bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Estimating the Ontogenetic Age and Sex Composition of Faunal Assemblages with Bayesian Multilevel Mixture Models
Authors: Wolfhagen Jesse Langdon 
Published: May 2023

AbstractUnderstanding the ontogenetic age and sex composition of zooarchaeological assemblages can reveal details about past human hunting and herding strategies as well as past animal morphology and behavior. As such, the accuracy of our estimates underlies our ability to ascertain details about site formation and gain insights into how people interacted with different animals in the past. Unfortunately, our estimates typically rely on only a small number of bones, limiting our ability to fruitfully use these estimates to make meaningful comparisons to theoretical expectations or even between multiple assemblages. This paper describes a method to use zooarchaeological remains with standard biometric measurements to estimate the ontogenetic age and sex composition of the assemblage, focused on immature, adult-sized female, and adult-sized male specimens. The model uses a Bayesian framework to ensure that the parameter estimates are biologically meaningful. Simulated assemblages show that the model can accurately estimate the biometry and composition of zooarchaeological assemblages. Two archaeological case studies also show how the model can be applied to produce tangible insights. The first, focused on sheep from Neolithic Pinarbaşı B, highlights the model’s ability to elucidate site formation and function. The second, focused on cattle remains from four assemblages from 7th-6th millennium BCE northwestern Anatolia, showcases how to use the mixture modeling results to compare assemblages to one another and to specific hypotheses. This modeling framework provides a new avenue for investigating long-term trajectories in animal biometry alongside contextual analyses of past human choices in butchery and consumption.
Influence of alkyl groups on the formation of softenable polysilsesquioxanes
Authors: Pohl Svenja , Kickelbick Guido 
Published: May 2023

AbstractPolysilsesquioxanes (PSQ) containing phenyl groups as substituents on the silicon atom can form transparent, hard and glassy materials at room temperature, which reversibly soften when heated above the glass transition temperature. Further increase in temperature leads to irreversible curing. With this property, polyphenylsilsesquioxanes can be assigned to the so-called melting gels. In contrast to the aromatic systems, polysilsesquioxanes with alkyl groups belonging to this class of materials are not known. To identify structural differences between aryl and alkyl systems, polyalkylsilsesquioxanes (RPSQs with R = methyl, ethyl, propyl, hexyl, octyl, decyl, dodecyl, hexadecyl, and octadecyl) were synthesised by a solvent-free, acid-catalysed hydrolysis and condensation reaction of alkyltrimethoxysilanes followed by thermal treatment at 300 °C under N2 atmosphere. The influence of the alkyl chain length on the structure built and the thermally initiated further condensation reactions were investigated via NMR, FTIR, TGA, DSC, SEC, and XRD. Depending on the alkyl chain length, the formation of highly crosslinked, insoluble systems (Me-PrPSQ), low molecular weight oligosilsesquioxanes in the form of cages (Hex-DecPSQ) to semicrystalline, lamellar layers (Dodec-OctadecPSQ) were detected. A low degree of condensation, inhibition of self-assembly and preferentially intermolecular condensation reactions were found to be crucial factors in the melting gel formation.
Graphical Abstract
Pantropical distribution of short-rotation woody plantations: spatial probabilities under current and future climate
Authors: Schulze Katharina , Malek Žiga , Schepaschenko Dmitry , Lesiv Myroslava , Fritz Steffen , Verburg Peter H. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractShort-rotation woody plantations (SRWPs) play a major role in climate change mitigation and adaptation plans, because of their high yields of woody biomass and fast carbon storage. However, their benefits, trade-offs and growing-success are heavily location-dependent. Therefore, spatial data on the distribution of SRWPs are indispensable for assessing current distribution, trade-offs with other uses and potential contributions to climate mitigation. As current global datasets lack reliable information on SRWPs and full global mapping is difficult, we provide a consistent and systematic approach to estimate the spatial distribution of SRWPs in (sub-)tropical biomes under current and future climate. We combined three advanced methods (maximum entropy, random forest and multinomial regression) to evaluate spatially explicit probabilities of SRWPs. As inputs served a large empirical dataset on SRWP observations and 17 predictor variables, covering biophysical and socio-economic conditions. SRWP probabilities varied strongly between regions, and might not be feasible in major parts of (sub-)tropical biomes, challenging the feasibility of global mitigation plans that over-rely on tree plantations. Due to future climatic changes, SRWP probabilities decreased in many areas, particularly pronounced in higher emission scenarios. This indicates a negative feedback with higher emissions resulting in less mitigation potential. Less suitable land for SRWPs in the future could also result in fewer wood resources from these plantations, enhancing pressure on natural forests and hampering sustainability initiatives that use wood-based alternatives. Our results can help adding a more nuanced treatment of mitigation options and forest management in research on biodiversity and land use change.
Male sterility and hybrid breeding in soybean
Authors: Fang Xiaolong , Sun Yanyan , Li Jinhong , Li Meina , Zhang Chunbao 
Published: May 2023

