bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
CDF-II W-boson mass anomaly in the canonical Scotogenic neutrino–dark matter model
Authors: Batra Aditya , ShivaSankar K. A. , Mandal Sanjoy , Prajapati Hemant , Srivastava Rahul
Published: September 2023

The CDF-II collaboration’s recent high-precision measurement of [Formula: see text]-boson mass indicates new physics contribution(s) beyond the Standard Model. We investigate the possibility of the well-known canonical Scotogenic model to explain the CDF-II measurement. The Scotogenic model is a popular scenario beyond the Standard Model that induces neutrino masses at the one-loop level and includes a viable dark matter candidate, either scalar or fermionic. For both scalar and fermionic dark matter possibilities, we simultaneously examine the constraints coming from (a) neutrino mass, oscillation, neutrinoless double beta decay and lepton flavor violation experiments, (b) from LEP and LHC, (c) from dark matter relic density and direct detection experiments, (d) from the oblique [Formula: see text] parameter values consistent with CDF-II [Formula: see text]-boson measurement. We demonstrate that the new CDF-II measurement rules out the feasible parameter space of the scalar dark matter in the high mass regions ([Formula: see text]), while still allowing the intermediate mass regions [Formula: see text]. We also showed that the fermionic dark matter candidate in the canonical Scotogenic model, in the range [Formula: see text], can simultaneously explain all the aforementioned issues. Furthermore, we investigated how the recent findings from ATLAS 2023 impact this study.
First principles investigations of the electronic, elastic, mechanical, anisotropic, optical, and thermoelectric performance of monoclinic SiGe semiconductors
Authors: Güler E. , Güler M. , Uğur Ş. , Uğur G.
Published: September 2023

Since crystal structure dictates the resultant physical properties of materials, titled physical features of the P21 monoclinic SiGe semiconductors, which are still unclear, have been revealed by density functional theory (DFT). The electronic band gap value with 0.49[Formula: see text]eV was found to be in the order of previously published cubic and hexagonal closed-packed SiGe semiconductors. Surprisingly, P21 monoclinic SiGe has a room temperature Seebeck coefficient of 1500[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]V/K which is higher than the reported data of both cubic and hexagonal SiGe alloys. Further, the mechanically stable P21 monoclinic phase of the SiGe displays a brittle mechanical character with clear elastic anisotropy has also been deduced. The P21 monoclinic phase of the SiGe can be also considered a good high-dielectric material and beneficial for practical applications of IR or UV goals due to its high refractive index.
Evaluation on Network Social Media Named Entity Recognition Model Based on Active Learning
Authors: He Guijiao , Zhou Yunfeng , Zheng Yaodong
Published: September 2023

The medical security privacy and named entity recognition (NER) technology under the blockchain technology has been a hot topic in all walks of life. As a typical representative of medical security risks and NER, the NER model of online social media based on active learning has attracted worldwide attention. NER is an important part of natural language processing. Traditional recognition technology usually requires a lot of external information, and through the manual identification of its features, which costs a lot of time and energy. In order to solve the shortcomings of traditional recognition algorithms and the lack of feature extraction in network media NER, a new active learning model was introduced in this paper. In the information age, people are increasingly demanding a large amount of text information, and NER technology came into being. Its main function is to accurately identify important information from text and provide useful information for high-level work. The initial design of NER system is mainly based on the recognition of rules, so as to realize the recognition of named entities. However, in a complex network environment, it takes a lot of time and energy to establish rules without conflicts, and it has poor mobility. In recent years, with the continuous development of computer technology, the use of machine learning to actively learn the unknown information in the target area reduces the workload of manual annotation, thus realizing the active learning of large amounts of data. The research showed that the recognition accuracy under the traditional NER was low, and the information processing speed was slow; the accuracy rate of NER based on active learning was as high as 97%, and the speed of information processing had also been greatly improved, which had solved many problems under the traditional mode. User satisfaction could be as high as 95%, which showed that the latter had broad prospects. The progress of the new era cannot be separated from the support of new technologies. The research of this article has important guiding significance for medical security privacy and the application of NER under blockchain technology.
History-enhanced and Uncertainty-aware Trajectory Recovery via Attentive Neural Network
Authors: Xia Tong , Li Yong , Qi Yunhan , Feng Jie , Xu Fengli , Sun Funing , Guo Diansheng , Jin Depeng
Published: September 2023

