bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hydrodynamic pressure sensing for a biomimetic robotic fish caudal fin integrated with a resistive pressure sensor
Authors: Zhao Quanliang , Zhang Chao , Chen Jinghao , Zhang Mengying , Yuan Junjie , Zhao Lei , Zhang Jie , Huang Can , He Guangping 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Micro-sensors, such as pressure and flow sensors, are usually adopted to attain actual fluid information around swimming biomimetic robotic fish for hydrodynamic analysis and control. However, most of the reported micro-sensors are mounted discretely on body surfaces of robotic fish and it is impossible to analyzed the hydrodynamics between the caudal fin and the fluid. In this work, a biomimetic caudal fin integrated with a resistive pressure sensor is designed and fabricated by laser machined conductive carbon fibre composites. To analyze the pressure exerted on the caudal fin during underwater oscillation, the pressure on the caudal fin is measured under different oscillating frequencies and angles. Then a model developed from Bernoulli equation indicates that the maximum pressure difference is linear to the quadratic power of the oscillating frequency and the maximum oscillating angle. The fluid disturbance generated by caudal fin oscillating increases with an increase of oscillating frequency, resulting in the decrease of the efficiency of converting the kinetic energy of the caudal fin oscillation into the pressure difference on both sides of the caudal fin. However, perhaps due to the longer stability time of the disturbed fluid, this conversion efficiency increases with the increase of the maximum oscillating angle. Additionally, the pressure variation of the caudal fin oscillating with continuous different oscillating angles is also demonstrated to be detected effectively. It is suggested that the caudal fin integrated with the pressure sensor could be used for sensing the in situ flow field in real time and analyzing the hydrodynamics of biomimetic robotic fish.
The transition to humid extreme cold events in winter during the past six decades over China
Authors: He Yongli , Peng Yangrui , Wang Zhanbo , Wang Shanshan , Guan Xiaodan 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Winter extreme cold events (ECEs) pose significant economic and health risks, particularly when cold is combined with humidity. Although global warming has led to a decline in overall ECE occurrences, the changes in humid ECEs remain uncertain. This study uses dry and wet-bulb temperatures to categorize dry and humid ECEs across China and analyzes the proportion of humid ECEs, and the underlying factors influencing this phenomenon. In contrast to the decreasing trend of winter relative humidity (RH), our findings show an increase in RH during ECEs. This observation suggests a shift toward more humid conditions during these events. Further analysis shows an increasing percentage of humid ECEs, especially in Xinjiang, where the occurrence of dry ECEs is decreasing. Classifying ECEs into temperature- or humidity-dominated types reveals a significant increase in humidity-dominated humid ECEs, which is driven mainly by specific humidity changes, not temperature changes. These findings highlight the urgent need for adaptation strategies for more humid ECEs in a warming climate.
Multi-scale impacts of climate change on hydropower for long-term water-energy planning in the contiguous United States
Authors: Broman Daniel , Voisin Nathalie , Kao Shih-Chieh , Fernandez Alisha , Ghimire Ganesh R 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Climate change impacts on watersheds can potentially exacerbate water scarcity issues where water serves multiple purposes including hydropower. The long-term management of water and energy resources is still mostly approached in a siloed manner at different basins or watersheds, failing to consider the potential impacts that may concurrently affect many regions at once. There is a need for a large-scale hydropower modeling framework that can examine climate impacts across adjoining river basins and balancing authorities (BAs) and provide a periodic assessment at regional to national scales. Expanding from our prior assessment only for the United States (US) federal hydropower plants, we enhance and extend two regional hydropower models to cover over 85% of the total hydropower nameplate capacity and present the first contiguous US-wide assessment of future hydropower production under Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6’s high-end Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 5-8.5 emission scenario using an uncertainty-aware multi-model ensemble approach. We present regional hydropower projections, using both BA regions and US Hydrologic Subregions (HUC4s), to consistently inform the energy and water communities for two future periods—the near-term (2020–2039) and the mid-term (2040–2059) relative to a historical baseline period (1980–2019). We find that the median projected changes in annual hydropower generation are typically positive—approximately 5% in the near-term, and 10% in the mid-term. However, since the risk of regional droughts is also projected to increase, future planning cannot overly rely on the ensemble median, as the potential of severe hydropower reductions could be overlooked. The assessment offers an ensemble of future hydropower generation projections, providing regional utilities and power system operators with consistent data to develop drought scenarios, design long duration storage and evaluate energy infrastructure reliability under intensified inter-annual and seasonal variability.
