bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Complex Role of Thrombin in Cancer and Metastasis: Focus on Interactions with the Immune System
Authors: Aleksandrowicz Karolina , Hempel Dominika , Polityńska Barbara , Wojtukiewicz Anna M. , Honn Kenneth V. , Tang Dean G. , Wojtukiewicz Marek Z. 
Published: November 2023

AbstractThrombin, a pleiotropic enzyme involved in coagulation, plays a crucial role in both procoagulant and anticoagulant pathways. Thrombin converts fibrinogen into fibrin, initiates platelet activation, and promotes clot formation. Thrombin also activates anticoagulant pathways, indirectly inhibiting factors involved in coagulation. Tissue factor triggers thrombin generation, and the overexpression of thrombin in various cancers suggests that it is involved in tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Increased thrombin generation has been observed in cancer patients, especially those with metastases. Thrombin exerts its effects through protease-activated receptors (PARs), particularly PAR-1 and PAR-2, which are involved in cancer progression, angiogenesis, and immunological responses. Thrombin-mediated signaling promotes angiogenesis by activating endothelial cells and platelets, thereby releasing proangiogenic factors. These functions of thrombin are well recognized and have been widely described. However, in recent years, intriguing new findings concerning the association between thrombin activity and cancer development have come to light, which justifies a review of this research. In particular, there is evidence that thrombin-mediated events interact with the immune system, and may regulate its response to tumor growth. It is also worth reevaluating the impact of thrombin on thrombocytes in conjunction with its multifaceted influence on tumor progression. Understanding the role of thrombin/PAR-mediated signaling in cancer and immunological responses is crucial, particularly in the context of developing immunotherapies. In this systematic review, we focus on the impact of the thrombin-related immune system response on cancer progression.
Enhancing federal inter-governmental relations and state building in Somalia
Authors: Hashi Mohamed Bile , Barasa Tiberius 
Published: November 2023

AbstractFederalism is regarded as the ideal strategy for Somalia in forming a power-sharing agreement among Somali clans and a workable solution to the national unity, peace and security. Despite the adoption of federalism in Somalia, the reality on the ground is different as Somalia has continued to be in a state of political quandary. Available literature says little about the Inter-Governmental Relations (IGR) and civic state building as a possible cause of political quandary. This study explores Somalia’s Federal-state Inter-Governmental Relations and civic state building. It seeks to answer the question, how and to what extent have the intergovernmental relations between the federal government and federal member states affect civic state building in Somalia? Utilizing a qualitative approach specifically, synthesis of literature, in-depth interviews and guided questionnaire, the study suggests that despite the existence of a federal structure, intergovernmental relations between the federal government and the member states have been characterized by tensions and conflicts; the federal and state apparatuses lack appropriate provisions in the constitution and that the minimal federal-state IGR laws that are now in place are not honored and applied by both levels of the federal government. This study also suggests that there is no effective, agreed-upon model of IGRs and power sharing in Somalia between the federal government and member states, thus constraining any kind of progression in the federal institutions. This study also shows how dangerous it is to neglect indigenous approaches of state building that take into account Somali culture, religion, and customs. The findings of this study contributes to the scholarly discourse on civic state-building, federalism, and IGRs in post-conflict settings. This study recommends a review of the federal-state intergovernmental relations laws paying attention to cultural and religious significance, to strengthen federal-state IGRs.
Gender roles in Spanish cinema: a critical and creative process around the word ‘woman’
Authors: Martínez-Vérez María Victoria , Albar-Mansoa Pedro Javier 
Published: November 2023

AbstractThe aim of the study is to analyze the evolution of gender roles and to generate, from a feminist and intergenerational perspective, a cognitive change in the participants, using film and discussion groups as mediating techniques, since they are considered appropriate to analyze the evolution of gender roles and to raise awareness, from a feminist and intergenerational perspective, about the importance of gender roles in people’s lives. To this end, an intergenerational project, called “ Women in the focus”, was created within the framework of the Master’s program at the Complutense University of Madrid, which allows 75 women, belonging to three different generations, to reflect on the concept of gender and the expectations linked to the term, through three films produced in different decades: The Red Cross girls by Rafael J. Salvia (1958); Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown by Pedro Almodóvar (1988); and My life whith out you by Isabel Coixet (2003). Once the films had been viewed, 21 focus groups were organized, made up of between 3 and 5 women of different ages and, in order to analyze the experience, the 21 coordinators of the discussion groups were interviewed. The data obtained from the interviews and the focus groups were analyzed following a qualitative approach, through the technique of content analysis. The results show that feminist thought has had an impact on the lives of Spanish women, but in different ways depending on their age, thus, there is a discrepancy regarding the roles that women have to fulfill, a difference based on the difficulties they have had to face. With respect to the choice of film and the focus group as research techniques, it is possible to affirm that they have worked, since they have allowed women of three different generations to dialogue and review their approaches to the social construction of gender from a diachronic perspective, generating an empathetic discourse of acceptance and sisterhood, which implies, in spite of the discrepancies, the recognition of the difficulties of each generation of women.
General education competencies from students’ perspectives: a case study of a sports university in Taiwan
Authors: Lin Crystal Jia-Yi 
Published: November 2023