A considerable amount of mobility data has been accumulated due to the proliferation of location-based services. Nevertheless, compared with mobility data from transportation systems like the GPS module in taxis, this kind of data is commonly sparse in terms of individual trajectories in the sense that users do not access mobile services and contribute their data all the time. Consequently, the sparsity inevitably weakens the practical value of the data even if it has a high user penetration rate. To solve this problem, we propose a novel attentional neural network-based model, named AttnMove, to densify individual trajectories by recovering unobserved locations at a fine-grained spatial-temporal resolution. To tackle the challenges posed by sparsity, we design various intra- and inter- trajectory attention mechanisms to better model the mobility regularity of users and fully exploit the periodical pattern from long-term history. In addition, to guarantee the robustness of the generated trajectories to avoid harming downstream applications, we also exploit the Bayesian approximate neural network to estimate the uncertainty of each imputation. As a result, locations generated by the model with high uncertainty will be excluded. We evaluate our model on two real-world datasets, and extensive results demonstrate the performance gain compared with the state-of-the-art methods. In-depth analyses of each design of our model have been conducted to understand their contribution. We also show that, by providing high-quality mobility data, our model can benefit a variety of mobility-oriented downstream applications.
On the Caching Schemes to Speed Up Program Reduction
Authors: Tian Yongqiang , Zhang Xueyan , Dong Yiwen , Xu Zhenyang , Zhang Mengxiao , Jiang Yu , Cheung Shing-Chi , Sun Chengnian
Published: September 2023

Program reduction is a highly practical, widely demanded technique to help debug language tools, such as compilers, interpreters and debuggers. Given a program
P
that exhibits a property ψ, conceptually, program reduction iteratively applies various program transformations to generate a vast number of variants from
P
by deleting certain tokens and returns the minimal variant preserving ψ as the result.

A program reduction process inevitably generates duplicate variants, and the number of them can be significant. Our study reveals that on average 61.8% and 24.3% of the generated variants in two representative program reducers HDD and Perses, respectively, are duplicates. Checking them against ψ is thus redundant and unnecessary, which wastes time and computation resources. Although it seems that simply caching the generated variants can avoid redundant property tests, such a trivial method is impractical in the real world due to the significant memory footprint. Therefore, a memory-efficient caching scheme for program reduction is in great demand.

This study is the first effort to conduct a systematic, extensive analysis of memory-efficient caching schemes for program reduction. We first propose to use two well-known compression methods,
ZIP
and
SHA
, to compress the generated variants before they are stored in the cache. Furthermore, our keen understanding on the program reduction process motivates us to propose a novel, domain-specific, both memory and computation-efficient caching scheme,

R
efreshable
C
ompact
C
aching

(
RCC
). Our key insight is two-fold: ① by leveraging the correlation between variants and the original program
P
, we losslessly encode each variant into an
equivalent
,
compact
,
canonical
representation; ② periodically, stale cache entries, which will never be accessed, are timely removed to minimize the memory footprint over time.

Our extensive evaluation on 31 real-world C compiler bugs demonstrates that caching schemes help avoid issuing redundant queries by 61.8% and 24.3% in HDD and Perses, respectively; correspondingly, the runtime performance is notably boosted by 22.8% and 18.2%. With regard to the memory efficiency, all three methods use less memory than the state-of-the-art string-based scheme
STR
. Specifically,
ZIP
and
SHA
cut down the memory footprint by more than 80% and 90% in both Perses and HDD compared to
STR
; moreover, the highly-scalable, domain-specific
RCC
dominates peer schemes, and outperforms the
SHA
by 96.4% and 91.74% in HDD and Perses, respectively.
Quantum Combinatorial Optimization in the NISQ Era: A Systematic Mapping Study
Authors: Gemeinhardt Felix , Garmendia Antonio , Wimmer Manuel , Weder Benjamin , Leymann Frank
Published: September 2023

The application of quantum computing to combinatorial optimization problems is attracting increasing research interest, resulting in diverse approaches and research streams. This study aims at identifying, classifying, and understanding existing solution approaches as well as typical use cases in the field. The obtained classification schemes are based on a full-text analysis of 156 included papers. Our results can be used by researchers and practitioners to (i) better understand adaptations to and utilizations of existing gate-based and quantum annealing approaches and (ii) identify typical use cases for quantum computing in areas such as graph optimization, routing, and scheduling.
Soils as Carbon Stores and Sinks: Expectations, Patterns, Processes, and Prospects of Transitions
Authors: van Noordwijk Meine , Aynekulu Ermias , Hijbeek Renske , Milne Eleanor , Minasny Budiman , Dwi Saputra Danny
Published: September 2023

The few percent of soil organic carbon (SOC) among mineral components form the interface of climate, plant growth, soil biological processes, physical transport infrastructure, and chemical transformations. We explore maps, models, myths, motivation, means of implementation, and modalities for transformation. Theories of place relate geographic variation in SOC to climate, soil types, land cover, and profile depth. Process-level theories of biophysical change and socioeconomic theories of induced change explain SOC transitions that follow from land use change when a declining curve is bent and recovery toward SOC saturation starts. While the desirability of recovering from SOC deficits has been mainstreamed into climate policy, the effectiveness of proposed measures taken remains contested. Process-level requirements for transitions at plot and landscape scales remain uncertain. Expectations of policy-induced SOC transitions have to align with national cross-sectoral C accounting and be managed realistically with land users (farmers) and commodity supply chains (private sector, consumers).
The Physical Oceanography of Ice-Covered Moons
Authors: Soderlund Krista M. , Rovira-Navarro Marc , Le Bars Michael , Schmidt Britney E. , Gerkema Theo
Published: September 2023

