cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Biopolymer composite based on natural and derived hemp cellulose fibres
Creators: name: Ouajai, Sirisart
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: The aim of this research was to study the effect of pre-treatment and modification processes on the properties of hemp cellulose fibre for biopolymer composites application. Hemp fibres have been modified by various extraction, swelling, chemical and enzymatic treatments. The morphology and mechanical properties of the modified fibres have been measured. Biopolymer composites have been prepared using the modified fibres and matrices of cellulose acetate butyrate and cellulose solutions derived from hemp. The first fibre treatment employed was acetone extraction and mercerization. A low pressure acrylonitrile grafting initiated by azo-bis-isobutylonitrile was performed using alkali treated fibre. The AN grafted fibres had no transformation of crystalline structure as observed after mercerization. The mechanical properties performed by a single fibre test method were strongly influenced by the cellulose structure, lateral index of crystallinity, and fraction of grafting. Bioscouring of hemp using pectate lyase (EC 4.2.2.2), Scourzyme L, was performed. Greater enzyme concentration and a longer treatment improved the removal of the low methoxy pectin component. Removal of pectate caused no crystalline transformation in the fibres, except for a slight decline in the X-ray crystalline order index. Smooth surfaces and separated fibres were evidence of successful treatment. The shortening of fibre by grinding and ball-milling was introduced to achieve a desired fibre size. An increase in the milling duration gradual ly destroyed the crystalline structure of the cellulose fibres. An increase in solvent polarity, solvent-fibre ratio, agitation speed and drying rate resulted in the rearrangement of the ball-milled cellulose crystalline structure to a greater order. The thermal degradation behaviour of hemp fibres was investigated by using TGA. The greater activation energy of treated hemp fibre compared with untreated fibre represented an increase in purity and improvement of structural order. The all hemp cellulose composites were prepared by an introduction of fibres into 12% cellulose N-methyl-morpholine N-oxide (NMMO) solution and water-ethanol regeneration. A broadening of the scattering of the main crystalline plane, (002) and a depression of the maximum degradation temperature of the fibres were observed. These revealed a structural change in the fibres arising from the preparation. The mechanical properties of composites depended on size, surface area, crystallinity and the structural swelling of the fibres. Composites of cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) and modified hemp fibres were prepared. Composites containing pectate lyase enzyme treated fibres showed better mechanical property improvement than untreated and alkali treated fibres respectively.
Are intrinsic decoherence models physical theories?
Creators: name: Danelli, Maria
name: Paris, Matteo G. A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Intrinsic decoherence models (IDMs) have been proposed in order to solve the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. In this work, we assess the status of two of these models as physical theories by establishing the ultimate bounds on the estimability of their parameters. Our results show that dephasing and dissipative IDMs are amenable to falsification and should be considered physical theories worthy of experimental study.
description: revised version, 7 pages, 3 figures
Floquet engineering of effective pairing interactions in a doped band insulator
Creators: name: Takahashi, Yugo
name: Miyamoto, Hideo
name: Kuroki, Kazuhiko
name: Kaneko, Tatsuya
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: Superconductivity (cond-mat.supr-con)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We investigate the pairing state in a doped band insulator under a periodic driving field. We employ a correlated fermionic model on a honeycomb lattice, in which pairing glue is obtainable via repulsive interactions, and derive an effective model under circularly polarized light. We demonstrate that the effective pairing interaction for doped fermions obtained with the second-order perturbation theory is tunable by the frequency and amplitude of the driving field. We find the optimal frequency range to enhance the pairing interaction and show that the modified effective system can strengthen the two-body bound state. Our study suggests that external driving light can reinforce superconducting pair states in strongly correlated electron systems.
description: 12 pages, 10 figures
Exploring possible feedback mechanisms in cellular mechanosensation
Creators: name: Solowiej-Wedderburn, Josephine
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: Mechanosensation describes the ability of a cell to actively sense and respond to mechanical properties of its environment. It is becoming increasingly apparent that physical forces play a crucial role in determining cell behaviour. Gaining a better appreciation of how these systems function may have significant implications for both tissue engineering applications and in understanding how mechanical factors affect the development and progression of a broad range of diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, or cardiomyopathies. Here, I take a mathematical approach to explore cellular contractility as a mechanism for mechanosensation. Using a theoretical continuum-mechanics approach, I model cellular contractility as an active stress. This mathematical model is analysed and solved using both analytical approaches (exploiting approximations and symmetry arguments) and Finite Element Methods. I then use this model to investigate the novel hypotheses of energy constraints as a potential feedback mechanism: one that guides how the cell may regulate its contractility in response to different environmental cues. I apply the model in the context of the most common biophysical experiments for mechanosensation where cells adhere to flat substrates with known mechanical properties. In such experiments the shape, size and pattern of adhesions between the cell and substrate, and distribution of contractility throughout the cell have significant implications for cellular mechanosensation. Hence, I also investigate the implications of these factors on cellular contractility, subject to the energy constraints.
Neumann, Hans; Dittmann, Reinhard; Paulus, Susanne; Neumann, Georg; Schuster-Brandis, Anais (Hrsg.): Krieg Und Frieden Im Alten Vorderasien. 52E Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale – International Congress Of Assyriology And Near Eastern Archaeology, Münster, 17.-21. Juli 2006. (Rezension)
Creators: name: Fink, Sebastian
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Ancient Near East
War
Peace

