bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Measuring users’ emotional responses in multisensory virtual reality: a systematic literature review
Authors: Magalhães Mariana , Coelho António , Melo Miguel , Bessa Maximino 
Published: October 2023

AbstractVirtual reality and emotions have become inseparable concepts over the past few years, supported by the increasing number of studies relating them. However, these studies' methodologies are often poorly justified or dependent on the authors' subjective definition of emotion and its classification. Moreover, frequently, these studies only consider two stimuli, specifically audiovisual, despite being known the relevance of including a greater variety of sensory channels to improve the relationship between the individual and the virtual environment. So, to address these gaps, and considering the importance of multisensory stimulation, this paper aims to review the methods and instruments found in the literature regarding the analysis of the users' emotions in virtual reality. Also, we provide an overview of the main limitations of such studies. Little information can be found in the literature regarding the connection between the input stimulus and the users’ emotional responses. This corroborates the difficulty in creating and evaluating immersive virtual experiences when stimulating more than two human senses, typically audiovisual. Nevertheless, we address some clues on the impact of visual, auditory, haptic, smell, and taste elements to trigger specific emotions. Also, we address the association between the research area and the method used. Finally, the main gaps and challenges are discussed. We expect that the combination of these results acts as guidelines for designing richer multisensory virtual experiences. Moreover, we intend to contribute to future research on emotions-based immersive virtual reality by providing a review of the most suitable methodologies and instruments for specific contexts.
Parents and teachers’ compensatory strategies during COVID-19 school closures: A scoping review
Authors: De Gioannis Elena , Ballarino Gabriele , Cartagini Davide 
Published: October 2023

AbstractAfter the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries decided to close schools in 2020 to slow down the spread of the virus. The abrupt closure of schools required teachers and families to adapt quickly to an online setting for school activities. The literature review presented here focuses on this adaptive process, summarising research on how parents and teachers tried to curtail the potentially detrimental effects of school closure and remote schooling on students’ learning, identifying the compensatory strategies adopted and analysing their impact on students’ learning experience and performance. The review highlights that the shift from in-person to remote learning led to significant learning losses, as well as to the emergence of new inequalities and the exacerbation of old ones. Teachers and parents played a pivotal role in minimising learning loss due to emergency remote teaching (ERT). Concerning parents, the three main types of strategies were related to: (1) parental socioeconomic and/or demographic factors; (2) parental involvement and support in learning activities; and (3) the family environment. Concerning teachers, two strategies emerged: (1) the implementation of activities favouring interaction between teachers and students and/or among students; and (2) ad-hoc teaching activities. In almost all cases, the compensatory strategies identified were positively associated with students’ learning experience, with a few exceptions.
Scalable methods for computing sharp extreme event probabilities in infinite-dimensional stochastic systems
Authors: Schorlepp Timo , Tong Shanyin , Grafke Tobias , Stadler Georg 
Published: October 2023

