bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Overcoming the Barriers to Teaching Teamwork to Undergraduates in STEM
Authors: Goldsmith Gregory R. , Aiken Miranda L. , Camarillo-Abad Hector M. , Diki Kamal , Gardner Daniel L. , Stipčić Mario , Espeleta Javier F.
Published: March 2024

This essay synthesizes key issues associated with teaching teamwork, with the goal of providing the basis for overcoming the barriers to teaching teamwork in life science and STEM classrooms. It focuses on the pedagogy and curricula for teaching teamwork itself, rather than team-based learning as a pedagogical approach for teaching STEM curricula.
Novel Microemulsion Containing Benzocaine and Fusidic Acid Simultaneously: Formulation, Characterization, and In Vitro Evaluation for Wound Healing
Authors: Arpa Muhammet Davut , Çağlar Emre Şefik , Güreşçi Dilara , Sipahi Hande , Üstündağ Okur Neslihan
Published: March 2024

Modern drug carrier technologies, such as microemulsions with small droplet sizes and high surface areas, improve the ability of low water solubility active ingredients to permeate and localize. The goal of this study was to create microemulsion formulations for wound healing that contained both fusidic acid (FA), an antibacterial agent, and benzocaine (BNZ), a local anesthetic. Studies on characterization were carried out, including viscosity, droplet size, and zeta potential. The drug-loaded microemulsion had a stable structure with –3.014 ± 1.265 mV of zeta potential and 19.388 ± 0.480 nm of droplet size. In both in vitro release and ex vivo permeability studies, the microemulsion was compared with Fucidin cream and oily BNZ solution. According to the drug release studies, BNZ release from the microemulsion and the BNZ solution showed a similar profile (p > 0.05), while FA release from the microemulsion had a higher drug release compared to Fucidin cream (p < 0.001). The microemulsion presented lower drug permeation (p > 0.05) for both active ingredients, on the other hand, provided higher drug accumulation compared to the control preparations. Moreover, according to the results of in vitro wound healing activity, the microemulsion indicated a dose-dependent wound healing potential with the highest wound healing activity at the highest concentrations. To the best of our knowledge, this developed BNZ- and FA-loaded microemulsion would be a promising candidate to create new opportunities for wound healing thanks to present the active ingredients, which have low water solubility, in a single formulation and achieved higher accumulation than control preparations.

Graphical Abstract
Intraoperative Anesthetic Strategies to Mitigate Early Allograft Dysfunction After Orthotopic Liver Transplantation: A Narrative Review
Authors: Wilson Elizabeth A. , Weinberg Devin L. , Patel Gaurav P.
Published: March 2024

Orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) is the most effective treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD). Hepatic insufficiency within a week of OLT, termed early allograft dysfunction (EAD), occurs in 20% to 25% of deceased donor OLT recipients and is associated with morbidity and mortality. Primary nonfunction (PNF), the most severe form of EAD, leads to death or retransplantation within 7 days. The etiology of EAD is multifactorial, including donor, recipient, and surgery-related factors, and largely driven by ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). IRI is an immunologic phenomenon characterized by dysregulation of cellular oxygen homeostasis and innate immune defenses in the allograft after temporary cessation (ischemia) and later restoration (reperfusion) of oxygen-rich blood flow. The rising global demand for OLT may lead to the use of marginal allografts, which are more susceptible to IRI, and thus lead to an increased incidence of EAD. It is thus imperative the anesthesiologist is knowledgeable about EAD, namely its pathophysiology and intraoperative strategies to mitigate its impact. Intraoperative strategies can be classified by 3 phases, specifically donor allograft procurement, storage, and recipient reperfusion. During procurement, the anesthesiologist can use pharmacologic preconditioning with volatile anesthetics, consider preharvest hyperoxemia, and attenuate the use of norepinephrine as able. The anesthesiologist can advocate for normothermic regional perfusion (NRP) and machine perfusion during allograft storage at their institution. During recipient reperfusion, the anesthesiologist can optimize oxygen exposure, consider adjunct anesthetics with antioxidant-like properties, and administer supplemental magnesium. Unfortunately, there is either mixed, little, or no data to support the routine use of many free radical scavengers. Given the sparse, limited, or at times conflicting evidence supporting some of these strategies, there are ample opportunities for more research to find intraoperative anesthetic strategies to mitigate the impact of EAD and improve postoperative outcomes in OLT recipients.
Variations of Bodies in Motion and Relation
Authors: Povinelli Elizabeth A.
Published: March 2024

This chapter builds on Elizabeth Povinelli’s reflections on how philosophies and anthropologies of radical potentiality—scholarship that posits a political or social otherwise emerges in moments of extreme social indetermination and of radical threshold experiences—fail to differentiate between lives lived as the object of colonial racism and those lived as its beneficiaries. This chapter reflects on how one might understand the social and political stakes of Serres’s attempt to find a universal ground for the variations of the body by putting Serres’s writings in conversation with those of Édouard Glissant. It asks what are the political stakes of theories of radical potentiality that are anchored in the exhausted relationship between the general and specific, the ontologically given and the socially distributed, universal quantification (All bodies are x, All beings…, All human beings…, All social relations…) and existential quantification (for some…).
Forms of Proximity
Authors: Pipyrou Stavroula
Published: March 2024