description: Ne uma n n , Ha n s ; Di t tma n n , Re i n h a r d ; P a u l u s , S u s a n n e ; Ne uma n n , Ge o r g ; S c h u s t e r -Br a n d i s , An a i s (Hrsg.): Krieg und Frieden im Alten Vorderasien. 52e Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale – International Congress of Assyriology and Near Eastern Archaeology, Münster, 17.-21. Juli 2006. (Rezension))
Why alcohol and drug treatment workers smoke cigarettes
Creators: name: Stephens, Ray
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: A grounded theory approach was used to explore the reasons why staff who work in alcohol and drug treatment services smoke cigarettes. Eleven in-depth interviews were conducted with staff in Victoria across a variety of service types and roles. Data gathered from the interviews were analysed and grouped into categories. From analysis of the interviews it appeared that cigarette smoking is given legitimacy in the alcohol and drug treatment field that reinforces its place in these services. Legitimacy was evident in three main ways - Permission, a Therapeutic Tool and Rewards. Permission to smoke was communicated by means which included the opportunity to smoke at work, the provision of smoking areas, the absence of no-smoking rules and policies, and an acceptance of smoking. Smoking was seen as a therapeutic tool that enhanced the treatment provided to clients. Some smokers saw cigarettes as a tool to convey empathy, develop rapport, promote a feeling of engagement and manage difficult clients. Smokers also received some rewards to reinforce their behaviour. There was a benefit of feeling an increased acceptance by other staff, increased socialising, work breaks, a reduction in perceived stress levels and the opportunity to readily satisfy cravings for nicotine that reinforced the smoking behaviour. Punishments, or negative rewards, for smoking were also described. These included being recipients of harassment or pressure from non-smoking staff and concerns about the impact of smoking on their health. These three categories of permission, therapeutic tool and rewards contribute to the legitimacy of smoking in this field and support the continued presence of this behaviour.
Identifying the mechanisms that define the mitochondrial unfolded protein response in the stressed heart
Creators: name: Safakli, Rahme Nese
name: Locker, Nicolas
name: Smyrnias, Ioannis
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of cardiovascular diseases, as it contributes to oxidative stress, energy deficits, calcium dysregulation, and cardiomyocyte mortality. Thus, it is considered as a prospective therapeutic target. Currently, there are no therapies that specifically improve or maintain mitochondrial homeostasis and functions in the failing heart. The mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) is a protective homeostatic mechanism that was initially described as a transcriptional response to damaged mitochondrial proteins. Recent reports have also demonstrated engagement of the UPRmt upon a wider range of mitochondrial insults, including increased mitochondrial ROS levels, mitochondrial membrane depolarization, and reduced mitochondrial protein import efficiency. Previously, we demonstrated UPRmt activation in the pressure-overloaded human heart, and its role in preserving cardiac function during chronic pressure overload. However, the molecular mechanisms behind UPRmt-mediated cardioprotection are poorly understood. Activating transcription factor 5 (ATF5) is the main transcriptional regulator of mammalian UPRmt. However, due to its oncogenic role in cancer, ATF5 cannot be targeted for therapeutic reasons. The aim of our study is to identify ATF5-regulated genes that could serve as novel targets to activate and/or enhance the UPRmt in pathophysiological conditions. For this, we performed RNA sequencing in stressed cardiomyocytes with activated UPRmt, with/without expression of ATF5.
 Adding to the role of ATF5 in UPRmt regulation, studies in C. elegans and our preliminary evidence suggest a synergy between ATF5 and the NRF2 transcription factor in UPRmt regulation. NRF2, is the major regulator of the cellular anti-oxidant response and is known for its protective role in the stressed heart. We show that NRF2 regulates activation of the UPRmt via its interactions with the mitochondrial phosphatase PGAM5 at the outer mitochondrial membrane. Disruption of the PGAM5-NRF2 complex resulted in Nrf2 translocation to the nucleus during mitochondrial stress, enhancing the levels of UPRmt. Further studies will determine the role of ATF5 and NRF2 in the cardioprotective effects of the UPRmt.
A new approach for the inversion of residual stress based on acoustoelasticity theory and full waveform inversion
Creators: name: Xu, Maoyu
name: Zhao, Hongjian
name: Liu, Changsheng
name: Zhan, Yu
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Applied Physics (physics.app-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Acoustoelasticity theory has been widely used to evaluate the residual stress (or prestress), almost all the available ultrasonic stress detection methods are based on the relationship between the magnitude of stress and wave speed, but these measurement methods make the assumption that the stress is uniform, only one point or average stress in the direction of ultrasound propagation can be obtained. However, the real stress distribution is usually nonuniform. In order to obtain the stress distribution in the direction of ultrasound propagation, in this paper, we propose a new approach: the inversion of residual stress. In the theory part, the inversion of residual stress is transformed into an optimization problem. The objective function is established, and the gradient of the objective function to the stress is derived using the adjoint method, which has been maturely applied in full waveform inversion. In the numerical simulation part, the welding process is simulated using the finite element method to obtain a database of the residual stress field. Then the residual stress is evaluated by inversion approach and the influence of the number of sources and receivers and the frequency of the excitation wave on the inversion effect is discussed. The results show that the inversion of residual stress is still challenging with a small amount of data, but a more accurate inversion can be obtained by appropriately increasing the number of sources and receivers. This study provides an appropriate method for the evaluation of residual stress distribution and lays the theoretical and simulation foundation for the application of ultrasonic stress testing in it.
description: 16 pages, 18 figures
Additional file 2 of Molecular characterization and zoonotic potential of Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia duodenalis in humans and domestic animals in Heilongjiang Province, China
Creators: name: Hao, Yaru
name: Liu, Aiqin
name: Li, He
name: Zhao, Yiyang
name: Yao, Lan
name: Yang, Bo
name: Zhang, Weizhe
name: Yang, Fengkun
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Microbiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Genetics

