cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Implications of possible interpretations of ‘greenhouse gas balance’ in the Paris Agreement
Creators: name: Fuglestvedt, J.
name: Rogelj, J.
name: Millar, R. J.
name: Allen, M.
name: Boucher, O.
name: Cain, M.
name: Forster, P. M.
name: Kriegler, E.
name: Shindell, D.
Publisher: name: London : The Royal Society
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: CO2equivalence
subject: Emission metrics
subject: Greenhouse gas balance
subject: Net-zero emissions
subject: Paris agreement
subject: 530
subject: 510
subject: 100

description: The main goal of the Paris Agreement as stated in Article 2 is ‘holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C’. Article 4 points to this long-term goal and the need to achieve ‘balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases'. This statement on ‘greenhouse gas balance’ is subject to interpretation, and clarifications are needed to make it operational for national and international climate policies. We study possible interpretations from a scientific perspective and analyse their climatic implications. We clarify how the implications for individual gases depend on the metrics used to relate them. We show that the way in which balance is interpreted, achieved and maintained influences temperature outcomes. Achieving and maintaining net-zero CO2-equivalent emissions conventionally calculated using GWP100 (100-year global warming potential) and including substantial positive contributions from short-lived climate-forcing agents such as methane would result in a sustained decline in global temperature. A modified approach to the use of GWP100 (that equates constant emissions of short-lived climate forcers with zero sustained emission of CO2) results in global temperatures remaining approximately constant once net-zero CO2-equivalent emissions are achieved and maintained. Our paper provides policymakers with an overview of issues and choices that are important to determine which approach is most appropriate in the context of the Paris Agreement.
Brain anomaly networks uncover heterogeneous functional reorganization patterns after stroke
Creators: name: Zou, Yong
name: Zhao, Zhiyong
name: Yin, Dazhi
name: Fan, Mingxia
name: Small, Michael
name: Liu, Zonghua
name: Hilgetag, Claus C.
name: Kurths, Jürgen
Publisher: name: [Amsterdam u.a.] : Elsevier
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Brain networks
subject: Connectivity complexity
subject: Random reorganization hypothesis
subject: Stroke
subject: 610

description: Stroke has a large physical, psychological, and financial burden on patients, their families, and society. Based on functional networks (FNs) constructed from resting state fMRI data, network connectivity after stroke is commonly conjectured to be more randomly reconfigured. We find that this hypothesis depends on the severity of stroke. Head movement-corrected, resting-state fMRI data were acquired from 32 patients after stroke, and 37 healthy volunteers. We constructed anomaly FNs, which combine time series information of a patient with the healthy control group. We propose data-driven techniques to automatically identify regions of interest that are stroke relevant. Graph analysis based on anomaly FNs suggests consistently that strong connections in healthy controls are broken down specifically and characteristically for brain areas that are related to sensorimotor functions and frontoparietal control systems, but new links in stroke patients are rebuilt randomly from all possible areas. Entropic measures of complexity are proposed for characterizing the functional connectivity reorganization patterns, which are correlated with hand and wrist function assessments of stroke patients and show high potential for clinical use.
Meme: Is Replicated On A Survival Interest ?
Creators: name: Das, Krishanu
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Meme

description: MEME: IS REPLICATED ON A SURVIVAL INTEREST ? Our mind does not want to take up anything if that mind is totally disinterested about it from its any of the quarters of conscious, subconscious, or unconscious sections. And the mind, as all of the other parts of the body, is tuned such that it scarcely gets interested in anything that has nothing to do with the survival of the species. This is true from the evolutionary perspective. 'Meme' is described as an unit of cultural beliefs, ideas, habits that can be transferred or replicated from one individual into another individual. The term ‘meme’ was coined by Richard Dawkins, in his book ‘Selfish Gene’ [1]. ‘Meme’, an unit of cultural properties, is similar to ‘Gene’ which is an unit of hereditary properties. There is a dictum when two people from two different backgrounds or cultures meet together, there happens cultural exchange between them, or between their minds. In real world whenever two people meet, there is some mutual interest. So in practical life, this is almost true. But in real sense, the law is not supposed to be true. If mind does not get interested in the material being transferred from another mind in respect of any of its quarters - that is conscious, subconscious, and unconscious; the mind will try to resist the transfer. Yet some cultural exchange occurs in almost all cases. The reason behind it is most possibly the emotion ‘curiosity’. Even if, the transfer is devoid of other interest, the emotion ‘curiosity’ or ‘desire to know the unknown’ is attached with some survival interest which has been elaborated elsewhere in my works [2]. And this could be the reason for some inevitable cultural exchange in these cases. But more introspection is required. References : 1. Dawkins R (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University press. 2. Das K K (2017). "A Theoretical Approach to Define and Analyze Emotions". International Journal of Emergency Mental Health; 19(4): 374, 1-14.
Pronunciation of Czech secondary school English teachers and their cognition about pronunciation
Creators: name: Čtvrtečková, Lenka
name: Fischer, Ondřej
name: Skarnitzl, Radek
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: pronunciation teaching
teacher cognition
foreign accent
Czech accent in English
language transfer

