ-11 was used to calculate self-reported fatigue. The CFQ-11 scores may range from 0 to 33; higher scores represent more fatigue. Fatigue categories were created based on proposed cut point: absence or mild degree if CFQ-11 scores <4 and moderate to severe if scores ≥4. Cox models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of associations between fatigue and mortality with adjustments for sociodemographic factors, time on dialysis, education, economic class, hemoglobin concentration, diabetes, heart failure, depression, and other psychiatric disorders. Results: The mean age was 51.5 ± 2.5 years, 58% were male, and 30% were diabetic. Self-reported moderate to severe fatigue was reported by 71% of patients. The mortality rate was 8.6 cases/100 person-years. Patients with moderate to severe fatigue had a more than threefold mortality rate (HR = 3.07, 95% CI: 1.19, 7.93) compared to patients with absent or mild fatigue, after extensive adjustments for covariates. Conclusion: The study provides evidence that self-reported fatigue can help identify MHD patients at higher risk of earlier death.
Some remarks against non-epistemic accounts of immediate premises in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics
Authors: Zuppolini Breno
Published: December 2023

Most interpretations of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics believe that the term ‘ameson’ is used to describe the principles or foundations of a given system of justification or explanation as epistemically prior to or more fundamental than the other propositions in the system. Epistemic readings (as I shall call them) arguably constitute a majority in the secondary literature. This predominant view has been challenged by Robin Smith (1986) and Michael Ferejohn (1994; 2013), who propose interpretations that should be classified as non-epistemic according to the definition above. My aim in this article is purely negative. I intend to show that these non-epistemic interpretations are liable to serious objections and are in conflict with some important features of Aristotle’s theory of demonstration.
O ponto de intersecção entre compostos naturais propriamente e não propriamente substanciais em Aristóteles
Authors: Carvalho Rodrigo Romão de
Published: December 2023

Ao longo da Metafísica e dos tratados de filosofia natural, Aristóteles toma os organismos vivos como os exemplos paradigmáticos de οὐσίαι (substâncias) naturais. No entanto, além dos organismos vivos, em certas passagens o filósofo menciona, também, as partes dos viventes e os elementos como exemplos de substâncias. Contudo, em outras passagens, Aristóteles parece considerar que as partes dos seres vivos e os corpos elementares não representariam, genuinamente ou propriamente, entidades substanciais. Por outro lado, em nenhum momento, o filósofo parece indicar expressamente os corpos homogêneos inanimados (metais e minerais), tratados no livro IV dos Meteorológicos, enquanto tipos de seres substanciais. Neste artigo, pretendo, então, examinar se as partes do vivente e os elementos poderiam, de fato, contar ou não como exemplares genuínos de substâncias naturais; e em que medida os corpos homogêneos inanimados, a despeito de não serem explicitamente citados na condição de entes substanciais, poderiam, a partir do exame de suas naturezas composicionais, sustentarem, de uma maneira estrita, o título de οὐσίαι naturais.