The chapter looks at how two minority groups—the Grecanici in Italy and Pontians in Greece—relate to the category “minority” through navigation of multiple sources of knowledge and fluid proximities. It also asks what happens when there is too much proximity, when connection is unwanted or threatening, or when institutions operate through categories in search of security and systems of governance. There is often a grind between Serresian fluidity and ethnographic reality: categories of ordering and sorting, such as “minority,” “refugee,” and “ethnicity,” carry indexes of power and serve disciplinary functions. Thus, the chapter proposes that Serres be read in conversation with Sigmund Freud’s “narcissism of minor differences” to offer alternate angles on the same problem—how much connection is desirable, and where does categorization become an inevitable tool of governance for sorting and sanitizing difference?
Michel Serres, Wisdom, Anthropology
Authors: Candea Matei
Published: March 2024

This chapter asks what might happen if Serres’s writing is considered not as “theory” but rather as an instance of the genre of “wisdom literature.” From that angle, Serres’s writing offers up a sometimes uncomfortable mirror to anthropologists. Conversely, a foray into some recent attempts to map out a comparative anthropology of wisdom help us characterize and tease out some key aspects of Serres’s method. At the intersection between Serres and anthropology, this chapter explores the fraught relation between wisdom and knowledge, the interplay of exemplarity and exception in characterizations of wisdom, and the paradoxical tension between wisdom, difference, and “culture.”
Rethinking Brain Fag Syndrome
Authors: Heaton Matthew M.
Published: March 2024

Matthew M. Heaton, “Rethinking Brain Fag Syndrome: Students, Symptoms, and a Late Colonial Survey in Nigeria”: In 1959, students at five all-male secondary schools in Nigeria received questionnaires from Raymond Prince, a Canadian psychiatrist temporarily attached to Aro Mental Hospital in Abeokuta, asking them to identify physical and mental symptoms that they had experienced. Prince interpreted the responses as evidence of “brain fag syndrome,” a culture-bound disorder that he claimed was caused by culture clash between the communal “Nigerian personality” and the individualistic demands of the British education system. This chapter revisits the original questionnaires but reads them for the rich variety of interpretive possibilities contained in the students’ comments. While some “symptoms” lend themselves to medicalization, ultimately many of the students seem to be revealing concerns not so much about their own mental states as their uneasiness about their place in an inscrutable education system and a “nervous” late colonial society.
Perspectives on polarity – exploring biological asymmetry across scales
Authors: Glazenburg Marieke Margaretha , Hettema Nynke Marije , Laan Liedewij , Remy Ophélie , Laloux Géraldine , Brunet Thibaut , Chen Xin , Tee Yee Han , Wen Wenyu , Rizvi Mohd Suhail , Jolly Mohit Kumar , Riddell Meghan
Published: March 2024

In this Perspective, Journal of Cell Science invited researchers working on cell and tissue polarity to share their thoughts on unique, emerging or open questions relating to their field. The goal of this article is to feature ‘voices’ from scientists around the world and at various career stages, to bring attention to innovative and thought-provoking topics of interest to the cell biology community. These voices discuss intriguing questions that consider polarity across scales, evolution, development and disease. What can yeast and protists tell us about the evolution of cell and tissue polarity in animals? How are cell fate and development influenced by emerging dynamics in cell polarity? What can we learn from atypical and extreme polarity systems? How can we arrive at a more unified biophysical understanding of polarity? Taken together, these pieces demonstrate the broad relevance of the fascinating phenomenon of cell polarization to diverse fundamental biological questions.
Ocena możliwości wykorzystania punktów widokowych projektowanego Geoparku Małopolski Przełom Wisły w edukacji geomorfologicznej i geoturystyce
Authors: Gajek Grzegorz , Zgłobicki Wojciech
Published: March 2024

Efektywne działania na rzecz rozwoju geoedukacji i geoturystyki powinny w pierwszej kolejności opierać się o geostanowiska, które mogą budzić zainteresowanie turystów ze względu na swoje walory estetyczne. Warunek taki spełniają punkty widokowe – duża liczba odwiedzających daje szansę na wykorzystanie ich potencjału naukowego. Celami pracy były: a) analiza zasięgu widoczności dla 26 punktów widokowych położonych w obrębie projektowanego Geoparku Małopolski Przełom Wisły, w odniesieniu do występujących tu krajobrazów i form ukształtowania terenu oraz b) ocena ich walorów geoturystycznych w oparciu o autorską metodę. Większość punktów widokowych cechujących się wysokimi walorami naukowo-edukacyjnymi ma również wysokie walory turystyczno-funkcjonalne, co daje dobre podstawy do ich wykorzystania w geoturystyce i geoedukacji. Wskazano punkty widokowe, które mogą stanowić podstawę opracowania szlaku geoturystycznego, prezentującego kluczowe elementy ukształtowania terenu obszaru.
Η ηλεκτρονική διακυβέρνηση ως παράγοντας αλλαγής της οργανωσιακής κουλτούρας στον δημόσιο τομέα
Authors: Χατζή Βασιλική
Published: March 2024