AbstractWe introduce and compare computational techniques for sharp extreme event probability estimates in stochastic differential equations with small additive Gaussian noise. In particular, we focus on strategies that are scalable, i.e. their efficiency does not degrade upon temporal and possibly spatial refinement. For that purpose, we extend algorithms based on the Laplace method for estimating the probability of an extreme event to infinite dimensional path space. The method estimates the limiting exponential scaling using a single realization of the random variable, the large deviation minimizer. Finding this minimizer amounts to solving an optimization problem governed by a differential equation. The probability estimate becomes sharp when it additionally includes prefactor information, which necessitates computing the determinant of a second derivative operator to evaluate a Gaussian integral around the minimizer. We present an approach in infinite dimensions based on Fredholm determinants, and develop numerical algorithms to compute these determinants efficiently for the high-dimensional systems that arise upon discretization. We also give an interpretation of this approach using Gaussian process covariances and transition tubes. An example model problem, for which we provide an open-source python implementation, is used throughout the paper to illustrate all methods discussed. To study the performance of the methods, we consider examples of stochastic differential and stochastic partial differential equations, including the randomly forced incompressible three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations.
Can China’s vehicular emissions regulation reduce air pollution?—a quasi-natural experiment based on the latest National Vehicular Emissions Standard (stage-VI)
Authors: Liu Xing-yuan , Xu Ling-xia , Wu Xiao-qing , Wen Hong-xing 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe existing evidence on the environmental effects of vehicular emissions regulation almost comes from developed countries, but the effectiveness of this policy tool in developing countries, especially in China, remains unclear. This study, for the first time, examined the mitigating effects of China’s vehicular emissions regulation on air pollution at the prefecture level cities, by using the latest implementation of China’s National Vehicular Emissions Standard VI (CHINA-VI) as a quasi-natural experimental process of policy shocks. To this end, monthly data from 2018 to 2020 was applied to construct a difference-in-differences (DID) model. The results showed that pilot cities’ air quality index (AQI) significantly decreased by 4.74 compared to non-pilot cities after the implementation of CHINA-VI. Also, the concentration of PM2.5, PM10, and O3 has decreased by 3.6 μg∕m3, 6.4 μg∕m3, and 3.0 μg∕m3, respectively, which means the new China’s vehicular emissions regulation has comprehensively improved air quality. The findings are still valid after a series of robustness tests using different estimation methods such as PSM-DID and IV-2SLS. In addition, we also found heterogeneity in the environmental performance of CHINA-VI across cities. Specifically, cities with lower levels of green finance development and public environmental concern showed a greater emissions reduction effect, but smart cities showed a greater emissions reduction effect than non-smart cities.
Resources and tools for studying convergent evolution in different lineages of smut fungi
Authors: Steins Lena , Duhamel Marine , Klenner-Koch Sebastian , Begerow Dominik , Kemler Martin 
Published: October 2023

AbstractConvergent evolution is the phenomenon of similar traits evolving independently in different lineages of the tree of life. Studying convergent evolution provides an excellent opportunity to understand natural selection for specific traits and physiological constraints to evolution that allow a broadened view on evolutionary mechanisms as a whole. Smut fungi, a polyphyletic group of plant-parasitic fungi with a specific infection and life cycle pattern, are a prime example of convergent evolution. Most notably, smut fungi in the genus Microbotryum that belongs to the subdivision Pucciniomycotina and smut fungi from the subdivision Ustilaginomycotina show strong similarities despite millions of years of independent evolution. However, the conceptual connections drawn between the two groups are scarce, thereby limiting the opportunities for exploring convergent evolution between these taxa. To facilitate knowledge exchange within the research community, we provide a summary of databases, molecular and biological tools and a brief introduction to the structure of populations and the characteristics of host specificity in both groups. Furthermore, we compare the life cycles and research emphases between the two groups. The comparisons are supplemented with an analysis of genome composition and gene function, which aims to advance research on the convergent evolution of smut fungi using existing data.
Crop diversification practices in Europe: an economic cross-case study comparison
Authors: Zabala J. A. , Martínez-García V. , Martínez-Paz J. M. , López-Becerra E. I. , Nasso M. , Díaz-Pereira E. , Sánchez-Navarro V. , Álvaro-Fuentes J. , González-Rosado M. , Farina R. , Di Bene C. , Huerta E. , Jurrius A. , Frey-Treseler K. , Lóczy D. , Fosci L. , Blasi E. , Lehtonen H. , Alcon F. 
Published: October 2023

