bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Synthesis and characterization of pyrrole-based group 4 PNP pincer complexes
Authors: Tomsu Gerald , Stöger Berthold , Kirchner Karl 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe synthesis, characterization, and reactivity of several group 4 metal complexes featuring a central anionic pyrrole moiety connected via CH2 linkers to two phosphine donors is described. Treatment of [P(NH)P-iPr] with [MCl4(THF)2] (M = Zr, Hf) in the presence of base yields the dimeric complexes [M(PNPiPr)(μ-Cl)(Cl)2]2 featuring two bridging chloride ligands. These complexes react with sodium cyclopentadienyl and SiMe3I to give the mononuclear complexes [M(PNPiPr)(η5-Cp)(Cl)2] and [M(PNPiPr)(I)3], respectively. The latter react with MeMgBr to form the trialkyl complexes [M(PNPiPr)(Me)3]. Upon treatment of [Ti(NMe2)4] with [P(NH)P-iPr] a complex with the general formula [Ti(PNPiPr)(NMe2)3] is obtained. DFT calculations revealed that the most stable species is [Ti(κ1N- PNPiPr)(NMe2)3] featuring a κ1N-bound PNP ligand. When [P(NH)P-iPr] is reacted with [Ti(NMe2)4] in CH2Cl2 complex [Ti(PNPiPr)(Cl)2(NMe2)] is formed. Treatment of a solution of [P(NH)P-iPr] and [Zr(NMe2)4] with SiMe3Br affords the anionic seven-coordinate tetrabromo complex [Zr(PNPiPr)(Br)4][H2NMe2]. The corresponding hafnium complex [Hf(PNPiPr)(Br)4][H2NEt2] is obtained in similar fashion by utilizing [Hf(NEt2)4] as metal precursor. All complexes are characterized by means of NMR spectroscopy. Representative complexes were also characterized by X-ray crystallography.
Graphical abstract
Hereditary spastic paraparesis type 46 (SPG46): new GBA2 variants in a large Italian case series and review of the literature
Authors: Cioffi Ettore , Coppola Gianluca , Musumeci Olimpia , Gallone Salvatore , Silvestri Gabriella , Rossi Salvatore , Piemonte Fiorella , D’Amico Jessica , Tessa Alessandra , Santorelli Filippo Maria , Casali Carlo 
Published: February 2024

