bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Concrete with high-purity volcanic glass fine powder manufactured from pyroclastic deposit
Authors: Tomoyose A. , Noguchi T. , Sodeyama K. , Higashi K. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractVolcanic deposits, which are pozzolanically reactive, have long been known to improve the durability of concrete. Nevertheless, it has also been pointed out that the use of a natural pozzolan as a supplementary cementitious material (SCM) can pose problems of low workability and slow strength development. Also, in addition, its composition and physical properties have large variety and variability. We have been conducting studies on the total utilization of volcanic deposits for applications suitable for respective properties by classifying them by floating speed difference and particle diameter. It is reported that sorting out particles less than 2.4 g/cm3 by dry gravity classification and removal of smaller clay fraction by dust collector is technically effective to recover high purity volcanic glass from pyroclastic flow deposits called “Ito-Shirasu”, which is a local name for pyroclastic flow deposits in Japan. In this study, concrete containing high-purity volcanic glass powders with different finenesses are investigated regarding fresh properties, strength development, chloride ion penetration and CO2 reduction. As a result, it was found that volcanic glass powders made an excellent contribution to the improvement of flowability comparable to fly ash, the enhancement of strength comparable to silica fume, and the restraint of chloride ion penetration. Volcanic glass powders can also contrbute to the reduction of CO2 emission because the content of Portland cement can be significantly reduced to obtain the same strength compared to concrete with 100% Portland cement. This study provides a possibility to produce high performance SCMs in volcanic regions worldwide from volcanic ejecta by sorting out a high purity volcanic glass by the same method.
The Right to Life Under the EU Charter and Cooperation with Third States to Combat Human Smuggling
Authors: Stoyanova Vladislava 
Published: April 2020

AbstractAccording to EU policy documents, “[s]aving lives of people in distress is a primary goal of EU action in relation to managing the EU external borders.” The EU preferred strategy to achieve this objective is to take measures against human smuggling—including the establishment of cooperation with third countries—ostensibly so that migrants are contained and their irregular movement is prevented. This Article examines whether this strategy complies with the positive obligations corresponding to the right to life as enshrined in Article 2 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. After considering any formal obstacles that might prevent the activation of the Charter, this Article clarifies the factors that determine the scope of these positive obligations. Procedural and substantive obligations are then distinguished. The procedural positive obligation demands that the EU and its Member States (MS) consider alternatives to the measures of containment. Due to difficulties in assessing the reasonableness of such alternatives, the EU and the MS are also under the positive obligation to initiate studies that can provide reliable evidence that alternative measures—such as the possibility of issuing humanitarian visas—would be too burdensome. As to the substantive positive obligation corresponding to the right to life, this Article will argue that the EU and the MS need to be attentive about the cumulative outcome of their migration policies. The more successful they are in their indiscriminate containment policies—and the more unlikely any protection possibilities in the region of containment—the more likely it is that the positive obligation to protect life will remain unfulfilled.
Human Rights Due Diligence Policies Applied to Extraterritorial Cooperation to Prevent “Irregular” Migration: European Union and United Kingdom Support to Libya
Authors: Ferstman Carla 
Published: April 2020

AbstractExtraterritorial cooperation—including by providing funds, equipment, training, and technical support—has become central to policies aimed at preventing access of refugees and “irregular” migrants to particular countries and regions. But cooperating countries and international organizations have due diligence obligations under human rights law to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the cooperation they provide does not result in human rights violations, even when the violations are perpetrated extraterritorially by third parties. Consequently, they can become liable for the failure to exercise due diligence to prevent human rights violations from occurring in the receiving states. Also, they may incur responsibility for the resulting acts where they knowingly aided or assisted the receiving state to commit human rights violations with the support provided.International organizations and some states have begun to adopt human rights due diligence policies to assess and mitigate the risks of such cooperation. Using the examples of European Union and United Kingdom support to Libya, this Article analyzes the due diligence policies they have applied to extraterritorial cooperation in the area of border control and the detention of refugees and other migrants. It finds that the policies as implemented have provided only superficial scrutiny and argues that they should be made more robust and transparent. Ultimately, this will help mitigate the human rights risks associated with extraterritorial assistance, and ideally help ensure that assistance contributes to the strengthening of human rights protections in recipient countries.
Edwards' condition for quasitraces on C*-algebras
Authors: Antoine Ramon , Perera Francesc , Robert Leonel , Thiel Hannes 
Published: April 2020

