bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Stalking, mental disease, imputability: Thoughts on 20 cases
Authors: Manunza Francesca , Pintor Giampaolo 
Published: June 2018

Stalking is the product of an interaction between context (including the dyadic relationship between stalker and victim) and individual factors such as psychopathology. Those who have stalking behaviour are often affected by mental disorders that may have a direct or indirect role in committing stalking. Literature reports that stalkers of former partners represent the widest sub-category of stalkers. A 2003 study indicates an average percentage of 49% stalkers of former partners reported in 40, showing a significant diversity of stalking behaviours with a faster wearing out rate. Several studies indicate a greater prevalence of psychosis among those who persecute strangers or acquaintances compared to stalkers of former partners (25% vs 11%). Some studies, besides the present survey, indicate a high prevalence of not otherwise specified Personality Disorders in stalkers, suggesting that stalking behaviour may be associated with several personality traits of various disorders. This study aims at finding empirical evidence to the data reported by the relevant scientific literature. We examined the expert surveys of 20 stalkers subjected to psychiatric-forensic evaluation for the crime of stalking (article 612/bis) in the years 2016/2017, drawn up by the Forensic Psychiatry Service in Cagliari. Through a specific grid, which allowed to guarantee anonymity and that stalkers could not be identified, they analyzed some demographic variables (age, sex, marital status, educational qualification), stalkers’ diagnoses, victims’ typology, types of stalking performed, paying a particular attention to violence manifestations, stalking duration and some psychiatric-forensic data. Our survey has highlighted that 19 stalkers (95%) are males, do not have a stable affective relationship and had to refer at least once to the Mental Health Service; (70%) of stalkers are unemployed or retired. From the psychiatric-forensic point of view, 14 stalkers (70%) are partially mind defective, 5 (25%) are totally mind defective, 1 has been recognized as mentally incompetent; 13 (65%) are socially dangerous. Furthermore, 45% of stalkers are affected by not otherswise specified (NOS) Personality Disorder. The prevalent diagnoses (Axis I) detected are: 8 stalkers (40%), are affected by Substance Use Disorder, 6 (30%), Bipolar and related disorders, 5 (25%) Spectrum Disorders of Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders; 45% of victims of stalking are former partners. Due to the high possibility that stalkers develop a violent behaviour, present in half of the stalkers of former partners, and the chance of crime recidivism, in particular among stalkers affected by Personality Disorder, the Service of Forensic Psychiatry in Cagliari, in agreement with the Court, is drawing up guidelines that provide for the establishment of proper services where to follow the stalkers in order to limit recidivism of this crime.
Comparison of Strain Elastography, Shear Wave Elastography, and Conventional Ultrasound in Diagnosing Thyroid Nodules
Authors: Liao Li-Jen , Chen Huan-Wen , Hsu Wan-Lun , Chen Yung-Sheng 
Published: June 2018

Objective:
The purpose of this study is to compare the diagnostic performances of strain elastography (SE), shear wave elastography (SWE), and traditional ultrasound (US) features in diagnosing thyroid nodules.

Subjects and Methods:
This study included 185 adult patients with thyroid nodules who underwent conventional gray-scale US, SE, and SWE. SE was scored using a four-pattern elastographic scoring (ES) system. SWE values were presented as mean SWE values and standard derivation using Young's modules. The optimal cutoff values of the mean SWE values for predicting malignancy were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. We used logistic regression models to test elastography as a novel significant predictor for the diagnosis of malignant nodules. The diagnostic performance of elastography parameters was compared with a traditional trained model.