description: Additional file 2: Table S2. Assemblage distributions of G. duodenalis in domestic animals in Heilongjiang Province.
Physics & Applications of the new TOF-ERD System Installed at Surrey Ion Beam Centre
Creators: name: McAleese, Callum
name: M. K. Sharpe
name: P. Couture
name: J. L. Keddie
name: M. Schulz
name: M. Laitinen
name: J. Julin
name: T. Sajavaara
name: J. England
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: The Surrey Ion Beam Centre (SIBC) has a new Time of Flight – Elastic Recoil Detection (TOF-ERD) system allowing for measurements using an alternative technique for ion beam analysis (IBA). IBA is a useful tool in determining the composition of samples such as semiconductors; materials having variable conductivities being crucial for electronics, or for polymers, the basis of plastics.
 Certain interactions occur when ions enter a sample. Ions can backscatter off atoms for the technique Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS). RBS causes low damage to samples and for simple samples, generates a spectrum allowing easy determination of elements present. However, it is impossible to detect lighter atoms like Hydrogen. Alternatively, an ion can knock atoms out from the sample in an alternate technique: “Elastic Recoil Detection” (ERD). ERD is able to measure lighter elements such as H. A drawback however, is being unable to account for build-up of loss of material which damages the sample.
 TOF-ERD, similar to ERD, has atoms knocked out of the sample which then pass through two gates giving the Time of Flight (TOF) measurement before entering a detector [1]. TOF-ERD uses heavier beam species such as Cl and I allowing measurement of both light elements, like hydrogen, and heavier elements. However, this technique still causes damage.
 The software Potku, first released in 2014 with ongoing development, is used to analyse and present the measurements [2]. High intensity regions appear that relate to atoms of different masses. By identifying these elements Potku generates a depth profile showing the variation of elemental concentrations.
 This poster will outline the physics and apparatus of TOF-ERD along with analysis of hydrogenated and deuterated polystyrene. References
 [1] J. Julin et al, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 083309 (2016) [2] K. Arstila et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B 331 (2014) [2] K. Arstila et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. in Phys. Res. B 331 (2014)
Inequality-free proof of Bell's theorem
Creators: name: Aiello, Andrea
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Bell's theorem supposedly demonstrates an irreconcilable conflict between quantum mechanics and local, realistic hidden variable theories. Most proofs of Bell's theorem, are based on inequalities. In this paper we present an alternative proof which does not involve inequalities, but only a direct comparison between correlation functions calculated using quantum mechanics on the one hand, and those calculated according to local realistic hidden-variable theories on the other. Our proof is based on a physically motivated use of Fourier series for periodic functions, and confirms that local realistic hidden-variable theories are incompatible with quantum mechanics.
description: 6 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2409.01275
Improving results of project portfolio management in the public sector using a balanced strategic scoring model
Creators: name: Norrie, James
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: This thesis suggests improvements, from a strategic perspective, to the practice of scoring projects in public sector organisations. It is argues that current approaches, notably project portfolio managing (PPM), are inadequate for many such organisations, and in fact prone to problems and failure. In particular, present scoring/prioritization approaches in such contexts, largely tend to focus on financial risk/return logic. It is argued that the end result of such a ranking approach is often a non-strategic portfolio project. To address these problems, the candidate proposed the refinement of the scoring approach for project portfolios via the incorporation of Kaplan & Norton's ideas in their Balanced Scorecard (BSC). BSC introduces, apart from purely financial considerations, other 'softer' perspectives (customer, internal business processes, learning and growth) which in combination place a more inclusive emphasis on the vision and strategy of the organisation. In this thesis, it is proposed that the combined PPM and BSC scoring approach amounts to more strategic project selection. Several case studies are conducted to illustrate the merits of the combined PPM/BSC logic. These include case studies in both private and public sector organisations.
Exploring new anode materials to improve operational stability and cost-effectiveness of MFC-based biosensors for BOD analysis of wastewater
Creators: name: Salvian, Anna
name: Avignone-Rossa, Claudio
name: Varcoe, John
name: Gadkari, Siddharth
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: Water pollution has increasingly been recognised as a global issue, as it poses a serious threat to both human and environmental health. As a result, the analysis of the concentration of organic contaminants in wastewater has become a growing priority for contamination prevention and treatment. Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is one of the key parameters for assessing organic pollutants concentration and the most conventional and well-known approach to measure it is a bioassay methodology called BOD5 test, which requires 5 days to be completed, making impossible to collect data in real time and requiring specialized personnel. In this context, microbial fuel cells (MFCs) have been proposed as real time biosensors in which microorganisms are used as catalyst to oxidise biodegradable organic pollutants in wastewater to generate electricity. The electrical output of MFCs has been demonstrated to be correlated to the amount of organic contaminants in wastewater, making it suitable as a biosensor with the added benefit of being self-sustaining. However, the practical application of MFC-based biosensors has run across substantial challenges, including instability over time, mainly due anode biofouling and degradation, and expensive material and production costs. The goal of my research is to develop a cost-effective and operationally stable MFC-based biosensor for applications in water quality monitoring. The study will be focused on enhancing anode performance by selecting innovative materials, which should be more porous and biocompatible than typical carbonaceous electrodes currently used in MFCs. Chemically and thermally functionalized activated carbon fabric and titanium foam obtained by electrochemical anodization have been selected on the basis of their good electrical conductivity, porosity, surface charge, hydrophilicity and cost. They will be tested as anode materials in MFC-based biosensors to establish their performance over an extended period of time, and comparing them with traditional carbon cloth anodes.
Additional file 3 of Molecular characterization and zoonotic potential of Cryptosporidium spp. and Giardia duodenalis in humans and domestic animals in Heilongjiang Province, China
Creators: name: Hao, Yaru
name: Liu, Aiqin
name: Li, He
name: Zhao, Yiyang
name: Yao, Lan
name: Yang, Bo
name: Zhang, Weizhe
name: Yang, Fengkun
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Microbiology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Genetics