description: This chapter is based on the poster presented by the authors at the 7th International Conference English Pronunciation: Issues and Practices (EPIP 7) held May 18–20, 2022 at Université Grenoble-Alpes, France.
Peer pronunciation teaching: Initial training of Czech pre-service primary teachers
Creators: name: Červinková Poesová, Kristýna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: teacher training
peer teaching
pedagogical content knowledge
English pronunciation teaching
primary education

description: This chapter is based on the oral presentation given by the author at the 7th International Conference English Pronunciation: Issues and Practices (EPIP 7) held May 18–20, 2022 at Université Grenoble-Alpes, France.
Englishville: A new way of practising prosody
Creators: name: Edensor Costille, Kizzi
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: prosody
multi-sensorial input
Englishville
L2 learners of English

description: This chapter is based on the oral presentation given by the author at the 7th International Conference English Pronunciation: Issues and Practices (EPIP 7) held May 18–20, 2022 at Université Grenoble-Alpes, France.
Early Detection of Fretting Corrosion in Hip Replacement by Acoustic Emission Non-invasive Technique
Creators: name: Keaty, William M
Publisher: name: University of Illinois at Chicago
Year: 2023

description: The present study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using acoustic emission (AE) as a detection method for identifying failure mechanisms at the modular junction interface in total hip replacements subjected to fretting corrosion. The experimental setup involved simulating fretting corrosion using a Ti6Al4V disc representing the femoral neck and a ZrO2 pin representing the femoral head. Mechanical testing provided insights into the wear and frictional behavior occurring at the modular junction interface. The results revealed that for all three potential conditions, a fretting condition of partial slip was observed. These findings highlight the importance of understanding the mechanical interactions and their influence on the overall performance and longevity of total hip replacements. Electrochemical analysis shed light on the corrosion behavior under different potentiostatic conditions. High potentials in the anodic condition led to increased corrosion and ion transfer due to the breakdown of the passive oxide layer. Conversely, the cathodic potential condition exhibited a regrowth of the passive oxide layer, protecting the Ti6Al4V surface from further corrosion. The mid-range corrosion potential condition showed a dynamic equilibrium between corrosion and passivation processes. These electrochemical insights enhance our understanding of the mechanisms involved in fretting corrosion. The acoustic emission data proved to be promising in detecting and monitoring the onset and progression of failure mechanisms. The AE signals exhibited distinctive patterns that correlated with the severity of fretting corrosion. Notably, the hit driven data results, derived from AE signals, demonstrated the ability to differentiate between different levels of fretting conditions. This suggests that AE can serve as a valuable diagnostic tool for early detection and continuous monitoring of implant failure in total hip replacements. Overall, this study emphasizes the potential of acoustic emission as a valuable tool for non-destructive monitoring of implant integrity, enabling early detection and intervention to prevent high-risk revision surgeries in total hip replacements.
Eugenics and Reproductive Justice in North Carolina
Creators: name: Chappell, Bryant Lee
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2018

description: The reproductive rights of North Carolinians, African American women in particular, have been severely diminished over the course of US history. The eugenics program established by the state in the early 1900s led thousands of North Carolinian African American women to be sterilized without their consent. The effects of the program continue today, as the surviving victims are unable to procreate due to the irreversibility of the procedure. States such as North Carolina and Virginia have attempted to provide some semblance of an apology for these atrocities in the form of financial payments. However, not all of those who were involuntarily sterilized qualified to receive reparations, and only two of the numerous states that participated in eugenic practices have attempted to aid victims. Also of concern is that involuntary sterilizations are still taking place in the United States, even though North Carolina’s eugenics program ended in 1977. In California, 148 female prisoners were involuntarily sterilized between 2006 and 2010, but the governor of this state passed a bill in 2014 to stop such sterilizations. Even though such legislation and the Affordable Care Act have attempted to protect and broaden the reproductive rights of Americans, numerous problems continue to restrict reproductive freedoms, including complex consent forms.
Twistor interpretation of slice regular functions
Creators: name: Altavilla, Amedeo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Complex Variables (math.CV)
subject: Differential Geometry (math.DG)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 53C28, 30G35, 53C55, 14J26