Σκοπός της διατριβής είναι να διερευνήσει την επίδραση που άσκησαν οι νέες τεχνολογίες στην οργανωσιακή κουλτούρα. Εστιάζοντας στον χώρο των δημοσίων συμβάσεων επιχειρείται να εντοπιστούν τα χαρακτηριστικά της ψηφιακής κουλτούρας, ο βαθμός στον οποίο αυτή έχει υιοθετηθεί, ο τρόπος με τον οποίο έχει επηρεάσει την αντίληψη και τη συμπεριφορά των εργαζομένων και, κυρίως, τις ανάγκες που έχει δημιουργήσει για το μοντέλο διοίκησης και λειτουργίας των οργανισμών και την κατεύθυνση στην οποία πρέπει να μετακινηθεί η κουλτούρα τους. Στο πλαίσιο αυτό, αναλύονται έννοιες όπως, κουλτούρα, οργανωσιακή κουλτούρα, αλλαγή διοίκησης, ηλεκτρονική ή ψηφιακή διακυβέρνηση και ηλεκτρονικές δημόσιες συμβάσεις. Η μελέτη περίπτωσης, μέσα από ένα ερωτηματολόγιο δύο φάσεων επιχειρεί να εντοπίσει την αντίληψη των εργαζομένων για τις νέες τεχνολογίες και τις ανάγκες που αυτές έχουν δημιουργήσει για τον τρόπο και τη μορφή διοίκησης των οργανισμών. Τα παραπάνω οδηγούν στη διατύπωση μιας σειράς προτάσεων και καλών πρακτικών ώστε οι οργανισμοί να υιοθετήσουν αυτό που διεθνώς αποκαλείται ψηφιακή κουλτούρα. Σε ένα συνεχώς εξελισσόμενο και απρόβλεπτο περιβάλλον, οι προτάσεις δεν αποτελούν μοναδική λύση αλλά στοχεύουν στη βέλτιστη προσαρμογή τόσο των οργανισμών, όσο και των εργαζομένων. Τέλος, αναδεικνύονται και ζητήματα προς μελλοντική διερεύνηση, όπως η χρήση του blockchain και της τεχνητής νοημοσύνης στις δημόσιες συμβάσεις.
Corneal blindness in the developing world: The role of prevention strategies
Authors: Kate Anahita , Basu Sayan
Published: March 2024

Corneal blindness is an important contributor to the burden of global blindness and has a greater prevalence in low-income countries of the developing world where resources and infrastructure are limited. The causes of corneal blindness too are different from high-income countries and include infectious keratitis, ocular trauma, and xerophthalmia. Persons with these indications tend to have unfavourable outcomes after corneal transplantation, limiting their chances of benefitting from this sight-saving procedure. However, most causes of corneal blindness in the developing world are preventable. This highlights the importance of understanding the unique challenges in these regions and the need for targeted interventions. This article discusses various prevention strategies, including primordial, primary, and secondary prevention, aimed at reducing the burden of corneal blindness in low-income countries. These include capacity building, training, and awareness campaigns to reduce the risk factors of ocular trauma, infectious keratitis, and to improve access to first aid. It is also important to promote safe eye practices and tackle nutritional deficiencies through public health interventions and policy changes. Providing the required training to general ophthalmologists in the management of basic corneal surgeries and diseases and enhancing the accessibility of eye care services in rural areas will ensure early treatment and prevent sequelae. Current treatment modalities belong to the tertiary level of prevention and are largely limited to corneal transplantation. In developing nations, there is a scarcity of donor corneal tissue necessitating an urgent expansion of eye banking services. Alternative approaches to corneal transplantation such as 3D printed corneas, cultured stem cells, and biomaterials should also be explored to meet this demand. Thus, there is a need for collaborative efforts between healthcare professionals, policymakers, and communities to implement effective prevention strategies and reduce the prevalence of corneal blindness in the developing world.
Case Report: Case report: Rapidly progressing tooth wear dominated by intrinsic and extrinsic erosion
Authors: Marchan Shivaughn , Ollivierra Estévan , Diaz Alexa , Santo Rochard
Published: March 2024

Tooth wear is multi-factorial presenting as a combination of abrasion, attrition, and erosion. This case report represents a case of combined tooth wear in a 46-year-old Indo-Trinidadian male, with a predominant erosive component with both the clinical signs and features of intrinsic and extrinsic erosion. This patient case is unique since the wear predominated by dental erosion has occurred rapidly evidenced by the physical clinical appearance of a lack of compensation and the upper left premolars and molars relatively unaffected by the overall effects of tooth wear. This lack of compensation, where opposing teeth have not supra-erupted to maintain inter-arch stability, and the maintenance of occlusal vertical dimension on the left due to the non-worn posterior maxillary teeth, provides the benefit of simplifying subsequent restorative management. The medical and diet history corroborates the diagnoses of intrinsic and extrinsic erosion respectively. Complications noted with rapid tooth wear, such as dentine sensitivity and pulpal necrosis are known sequelae of tooth wear however the patient presented in this case report shows a concomitant high caries experience and poor oral hygiene. Cases such as the one presented here require not only comprehensive dental management, utilizing a restorative approach but also medical referral for confirmation of a diagnosis and management of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Inherent to the management of this patient should be a multidisciplinary medical and dental approach, with confirmation and management of the cause of the intrinsic erosion as well as restorative dental management, together with dietary counseling to mitigate the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic sources of acid on dental hard tissue. A key lesson learned from this case is the importance of history and targeted questioning when trying to determine the cause of tooth wear dominated by intrinsic and extrinsic erosion.
Equine gastric ulcer syndrome: is feeding key?
Authors: Moore-Colyer Meriel
Published: March 2024