AbstractCrop diversification practices (CDPs) are alternative strategies aimed to achieve sustainable cropping systems and food production overcoming the agro-environmental impacts of conventional cropping systems such as monoculture. Thus, this paper aims to improve the knowledge of implementing CDPs in different European pedoclimatic regions by assessing the economic performance at the farm level. CDPs are compared with conventional cropping systems and clustered in terms of their gross margin (GM) results and variations. Farm-level assessment shows that CDPs provide positive economic results, representing an adaptive management strategy for ecological transition, without compromising economic sustainability. Particularly, the main findings show that (1) the impact of diversification depends more on crop type than on the selected CDPs, (2) most farms exhibited a low GM with low economic impact, and (3) there is a great likelihood that the CDPs facilitate the buildup of more resilient farming systems.
Reconceiving Reproduction: Removing “Rearing” From the Definition—and What This Means for ART
Authors: Hall Georgina Antonia 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe predominant position in the reproductive rights literature argues that access to assisted reproductive technologies (ART) forms part of an individual’s right to reproduce. On this reasoning, refusal of treatment by clinicians (via provision) violates a hopeful parent’s reproductive right and discriminates against the infertile. I reject these views and suggest they wrongly contort what reproductive freedom entitles individuals to do and demand of others. I suggest these views find their origin, at least in part, in the way we define “reproduction” itself. This paper critically analyses two widely accepted definitions of human reproduction and demonstrates that both are fundamentally flawed. While the process of reproduction includes the biological acts of begetting and bearing a child, I argue that it does not extend to include rearing. This reworked definition has little impact in the realm of sexual reproduction. However, it has significant ethical implications for the formulation and assignment of reproductive rights and responsibilities in the non-sexual realm in two important ways. First, a claim to access ART where one has an intention to rear a child (but does not beget or bear) cannot be grounded in reproductive rights. Second, lacking an intention to rear does not extinguish the reproductive rights and responsibilities for those who collaborate in the process. I conclude that clinicians collaborate in non-sexual reproduction at the point of triggering conception (begetting) and therefore have the right to refuse to be involved in non-sexual reproduction, in some instances, as do all reproductive collaborators.
Forest Operations Using a Combi–Forwarder in Deciduous Forests
Authors: Stoilov Stanimir , Proto Andrea Rosario , Oslekov Delyan , Angelov Georgi , Papandrea Salvatore Francesco 
Published: October 2023

