bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
AI-driven photonics: Unleashing the power of AI to disrupt the future of photonics
Authors: Mahmoud Mohamed G. , Hares Amr S. , Hameed Mohamed Farhat O. , El-Azab M. S. , Obayya Salah S. A.
Published: August 2024

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computing technologies are currently disrupting the modeling and design paradigms in photonics. In this work, we present our perspective on the utilization of current AI models for photonic device modeling and design. Initially, through the physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) framework, we embark on the task of modal analysis, offering a unique neural networks-based solver and utilizing it to predict propagating modes and their corresponding effective indices for slab waveguides. We compare our model’s predictions against theoretical benchmarks and a finite differences solver. Evidently, using 349 analysis points, the PINN approach had a relative percentage error of 0.69272% compared to the finite differences method, which had a percentage error of 1.28142% with respect to the analytical solution, indicating that the PINN approach was more accurate in conducting modal analysis. Our model’s continuity over the entire solution domain enhances its performance and flexibility while requiring no training data due to its guidance by Maxwell’s equations, setting it apart from most AI approaches. Our model design also flexibly enables simultaneous prediction of multiple modes over any specified intervals of effective indices. In addition, we present a novel reinforcement learning (RL)-based paradigm, employing an actor–critic model for inverse design. We utilize this paradigm to optimize the transmittance of a grating coupler by manipulating the device geometry. Comparing the obtained design to that obtained using the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm, our RL-based approach effectively produced a significant enhancement of 34% in 14 iterations only over the initial design compared to the PSO, which prematurely scored 27% enhancement in 30 iterations, proving that our model navigates the design space more efficiently, achieving a better design than PSO and resulting in a superior design. Based on these approaches, we discuss the future of AI in photonics in forward modeling and inverse design and the untapped potential in bringing these worlds together.
High energy storage performance of KNN-based relaxor ferroelectrics in multiphase-coexisted superparaelectric state
Authors: Zha Jielin , Yang Yulong , Liu Jiaxun , Lu Xiaomei , Hu Xueli , Yan Shuo , Wu Zijing , Zhou Min , Huang Fengzhen , Ying Xuenong , Zhu Jinsong
Published: August 2024

Although K0.5Na0.5NbO3 (KNN) possesses large maximum polarization and relatively high breakdown strength, the large remnant polarization constrains their practical applications as energy storage materials. In this work, through multi-element doping, (K0.5−0.5xNa0.5−0.5xBix)(Nb1−xSn0.2xZn0.6xTa0.2x)O3 relaxor ferroelectrics were prepared. As the superparaelectric states (SPE) were adjusted to room temperature, orthorhombic, tetragonal, and cubic phases coexisted, accompanied by the highly dynamic polar nanoregions (PNRs). In particular, a high recoverable energy storage density of 4.5 J/cm3 and an energy storage efficiency of 83% were achieved for the x = 0.125 ceramic, with the variations less than 11% and 4%, respectively, in the wide temperature range of 20–180 °C. These results demonstrate that the multiphase PNRs in the SPE state is an effective strategy for improving the energy storage performance of KNN-based ceramics.
Oscillatory onset of rotating thermal convection subject to spatially varying magnetic fields and stable stratification
Authors: Sreenivasan Sethulakshmy Edathara , Sahoo Swarandeep
Published: August 2024

Convective fluid motions in deep planetary cores induce spatially and temporally varying magnetic fields observable as secular variation. Oscillatory instabilities occurring as onset modes in rapidly rotating thermal convection influenced by heterogeneous magnetic fields and stratification, investigated in this study, can be potentially linked to such observations. A plane layer approximation to near-polar and near-equatorial regions of the Earth's outer core is considered. In addition to penetrative convection and flow suppression effects, the simultaneous interaction of convective instabilities with asymmetrical magnetic fields and stable stratification is the focus of this study. The fundamental modes of magnetoconvection onset are preserved even under stable stratification, although the convection threshold is lowered irrespective of the parameter regime. The axial invariance of rapidly rotating columnar convection loses its midplane symmetry with intense localization of kinetic energy in the unstably stratified regions. The parameter regimes supporting the onset of the magnetically modified viscous oscillatory (mVO) modes are further extended toward Earthlike conditions such as high thermal conductivity (low Prandlt number, Pr) and magnetic dissipation (low Roberts number, q). Moreover, compared to fully unstable stratification, partial stable stratification enhances the range of imposed magnetic field length scale (δ) over which the onset of mVO modes is favored. The critical field length scale (δ⋆), above which the onset regime of the mVO modes is bounded by a minimum q, is determined. Irrespective of the rotation rate, below δ=δ⋆, the onset of the mVO mode is supported for asymptotically small q for Pr values close to the Earth's outer core.
Numerical investigation of a three-dimensional flow structure influenced by the lateral expansion of a partially distributed submerged canopy
Authors: Song Si-Yuan , Wang Xie-Kang , Duan Huan-Feng , Stocchino Alessandro , Yan Xu-Feng
Published: August 2024