In the outer solar system, a growing number of giant planet satellites are now known to be abodes for global oceans hidden below an outer layer of ice. These planetary oceans are a natural laboratory for studying physical oceanographic processes in settings that challenge traditional assumptions made for Earth's oceans. While some driving mechanisms are common to both systems, such as buoyancy-driven flows and tides, others, such as libration, precession, and electromagnetic pumping, are likely more significant for moons in orbit around a host planet. Here, we review these mechanisms and how they may operate across the solar system, including their implications for ice–ocean interactions. Future studies should continue to advance our understanding of each of these processes as well as how they may act together in concert. This interplay also has strong implications for habitability as well as testing oceanic hypotheses with future missions.
Electrodeposition of Silver in Cyanide-Free Solution Containing Pyrimidine Derivative as a Complexing Agent
Authors: Jasni Atiqah Binti , Yoshihara Sachio
Published: September 2023

Pyrimidine derivatives, for example, 2,4-pyrimidinedione (uracil), 1-methyluracil and 5-methyluracil (thymine) can bind with metal ions in alkaline solution. 5-methyluracil (thymine) as complexing agent in electroplating solution has not been investigated due to low solubility in water. The aims of this study were to determine the potential of 5-methyluracil (thymine) as complexing agent for cyanide-free silver electroplating solution. The influence of complexing agent and polyethyleneimine on the silver electrodeposition reaction were studied. Several methods which are electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) have been used to study the electrochemical behavior of cyanide-free silver electroplating solution. The surface morphology and brightness of silver deposits obtained from each cyanide-free silver electroplating solution were evaluated. A semi-bright deposit was obtained from thymine and uracil-complexing silver solution while matte deposit from 5,5-dimethylhydantoin-complexing silver solution. A bright silver deposit could be obtained in the presence of polyethyleneimine. The reduction current value decreases as the amount of polyethyleneimine added increases due to inhibition effect on the silver electrodeposition reaction. The results of electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance measurement showed that the addition of polyethyleneimine in thymine-complexing silver solution does not significantly affect the resonance frequency change.
Long-Term Stability of Seawater Acidification and Its Effect on the Formation of Mg(OH)2 Films with a Hierarchical Porous Structure in Bipolar Membrane-Based Direct Seawater Electrolysis
Authors: Han Ji-Hyung
Published: September 2023

This is the first report discussing the long-term stability (1000 h) of direct seawater electrolysis (DSWE) in relation to seawater acidification and inorganic precipitation. Unlike general DSWE, in which inorganic precipitates are formed at the cathode surface due to a local pH increase caused by the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), bipolar membrane-based DSWE acidified natural seawater to pH 3, suppressing the formation of inorganic precipitates and inducing a positive shift in the equilibrium potential for the HER. Because the acidified seawater became alkaline after 300 h, periodic seawater replacement was suggested as a method of maintaining seawater acidification for 1000 h, during which a Mg(OH)2 film with a thickness of 1 mm or more was formed at the cathode surface. Using Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, water vapor sorption, and electrochemical impedance analysis, it was confirmed that the Mg(OH)2 film has a hierarchical mesoporous structure and high affinity for water, which maintained mass transport. The unique properties of the Mg(OH)2 film under seawater acidification contributed to a lower rate of increase in the cathodic potential than that under seawater alkalization, where very thin inorganic deposits were formed.
KV7 but not dual small and intermediate KCa channel openers inhibit the activation of colonic afferents by noxious stimuli
Authors: Bhebhe Charity N. , Higham James P. , Gupta Rohit A. , Raine Tim , Bulmer David C.
Published: September 2023

Despite marked coexpression of small ( Kcnn1, Kcnn2) and intermediate ( Kcnn4) conductance calcium-activated potassium channel transcripts with P2X3 ( P2rx3) or bradykinin B2 ( Bdkrb2) receptors in colonic sensory neurons, pharmacological activation of these channels had no effect on the colonic afferent response to ATP, bradykinin or luminal distension of the colon. This is in contrast to the robust inhibitory effect of the KV7 channel opener, retigabine.
Direction-dependent differences in the quality and quantity of horizontal reaching in people after stroke
Authors: Uehara Shintaro , Yuasa Akiko , Ushizawa Kazuki , Kitamura Shin , Yamazaki Kotaro , Otaka Eri , Otaka Yohei
Published: September 2023

Arm reaching, a fundamental function required for the upper extremities, is often impaired after stroke due to muscle weakness and abnormal synergies. Nonetheless, how aiming directions influence performance remains unclear. Here, we report that direction-dependent differences in the quality and quantity of reaching performance exist, surprisingly regardless of the presence or severity of hemiparesis. This result highlights the need to consider the task work area when designing rehabilitative training.
Perception and Challenges of Virtual Classes with Gender Digital Divide amidst and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic in Iraq: An Empirical Analysis
Authors: Kamal Tuba , Khan Mohammed Arshad , Hamad Zubair , Illiyan Asheref , Das Alok Kumar , Alkhuraydili Abdulaziz
Published: September 2023

