bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Estimating ice forces on a bridge pier using field observations and a deformation model
Authors: Rødtang Einar , Alfredsen Knut , Høyland Knut 
Published: October 2023

This technical note qualitatively and quantitatively describes the ice run that took place in Sokna river, Trøndelag, Norway on 23 January 2020. Metrological and hydrological data are described. Stranded ice floe size distribution data are presented and analysed. It is shown that the maximal ice floe dimension is well described by generalized exponential (shape parameter = 2.77, scale parameter = 1.42) or log-logistic distributions (alpha = 3.57, lambda = 1.15). A custom-built steel load panel had been mounted on Sokna bridge preceding the ice run; however, due to technical difficulties no forces were recorded. Hindcast calculations using Solidworks based on the permanent deflections experienced by this load panel have been carried out to estimate ice forces experienced by Sokna bridge. These hindcast calculations conclude that the real peak ice force experienced by the 0.8 m diameter cylindrical bridge piers must have been within the range 1.1 to 5.5 MN. This range is compared to predictions made by standards for predicting ice forces on bridge piers. This comparison reveals that the Norwegian standard, the lower bound of the SNiP standard, and the upper bound of the CSA S6:19 standard are consistent with this range, while the Swedish and Finnish standards predict too low forces.
Topological classes of black holes in de-Sitter spacetime
Authors: Du Yongbin , Zhang Xiangdong 
Published: October 2023

AbstractIn this paper, we investigate the topological number of de-Sitter black hole solutions with different charges (q) and rotational (a) parameters. By using generalized free energy and Duan’s$$\phi $$ϕ-mapping topological current theory, we find that the topological numbers of black holes can still be classified into three types. In addition, we interestingly found the topological classes for de-Sitter (dS) spacetime with distinct horizons, i.e., black hole event horizon and cosmological horizon, will be different. Moreover, we also investigate topological classifications of dS black hole solutions in higher dimensions with or without the Gauss-Bonnet term.
Secure RDTs: Enforcing Access Control Policies for Offline Available JSON Data
Authors: Renaux Thierry , Van den Vonder Sam , De Meuter Wolfgang 
Published: October 2023

Replicated Data Types (RDTs) are a type of data structure that can be replicated over a network, where each replica can be kept (eventually) consistent with the other replicas. They are used in applications with intermittent network connectivity, since local (offline) edits can later be merged with the other replicas. Applications that want to use RDTs often have an inherent security component that restricts data access for certain clients. However, access control for RDTs is difficult to enforce for clients that are not running within a secure environment, e.g., web applications where the client-side software can be freely tampered with. In essence, an application cannot prevent a client from reading data which they are not supposed to read, and any malicious changes will also affect well-behaved clients.
This paper proposes Secure RDTs (SRDTs), a data type that specifies role-based access control for offline-available JSON data. In brief, a trusted application server specifies a security policy based on roles with read and write privileges for certain fields of an SRDT. The server enforces read privileges by projecting the data and security policy to omit any non-readable fields for the user's given role, and it acts as an intermediary to enforce write privileges. The approach is presented as an operational semantics engineered in PLT Redex, which is validated by formal proofs and randomised testing in Redex to ensure that the formal specification is secure.
AST vs. Bytecode: Interpreters in the Age of Meta-Compilation
Authors: Larose Octave , Kaleba Sophie , Burchell Humphrey , Marr Stefan 
Published: October 2023

Thanks to partial evaluation and meta-tracing, it became practical to build language implementations that reach state-of-the-art peak performance by implementing only an interpreter. Systems such as RPython and GraalVM provide components such as a garbage collector and just-in-time compiler in a language-agnostic manner, greatly reducing implementation effort.
However, meta-compilation-based language implementations still need to improve further to reach the low memory use and fast warmup behavior that custom-built systems provide. A key element in this endeavor is interpreter performance. Folklore tells us that bytecode interpreters are superior to abstract-syntax-tree (AST) interpreters both in terms of memory use and run-time performance.
This work assesses the trade-offs between AST and bytecode interpreters to verify common assumptions and whether they hold
in the context of meta-compilation systems. We implemented four interpreters, each an AST and a bytecode one using RPython and GraalVM. We keep the difference between the interpreters as small as feasible to be able to evaluate interpreter performance, peak performance, warmup, memory use, and the impact of individual optimizations.
Our results show that both systems indeed reach performance close to Node.js/V8. Looking at interpreter-only performance,
our AST interpreters are on par with, or even slightly faster than their bytecode counterparts. After just-in-time compilation, the results are roughly on par. This means bytecode interpreters do not have their widely assumed performance advantage. However, we can confirm that bytecodes are more compact in memory than ASTs, which becomes relevant for larger applications. However, for smaller applications, we noticed that bytecode interpreters allocate more memory because boxing avoidance is not as applicable, and because the bytecode interpreter structure requires memory, e.g., for a reified stack.
Our results show AST interpreters to be competitive on top of meta-compilation systems. Together with possible engineering benefits, they should thus not be discounted so easily in favor of bytecode interpreters.
Mat2Stencil: A Modular Matrix-Based DSL for Explicit and Implicit Matrix-Free PDE Solvers on Structured Grid
Authors: Cao Huanqi , Tang Shizhi , Zhu Qianchao , Yu Bowen , Chen Wenguang 
Published: October 2023