AbstractIn this highly competitive world, many students seem to focus more on getting a degree rather than on cultivating general education competencies. The study adopted importance-performance analysis (IPA) to assess sports university students’ opinions of general education competencies and the quality of the general education programme. The findings showed that students thought highly of the competencies surveyed; however, there was a quality performance gap for the competencies. In addition, students’ priorities of the competencies reflected the characteristics of their college; and their perceptions of importance could predict their satisfaction with the general education programme. It is recommended that features of competencies-based education (CBE) be utilized to allow learning to be more flexible and student-centred for sports university students. What’s more, both teachers and students need to be made aware of what the competencies mean and why it is necessary to have these abilities. The study concluded that IPA provided information from students’ perspectives, but improving students’ satisfaction and providing quality education that students really need should go hand in hand. This requires the university to interpret IPA results with careful consideration of the context.
Twitch as a privileged locus to analyze young people’s attitudes in the climate change debate: a quantitative analysis
Authors: Navarro Andrés , Tapiador Francisco J. 
Published: November 2023

AbstractSocial media platforms are becoming an increasingly important venue for public debate. Twitch, in particular, is a popular streaming platform that targets young adults. Originally created for online video game players, the platform also includes other types of content, such as politics, leisure, and science. Here, we present a study that examines climate change discourse on this understudied platform. Unlike previous studies, this work does not only focus on users’ reactions to streamer discourse but, using an ad-hoc methodology, also analyzes the content of the videos. Indeed, an added value of this research is the development of an objective evaluation based on automatic speech recognition (ASP) and natural language processing (NLP). We found that Twitch is an emergent locus for climate discussion with a thriving community of young users interested in the topic. Our findings challenge the understanding of social media discourse on climate change and suggest that platform architecture and intended commercial goals do not play a decisive role in shaping the topics circulating on them. In contrast, our findings support the idea that public discussion on climate change percolates through technology. In other words, the public debate finds its way across existing channels rather than being constrained by them. The research also contributes to the literature by expanding the empirical base for the study of online communication about climate change, especially among young audiences.
20 GHz fiber-integrated femtosecond pulse and supercontinuum generation with a resonant electro-optic frequency comb
Authors: Sekhar Pooja , Fredrick Connor , Carlson David R. , Newman Zachary L. , Diddams Scott A. 
Published: November 2023

Frequency combs with mode spacing of 10–20 GHz are critical for increasingly important applications such as astronomical spectrograph calibration, high-speed dual-comb spectroscopy, and low-noise microwave generation. While electro-optic modulators and microresonators can provide narrowband comb sources at this repetition rate, a significant remaining challenge is a means to produce pulses with sufficient peak power to initiate nonlinear supercontinuum generation spanning hundreds of terahertz (THz) as required for self-referencing. Here, we provide a simple, robust, and universal solution to this problem using off-the-shelf polarization-maintaining amplification and nonlinear fiber components. This fiber-integrated approach for nonlinear temporal compression and supercontinuum generation is demonstrated with a resonant electro-optic frequency comb at 1550 nm. We show how to readily achieve pulses shorter than 60 fs at a repetition rate of 20 GHz. The same technique can be applied to picosecond pulses at 10 GHz to demonstrate temporal compression by 9× and achieve 50 fs pulses with a peak power of 5.5 kW. These compressed pulses enable flat supercontinuum generation spanning more than 600 nm after propagation through multi-segment dispersion-tailored anomalous-dispersion highly nonlinear fibers or tantala waveguides. The same 10 GHz source can readily achieve an octave-spanning spectrum for self-referencing in dispersion-engineered silicon nitride waveguides. This simple all-fiber approach to nonlinear spectral broadening fills a critical gap for transforming any narrowband 10–20 GHz frequency comb into a broadband spectrum for a wide range of applications that benefit from the high pulse rate and require access to the individual comb modes.
Energy levels of carbon dangling-bond center (PbC center) at 4H-SiC(0001)/SiO2 interface
Authors: Sometani Mitsuru , Nishiya Yusuke , Kondo Ren , Inohana Rei , Zeng Hongyu , Hirai Hirohisa , Okamoto Dai , Matsushita Yu-ichiro , Umeda Takahide 
Published: November 2023