AbstractWe prove that Cuntz semigroups of C*-algebras satisfy Edwards' condition with respect to every quasitrace. This condition is a key ingredient in the study of the realization problem of functions on the cone of quasitraces as ranks of positive elements. In the course of our investigation, we identify additional structure of the Cuntz semigroup of an arbitrary C*-algebra and of the cone of quasitraces.
Palynological evidence of sea-surface conditions in the Barents Sea off northeast Svalbard during the postglacial period
Authors: Brice Camille , de Vernal Anne , Ivanova Elena , van Bellen Simon , Van Nieuwenhove Nicolas 
Published: April 2020

AbstractPostglacial changes in sea-surface conditions, including sea-ice cover, summer temperature, salinity, and productivity were reconstructed from the analyses of dinocyst assemblages in core S2528 collected in the northwestern Barents Sea. The results show glaciomarine-type conditions until about 11,300 ± 300 cal yr BP and limited influence of Atlantic water at the surface into the Barents Sea possibly due to the proximity of the Svalbard-Barents Sea ice sheet. This was followed by a transitional period generally characterized by cold conditions with dense sea-ice cover and low-salinity pulses likely related to episodic freshwater or meltwater discharge, which lasted until 8700 ± 700 cal yr BP. The onset of “interglacial” conditions in surface waters was marked by a major change in dinocyst assemblages, from dominant heterotrophic to dominant phototrophic taxa. Until 4100 ± 150 cal yr BP, however, sea-surface conditions remained cold, while sea-surface salinity and sea-ice cover recorded large amplitude variations. By ~4000 cal yr BP optimum sea-surface temperature of up to 4°C in summer and maximum salinity of ~34 psu suggest enhanced influence of Atlantic water, and productivity reached up to 150 gC/m2/yr. After 2200 ± 1300 cal yr BP, a distinct cooling trend accompanied by sea-ice spreading characterized surface waters. Hence, during the Holocene, with exception of an interval spanning about 4000 to 2000 cal yr BP, the northern Barents Sea experienced harsh environments, relatively low productivity, and unstable conditions probably unsuitable for human settlements.
A TRUNCATED IDENTITY OF EULER AND RELATED -CONGRUENCES
Authors: LIU JI-CAI , HUANG ZHONG-YU 
Published: April 2020

We discuss a truncated identity of Euler and present a combinatorial proof of it. We also derive two finite identities as corollaries. As an application, we establish two related $q$-congruences for sums of $q$-Catalan numbers, one of which has been proved by Tauraso [‘$q$-Analogs of some congruences involving Catalan numbers’, Adv. Appl. Math. 48 (2012), 603–614] by a different method.
Spheres, Sefirot, and the Imaginal Astronomical Discourse of Classical Kabbalah
Authors: Chajes J. H. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractThe medieval expression of Jewish esotericism known as Kabbalah is distinguished by its imaging of the divine as ten hypostatic sefirot that structure the Godhead and generate the cosmos. Since Gershom Scholem, the preeminent twentieth-century scholar of Kabbalah, declared the term sefirah (sg.) as deriving from “sapphire”—pointedly rejecting its connection to the Greek σφαῖρα—scholars have paid scant attention to the profound indebtedness of the visual and verbal lexicon of the kabbalists to the Greco-Arabic scientific tradition. The present paper seeks to redress this neglect through an examination of the appropriation of the diagrammatic-iconographical and rhetorical languages of astronomy and natural philosophy in medieval and early modern kabbalistic discourse. This study will place particular emphasis on the adoption-adaptation and ontologization of the dominant schemata of these most prestigious fields of medieval science by classical kabbalists, what it reveals about their self-understanding, and how it contributed to the perception of Kabbalah as a “divine science” well into the early modern period.
iMAgery focused psychological therapy for persecutory delusions in PSychosis (iMAPS): a multiple baseline experimental case series
Authors: Taylor Christopher D.J. , Bee Penny E. , Kelly James , Emsley Richard , Haddock Gillian 
Published: April 2020

