bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
“Under House Arrest”: Mental Health and Minority Stress Experiences of LGBTQ+ Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Europe
Authors: Malmquist Anna , Miscioscia Marina , Leal Daniela , Tasker Fiona , Bredenberg Cecilia , Gubello Alessio , Gato Jorge , Houghton Marie , Wurm Matilda 
Published: December 2023

Abstract
Introduction
Increased rates of mental health issues among LGBTQ+ people have been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among young people.

Method
Semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2021 with 61 young adult LGBTQ+ people residing in France, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, and the UK. Each interview was summarized on a template covering the participants’ experiences of pandemic restrictions, mental health, and minority stress during this period. A thematic analysis was conducted on the templates.

Results
The pandemic restrictions had a large impact on the participants’ lives, leaving them stuck at home. Not having access to the LGBTQ+ community was an additional stress, as this is a venue for support. Half of the participants had suffered from mental health issues during the pandemic. Those who were living in non-affirmative households had a particularly difficult time and experienced overwhelming stress. Increased feelings of gender dysphoria were seen among trans participants due to the lack of access to gender-affirming healthcare. Most participants experienced less distal minority stress than usual due to social isolation restrictions.

Conclusion
The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated social restrictions had a large impact on the lives of LGBTQ+ young adults. Many experience worse mental health, although relief from distal minority stress was common.

Policy Implications
Policy makers must consider the needs of LGBTQ+ young adults as they seek to explore and establish their gender and/or sexual identity. During a pandemic, it is particularly important to help young LGBTQ+ people to engage with the LGBTQ+ community.
Artificial Intelligence in the Colonial Matrix of Power
Authors: Muldoon James , Wu Boxi A 
Published: December 2023

AbstractDrawing on the analytic of the “colonial matrix of power” developed by Aníbal Quijano within the Latin American modernity/coloniality research program, this article theorises how a system of coloniality underpins the structuring logic of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. We develop a framework for critiquing the regimes of global labour exploitation and knowledge extraction that are rendered invisible through discourses of the purported universality and objectivity of AI. ​​Through bringing the political economy literature on AI production into conversation with scholarly work on decolonial AI and the modernity/coloniality research program, we advance three main arguments. First, the global economic and political power imbalances in AI production are inextricably linked to the continuities of historical colonialism, constituting the colonial supply chain of AI. Second, this is produced through an international division of digital labour that extracts value from majority world labour for the benefit of Western technology companies. Third, this perpetuates hegemonic knowledge production through Western values and knowledge that marginalises non-Western alternatives within AI’s production and limits the possibilities for decolonising AI. By locating the production of AI systems within the colonial matrix of power, we contribute to critical and decolonial literature on the legacies of colonialism in AI and the hierarchies of power and extraction that shape the development of AI today.
Improved detector in orchard via top-to-down texture enhancement and adaptive region-aware feature fusion
Authors: Sun Wei , Tian Yulong , Wang Qianzhou , Lu Jin , Kong Xianguang , Zhang Yanning 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAccurate target detection in complex orchard environments is the basis for automatic picking and pollination. The characteristics of small, clustered and complex interference greatly increase the difficulty of detection. Toward this end, we explore a detector in the orchard and improve the detection ability of complex targets. Our model includes two core designs to make it suitable for reducing the risk of error detection due to small and camouflaged object features. Multi-scale texture enhancement design focuses on extracting and enhancing more distinguishable features for each level with multiple parallel branches. Our adaptive region-aware feature fusion module extracts the dependencies between locations and channels, potential cross-relations among different levels and multi-types information to build distinctive representations. By combining enhancement and fusion, experiments on various real-world datasets show that the proposed network can outperform previous state-of-the-art methods, especially for detection in complex conditions.
Photon Reconstruction in the Belle II Calorimeter Using Graph Neural Networks
Authors: Wemmer F. , Haide I. , Eppelt J. , Ferber T. , Beaubien A. , Branchini P. , Campajola M. , Cecchi C. , Cheema P. , De Nardo G. , Hearty C. , Kuzmin A. , Longo S. , Manoni E. , Meier F. , Merola M. , Miyabayashi K. , Moneta S. , Remnev M. , Roney J. M. , Shiu J.-G. , Shwartz B. , Unno Y. , van Tonder R. , Volpe R. 
Published: December 2023