Results:
Malignant thyroid nodules were stiffer for SE (ES patterns 1 and 2/3 and 4) and mean SWE values (4/17; 51.0 ± 24.4 kPa) than for benign nodules (114/50; 33.1 ± 25.2 kPa) (P < 0.01). In ROC curve analyses, a mean SWE value of 32 kPa was the optimal cutoff point, with diagnostic performance measures of 81% sensitivity, 65% specificity, a 23% positive predictive value (PPV), and 96% negative predictive value (NPV). In multivariate logistic regression, the mean SWE value (≥32 kPa) was an independent predictor for malignancy (odds ratio: 16.8; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.6–78.3). However, after the addition of SE and SWE to traditional US features, the C-statistic was not significantly increased compared to the traditional model (0.88, 95% CI: 0.81–0.94 vs. 0.91, 0.85–0.97, P = 0.4).

Conclusion:
In this study, we confirmed SWE as an independent predictor for malignant thyroid nodules. However, in comparing the new extended elastography model to our previous prediction model, the new extended model showed no significant difference in the diagnostic performance.
Smartphone audio port data collection cookbook
Authors: Forinash Kyle , Wisman Raymond 
Published: June 2018

The audio port of a smartphone is designed to send and receive audio but can be harnessed for portable, economical, and accurate data collection from a variety of sources. While smartphones have internal sensors to measure a number of physical phenomena such as acceleration, magnetism and illumination levels, measurement of other phenomena such as voltage, external temperature, or accurate timing of moving objects are excluded. The audio port cannot be only employed to sense external phenomena. It has the additional advantage of timing precision; because audio is recorded or played at a controlled rate separated from other smartphone activities, timings based on audio can be highly accurate. The following outlines unpublished details of the audio port technical elements for data collection, a general data collection recipe and an example timing application for Android devices.
Received: 5 January 2018, Accepted: 20 April 2018; Edited by: A. Martí, M. Monteiro; Reviewed by: P. Jeanjacquot, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon – Institut Francais de lEducation, France; DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4279/PIP.100006
Cite as: K Forinash, R Wisman, Papers in Physics 10, 100006 (2018)
This paper, by K Forinash, R Wisman, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.
Personhood in a transhumanist context: An African perspective
Authors: Fayemi Ademola Kazeem 
Published: June 2018

Personhood is an extensively discussed theme in contemporary African philosophy, which has taken metaphysical, epistemological and normative dimensions. In Western philosophical traditions, discourse on personhood is transmuting to debates on transhumanism. Missing in the African philosophical literature is consideration of transhumanism and an explication of the relationship between personhood and transhumanism. In this article, I critically examine the relationship between personhood and transhumanism in an African context. Drawing on Barry Hallen’s African metaphysical account of personhood and Thaddeus Metz’s Afro-communal normative conception of personhood, I argue that while some transhumanist elements are embedded in African normative and ontological conceptions of personhood, some others are not. In the final analysis, I defend an Afrofuturistic account of personhood that is compatible with some censored essentials of transhumanism in African thoughts.Keywords: Personhood, Transhumanism, Barry Hallen, Thaddeus Metz, Africa, Yoruba
African studies through language-based techniques
Authors: Osuagwu Ndubuisi 
Published: June 2018

In this article, we argue that language-based techniques have the capacity to generate original ideas and thus account for progress in any discipline. We claim that language-based techniques used by some African scholars such as hermeneutics (critical interpretation of cultural corpus) and related ones such as transliteration (adaptation of alien intellectual legacy) are creatively inadequate to inspire progress because they do not lead to the creation of new concepts and original ideas in African thought. We claim also that the technique of intellectual decolonisation with its foremost expression in Kwasi Wiredu’s ‘conceptual decolonisation’ and Kwesi Tsri’s ‘conceptual liberation’, are two recent language-based strategies aimed at overcoming the creative problem inherent in the techniques of hermeneutics and transliteration. We argue that these two techniques are equally inadequate because they are tantamount to what can be called‘conceptual manipulation’, which is not a creative strategy for progress in African thought. The goal of this paper therefore is to expose the creative weaknesses in these techniques in order to show that there is a dearth of creative language-based techniques in African studies and make a call for the formulation of one.Keywords: African philosophy, hermeneutics, transliteration, conceptual manipulation, conceptual decolonisation, conceptual liberation.
Thought predicament and unwillingness to act: Twin minions of underdevelopment in Africa
Authors: Emedolu Christian C. 
Published: June 2018