Equine gastric ulcer syndrome is caused by the interaction of acid with any part of the stomach mucosa. It is divided into two main categories: equine squamous gastric disease and equine glandular gastric disease. This review explores the highly prevalent equine squamous gastric disorder, the wide range of symptoms, correct diagnosis and the influence of management factors on the initiation of the condition. Although stress, weaning and exercise are all documented factors in the development of equine squamous gastric disorder, this article examines the main diet-related causes and examines why feeding regimens can have a significant impact on the disease, and how best to feed to minimise the development of equine squamous gastric disorder.
Equine gastric ulcer syndrome in horses and foals
Authors: van den Boom Robin , Kranenburg Lieuwke
Published: March 2024

Gastric ulcers are common in adult horses and can also be present in foals. It is important to realise that ulcers can occur in the squamous and/or glandular mucosa of the stomach, and that these represent two different disease entities, namely equine squamous gastric disease and equine glandular gastric disease. Horses suspected of having gastric ulcers based on clinical signs should undergo gastroscopy to confirm the presence of ulcers and determine their severity, although there is a poor correlation between gastroscopic findings and clinical severity. As both squamous and glandular gastric disease are the result of tissue damage caused by gastric acid, the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole forms the mainstay of ulcer treatment. In cases of glandular gastric disease, sucralfate is usually added to the therapeutic plan. As several husbandry and management practices are known to be risk factors for the development of ulcers, these should be addressed during treatment and to prevent recurrence.
Open-Format Prescription Maps for Variable Rate Spraying in Orchard Farming
Authors: Rovira-Más Francisco , Saiz-Rubio Verónica , Cuenca Andrés , Ortiz Coral , Teruel Montano Pérez , Ortí Enrique
Published: March 2024

Highlights

Straightforward procedure to code prescription maps independent of manufacturers.

Methodology suitable for orchard crops and vineyards including pressures up to 10 bar and flowrates up to 100 L/min.

Algorithm validated for both trellis-based continuous rows and traditional orchard rows of discrete trees.

Method scalable to other agricultural operations, such as fertilizing or data registration for auditing purposes.

Abstract. The implementation of crop protection solutions contributing to significant reductions in the use and risk of chemical pesticides has motivated the interest of site-specific systems, such as variable rate technologies based on user-set prescriptions. However, the practical implementation of variable rates has been dissuasive for many growers who are not familiar with digital solutions, as proprietary firmware is often difficult to grasp. This paper presents a method for formatting prescription maps that is independent of manufacturers, can be easily and freely implemented by industry and can be adopted by growers not familiar with advanced software tools. The methodology was successfully demonstrated for perennial specialty crops, in particular for trellised vineyards in vertical shoot position and for traditional olive groves. Results showed that the variations within user prescription maps were translated to the fields, but flow errors appeared due to the challenge of measuring flow and pressure in the highly pulsating actuation of pulse-width-modulated (PWM) valves. Such errors diminished with the use of low-volume rates and the optimal selection of the nozzles when adjusted to the real pressure measured in the field. The use cases validated in the field showed the consistency of the method for highly populated prescription maps of 1,221 points/ha accessible to advanced farmers, as well as for modest maps of 80 points/ha within reach of the majority of growers. Keywords: Automated map building, Local tangent plane coordinates, Orchard crop operations, Precision farming, Prescription maps, User-centered approach, Variable rate spraying.
Is Shape Real? Controversies over the Nature and Reality of Shape in the Works of Vasubandhu and his Commentators
Authors: Szanyi Szilvia
Published: March 2024

The classification of sense objects, especially visible objects, is a controversial issue in Abhidharma philosophy, with a significant part of the debate revolving around the nature and reality of shape ( saṃsthāna ). The purpose of this article is to expose the dynamics of the Abhidharmic debates over shape and unpack the laconic arguments we find in various works attributed to Vasubandhu and his commentators Yaśomitra and Sthiramati. Studying these arguments is essential not only to gain a better understanding of Abhidharma metaphysics. They also illuminate important aspects of the Abhidharmic theories of perception, such as their views on common sensibles or the relationship between perception and inference. Furthermore, as I point out at the end of the paper, appreciating the Abhidharmic debate over the reality of shape also sheds more light on the cryptic arguments Vasubandhu puts forward in verse 15 of the Viṃśikā .
High-speed full-color computer-generated holography using a digital micromirror device and fiber-coupled RGB laser diode
Authors: Yoshida Shuhei
Published: March 2024