AbstractWe present the study of a fuzzy clustering algorithm for the Belle II electromagnetic calorimeter using Graph Neural Networks. We use a realistic detector simulation including simulated beam backgrounds and focus on the reconstruction of both isolated and overlapping photons. We find significant improvements of the energy resolution compared to the currently used reconstruction algorithm for both isolated and overlapping photons of more than 30% for photons with energies$$E_{\gamma }<0.5\,\mathrm {\,Ge\hspace{-1.00006pt}V}$$Eγ<0.5GeVand high levels of beam backgrounds. Overall, the GNN reconstruction improves the resolution and reduces the tails of the reconstructed energy distribution and therefore is a promising option for the upcoming high luminosity running of Belle II.
The influence of the beliefs of Italian and Spanish managers in their engagement in sustainability reporting
Authors: García-Machado Juan J. , Papa Marco , Carrassi Mario 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThe EU legislature, through the approval of the Non-financial Information Directive, has made a decisive step towards a mandatory regime for Sustainability Reporting as an essential condition to promote sustainable behavior across European countries. This paper aims at examing the impact of managers’ beliefs and attitudes on NFI mandatory reporting practices through the Theory of Planned Behavior. We test whether managers’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control impact the quality of sustainability reports in Spain and Italy. We built a reflective-formative hierarchical component PLS-SEM model, tested in a survey of 104 Italian (56.73%) and Spanish (43.27%) managers, that combines different latent variables and their relationships, which confirms all our hypotheses. This cross-country analysis is motivated by some differences between Italy and Spain in their cultural orientation and in the area non-financial reporting. To measure Non-financial Information, we crafted a Sustainability Reporting Quality Index for the same companies of the surveyed managers, that combines several reporting features of disclosure quality. We also consider whether other external factors, such as governance characteristics, social influence, and sustainable education, affect managers’ intention to engage in Sustainability Reporting. The results reveal that our model, along with sustainable education and social influence explain more than 56% of the intention to engage in Sustainability Reporting. This indicates that the latter latent variable is well predicted, confirming the relevance of managers’ beliefs in driving quality Sustainability Reporting practices. Our findings may specifically help business managers and decision-makers to identify the factors that are likely to influence sustainability reporting in Italy and Spain and contribute to develop efficient sustainable reporting strategies by decision-makers.
Striving to be the fittest: quantitative P2/N95 respirator fit test results among hospital staff during the COVID-19 pandemic
Authors: Zhang Melanie (Meilun) , Hackett Liam , Smith Jesse , Pritchard Zoe , Casey Matthew , Low Caitlin , Buntine Paul 
Published: December 2023

Abstract

Objective:
To provide fit rates for specific P2/N95 respirators and compare these results by age, sex, clean-shaven status, and fit tester experience.

Design:
Exploratory audit involving secondary analysis of existing quantitative fit testing data.

Setting:
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare services across Australia implemented respiratory protection protocols. This study details healthcare workers’ (HCWs) fit testing results from a large Victorian public health service.

Participants:
Fit-tested employees of a large tertiary public health network.

Methods:
Fit rates for ten individual P2/N95 respirators were calculated, and the effect of age, sex, clean-shaven status, and fit tester experience was examined via logistic regression.

Results:
4593 employees were included, with 97.98% successfully fitting at least one respirator. Males were found to have significantly increased odds of achieving fit success compared to females (OR 11.61 95%CI 1.60–84.10). Fit rates dropped by 4% with each 1-year age increase (OR 0.96 95%CI 0.94–0.98). Clean-shaven individuals were also more likely to achieve a fit compared to non-clean-shaved individuals (OR 79.23 95%CI 10.21–614.62). More experienced fit testers also yielded significantly higher fit rates (OR 3.95, 95%CI 2.34–6.67).