This study employed numerical simulations to investigate the three-dimensional hydrodynamic structure of a channel obstructed by submerged rigid canopies. After validating the model using existing experimental data, a series of numerical experiments varying the canopy density and the blocking ratio were conducted. The results indicate that submerged canopy, different from emergent canopies, triggers the generation of three-dimensional coherent vortices. When canopies expand laterally, the scale, location, and evolution characteristics of cross-sectional secondary flows vary. The direction of secondary circulation at the canopy top of the fully covered vegetation channel is affected by the river width/depth ratio. Three-dimensional coherent vortices are jointly controlled by vertical and transverse Reynolds stresses. When the channel is seriously blocked, the degree of momentum exchange in the mixing layer does not change significantly. The boundary friction effect dominates the momentum exchange process near the wall. An equation coupling the drag length scale and blocking ratio with the vertical coherent vortex penetration length is proposed, indicating that the penetration length increases exponentially with both variables. Higher canopy density exhibits a stronger resistance to the vertical coherent vortex penetration length. In the process of canopy lateral expansion, the evolution time of the outer vortex to scale stability is longer than that of the inner vortex. The significance of research on the three-dimensional vortex structure of rigid submerged vegetation is established based on previous studies and existing conclusions.
Numerical study on flame acceleration and deflagration-to-detonation transition: Spatial distribution of solid obstacles
Authors: Wang Jiabao , Li Tong , Ji Shaoqiu , Nie Yunxi , Jiang Xi Zhuo , Zhu Yuejin
Published: August 2024

This study conducts a detailed numerical investigation on the spatial distribution of solid obstacles using the large eddy simulation method. It is discovered that although flame acceleration induced by solid obstacles is dominated by factors such as flow field disturbances, vortices and recirculation zones, turbulence, flame surface areas and combustion heat release rates, etc., the characteristics of the leading shock wave are key to detonation initiation. Specifically, the intensity of the leading shock wave, its formation time, and its distance from the flame front significantly affect detonation initiation. Depending on the state of the shock wave, the detonation initiation process may occur through various mechanisms such as shock reflection, shock focusing. Overall, the types of detonation initiation in this study all belong to the shock detonation transition. However, the detonation initiation process can be further classified into two categories: (I) Detonation induced by shock wave reflection; (II) detonation triggered by shock wave focusing. Despite certain disparities in the detonation initiation process, all detonation initiation processes conform to the gradient theory, and the flame evolution processes in all cases consistently follow three stages: the laminar slow-ignition stage; the turbulent deflagration stage; the detonation initiation stage. Furthermore, the study further discerns that, compared to positioning obstacles on the wall, placing obstacles inside the combustion chamber can further augment the detonation-assisting effect. However, excessively sparse or dense spatial distributions of solid obstacles fail to yield the optimal detonation effect. An optimal distribution exists, which triggers the fastest detonation initiation.
Dynamic wake steering control for maximizing wind farm power based on a physics-guided neural network dynamic wake model
Authors: Li Baoliang , Ge Mingwei , Li Xintao , Liu Yongqian
Published: August 2024

Wake effect is a significant factor contributing to power loss in wind farms. Studies have shown that wake steering control can mitigate this power loss. Currently, wind farm wake control strategies primarily utilize fixed yaw control due to limitations in the accuracy and efficiency of dynamic wake models. However, fixed yaw control fails to fully exploit the power improvement potential of wake steering control. Therefore, in this study, we first propose a dynamic wake model for wind farms based on the physics-guided neural network (PGNN) approach. This model can predict the dynamic wake flow field within wind farms in real time using instantaneous inflow wind speed and turbine operational states. Then, by employing the PGNN dynamic wake model as the predictive model, a wind farm dynamic wake control strategy based on the model predictive control method is proposed. To quantify the advantages of the proposed control strategy, both fixed yaw control and dynamic yaw control are tested on a wind farm with a 3 × 2 layout. Results from large eddy simulations demonstrate that the proposed dynamic wake control strategy increases the power output of the wind farm by 11.51% compared to a 6.56% increase achieved with fixed yaw control.
Performance analysis of base-isolated structures in mitigating underground blast-induced ground motion effects: A parametric study
Authors: D. Rajkumar , V. Ravi Sankar , R. Sankarnarayanan
Published: August 2024

This study delves into mitigating ground motion induced by underground blasts on superstructures. A parametric analysis is conducted to assess the performance of base isolated structures under different blast scenarios. The analysis is conducted using Newmark’s time step integration method, and the absolute acceleration of the structure and displacement of the isolator bearing are calculated to evaluate the response. Results demonstrate the significant effectiveness of base isolation in reducing blast-induced vibrations. The parameters of the base isolator, including damping ratio and time period, are systematically varied to understand their impact on the response. Key findings include the significant influence of the ground medium on both fixed base and base isolated superstructures, with soil–rock interface locations reducing floor acceleration under various blast load intensities. The N-Z bearing system is shown to effectively reduce the dynamic response in both rock and soil media. This study recommends specific combinations of ground medium and site location for optimal protection against blast threats. Ultimately, this study facilitates a better understanding of the dynamic interaction between underground blasts and superstructures, paving the way for more effective blast-resistant structural designs.
Aerodynamic force prediction of compressor blade surfaces based on machine learning
Authors: Niu Yan , Zhao Kainuo , Yao Minghui , Wu Qiliang , Yang Shaowu , Ma Li
Published: August 2024