Highly conductive, stretchable, and biocompatible graphene oxide biocomposite hydrogel for advanced tissue engineering
Authors: Lee Young Jin , Ajiteru Olatunji , Lee Ji Seung , Lee Ok Joo , Choi Kyu Young , Kim Soon Hee , Park Chan Hum 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The importance of hydrogels in tissue engineering cannot be overemphasized due to their resemblance to the native extracellular matrix. However, natural hydrogels with satisfactory biocompatibility exhibit poor mechanical behavior, which hampers their application in stress-bearing soft tissue engineering. Here, we describe the fabrication of a double methacrylated gelatin bioink covalently linked to graphene oxide (GO) via a zero-length crosslinker, digitally light-processed (DLP) printable into 3D complex structures with high fidelity. The resultant natural hydrogel (GelGOMA) exhibits a conductivity of 15.0 S m−1 as a result of the delocalization of the π-orbital from the covalently linked GO. Furthermore, the hydrogel shows a compressive strength of 1.6 MPa, and a 2.0 mm thick GelGOMA can withstand a 1.0 kg ms−1 momentum. The printability and mechanical strengths of GelGOMAs were demonstrated by printing a fish heart with a functional fluid pumping mechanism and tricuspid valves. Its biocompatibility, electroconductivity, and physiological relevance enhanced the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts and neuroblasts and the contraction of human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes. GelGOMA demonstrates the potential for the tissue engineering of functional hearts and wearable electronic devices.
Climatic characteristics of centennial and extreme precipitation in Hangzhou, China
Authors: Wang Kuo , Zhang Han , Bao Mengying , Li Zhengquan , Fan Gaofeng 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The precipitation characteristics in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province, China under the background of global climate change are analyzed using the meteorological observation data obtained from the Hangzhou base station in this study. We investigate the climate characteristics of precipitation in Hangzhou from several aspects, such as centennial trend, seasonal change, periodicity and the variation of extreme precipitation. Our results show a linear decreasing trend and obvious interdecadal characteristics in the precipitation of Hangzhou on a centennial timescale. Significantly increased amplitude of precipitation fluctuation was observed since the beginning of the 21st century. For the interdecadal variation of seasonal precipitation on a centennial timescale, precipitation in autumn showed a decreasing trend of 8.1 mm/10a, whereas the trends for the other three seasons were statistically insignificant. The precipitation in Hangzhou showed a decreasing trend in spring and an increasing trend in winter over the past 30 years. Our analyses reveal distinct precipitation cycles, including a quasi-30-year cycle since the 1960s and a quasi-10-year cycle since the 1980s. However, the periodicity has weakened in the past 10 years. In addition, the occurrence of torrential rain has increased rapidly in the past 10 years. Furthermore, influenced by global climate change and regional processes, the variation of extreme precipitation in Hangzhou has changed, which shows strong correlations with the overall trend of annual precipitation. The annual maximum daily precipitation in Hangzhou was mainly in the range of 0–40 mm from 1951 to 1980 and in the range of 40–80 mm from 1981 to 2010 with the maximum daily precipitation occurrence rate of 4.7 times/10a and 6.3 times/10a, respectively. This study emphasizes the risk of urban waterlogging caused by short-term heavy rainfall and provides useful reference to the assessment of extreme meteorological and hydrological disaster risk in Hangzhou.