The COVID-19 epidemic has forced the closure of educational institutions all over the globe since it put academic schedules in peril. To maintain academic activity, the majority of academic institutions have turned to online instruction platforms, which immensely affected instructors’ and pupils’ one-on-one interactions, among other things, causing a paradigm change in the teaching–learning approach. In light of this, it is essential to examine pupils’ perceptions and difficulties associated with online learning amid of the COVID-19 epidemic. The current research adopts a sample survey and a quantitative method. In February and March 2022, a sample of 369 Iraqi school pupils was collected using a Google Form Questionnaire. Several statistical methods, including descriptive statistics, factor analysis, reliability, logistic regression, and the Chi-square test, were used to analyze the data in Statistical Package for Social Science. The findings of the study indicated that, on average, students had mixed opinions toward virtual classes during the outbreak because it became a solution to fill the learning gap. On the other hand, inadequate tools and uneven access to the internet make it difficult for students to learn online. The outcome of the logistic regression analysis demonstrates that the number of rooms, family income, father’s education, and ICT device all have a favorable impact on virtual classes. Meanwhile, students confronted a lot of challenges in taking online classes. Therefore, the findings of this study will persuade academic institutions and policymakers to improve the effectiveness of online learning with the most modern teaching techniques while also encouraging the government to advance remote regions and foster basic infrastructure and Internet access, narrowing the digital divide and making e-learning more fruitful.
Molecular Evidence of Wolbachia Species in Wild-Caught Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes in Four States of Northeast India
Authors: Vinayagam Sathishkumar , Nirmolia Tulika , Chetry Sumi , Kumar Narendran Pradeep , Saini Prasanta , Bhattacharyya Dibya Ranjan , Bhowmick Ipsita Pal , Sattu Kamaraj , Patgiri Saurav Jyoti
Published: September 2023

Wolbachia, a Gram-negative intracellular bacterium, naturally infects many arthropods, including mosquito vectors responsible for the spread of arboviral diseases such as Zika, chikungunya, and dengue fever. Certain Wolbachia strains are involved in inhibiting arbovirus replication in mosquitoes, and this phenomenon is currently being studied to combat disease vectors. A study was conducted in four states in north-eastern India to investigate the presence of natural Wolbachia infection in wild-caught Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the established vectors of dengue. The detection of a Wolbachia infection was confirmed by nested PCR and sequencing in the two mosquito species Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus. Positivity rates observed in Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus pools were 38% (44 of 115) and 85% (41 of 48), respectively, and the difference was significant (chi-square = 28.3174,p = 0.00000010). Sequencing revealed that all detected Wolbachia strains belonged to supergroup B. Although Wolbachia infection in Ae. aegypti has been previously reported from India, no such reports are available from north-eastern India. Data on naturally occurring Wolbachia strains are essential for selecting the optimal strain for the development of Wolbachia-based control measures. This information will be helpful for the future application of Wolbachia-based vector control measures in this part of the country.
Workload‐Aware Performance Tuning for Multimodel Databases Based on Deep Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Sun Jun , Ye Feng , Nedjah Nadia , Zhang Ming , Xu Dong
Published: September 2023

Currently, multimodel databases are widely used in modern applications, but the default configuration often fails to achieve the best performance. How to efficiently manage and tune the performance of multimodel databases is still a problem. Therefore, in this study, we present a configuration parameter tuning tool MMDTune+ for ArangoDB. First, the selection of configuration parameters is based on the random forest algorithm for feature selection. Second, a workload‐aware mechanism is based on k‐means++ and the Pearson correlation coefficient to detect workload changes and match the empirical knowledge of historically similar workloads. Finally, the ArangoDB configuration parameters are optimized based on the improved TD3 algorithm. The experimental results show that MMDTune+ can recommend higher‐quality configuration parameters for ArangoDB compared to OtterTune and CDBTune in different scenarios.
Kidney Function and Risk of Renal Cell Carcinoma
Authors: Alcala Karine , Zahed Hana , Cortez Cardoso Penha Ricardo , Alcala Nicolas , Robbins Hilary A. , Smith-Byrne Karl , Martin Richard M. , Muller David C. , Brennan Paul , Johansson Mattias
Published: September 2023

Background:

We evaluated the temporal association between kidney function, assessed by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and the risk of incident renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We also evaluated whether eGFR could improve RCC risk discrimination beyond established risk factors.

Methods:

We analyzed the UK Biobank cohort, including 463,178 participants of whom 1,447 were diagnosed with RCC during 5,696,963 person-years of follow-up. We evaluated the temporal association between eGFR and RCC risk using flexible parametric survival models, adjusted for C-reactive protein and RCC risk factors. eGFR was calculated from creatinine and cystatin C levels.