description: Additional file 3: Table S3. Homology analysis of the SSU rRNA, bg, gdh, and tpi genes of G. duodenalis-positive samples at the nucleotide and amino acid levels.
Virtually religious: myth, ritual and community in World of Warcraft
Creators: name: Vallikatt, Jose
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: In an age dominated by media, religion has been assumed to be resurging, albeit in different forms. This study hypothesises that the massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game World of Warcraft, with its powerful ludic, narrative and fantasy features, is a significant aspect of cultural changes, including the religious. Within the framework of a functional definition of religion, this study uses textual analysis to investigate the place of the traditionally identified three major elements of religion namely, myth, ritual and community in constructing what may be understood as a cohesive religious environment in World of Warcraft. The textual data is supplemented by an exploration of the game-playing experiences and religious perspectives of players of World of Warcraft in India and gives added richness to the text. From a cultural perspective, the study identifies how a postmodern generation can construct meaning from virtual worlds like World of Warcraft that transcends some mundane aspects of their life. The study proposes a fresh outlook into how social researchers can look at notions such as religion, whose central ideas revolve around the metaphysical and super-natural, by exploring the boundaries of actual and virtual, of seriousness and play, and of sacred and secular within a technologically constructed fantasy digital game. Further, it explores whether the gamers themselves – individually or collectively – see the MMORPG environment of WoW as having religious characteristics that contribute to their search for transcendence and meaning. Finally, the study considers the implications this has for thinking about the relationship between new media and changes in social religiosity and the re-culturation of religion in a postmodern media context.
When Less is More: Achieving Faster Convergence in Distributed Edge Machine Learning
Creators: name: Basani, Advik Raj
name: Vivek, Siddharth Chaitra
name: Krishna, Advaith
name: Paul, Arnab K.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing (cs.DC)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Performance (cs.PF)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Distributed Machine Learning (DML) on resource-constrained edge devices holds immense potential for real-world applications. However, achieving fast convergence in DML in these heterogeneous environments remains a significant challenge. Traditional frameworks like Bulk Synchronous Parallel and Asynchronous Stochastic Parallel rely on frequent, small updates that incur substantial communication overhead and hinder convergence speed. Furthermore, these frameworks often employ static dataset sizes, neglecting the heterogeneity of edge devices and potentially leading to straggler nodes that slow down the entire training process. The straggler nodes, i.e., edge devices that take significantly longer to process their assigned data chunk, hinder the overall training speed. To address these limitations, this paper proposes Hermes, a novel probabilistic framework for efficient DML on edge devices. This framework leverages a dynamic threshold based on recent test loss behavior to identify statistically significant improvements in the model's generalization capability, hence transmitting updates only when major improvements are detected, thereby significantly reducing communication overhead. Additionally, Hermes employs dynamic dataset allocation to optimize resource utilization and prevents performance degradation caused by straggler nodes. Our evaluations on a real-world heterogeneous resource-constrained environment demonstrate that Hermes achieves faster convergence compared to state-of-the-art methods, resulting in a remarkable $13.22$x reduction in training time and a $62.1\%$ decrease in communication overhead.
description: 11 pages, 19 figures, 3 tables; code: https://github.com/DaSH-Lab-CSIS/Hermes
Organic Source-Gated Transistors: The Key to Sustainable Electronics
Creators: name: Teng, Hao-Jing
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: Rapid advancement of technology has created a culture of overconsumption resulting in damaging effects to our climate, as more and more electronics end up in landfills. Silicon transistors found in virtually all electronic devices require specific processing conditions at extremely high temperatures using toxic materials. Organic semiconductors on the other hand can be processed at much lower temperatures using non-toxic abundant materials making them a greener alternative. Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) are extremely lightweight, low cost, and can be fabricated on flexible substrates making them extremely versatile for a range of applications. Output current in OTFTs is controlled by the semiconductor channel, shorter channel lengths and higher charger carrier mobilities will result in higher output current, effectively reducing the power needed to operate the device. Fabrication of transistors requires several steps which brings about many challenges. Small misalignment between layers and defects in the materials used can greatly affect the device performance, inoperable devices can be expensive and wasteful. The organic source-gated transistor (OSGT) shares a similar device structure to OTFTs but displays several advantages. Higher gain and lower saturation voltages makes them suitable for low power applications such as wearable medical devices. OSGTs are also tolerant to misalignments during fabrication as the output current is not controlled by the channel but instead by the source contact. In this poster, we demonstrate OSGTs with low operating voltages, alongside OTFTs fabricated with the same layout and structure, the only difference being choice of metal for the source electrode. The climate crisis calls for new materials and processes to be developed to achieve more eco-friendly, biocompatible electronics. OSGTs can help accelerate organic semiconductor optimisation by reducing wastage from misaligned devices during prototyping. Coupled with its superior performance advantages, OSGTs are the future of sustainable, environmentally electronics.This is easy to achieve as devices strive to become smaller and more compact, and organic semiconductors can be carefully tuned for specific properties.
Sensory‐liking Expectations and Perceptions of Processed and Unprocessed Insect Products
Creators: name: Sogari, Giovanni
name: Menozzi, Davide
name: Mora, Cristina
Publisher: name: International Journal on Food System Dynamics
Year: 2018
Subjects: entomophagy; consumer studies; sensory science; cricket; novel food; Italy