Varied theories and models of development have been advanced by many scholars to explain the failure of developmental theories and policies in Africa. This paper critically reviews the existing literature on the bane of development in Africa, arriving at what it considers as the most fundamental twin minions of underdevelopment in the continent. The two implicated interrelated issues are thought predicament and unwillingness to act (which in itself is also a predicament). Whereas thought predicament affects the intellectual faculty, unwillingness to act is the defect of the volitional and affective faculties. This paper strongly claims that without first rectifying these three core faculties of the African person, the continent can at best be chasing shadows. This, however, does not suggest that all other reasons for underdevelopment are insignificant or implausible. Well-planned educational system and deliberate conscientiousness towards enhancing the intellectual, volitional and affective faculties of humans are key to sustainable development of any state in Africa.Keywords: Thought Predicament, Unwillingness to Act, Underdevelopment, Africa.
High-resolution modeling of gaseous methylamines over a polluted region in China: source-dependent emissions and implications of spatial variations
Authors: Mao Jingbo , Yu Fangqun , Zhang Yan , An Jingyu , Wang Lin , Zheng Jun , Yao Lei , Luo Gan , Ma Weichun , Yu Qi , Huang Cheng , Li Li , Chen Limin 
Published: June 2018

Abstract. Amines have received increasing attention in recent years because of
their potential role in new particle formation in the atmosphere and
their impact on aerosol chemistry. High concentrations of amines are
expected to be limited to the vicinity of source regions due to
their short lifetime, highlighting the necessity of having a better
understanding of contributions of emissions from different source
types. This study presents the first high-resolution model
simulation of concentrations of methylamines on a regional scale
over the Yangtze River Delta region in East China. The WRF-Chem with
nested grids is used in model simulations. In contrast to the very
limited existing modeling studies that assumed a fixed ratio (FR) of
amines to total ammonia emission, we derive source-dependent ratios
(SDR) that distinguish C1-amine (CH3NH2), C2-amines
(C2H7N), C3-amines (C3H9N) emissions from five
different source types (agriculture, residential, transportation,
chemical industry, and other industry). The amines-to-ammonia mass
emission ratios, estimated from previous measurements, are 0.026,
0.0015, 0.0011, 0.0011, and 0.0011 for C1-amine; 0.007, 0.0018,
0.0015, 0.01, and 0.0009 for C2-amines; and 0.0004, 0.0005, 0.00043,
0.0006, and 0.0004 for C3-amines for chemical–industrial, other
industrial, agricultural, residential, and transportational sources,
respectively. The simulated concentrations of C1-, C2-, and
C3-amines, based on both FR and SDR, have been compared with field
measurements at a suburban site in Nanjing and at an urban site in
Shanghai, China. SDR substantially improves the ability of the model
in capturing the observed concentrations of
methylamines. Concentrations of C1-, C2-, and C3-amines in the
surface layer in the Yangtze River Delta region are generally in the
range of 2–20, 5–50, and 0.5–4 pptv. Vertically, the
concentrations of C1-, C2-, and C3-amines decrease quickly with
altitude, dropping by a factor of ∼10 from the surface to
∼900 hPa. Results from the present study are critical
to evaluating potential roles of amines in nucleation and chemical
processes in polluted air.
The influence of 14CO2 releases from regional nuclear facilities at the Heidelberg 14CO2 sampling site (1986–2014)
Authors: Kuderer Matthias , Hammer Samuel , Levin Ingeborg 
Published: June 2018