Results:

Lower eGFR, an indication of poor kidney function, was associated with higher RCC risk when measured up to 5 years prior to diagnosis. The RCC HR per SD decrease in eGFR when measured 1 year before diagnosis was 1.26 [95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.16–1.37], and 1.11 (95% CI, 1.05–1.17) when measured 5 years before diagnosis. Adding eGFR to the RCC risk model provided a small improvement in risk discrimination 1 year before diagnosis with an AUC of 0.73 (95% CI, 0.67–0.84) compared with the published model (0.69; 95% CI, 0.63–0.79).

Conclusions:

This study demonstrated that kidney function markers are associated with RCC risk, but the nature of these associations are consistent with reversed causality. Markers of kidney function provided limited improvements in RCC risk discrimination beyond established risk factors.

Impact:

eGFR may be of potential use to identify individuals in the extremes of the risk distribution.
Description of a new species of Hippopsis Lepeletier & Audinet-Serville and comments on the identity of H. quadrivittata Breuning (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae, Agapanthiini)
Authors: Vlasak Josef , Santos-Silva Antonio
Published: September 2023

Hippopsis sexlineata, a new species from Ecuador is described. The identity of Hippopsis quadrivittata Breuning, 1940 sensu auctorum is discussed and considered to be Hippopsis fractilinea Bates, 1866.
Cross-Cultural Language Awareness: Contrasting Scenarios of Literacy Learning
Authors: Francis Norbert , Chireac Silvia-Maria , McClure John
Published: September 2023

In the research on literacy learning the concept of language awareness has come forward as a unifying framework for understanding the underlying knowledge that supports ability in reading and writing. Consensus is gathering around the idea that language awareness is an essential foundation. If subsequent work in this area confirms it, this factor may turn out to be the key cognitive-domain explanation for successful literacy learning in school (and for academic purposes in general). In this review we examine two cross-cultural comparisons regarding this claim. The comparisons point to the need to examine cases that juxtapose contrasting conditions. Relevant contrasts place side by side examples that appear to be typical and examples that appear to be exceptional. Taking what appear on the surface as sharply diverging cases, how is access to requisite underlying competencies similar, and how different, from one instance to the other?
Deeper than Belief: Intuitive Judgment as a Context-Driven Process
Authors: Lang Jacob , Körner Christin , Körner Annett
Published: September 2023

Based on “laws” of contagion and similarity, it is understood that people tend to believe that meanings associated with one object may be transferred onto another, and the meanings of the first may “contaminate” the second. The perceived contamination may influence the individual’s way of interacting with the object. We aimed to produce a rich description of individual differences that predict intuitive judgments in response to scenarios involving activation of contagion heuristics. Adolescents and adults in Germany completed a survey and provided rated responses to hypothetical scenarios. They also gave open-ended remarks on one scenario: whether they would wear a sweater that had belonged to Adolf Hitler if they were cold. Content analysis produced a composite description of reflections with insights into historical consciousness in contemporary Germany. Also examined was the extent to which quantitative responses were related to demographics, personality characteristics, supernatural beliefs, and responses to other scenarios.
Emotion Understanding in Polish Children: A Cross-Cultural Comparison between Polish, British, and Italian Children
Authors: Stępień-Nycz Małgorzata , Białecka-Pikul Marta , Tang Yulong , Pons Francisco
Published: September 2023

Emotion understanding (EU) is the capacity to understand the nature, causes, and consequences of the emotional experience of the self and others. The cultural differences and similarities in the development of EU are still not well recognized, especially within Slavic culture and language. We tested 180 Polish children aged 5–11 years using the Test of Emotion Comprehension and compared their results with data from British and Italian children. We revealed a similar pattern of EU development between the three groups, showing a growing number of the core EU components with age. In all samples, the three difficulty-differentiated clusters of EU components were distinguishable. Some cultural differences were observed only in a few EU components – especially, British and Italian children recognized the cognitively-based individualistic aspect of emotions to a higher degree than Polish children. These results supplement the current knowledge about EU development in children within European cultures.
A new species of furry crown crab, Limnopilos Chuang & Ng, 1991 (Brachyura, Hymenosomatidae) from Tonle Sap, Cambodia
Authors: Ng Peter K. L. , Chhuoy Samol
Published: September 2023

A new species of the wholly freshwater hymenosomatid crab genus Limnopilos Chuang & Ng, 1991, is described from Tonle Sap River in the lower Mekong drainage, Cambodia. This is the fourth species known, and the second one from Indochina. The type species, of Limnopilos, L. naiyanetri Chuang & Ng, 1991, was from the Chao Phraya drainage to the west in central Thailand. The new species is characterized by the presence of a rostrum, relatively shorter ambulatory legs and a different structure of the male first gonopod. Limnopilos sumatranus Naruse & Ng, 2007, is also recorded from southern Peninsular Malaysia for the first time.
Relationship fecundity – morphometrics in the green tiger shrimp, Penaeus semisulcatus De Haan, 1844 (Decapoda, Penaeidae), along the Palk Bay, southern Peninsular India
Authors: Rajkumar M. , Pillai S. Lakshmi , Jose Josileen , Sobhana K. S. , George M. Rosalind
Published: September 2023