description: Given a slice regular function $f:Ω\subset\mathbb{H}\to \mathbb{H}$, with $Ω\cap\mathbb{R}\neq \emptyset$, it is possible to lift it to a surface in the twistor space $\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ of $\mathbb{S}^4\simeq \mathbb{H}\cup \{\infty\}$ (see~\cite{gensalsto}). In this paper we show that the same result is true if one removes the hypothesis $Ω\cap\mathbb{R}\neq \emptyset$ on the domain of the function $f$. Moreover we find that if a surface $\mathcal{S}\subset\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ contains the image of the twistor lift of a slice regular function, then $\mathcal{S}$ has to be ruled by lines. Starting from these results we find all the projective classes of algebraic surfaces up to degree 3 in $\mathbb{CP}^{3}$ that contain the lift of a slice regular function. In addition we extend and further explore the so-called twistor transform, that is a curve in $\mathbb{G}r_2(\mathbb{C}^4)$ which, given a slice regular function, returns the arrangement of lines whose lift carries on. With the explicit expression of the twistor lift and of the twistor transform of a slice regular function we exhibit the set of slice regular functions whose twistor transform describes a rational line inside $\mathbb{G}r_2(\mathbb{C}^4)$, showing the role of slice regular functions not defined on $\mathbb{R}$. At the end we study the twistor lift of a particular slice regular function not defined over the reals. This example shows the effectiveness of our approach and opens some questions.
description: 29 pages
Governance Strategies for Improving Flood Resilience in the Face of Climate Change
Creators: name: Driessen, Peter P. J.
name: Hegger, Dries L. T.
name: Kundzewicz, Zbigniew W.
name: Van Rijswick, Helena F. M. W.
name: Crabbé, Ann
name: Larrue, Corinne
name: Matczak, Piotr
name: Pettersson, Maria
name: Priest, Sally
name: Suykens, Cathy
name: Raadgever, Gerrit Thomas
name: Wiering, Mark
Publisher: name: Basel : MDPI
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Climate change
subject: Flood resilience
subject: Flood risk management
subject: Governance strategies
subject: 690

description: Flooding is the most common of all natural disasters and accounts for large numbers of casualties and a high amount of economic damage worldwide. To be ‘flood resilient’, countries should have sufficient capacity to resist, the capacity to absorb and recover, and the capacity to transform and adapt. Based on international comparative research, we conclude that six key governance strategies will enhance ‘flood resilience’ and will secure the necessary capacities. These strategies pertain to: (i) the diversification of flood risk management approaches; (ii) the alignment of flood risk management approaches to overcome fragmentation; (iii) the involvement, cooperation, and alignment of both public and private actors in flood risk management; (iv) the presence of adequate formal rules that balance legal certainty and flexibility; (v) the assurance of sufficient financial and other types of resources; (vi) the adoption of normative principles that adequately deal with distributional effects. These governance strategies appear to be relevant across different physical and institutional contexts. The findings may also hold valuable lessons for the governance of climate adaptation more generally.
Introduction
Creators: name: Hall, Perry A.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2018

description: We are most pleased to present the second volume of Global Africana Review (GAR), our
undergraduate research journal in which we showcase some of the best scholarship produced by
students in our department. In addition to their academic acumen, the five articles in this issue
demonstrate the multidisciplinary range of perspectives and the global focus of our department.
I Know What You Saw Last Minute - Encrypted HTTP Adaptive Video Streaming Title Classification
Creators: name: Dubin, Ran
name: Dvir, Amit
name: Pele, Ofir
name: Hadar, Ofer
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Multimedia (cs.MM)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Networking and Internet Architecture (cs.NI)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Desktops and laptops can be maliciously exploited to violate privacy. There are two main types of attack scenarios: active and passive. In this paper, we consider the passive scenario where the adversary does not interact actively with the device, but he is able to eavesdrop on the network traffic of the device from the network side. Most of the Internet traffic is encrypted and thus passive attacks are challenging. Previous research has shown that information can be extracted from encrypted multimedia streams. This includes video title classification of non HTTP adaptive streams (non-HAS). This paper presents an algorithm for encrypted HTTP adaptive video streaming title classification. We show that an external attacker can identify the video title from video HTTP adaptive streams (HAS) sites such as YouTube. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that shows this. We provide a large data set of 10000 YouTube video streams of 100 popular video titles (each title downloaded 100 times) as examples for this task. The dataset was collected under real-world network conditions. We present several machine algorithms for the task and run a through set of experiments, which shows that our classification accuracy is more than 95%. We also show that our algorithms are able to classify video titles that are not in the training set as unknown and some of the algorithms are also able to eliminate false prediction of video titles and instead report unknown. Finally, we evaluate our algorithms robustness to delays and packet losses at test time and show that a solution that uses SVM is the most robust against these changes given enough training data. We provide the dataset and the crawler for future research.
description: 9 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1602.00489
title: Multisensory integration: does haptics improve tumour delineation?
Creators: name: Skevik, Julie Bauge
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2022