Partial differential equation (PDE) solvers are extensively utilized across numerous scientific and engineering fields. However, achieving high performance and scalability often necessitates intricate and low-level programming, particularly when leveraging deterministic sparsity patterns in structured grids.
In this paper, we propose an innovative domain-specific language (DSL), Mat2Stencil, with its compiler, for PDE solvers on structured grids. Mat2Stencil introduces a structured sparse matrix abstraction, facilitating modular, flexible, and easy-to-use expression of solvers across a broad spectrum, encompassing components such as Jacobi or Gauss-Seidel preconditioners, incomplete LU or Cholesky decompositions, and multigrid methods built upon them. Our DSL compiler subsequently generates matrix-free code consisting of generalized stencils through multi-stage programming. The code allows spatial loop-carried dependence in the form of quasi-affine loops, in addition to the Jacobi-style stencil’s embarrassingly parallel on spatial dimensions. We further propose a novel automatic parallelization technique for the spatially dependent loops, which offers a compile-time deterministic task partitioning for threading, calculates necessary inter-thread synchronization automatically, and generates an efficient multi-threaded implementation with fine-grained synchronization.
Implementing 4 benchmarking programs, 3 of them being the pseudo-applications in NAS Parallel Benchmarks with 6.3% lines of code and 1 being matrix-free High Performance Conjugate Gradients with 16.4% lines of code, we achieve up to 1.67× and on average 1.03× performance compared to manual implementations.
Asparagus: Automated Synthesis of Parametric Gas Upper-Bounds for Smart Contracts
Authors: Cai Zhuo , Farokhnia Soroush , Goharshady Amir Kafshdar , Hitarth S. 
Published: October 2023

Modern programmable blockchains have built-in support for smart contracts, i.e. ‍programs that are stored on the blockchain and whose state is subject to consensus. After a smart contract is deployed on the blockchain, anyone on the network can interact with it and call its functions by creating transactions. The blockchain protocol is then used to reach a consensus about the order of the transactions and, as a direct corollary, the state of every smart contract. Reaching such consensus necessarily requires every node on the network to execute all function calls. Thus, an attacker can perform DoS by creating expensive transactions and function calls that use considerable or even possibly infinite time and space. To avoid this, following Ethereum, virtually all programmable blockchains have introduced the concept of “gas”. A fixed hard-coded gas cost is assigned to every atomic operation and the user who calls a function has to pay for its total gas usage. This technique ensures that the protocol is not vulnerable to DoS attacks, but it has also had significant unintended consequences. Out-of-gas errors, i.e. ‍when a user misunderestimates the gas usage of their function call and does not allocate enough gas, are a major source of security vulnerabilities in Ethereum.
We focus on the well-studied problem of automatically finding upper-bounds on the gas usage of a smart contract. This is a classical problem in the blockchain community and has also been extensively studied by researchers in programming languages and verification. In this work, we provide a novel approach using theorems from polyhedral geometry and real algebraic geometry, namely Farkas’ Lemma, Handelman’s Theorem, and Putinar’s Positivstellensatz, to automatically synthesize linear and polynomial parametric bounds for the gas usage of smart contracts. Our approach is the first to provide completeness guarantees for the synthesis of such parametric upper-bounds. Moreover, our theoretical results are independent of the underlying consensus protocol and can be applied to smart contracts written in any language and run on any blockchain.
As a proof of concept, we also provide a tool, called “Asparagus” that implements our algorithms for Ethereum contracts written in Solidity. Finally, we provide extensive experimental results over 24,188 real-world smart contracts that are currently deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. We compare Asparagus against GASTAP, which is the only previous tool that could provide parametric bounds, and show that our method significantly outperforms it, both in terms of applicability and the tightness of the resulting bounds. More specifically, our approach can handle 80.56% of the functions (126,269 out of 156,735) in comparison with GASTAP’s 58.62%. Additionally, even on the benchmarks where both approaches successfully synthesize a bound, our bound is tighter in 97.85% of the cases.
Aflatoxin Contamination of Maize from Small-Scale Farms Practicing Different Artisanal Control Methods in Kitui, Kenya
Authors: Kyalo Winfred Muthini , Onono Joshua Orungo , Ombui Jackson Nyarongi , Gathura Peter Baaro , Gitahi Johnson Nduhiu , Ateku Penina Afwande 
Published: October 2023