AbstractHybrid breeding can help us to meet the challenge of feeding a growing world population with limited agricultural land. The demand for soybean is expected to grow; however, the hybrid soybean is still in the process of commercialization even though considerable progress has been made in soybean genome and genetic studies in recent years. Here, we summarize recent advances in male sterility-based breeding programs and the current status of hybrid soybean breeding. A number of male-sterile lines with cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS), genic-controlled photoperiod/thermo-sensitive male sterility, and stable nuclear male sterility (GMS) have been identified in soybean. More than 40 hybrid soybean varieties have been bred using the CMS three-line hybrid system and the cultivation of hybrid soybean is still under way. The key to accelerating hybrid soybean breeding is to increase the out-crossing rate in an economical way. This review outlines current problems with the hybrid soybean breeding systems and explores the current efforts to make the hybrid soybean a commercial success.
Assessing the Effectiveness of the Respecting the Circle of Life Project on Condom and Contraception Self-efficacy Among American Indian Youth
Authors: Begay Jaime L. , Chambers Rachel A. , Rosenstock Summer , Kemp Christopher G. , Lee Angelita , Lazelere Francene , Pinal Laura , Tingey Lauren 
Published: May 2023

AbstractRespecting the Circle of Life (RCL) is a teen pregnancy prevention program that was evaluated for effectiveness on sexual health risk behaviors through a two-arm randomized control trial (RCT) with American Indian (AI) youth ages 11–19. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of RCL compared to a control group on items of condom and contraception self-efficacy. Linear regression analysis was used to compare differences in each item that included condom and contraception self-efficacy scales among the intervention and control participants at baseline, 3 and 9 months post intervention. Youth enrolled in the intervention reported higher levels of condom and contraception self-efficacy across almost all individual items. Exceptions include items related to partner negotiation of condom self-efficacy at 3 months (p = 0.227) and 9 months (p = 0.074) post intervention. Findings indicate RCL is effective at improving overall condom and contraception self-efficacy but did not impact the specific component of partner negotiation for either condom or contraception self-efficacy. This inquiry provides rationale to further explore components of RCL related to partner negotiation.
Production analysis with asymmetric noise
Authors: Badunenko Oleg , Henderson Daniel J. 
Published: May 2023