Abstract. Atmospheric Δ14CO2 measurements are a
well-established tool to estimate the regional fossil-fuel-derived
CO2 component. However, emissions from nuclear facilities can
significantly alter the regional Δ14CO2 level. In order to
accurately quantify the signal originating from fossil CO2 emissions, a
correction term for anthropogenic 14CO2 sources has to be
determined. In this study, the HYSPLIT atmospheric dispersion model has been
applied to calculate this correction for the long-term Δ14CO2 monitoring site in Heidelberg. Wind fields with a spatial
resolution of 2.5∘ × 2.5∘,
1∘ × 1∘, and 0.5∘ × 0.5∘ show systematic deviations, with coarser
resolved wind fields leading to higher mean values for the correction. The
finally applied mean Δ14CO2 correction for the period from
1986–2014 is 2.3 ‰ with a standard deviation of 2.1 ‰
and maximum values up to 15.2 ‰.
These results are based on the 0.5∘ × 0.5∘ wind field
simulations in years when these fields were available (2009, 2011–2014), and
for the other years they are based on 2.5∘ × 2.5∘ wind
field simulations, corrected with a factor of 0.43. After operations at the
Philippsburg boiling water reactor ceased in 2011, the monthly nuclear
correction terms decreased to less than 2 ‰, with a
mean value of 0.44 ± 0.32 ‰ from 2012 to 2014.
Interannual-to-multidecadal hydroclimate variability and its sectoral impacts in northeastern Argentina
Authors: Lovino Miguel A. , Müller Omar V. , Müller Gabriela V. , Sgroi Leandro C. , Baethgen Walter E. 
Published: June 2018

Abstract. This study examines the joint variability of precipitation, river streamflow and temperature over northeastern Argentina; advances the understanding of their links with global SST forcing; and discusses their impacts on water resources, agriculture and human settlements. The leading patterns of variability, and their nonlinear trends and cycles are identified by means of a principal component analysis (PCA) complemented with a singular spectrum analysis (SSA). Interannual hydroclimatic variability centers on two broad frequency bands: one of 2.5–6.5 years corresponding to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) periodicities and the second of about 9 years. The higher frequencies of the precipitation variability (2.5–4 years) favored extreme events after 2000, even during moderate extreme phases of the ENSO. Minimum temperature is correlated with ENSO with a main frequency close to 3 years. Maximum temperature time series correlate well with SST variability over the South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans with a 9-year frequency. Interdecadal variability is characterized by low-frequency trends and multidecadal oscillations that have induced a transition from dryer and cooler climate to wetter and warmer decades starting in the mid-twentieth century. The Paraná River streamflow is influenced by North and South Atlantic SSTs with bidecadal periodicities. The hydroclimate variability at all timescales had significant sectoral impacts. Frequent wet events between 1970 and 2005 favored floods that affected agricultural and livestock productivity and forced population displacements. On the other hand, agricultural droughts resulted in soil moisture deficits that affected crops at critical growth stages. Hydrological droughts affected surface water resources, causing water and food scarcity and stressing the capacity for hydropower generation. Lastly, increases in minimum temperature reduced wheat and barley yields.
Hot regions of labile and stable soil organic carbon in Germany – Spatial variability and driving factors
Authors: Vos Cora , Jaconi Angélica , Jacobs Anna , Don Axel 
Published: June 2018