Perceived indoor environment and exacerbations of COPD and asthma – a cohort study between 2000–2018
Authors: Kloster Stine , Vestbo Jørgen , Davidsen Michael , Christensen Anne Illemann , Nielsen Niss Skov , Gunnarsen Lars , Ersbøll Annette Kjær 
Published: August 2024

Abstract

Background. Ambient air pollution has been associated with exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma; however, little is known about indoor environmental factors. Our aim was to study the association between perceived indoor environment and the long-term risk of exacerbations of COPD or asthma. Methods. We followed 2,317 individuals aged ≥16 years with COPD or asthma from the Danish Health and Morbidity Survey from 2000 to 2018. Individuals developing COPD or asthma during the study period were included at the time of incident diagnosis. Individuals were grouped according to their patterns of perceived indoor environment and followed up for exacerbations defined based on information from the Danish National Health Registers. The association between perceived indoor environment and exacerbations was examined using a generalized mixed model with the Poisson distribution of the number of exacerbations and logarithmic transformation of follow-up time as offset. Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, education, household income, smoking, calendar year, construction year, urbanization, home ownership, and resident density. Results. A total of 5,352 exacerbations were recorded in 2,317 individuals during a median of 13.9 years (interquartile range, 7.9–18.2 years). The adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) of exacerbations were 1.40 (95% CI 0.85–2.29 and 0.82 (95% CI 0.49–1.38) among individuals with medium and high levels om annoyances, respectively. For annoyances related to temperature and traffic the IRR was 0.88 (95% CI 0.61–1.27) and 1.39 (95% CI 0.88–2.19), respectively. Conclusion. We found no association between indoor environment assessed as annoyances at a single time-point and exacerbations of COPD and asthma.
Evaluation of ecological network resilience using OWA and attack scenario simulation in the Gansu section of the Yellow River Basin, NW China
Authors: Zhang Kexin , Pan Jinghu 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Regional ecosystem quality has been rapidly declining as a result of rapid urbanization, which has also fragmented landscapes and reduced ecosystem connectedness. Strengthening ecological network resilience helps improve the ecological environment’s quality, protect biodiversity, and maximize ecological benefits. To quantitatively assess ecological network resilience based on 2020 data, we have selected the Gansu region of the Yellow River Basin as a case study in this study due to its significant ecological condition and sensitive vulnerability. Firstly, based on four ecosystem services (ESs)—water yield, carbon storage, soil conservation, and habitat quality—the ordered weighted averaging (OWA) method is introduced to determine ecological sources by calculating ordered weights under different risk coefficients to weigh multiple ESs. Two node attack simulations—random attack and deliberate attack—are used for quantitatively evaluating ecological network resilience, which can simulate the impact of external interference. The concept of a resilience threshold is introduced into the evaluation process of network resilience to improve the objectivity and accuracy of results. The findings indicate that (1) 156 ecological corridors spanning a total distance of 6,569.3 km and 73 ecological sources totalling 20,840 km2 were found in the study area. These findings generally demonstrate a concentrated and contiguous configuration in the southwestern region and a broken and scattered configuration in other regions. (2) With a mean degree of 4.27, a mean path length of 4.08, and a clustering coefficient of 0.47, an undirected and unweighted complex network with improved connectivity and no discernible clustering characteristics was established. (3) The ecological network is more resilient to perturbations from natural disasters when compared to assault simulations in two scenarios; the resilience threshold is 0.34. Considering the final results of node global features and resilience curves, ecological protection suggestions are proposed.
Insights about the effect of metal–organic framework hybridization with graphene-like materials
Authors: Gargiulo Valentina , Capua Roberto Di , Vorochta Michael , Aquilanti Giuliana , Skála Tomáš , Clemente Claudio , Alfè Michela 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Hybrids based on the copper-based metal–organic framework HKUST-1 and graphene-like materials (GL) have been synthesized at different concentrations of GL, and investigated by means of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) and x-ray absorption techniques (NEXAFS and XANES) with the aim of elucidating the effect of the hybridization on the structural properties of HKUST-1. The comparative analysis of ssNMR and x-ray absorption spectra recorded on parent materials (GL and pure HKUST-1) and on the hybrids indicates that the overall structural features of HKUST-1 are preserved in the presence of increasing GL amounts (up to 30 wt.%) and confirms that the framework development is not massively altered by the presence of graphene-related materials (GRMs) in the synthetic medium.