AbstractSymmetric noise is the prevailing assumption in production analysis, but it is often violated in practice. Not only does asymmetric noise cause least-squares models to be inefficient, it can hide important features of the data which may be useful to the firm/policymaker. Here, we outline how to introduce asymmetric noise into a production or cost framework as well as develop a model to introduce inefficiency into said models. We derive closed-form solutions for the convolution of the noise and inefficiency distributions, the log-likelihood function, and inefficiency, as well as show how to introduce determinants of heteroskedasticity, efficiency and skewness to allow for heterogenous results. We perform a Monte Carlo study and profile analysis to examine the finite sample performance of the proposed estimators. We outline R and Stata packages that we have developed and apply to three empirical applications to show how our methods lead to improved fit, explain features of the data hidden by assuming symmetry, and how our approach is still able to estimate efficiency scores when the least-squares model exhibits the well-known “wrong skewness” problem in production analysis. The proposed models are useful for modeling risk linked to the outcome variable by allowing error asymmetry with or without inefficiency.
An Integrated Approach to the Conceptualisation and Measurement of Social Cohesion
Authors: Aruqaj Bujar 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThe core sociological subject of ‘social cohesion’ (hereafter SC) has re-emerged as a key concept in the social sciences. On the one hand, SC is thought to be influenced by a society’s degree of inequalities and the quality of its welfare state. On the other hand, SC is thought to be instrumental in its own right to other factors such as economic growth, institutional quality, and individual well-being. In recent years, a few attempts have been made to measure SC empirically. Many current indices have not been sufficiently theoretically substantiated, and do not consider the importance of different ‘social levels’ when explaining and measuring SC as both cause and effect of other correlates. Very often, SC is simply defined as a ‘social quality’ or a quality of a collective. As a result, measures are often aggregate macro-indices leading to a loss of the information base of any social ‘units’ below the macro-societal-level. Contributing to this important methodological debate, this paper provides a conceptual reformulation of SC. Hence, when assessing SC based on a multi-dimensional index, it is insightful and feasible to evaluate both its internal variation as well as its holistic validity. In fact, it is proposed that these two aspects of measurement stand in direct relationship to one-another. The paper starts out with a discussion of SC as a ‘social fact’ in the Durkheimian sense. In addition, three bridging propositions on the measurement of SC are advanced: (a) SC as outcome or consequence at the level of individual attitudes and orientations (‘micro’); (b) SC as degree of dissimilarity and presence of latent conflict within a society at the level of salient social categories (‘meso’), and (c) SC as predictor, social determinant and hence antecedent at the societal-level (‘macro’). Using all rounds of the European Social Survey with a very large sample size, the advantages of this approach are illustrated by singling-out the important link between socio-economic inequalities, social cohesion and individual subjective well-being in a path of action.
Systematic analysis of automated threat modelling techniques: Comparison of open-source tools
Authors: Granata Daniele , Rak Massimiliano 
Published: May 2023

AbstractCompanies face increasing pressure to protect themselves and their customers from security threats. Security by design is a proactive approach that builds security into all aspects of a system from the ground up, rather than adding it on as an afterthought. By taking security into account at every stage of development, organizations can create systems that are more resistant to attacks and better able to recover from them if they do occur. One of the most relevant practices is threat modelling, i.e. the process of identifying and analysing the security threat to an information system, application, or network. These processes require security experts with high skills to anticipate possible issues: therefore, it is a costly task and requires a lot of time. To face these problems, many different automated threat modelling methodologies are emerging. This paper first carries out a systematic literature review (SLR) aimed at both having an overview of the automated threat modelling techniques used in literature and enumerating all the tools that implement these techniques. Then, an analysis was carried out considering four open-source tools and a comparison with our threat modelling approach using a simple, but significant case study: an e-commerce site developed on top of WordPress.
$$\varvec{Brings~It~About~That}$$ Operators Decomposed with Relating Semantics
Authors: Jarmużek Tomasz , Klonowski Mateusz , Kulicki Piotr 
Published: May 2023

AbstractIn the paper we examine the problem of logical systems that are extensions of Classical Propositional Logic with new, intensional connectives of agency: monadic and dyadic bringing it about that. These systems are usually studied within the neighbourhood semantics. Here we propose a different strategy. We study all of the accepted laws and rules of logic of agency and define a translation of the agency operators into connectives interpreted in relating semantics. After this translation we can make a reduction to more basic semantic properties that are required by the particular groups of laws and axioms. Finally, we define proper semantic structures and prove that they are complete with respect to all possible logical systems determined by the combinations of the axioms and rules.
The pragmatic structure of refusal
Authors: Caponetto Laura 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThis paper sets out to unpack the pragmatic structure of refusal—its illocutionary nature, success conditions, and normative effects. I argue that our ordinary concept of refusal captures a whole family of illocutions, comprising acts such as rejecting, declining, and the like, which share the property of being ‘negative second-turn illocutions’. Only proper refusals (i.e. negative replies to permission requests), I submit, require speaker authority. I construe the ‘refusal family’ as a subclass of the directives-commissives intersection. After defending my view against a number of potential objections, I highlight how a theoretically grounded analysis of refusal is not only of intrinsic value, but may also have significant moral and legal implications.
What must be lost: on retrospection, authenticity, and some neglected costs of transformation
Authors: Bailey Olivia 
Published: May 2023