Computer-generated holography (CGH) can be used to display three-dimensional (3D) images and has a special feature that no other technology possesses: it can reconstruct arbitrary object wavefronts. In this study, we investigated a high-speed full-color reconstruction method for improving the realism of 3D images produced using CGH. The proposed method uses a digital micromirror device (DMD) with a high-speed switching capability as the hologram display device. It produces 3D video by time-division multiplexing using an optical system incorporating fiber-coupled laser diodes (LDs) operating in red, green, and blue wavelengths. The wavelength dispersion of the DMD is compensated for by multiplying plane waves on the hologram. Fourier transform optics are used to separate the object, conjugate, and zeroth-order light, thus eliminating the need for an extensive 4f system. The resources used in this research, such as the programs used for the hologram generation and the schematics of the LD driver, are available on GitHub.
Spectrum mapping technology based creation of a color-contrast reading environment to reach comfort and clarity
Authors: Zhang Yuhui , Yao Qi , Yang Zhibing , Qin Bang , Chen Shenfei , Xu Wenqian , Wu Peiyu , Hao Kexin , Shen Yedong , Wang Dong , Zhao Zhihong
Published: March 2024

Reading with a bit of yellowish or greenish paper, as compared to white paper, is thought to be more comfortable and friendly, and can help decrease eye fatigue to some degree. In this work, we try to map the light of different colors on a given paper within a region of interest to alter the colors presented by the paper and consequently influence the reading experience. We conducted an ergonomic experiment to study the comfort and clarity under consistent illuminance levels. We adopted 6 color series(red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta), 5 chroma levels(0, 10, 20, 30, 40), and 4 types of paper with the same hue(yellow) but different lightness(the white, light yellow, yellow, and dark yellow), and conducted pairwise selection experiments within each light color series. Results show that white and low chroma (≈10) color characteristics contribute to comfort, while higher chroma blue(30∼40) color benefits clarity. Referring to white, low chroma greenish and yellowish color characteristics are preferred in terms of comfort and clarity. This work proposes the spectrum mapping technology to endow the paper with new color effects and verifies that although spectrum compositions might differ, people’s preferences and comfort perception are consistent with the same object color.
Low-loss tantalum pentoxide photonics with a CMOS-compatible process
Authors: Geng Zhaoting , Cheng Weiren , Yan Zhiwei , Yi Qiyuan , Liu Zhenyu , You Mingjian , Yu Xiaolun , Wu Pengzhuo , Ding Ning , Tang Xingyu , Wang Min , Shen Li , Zhao Qiancheng
Published: March 2024

We report a Ta2O5 photonic platform with a propagation loss of 0.49 dB/cm at 1550 nm, of 0.86 dB/cm at 780 nm, and of 3.76 dB/cm at 2000 nm. The thermal bistability measurement is conducted in the entire C-band for the first time to reveal the absorption loss of Ta2O5 waveguides, offering guidelines for further reduction of the waveguide loss. We also characterize the Ta2O5 waveguide temperature response, which shows favorable thermal stability. The fabrication process temperature is below 350°C, which is friendly to integration with active optoelectronic components.
Large depth-of-field fringe projection profilometry applied to defocused scenes
Authors: Chen Peng , Wu Yunjie , Wang Shixiang , Kong Lingbao
Published: March 2024

Fringe projection profilometry (FPP) is a widely adopted technique for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction. However, its depth-of-field (DOF) is constrained when reconstructing defocused scenes, mainly due to limitations in the camera model and image blur. This study introduces a camera model based on the ideal optical system, which effectively reduces the systematic errors associated with the conventional pinhole camera model. A calibration method to determine the optical system parameters of the improved camera model is proposed. Additionally, the point spread function (PSF) of the camera is calibrated and the image is deblurred through non-blind deconvolution, thereby minimizing the phase aliasing resulting from defocus. Experimental results validate the potential of the proposed method for accurate 3D reconstruction in scenes with a wide depth range.
Optical feedback frequency locking: impact of directly reflected field and responding strategies
Authors: Wan Fu , Wang Rui , Ge Hu , Kong Weiping , Sun Hongcheng , Wu Haoyuan , Zhao Gang , Ma Weiguang , Chen Weigen
Published: March 2024

The challenges presented by the directly reflected field in optical feedback cavity-enhanced spectroscopy systems serve as substantial obstacles, introducing additional complexity to existing systems and compromising their sensitivity, as the underlying mechanisms of its adverse effects remain not fully understood. This study aims to address this issue by introducing a comprehensive analytical model. Additionally, frequency locking can be achieved by decreasing the feedback rate, the laser’s linewidth enhancement factor, and the directly reflected field, and by increasing the refractive index of the gain medium, the length of the laser’s resonant cavity, the electric field reflectivity of the laser’s output facet, and the resonant field. These parameters can affect the feedback coupling rate pre-factor, and for a resonant cavity with a length of 0.394 m, optical feedback can only be established when the feedback coupling rate pre-factor is less than 1.05 × 109. Through experimental validation, we successfully confirm the effectiveness of the proposed solution in eliminating the detrimental effects of the directly reflected field. Importantly, this suppression is achieved without compromising other aspects of the system's performance. The research findings not only offer the potential to optimize various cavity-enhanced spectroscopy systems that rely on optical feedback but also show promising applications in advancing the development of high-purity spectrum diode lasers utilizing optical feedback from an external high-finesse cavity.
Data-driven method of super-resolution image recovery for speckle-illumination photoacoustic computed tomography
Authors: Zhou Tianhua , Li Boyi , Liu Xin , Ta Dean
Published: March 2024