Hardware in the loop testing of converter control in solar PV and BESS based islanded microgrid
Authors: Singh Akash Kumar , K Seethalekshmi 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Over the past decades, microgrids have garnered significant attention due to their ability to offer resilient power supply and efficiently integrate renewable energy sources (RESs). The test model includes an islanded microgrid having common voltage source converter for solar photovoltaic and battery energy storage system, characterized by low inertia. To minimize the effect of reduced inertia caused by lack of synchronous generators and also to cope up with the variation in power output from different renewable energy sources, an adaptive virtual inertia and damping based control, is incorporated through voltage source converter control, utilizing swing equation of the synchronous generator. However, it is imperative to verify the proposed control strategy before implementation in an actual plant. In that direction, this paper discusses the practicality of the proposed control in the real-time using Controller Hardware-in-the-Loop (CHIL) platform. So, the plant is built in real time simulator OP4512 and the proposed control is implemented using practical microcontroller TMS320F28379D. Subsequently, configuration and modelling of ADC and EPWM are explained. CHIL testing platform demonstrates flawless compatibility with the converter control, having a system model running in real time. Simulation results are compared with that of HIL results for various loading configurations, hence proving the efficacy of the proposed control strategy.
An improved prairie dog optimization algorithm integrating multiple strategies and its application
Authors: Wang Yan , Wang Nan , Gao Teng , Bu Fanyang , Zhu Xiqian 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Aiming at the problems in prairie dog optimization (PDO), such as uneven population distribution at initialization, slow convergence, imbalance between global exploration and local exploitation, and the tendency to get trapped in the local optimum, this study proposes an Improved prairie dog optimisation algorithm integrating multiple strategies (IMSPDO). Firstly, the population is initialized using spatial pyramid matching (SPM) chaotic mapping combined with improved random opposition-based learning (IROL) to solve the problems of uneven distribution and poor diversity of the population. Secondly, the prey escapes energy formula mentioned in the harris hawks optimization (HHO) is introduced to achieve the smooth transition between the exploration phase and the exploitation phase, balancing the algorithm’s global exploration capability and local exploitation capability. Additionally, the idea of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) is applied to enhance the global optimization capability of the algorithm. Finally, the ideas of simulated annealing (SA), polynomial mutation and Cauchy mutation are also introduced to improve the ability that individuals to jump out of the local optimum. The performance of the improved algorithm is verified on a set of 21 classical benchmark functions and 8 CEC2020 test functions. The proposed IMSPDO is also evaluated against original PDO, and six other commonly used algorithms. The result of the Wilcoxon rank-sum test shows that there is a significant difference between the selected algorithms and IMSPDO. Furthermore, 3 engineering examples are used to further test the superiority of IMSPDO in dealing with real-world problems.
Understanding the functional roles of modelling components in spiking neural networks
Authors: Yin Huifeng , Zheng Hanle , Mao Jiayi , Ding Siyuan , Liu Xing , Xu Mingkun , Hu Yifan , Pei Jing , Deng Lei 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Spiking neural networks (SNNs), inspired by the neural circuits of the brain, are promising in achieving high computational efficiency with biological fidelity. Nevertheless, it is quite difficult to optimize SNNs because the functional roles of their modelling components remain unclear. By designing and evaluating several variants of the classic model, we systematically investigate the functional roles of key modelling components, leakage, reset, and recurrence, in leaky integrate-and-fire (LIF) based SNNs. Through extensive experiments, we demonstrate how these components influence the accuracy, generalization, and robustness of SNNs. Specifically, we find that the leakage plays a crucial role in balancing memory retention and robustness, the reset mechanism is essential for uninterrupted temporal processing and computational efficiency, and the recurrence enriches the capability to model complex dynamics at a cost of robustness degradation. With these interesting observations, we provide optimization suggestions for enhancing the performance of SNNs in different scenarios. This work deepens the understanding of how SNNs work, which offers valuable guidance for the development of more effective and robust neuromorphic models.