The green tiger shrimp, Penaeus semisulcatus, is a commercial species supporting important fishery along the Palk Bay coasts. It is a much sought-after seafood commodity influencing the livelihood of the local fishers. This study aims to investigate the fecundity of the species in relation to its morphometry. Fecundity is an index of reproductive capacity used to calculate a stock’s reproductive potential and the egg’s survival. The absolute fecundity of the shrimp ranged from 26 100 to 750 000 ova alive per female, and the mean absolute fecundity from 59 100 to 583 000 ova alive per female. The relationship between fecundity and the morphometric measurements showed a positive exponential correlation. One-way ANOVA indicated a significant difference in the different size classes’ carapace length, total weight, ovary weight, absolute fecundity, stomach weight, and gastrosomatic index. There was no significant difference between the relative fecundity and the gonadosomatic index. This study provides insight into the reproductive potential of P. semisulcatus for efficient management of the resource in Palk Bay, Tamil Nadu, India.
Climate Paradiplomacy: A Comparative Study of Canadian Provinces (British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick)
Authors: Chaloux Annie , Boudreau Jennyfer , Grégoire-Mailhot Gabriel , Simard Philippe
Published: September 2023

Climate change is one of the most important issues of our time. However, its diffuse and complex nature makes it difficult to find global and effective solutions, as these require multi-scale contributions. Although the international climate regime primarily involves states, actors from other levels of government also have active international climate agendas. This is certainly true of several Canadian provinces. The objective of this study is to provide a comprehensive portrait of the paradiplomatic actions that Canadian provinces have undertaken around climate change. The comparative analysis presented here is based on a conceptual framework that distinguishes three types of paradiplomatic instruments: institutionalization, the use of intra-state routes, and the use of extra-state routes. Our analysis shows that Canadian provinces pursue similar paradiplomatic strategies, but that their intensity and sustainability vary widely according to the availability of economic and human resources, as well as political will.
Adoption of Caste by Christian and Jewish Communities in India
Authors: Ponniah James
Published: September 2023

This essay investigates how caste, the most problematic cultural category of India, renders Indian versions of two Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Christianity, a site of ambivalence and conflict. It explores how caste has played out differently in the lives of two Abrahamic religious communities, i.e., the Christians and the Jews at two different locales, Kerala and Andhra. In Kerala, both Syrian Christians and Cochin Jews adopted caste as the given social order of the host country. They practised it to their advantage as it not only made it possible for them to get integrated into the existing Hindu cultural universe of the host nation but also conferred upon them a respectable social status, resulting in the acquisition of social/cultural capital. However, in Andhra, Christian and Jewish Madigas embraced their respective religions to eschew caste and gain self-respect. In Kerala, while caste became an effective route for a harmonious integration into the cultural matrix of the host territory, it not only disrupted intra-communal amity both among the Cochin Jews and the Kerala Christians but also became a source of defiance and alienation from the core teachings of each of these religions, resulting in the loss of ‘spiritual capital’. On the contrary, the rejection of caste on the part of the Madiga Jews and Madiga Christians, perhaps, brought them closer to the central message of fraternity and equality found both in Judaism and in Christianity, whereby they fared better in ‘spiritual and religious capitals’ than their counterparts in Kerala.
Protestant Christianity and Devotional Literature
Authors: Boratti Vijayakumar M.
Published: September 2023

The present article explores the first-ever publication of vacanas of the twelfth century in colonial Karnataka in which a native Christian convert (catechist) of Basel mission writes a treatise on the religious and philosophical tradition of Liṅgāyats. The intention is to study how a native catechist consciously thought through colonial categories and vernacular idioms in interpreting vacanas and employing them as a touchstone to adjudicate Liṅgāyatism. Totally antithetical to Christian views of Liṅgāyatism, the native Liṅgāyat scholars’ idea of vacana literature and what it represented for them will be examined in the second part. The article straddles two registers: a) construction of Liṅgāyat religious/textual traditions with Christian categories and formulation of an ethical framework by the catechist in a Christian tract Liṅgāyata Mata Vicāra (1874) and b) reception, subversion and re- constitution of such construction by the elite Liṅgāyat scholars in the post-1874 scenario.
Two centuries of ornithological exploration of the Rio Doce basin, southeastern Brazil. Part I—A history of the landscape, its explorers, and their collections
Authors: LOPES LEONARDO ESTEVES , BAPTISTA MICHELLE NORONHA DA MATTA , REIS JÉSSICA NAIARA , PACHECO JOSÉ FERNANDO , HEMING NEANDER MARCEL
Published: September 2023