Conclusions:
98% of staff achieved a successful fitting of at least one respirator, with three-panel flat fold models (Industree Trident, 3M Aura 9320A+, and 3M Aura 1870+) performing the most consistently. An individual’s ability to achieve a successful fit was associated with; male sex, younger age, clean-shaven status, and fit tester experience.
Levy and Thurston obstructions of finite subdivision rules
Authors: PARK INSUNG 
Published: December 2023

AbstractFor a post-critically finite branched covering of the sphere that is a subdivision map of a finite subdivision rule, we define non-expanding spines which determine the existence of a Levy cycle in a non-exhaustive semi-decidable algorithm. Especially when a finite subdivision rule has polynomial growth of edge subdivisions, the algorithm terminates very quickly, and the existence of a Levy cycle is equivalent to the existence of a Thurston obstruction. To show the equivalence between Levy and Thurston obstructions, we generalize the arcs intersecting obstruction theorem by Pilgrim and Tan [Combining rational maps and controlling obstructions. Ergod. Th. & Dynam. Sys.18(1) (1998), 221–245] to a graph intersecting obstruction theorem. As a corollary, we prove that for a pair of post-critically finite polynomials, if at least one polynomial has core entropy zero, then their mating has a Levy cycle if and only if the mating has a Thurston obstruction.
Multimodal encoding of motion events in speech, gesture and cognition
Authors: Ünal Ercenur , Mamus Ezgi , Özyürek Aslı 
Published: December 2023

AbstractHow people communicate about motion events and how this is shaped by language typology are mostly studied with a focus on linguistic encoding in speech. Yet, human communication typically involves an interactional exchange of multimodal signals, such as hand gestures that have different affordances for representing event components. Here, we review recent empirical evidence on multimodal encoding of motion in speech and gesture to gain a deeper understanding of whether and how language typology shapes linguistic expressions in different modalities, and how this changes across different sensory modalities of input and interacts with other aspects of cognition. Empirical evidence strongly suggests that Talmy’s typology of event integration predicts multimodal event descriptions in speech and gesture and visual attention to event components prior to producing these descriptions. Furthermore, variability within the event itself, such as type and modality of stimuli, may override the influence of language typology, especially for expression of manner.
Chinese Observations of Soviet Nationality Affairs in the Mao and post-Mao Eras
Authors: Zhou Luyang 
Published: December 2023

AbstractOver the years, China’s nationality policy tended to imitate the Soviet Union while also retaining its uniqueness. Existing scholarship has described three deviations the CCP made vis-à-vis the Soviet model: denying national self-determination, rejecting the supra-national union of nation-states, and undertaking constructivist classification of ethnicity. These features took shape around 1949. In this article, I survey China’s observations on Soviet nationality affairs from 1949 to 1991 and provide a perspective for understanding how these deviations from the Soviet nationality model both crystallized and varied. My findings show that after 1949, Soviet studies in China lacked a coherent agenda for studying the nationality question. The experts gathered rich materials but subordinated nationality questions to themes such as revolution, a centrally planned economy, border disputes, geopolitics, and ideological indoctrination. They also tended to reduce ethnopolitics to class struggle and economic modernization. Such systematic evasion of nationality questions persisted until the collapse of the Soviet Union. The USSR’s disintegration caused China to recognize the resilience of ethnicity and nationality, while before 1991, Soviet studies in China had lacked any systematic reflection on the Soviet nationality model.
Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium co-fermented feed alters antioxidant capacity, muscle fibre characteristics and lipid profiles of finishing pigs
Authors: Liu Shiqi , Du Man , Sun Jiabao , Tu Yuang , Gu Xin , Cai Peiran , Lu Zeqing , Wang Yizhen , Shan Tizhong 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis study aimed to assess how Bacillus subtilis and Enterococcus faecium co-fermented feed (FF) affects the antioxidant capacity, muscle fibre types and muscle lipid profiles of finishing pigs. In this study, a total of 144 Duroc × Berkshire × Jiaxing Black finishing pigs were randomly assigned into three groups with four replicates (twelve pigs per replication). The three treatments were a basal diet (0 % FF), basal diet + 5 % FF and basal diet + 10 % FF, respectively. The experiment lasted 38 d after 4 d of acclimation. The study revealed that 10 % FF significantly increased the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) compared with 0 % FF group, with mRNA levels of up-regulated antioxidant-related genes (GPX1, SOD1, SOD2 and CAT) in 10 % FF group. 10 % FF also significantly up-regulated the percentage of slow-twitch fibre and the mRNA expression of MyHC I, MyHC IIa and MyHC IIx, and slow MyHC protein expression while reducing MyHC IIb mRNA expression. Lipidomics analysis showed that 5 % FF and 10 % FF altered lipid profiles in longissimus thoracis. 10 % FF particularly led to an increase in the percentage of TAG. The Pearson correlation analysis indicated that certain molecular markers such as phosphatidic acid (PA) (49:4), Hex2Cer (d50:6), cardiolipin (CL) (72:8) and phosphatidylcholine (PC) (33:0e) could be used to indicate the characteristics of muscle fibres and were closely related to meat quality. Together, our findings suggest that 10 % FF improved antioxidant capacity, enhanced slow-twitch fibre percentage and altered muscle lipid profiles in finishing pigs.
A New Dilemma of Social Democracy? The British Labour Party, the White Working Class and Ethnic Minority Representation
Authors: Grant Zack , Evans Geoffrey 
Published: December 2023