description: The ability to use touch in addition to vision when searching for anomalies and differences in texture is well known to be beneficial to human perception in general. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the potential benefit of using a haptic signal in conjunction with visual images to improve detection and delineation of tumours in medical imaging data. One of the key issues with tumour delineation in the field today is the interclinician variance in delineating tumours for diagnostics and treatment, where even clinicians who have similar sensitivity and precision levels tend to delineate widely different underlying shapes. Through three experiments we investigate whether the ability to touch a medical image improves tumour delineation. In the first experiment, we show that combined visuohaptic cues significantly improves performance for signal detection of a 2D Gaussian embedded in a noisy background. In the second experiment, we found that the relative dissimilarity of different images per modality did not systematically decrease precision in a two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) slant discrimination task, in a spatially coaligned visuohaptic rig. In the third and final experiment we successfully found that observers are significantly better at delineating generated ‘tumours’ in synthetic ‘medical images’ when the haptic representation of the image is present compared to drawing on a flat surface, in a spatially coaligned visuohaptic rig.
On the EFT of Large Scale Structures in Redshift Space
Creators: name: Lewandowski, Matthew
name: Senatore, Leonardo
name: Prada, Francisco
name: Zhao, Cheng
name: Chuang, Chia-Hsun
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We further develop the description of redshift space distortions within the Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structures. First, we generalize the counterterms to include the effect of baryonic physics and primordial non-Gaussianity. Second, we evaluate the IR-resummation of the dark matter power spectrum in redshift space. This requires us to identify a controlled approximation that makes the numerical evaluation straightforward and efficient. Third, we compare the predictions of the theory at one loop with the power spectrum from numerical simulations up to $\ell=6$. We find that the IR-resummation allows us to correctly reproduce the BAO peak. The $k$-reach, or equivalently the precision for a given $k$, depends on additional counterterms that need to be matched to simulations. Since the non-linear scale for the velocity is expected to be longer than the one for the overdensity, we consider a minimal and a non-minimal set of counterterms. The quality of our numerical data makes it hard to firmly establish the performance of the theory at high wavenumbers. Within this limitation, we find that the theory at redshift $z=0.56$ and up to $\ell=2$ matches the data to percent level approximately up to $k \sim 0.13 \, h { \rm Mpc^{-1}}$ or $k \sim 0.18 \, h { \rm Mpc^{-1}}$, depending on the number of counterterms used, with potentially large improvement over former analytical techniques.
description: 34 pages, 10 figures; v2: minor typos fixed; v3: 35 pages, minor corrections, PRD version
Fermionic Lorentz violation and its implications for interferometric gravitational-wave detection
Creators: name: Schreck, M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The recent direct detection of gravitational waves reported by Advanced LIGO has inspired the current article. In this context, a particular Lorentz-violating framework for classical, massive particles is the focus. The latter is characterized by a preferred direction in spacetime comprised of CPT-odd components with mass dimension 1. Curvature effects in spacetime, which are caused by a propagating gravitational wave, are assumed to deform the otherwise constant background field. In accordance with spontaneous Lorentz violation, a particular choice for the vector field is taken, which was proposed elsewhere. The geodesic equations for a particle that is subject to this type of Lorentz violation are obtained. Subsequently, their numerical solutions are computed and discussed. The particular model considered leads to changes in the particle trajectory whose impact on interferometric gravitational-wave experiments such as LIGO will be studied.
description: 25 pages, 3 figures, considerably modified manuscript after acceptance by journal
Electronic Spin Transport in Dual-Gated Bilayer Graphene
Creators: name: Avsar, Ahmet
name: Vera-Marun, Ivan Jesus
name: Tan, Jun You
name: Koon, Gavin Kok Wai
name: Watanabe, Kenji
name: Taniguchi, Takashi
name: Adam, Shaffique
name: Ozyilmaz, Barbaros
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The elimination of extrinsic sources of spin relaxation is key in realizing the exceptional intrinsic spin transport performance of graphene. Towards this, we study charge and spin transport in bilayer graphene-based spin valve devices fabricated in a new device architecture which allows us to make a comparative study by separately investigating the roles of substrate and polymer residues on spin relaxation. First, the comparison between spin valves fabricated on SiO2 and BN substrates suggests that substrate-related charged impurities, phonons and roughness do not limit the spin transport in current devices. Next, the observation of a 5-fold enhancement in spin relaxation time in the encapsulated device highlights the significance of polymer residues on spin relaxation. We observe a spin relaxation length of ~ 10 um in the encapsulated bilayer with a charge mobility of 24000 cm2/Vs. The carrier density dependence of spin relaxation time has two distinct regimes; n<4 x 1012 cm-2, where spin relaxation time decreases monotonically as carrier concentration increases, and n>4 x 1012 cm-2, where spin relaxation time exhibits a sudden increase. The sudden increase in the spin relaxation time with no corresponding signature in the charge transport suggests the presence of a magnetic resonance close to the charge neutrality point. We also demonstrate, for the first time, spin transport across bipolar p-n junctions in our dual-gated device architecture that fully integrates a sequence of encapsulated regions in its design. At low temperatures, strong suppression of the spin signal was observed while a transport gap was induced, which is interpreted as a novel manifestation of impedance mismatch within the spin channel.
Healthcare Denied and Revived: 1896–1970, A Mississippi Case Study
Creators: name: Pittman, Destinie
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2018