The flow field distribution of compressor blades is critical to the performance of aero-engine. To efficiently obtain the aerodynamic loads on the blades, this study employs machine learning models to predict the aerodynamic characteristics of compressor blade surfaces. The predictive performances of these models are evaluated by applying random forest, multi-layer perceptron (MLP), one-dimensional convolutional neural network, and long short-term memory network based on simulation data of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The results indicate that the MLP model performs exceptionally well among all test metrics, with its predictions closely matching the CFD simulation results. Further analysis using SHapley Additive exPlanations methods is performed to interpret the MLP model and reveal the importance of various input features. The research demonstrates the significant potential of machine learning methods in predicting the aerodynamics of compressor blades and providing accurate and reliable results.
Two-dimensional model of space-limited current in the weakly collisional regime for an inhomogenous medium
Authors: Kanwal Samra , Liu Yao-Li , Ang L. K.
Published: August 2024

This short report describes the phenomenon of space-charge-limited (SCL) current transport between ballistic and collision-dominated regimes for an inhomogeneous medium with a finite emission area. This intermediate regime can be considered as a weakly collisional regime where the collisional mean free path is comparable to the length of the medium. The SCL current density is calculated as a function of the degree of collision, inhomogeneity of the medium, and the geometrical properties of the emitting area. The inhomogeneity of the medium is characterized by a parameter of (0<α≤1), where α = 1 denotes a perfect homogenous medium. The calculated SCL current density is enhanced by finite emission area effects by a factor of 1+F×G, where F measures the mean position of the electrons in the medium, and G is a geometrical correction factor due to finite emission area. The enhancement is found to be higher in the collisional regime as compared to the ballistic regime. A higher inhomogeneity (with smaller α) also increases the enhancement. Smooth transition between the fully ballistic SCL transport (Child–Langmuir model) and the collision-dominated SCL transport (Mott–Gurney model) is demonstrated and verified, respectively, by the particle-in-cell code and the device simulator. This model is useful for the characterization of high-current SCL transport where the non-ideal conditions (such as inhomogenous medium and weakly collisional regime) cannot be described by the existing SCL models.
High pathogenicity avian influenza in Australia and beyond: could avian influenza cause the next human pandemic?
Authors: Airey Megan , Short Kirsty R.
Published: August 2024

The primary natural reservoir for avian influenza viruses is wild waterfowl. In poultry, some of these viruses can evolve into high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) that cause significant disease. HPAIV H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b is a current variant of concern that has caused mass die-offs of wild birds, land and marine mammals all across the world since its emergence in 2020. This article explores the history associated with HPAIVs, as well as the current global situation pertaining to HPAIV H5N1 clade 2.3.3.4b and the HPAIV situation in Australia. This variant will continue to evolve, and as it infects more mammalian hosts, it will inevitably continue to acquire mammalian adaptations. This has led to increased concern that HPAIV H5N1 could spill over into humans more efficiently and potentially cause the next human pandemic
Cowpea lipid transfer protein 1 regulates plant defense by inhibiting the cysteine protease of cowpea mosaic virus
Authors: Ji Jie , Du Shengli , Wang Kun , Qi Ziyan , Zhang Chunyang , Wang Rui , Bruening George , Wang Pengwei , Duanmu Deqiang , Fan Qiuling
Published: August 2024

Many virus genomes encode proteases that facilitate infection. The molecular mechanism of plant recognition of viral proteases is largely unexplored. Using the system of
Vigna unguiculata
and cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), we identified a cowpea lipid transfer protein (LTP1) which interacts with CPMV-encoded 24KPro, a cysteine protease, but not with the enzymatically inactive mutant 24KPro(C166A). Biochemical assays showed that LTP1 inhibited 24KPro proteolytic cleavage of the coat protein precursor large coat protein-small coat protein. Transient overexpression of LTP1 in cowpea reduced CPMV infection, whereas RNA interference-mediated
LTP1
silencing increased CPMV accumulation in cowpea. LTP1 is mainly localized in the apoplast of uninfected plant cells, and after CPMV infection, most of the LTP1 is relocated to intracellular compartments, including chloroplast. Moreover, in stable
LTP1
-transgenic
Nicotiana benthamiana
plants, LTP1 repressed soybean mosaic virus (SMV) nuclear inclusion a protease activity, and accumulation of SMV was significantly reduced. We propose that cowpea LTP1 suppresses CPMV and SMV accumulation by directly inhibiting viral cysteine protease activity.
Hydrogel biomaterials that stiffen and soften on demand reveal that skeletal muscle stem cells harbor a mechanical memory
Authors: Madl Christopher M. , Wang Yu Xin , Holbrook Colin A. , Su Shiqi , Shi Xuechen , Byfield Fitzroy J. , Wicki Gwendoline , Flaig Iris A. , Blau Helen M.
Published: August 2024

