bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Interleaved step-down converter with capacitor-diode voltage splitter and minimum switches for low current ripple and extra-low voltage ratio
Authors: Shen Chih-Lung , Chen Pin-Han , Liu Hong-Qing , Liang Yu-Shan 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThis paper proposes an interleaved step-down converter (ISDC) with a capacitor-diode voltage splitter. Even though the ISDC only utilizes two active switches, it can significantly step down a high input voltage to a much lower level and achieve interleaved current at output and continuous current at input without using an extreme duty ratio. In addition, the ISDC is capable of sharing output current equally between two interleaved paths by controlling the two switches. Therefore, the ISDC has lower current ripples and reduces EMI noise. The ISDC can be easily expanded only by adopting capacitors and diodes for a much higher conversion ratio, avoiding using any active switch. A comprehensive analysis of ISDC is presented, including operation principle, steady-state analysis, design consideration, expendability of the power stage, and converter comparison. A prototype of 500 W is fulfilled to deal with 400-V input and 24-V output, which has verified the accuracy of the theoretical analysis and validated the converter. Experimental results demonstrate that the ISDC achieves a peak efficiency of 92.74% at 350 W and 92.09% at full load. If synchronous rectifiers are employed, the peak efficiency can be up to 94.73%.
Effect of atmosphere on the high-temperature interaction of molten Mg-10Ca alloy with steel substrates
Authors: Terlicka S. , Janus K. , Sobczak N. , Sobczak J. J. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractExperimental studies of the high-temperature interaction of a molten Mg-10Ca alloy (10 wt% Ca) with steel substrates were performed, for the first time, using the sessile drop method combined with non-contact heating and capillary purification procedure. The investigations were carried out under isothermal conditions at a temperature of 700 °C in two different flowing gas atmospheres: (i) a pure Ar and (ii) a mixture of Ar + 5 wt% H2. The high-resolution side-view images of Mg-10Ca/steel couples collected during the experiments were used to determine the contact angle values (θ) formed between the alloy drop and steel substrates. In both atmospheres, under the experimental conditions used, liquid Mg-10Ca alloy exhibited non-wetting behavior on steel substrates: after 180 s of dropping alloy from a graphite capillary, the average contact angle value in the Ar atmosphere was θav = 120°, which was slightly higher than that for the test performed in the Ar + 5 wt% H2 atmosphere, where θav = 114°. The microstructure of the solidified couples was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The SEM/EDS analysis revealed interfacial discontinuities throughout the cross-sectioned couples and a lack of permanent bonding between the alloy drop and substrates. Moreover, neither new phases nor mass transfer through the drop/substrate interface were noted. The non-wetting and weak bonding between the alloy drops and the steel substrates is consistent with the Mg–Fe and Ca–Fe phase diagrams, i.e., the non-reactive nature of the Mg-10Ca/steel couples, since at the testing temperature, Fe does not form any compounds with both Mg and Ca, and it does not dissolve in liquid Mg.
Environmental impacts of tobacco product waste: An investigation on littering attitudes
Authors: Lakatos Elena Simina , Cioca Lucian-Ionel , Geng Yong , Rada Elena Cristina 
Published: May 2024