The Rio Doce Hydrographic Basin (RDB) was once covered by magnificent tropical forest, which remained untouched by Europeans for three centuries after the arrival of the Portuguese colonists in the Brazilian coast in 1500. Nevertheless, a dramatic change in land use occurred throughout the entire RDB after the turn of the 19th century. Currently, the RDB is one of the most degraded regions in southeastern Brazil and, recently, it was the scenario of the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history. In this series of papers, we aim to construct a baseline biodiversity assessment that documents the changes in bird communities within the RDB throughout the last two centuries. In this first part, we present the history of the RDB landscape, its explorers, and their collections based on an extensive literature review and museum data. Early biological surveys in the RDB only started at the beginning of the 19th century and were conducted mostly by German and French naturalists. During the first eight decades of ornithological exploration, foreign field naturalists conducted expeditions to the RDB and collected hundreds of bird specimens. Unfortunately, labelling and curatorial procedures were often poor and despite the prodigious efforts of those naturalists, results obtained were often meagre. The second phase of exploration occurred from the 1900s to the 1960s and was dominated by expeditions conducted by Brazilian natural history museums. During this phase, labelling and curatorial procedures improved considerably and the material collected significantly advanced our knowledge about the RDB avifauna The third phase occurred from the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century, when collection of specimens decreased sharply and the research activity slowly shifted from museums to universities, with a focus on ecology and natural history. We are now in a fourth, more pluralistic phase, in which research continues to be done by universities, Brazilian natural history museums have resumed their collection activity, and birdwatching has emerged as a popular activity in Brazil, producing a tremendous amount of data in a short period of time.
1: Introduction
Authors: van de Poel Ibo , Hopster Jeroen , Löhr Guido , Ziliotti Elena , Buijsman Stefan , Brey Philip
Published: September 2023

Technologies have all kinds of impacts, on the environment, on human behavior, on our society and on what we believe and value. But some technologies are not just impactful, they are also socially disruptive: they challenge existing institutions, social practices, beliefs and conceptual categories. Here we are particularly interested in technologies that disrupt existing concepts, for example because they lead to profound uncertainty about how to classify matters. Is a humanoid robot - which looks and even acts like a human - to be classified as a person, or is it just an inert machine? Conceptual disruption occurs when the meaning of concepts is challenged, and it may potentially lead to a revision of concepts. We illustrate how technologies can be conceptually disruptive through a range of examples, and we argue for an intercultural outlook in studying socially disruptive technologies and conceptual disruption. Such an outlook is needed to avoid a Western bias in calling technologies socially or conceptually disruptive, and it takes inspiration from a broad range of philosophical traditions.
3. Social Robots and Society
Authors: Nyholm Sven , Friedman Cindy , Dale Michael T. , Puzio Anna , Babushkina Dina , Löhr Guido , Gwagwa Arthur , Kamphorst Bart A. , Perugia Giulia , IJsselsteijn Wijnand
Published: September 2023

Advancements in artificial intelligence and (social) robotics raise pertinent questions as to how these technologies may help shape the society of the future. The main aim of the chapter is to consider the social and conceptual disruptions that might be associated with social robots, and humanoid social robots in particular. This chapter starts by comparing the concepts of robots and artificial intelligence, and briefly explores the origins of these expressions. It then explains what a social robot is, as well as what humanoid robots are. A key notion in this context is the idea of anthropomorphism: the human tendency to attribute human qualities, not only to our fellow human beings, but also to parts of nature and to technologies. This tendency to anthropomorphize technologies by responding to and interacting with them as if they have human qualities is one of the reasons why social robots – in particular social robots designed to look and behave like human beings – can be socially disruptive. As is explained in the chapter, while some ethics researchers think that anthropomorphization is a mistake that can lead to various forms of deception, others – including both ethics researchers and social roboticists – believe it can be useful or fitting to treat robots in anthropomorphizing ways. The chapter explores that disagreement by, among other things, considering recent philosophical debates about whether social robots can be moral patients; that is, whether it can make sense to treat them with moral consideration. Where one stands on this issue will depend on one’s views about whether social robots can have, imitate, or represent morally relevant properties, or on how people relate to social robots in their interactions with them. Lastly, the chapter urges that the ethics of social robots should explore intercultural perspectives, and highlights some recent research on ubuntu ethics and social robots.
Local anesthetics effects of lidocaine-loaded chitosan nanoparticles in a rat model: An in vitro and in vivo study
Authors: Jiang Ting , Du Yan , Niu Jiangtao , Jalili Saman
Published: September 2023