Muscle stem cells (MuSCs) are specialized cells that reside in adult skeletal muscle poised to repair muscle tissue. The ability of MuSCs to regenerate damaged tissues declines markedly with aging and in diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but the underlying causes of MuSC dysfunction remain poorly understood. Both aging and disease result in dramatic increases in the stiffness of the muscle tissue microenvironment from fibrosis. MuSCs are known to lose their regenerative potential if cultured on stiff plastic substrates. We sought to determine whether MuSCs harbor a memory of their past microenvironment and if it can be overcome. We tested MuSCs in situ using dynamic hydrogel biomaterials that soften or stiffen on demand in response to light and found that freshly isolated MuSCs develop a persistent memory of substrate stiffness characterized by loss of proliferative progenitors within the first three days of culture on stiff substrates. MuSCs cultured on soft hydrogels had altered cytoskeletal organization and activity of Rho and Rac guanosine triphosphate hydrolase (GTPase) and Yes-associated protein mechanotransduction pathways compared to those on stiff hydrogels. Pharmacologic inhibition identified RhoA activation as responsible for the mechanical memory phenotype, and single-cell RNA sequencing revealed a molecular signature of the mechanical memory. These studies highlight that microenvironmental stiffness regulates MuSC fate and leads to MuSC dysfunction that is not readily reversed by changing stiffness. Our results suggest that stiffness can be circumvented by targeting downstream signaling pathways to overcome stem cell dysfunction in aged and disease states with aberrant fibrotic tissue mechanics.
Moving towards peace, compassion and empathy through semiotic enquiry
Authors: Etaywe Awni , Thomson Elizabeth A. , Wijeyewardene Ingrid
Published: August 2024

In our interconnected world, exposure to hate, fear, violence and adversarial communication is commonplace. Yet,
this exposure underscores the urgent need for a more just, peaceful, and inclusive society. While research stresses the importance
of nurturing peace, compassion and empathy for enhanced well-being and social justice, these three terms are rarely discussed at
length in linguistics and communication studies. Little systematic work explores how language and semiotic resources actualise
these ideals across contexts. This special issue, grounded in systemic functional linguistics, addresses this gap. It aims to
contribute to a more just world, promote non-violent efforts for social justice, and lay the foundation for future research on the
semiotics of peace, compassion and empathy. This paper outlines key definitions and contributions.
Compassion as appraisal, performative identity and moral affiliation
Authors: Etaywe Awni
Published: August 2024

This article addresses the underexplored topic of compassion in digital activism through linguistic research.
Utilising corpus linguistics and the SFL appraisal framework, the study initially analyses the lemma “compassion” and its
appraisal nature within The Coronavirus Corpus. It then models compassion development as a social discursive process, taking
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS-Australia) campaigns as a case study, drawing on “communion” and “tendering” strategies,
and positioning theory-based morality by linking structure to agency. The analysis provides evidence that the concept of
“compassion” extends beyond triggered emotions, expressing institutionalised feelings. Compassion also develops through a moral
affiliation process: aligning identities, positioning others within shared moral and sociocultural frameworks, and exhorting
people towards purposeful social actions as commodities. This research underscores compassion’s normative (i.e. moral orders) core
and performative essence.
Asymptotic stability of a finite sum of solitary waves for the Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation
Authors: Pilod Didier , Valet Frédéric
Published: August 2024

We prove the asymptotic stability of a finite sum of well-ordered solitary waves for the Zakharov–Kuznetsov equation in dimensions two and three. We also derive a qualitative version of the orbital stability result, which will be useful for studying the collision of two solitary waves in a forthcoming paper.
The proof extends the ideas of Martel, Merle and Tsai for the sub-critical gKdV equation in dimension one to the higher-dimensional case. It relies on monotonicity properties on oblique half-spaces and rigidity properties around one solitary wave introduced by Côte, Muñoz, Pilod and Simpson in dimension two, and by Farah, Holmer, Roudenko and Yang in dimension three.
An Automated Catalog of Long Period Variables using Infrared Lightcurves from Palomar Gattini-IR
Authors: Suresh Aswin , Karambelkar Viraj , Kasliwal Mansi M. , Ashley Michael C. B. , De Kishalay , Hankins Matthew J. , Moore Anna M. , Soon Jamie , Soria Roberto , Travouillon Tony , Truong Kayton K.
Published: August 2024