AbstractBackground:Many people with psychosis experience persecutory delusions and report negative schematic beliefs and intrusive mental images which may be maintaining factors for psychotic symptoms.Aims:This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of a new psychological therapy targeting schemas and images (iMAPS therapy).Method:The study used a randomised multiple baseline design. Participants with first episode psychosis were randomised using a multiple baseline design with 2–5 assessments. Six sessions of therapy, consisting of a combination of imagery techniques and imagery rescripting techniques, was used. In each session, participants completed a Mental Imagery in Psychosis Questionnaire (MIPQ) and imagery interview. Mood and delusional beliefs (PSYRATS) were also measured at each session.Results:Five participants with first episode psychosis completed the baseline visits and attended all therapy sessions. One participant declined the final assessment. Results demonstrated significant reductions in negative schematic beliefs, delusions, imagery distress and other measures of schema (YSQ, SMI). Although multiple baseline randomisation strengthens the study, it lacked a control arm and blind assessments.Conclusions:iMAPS appears a feasible and acceptable treatment for psychosis, and further evaluation is indicated.
Insights From CMIP6 for Australia's Future Climate
Authors: Grose M. R. , Narsey S. , Delage F. P. , Dowdy A. J. , Bador M. , Boschat G. , Chung C. , Kajtar J. B. , Rauniyar S. , Freund M. B. , Lyu K. , Rashid H. , Zhang X. , Wales S. , Trenham C. , Holbrook N. J. , Cowan T. , Alexander L. , Arblaster J. M. , Power S. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractOutputs from new state‐of‐the‐art climate models under the Coupled Model Inter‐comparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) promise improvement and enhancement of climate change projections information for Australia. Here we focus on three key aspects of CMIP6: what is new in these models, how the available CMIP6 models evaluate compared to CMIP5, and their projections of the future Australian climate compared to CMIP5 focussing on the highest emissions scenario. The CMIP6 ensemble has several new features of relevance to policymakers and others, for example, the integrated matrix of socioeconomic and concentration pathways. The CMIP6 models show incremental improvements in the simulation of the climate in the Australian region, including a reduced equatorial Pacific cold tongue bias, slightly improved rainfall teleconnections with large‐scale climate drivers, improved representation of atmosphere and ocean extreme heat events, as well as dynamic sea level. However, important regional biases remain, evident in the excessive rainfall over the Maritime Continent and rainfall pattern biases in the nearby tropical convergence zones. Projections of Australian temperature and rainfall from the available CMIP6 ensemble broadly agree with those from CMIP5, except for a group of CMIP6 models with higher climate sensitivity and greater warming and increase in some extremes after 2050. CMIP6 rainfall projections are similar to CMIP5, but the ensemble examined has a narrower range of rainfall change in austral summer in Northern Australia and austral winter in Southern Australia. Overall, future national projections are likely to be similar to previous versions but perhaps with some areas of improved confidence and clarity.
Chemical Cycling in the Venusian Atmosphere: A Full Photochemical Model From the Surface to 110 km
Authors: Bierson C. J. , Zhang X. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractVenus is an exceptional natural experiment to test our understanding of atmospheric sulfur chemistry. Previous modeling efforts have focused on understanding either the middle or lower atmosphere. In this work, we performed the first full atmosphere analysis of the chemical transport processes on Venus from the surface to 110 km using a 1‐D diffusion model with photochemistry. We focused on the cycling of chemical species between the upper and lower atmospheres and interactions between distinct species groups including SO
, CO
+ OCS, chlorides, NO
, O
, and S
. We tested different eddy diffusivity profiles and investigated their influences on the vertical profiles of important species. We find that the assumed boundary conditions in previous models strongly impacted their simulation results. This has a particularly large effect for SO
. We find the high SO
abundance in the lower atmosphere is readily transported into the middle atmosphere, far exceeding observed values. This implies some yet unknown chemistry or process limiting SO
mixing. We summarize outstanding questions raised by this work and note chemical reactions that should be the highest priority for future laboratory studies and ab initio calculations.