description: Health is both a civil and human right. However, the United States has historically treated health and healthcare as solely a civil right that can be selectively granted and revoked, rather than as a human right. Healthcare has been cast into the periphery of segregation and desegregation discourses, just as black populations’ access to care has been minimized. We lose out on the evolution of health activism, and its dominant actors, throughout monumental institutional changes when these issues remain out of focus. To reinforce the magnitude of racism, the author makes use of the stories of Dr. Charles R. Drew and Juliette Derricotte, who died preventable deaths. The research centers healthcare in the civil rights discourse by examining the evolution of healthcare in the South before and during desegregation as it relates to the dominant actors of healthcare activism in the Mississippi Delta, particularly in Mound Bayou.
Short and Not Too Sweet: Rethinking Mwalimu through Paul Bjerk’s Julius Nyerere
Creators: name: Peeples, Alexander
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2018

description: Writing academically, and particularly historically, about Julius Nyerere, Tanzania’s first
president, is a fraught endeavor. He is one of a few figures whose impact is generally understood
as foundational to modern post-independence African history, and the explicitly intellectual
approach he took in justifying Tanzania’s heterodox socialist politics helped ingratiate him to the
Western academy. However, the coercive impact of his resettlement projects and Tanzania’s
economic collapse have undermined his previously sterling reputation. As a result, most modern
scholarship attempts to decenter Nyerere from Tanzania’s history. This shift has helped to create
a deeper body of scholarship around postcolonial Tanzania that is better able to understand the
experiences of marginalized communities, such as women and urban populations (Callaci 2017;
Geiger 1996). Historian Paul Bjerk seems to have missed this trend, and wrote his first book,
Building a Peaceful Nation: Julius Nyerere and the Establishment of Sovereignty in Tanzania,
1960-1964, on Nyerere’s role in guiding Tanzania during early independence. He has continued
that project in a brief biography titled Julius Nyerere, which came out in 2017. Fortunately,
Bjerk is not interested in hagiography or condemnation, and he creates a compelling narrative by
leaning in to the apparent contradictions of Nyerere’s legacy. As both a quick read and a nuanced
portrait of a sometimes divisive figure, this is a good introduction or reintroduction to Mwalimu
Julius Nyerere, despite sagging in places under the weight of its subject matter
Low Scale Higgs Inflation with Gauss-Bonnet Coupling
Creators: name: Mathew, Jose
name: Shankaranarayanan, S.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Recent LHC data provides precise values of coupling constants of the Higgs field, however, these measurements do not determine its coupling with gravity. We explore this freedom to see whether Higgs field non-minimally coupled to Gauss-Bonnet term in 4-dimensions can lead to inflation generating the observed density fluctuations. We obtain analytical solution for this model and that the exit of inflation (with a finite number of e-folding) demands that the energy scale of inflation is close to Electro-weak scale. We compare the scalar and tensor power spectrum of our model with PLANCK data and discuss its implications.
description: Version to appear in Astro particle Physics
Gaussian Process Autonomous Mapping and Exploration for Range Sensing Mobile Robots
Creators: name: Jadidi, Maani Ghaffari
name: Miro, Jaime Valls
name: Dissanayake, Gamini
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Robotics (cs.RO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Most of the existing robotic exploration schemes use occupancy grid representations and geometric targets known as frontiers. The occupancy grid representation relies on the assumption of independence between grid cells and ignores structural correlations present in the environment. We develop a Gaussian Processes (GPs) occupancy mapping technique that is computationally tractable for online map building due to its incremental formulation and provides a continuous model of uncertainty over the map spatial coordinates. The standard way to represent geometric frontiers extracted from occupancy maps is to assign binary values to each grid cell. We extend this notion to novel probabilistic frontier maps computed efficiently using the gradient of the GP occupancy map. We also propose a mutual information-based greedy exploration technique built on that representation that takes into account all possible future observations. A major advantage of high-dimensional map inference is the fact that such techniques require fewer observations, leading to a faster map entropy reduction during exploration for map building scenarios. Evaluations using the publicly available datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed framework for robotic mapping and exploration tasks.
description: Accepted for Autonomous Robots, 33 pages
Cubic approximation to Sturmian continued fractions
Creators: name: Schleischitz, Johannes
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Number Theory (math.NT)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 11H06, 11J13, 11J70