Methods have been proposed in recent years aimed at pushing photoacoustic imaging resolution beyond the acoustic diffraction limit, among which those based on random speckle illumination show particular promise. In this Letter, we propose a data-driven deep learning approach to processing the added spatiotemporal information resulting from speckle illumination, where the neural network learns the distribution of absorbers from a series of different samplings of the imaged area. In ex-vivo experiments based on the tomography configuration with prominent artifacts, our method successfully breaks the acoustic diffraction limit and delivers better results in identifying individual targets when compared against a selection of other leading methods.
Extending the reach of multi-core fiber via Voronoi constellations with concatenated multilevel coding
Authors: Zhao Can , Chen Bin , Lei Yi , Li Shen , Cai Jiaqi , Hu Daohui , Fang Wenkai , Sun Lin
Published: March 2024

This Letter proposes a novel, to the best of our knowledge, coded modulation scheme for randomly coupled multi-core fiber (RC-MCF) via multidimensional (MD) constellation with concatenated two-level multilevel coding (MLC). In the proposed system, the 16-dimensional (16D) Voronoi constellation (VC), naturally fitting with the 16 degrees of freedom of a four-core fiber (two quadratures, two polarizations, and four cores), is generated by a latticed-based shaping method to provide higher shaping gains. Moreover, combining it with the concatenated two-level MLC can further achieve better performance–complexity trade-off. It is demonstrated by simulation results of long-haul multi-channel RC-MCF transmission that the proposed coded modulation scheme for four-core fiber transmission offers 77% reduction in the number of decoding operations and up to 21% (585 km) reach increase over the conventional bit-interleaved coded modulation scheme for quadrature amplitude modulation.
Compact and broadband silicon polarization splitter–rotator using adiabaticity engineering
Authors: Hung Yung-Jr , Chen Chih-Hsien , Chung Hung-Ching , Lai Jun-Zhu , Tseng Shuo-Yen
Published: March 2024

We propose and demonstrate a short and broadband silicon mode-conversion polarization splitter–rotator (PSR) consisting of a mode-conversion taper and an adiabatic coupler-based mode sorter both optimized by adiabaticity engineering (AE). AE is used to optimize the distribution of adiabaticity parameter over the length of the PSR, providing shortcut to adiabaticity at a shorter device length. The total length of the PSR is 85 µm. The design is compatible with standard silicon photonics platforms and requires only one patterning step. Fabricated PSR has a polarization cross talk of less than −20 dB over the entire O-band for the TE polarization and a polarization cross talk of less than −15 dB from 1267 to 1348 nm for the TM polarization. Overall, the PSR shows low polarization cross talk (−15 dB) over a bandwidth of 81 nm in the O-band. Cross-wafer measurements show that the PSR has good fabrication tolerance.
Cep131-Cep162 and Cby-Fam92 complexes cooperatively maintain Cep290 at the basal body and contribute to ciliogenesis initiation
Authors: Wu Zhimao , Chen Huicheng , Zhang Yingying , Wang Yaru , Wang Qiaoling , Augière Céline , Hou Yanan , Fu Yuejun , Peng Ying , Durand Bénédicte , Wei Qing
Published: March 2024

Cilia play critical roles in cell signal transduction and organ development. Defects in cilia function result in a variety of genetic disorders. Cep290 is an evolutionarily conserved ciliopathy protein that bridges the ciliary membrane and axoneme at the basal body (BB) and plays critical roles in the initiation of ciliogenesis and TZ assembly. How Cep290 is maintained at BB and whether axonemal and ciliary membrane localized cues converge to determine the localization of Cep290 remain unknown. Here, we report that the Cep131-Cep162 module near the axoneme and the Cby-Fam92 module close to the membrane synergistically control the BB localization of Cep290 and the subsequent initiation of ciliogenesis in Drosophila. Concurrent deletion of any protein of the Cep131-Cep162 module and of the Cby-Fam92 module leads to a complete loss of Cep290 from BB and blocks ciliogenesis at its initiation stage. Our results reveal that the first step of ciliogenesis strictly depends on cooperative and retroactive interactions between Cep131-Cep162, Cby-Fam92 and Cep290, which may contribute to the complex pathogenesis of Cep290-related ciliopathies.
Genome evolution and divergence in cis-regulatory architecture is associated with condition-responsive development in horned dung beetles
Authors: Davidson Phillip L. , Moczek Armin P.
Published: March 2024