description: The aim of this study was to investigate how sensory‐liking attribute perceptions (appearance, taste and organoleptic characteristics) can change between a readily visible vs a processed insect product before and after tasting. Results indicate that texture and appearance of the insect are perceived as stronger barriers than the taste attribute. Moreover, both unprocessed and processed insect‐based products generate more positive perceptions after tasting compared to expectations. The positive experience of tasting products with both visible and processed insect may lead consumers to reconsider their initial negative expectations and attitude towards entomophagy.
description: International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 9, No 4 (2018): Special issue: Credence attibutes, consumer trust, and sensory expectations in modern food markets
Energy-Based Diffusion Language Models for Text Generation
Creators: name: Xu, Minkai
name: Geffner, Tomas
name: Kreis, Karsten
name: Nie, Weili
name: Xu, Yilun
name: Leskovec, Jure
name: Ermon, Stefano
name: Vahdat, Arash
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Computation and Language (cs.CL)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Despite remarkable progress in autoregressive language models, alternative generative paradigms beyond left-to-right generation are still being actively explored. Discrete diffusion models, with the capacity for parallel generation, have recently emerged as a promising alternative. Unfortunately, these models still underperform the autoregressive counterparts, with the performance gap increasing when reducing the number of sampling steps. Our analysis reveals that this degradation is a consequence of an imperfect approximation used by diffusion models. In this work, we propose Energy-based Diffusion Language Model (EDLM), an energy-based model operating at the full sequence level for each diffusion step, introduced to improve the underlying approximation used by diffusion models. More specifically, we introduce an EBM in a residual form, and show that its parameters can be obtained by leveraging a pretrained autoregressive model or by finetuning a bidirectional transformer via noise contrastive estimation. We also propose an efficient generation algorithm via parallel important sampling. Comprehensive experiments on language modeling benchmarks show that our model can consistently outperform state-of-the-art diffusion models by a significant margin, and approaches autoregressive models' perplexity. We further show that, without any generation performance drop, our framework offers a 1.3$\times$ sampling speedup over existing diffusion models. Reproduced code is available at https://github.com/MinkaiXu/Energy-Diffusion-LLM.
sj-docx-1-smo-10.1177_20503121221133190 – Supplemental material for Incidence and associated factors of acute postoperative pain within the first 24 h in women undergoing cesarean delivery at a resource-limited setting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A prospective observational study
Creators: name: Bimrew, Dagim
name: Misganaw, Abebaw
name: Samuel, Hirbo
name: Daniel Desta, Tenbite
name: Bayable, Samuel Debas
Publisher: name: SAGE Journals
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: 111708 Health and Community Services
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: Cardiology
subject: 110599 Dentistry not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine
subject: 110305 Emergency Medicine
subject: 110306 Endocrinology
subject: 110308 Geriatrics and Gerontology
subject: 110904 Neurology and Neuromuscular Diseases
subject: 111099 Nursing not elsewhere classified
subject: 111199 Nutrition and Dietetics not elsewhere classified
subject: 111299 Oncology and Carcinogenesis not elsewhere classified
subject: 110314 Orthopaedics
subject: 110604 Sports Medicine
subject: 110315 Otorhinolaryngology
subject: 111702 Aged Health Care
subject: 111403 Paediatrics
subject: 111599 Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: 170199 Psychology not elsewhere classified
subject: FOS: Psychology
subject: 110319 Psychiatry (incl. Psychotherapy)
subject: 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified
subject: 110203 Respiratory Diseases
subject: 160807 Sociological Methodology and Research Methods
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: 110323 Surgery
subject: 70706 Veterinary Medicine
subject: FOS: Veterinary sciences