description: We determine the classical approximation constants $w_{3}(ζ),w_{3}^{\ast}(ζ),λ_{3}(ζ)$ such as the uniform constants $\widehat{w}_{3}(ζ),\widehat{w}_{3}^{\ast}(ζ),\widehatλ_{3}(ζ)$ associated to real numbers $ζ$ whose continued fraction expansions are given by a Sturmian word. We more generally provide a description of the combined graph of the parametric successive minima functions defined by Schmidt and Summerer in dimension three for such Sturmian continued fractions. This both complements similar results due to Bugeaud and Laurent concerning the two-dimensional constants and generalizes a recent result of the author. As a side result we obtain new information on the spectra of certain exponents of approximation. Moreover, we provide some information on the exponents $λ_{n}(ζ)$ for a Sturmian continued fraction $ζ$ and arbitrary $n$.
description: 26 pages. Title has changed, earlier "Determination of some exponents of approximation for Sturmian continued fractions" arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1602.04731
Absence of a Ground State for Bosonic Coulomb Systems with Critical Charge
Creators: name: Goto, Yukimi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We consider bosonic Coulomb systems with $N$-particles and $K$ static nuclei. Let $E_N^Z$ denote the ground state energy of a bosonic molecule of the total nuclear charge $Z$. We prove that the system has no normalizable ground state when $E_{N}^{N-1} = E_{N-1}^{N-1}$.
description: 7 pages. To appear in Reports on Mathematical Physics
title: The Effects of Education and Exposure on College Students' Perceptions of Dating Violence
Creators: name: Moore, Kristian
Publisher: name: Old Dominion University
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/04zjtrb98
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2000