Schools as Socialization Agents for Turkana Pastoralists’ Children
Authors: Ng’asike John Teria 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
Education worldwide has influenced the socialization of children. In Kenya, formal education is the right for every child. This underlines provision for free and compulsory education enshrined in the constitution of Kenya. However, investment in education in Kenya is not equal to the constitution declaration of access to quality education for every child across the country. In pastoralist traditional cultural communities, families have embraced education, but access to quality education has become problematic. Due to its poor quality, education as a socializing agent for pastoralist children has created cultural conflicts between school children and their families. The schools are alienating children from their own families. The consequences are that the pastoralist communities have developed a disdain for education including their own school children. This chapter explores insights into these conflicts by contrasting socialization of children in schools and child-rearing practices of the Turkana pastoralist communities of Kenya.
School Culture and Inequalities in Brazil
Authors: Altenfelder Anna Helena , Mansutti Maria Amabile , de Oliveira Romualdo Portela 
Published: August 2024

Abstract
The objective of this chapter is to discuss the culture of school failure that affects everything from the implementation of public policies to the relationships that take place in schools and classrooms. To do so, initially, the concept of school culture is briefly discussed, and the structure and functioning of the Brazilian educational system are presented alongside the existing inequalities. Four pieces of research carried out by Cenpec, a civil society organization whose mission is to contribute to quality public education for all, are analyzed in order to show that significant portions of the population, based on markers of class, race, ethnicity, and territory, have been historically excluded from school. Despite advances in legislation and in the formulation of policies and programs that sought to address the issue in the last 30 years, it is still a challenge to guarantee the constitutional right to a successful school trajectory.
2192 Implementation of 4AT and delirium bundle in patient management—a quality improvement project
Authors: Ahmed A , Honney K 
Published: August 2024

Abstract

Introduction
Delirium affects up to 50% of older individuals within hospital environments, with a notable occurrence in 30% of those aged 65 and above in emergency departments. This QIP aimed to enhance the early recognition of delirium by implementing the 4AT assessment and optimise assessments and investigations by implementing the Delirium Bundle.

Method
A survey involving 39 doctors was conducted to evaluate their comprehension of delirium and awareness of the Delirium Bundle. PDSA 1 involved retrospective data analysis of medical records for patients admitted with delirium and used as a preliminary baseline to evaluate how the delirium bundle is being utilised. PDSA 2 integrated multiple teaching sessions and the implementation of the Delirium Bundle, assessing the effectiveness of these interventions.

Results
In PDSA 1, twenty-nine patients were identified. None of the patients had a 4AT assessment done. Twenty patients (69%) had a haematological screen done, eight patients (27%) had an ECG done, twenty patients (69%) had a CXR done, eighteen patients (62%) had an MSU test done, eight patients (28%) had cultures done, and twenty-three (79%) had a CT head scan done. In PDSA 2, thirty patients were identified. Seven patients had a 4AT assessment done, sixteen patients (53%) had a haematological screen done, nineteen patients (63%) had an ECG done, twenty-two patients (73%) had a CXR done, fifteen patients (50%) had an MSU test done, fourteen patients (47%) had cultures done, and 20 patients (67%) had a CT head scan done.

Conclusion
The implemented changes showed effectiveness with increased 4AT assessments and enhanced confusion screening. Improvements in assessments and investigations for diagnosed delirium patients were evident. To further enhance efforts, future initiatives include incorporating the 4AT assessment in clerking booklets, conducting continuous teaching sessions, and displaying posters in relevant wards.