AbstractHereditary spastic paraparesis (HSP) is a group of central nervous system diseases primarily affecting the spinal upper motor neurons, with different inheritance patterns and phenotypes. SPG46 is a rare, early-onset and autosomal recessive HSP, linked to biallelic GBA2 mutations. About thirty families have been described worldwide, with different phenotypes like complicated HSP, recessive cerebellar ataxia or Marinesco-Sjögren Syndrome. Herein, we report five SPG46 patients harbouring five novel GBA2 mutations, the largest series described in Italy so far. Probands were enrolled in five different centres and underwent neurological examination, clinical cognitive assessment, column imaging for scoliosis assessment, ophthalmologic examination, brain imaging, GBA2 activity in peripheral blood cells and genetic testing. Their phenotype was consistent with HSP, with notable features like upper gaze palsy and movement disorders. We review demographic, genetic, biochemical and clinical information from all documented cases in the existing literature, focusing on the global distribution of cases, the features of the syndrome, its variable presentation, new potential identifying features and the significance of measuring GBA2 enzyme activity.
Real exchange rates and manufacturing exports in emerging economies: the role of sectoral heterogeneity and product complexity
Authors: Goda Thomas , Torres García Alejandro , Larrahondo Cristhian 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThe empirical evidence on the relationship between the real exchange rate and export performance in emerging economies is inconclusive. In this paper, we present evidence that one reason for this inconclusiveness is the use of real exchange rate (RER) measures that do not consider the heterogeneity between economic sectors. To this end, we calculate a unique sectoral bilateral RER index (SBRER) for 12 Latin American economies, which considers the variation of producer price differentials and bilateral nominal exchange rates across 21 manufacturing sectors and 38 trade partners between 2001–2018, and to estimate the effect of SBRER movements on manufacturing exports. The regression results show that the SBRER is a significant determinant of aggregate manufacturing exports, whereas the bilateral RER is not significant. Moreover, sectoral export elasticities indicate that mainly sectors with low levels of product complexity and, to a lesser extent, those of medium complexity are affected by RER movements. These findings show that it is important to consider sectoral heterogeneity when estimating RER export elasticities from a macroeconomic perspective.
Prioritizing river basins for nutrient studies
Authors: Tesoriero Anthony J. , Robertson Dale M. , Green Christopher T. , Böhlke J. K. , Harvey Judson W. , Qi Sharon L. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractIncreases in fluxes of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in the environment have led to negative impacts affecting drinking water, eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, climate change, and biodiversity loss. Because of the importance, scale, and complexity of these issues, it may be useful to consider methods for prioritizing nutrient research in representative drainage basins within a regional or national context. Two systematic, quantitative approaches were developed to (1) identify basins that geospatial data suggest are most impacted by nutrients and (2) identify basins that have the most variability in factors affecting nutrient sources and transport in order to prioritize basins for studies that seek to understand the key drivers of nutrient impacts. The “impact” approach relied on geospatial variables representing surface-water and groundwater nutrient concentrations, sources of N and P, and potential impacts on receptors (i.e., ecosystems and human health). The “variability” approach relied on geospatial variables representing surface-water nutrient concentrations, factors affecting sources and transport of nutrients, model accuracy, and potential receptor impacts. One hundred and sixty-three drainage basins throughout the contiguous United States were ranked nationally and within 18 hydrologic regions. Nationally, the top-ranked basins from the impact approach were concentrated in the Midwest, while those from the variability approach were dispersed across the nation. Regionally, the top-ranked basin selected by the two approaches differed in 15 of the 18 regions, with top-ranked basins selected by the variability approach having lower minimum concentrations and larger ranges in concentrations than top-ranked basins selected by the impact approach. The highest ranked basins identified using the variability approach may have advantages for exploring how landscape factors affect surface-water quality and how surface-water quality may affect ecosystems. In contrast, the impact approach prioritized basins in terms of human development and nutrient concentrations in both surface water and groundwater, thereby targeting areas where actions to reduce nutrient concentrations could have the largest effect on improving water availability and reducing ecosystem impacts.
Entanglement and entropy in multipartite systems: a useful approach
Authors: Bernal A. , Casas J. A. , Moreno J. M. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractQuantum entanglement and quantum entropy are crucial concepts in the study of multipartite quantum systems. In this work, we show how the notion of concurrence vector, re-expressed in a particularly useful form, provides new insights and computational tools for the analysis of both. In particular, using this approach for a general multipartite pure state, one can easily prove known relations in an easy way and to build up new relations between the concurrences associated with the different bipartitions. The approach is also useful to derive sufficient conditions for genuine entanglement in generic multipartite systems that are computable in polynomial time. From an entropy-of-entanglement perspective, the approach is powerful to prove properties of the Tsallis-2 entropy, such as the subadditivity, and to derive new ones, e.g., a modified version of the strong subadditivity which is always fulfilled; thanks to the purification theorem these results hold for any multipartite state, whether pure or mixed.
Estimating quantum mutual information through a quantum neural network
Authors: Shin Myeongjin , Lee Junseo , Jeong Kabgyun 
Published: February 2024

AbstractWe propose a method of quantum machine learning called quantum mutual information neural estimation (QMINE) for estimating von Neumann entropy and quantum mutual information, which are fundamental properties in quantum information theory. The QMINE proposed here basically utilizes a technique of quantum neural networks (QNNs), to minimize a loss function that determines the von Neumann entropy, and thus quantum mutual information, which is believed more powerful to process quantum datasets than conventional neural networks due to quantum superposition and entanglement. To create a precise loss function, we propose a quantum Donsker-Varadhan representation (QDVR), which is a quantum analog of the classical Donsker-Varadhan representation. By exploiting a parameter shift rule on parameterized quantum circuits, we can efficiently implement and optimize the QNN and estimate the quantum entropies using the QMINE technique. Furthermore, numerical observations support our predictions of QDVR and demonstrate the good performance of QMINE.
Spatial Comprehensive Well-Being Composite Indicators Based on Bayesian Latent Factor Model: Evidence from Italian Provinces
Authors: Montorsi Carlotta , Gigliarano Chiara 
Published: February 2024

AbstractThis paper proposes spatial comprehensive composite indicators to evaluate the well-being levels and ranking of Italian provinces with data from the Equitable and Sustainable Well-Being dashboard. We use a method based on Bayesian latent factor models, which allow us to include spatial dependence across Italian provinces, quantify uncertainty in the resulting estimates, and estimate data-driven weights for elementary indicators. The results reveal that our data-driven approach changes the resulting composite indicator rankings compared to those produced by traditional composite indicators’ approaches. Estimated social and economic well-being is unequally distributed among southern and northern Italian provinces. In contrast, the environmental dimension appears less spatially clustered, and its composite indicators also reach above-average levels in the southern provinces. The time series of well-being composite indicators of Italian macro-areas shows clustering and macro-areas discrimination on larger territorial units.
What Lies Behind Perceptions of Corruption? A Cultural Approach
Authors: Dipierro Anna Rita , Rella Angela 
Published: February 2024