description: Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-smo-10.1177_20503121221133190 for Incidence and associated factors of acute postoperative pain within the first 24 h in women undergoing cesarean delivery at a resource-limited setting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: A prospective observational study by Dagim Bimrew, Abebaw Misganaw, Hirbo Samuel, Tenbite Daniel Desta and Samuel Debas Bayable in SAGE Open Medicine
On Consumers' Acceptance of Nanotechnologies: An Italian Case Study
Creators: name: Viscecchia, Rosaria
name: De Devitiis, Biagia
name: Carlucci, Domenico
name: Nardone, Gianluca
name: Santeramo, Fabio
Publisher: name: International Journal on Food System Dynamics
Year: 2018
Subjects: Consumers trust; Consumers perceptions; Food Risks; Nanotechnologies; Nano‐inside

description: Nanotechnology represents a new frontier in food science with a great potential for many food sectors. Several studies have examined public’s benefits and risks perception of nanotechnology, but the literature on the factors influencing the public’s attitudes toward nanotechnology is rather limited. We investigate the willingness to buy for nanotechnology foods, and the role of risks and benefits perceptions. We use a structured questionnaire was submitted to consumers and Principal Component Analysis, followed by Structural Equation Model, were performed. We estimate the consumer willing to buy nanotechnology food for four nanotechnology applications,
and conclude on a positive role of trust in institutions on willingness to buy food with nanotech applications, and on the (relatively lower) importance on consumers' attitudes toward health and innovations. Policy implications are also provided.
description: International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 9, No 4 (2018): Special issue: Credence attibutes, consumer trust, and sensory expectations in modern food markets
Additional file 1 of Acceptance and utilization of web-based self-help for caregivers of children with externalizing disorders
Creators: name: Wähnke, Laura
name: Plück, Julia
name: Bodden, Mikel
name: Ernst, Angela
name: Klemp, Marie-Theres
name: Mühlenmeister, Judith
name: Döpfner, Manfred
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Pharmacology
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy

description: Supplementary Material 1: Child- and Parent-Related Healthcare Services Usage
Do people vote to avoid disapproval?
Creators: name: Coulombe, Maxime
name: Blais, André
name: Dassonneville, Ruth
Publisher: name: Taylor & Francis
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy

description: Do people vote to meet others’ approval or to avoid their disapproval if they were to abstain? We examine the role of injunctive norms on turnout by means of discussion network data from an original survey module in the Austrian National Election Study. We improve on previous measures of injunctive norms by asking respondents whether their political discussants would disapprove if they abstained. We find that about half of the respondents believe that people around them would be disappointed if they did not vote and that disapproval expectations matter for turnout, but only among those with a weak sense of civic duty. Our study contributes to a better understanding of how individual perceptions about social norms matter for voter turnout.
Exploring Macro-, Micro- and Nanoplastics in the Terrestrial Environment and Uptake by Horticultural Crops
Creators: name: Case, Hannah
name: Wagstaff, Carol
name: Al-Sid-Cheikh, Maya
name: Murphy, Richard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022

description: Abstract: Plastic pollution is recognised as a growing environmental concern, sparking studies into the fate of plastics in the environment and its degradation to micro- and nanoplastics. To date, research has focused on aquatic environments, whereas studies on the type, distribution, transformation and fate of plastics in the terrestrial environment and the implications for plants are currently in their infancy. Agricultural practices use plastics to improve crop quality and yield, but at the consequence of directly introducing plastics into the soil. This plastic has the potential to alter soil properties and influence growing crops. Data surrounding the impacts and internalisation of plastics by plants was critically evaluated, where a variety of plant stress responses were observed for different plastic types and particle sizes, emphasising the need to track the uptake and distribution of nanoplastics in plant tissue. This uptake has yet to be determined as tracking plastics on the nano scale represents a huge analytical challenge, due to their size, and difficulty detecting carbon-based plastics against a background of carbon-based biological and soil structures. As such, it is the least investigated size of plastic, but could potentially be the most hazardous. This research seeks to examine the presence of plastics in the terrestrial environment and investigate if plastics are able to enter the human food chain through uptake by horticultural crops. This project utilises recent advantages of radiolabelled isotopes for the synthesis of model plastic particles, that can be applied during crop cultivation in environmentally relevant concentrations. This can be measured using highly sensitive instrumentation, including liquid scintillation counting and autoradiography. It is hypothesised that accumulation will occur in the root system, with translocation to aerial parts of a plant. This may be detrimental to plant growth and lead to trophic transfer through the food chain to humans and other animals.
Colossal magnetoresistance from spin-polarized polarons in an Ising system
Creators: name: Li, Ying-Fei
name: Been, Emily M.
name: Balguri, Sudhaman
name: Jia, Chun-Jing
name: Mahenderu, Mira B.
name: Wang, Zhi-Cheng
name: Cui, Yi
name: Chen, Su-Di
name: Hashimoto, Makoto
name: Lu, Dong-Hui
name: Moritz, Brian
name: Zaanen, Jan
name: Tafti, Fazel
name: Devereaux, Thomas P.
name: Shen, Zhi-Xun
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Recent experiments suggest a new paradigm towards novel colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) in a family of materials EuM$_2$X$_2$(M=Cd, In, Zn; X=P, As), distinct from the traditional avenues involving Kondo-RKKY crossovers, magnetic phase transitions with structural distortions, or topological phase transitions. Here, we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to explore their origin, particularly focusing on EuCd$_2$P$_2$. While the low-energy spectral weight royally tracks that of the resistivity anomaly near the temperature with maximum magnetoresistance (T$_{MR}$) as expected from transport-spectroscopy correspondence, the spectra are completely incoherent and strongly suppressed with no hint of a Landau quasiparticle. Using systematic material and temperature dependence investigation complemented by theory, we attribute this non-quasiparticle caricature to the strong presence of entangled magnetic and lattice interactions, a characteristic enabled by the $p$-$f$ mixing. Given the known presence of ferromagnetic clusters, this naturally points to the origin of CMR being the scattering of spin-polarized polarons at the boundaries of ferromagnetic clusters. These results are not only illuminating to investigate the strong correlations and topology in EuCd$_2$X$_2$ family, but, in a broader view, exemplify how multiple cooperative interactions can give rise to extraordinary behaviors in condensed matter systems.
An investigation into the chemistry and biology of salinity gradient solar ponds in relation to their stability and efficiency
Creators: name: Malik, Naheed
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024

description: This thesis describes the chemical , physical and biological characteristics of solar ponds and the influence of those characteristics on the clarity, stability and efficiency of the
ponds.