Phenotypic plasticity is thought to be an important driver of diversification and adaptation to environmental variation, yet the genomic mechanisms mediating plastic trait development and evolution remain poorly understood. The Scarabaeinae, or true dung beetles, are a species-rich clade of insects recognized for their highly diversified nutrition-responsive development including that of cephalic horns—evolutionarily novel, secondary sexual weapons that exhibit remarkable intra- and interspecific variation. Here, we investigate the evolutionary basis for horns as well as other key dung beetle traits via comparative genomic and developmental assays. We begin by presenting chromosome-level genome assemblies of three dung beetle species in the tribe Onthophagini (> 2500 extant species) including Onthophagus taurus, O. sagittarius, and Digitonthophagus gazella. Comparing these assemblies to those of seven other species across the order Coleoptera identifies evolutionary changes in coding sequence associated with metabolic regulation of plasticity and metamorphosis. We then contrast chromatin accessibility in developing head horn tissues of high- and low-nutrition O. taurus males and females and identify distinct cis-regulatory architectures underlying nutrition- compared to sex-responsive development, including a large proportion of recently evolved regulatory elements sensitive to horn morph determination. Binding motifs of known and new candidate transcription factors are enriched in these nutrition-responsive open chromatin regions. Our work highlights the importance of chromatin state regulation in mediating the development and evolution of plastic traits, demonstrates gene networks are highly evolvable transducers of environmental and genetic signals, and provides new reference-quality genomes for three species that will bolster future developmental, ecological, and evolutionary studies of this insect group.
RNA cis-regulators are important for Streptococcus pneumoniae in vivo success
Authors: Warrier Indu , Perry Ariana , Hubbell Sara M. , Eichelman Matthew , van Opijnen Tim , Meyer Michelle M.
Published: March 2024

Bacteria have evolved complex transcriptional regulatory networks, as well as many diverse regulatory strategies at the RNA level, to enable more efficient use of metabolic resources and a rapid response to changing conditions. However, most RNA-based regulatory mechanisms are not well conserved across different bacterial species despite controlling genes important for virulence or essential biosynthetic processes. Here, we characterize the activity of, and assess the fitness benefit conferred by, twelve cis-acting regulatory RNAs (including several riboswitches and a T-box), in the opportunistic pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae TIGR4. By evaluating native locus mutants of each regulator that result in constitutively active or repressed expression, we establish that growth defects in planktonic culture are associated with constitutive repression of gene expression, while constitutive activation of gene expression is rarely deleterious. In contrast, in mouse nasal carriage and pneumonia models, strains with either constitutively active and repressed gene expression are significantly less fit than matched control strains. Furthermore, two RNA-regulated pathways, FMN synthesis/transport and pyrimidine synthesis/transport display exceptional sensitivity to mis-regulation or constitutive gene repression in both planktonic culture and in vivo environments. Thus, despite lack of obvious phenotypes associated with constitutive gene expression in vitro, the fitness benefit conferred on bacteria via fine-tuned metabolic regulation through cis-acting regulatory RNAs is substantial in vivo, and therefore easily sufficient to drive the evolution and maintenance of diverse RNA regulatory mechanisms.
Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of scrub typhus in Guizhou Province, China: An outbreak study of scrub typhus
Authors: He Jia , Ma Qing , Teng Zhongqiu , Zhou Jingzhu , Zhao Na , Liang Wenqin , Lu Miao , Li Shijun , Qin Tian
Published: March 2024

The reported cases of scrub typhus (ST) have continued to escalate, with outbreaks occurring regionally in China. These pose an increasing public health threat at a time when public health has been overwhelmed. During the period from July to August 2022, in Rongjiang County, Guizhou Province, China, 13 out of 21 fever patients were diagnosed with scrub typhus, based on epidemiological investigation and blood test analysis. The major clinical symptoms of these patients showed fever, chills, headache, eschar, fatigue and pneumonia, which were accompanied by a rise in C-reactive protein, neutrophils, alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Furthermore, nearly half of them exhibited abnormal electrocardiogram activity. Through semi-nested PCR, Sanger sequencing and phylogenetic tree construction, the Karp strain ofOrientia tsutsugamushi(O.tsutsugamushi) was confirmed as the pathogen causing ST in Rongjiang County, which shared the same evolutionary branch withO.tsutsugamushiisolated from wild mouse liver or spleen, indicating that the wild mouse plays an important role in transmitting the disease. In contrast to the sporadic cases in the past, our study is the first to disclose an epidemic and the corresponding clinical characteristics of ST in Guizhou province, which is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of regional illnesses.
W-WaveNet: A multi-site water quality prediction model incorporating adaptive graph convolution and CNN-LSTM
Authors: Yang Shaojun , Zhong Shangping , Chen Kaizhi
Published: March 2024

Water quality prediction is of great significance in pollution control, prevention, and management. Deep learning models have been applied to water quality prediction in many recent studies. However, most existing deep learning models for water quality prediction are used for single-site data, only considering the time dependency of water quality data and ignoring the spatial correlation among multi-sites. This research defines and analyzes the non-aligned spatial correlations that exist in multi-site water quality data. Then deploy spatial-temporal graph convolution to process water quality data, which takes into account both the temporal and spatial correlation of multi-site water quality data. A multi-site water pollution prediction method called W-WaveNet is proposed that integrates adaptive graph convolution and Convolutional Neural Network, Long Short-Term Memory (CNN-LSTM). It integrates temporal and spatial models by interleaved stacking. Theoretical analysis shows that the method can deal with non-aligned spatial correlations in different time spans, which is suitable for water quality data processing. The model validates water quality data generated on two real river sections that have multiple sites. The experimental results were compared with the results of Support Vector Regression, CNN-LSTM, and Spatial-Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks (STGCN). It shows that when W-WaveNet predicts water quality over two river sections, the average Mean Absolute Error is 0.264, which is 45.2% lower than the commonly used CNN-LSTM model and 23.8% lower than the STGCN. The comparison experiments also demonstrate that W-WaveNet has a more stable performance in predicting longer sequences.
Research on the key technology of high-precision waveform synchronization identification and measurement
Authors: Gui Dan , Yu Zong-jie
Published: March 2024