AbstractCigarette butts are one the most common types of waste. Habits, convenience, lack of ashtrays and bins, accidental discarding of cigarettes due to their small size and the misconception that cigarette butts are biodegradable are just some of the causes associated with this behaviour. Previous studies in several countries show that cigarette butts have become one of improperly disposed waste. The aim of this study is to identify the behaviours and motivations of smokers and to analyse how to dispose of cigarettes after consumption and to quantify the amount of cigarette butts generated by the Romanian population, chosen because its tobacco consumption is very close to the average value of the European Union. To collect these data, a questionnaire was developed, to which respondents from different regions of the country responded. The examination of the questionnaires took place in two stages. Areas of interest were chosen where photos were taken in 2021 November, between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. A total of 184.72 km2 of public open spaces were analysed. We calculated that approximately 3,962,091 out of a total of 4,559,467 residents live in these areas affected by this form of litter. The approach is suitable for replication in similar contexts.
The Normative Role of the Circular Plastics Alliance in the EU’s Transition towards a European Circular Economy for Plastics
Authors: O’Halloran Amy 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe global pollution and waste crisis presents us with environmental and economic challenges which if not properly addressed could destabilise or threaten the survival and welfare of societies. The European Union is responding to the waste and pollution crisis through its circular economy agenda that adopts a broad life-cycle approach to the regulation of plastics from production, consumption, disposal, and recycling. To operationalise its agenda, the European Union seeks to inter alia mobilise all actors towards the objective of improving the economics of plastic recycling. Given the potential for conflicts and disputes to proliferate across a broad range of societal actors and interests, it is perhaps not surprising that when we examine the evolving EU legal and normative framework for a circular plastics economy, we observe a polycentric governance arrangement that includes the EU institutions, the Circular Plastics Alliance (CPA), and European standardisation organisations (i.e. CEN and CENELEC). The normative interactions amongst these governance bodies will not easily be unveiled and understood if we enclose our perspectives and analyses within the limits of traditional legal paradigms that only focus upon the formal law-making processes that flow through the European Parliament, Council, and Commission. However, by applying Karl Llewellyn’s law-jobs theory in this article, it is possible to analyse how a multiplicity of governance bodies perform certain legal functions that are contributing to the development of regulatory order for a European circular plastics economy. This article sets out a number of key findings in relation to the evolving legal and normative framework for a European circular plastics economy pertaining to the role of the CPA in framing problems, theorising solutions, and shaping the pathway of normative development towards a European circular plastics economy. To date, the CPA has identified obstacles to the expansion of the European recycled plastics market, and mapped the areas in need of standardisation if such obstacles are to be overcome This work by the CPA has prompted the European Commission to submit a standardisation request to the CEN and CENELEC calling for the development of harmonised standards to facilitate greater plastic recycling. While compliance with CEN and CENELEC standards would be voluntary, such standards could interact with the EU’s proposed Ecodesign Regulation and any delegated acts adopted thereto, thereby creating legal obligations for a wide range of actors across plastic value chains.
Geo-political bias in fake news detection AI: the case of affect
Authors: P. Deepak , Bhadra Sahely , Jurek-Loughrey Anna , Kumar G. Santhosh , Kumar M. Satish 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThere have been massive advances in AI technologies towards addressing the contemporary challenge of fake news identification. However, these technologies, as observed widely, have not had the same kind or depth in impact across global societies. In particular, the AI scholarship in fake news detection arguably has not been as beneficial or appropriate for Global South, bringing geo-political bias into the picture. While it is often natural to think of data bias as the potential reason for geo-political bias, other factors could be much more important in being more latent, and thus less visible. In this commentary, we investigate as to how the facet of affect, comprising emotions and sentiments, could be a potent vehicle for geo-political biases in AI. We highlight, through assembling and interpreting insights from literature, the overarching neglect of affect across methods for fake news detection AI, and how this could be a potentially important factor for geo-political bias within them. This exposition, we believe, also serves as a first effort in understanding how geo-political biases work within AI pipelines beyond the data collection stage.
Anticipating impacts: using large-scale scenario-writing to explore diverse implications of generative AI in the news environment
Authors: Kieslich Kimon , Diakopoulos Nicholas , Helberger Natali 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe tremendous rise of generative AI has reached every part of society—including the news environment. There are many concerns about the individual and societal impact of the increasing use of generative AI, including issues such as disinformation and misinformation, discrimination, and the promotion of social tensions. However, research on anticipating the impact of generative AI is still in its infancy and mostly limited to the views of technology developers and/or researchers. In this paper, we aim to broaden the perspective and capture the expectations of three stakeholder groups (news consumers; technology developers; content creators) about the potential negative impacts of generative AI, as well as mitigation strategies to address these. Methodologically, we apply scenario-writing and use participatory foresight in the context of a survey (n = 119) to delve into cognitively diverse imaginations of the future. We qualitatively analyze the scenarios using thematic analysis to systematically map potential impacts of generative AI on the news environment, potential mitigation strategies, and the role of stakeholders in causing and mitigating these impacts. In addition, we measure respondents' opinions on a specific mitigation strategy, namely transparency obligations as suggested in Article 52 of the draft EU AI Act. We compare the results across different stakeholder groups and elaborate on different expected impacts across these groups. We conclude by discussing the usefulness of scenario-writing and participatory foresight as a toolbox for generative AI impact assessment.
Automated floodwater depth estimation using large multimodal model for rapid flood mapping
Authors: Akinboyewa Temitope , Ning Huan , Lessani M. Naser , Li Zhenlong 
Published: May 2024

AbstractInformation on the depth of floodwater is crucial for rapid mapping of areas affected by floods. However, previous approaches for estimating floodwater depth, including field surveys, remote sensing, and machine learning techniques, can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. This paper presents an automated and rapid approach for estimating floodwater depth from on-site flood photos. A pre-trained large multimodal model, Generative pre-trained transformers (GPT-4) Vision, was used specifically for estimating floodwater. The input data were flood photos that contained referenced objects, such as street signs, cars, people, and buildings. Using the heights of the common objects as references, the model returned the floodwater depth as the output. Results show that the proposed approach can rapidly provide a consistent and reliable estimation of floodwater depth from flood photos. Such rapid estimation is transformative in flood inundation mapping and assessing the severity of the flood in near-real time, which is essential for effective flood response strategies.
A novel survival nomogram for stage I-III acral lentiginous melanoma patients, based on the SEER database and a multi-center external validation cohort
Authors: Li Tong , Sun Wei , Luo YanWen , Xu Yu , Wang ChunMeng , Yan WangJun , Li Tao , Yang JiLong , Chen Yong 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Purpose
To construct an effective prognostic nomogram for patients with clinically localized Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM).