Due to low molecular weight, locally administered anesthetic drugs are drained or absorbed. In the current study, lidocaine was loaded into chitosan nanoparticles using ionotropic gelation method in order to develop a potential anesthetic formulation to improve the drug’s long
term effects. in vitro experiments including scanning electron microscopy assay, cell viability assay, hemocompatibility assay, and release assay were used to characterize the delivery system in vitro. in vivo anesthetic function of the developed delivery system was investigated
in a rat model. in vitro studies showed that the developed nanoparticles had a submicron size and a wide size distribution. Lidocaine-loaded and lidocaine-free nanoparticles had mean particle size around 301.92±67.92 nm and 313.73±73.97 nm, respectively. The prepared nanoparticles
were not toxic against L929 cells and promoted their viability. in vivo studies showed that the anesthetic effects of lidocaine-loaded nanoparticles were longer-lasting than free lidocaine. This study suggests potential applicability of the developed delivery system for anesthetic applications
in the clinic.
The Mobilizing Effect of Party System Polarization. Evidence From Europe
Authors: Ellger Fabio
Published: September 2023

Does party system polarization mobilize voters? Polarization is increasingly shaping democratic competition across Europe. While often perceived to be negative, polarization can be an effective remedy against voter disengagement. This paper investigates two distinct, but often conflated mechanisms, which could explain why polarization leads to mobilization. Spatial polarization of parties diversifies electoral options at the ballot, while affective polarization mobilizes based on emotional considerations. This article then shows the link between polarization and turnout across 22 European countries. The results are complemented by a difference-in-differences analysis of German local elections. However, voting results alone do not inform about the mechanism at play. Survey data is used to show that negative affect appears to be the main driver of voter participation. Party polarization thus has ambivalent consequences for democracies: It mobilizes the electorate, but its effect is driven by negative emotions.
A multi-site intervention using influencers to communicate about syringe service programmes
Authors: Bonnevie Erika , Dunn Silesky Melissa , Goldbarg Jaclyn , Gudmundsen Caitlyn , Fields Megan , Smyser Joe
Published: September 2023

Introduction:

In the USA, syringe services programmes (SSPs) provide a range of harm reduction services and have numerous benefits for communities. However, stigma, misconceptions about SSPs and changing policies/legislation remain a challenge to effective implementation. This study reviews the implementation of two digital interventions, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence, which used social media influencers and digital volunteers to communicate positive information about harm reduction and SSPs.

Methods:

The intervention was designed to deliver accurate and supportive messaging in locally relevant and meaningful ways. Messaging was informed by interviews with subject matter experts and community organisations, and was integrated into prompts used by local influencers (paid individuals with more than 1,000 followers) and digital volunteers (unpaid individuals with no following requirement, who joined the project independently).

Results:

In the first 6 months of implementation, Appalachian Influence and Shared Influence engaged a total of 9,014 individuals, 236 of whom were paid influencers and 8,778 of whom were digital volunteers. Paid influencer posts achieved a total of 868,943 impressions, 42,432 engagements and 1,567 comments. Comments on paid influencer posts were overwhelmingly positive, with 87.4% positive and 0.8% negative. Interviews showed the importance of understanding local realities, leading with compassion and emphasising the ‘human’ aspects of dependency and addiction in messaging.

Conclusion:

This study shows the potential to implement an influencer-led social media intervention to reach people with authentic and compassionate messaging about harm reduction and SSPs. Future research should examine intervention effectiveness and how this approach can be applied to other stigmatised topics.
Clinical efficacy of buprenorphine after oral dosing in rats undergoing major surgery
Authors: Nordén Einar Sjaastad , Veras Ioanni , Yadav Prakash , Løken Kari , Dishington Hilde , Thorstensen Christian , Sjaastad Ivar , Rasmussen Henrik
Published: September 2023

Serum corticosterone, serum buprenorphine, body weight change, consumption of food and water and behaviour-based pain assessment were measured in catheterised and non-catheterised male Wistar rats undergoing myocardial infarct (MI) surgery under general anaesthesia following buprenorphine dosing by subcutaneous (Bup-SC, 0.05 mg/kg) and oral (Bup-O, 0.4 mg/kg) routes. Buprenorphine was dosed subcutaneously at half an hour before and 8, 16 and 24 hours after surgery (Bup-SC), orally at one hour before surgery (Bup-O1) or at one hour before and 12 hours after surgery (Bup-O2) in catheterised rats and at one hour before and 24 hours after surgery (Bup-O24) in non-catheterised rats. Serum corticosterone, body weight changes and food and water consumption were not significantly different between treatments in catheterised rats. Bup-SC resulted in rapidly decreasing serum concentrations below the clinically effective concentrations (1 ng/mL) already at two hours after the first dose. Bup-O provided significantly higher and slowly decreasing serum concentrations, at or above clinically effective concentrations, for 24 hours (Bup-O1) and 42 hours (Bup-O2) after surgery. In non-catheterised rats, body weight development and food consumption were significantly higher in Bup-O24 rats compared to Bup-SC rats. The results indicate that a SC buprenorphine dose of 0.05 mg/kg every eight hours provides long periods of serum concentrations below clinically effective levels, and that a higher dose and/or more frequent dosage are required to provide stable serum concentrations at or above clinically effective levels. A single oral buprenorphine dose of 0.4 mg/kg provides clinically effective and stable serum concentrations for 24 hours in rats after MI surgery.