AbstractIn the last decade, technological innovation in the forest operations sector has allowed levels of mechanization alternative to agricultural tractors and animal logging. These machines are used to load logs from skid roads and move logs to the next pile, until the load space is fully loaded. Fortunately, in recent years the development of new technological progresses in forestry mechanization created an alternative operation on ground-based system with the use of a combi-forwarder for wood forwarding. These innovative machines have the advantage that only one machine can perform logs bunching and primary transport. Infact, pull stems by the winch from the stump to the road, after they have been cross-cutted by chainsaws, it loads by the forwarder’s crane the logs and transports them to the landing, where they are unloaded with the crane in piles.The aim of the present study was to analyse the operational time consumption, to estimate the productivity of the combi–forwarder with a built-in single-drum winch in beech stands evaluating the forwarding and winching distances, log’s volume transported per turn by the machine, as well as the extracting costs. The study was conducted in low-intensity shelterwood cuttings in beech forest, located in Western Balkan Mountains, Bulgaria.The mean productivity of the combi–forwarder was 7.09 m3 PMH− 1 and 6.11 m3 SMH− 1 close to that of the cable skidders and forwarders in similar conditions. The net costs for the studied combi–forwarder were calculated of 25.33 € per productive machine hour and 4.13 € per m3. The variable costs (70%) have a leading role, followed by labour costs (22%) and fixed costs (8%). The use of a combi-forwarders facilitates chainsaw operators, as some of the operations are carried out at the roadside in better working conditions: flat terrain and support of the crosscutting phase. The results from the study are useful to introduce and to integrate the combi–forwarders with shelterwood systems and to achieve economic and environmental efficiency of timber harvesting in deciduous forests.
Police Realistic Tactical Training Is Not Risk-Free: Stress-Induced Wide-QRS Paroxysmal Tachyarrhythmia in a Healthy Police Officer and Professional Athlete
Authors: Brisinda Donatella , Fenici Peter , Fenici Riccardo 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe reported case, a spin-off of a wider ongoing national study investigating the individual stress reactions of police officers during realistic police tactical training, highlights the eventuality that stress-induced paroxysmal arrhythmias might occur and remain undetected without ECG monitoring as a standard practice. The ECG of a 41-year-old frontline police officer (and professional athlete of the State Police’s rugby team) was monitored with a wireless, textile-based, wearable device during stressful scenarios implying the use of force. ECG data were processed with the Kubios software to assess training-induced time-varying changes of heart rate variability parameters and of the parasympathetic, sympathetic, and stress indices. Multiparametric analysis of the heart rate variability quantified remarkable stress-induced increment of vagal withdrawal and of sympathetic dominance, with exceptionally high-stress index and sudden occurrence of a wide-QRS paroxysmal tachyarrhythmia (240 bpm) with concomitant operational failure. Subsequent exhaustive mandatory clinical assessment excluded any structural and arrhythmogenic cardiac abnormality. Although exceptional and to the best of our knowledge so far unique, the recording of a stress-induced paroxysmal wide-QRS arrhythmia occurring during realistic tactical training in a healthy police officer and highly fit athlete is worth to be shared as a caveat about the potential risk if eventually occurring in officers with unknown cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., for ischemic heart disease). Moreover, the demonstration that such a high level of stress may occur even in an experienced, healthy, and highly fit officer altering the physiologic dynamicity of brain–heart interaction with a negative consequence on the operational outcome strongly suggests that individual emotional reactions induced by stressful duty events must be safely experienced and assessed with realistic training, to adopt preventive coping strategies, to improve police officers’ efficiency in front of threats, and to lower the risk of inappropriate use of force with dramatic consequences on the street.
Flexural and impact response of bamboo and pineapple leaf fiber reinforced composites using experimental and numerical techniques
Authors: Srinag T. , Kumar R. Suresh , Srinivas CH. Lakshmi , Singh Bharat , Prasanthi P. Phani , Madhav V. V. Venu , Bandhu Din , Saxena Ashish , Abdullaev Sherzod Shukhratovich 
Published: October 2023

AbstractThe flexural and impact response of completely biodegradable natural composites, specifically bamboo and pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) reinforced composites, is investigated using a combination of experimental and simulation techniques. The flexural strength and bending modulus are determined through 3-point bending tests while varying the weight fraction of the selected natural fibers from 5 to 15%. The impact of alkaline treatment at different percentages of 2 to 10% on the same properties such as flexural strength and bending modulus is also investigated. Subsequently, simulation techniques are employed to determine the behavior of the natural composite materials under bending loads. Finite element models are utilized to analyze the normal, and shear stresses in the composite structures. The research findings unveiled that incorporating a 10% weight fraction of bamboo fiber along with an 8% NaOH treatment led to the most significant enhancement in flexural strength, showcasing a notable advancement of 111.02%. Within the PALF fiber reinforced composite, employing 2% NaOH treated PALF fiber at a 15% weight fraction yielded an impressive improvement of 125.6%.
Histiocytoid cardiomyopathy presenting as sudden death in an 18-month-old infant
Authors: Foster Jacob , Parsons Sarah 
Published: October 2023