Methods
This retrospective study included ALM patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2004–2015. The 1686 cases were divided into the training and internal validation cohorts at a ratio of 7:3. The Cox regression analyses were performed to select risk factors for the nomogram. The performances of the nomogram were evaluated using the concordance index (C-index), area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and calibration plots, and validated in an external multicenter cohort.

Results
Age, gender, race, and stage were significantly associated with overall survival (OS), with a C-index of 0.727 and 0.722 in the training and internal validation groups, respectively. The AUC of 2-,4-, and 6 years were higher than or equal to 0.75. Age, gender, race, site, and stage were related to ALM patients' CSS which have better C-index of 0.791 and 0.774 in the training and internal validation set. The AUC of 2-,4-, and 6- were higher than or equal to 0.80. Both survival calibration curves of 2-,4, and 6-year OS and CSS brought out a good consistency. The external multicenter cohort authenticated the value of the nomogram of OS, with a C-index of 0.657 and an AUC of 0.67, 0.72, and 0.65 at 2, 4, and 6 years. Good consistency was also observed.

Conclusion
A prognostic nomogram was established and validated to help predict the survival of ALM patients and guide individualized treatment strategies.
Construction of a Green and Low-Carbon Travel Order Prediction Model Based on Shared Bicycle Big Data
Authors: Cheng Chuanxu , Yue Wande 
Published: May 2024

AbstractIn the era of big data, traditional analysis methods are insufficient to meet the growing demand for green and low-carbon travel orders in shared bicycle systems. To address this issue, a new order demand forecasting model, named the “convolutional neural network (CNN)”—“long short-term memory (LSTM)” model (CNN-LSTM), is proposed by integrating CNN and LSTM techniques. The research further validates the spatiotemporal prediction performance of this model. The experimental results demonstrate that LSTM exhibits favorable prediction performance in terms of time feature analysis, as evidenced by the overlapping of the true value (TV) and predicted value (PV) curves. Notably, LSTM achieves an impressively low mean squared error (MSE) value of 0.0063, which is significantly lower compared to CNN (0.0082) and XGBoost (0.0074). Upon incorporating date and weather characteristics, the predictive performance improves significantly, achieving an outstanding MSE value of 0.0043. However, when it comes to spatial feature analysis, the LSTM algorithm alone proves inadequate, obtaining a MSE value of 0.0084. Thus, by employing the CNN-LSTM combination model, a lower MSE value of 0.0066 is achieved, outperforming the comparison algorithms. Overall, the CNN-LSTM model exhibits strong predictive capabilities regarding the temporal and spatial requirements of shared bicycles. This model plays a key role in accurately forecasting order demands, facilitating urban transportation planning and management, as well as guiding the planning and location of non-motorized vehicle stops.
Evaluation of Changes in Social Isolation and Loneliness with Incident Cardiovascular Events and Mortality
Authors: Chen Yilin , Xue Huachen , Nie Yu , Zhou Yujing , Ai Sizhi , Liu Yaping , Zhang Jihui , Liang Yannis Yan 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Background
It remains unknown how the patterns of change of social isolation and loneliness are associated with the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. We aimed to investigate the longitudinal association of changes in social isolation and loneliness with incident CVD, all-cause mortality, CVD mortality and subsequent cardiac function.

Methods
This prospective cohort study included 18,258 participants aged 38–73 years who participated in visit 0 (2006–2010) and visit 1 (2012–2013) using UK Biobank (mean age 57.1, standard deviation [SD] 7.4; 48.7% males). Social isolation or loneliness was categorized into four patterns: never, transient, incident, and persistent. Incident CVD, all-cause and CVD mortality were ascertained through linkage data. Cardiac function was assessed by cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging in a subsample (N = 5188; visit 2, since 2014).

Results
Over a median follow-up of 8.3 (interquartile range [IQR] 8.1–8.6) years, compared with never social isolation, persistent social isolation was associated with the higher risk of incident CVD (hazard ratio [HR] 1.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03–1.33), all-cause (1.42, 1.12–1.81) and CVD (1.53, 1.05–2.23) mortality. Likewise, persistent loneliness was strongly associated with the greater risk of incident CVD (1.13, 1.00–1.27), all-cause (1.28, 1.02–1.61) and CVD mortality (1.52, 1.06–2.18).