Long Period Variables (LPVs) are stars with periods of several hundred days, representing the late, dust-enshrouded phase of stellar evolution in low to intermediate mass stars. In this paper, we present a catalog of 154,755 LPVs using near-IR lightcurves from the Palomar Gattini-IR (PGIR) survey. PGIR has been surveying the entire accessible northern sky (δ > −28°) in the J-band at a cadence of 2–3 days since 2018 September, and has produced J-band lightcurves for more than 60 million sources. We used a gradient-boosted decision tree classifier trained on a comprehensive feature set extracted from PGIR lightcurves to search for LPVs in this data set. We developed a parallelized and optimized code to extract features at a rate of ∼0.1 s per lightcurve. Our model can successfully distinguish LPVs from other stars with a true positive rate of 95%. Cross-matching with known LPVs, we find 70,369 (∼46%) new LPVs in our catalog.
Coupling and characterization of a Si/SiGe triple quantum dot array with a microwave resonator
Authors: Jiang 江 Shun-Li 顺利 , Jiang 蒋 Tian-Yi 天翼 , Xu 徐 Yong-Qiang 永强 , Wu 吴 Rui 睿 , Hao 郝 Tian-Yue 天岳 , Ye 叶 Shu-Kun 澍坤 , Cai 蔡 Ran-Ran 冉冉 , Wang 王 Bao-Chuan 保传 , Li 李 Hai-Ou 海欧 , Cao 曹 Gang 刚 , Guo 郭 Guo-Ping 国平
Published: August 2024

Scaling up spin qubits in silicon-based quantum dots is one of the pivotal challenges in achieving large-scale semiconductor quantum computation. To satisfy the connectivity requirements and reduce the lithographic complexity, utilizing the qubit array structure and the circuit quantum electrodynamics (cQED) architecture together is expected to be a feasible scaling scheme. A triple-quantum dot (TQD) coupled with a superconducting resonator is regarded as a basic cell to demonstrate this extension scheme. In this article, we investigate a system consisting of a silicon TQD and a high-impedance TiN coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonator. The TQD can couple to the resonator via the right double-quantum dot (RDQD), which reaches the strong coupling regime with a charge–photon coupling strength of g
0/(2π) = 175 MHz. Moreover, we illustrate the high tunability of the TQD through the characterization of stability diagrams, quadruple points (QPs), and the quantum cellular automata (QCA) process. Our results contribute to fostering the exploration of silicon-based qubit integration.
Design and parametrization of TPMS lattice using computational and experimental approach
Authors: Kumar Raj , Ramkumar Janakarajan , Balani Kantesh
Published: August 2024

Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) based lattices are extensively explored as a scaffold design for bone regeneration. TPMS maintains zero mean curvature at each point and offers a large surface area comparable to a trabecular bone. The best four TPMS minimal surfaces (IWP. Neovius, primitive, and F-RD) were selected, designed, and fabricated using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin through the stereolithography (SLA) technique. The results indicate that small changes in unit cell dimensions do not significantly alter the structure topology, which ensures stress distribution within the lattice remains relatively uniform across different unit cell sizes when the porosity level is constant. The optimal unit cell size (2 to 5 mm) and porosity (70 to 80%) significantly affect the compressive strength and surface area to volume (SA/V) ratio due to a unique arrangement of the internal architecture of each TPMS unit cell. The lattice structure (formed by stacking unit cell) of unit cell size 2.11 mm with 70% porosity exhibited a maximum compressive strength of 39.8 MPa in IWP, followed by Neovius, primitive, and F-RD-based lattice structures. Moreover, the lattice showed more stability under compression force, minimized stress concentration compared to a unit cell, and exhibited distinct deformation patterns at different strain levels during compression.
Advances in grain-boundary diffusion for high-performance permanent magnets
Authors: Mohapatra Prajna Paramita , Li Guomeng , Alagarsamy Perumal , Xu Xiandong
Published: August 2024

High-performance permanent magnets play an indispensable role in manufacturing highly efficient motors and generators, ultimately contributing to the sustainability of our planet. Achieving high coercivity (μ
0
H
c) in hard magnetic materials at or above room temperature without relying on heavy rare-earth elements remains a challenge. Effective strategies for augmenting μ
0
H
c utilizing low-cost materials involve inter-granular addition and the grain-boundary diffusion (GBD) processes. This review provides a comprehensive overview of selected techniques for developing grain-boundary (GB) modification through a specific focus on the reduction of using heavy rare earth (HRE) elements and utilizing cost-effective non-rare earth and light rare earth (LRE) sources for GBD. To date, the successful application of HRE based metals and compounds, and LRE based alloys as diffusion sources has significantly contributed to μ
0
H
c enhancement. Drawing upon global advancements and findings from various research groups, this comprehensive review offers a critical analysis of the fundamentals and progress in GBD processes (GBDPs). Considering the different types of permanent magnets, the GBDPs, based on the diverse diffusion sources and diffusion processes, are thoroughly compared and summarized. This encapsulates the current state of knowledge in the field, providing valuable insights into the ongoing developments in GB modification to improve permanent magnet performance.
Christian Democracy Is Being Tackled for a Loss
Authors: Putz Paul Emory
Published: August 2024

This chapter looks at Don McClanen’s founding of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), which formally launched the Christian athlete movement as a new subculture within sports. It shows how historical and cultural forces helped to pave the way to the FCA’s founding, with the global crises of the 1930s and 1940s heightening the significance of religion and sports to American identity. It also shows how the religious nationalism of the Cold War influenced the FCA. While the movement that the FCA launched would eventually become identified with evangelicalism, its origins were driven primarily by middlebrow culture and mainline Protestant institutions. This gave the FCA an aura of respectability and ecumenicity that broadened its appeal, enabling it to create a new community of Christian athletes and coaches in big-time sports.
Scoring Heavily in the South
Authors: Putz Paul Emory
Published: August 2024