On the Reliability of Variable‐Rate Pumping Test Results: Sensitivity to Information Content of the Recorded Data
Authors: Naderi Mostafa , Gupta Hoshin V. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractPumping tests are widely used to estimate parameters such as transmissivity and storativity, using aquifer response equations that assume a time‐constant pumping rate. However, in actual practice the discharge rate will often vary erratically and follow a generally decreasing trend as the test proceeds. In such cases, if the discharge history is recorded with sufficient temporal fidelity, accurate solutions can be obtained via time domain piecewise‐linear numerical integration. However, if the discharge data do not adequately characterize the variability in the dynamics of the pumping rate, the result can be information loss leading to bias in the inferred parameter estimates. Here, we investigate the severity of this problem for six selected aquifer types, including those that are confined, leaky, and unconfined. Our results indicate that the effects of information loss due to inadequate temporal resolution of the discharge data and systematic observational error are significantly more severe than due to random observational error. The implication is that operators should make a concerted effort to record the pumping rate at the highest practical temporal resolution throughout the duration of the test.
On the Link Between the Madden‐Julian Oscillation, Euro‐Mediterranean Weather Regimes, and Morocco Winter Rainfall
Authors: Gadouali F. , Semane N. , Muñoz Á.G. , Messouli M. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractK‐means cluster analysis of wintertime 500‐hPa geopotential height anomalies allowed identifying seven weather regimes (WRs) describing the atmospheric variability over the Euro‐Mediterranean domain. The study of transitions between those WRs provided consistent results with the westward displacement of the blocking nearby northern Europe before the onset of the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO−). The onset of the latter is, indeed, preceded by the North Atlantic blocking regime (NABl). In addition, we detected a preferred transition from the Scandinavian Blocking (ScBl) to NAO+ through the European Ridge regime (EuRG), which is modulated by active phases of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation (MJO). The examination of the relationship between WRs and precipitation over Morocco showed that the NAO− (NAO+) regime is accompanied by more (less) rainy episodes. The investigation of the lagged relationships between the MJO and the WRs depicted the role of an active MJO in Phase 2 as a precursor of the ScBl and of an active MJO in Phase 6 as a precursor of the NABl. The exploration of the 10–15 days lagged impact of the MJO on Moroccan rainfall showed an increase (decrease) of wet (dry) conditions 10 to 15 days after the occurrence of an active MJO in Phases 6 and 8 (Phases 2‐3‐4). The MJO modulation of the WRs and rainfall patterns over Morocco constitutes an important source of predictability at the medium‐ and the extended‐range (subseasonal) time scales, with potential use by decision makers in key socioeconomic sectors in the region.
Patient perspectives on how to optimise benefits from a breathlessness service for people with COPD
Authors: Luckett Tim , Roberts Mary M. , Smith Tracy , Swami Vinita , Cho Jin-Gun , Wheatley John R. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractThis study aimed to inform understanding of how to optimise patient-perceived benefits from a breathlessness service designed for patients with moderate to very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The Westmead Breathlessness Service (WBS) trains patients to self-manage over an 8-week programme, with multidisciplinary input and home visits. A qualitative approach was taken, using semi-structured telephone interviews. Each transcript was globally rated as suggesting ‘significant’, ‘some’ or ‘no’ impact from WBS, and thematic analysis used an integrative approach. Forty-one consecutive participants were interviewed to reach ‘information power’. Eighteen (44%) participants reported ‘significant’ impact, 17 (41%) ‘some’ impact, and two (5%) ‘no’ impact. Improvements to breathlessness were usually in the affective and impact dimensions but, more uncommonly, also sensory-perceptual. Participants who benefited in self-esteem, confidence and motivation attributed this to one-to-one multidisciplinary coaching and home visits. Further research should test whether including/excluding more intensive programme elements based on individual need might improve cost-effectiveness.
Adaptive rewiring evolves brain-like structure in weighted networks
Authors: Rentzeperis Ilias , van Leeuwen Cees 
Published: April 2020