The electric properties of the carbon dangling-bond (PbC) center at a thermally oxidized 4H-SiC(0001)/SiO2 interface are investigated. We experimentally and theoretically determine the energy levels of the associated interface states to estimate the impacts of the PbC center on power device operations. By combining electrically detected magnetic resonance spectroscopy and capacitance–voltage measurements, the two PbC electronic levels [(0/−) and (+/0)] are determined as ∼1.2 and 0.6 eV from the valence band maximum, respectively. The effective correlation energy of the PbC center is 0.6 eV, which is 1.5 times larger than that of the silicon dangling-bond (Pb) center at Si/SiO2 interfaces. Our first-principles calculations confirm that the electronic levels of PbC are similar to experimental values. Considering these energy levels, the PbC center must impact both p- and n-channel devices, which is closely related to previously reported channel features.
Complete uncertainty analysis of a simple undergraduate experiment for the measurement of Planck’s constant using python
Authors: Mandal Siba Prasad , Mukhopadhyay Arjun 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
The detailed analysis of propagation of errors in an undergraduate experiment is not dealt with utmost carefulness in general. Here an experiment is chosen from the proposed B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics syllabus submitted to the University Grant Commission, India under choice based credit system. The step by step determination of Planck’s constant and uncertainties introduced in each step are described. The least square fittings between various data sets and the evaluation of the associated uncertainties are done using python codes. Although similar experiments were studied previously, simple modification is made to improve the accuracy of the result. The major portion of the uncertainty in determining Planck’s constant arises from the least squares fitting of a particular data set containing the logarithms of the photodetector currents and the reciprocal of bulb temperatures. Another significant contribution in this regard comes from the measurement of the bulb resistance at room temperature. So a relatively high-resolution measuring instrument is used.
Perturbed solutions in matter FLRW model with R

μ
ν

R

μ
ν
and R
4 gravity
Authors: Bairagi Mithun 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In this paper, we consider the R

μ
ν

R

μ
ν
and R
4 gravity corrections to the general relativity (GR)-based cosmological model, and then apply the perturbation theory to first order to explore the effects of these corrections on the results obtained from the GR-based cosmological model. This cosmological model suggests a small nonzero value (∼10−3) of the equation of State (EoS) parameter (w) of the matter field. We calculate the Hubble parameter and the deceleration parameter using the perturbed solutions of the scale factor, which are in very good agreement with the recent observational data. Additionally, we also explore the validity of the generalized second law of thermodynamics under the R