Solar ponds have been built and operated by research and development organisations throughout the world in order to investigate their application to areas including space heating, heat for crop drying, process heat, and electricity generation from renewable resources.

A solar pond is a relatively inexpensive solar collector and thermal storage device. Costs for complete systems (solar pond, heat exchangers, and pumps) range from $50 to $150 per square meter ($5 to $15 per square foot) of pond surface area, depending on the
application and site suitability. Operating costs of solar ponds are low when compared to those of fossil fuel systems.

This thesis is written in order to share technical expertise with other researchers and other interested parties in relation to solar pond technology.
Using artificial neural networks in searches for Lorentz invariance violation
Creators: name: Terzić, Tomislav
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Lorentz invariance violation (LIV) in gamma rays can have multiple consequences, such as energy-dependent photon group velocity, photon instability, vacuum birefringence, and modified electromagnetic interaction. Depending on how LIV is introduced, several of these effects can occur simultaneously. Nevertheless, in experimental tests of LIV, each effect is tested separately and independently. For the first time, we are attempting to test for two effects in a single analysis: modified gamma-ray absorption and energy-dependent photon group velocity. In doing so, we are using artificial neural networks. In this contribution, we discuss our experiences with using machine learning for this purpose and present our very first results.
description: 4 pages; 1 figure; proceeding from Roma International Conference on AstroParticle Physics (RICAP-24)
Additional file 2 of Acceptance and utilization of web-based self-help for caregivers of children with externalizing disorders
Creators: name: Wähnke, Laura
name: Plück, Julia
name: Bodden, Mikel
name: Ernst, Angela
name: Klemp, Marie-Theres
name: Mühlenmeister, Judith
name: Döpfner, Manfred
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Pharmacology
subject: Sociology
subject: FOS: Sociology
subject: Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified
subject: Cancer
subject: Science Policy

description: Supplementary Material 2: Measures of acceptance
Insights on the Alleged Imitation of Prosecco Wine Name: The Case of the German Market
Creators: name: Trestini, Samuele
name: Giampietri, Elisa
name: Szathvary, Serena
name: Dal Bianco, Andrea
Publisher: name: International Journal on Food System Dynamics
Year: 2018
Subjects: wine; hedonic price model; Germany; consumers; wine name imitation

description: Prominent on the agenda in recent times has been the question of the widespread use of alleged imitations of Prosecco name on wine bottles sold in Germany. This question has attracted even the interest of Italian producers lately, who denounce the evoking effect of such name imitations of the original PDO wine. This paper examines the impact of some product characteristics and those related to the purchasing place on wine price, applying a hedonic price model to homescan data related to the German market in 2013. Findings suggest that the alleged name
imitation has a premium price, thus getting a free ride on brand reputation at the expense of the original Italian wine.
description: International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 9, No 4 (2018): Special issue: Credence attibutes, consumer trust, and sensory expectations in modern food markets
Intention to Purchase Sustainable Wood Products: An Empirical Analysis of the Determinants
Creators: name: Panico, Teresa
name: Pagnani, Tiziana
name: Caracciolo, Francesco
Publisher: name: International Journal on Food System Dynamics
Year: 2018
Subjects: wood products; attitude; intentions; preferences; certifications

description: Although Forest Principles promoting responsible forest management were formally adopted in 1992, the sustainability of forests is still undermined by harmful practices. In this regard, voluntary forest certification may represent an effective way to lessen the negative impacts of timber and forestry products upon the environment and upon the living conditions of local populations. This work aims to investigate the role of socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of the forestry certification schemes and attitudinal factors on the purchasing intention of certified wood-derived products in Italy. A convenience sample of 371 consumers were interviewed through an online–administered questionnaire, and data collected were analysed by means of an ordered probit model. The results show that income and age, together with knowledge of the main certification labels and the attitudes towards certifications, have a positive and statistically significant effect on intentions to purchase certified wood products
Keywords:
description: International Journal on Food System Dynamics, Vol 9, No 4 (2018): Special issue: Credence attibutes, consumer trust, and sensory expectations in modern food markets