Conclusions
Persistent social isolation and loneliness posed a substantially higher risk for incident CVD, all-cause and CVD mortality, and cardiac dysfunction than other patterns. Persistent social isolation and loneliness, along with an increasing cumulative score, are associated with lower cardiac function.

Graphical Abstract
Economic Indicators, Quantity and Quality of Health Care Resources Affecting Post-surgical Mortality
Authors: Merola Raffaele , Vargas Maria 
Published: May 2024

Abstract
Objective
to identify correlations between quality and quantity of health care resources, national economic indicators, and postoperative in-hospital mortality as reported in the EUSOS study.

Methods
Different variables were identified from a series of publicly available database. Postoperative in-hospital mortality was identified as reported by EUSOS study. Spearman non-parametric and Coefficients of non-linear regression were calculated.

Results
Quality of health care resources was strongly and negatively correlated to postoperative in-hospital mortality. Quantity of health care resources were negatively and moderately correlated to postoperative in-hospital mortality. National economic indicators were moderately and negatively correlated to postoperative in-hospital mortality. General mortality, as reported by WHO, was positively but very moderately correlated with postoperative in-hospital mortality.

Conclusions
Postoperative in-hospital mortality is strongly determined by quality of health care instead of quantity of health resources and health expenditures. We suggest that improving the quality of health care system might reduce postoperative in-hospital mortality.
Future sediment transport to the Dutch Wadden Sea under severe sea level rise and tidal range change
Authors: Wang Z. B. , Lodder Q. J. , Townend I. H. , Zhu Yonghui 
Published: May 2024

AbstractFuture sediment transport from the North Sea coasts to the Dutch Wadden Sea for various future sea level scenarios has been studied because it influences the future sand nourishment demand for the maintenance of the coastline and because it determines bio-geomorphological development of the Wadden Sea. The present study focuses on two questions which have not yet been considered in the previous modelling studies using ASMITA: How will the transport develop around drowning of the intertidal flats in the Wadden Sea? How will tidal range change influence the future sediment exchange? By using SLR scenarios with faster acceleration and running the simulations for longer periods of time some inlets exhibited drowning, i.e., where the tidal flat volume vanishes. When drowning occurs, the sediment import rate approaches a maximum or a minimum, depending on the initial morphological state of the tidal inlet system. This maximum or minimum rate for a certain tidal inlet system depends on the SLR scenario. Theoretical analysis as well as modelling results show that tidal range change will influence the sediment import to the Wadden Sea. A tidal range increase will cause a decrease of the sediment demand in the Wadden Sea resulting into less sediment import to the Wadden Sea. It is thus important to study the tidal range development in the Wadden Sea by considering the interaction between SLR, tidal range change and morphological development in the system. It is further concluded that the empirical relation used in the previous studies is not representative of conditions in a tidal basin with fixed basin area, even though this relation has been derived from field observations in many tidal inlet systems worldwide. The equilibrium channel volume should be proportional to the tidal prism instead of to its 1.5th power.
Performance study on vacuum suction blasting by force and velocity measurements of the abrasive flow
Authors: Brieskorn L. , Stürcke U. , Valeika D. , Hintze W. 
Published: May 2024

AbstractThe automated removal of layers by scarfing to repair carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) has been investigated with vacuum suction blasting (VSB) showing promising results. However, its removal mechanism and particle behaviour were not yet fully understood. The removal leads to cavities on the surface and the central area is less removed after longer static blasting times. Further theoretical considerations and experiments of measured forces and velocities of the VSB particles can explain these effects to optimize the large-scale removal. Former studies on abrasive blasting used simplified approaches with incompressible Bernoulli equations taking the same velocities of particles and carrier medium. For VSB, the air is much faster than the particles and more complex equations are derived in this study. Additionally, it is taken into account, that the impinging forces act against the vacuum forces.To specify the power and removal mechanism of VSB for large scale removal, forces and velocities of the blasting particles are studied. Calculations by compressible Bernoulli equations, measurements of blasting particle velocities and impact forces give a good approximation. The air velocities and forces are calculated and compared with the measurements. Forces are measured by a piezo-electric sensor. Particle velocities are measured with a Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system tracking the abrasive particle movement through a transparent outer nozzle. The influence of different blasting parameters on the forces and velocities are identified. Results correspond to the material removal from former experiments and indicate the favourable process parameter set. Despite the impinging forces are in general low, they lead together with the particle velocity to the large-scale removal rate. The measured particle directions explain the removal behaviour of this VSB process. The measured velocities match to those well-known from grinding with bonded grinding tools.