AbstractLike much of the European centre-left, Britain's Labour Party has struggled to appeal to its former core working class support base in recent years. However, this is largely a failure to connect with the ‘white working class’ (WWC) specifically, whereas support among ethnic minorities remains robust. We hypothesise that Labour could be experiencing a ‘trade-off’, whereby efforts to cater to minorities harm its perceived ability to represent WWC interests. We test this thesis by examining whether WWC voters are more likely to view minority and working class representation in zero-sum terms and shun Labour when they associate the party with minority interests. We show that the WWC are somewhat less likely to view working class and ethnic minority representation as strongly correlated, and Labour's perceived ability to represent minorities is negatively associated with WWC support. This is not (primarily) about ethnocentrism. Instead, we suggest that ‘relative political deprivation’ is crucial.
Young People Punish Undemocratic Behaviour Less Than Older People
Authors: Frederiksen Kristian Vrede Skaaning 
Published: December 2023

AbstractAre young people less likely to punish undemocratic behaviour? I employ experimental data from five studies, ten countries, and seventeen unique country-year samples to reassess the proposition that young people are less committed to democracy than older people. The studies consist of four conjoint and one vignette experiments, which permit estimating an interaction between undemocratic candidate behaviour and respondent age on voting intentions. I find the interaction between undemocratic behaviour and age is negative – such that punishment of undemocratic behaviour increases with age – in all studies and almost all country samples. Moreover, the interaction is approximately linear and statistically significant in the pooled sample and most studies. Thus, young people are less likely to sanction undemocratic behaviour than older people. This letter contributes with the hitherto most comprehensive empirical contribution on age differences in commitment to democracy judging from punishment of undemocratic behaviour.
Effect of constant and fluctuating low temperature on the survival of Tuta absoluta pupae
Authors: Zannou Ayomide Joseph , Karaca Mahmut Mete , Karut Kamil 
Published: December 2023