This chapter shows the transformation of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) as it shifted from its mainline Protestant origins to a new base in the Sunbelt South. The FCA offered an organized expression of the South’s long-held obsession with masculinity, faith, and sports, formulated to fit into a post–Brown v. Board age of Sunbelt boosterism. By the end of the 1960s the FCA had become a civic institution in the sporting life of the region. The FCA’s southward shift had national resonance in two key ways. First, it fostered connections among white Southern Protestants, neoevangelicals, and middlebrow mainline Protestants, helping to unite the informal coalition that would receive the “evangelical” label in the 1970s. Second, it shaped the response of FCA leaders to a wave of Black athlete activism that emerged at the end of the 1960s, helping to construct a colorblind consensus on race.
Doing Sports God’s Way
Authors: Putz Paul Emory
Published: August 2024

This chapter analyzes the development of the Christian athlete movement in the 1980s and 1990s, after it had formed a stable organizational infrastructure within sports. The chapter discusses conflicts and tensions as leaders of the evangelical sports subculture worked to set the boundaries for how those within their movement should interpret and understand Christian teachings in light of the cultural and social questions of the day. These included issues like women in sports, gender roles, gay rights, the rise of the Christian Right, and more. Persecuted (in its eyes), powerful (in the eyes of critics), by the end of the twentieth century the Christian athlete movement’s view of doing sports God’s way often mirrored the polarizing cultural trends in the United States. Yet this was always done with ambiguities, nuances, and dissidents from within who sought to articulate alternative ways of being Christian in the world of sports.
The Modernist Reading
Authors: Howarth Peter B
Published: August 2024

Since the 1960s, readings have been considered a personal and expressive form of poetry opposed to the complex textual impersonality of Pound and Eliot. In fact, reading in public was critical to Anglophone modernist poetics from the start. The ‘free verse’ movement justified its prosody by idealizing the poet in performance, and Pound developed Imagism on the model of the readings he and Yeats had heard from Rabindranath Tagore, in which the audience was crucial. His own performances illustrate with heavy irony the diminished role the oral poet is really given in capitalist modernity. Robert Frost, by contrast, used his folksiness to criticize modernism, but his improvised commentary becomes a form of the modernist free verse that he affected to despise. Modernist venues like Harold Monro’s Poetry Bookshop in London or New York’s 92Y should be considered institutions of literary modernism because they framed their poets’ voices within larger acts of education, reputation-making, and ritual.
Langston Hughes Belongs to Everybody
Authors: Howarth Peter B
Published: August 2024

Modernism and orality came together in the reading career of Langston Hughes, who had to turn himself into a performing poet because so many of his potential audience couldn’t read his books. The charged racial situation he addressed meant his shows could not but bring their mediating contexts into the poems being read in order to make public what was going on. In particular, his angry late modernist poem about performances, Ask Your Mama, summarizes thirty years of touring experience by provoking its audience to recognize the continual reproduction of racial injustice in operation in the room, not just in Montgomery or The Democratic Republic of the Congo. By catching the audience’s projections about the black performer in action, Hughes’s poem reveals the poetry circuits in operation for everyone, in ways that were concealed when other poets read from a more secure platform.
A Nation of Refugees
Authors: Zavadivker Polly
Published: August 2024

When World War I began, the Russian Empire was home to more than 5.7 million Jews, the most densely settled Jewish population in the world. Thirty years later, by 1945, only remnants of this civilization remained. The years of World War I, from 1914 to 1918, launched nearly all the forces that led to this epic destruction. This book tells how Jewish civilians experienced that war and its epicenter of violence on the Eastern Front. World War I transformed the lives of East European Jews in ways that were second only to the Holocaust in their magnitude. State violence and forced migration determined many aspects of Jewish wartime and revolutionary experience. These policies not only destroyed much of traditional Jewish life but also inadvertently compelled a transformation of Jewish civil society. The collapse of Russian imperialism enabled the growth of an empire-wide humanitarian campaign to rescue the “nation of refugees,” whose plight embodied that of the Jewish nation itself. This history of Jewish humanitarianism during the World War I provides the origin stories of key leaders and public institutions that served East European Jewry in the interwar years and during the Holocaust. Drawing on insights from feminist history and the emerging field of refugee studies, the volume also recovers the previously marginalized voices of refugees, including women and the elderly. The book draws on material from previously inaccessible archives, the contemporary Russian and Yiddish press, and personal accounts by refugees, relief workers, journalists, and artists.
As Good as Forgotten
Authors: Zavadivker Polly
Published: August 2024