μ
ν

R

μ
ν
and R
4 gravity theories.
A new four-dimensional hyperchaotic system with hidden attractors and multistablity
Authors: Yang Min , Dong Chengwei , Sui Xiaohong 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This paper proposes a novel 4D hyperchaotic system with hidden attractors and coexisting attractors, which have no equilibrium points. The dynamic behavior of the system and five groups of coexisting attractors are analyzed by applying phase space diagrams, bifurcation diagrams and the Lyapunov exponents spectrum. Additionally, the system’s stable limit cycles and unstable periodic orbits were calculated through the variational method and then encoded using symbolic dynamics. The numerical results were verified via a circuit simulation, confirming the realizability of the novel hyperchaotic system in hardware facilities. Finally, we applied the active synchronization control method to the new system with remarkable results.
Subdiffusive transport of runaway electrons in presence of small amplitude MHD perturbations in COMPASS
Authors: Casolari A. , Gobbin M. , Spizzo G. , Cerovsky J. , Ficker O. , Macusova E. ,   the COMPASS team
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Radial transport of runaway electrons (REs) in tokamaks is affected by the presence of magnetic perturbations, either caused by internal magnetohydrodynamic instabilities or induced by external coils. The magnetic field configuration inside the plasma volume consists in general of intact magnetic surfaces alternated with magnetic islands and stochastic layers, which make the usual diffusive approach, based on the Rechester–Rosenbluth formula, inadequate to the study of transport. Here the fractional diffusion approach is employed to model RE transport in presence of intrinsic magnetic perturbations (magnetic islands) in the flat-top phase of RE-dedicated discharges on COMPASS tokamak. The character of RE transport is found to be subdiffusive. The degree of subdiffusion is evaluated by running simulations with the ORBIT code and a time-fractional diffusion equation is applied to calculate the time evolution of RE particle number. The results are compared with the observed RE losses, estimated from the time integrated neutron signal.
The improvements to the minimum curvature race line optimization
Authors: Chen Ruoyu 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Motorsports is gaining increasingly large and broad attention and simulations using modern information technology on race performance are in demand. This paper focuses on the improvements of the minimum curvature method on optimal racing lines for a race car. The key contribution of the improvements is to generate a more realistic optimal racing line, therefore getting a better description of the car and driver performance. The improvements contain the introduction of the kerb of the track and the late apex technique applied by drivers during the race. The effect of two improvements is verified in the simulation racing software Assetto Corsa and the result shows that the introduction of the kerb raises the lap time accuracy by 90% and the late apex trajectory is matched with the actual path.
Potential future bottlenecks for soft robots and their corresponding solutions
Authors: Yu Wancheng 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
This paper briefly introduces the current situation of soft robots. Then, through the analysis of the current situation, it is concluded that there are two bottlenecks for soft robots, which are material bottleneck and performance bottleneck. In terms of materials, a usable soft robot often requires multiple tasks at the same time, but soft robots lack materials that can meet the needs of multiple tasks at present. In terms of performance, soft robots are different from traditional robots. Soft robots have unlimited degrees of freedom, which will lead to the CPU processing a large amount of data. Therefore, this paper proposes to introduce the concept of robot group into soft robots and solve the problems existing in soft robots by using the characteristics of low CPU and low individual strength requirements of robot groups.
Application of trapped ions in quantum-computing: Fidelity, scalability and integrated technology
Authors: Xiaoxiao Wang 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Quantum computing, which is based on the rules of quantum mechanics, has great potential in many fields for its theoretical ability to simulate any natural process based on quantum mechanics. Many types of physical implementations of quantum computers have been developed, and the method based on trapped ions is a promising one. However, there is still a lot of work that need to be done, like how to improve the fidelity and scalability of those quantum computers. Besides laser light, microwave and waveguides have also been used in some experiments.
Modeling of continuum robots: A review
Authors: Luo Kelan 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Continuum robots offer good environmental adaptability and superior safety in human-robot interaction. This paper describes the state of the art in continuum robot modeling and summarizes and evaluates the mainstream continuum robot modeling approaches in the current community through three different classifications: continuum models, geometric models, and data-driven models. Finally, the paper provides a summary of existing research approaches and provides future research opportunities in continuum robot modeling.
The study for optimization strategies on the performance of DCGAN
Authors: Li Sijia 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
Since Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks (DCGAN) was proposed, it has been perceived as a model with difficulty in training due to several factors. To solve this problem, dozens of optimization strategies were presented, but none of them was compared with the others. In this paper, the author chose three representative methods, namely one-label smoothing, the two Time-Scale Update Rule (TTUR), and the Earth-Mover Distance (EMD) or Wasserstein-1 to make a comparison of the optimization effect on the DCGAN model. To be specific, these three approaches were adopted respectively while using MNIST and Fashion-MNIST as datasets. One-side label smoothing was designed to prevent overconfidence in the model by adding a penalty term in the discriminator. TTUR was a simpler update strategy that could help the model find the stationary local Nash equilibrium under mild assumptions. EMD was an alternative loss function that enabled the model to distinguish the difference while the real distribution and generated distribution were not overlapped. Contrast experiments were conducted both vertically and horizontally. The author applied these three methods with the same dataset and the same method with different datasets in order to compare the time of the model collapse, the trend of loss in line graphs, and the impact of different datasets on results. Experimental results indicated that both one-label smoothing and TTUR postponed the model collapse while EMD completely get rid of it. Furthermore, generated images may lose texture information when using more complicated datasets.
Improved value iteration network for path planning
Authors: Chai Shijia 
Published: November 2023

Abstract
In this study, a series of improved path planning algorithms are designed for path planning tasks in autonomous control based on deep reinforcement learning. The Value Iteration Network (VIN) is used to deal with the path planning problem. Origin VIN performs well on small size maps, but when it comes to a bigger size of map on test set, the success rate decreased. In order to solve the problem that origin VIN lacks long-distance multi-step planning ability on large maps and generalization ability is insufficient, a three-step improvement was made. First of all, in view of the inconvenient data flow and the disappearance of gradients caused by the network being too deep, the jump connection structure is used to obtain the deeper VIN, in which the accuracy of the experiment is improved. Secondly, with the purpose of solving the problem that the complexity of the model is greatly increased due to the deepening of the network, Batch normalization is used to obtain a new network with dueling architecture plus batch normalization layer, which further accelerates the convergence speed of the network. Third, to deal with the global path planning problem on the big map, the hierarchical network structure is adopted for hierarchical value iteration, and the Hierarchical Structure VIN is obtained. In Hierarchical Structure VIN, the long-term planning ability and generalization ability of the algorithm have been significantly improved, and the algorithm could figure out the large-scale and complex path planning problem.