AbstractHistiocytoid cardiomyopathy (HC) is an arrhythmogenic disorder, usually involving children under two years of age with a strong Caucasian and female predominance. The disease is fatal in the vast majority and diagnosis is nearly always established at autopsy, but this is only possible with adequate myocardial sampling. Meticulous gross and histological examination of the heart in collaboration with a cardiovascular-trained pathologist maximises the opportunity to make specific diagnoses (and therefore rule out the differentials of SIDS, SUDC and child abuse), guide genetic testing, and inform potentially life-saving medical interventions for blood relations. We present a typical HC case presenting as sudden death, without prodrome, in a previously healthy 18-month-old boy. The disease is characterised histologically by discrete groups of enlarged, polygonal histiocyte-like cells with distinct margins and abundant faintly eosinophilic foamy cytoplasm. Cells often contain coarse granules, microvacuoles and irregular, round nuclei. In our case, dysplastic fascicles were predominantly located immediately deep to the endocardium of the left ventricle. We report our own autopsy findings with histological images, and discuss the expected clinical, morphological and ultrastructural features of the disease.
Predictive Value of Fibrin Fibrinogen Degradation Products-to-Potassium Ratio for Poor Functional Outcome in Patients with Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Retrospective Case–Control Study
Authors: Li Weida , Zhao Shuangquan , Chen Xinlong , Zhang Yi , Lin Ping , Huang Xingyuan , Yi Simeng , Deng Xuehai , Ding Jianlin , Xia Mingkai , Tang Peijun , Tang Xiaoping , Zhao Long 
Published: October 2023

Abstract
Background
The relationship of fibrin(ogen) degradation products (FDPs) and potassium with the functional outcomes of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is still uncertain. This study aims to evaluate the predictive value of a novel combination biomarker, the FDP-to-potassium ratio (FPR), for poor functional outcomes in patients with aSAH.

Methods
A total of 425 consecutive patients with aSAH at a single center were retrospectively enrolled in our study. An unfavorable outcome was defined as a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score of 3–6 at 3 months after discharge. Univariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression were performed for baseline information and laboratory parameters recorded at admission. In addition, the receiver operating characteristic curve was plotted, and propensity score matching was performed based on the FPR.

Results
On the basis of mRS grade, 301 patients were classified as having favorable outcomes, and 124 patients were assessed as having unfavorable outcomes. FPR levels were significantly correlated with mRS grade (r[Spearman] = 0.410; P < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age (odds ratio [OR] 1.043, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.016–1.071; P = 0.002), white blood cell count (OR 1.150, 95% CI 1.044–1.267; P = 0.005), potassium (OR 0.526, 95% CI 0.291–0.949; P = 0.033), World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies grade (OR 1.276, 95% CI 1.055–1.544; P = 0.012), and FPR (OR 1.219, 95% CI 1.102–1.349; P < 0.001) at admission were independently associated with poor functional outcomes. The DeLong test showed that the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of FPR was higher than that of age, white blood cell count, potassium, World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies grade, or FDP alone, indicating that FPR had better predictive potential than these other variables. After 1:1 propensity score matching (FPR ≥ 1.45 vs. FPR < 1.45), the rate of poor prognosis was still significantly increased in the high-FPR group (48/121 [39.7%] vs. 16/121 [13.2%], P < 0.001).

Conclusions
Fibrin(ogen) degradation product-to-potassium ratio is an independent predictor of poor outcomes for patients with aSAH and may be a promising tool for clinicians to evaluate patients’ functional prognosis.
The Unnamed: Exploring the Erasure of Women from the History of Ghana
Authors: Akuffo Aboabea Gertrude 
Published: October 2023

Abstract In this paper, I reflect on the contribution of Ghanaian nationalist women towards the independence struggle and post-independence nation building (1950–1970), and their erasure from the mainstream history of Ghana. I rely on the literature on women’s political participation in Ghana and the scholarship on memorializing people for meritorious service in Ghana to explore women as victims of historical erasure. I also deploy other sources like the national currencies, commemorative dates, and naming of monuments to highlight the relative weight we attach to women’s and men’s political contribution to nation building. I argue that despite women’s frontal roles, including movement making, organizing prowess, founding parties, leading civil disruptions, and even funding the independence of Ghana, state-led commemorative acts and memorializing practices belie women’s effort and historize men as founders of Ghana. Such de-historizing is often endorsed by male-led political regimes. To ameliorate this masculinization of the memorializing concern, the paper proffers guidelines to enable a fairer memorializing practice. This includes acknowledging the gender biases in our memorializing practices, researching the unnamed leading women, making their information mainstream, renaming our already named monuments to include leading women, and embossing their portraits on our national currencies alongside the men.