Abstract. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can be mitigated by sequestering carbon in
the soil. Sequestration can be facilitated by agricultural management, but
its influence is not the same on all soil carbon pools, as labile pools with
a high turnover may be accumulated much faster but are also more vulnerable to
losses. The aims of this study were to (1) assess how soil organic carbon
(SOC) is distributed among SOC fractions on a national scale in Germany,
(2) identify factors influencing this distribution and (3) identify regions
with high vulnerability to SOC losses. The SOC content and proportion of two
different SOC fractions were estimated for more than 2500 mineral topsoils
(< 87 g kg−1 SOC) covering Germany, using near-infrared
reflectance spectroscopy. Drivers of the spatial variability in SOC fractions
were determined using the machine learning algorithm cforest. The SOC content
and proportions of fractions were predicted with good accuracy (SOC content:
R2 = 0.87–0.90; SOC proportions: R2 = 0.83; ratio of
performance to deviation (RPD): 2.4–3.2). The main explanatory variables for
the distribution of SOC among the fractions were soil texture, bulk soil
C ∕ N ratio, total SOC content and pH. For some regions, the drivers were
linked to the land-use history of the sites. Arable topsoils in central and southern Germany were found to contain the
highest proportions and contents of stable SOC fractions, and therefore have
the lowest vulnerability to SOC losses. North-western Germany contains an
area of sandy soils with unusually high SOC contents and high proportions of
light SOC fractions, which are commonly regarded as representing a labile
carbon pool. This is true for the former peat soils in this area, which have
already lost and are at high risk of losing high proportions of their SOC
stocks. Those “black sands” can, however, also contain high amounts of
stable SOC due to former heathland vegetation and need to be treated and
discussed separately from non-black sand agricultural soils. Overall, it was
estimated that, in large areas all over Germany, over 30 % of SOC is
stored in easily mineralisable forms. Thus, SOC-conserving management of
arable soils in these regions is of great importance.
Modelagem de recursos da geodiversidade como suporte às práticas ritualísticas de comunidades de matriz africana / Modeling resources of geodiversity to support ritualistic practice of communities of African origin
Authors: Braga Liliane Rodrigues de Oliveria , Machado Maria Marcia Magela , Ruchkys Úrsula Azevedo 
Published: June 2018

Os elementos naturais constituem a essência das religiões de matriz africana. A supressão de áreas verdes, tidas como potenciais espaços sagrados tem afetado diretamente esta tradição. Este artigo apresenta o resultado de uma modelagem, baseada na relação dos saberes tradicionais de comunidades de candomblé com os recursos naturais, para identificação de potenciais espaços naturais sagrados. O município de Santa Luzia- MG foi escolhido como estudo de caso. A metodologia foi baseada em análise de multicritério. As variáveis e pesos correspondentes considerados foram apontados pelos líderes das comunidades por meio da aplicação de questionário. As bases cartográficas utilizadas tem como fonte o Instituto Mineiro de Gestão da Água; Imagem do Satélite Landsat; CPRM – Serviço Geológico do Brasil; Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Cavernas e o Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. A análise resultou em um mapa de potencialidade de uso de espaços para práticas ritualísticas externas, dividido em baixa, média e alta. Os espaços naturais já utilizados pelas comunidades foram espacializados no mapa e coincidiram com as áreas de alto potencial, validando a análise. Espera-se que os resultados obtidos possam se constituir um instrumento de visibilidade e valorização das comunidades de candomblé, além de subsidiar o planejamento municipal e a criação de políticas públicas.Palavras-Chave: comunidades de matriz africana, geodiversidade, rituais, geoprocessamento.AbstractNatural elements form the essence of religions of African origin. Suppression of green area, considered as potential sacred spaces, has directly affected this tradition. This article presents the results of a modeling, based on the relationship of traditional knowledge of Candomblé communities to natural resources, to identify potential sacred natural sites in Santa Luzia, MG. The methodology was based on multiple criteria analysis. The variables considered and corresponding weights were expressed by community leaders through a questionnaire. The cartographic databases used were provided by Institute of Water Management of Minas Gerais; Landsat Satellite Image; CPRM - Geological Survey of Brazil; National Center for Research and Conservation Caves and Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The result was a map of potential areas for outdoor ritual practices, classified into low, medium and high. The natural areas already used by communities were spatially map and coincided with the high potential areas, validating the analysis. It is expected that the result obtained may constitute a visibility tool of Candomblé communities, in addition to supporting the municipal planning and the creation of public policies. Keywords: communities of African origin, geodiversity, rituals, geotechnologies.