Aflatoxin contamination of maize is a threat to food security and public health for households that depend on farming in developing countries. The objective of this study was to determine levels of total aflatoxins in maize from farms adopting different artisanal aflatoxin control methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 315 maize farmers who provided maize samples for aflatoxin analysis and additional data on artisanal aflatoxin control methods applied at farm level. Maize grains were ground, and levels of aflatoxins were determined using competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data were analyzed by computing descriptive statistical measures, and binary logistic regression was used to determine the relationship between levels of aflatoxin in maize and artisanal control methods applied in different farms. Aflatoxin was detected in 98% of maize samples with a mean total aflatoxin level of 12.86 μg/kg which was above the maximum tolerable limits. There was a significant difference in total aflatoxin levels in maize obtained from farms which practiced minimum tillage compared to those practicing deep tillage (

p

= 0.015). Drying maize on bare ground had a higher likelihood of aflatoxin contamination than drying maize on tarpaulin (

p

= 0.005). One-third of maize samples had aflatoxin levels exceeding the set maximum limit, with maize samples from lowland areas having high proportions of aflatoxin-positive cases as compared to uplands. Artisanal aflatoxin control technologies such as land tillage, types of platforms for drying maize, and sources of maize seed significantly influence the level of aflatoxins in maize samples. We recommend targeted active surveillance for aflatoxins, continuous public education, and adoption of farm-level mitigation measures to reduce the impact of aflatoxin contamination in farming communities.
Analysis of Subclinical Thyroid Dysfunction and Metabolic Abnormality in 28568 Healthy People
Authors: Xie Yan , Wang Zhixue , Chen Zongtao 
Published: October 2023

We analyzed the detection rates of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and subclinical thyroid dysfunction, including subclinical hyperthyroidism (SCHyper) and subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), in healthy people, as well as their relationship. Clinical data were collected from 28,568 healthy individuals who underwent physical examinations. The detection rates of SCHyper, SCH, and MetS, as well as in different genders and ages, were analyzed. The detection rate of SCHyper and SCH in females was significantly higher than that in males (

P

< 0.001), but that of MetS in males was significantly higher than that in females (

P

< 0.001). In each age group, the detection rate of SCH in females was higher than that in males (

P

< 0.001). The detection rate of SCH was significantly different in different age groups (

P

< 0.001). The detection rates of hyperlipidemia (

P

< 0.001), obesity (

P

= 0.004), hypertension (

P

= 0.009), and hyperglycemia (

P

< 0.001) in the female SCH group were significantly higher than those in the normal group. The detection rates of hyperlipidemia (

P

= 0.006), obesity (

P

= 0.04), and hypertension (

P

= 0.04) in the male SCH group were higher than those in the normal group. The males with SCHyper were more prone to hyperlipidemia (

P

= 0.02) and obesity (

P

= 0.03). In addition, the female SCHyper group was not significantly different from the normal group (