AbstractTemperature is among the key factors impacting the establishment and spread of invasive pests. The tomato leafminer Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae) is one of the major pests attacking Solanaceae plants and is known to possess overwintering capacities. However, the cold hardiness of T. absoluta pupae is poorly documented. In this study, we investigated the effect of constant temperature and stepwise cooling on T. absoluta pupae under laboratory conditions. For this purpose, bioassays on pupal development under constant temperature (5°C) for 30, 60 and 90 days, and stepwise changes in temperature (11, 10 and 8°C; in this order every 30 days), were assessed. We found that exposure to 5°C for 30 and 60 days did not affect the post-cooling emergence time of adults compared to the control. Pupae completed their development after 60 days of cold exposure at 5°C, but more adults emerged after 30 than 60 days. Even though alive pupae were observed after 90 days of cold exposure at 5°C, no adults emerged. External colours of pupae depended on the duration of cold periods, and green pupae obtained after 30 and 60 days were found to be positively correlated with the emergence of adults. When pupae were kept at 11°C for 30 days, 47% emerged, and when the temperature was changed to 10, only 12% of pupae emerged for the period 31–60 days. However, the decrease of the temperature to 8°C yielded no emergence for the period 61–90 days. Our study provides useful information to better understand the population dynamics of overwintering T. absoluta, and to underpin the development of monitoring and control strategies for the pest.
THE ADLOCVTIO AT THE ACCESSION OF THE ROMAN EMPEROR
Authors: Feeney Kevin 
Published: December 2023

AbstractOne of the most distinctive rituals of Roman imperial accession was the adlocutio, the speech delivered by the new emperor to a military assembly, which can be documented from the first to the fifth centuries a.d. This article seeks to explain the extraordinary endurance of this neglected genre of speech by examining its origins, setting and content. After outlining the unusual nature of the accession adlocutio when set against both earlier and contemporary Mediterranean practice, the first half of this article traces its origins to the military culture of the late Roman Republic. In particular, the adlocutio is related to two other rituals which rose to new prominence in the era of the Civil Wars: the acclamation of the victorious general as imperator and the granting of military gifts. In the second part of this article, the setting for the typical adlocutio of the Imperial era is discussed using the often-problematic evidence of our ancient historical sources. The content of the speech itself is then reconstructed primarily through a close reading of our one surviving example, the brief address of Leo I preserved by Peter the Patrician. Finally, the evidence for the origins and content of the speech are brought together in an argument for the speech's survival as a useful tool for emperors seeking to establish a permanent bond with the soldiers they commanded.
Race and the Problem of Empty Concept Dependency
Authors: Hull George 
Published: December 2023

AbstractDefences of racial anti-realism typically proceed by establishing that nothing possesses the descriptive characteristics associated with the term ‘race’. This leaves them vulnerable to the externalist challenge that the descriptive meaning of ‘race’ is subject to revision based on discoveries about the nature of its referent. That referent is, according to constructionist realists, the groups we call races (the R-groups). Anti-realists and constructionist realists agree that the R-groups are constructed as real social groups by being viewed and treated as though they were relatively homogenous groups, differing in significant, inherent, heritable ways. Only, anti-realists insist they are not races, but racialized groups. I seek to harness their agreement about the socially constructed nature of the R-groups to break the impasse between anti-realists and constructionist realists and settle their dispute in the anti-realist position's favour. On the account of their social construction agreed by both sides, R-groups exhibit empty concept dependency: they depend for their existence on people's utilizing a concept with no referent. Race cannot be both the concept which captures the R-groups’ nature and the empty concept on whose utilization their existence depends. When we are forced to choose, I argue, the latter is the only justifiable option.
Hearing the Americas: Understanding the Early Recording Industry with Digital Tools
Authors: Dauterive Jessica , Karush Matthew B. , O’Malley Michael 
Published: December 2023

AbstractThis article describes the methods and arguments of Hearing the Americas, a digital public history project that illuminates the history of popular music and the recording industry from 1890 to 1925. We argue that the use of digital tools allows the website to integrate sound directly into writing on music and thereby explicate a series of historical arguments. The article examines three arguments advanced by Hearing the Americas, showing in each case how digital tools generate new insights. The first case uses mapping to reveal some of the specific ways in which the economic and social context of Jim Crow shaped the experiences of Black performers; the second integrates sound and text to reveal the origins of certain blues conventions in the racist stereotypes of minstrel shows; and the final case uses digital tools to argue that the marketing strategies of the recording industry throughout the Americas helped produce a key shift in patterns of globalization.