AbstractActivity-dependent plasticity refers to a range of mechanisms for adaptively reshaping neuronal connections. We model their common principle in terms of adaptive rewiring of network connectivity, while representing neural activity by diffusion on the network: Where diffusion is intensive, shortcut connections are established, while underused connections are pruned. In binary networks, this process is known to steer initially random networks robustly to high levels of structural complexity, reflecting the global characteristics of brain anatomy: modular or centralized small world topologies. We investigate whether this result extends to more realistic, weighted networks. Both normally- and lognormally-distributed weighted networks evolve either modular or centralized topologies. Which of these prevails depends on a single control parameter, representing global homeostatic or normalizing regulation mechanisms. Intermediate control parameter values exhibit the greatest levels of network complexity, incorporating both modular and centralized tendencies. The simulation results allow us to propose diffusion based adaptive rewiring as a parsimonious model for activity-dependent reshaping of brain connectivity structure.
Predators and dispersers: Context-dependent outcomes of the interactions between rodents and a megafaunal fruit plant
Authors: Loayza Andrea P. , Luna Claudia A. , Calviño-Cancela María 
Published: April 2020

AbstractMany plant species bear fruits that suggest adaptation to seed dispersal by extinct megafauna. Present-day seed dispersal of these megafaunal plants is carried out by rodents, which can act as predators or dispersers; whether this interaction is primarily positive or negative can depend on the context. Here, we parameterized a stochastic model using data from the field and experimental arenas to estimate the effect of rodents on the recruitment of Myrcianthes coquimbensis -an Atacama Desert shrub with megafaunal fruits- and examine whether environmental conditions can alter the sign and strength of these rodent-plant interactions. We show that the outcome of these interactions is context-dependent: in wet conditions seed removal by rodents negatively impacts the recruitment probability of M. coquimbensis; in contrast, in dry conditions, the interaction with rodents increases recruitment success. In all cases, the strength of the effect of rodents on the recruitment success was determined mainly by their role as dispersers, which could be positive or negative. This study demonstrates that by caching seeds, rodents can be effective dispersers of a megafaunal fruit plant, but that the sign and magnitude of their effect on recruitment changes as a function of the environmental context in which the interaction occurs.
Shape analysis of railway ballast stones: curvature-based calculation of particle angularity
Authors: Suhr Bettina , Skipper William A. , Lewis Roger , Six Klaus 
Published: April 2020

AbstractParticle shape analysis is conducted, to compare two types of railway ballast: Calcite and Kieselkalk. Focus lies on the characterisation of particle angularity using 3D scanner data. In the literature, angularity is often characterised using 2D data, as these types of data are easier to collect. 3D scanner data contain a vast amount of information (e.g. curvatures) which can be used for shape analysis and angularity characterisation. Literature approaches that use 3D data are often not thoroughly tested, due to a lack of test cases. In this work, two new curvature-based angularity indices are introduced and compared to one from the literature. Analytical test bodies with shapes ranging from spherical towards cubic are used for a first plausibility test. Then, 3D scans of ballast stones are compared to artificially rounded meshes. Only one out of three evaluated angularity indices seem to be suited to characterise angularity correctly in all of the above tests: the newly introduced scaled Willmore energy. A complete shape analysis of the scanned ballast stones is conducted and no difference between the two types of ballast can be seen regarding form, angularity, roughness, sphericity or convexity index. These findings of shape analysis are set in the context of previous works, where experimental results and DEM simulations of uniaxial compression tests and direct shear tests were presented for the same ballast types.