P

> 0.05). Conclusively, the detection rate of SCHyper and SCH in females is higher than that in males, which increases with age. Attention should be paid to subclinical thyroid dysfunction in elderly people, especially females. Early individualized screening and early intervention should be carried out for people with abnormal metabolism.
Reviews of Low Carbon Scenarios, Carbon Neutrality,  and Net Zero Emissions in Thailand: Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Macroeconomy
Authors: Thampanishvong Kannika , Limmeechokchai Bundit 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns result in global climate change. Human activities that burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas have been identified as the main driver of climate change. The extreme weather events, especially floods and droughts, have already caused severe economic impacts. These impacts will continue to intensify unless transformative and holistic adaptations are put in place. The Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aims at keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2° Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5° Celsius. To achieve the targets, balancing between anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) sources and sinks needs strong efforts and long-term low emissions development strategies of the participating countries. Thailand's long-term low GHG emissions development strategy (LT-LEDS) submitted to UNFCCC in 2022 included national adaptation and economy-wide GHG mitigation in the energy, industrial processes and product use, waste, agriculture and land use, land-use change and forestry sectors, and international supports needed to meet the net zero emissions targets. Thus, this paper reviews several low-carbon development strategies in Thailand to meet the targets of carbon neutrality and net zero emissions. The impacts of LT-LEDS include GHG emissions reduction and the macroeconomic impacts. Results of several low-carbon development strategies in Thailand show that achieving the nationwide carbon neutrality and net zero GHG emissions is possible; but all feasible options and measures need to be implemented immediately.
Motor Signals Mediate Stationarity Perception
Authors: Halow Savannah , Liu James , Folmer Eelke , MacNeilage Paul R. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Head movement relative to the stationary environment gives rise to congruent vestibular and visual optic-flow signals. The resulting perception of a stationary visual environment, referred to herein as stationarity perception, depends on mechanisms that compare visual and vestibular signals to evaluate their congruence. Here we investigate the functioning of these mechanisms and their dependence on fixation behavior as well as on the active versus passive nature of the head movement. Stationarity perception was measured by modifying the gain on visual motion relative to head movement on individual trials and asking subjects to report whether the gain was too low or too high. Fitting a psychometric function to the data yields two key parameters of performance. The mean is a measure of accuracy, and the standard deviation is a measure of precision. Experiments were conducted using a head-mounted display with fixation behavior monitored by an embedded eye tracker. During active conditions, subjects rotated their heads in yaw ∼15 deg/s over ∼1 s. Each subject’s movements were recorded and played back via rotating chair during the passive condition. During head-fixed and scene-fixed fixation the fixation target moved with the head or scene, respectively. Both precision and accuracy were better during active than passive head movement, likely due to increased precision on the head movement estimate arising from motor prediction and neck proprioception. Performance was also better during scene-fixed than head-fixed fixation, perhaps due to decreased velocity of retinal image motion and increased precision on the retinal image motion estimate. These results reveal how the nature of head and eye movements mediate encoding, processing, and comparison of relevant sensory and motor signals.
Solar Activity, Weather, and Climate: The Elusive Connection
Authors: Tinsley Brian A. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
The search for an explanation of correlations of weather and climate with solar activity has uncovered some subtle effects of the varying solar inputs, which include irradiance, energetic particles, electric fields induced by the solar wind, and the modulation of the galactic cosmic ray flux. Relevant phenomena have been identified in stratospheric chemistry and dynamics and in aerosols, atmospheric electricity, and clouds. The effects are small and appear intermittently in statistical analyses of observations. Correlations and theory permit responses to several solar inputs effective on the decadal time scales, making it difficult to distinguish them observationally. No mechanism for tropospheric decadal change can be considered to be definitely established, but for the day-to-day time scale there is clear observational evidence for clouds responding to solar wind–induced current flow (JZ) in the global electric circuit, due to changes in ionospheric potential, and independently from Forbush decreases of the cosmic ray flux. The responses to JZ also correlate separately with ionospheric potential changes due to changes in day-to-day thunderstorm activity. The identified mechanism is for electric charge effects on in-cloud scavenging, and this implies a decadal response, in view of decadal changes in JZ. However, a complete and quantitative model of the inferred electrically induced changes in cloud microphysics is not yet available. The failures, successes, and controversies of the search illustrate the somewhat chaotic process of scientific discovery.
Impact of Atmospheric Circulation Variability on U.S. Midwest Moisture Sources
Authors: Carr Theo , Ummenhofer Caroline C. 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Elevated spring and summer rainfall in the U.S. Midwest is often associated with a strong Great Plains low-level jet (GPLLJ), which transports moist air northward to the region from the Gulf of Mexico. While the intensity of hourly precipitation extremes depends on local moisture availability and vertical velocity, sustained moisture convergence on longer time scales depends on horizontal moisture advection from remote sources. Therefore, the magnitude of moisture convergence in the Midwest depends in part on the humidity in these moisture source regions. Past work has identified the time-mean spatial distribution of moisture sources for the Midwest and studied how this pattern changes in years with anomalous rainfall. Here, using reanalysis products and an Eulerian moisture tracking model, we seek to increase physical understanding of this moisture source variability by linking it to the GPLLJ, which has been studied extensively. We find that on interannual time scales, an anomalously strong GPLLJ is associated with a shift in the distribution of moisture sources from land to ocean, with most of the anomalous moisture transported to—and converged in—the Midwest originating from the Atlantic Ocean. This effect is more pronounced on synoptic time scales, when almost all anomalous moisture transported to the region originates over the ocean. We also show that the observed positive trend in oceanic moisture contribution to the Midwest from 1979 to 2020 is consistent with a strengthening of the GPLLJ over the same period. We conclude by outlining how projected changes in a region’s upstream moisture sources may be useful for understanding changes in local precipitation variability.

Significance Statement
In this work, we study how the origin of moisture that forms precipitation in the U.S. Midwest covaries with large-scale atmospheric circulation. Our results show that an intensification of the mean winds tends to increase the proportion of total rainfall that originates from the ocean. This analysis may help to constrain future projections of rainfall extremes in the central United States, as projected changes in humidity over the ocean are typically more robust and better understood than those over land.