AbstractCountries’ resource-base goes also through the Quality of Government, in terms of hidden institutional defects. A long-strand of literature delved into the institutional integrity distortions, with a special focus on corruption. Our study addresses this topic, by proposing a theoretical framework that has its roots in the Expectancy-Disconfirmation Model to conceptually visualize the role of culture in shaping expectations related to the presence of corruption in governmental performance. The research empirically explores whether and how culture, operationalized by means of the whole set of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, affects perceived corruption. The latter is measured through the Bayesian Corruption Index, favoured over the alternatives, and ought to deserve wider use. Over 142 countries worldwide, a cross-sectional econometric analysis shows that societies characterized by more power distance, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, and less individualism score worse in terms of perceived corruption. Findings provide implications for policy-makers and society, as well as for researchers adding light upon the relevance of cultural values to change the perspective about the course of history.
Multiple Probe Measurements at Uranus Motivated by Spatial Variability
Authors: Wong Michael H. , Rowe-Gurney Naomi , Markham Stephen , Sayanagi Kunio M. 
Published: February 2024

AbstractA major motivation for multiple atmospheric probe measurements at Uranus is the understanding of dynamic processes that create and maintain spatial variation in thermal structure, composition, and horizontal winds. But origin questions—regarding the planet’s formation and evolution, and conditions in the protoplanetary disk—are also major science drivers for multiprobe exploration. Spatial variation in thermal structure reveals how the atmosphere transports heat from the interior, and measuring compositional variability in the atmosphere is key to ultimately gaining an understanding of the bulk abundances of several heavy elements. We review the current knowledge of spatial variability in Uranus’ atmosphere, and we outline how multiple probe exploration would advance our understanding of this variability. The other giant planets are discussed, both to connect multiprobe exploration of those atmospheres to open questions at Uranus, and to demonstrate how multiprobe exploration of Uranus itself is motivated by lessons learned about the spatial variation at Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune. We outline the measurements of highest value from miniature secondary probes (which would complement more detailed investigation by a larger flagship probe), and present the path toward overcoming current challenges and uncertainties in areas including mission design, cost, trajectory, instrument maturity, power, and timeline.
Relative Norm Alignment for Tackling Domain Shift in Deep Multi-modal Classification
Authors: Planamente Mirco , Plizzari Chiara , Peirone Simone Alberto , Caputo Barbara , Bottino Andrea 
Published: February 2024

AbstractMulti-modal learning has gained significant attention due to its ability to enhance machine learning algorithms. However, it brings challenges related to modality heterogeneity and domain shift. In this work, we address these challenges by proposing a new approach called Relative Norm Alignment (RNA) loss. RNA loss exploits the observation that variations in marginal distributions between modalities manifest as discrepancies in their mean feature norms, and rebalances feature norms across domains, modalities, and classes. This rebalancing improves the accuracy of models on test data from unseen (“target”) distributions. In the context of Unsupervised Domain Adaptation (UDA), we use unlabeled target data to enhance feature transferability. We achieve this by combining RNA loss with an adversarial domain loss and an Information Maximization term that regularizes predictions on target data. We present a comprehensive analysis and ablation of our method for both Domain Generalization and UDA settings, testing our approach on different modalities for tasks such as first and third person action recognition, object recognition, and fatigue detection. Experimental results show that our approach achieves competitive or state-of-the-art performance on the proposed benchmarks, showing the versatility and effectiveness of our method in a wide range of applications.
The use of XR technology in criminological research: a scoping review
Authors: van Sintemaartensdijk Iris , Meenaghan Amy 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Objectives
Criminology has begun to use virtual reality (VR) as a tool to understand criminal behaviour. There have been many advances in VR that open up the possibility of novel research designs, in addition to the inclusion of augmented reality (AR) as a potential research tool. A review of the efficacy of the use of AR and VR (together known as XR) within criminology is now required to guide the further development of this field.

Methods
We employed a scoping review, which after screening, incorporated 41 papers for review.

Results
We uncovered three important characteristics for the papers: research topics for which XR is employed, the prominence of VR research over AR and XR and methodological rigour. VR is mostly employed for creating scenarios, in particular in research on memory and aggression. Studies vary greatly in their use of interaction within VR scenes, description of technical specifications and sample sizes.