This chapter follows refugees and relief work as war overlapped with revolution. The February Revolution emancipated Russia’s Jews yet scarcely improved the conditions of its millions of refugees. Central and local Jewish aid organizations shifted tactics to maintain funds and personnel throughout a period of political upheaval and uncertainty. As leading activists planned for democratic elections and an infrastructure to build Jewish national autonomy, support for refugees receded in importance, even as returning refugees encountered complete devastation in their former homes. Russia’s continued prosecution of the war and failed offensive of 1917 caused further military atrocities and civilian flight. The Bolshevik overthrow of the Provisional Government in October put ethnic welfare at risk but also created new political opportunities for Jewish aid workers. In Moscow, former aid workers entered government and Communist Party jobs; in revolutionary Kyiv, several prominent aid workers joined the ministries of the revolutionary Ukrainian National Republic, where they continued to organize support for Jewish civilians. As regimes came and went, disease, hunger, and internecine conflict rapidly spread.
Lusophone African Cinema
Authors: de Medeiros Paulo
Published: August 2024

Lusophone African cinema refers to the various cinemas of Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé e Príncipe. The question of when to date the beginnings of Lusophone African cinema is complex. Independence could be seen as a convenient turning point that can be used to demarcate between what might be referred to as colonial and postcolonial cinema. To understand the postindependence development of the various national cinemas, it is also important to consider film production and reception during colonial times. Material circumstances such as the lack of infrastructure and skilled people, as well as—in the case of some regions—prolonged and devastating civil wars after the wars of independence, have greatly hindered the flowering of those cinemas. In spite of enormous difficulties, many significant and internationally critically acclaimed films have been produced.

Lusophone African films are characterized by a mix: While focusing on national and local issues they also can appeal to ever wider and more diverse audiences. Due to both historical conditions and present vicissitudes, these cinemas are intrinsically transnational in all their aspects. Some of the fundamental questions addressed in these films concern the formation of a national imaginary and identity, as well as the working through of trauma. They exemplify modes of resistance that are not limited to a history of colonial oppression but apply equally to present social problems.

Mozambique created a National Institute of Cinema immediately after the revolution as the government was very much keen on using film to shape the new nation, and it is arguably the country with the most developed film production. In Angola, however, as television production was already in place, film took longer to develop. Cape Verde, although a relatively small country, has been able to produce a variety of important films. Both Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé e Príncipe have a relatively low level of production, yet that is also changing in part due to the use of video and the Internet. Streaming platforms have discovered the quality and potential of Lusophone African cinema. The wide international audiences thus gained clearly point to a successful transition to a new stage in the development of Lusophone African cinema as world cinema.
Potential biases in test-negative design studies of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness arising from the inclusion of asymptomatic individuals
Authors: Ortiz-Brizuela Edgar , Carabali Mabel , Jiang Cong , Merckx Joanna , Talbot Denis , Schnitzer Mireille E
Published: August 2024

The test-negative design (TND) is a popular method for evaluating vaccine effectiveness (VE). A “classical” TND study includes symptomatic individuals tested for the disease targeted by the vaccine to estimate VE against symptomatic infection. However, recent applications of the TND have attempted to estimate VE against infection by including all tested individuals, regardless of their symptoms. In this article, we use directed acyclic graphs and simulations to investigate potential biases in TND studies of COVID-19 VE arising from the use of this “alternative” approach, particularly when applied during periods of widespread testing. We show that the inclusion of asymptomatic individuals can potentially lead to collider stratification bias, uncontrolled confounding by health and healthcare-seeking behaviors (HSBs), and differential outcome misclassification. While our focus is on the COVID-19 setting, the issues discussed here may also be relevant in the context of other infectious diseases. This may be particularly true in scenarios where there is either a high baseline prevalence of infection, a strong correlation between HSBs and vaccination, different testing practices for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, or settings where both the vaccine under study attenuates symptoms of infection and diagnostic accuracy is modified by the presence of symptoms.
The leaf-scale mass-based photosynthetic optimization model better predicts photosynthetic acclimation than the area-based
Authors: Yu Yuan , Kang Huixing , Wang Han , Wang Yuheng , Tang Yanhong
Published: August 2024

Leaf-scale photosynthetic optimization models can quantitatively predict photosynthetic acclimation and have become an important means of improving vegetation and land surface models. Previous models have generally been based on the optimality assumption of maximizing the net photosynthetic assimilation per unit leaf area (i.e. the area-based optimality) while overlooking other optimality assumptions such as maximizing the net photosynthetic assimilation per unit leaf dry mass (i.e. the mass-based optimality). This paper compares the predicted results of photosynthetic acclimation to different environmental conditions between the area-based optimality and the mass-based optimality models. The predictions are then verified using the observational data from the literatures. The mass-based optimality model better predicted photosynthetic acclimation to growth light intensity, air temperature and CO2 concentration, and captured more variability in photosynthetic traits than the area-based optimality models. The findings suggest that the mass-based optimality approach may be a promising strategy for improving the predictive power and accuracy of optimization models, which have been widely used in various studies related to plant carbon issues.
Does ChatGPT Argue Like Students? Bundles in Argumentative Essays
Authors: Jiang Feng (Kevin) , Hyland Ken
Published: August 2024