description: The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between previous exposure to violent situation and an individual's tolerance level of dating violence. In addition, the effect that intervention, in this case a film, can have on one's perception is also examined. This research is quasi-experimental in design and uses a pre-test/post-test design. A baseline sample of 137 Old Dominion University undergraduate students was surveyed at time one at which previous exposure to conflict situations as well as tolerance levels to dating violence were assessed. The film was presented between times one and two. The post-test was given at varying intervals following the presentation of the film and measured the degree of change in perceptions of couple violence. Analyses revealed that there is only minimal support for the hypothesis that exposure to violent situations will increase one's tolerance of violence in situations of relationship conflict. In addition, there was no significant change in attitudes between the pre-test and the post-test conducted after having viewed the film.
Los indicadores de evaluación científica en el contexto de Ciencia Abierta: evidencias desde el proyecto InfluScience
Creators: name: Torres-Salinas, Daniel
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: Cursos de Verano Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo. Evaluación de la investigación en biomedicina. Encuentro de la alianza de Institutos de Investigación Sanitaria. Santander, 30 y 31 de agosto, 2022. Índice: (a) El proyecto InfluScience y el análisis de la actividad científica mediante altmétricas (b) Evidencias empíricas y resultados recientes analizando altmétricas en España en 22 campos (c) unn pequeño listado de ideas finales para el uso correcto de indicadores en el marco de la Bibliometría Evalutiva Objetivo de la presentación: ofrecer una breve introducción a las altmetrics e introducir algunos elementos de debate sobre su uso en contextos evaluativos reales Proyecto InfluScience: https://influscience.eu/ Ranking InfluScience: https://ranking.influscience.eu/ Científic@s socialmente influyentes: un modelo para medir la transferencia del conocimiento en la sociedad digital (InfluCiencia) – PID2019-109127RB-I00 Financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España
Twisted geometries, twistors and conformal transformations
Creators: name: Långvik, Miklos
name: Speziale, Simone
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The twisted geometries of spin network states are described by simple twistors, isomorphic to null twistors with a time-like direction singled out. The isomorphism depends on the Immirzi parameter, and reduces to the identity when the parameter goes to infinity. Using this twistorial representation we study the action of the conformal group SU(2,2) on the classical phase space of loop quantum gravity, described by twisted geometry. The generators of translations and conformal boosts do not preserve the geometric structure, whereas the dilatation generator does. It corresponds to a 1-parameter family of embeddings of T*SL(2,C) in twistor space, and its action preserves the intrinsic geometry while changing the extrinsic one - that is the boosts among polyhedra. We discuss the implication of this action from a dynamical point of view, and compare it with a discretisation of the dilatation generator of the continuum phase space, given by the Lie derivative of the group character. At leading order in the continuum limit, the latter reproduces the same transformation of the extrinsic geometry, while also rescaling the areas and volumes and preserving the angles associated with the intrinsic geometry. Away from the continuum limit its action has an interesting non-linear structure, but is in general incompatible with the closure constraint needed for the geometric interpretation. As a side result, we compute the precise relation between the extrinsic geometry used in twisted geometries and the one defined in the gauge-invariant parametrization by Dittrich and Ryan, and show that the secondary simplicity constraints they posited coincide with those dynamically derived in the toy model of [1409.0836].
description: 21 pages. v2 improved text, two equations added, typos corrected, updated references
Resonance interaction energy between two entangled atoms in a photonic bandgap environment
Creators: name: Notararigo, Valentina
name: Passante, Roberto
name: Rizzuto, Lucia
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We consider the resonance interaction energy between two identical entangled atoms, where one is in the excited state and the other in the ground state. They interact with the quantum electromagnetic field in the vacuum state and are placed in a photonic-bandgap environment with a dispersion relation quadratic near the gap edge and linear for low frequencies, while the atomic transition frequency is assumed to be inside the photonic gap and near its lower edge. This problem is strictly related to the coherent resonant energy transfer between atoms in external environments. The analysis involves both an isotropic three-dimensional model and the one-dimensional case. The resonance interaction asymptotically decays faster with distance compared to the free-space case, specifically as $1/r^2$ compared to the $1/r$ free-space dependence in the three-dimensional case, and as $1/r$ compared to the oscillatory dependence in free space for the one-dimensional case. Nonetheless, the interaction energy remains significant and much stronger than dispersion interactions between atoms. On the other hand, spontaneous emission is strongly suppressed by the environment and the correlated state is thus preserved by the spontaneous-decay decoherence effects. We conclude that our configuration is suitable for observing the elusive quantum resonance interaction between entangled atoms.
description: 12 pages, 3 figures
FastPM: a new scheme for fast simulations of dark matter and halos
Creators: name: Feng, Yu
name: Chu, Man-Yat
name: Seljak, Uros
name: McDonald, Patrick
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2016
Subjects: subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We introduce FastPM, a highly-scalable approximated particle mesh N-body solver, which implements the particle mesh (PM) scheme enforcing correct linear displacement (1LPT) evolution via modified kick and drift factors. Employing a 2-dimensional domain decomposing scheme, FastPM scales extremely well with a very large number of CPUs. In contrast to COmoving-LAgrangian (COLA) approach, we do not require to split the force or track separately the 2LPT solution, reducing the code complexity and memory requirements. We compare FastPM with different number of steps ($N_s$) and force resolution factor ($B$) against 3 benchmarks: halo mass function from Friends of Friends halo finder, halo and dark matter power spectrum, and cross correlation coefficient (or stochasticity), relative to a high resolution TreePM simulation. We show that the modified time stepping scheme reduces the halo stochasticity when compared to COLA with the same number of steps and force resolution. While increasing $N_s$ and $B$ improves the transfer function and cross correlation coefficient, for many applications FastPM achieves sufficient accuracy at low $N_s$ and $B$. For example, $N_s=10$ and $B=2$ simulation provides a substantial saving (a factor of 10) of computing time relative to $N_s=40$, $B=3$ simulation, yet the halo benchmarks are very similar at $z=0$. We find that for abundance matched halos the stochasticity remains low even for $N_s=5$. FastPM compares well against less expensive schemes, being only 7 (4) times more expensive than 2LPT initial condition generator for $N_s=10$ ($N_s=5$). Some of the applications where FastPM can be useful are generating a large number of mocks, producing non-linear statistics where one varies a large number of nuisance or cosmological parameters, or serving as part of an initial conditions solver.
description: 14 pages, 13 figures. The development is hosted at https://github.com/rainwoodman/fastpm . Major revision addressing referee report from MNRAS; Update code repository URL in comments
Obstacles and Opportunities in Africa for the Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
Creators: name: Venturi, Emily
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2018