High-precision waveform identification and measurement are effective for waveform detection and evaluation in signal processing. The accuracy of waveform identification, precision of measurement, and speed of response are important indicators of waveform measurement instruments. To detect the waveform accurately, a hold and attenuation circuit divided into two is designed, and the STM32F4 microcontroller is used to accurately capture and perform spectrum analysis using a high-precision analog-to-digital converter based on fast Fourier transform technology to identify key parameters, such as waveform type, frequency, peak-to-peak value, and duty cycle. To improve the recognition accuracy and response speed, technical solutions, such as high-frequency sampling and over-zero detection, are used to improve the system efficiency. Algorithm simulation, circuit simulation, and physical testing show that the high-precision waveform synchronization recognition circuit and algorithm can accurately recognize various essential waveforms in the voltage and frequency ranges of 50 mV ≤ VPP≤ 10 V and 1 Hz ≤ f ≤ 50 kHz, respectively, and simultaneously measure important parameters, such as frequency, peak-to-peak value, and duty cycle with an accuracy within ±1%. Intelligent linkage, no intermediate parameter setting, and a response speed of approximately 0.3 s make it suitable for such applications as fast and high-precision waveform intelligent detection and display. The method is highly integrated, simple to operate, cost-effective, and practical.
How automated machines influence employment in manufacturing enterprises?
Authors: Jiang Hong , Ge Yingfan , Yang Chunhao , Yu Hongxin
Published: March 2024

This paper theoretically analyzes and empirically examines the impact and mechanisms of automated machines on employment in manufacturing enterprises, drawing on task-based model and using micro data from listed Chinese manufacturing enterprises between 2012 and 2019. Our findings reveal that: (1) Automated machines in manufacturing enterprises leads to a substitution effect on the total labor force, with a substitution effect on low-skilled labor and a creation effect on high-skilled labor in terms of employment structure. (2) Further analysis indicates that automated machines primarily have a positive effect on R&D and technical staff, a non-significant effect on sales staff, and a negative impact on production, administrative, and financial staff. (3) The primary influencing mechanisms of automated machines on employment in manufacturing firms are productivity effects and output scale effects, based on the mediation effect model. (4) Considering the industry linkage effect, we employ the input-output method and the Input-Output Table and find that automated machines for upstream (downstream) manufacturing enterprises will result in a substitution effect on employment for downstream (upstream) enterprises. The novelties and research contributions are as follows: (1) we conduct a structural decomposition of total employment, and further decompose employment positions into production, R&D, sales, finance, and administration. (2) We try to investigate the industry linkage effect about the impact of automated machines on the employment of upstream and downstream enterprises. (3) We use data from listed manufacturing companies, and the data of existing research are about provincial and industry-level data.
How to End a War: Remnants of Hope and Terror in Danny Ramadan’s The Foghorn Echoes
Authors: Patel Shyam
Published: March 2024

In the novel, The Foghorn Echoes (2022) by Danny Ramadan, readers are introduced to two young men, Hussam and Wassim, who love each other but whose lives are forever changed by a terrible event. Though this event marks the beginning of their end, they are met with several encounters that continue to separate them, as they grapple with what it means to be queer in Syria and what it means to be refugees elsewhere. Both their stories, told back and forth between the two young men, reveal the cruel optimism that is situated in the relationship between the good life and the queer struggle of romantic life. In other words, their desire for a better life as queer refugees becomes cruel when it becomes an obstacle in and of itself. For Hussam, readers witness this devastating blow as he is haunted by the death of his father and then by his separation from Wassim, as he struggles to build a better life in the nation-state of Canada. Wassim, on the other hand, has become a refugee in his own homeland, in this case, Syria during the Civil War, and he comes to view himself as a problematic object. Through both of their lives, it is revealed that the reality of queer Syrian refugees is inseparable from the complicated and oppressive histories that mark them such as the war and their forbidden love, whether they remain in the homeland or seek to build a good life somewhere else.
“A child isn’t born bitter”: (In)human Relations and Monstrous Affects in Hiromi Goto’s The Kappa Child
Authors: Hernández González Sheila
Published: March 2024

This article presents an intersectional reading of Hiromi Goto’s The Kappa Child (2001) through the lens of Affect Theory. Particularly, I draw from Sara Ahmed’s The Promise of Happiness and Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism to analyze the role these notions play in the novel. I focus on the economy of affects that circulates among the characters and the affective significance of their interactions as well as the novel’s engagement with Ahmed’s notion of the promise of happiness and Berlant’s cruel optimism, specifically in relation to female, racialized, and migrant subjects both at a personal level and in the context of the settler colonial nation. My main argument is that the affects and expectations presented in the novel are monstrous. I defend that the protagonist’s affective monstrosity is a direct consequence of her abusive childhood as a racialized migrant in the Canadian Prairies and that choosing to let go of her expectations leads to emotional healing and opens new possibilities towards happiness.