AbstractA sensibility is, on a rough first pass, an emotional orientation to the world. It shapes how things appear to us, evaluatively speaking. By transfiguring things’ evaluative appearances, a change in sensibility can profoundly alter one’s overall experience of the world. I argue that some forms of sensibility change entail (1) risking one’s knowledge of what experiences imbued with one’s prior sensibility were like, and (2) surrendering one’s grasp on the intelligibility of one’s prior emotional apprehensions. These costs have consequences for Laurie Paul’s ‘problem of transformative experience.’ Paul has argued that when we are poised to become someone new, our inexperience generates problems for authentic choice about our own futures. By reckoning with the epistemic losses involved in sensibility change, I show that this problem must not be confined to novel transformations. Prior experience does not guarantee the knowledge or understanding necessary for choosing authentically (in Paul’s sense). If the problem Paul highlights is indeed a problem at all, then, it is a still more pervasive and intractable one than it has been taken to be.
Perception needs modular stimulus-control
Authors: Nes Anders 
Published: May 2023

AbstractPerceptual processes differ from cognitive, this paper argues, in functioning to be causally controlled by proximal stimuli, and being modular, at least in a modest sense that excludes their being isotropic in Jerry Fodor's sense. This claim agrees with such theorists as Jacob Beck and Ben Phillips that a function of stimulus-control is needed for perceptual status. In support of this necessity claim, I argue, inter alia, that E.J. Green's recent architectural account misclassifies processes deploying knowledge of grammar as perceptual.PaceBeck and Phillips, however, I argue a function of stimulus-control is insufficient for perceptual as opposed to cognitive status. One consideration in favour of such insufficiency, noted but (I argue) not convincingly rebutted by these theorists, concerns perpetually grounded demonstrative thought. Two other considerations trade on the fact that a function of stimulus-control can arise not from blind nature but intentional design or social institutions, where so-functioning processes may but need not be perceptual. I offer two cases where such processes are cognitive, viz. skilful play-by-play announcing of ongoing events, and voluntary visualizing of ongoing events under the guidance of apt play-by-play announcements, dubbed announcement-driven visualizing (ADV). The cognitive status of these three diverse phenomena cannot be explained by an absence of a perception-like representational format or content (for ADV has such) or by a presence of personal-level mental states causally mediating between stimuli and outputs (for perception has such). A bettter explanation invokes, I argue, the non-modular character of the generating process.
The development of an in vitro propagation and conservation system for the endangered serpentine fern Asplenium cuneifolium Viv.
Authors: Tomiczak Karolina , Makowski Damian , Sliwinska Elwira , Mikuła Anna 
Published: May 2023