description: On December 18, 1990, the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICMWR), effectively establishing the principle of equal treatment and extending social and economic human rights to all regular and irregular migrant workers. Despite the Convention’s landmark capability to serve as a legal instrument for the protection of undocumented workers’ rights, as of 2017 only forty-six countries have agreed to its ratification, rendering the ICMWR the least ratified treaty among all major human rights treaties, with the significant absence of all Western European countries and the United States as signatories. A diversity of approaches to the ICMWR also exists within the African continent, as shown by the high ratification rates among West African countries, compared with the significant absence of migrant-receiving South Africa. The following article examines the ratification failures and the opportunities that the ICMWR poses for nation states and their interests, and for migration management within the African continent. The analysis subsequently develops a normative framework to evaluate the ICMWR’s attempt to establish a rights-based international framework for migration management, drawing from Amartya Sen’s institutionalization and feasibility critiques. It is concluded that African states and the global community should push for the ratification of the United Nations ICMWR, a thesis that draws normative support from Sen’s imperfect obligation framework and practical support from the heterogeneity of human rights actors beyond the nation state.
title: Apple dormancy in a changing climate: development of chilling and heat accumulation models to predict bud break
Creators: name: González Noguer, Carlota
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2022

description: The increase in temperature as a consequence of climate change is predicted to impact adversely on UK apple production by affecting the dormancy cycle. Warmer winters, and an increased risk of frost damage due to earlier bud break, are of major concern to UK growers. Although chilling and heat accumulation models are often used to predict time of bud break and anticipate cultivar suitability to new climes, existing models do not consider different cultivar responses or climate change scenarios and so are of limited use. The aim of this PhD research programme was to improve our understanding of the temperature effect on the dormancy cycle in a range of apple cultivars, and to develop cultivar-specific models to predict cultivar suitability in a climate change context. All experimental work was carried out in the UK between 2017 and 2021, using a combination of methodologies and plant materials including excised shoots, potted trees, floral buds, and xylem sap from orchard trees. Data were collected through experiments in controlled environment conditions, from UK apple orchards, and from analytical work in the laboratory. The depth of dormancy was highly variable between cultivars, as evidenced by the finding of different sensitivities to warm temperatures during ecodormancy. A lower optimum temperature for chilling accumulation was observed compared to previous models, indicating that future reductions in winter chill accumulation could be more severe than predicted. A new chilling model was created, the Malus model, which represents a better approximation of temperature contributions towards chilling accumulation. Results also indicated a partial overlap between chilling and heat accumulation, and a new modelling approach was developed that accounted for the correlation between both temperature-driven processes. Changes in carbohydrate concentrations in apple buds and xylem sap during winter occurred in parallel to chilling and heat accumulation, indicating a link between carbohydrate dynamics and the progression of dormancy. The outputs from this PhD research programme corroborate the industry’s concern that warmer winters will pose significant challenges for UK apple production. Nevertheless, new fundamental knowledge needed to develop more accurate chilling and heat accumulation models was generated, and this will help to inform climate change adaptation strategies so that potential impacts on the UK apple sector can be managed and mitigated more effectively.
Haitian Immigrants in Rural Maryland: Experiences of Life and Health
Creators: name: Sheffield, Emily C.
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2017

description: Despite expanding populations of immigrants in new receiving communities in the United States, many resources aimed at serving these communities remain underdeveloped and difficult to access. Particularly burdensome for immigrants in rural Maryland are barriers to health care access, as these often overlap with barriers of language and education as well as general attitudes of racism toward and marginalization of Haitian immigrants. In this paper, I employ a qualitative analysis of interview transcripts to identify prominent themes surrounding Haitian individuals’ life experiences on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Interviews were completed by a research team as part of an ongoing ethnography that aims to understand more broadly the experiences of immigrant groups in the area.
Inter-country Adoption and Children’s Rights: How the African Union Sets Norms and Confronts Challenges
Creators: name: McQuillin, Anna
Publisher: name: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries
Year: 2018

description: In the realm of human rights, the African continent is often framed as a violator in need of guidance and international oversight. Yet, the African Union, and before it the Organization of African Unity, set norms to protect human rights, even aligning the supposed distinct categories of primary and secondary rights into one African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1981). Pertaining to the rights of children, the OAU/AU regionalized the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in the 1990 African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC). Now, as a hotspot for humanitarian intervention, African states in crisis and in peace deal with heightened global pressure to export the care of vulnerable children to international families through adoption to fulfill the best interests of children. To illustrate these tensions, this paper utilizes the case study of singer and international star Madonna’s adoptions from Malawi and Martha Nussbaum’s (2011) capabilities list. Together, these demonstrate the complexities of providing rights to African children as guaranteed by the ACRWC. The African Union’s handling of various rights challenges pertaining to intercountry adoption exemplifies its role in setting norms to protect children’s rights.