The advent of ChatGPT, a novel AI-powered language model able to create grammatically accurate and coherent texts, has generated considerable concern among educationalists anxious about its potential to enable cheating among students and to undermine the development of critical thinking, problem-solving, and literacy skills. The similarities and differences between ChatGPT texts and human writing, however, remain underexplored. This study aims to bridge this gap by comparing the use of 3-word bundles in A-level argumentative essays written by British students with those generated by ChatGPT. Our findings show that ChatGPT essays contain a lower frequency of bundles but these have a higher type/token ratio, suggesting that its bundles are more rigid and formulaic. We also found noun and preposition-based bundles are more prevalent in ChatGPT texts, employed for abstract descriptions and to provide transitional and structuring cues. Student essays are characterized by more epistemic stances and authorial presence, crucial in persuasive argumentation. We attribute these distinct patterns in ChatGPT’s output to its processing of vast training data and underlying statistical algorithms. The study points to pedagogical implications for incorporating ChatGPT in writing instruction.
In-House Virtual Planning and 3D-Printed Surgical Guides for Reconstructive Rhinoplasty
Authors: Rubio-Palau Josep , Gonçalves Joana , Malet-Contreras Albert , Adell-Gómez Núria , Arenas-Costa Trini , Calonge Wenceslao , Valls-Esteve Arnau , Valls-Ontañón Adaia
Published: August 2024

Background

Performing rhinoplasty in patients with craniofacial malformations remains a challenge, even for experienced surgeons. Advances in 3-dimensional technology and their application in surgical planning and printing of cutting guides and splints have become important tools for improving aesthetic and functional results.

Objectives

The aim of this preliminary report was to describe an in-house workflow for surgical planning and printing of cutting guides and splints for complex rhinoplasty cases.

Methods

An in-house workflow for complex rhinoplasty was described, as applied in the maxillofacial department of a children's hospital specializing in the treatment of cleft and craniofacial malformations.

Results

Customized surgical guides helped the surgeon harvest and mold potential septal and costochondral grafts more accurately, reduced surgical time, and verified the dimensions of the sculpted nasal shape following surgical planning templates. Patient satisfaction according to the Rhinoplasty Outcome Evaluation questionnaire was 18/24.

Conclusions

The presented workflow represents a potential asset for obtaining more accurate and satisfactory results in complex rhinoplasties.

Level of Evidence: 5 (Diagnostic)
IVEA: an integrative variational Bayesian inference method for predicting enhancer–gene regulatory interactions
Authors: Kimura Yasumasa , Ono Yoshimasa , Katayama Kotoe , Imoto Seiya
Published: August 2024

Motivation

Enhancers play critical roles in cell-type-specific transcriptional control. Despite the identification of thousands of candidate enhancers, unravelling their regulatory relationships with their target genes remains challenging. Therefore, computational approaches are needed to accurately infer enhancer–gene regulatory relationships.

Results

In this study, we propose a new method, IVEA, that predicts enhancer–gene regulatory interactions by estimating promoter and enhancer activities. Its statistical model is based on the gene regulatory mechanism of transcriptional bursting, which is characterized by burst size and frequency controlled by promoters and enhancers, respectively. Using transcriptional readouts, chromatin accessibility, and chromatin contact data as inputs, promoter and enhancer activities were estimated using variational Bayesian inference, and the contribution of each enhancer–promoter pair to target gene transcription was calculated. Our analysis demonstrates that the proposed method can achieve high prediction accuracy and provide biologically relevant enhancer–gene regulatory interactions.

Availability and implementation

The IVEA code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/yasumasak/ivea. The publicly available datasets used in this study are described in Supplementary Table S4.
Targeting spinal mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2 alleviates inflammatory and neuropathic pain
Authors: Wong Calvin , Rodriguez-Hernandez Luis David , Lister Kevin C , Gu Ning , Cai Weihua , Hooshmandi Mehdi , Fan Jonathan , Brown Nicole , Nguyen Vivienne , Ribeiro-da-Silva Alfredo , Bonin Robert P , Khoutorsky Arkady
Published: August 2024

The development and maintenance of chronic pain involve the reorganization of spinal nocioceptive circuits. The mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 2 (mTORC2), a central signalling hub that modulates both actin-dependent structural changes and mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1)-dependent mRNA translation, plays key roles in hippocampal synaptic plasticity and memory formation. However, its function in spinal plasticity and chronic pain is poorly understood.

Here, we show that pharmacological activation of spinal mTORC2 induces pain hypersensitivity, whereas its inhibition, using downregulation of the mTORC2-defining component Rictor, alleviates both inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Cell type-specific deletion of Rictor showed that the selective inhibition of mTORC2 in a subset of excitatory neurons impairs spinal synaptic potentiation and alleviates inflammation-induced mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity and nerve injury-induced heat hyperalgesia. The ablation of mTORC2 in inhibitory interneurons strongly alleviated nerve injury-induced mechanical hypersensitivity.

Our findings reveal the role of mTORC2 in chronic pain and highlight its cell type-specific functions in mediating pain hypersensitivity in response to peripheral inflammation and nerve injury.