AbstractAsplenium cuneifolium Viv. is an endangered fern species restricted to European serpentine rocks, which face a risk of being easily damaged by both natural and anthropogenic agents. Establishing a comprehensive system of effective micropropagation and long-term storage of this species is therefore desirable. Freshly collected spores of A. cuneifolium were subjected to direct storage at 5 °C and in liquid nitrogen (LN). The viability of spores stored at 5 °C decreased by 10% after 1 year, whereas storage in LN did not change the initial spore viability even after 3 years. For the initiation of the gametophyte culture, disinfected spores were sown onto half-strength Murashige and Skoog medium (½MS) supplemented with 0.06 M sucrose. Following 6 months, abundant proliferation of secondary gametophytes was achieved. For the cryopreservation of gametophytes, encapsulation-vitrification and encapsulation-dehydration, were compared. Of these two methods, encapsulation-vitrification ensured survival of gametophytes of 64.5–93%, while encapsulation-dehydration guaranteed their 100% viability. The acceleration of syngamy on secondary gametophytes was achieved using a medium with macro- and micronutrients reduced to the 1/8 of the MS free of NH4NO3 and vitamins. The syngamic sporophytes could be multiplied by somatic embryogenesis (SE) induced on etiolated stipe explants in an ½MS medium devoid of any plant growth regulators. Adding 0.3 M of sucrose to the medium almost quadrupled the efficiency of the SE. The genetic stability of gametophytes after cryopreservation, as well as sporophytes obtained from them, was confirmed by flow cytometry, amplified fragment length polymorphism, and inter-simple sequence repeat markers.
Coverage visualization and analysis of net inscriptions in coloured Petri net models
Authors: Ahishakiye Faustin , Jarabo José Ignacio Requeno , Kristensen Lars Michael , Stolz Volker 
Published: May 2023

AbstractHigh-level Petri nets such as coloured Petri nets (CPNs) are characterized by the combination of Petri nets and a high-level programming language. In CPNs and CPN Tools, the inscriptions (e.g. arc expressions and guards) are specified using Standard ML. The application of simulation and state space exploration for validating CPN models traditionally focuses on behavioural properties related to net structure, i.e. places and transitions. This means that the net inscriptions are only implicitly validated, and the extent to which their sub-expressions have been covered is not made explicit. This paper extends our previous work on coverage analysis of net inscriptions of CPN models. In particular, we improve the CPN Tools library responsible for annotating, instrumenting and collecting the evaluation of Boolean conditions for determining the coverage criteria based on model executions. The library now automates most of the instrumentation parts that were done manually before and integrates the reports of the coverage analysis into the CPN Tools GUI. We evaluate our approach on new publicly available CPN models.
Are statins making older persons weaker? A discontinuation study of muscular side effects
Authors: Korsholm Morten Bruun , Pødenphanth Thea Winther , Strømgaard Sofie Kirstine , Petersen Linda Wiuff , Alexandersen Christina , Hoffmann Sarah Samama , Rasmusen Hanne K. , Suetta Charlotte , Damgaard Kirsten , Pressel Eckart , Dela Flemming 
Published: May 2023

AbstractThirteen percent of the Danish population are treated with a statin—half of these are in primary prevention, and most are > 65 years old. Statins have known muscular side effects (i.e., myalgia) correlated to reduced muscle performance. This study examines if years of statin treatment in older people introduce subclinical muscle discomfort and loss of muscle mass and strength. In total, 98 participants (71.1 ± 3.6 years (mean ± SD)), who were in primary prevention treatment for elevated plasma cholesterol with a statin, were included in this study. Statin treatment was discontinued for 2 months and then re-introduced for 2 months. Primary outcomes included muscle performance and myalgia. Secondary outcomes included lean mass and plasma cholesterol. Functional muscle capacity measured as a 6-min walk test increased after discontinuation (from 542 ± 88 to 555 ± 91 m, P < 0.05) and remained increased after re-introduction (557 ± 94 m). Similar significant results were found with a chair stand test (15.7 ± 4.3 to 16.3 ± 4.9 repetitions/30 s) and a quadriceps muscle test. Muscle discomfort during rest did not change significantly with discontinuation (visual analog scale from 0.9 ± 1.7 to 0.6 ± 1.4) but increased (P < 0.05) with the re-introduction (to 1.2 ± 2.0) and muscle discomfort during activity decreased (P < 0.05) with discontinuation (from 2.5 ± 2.6 to 1.9 ± 2.3). After 2 weeks of discontinuation, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased from 2.2 ± 0.5 to 3.9 ± 0.8 mM and remained elevated until the re-introduction of statins (P < 0.05). Significant and lasting improvements in muscle performance and myalgia were found at the discontinuation and re-introduction of statins. The results indicate a possible statin-related loss of muscle performance in older persons that needs further examination.