Conclusions
Despite the identification of some methodological limitations in the existing literature, VR has found its place in criminological research. With technological advancement, AR may also find its place in the future, allowing for the ongoing development of research applications. Creating comprehensive guidelines on how to use XR technology in criminology remains necessary.
Soil quality in the urban gardens of Barcelona (Spain)
Authors: Dondini Cosimo , Úbeda Xavier , Certini Giacomo , Francos Marcos 
Published: February 2024

Abstract
Purpose
Urban agriculture is expanding worldwide and is being promoted by the FAO as a strategic activity because of its environmental, socio-economic, and educational benefits for citizens. In Spain, it is estimated that there are more than 20,000 urban gardens. There are many variables to take into account when starting to cultivate an urban garden, among which the quality of the soil is crucial. Nevertheless, some studies have shown high levels of contamination in soils dedicated to urban horticulture. The sources of contamination can be various, such as previous unrecognized management and irrigation with poor quality water, or the addition of polluted compost and other soil improvers. Soil contamination can migrate to vegetables and fruits, thus entering the food chain.

Materials and methods
In this study, we analyzed the soils from ten urban gardens in the city of Barcelona, with a special focus on possible contaminants. Based on the possibility that irrigation water is a source of pollution, this was also analyzed in all investigated gardens.

Results and discussion
Some of the waters analyzed for irrigation have a high concentration of salts, and a few of them contain nitrites, which are listed as a pollutant. The dominant texture of the soils was sandy clay loam and loamy sand, the pH was generally high, between 7.87 and 8.41, clearly carbonated, with Ca generally being the dominant exchangeable cation, but without the risk of a high percentage of active carbonates that could make it difficult to grow vegetables. The content in organic matter was very variable, but in all cases it appeared to be potentially incrementable. The three tests used to check possible soil contamination from heavy metals, do not attest to significant pollution.

Conclusions
The soil quality overall is suitable for growing vegetables and allowing growers to work in these areas in complete safety. Although it would be necessary to analyze also other toxic elements, not considered in this study, some of the measured ones could come from the gases of road transport or even from the port of Barcelona.
Warum wir eine gemeinwohlorientierte Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft brauchen
Authors: Arslan Sevda Can 
Published: February 2024

ZusammenfassungInspiriert von aktuellen Debatten über einen engeren Austausch zwischen Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, gehe ich in diesem Aufsatz zunächst der Frage nach, welche Formen des Austauschs zwischen Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft und Gesellschaft in der Breite unseres Fachs reflektiert werden.Um diese Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, führe ich eine qualitative Inhaltsanalyse von 81 Texten der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Publizistik- und Kommunikationswissenschaft, der Publizistik und SCM sowie der aviso durch.Die Analyse ergibt, dass

vor allem Wissenstransfer und Lehre häufig und meist zustimmend reflektiert werden,

während einige Formen des Austauschs wie z. B. Wissenschaftspopularisierung und Scitainment bisher selten oder gar nicht reflektiert werden

und öffentlichkeitsorientierte Formen des Austauschs selten, aber kontrovers reflektiert werden.

Aus der kritischen Diskussion der Ergebnisse entwickle ich ein ganzheitliches Verständnis des Austauschs zwischen Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft und Gesellschaft. Angesichts der multiplen Krisen der Gegenwart schlage ich eine gemeinwohlorientierte Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft vor. In diesem idealtypischen Verständnis werden drei Dimensionen des Austauschs mit der Gesellschaft integriert

normative Dimension: Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft ist kritisch gegenüber Gesellschaft,

formale Dimension: Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft geht in Austausch mit Gesellschaft und

konditionale Dimension: Medien- und Kommunikationswissenschaft nimmt sich ihrer Bedingungen in der Gesellschaft an.
Working with an instructional video on mathematical modeling: upper-secondary students’ perceived advantages and challenges
Authors: Wirth Laura , Greefrath Gilbert 
Published: February 2024

AbstractMany instructional videos in mathematics education target knowledge of procedures and algorithms. To design instructional videos that support students in a non-algorithmic domain, such as mathematical modeling, we developed a framework based on research on heuristic worked examples and instructional videos. Because students’ perceptions play an important role in whether they will engage with a learning resource, our research questions focus on the advantages and challenges students perceive when they work with an instructional video on mathematical modeling and solve a subsequent related modeling problem. Using a video based on the developed framework, we conducted an interview study with 14 pairs of upper-secondary students. The results of the qualitative text analysis showed that the perceived advantages and challenges were related to certain design features and to the processes of self-regulated learning with the video. The students experienced challenges regarding the video’s duration, the transfer to a subsequent related modeling problem, the absence of a teacher, and self-discipline. Hence, further learner support is necessary to guide the transition from working with a video to autonomous modeling, such as combining the video with strategic instruments and teacher support. In addition, interactive video features may be essential, as the students enjoyed how those features involved them in the process of watching the video. Overall, the results indicate that instructional videos are promising for providing heuristic worked examples, offering an innovative approach for teaching and learning mathematical modeling.