cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Microplastics in soil induce a new microbial habitat, with consequences for bulk soil microbiomes
Creators: name: Kublik, Susanne
name: Gschwendtner, Silvia
name: Magritsch, Tobias
name: Radl, Viviane
name: Rillig, Matthias C.
name: Schloter, Michael
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: microplastics
subject: polypropylene
subject: expanded polystyrene
subject: soil
subject: microbiome
subject: 16S rRNA gene sequencing
subject: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie

description: Microplastic (MP) pollution poses a threat to agricultural soils and may induce a significant loss of the soil quality and services provided by these ecosystems. Studies in marine environments suggest that this impact is mediated by shifts in the microbiome. However, studies on the mode of action of MP materials on the soil microbiome are rare, particularly when comparing the effects of different MP materials. In this study, we characterized the microbiota colonizing two different MP materials, granules made of polypropylene (PP) and expanded polystyrene (ePS), introduced into arable soil and incubated for 8 weeks using a molecular barcoding approach. We further assessed the consequences on the microbiome of bulk soil. The complexity of the bacterial communities colonizing MP materials was significantly higher on ePS compared to PP. Many of the detected genera colonizing the MP materials belonged to taxa, that are known to degrade polymeric substances, including TM7a, Phenylobacterium, Nocardia, Arthrobacter and Streptomyces. Interestingly, in bulk soil samples amended with MP materials, microbial diversity was higher after 8 weeks compared to the control soil, which was incubated without MP materials. The composition of bacterial communities colonizing the MP materials and bulk soil differed. Mainly Acidobacteria were mostly found in bulk soil, whereas they were rare colonizers of the MP materials. Differences in diversity and community composition between the MP affected bulk soil samples were not found. Overall, our data indicate that MP materials form a new niche for microbes in soil, with a specific community composition depending on the materials used, strongly influencing the bulk soil microbiota in the short term. Long-term consequences for the soil microbiome and associated functions including different soils need to be further elaborated in the future for a proper risk assessment of the mode of action of MP materials in terrestrial ecosystems.
HIV transmission by human bite: a case report and review of the literature—implications for post-exposure prophylaxis
Creators: name: Schürmann, Dirk
name: Hoffmann, Christian
name: Stegemann, Miriam S.
name: Ruwwe-Glösenkamp, Christoph
name: Gürtler, Lutz
Publisher: name: Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Human immunodeficiency virus
subject: HIV transmission
subject: Route of transmission
subject: Human bite
subject: Post-exposure prophylaxis
subject: 600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit::610 Medizin und Gesundheit

description: We report a case of a probable HIV-1 transmission by human bite. The analyzed data from ten previously reported suspected or allegedly confirmed HIV transmissions revealed a deep bleeding bite wound as the primary risk factor. A high HIV plasma viral load and bleeding oral lesions are present most of the time during HIV transmission by bite. HIV post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) should be recommended in case of a bleeding wound resulting from a bite of an HIV-infected person. PEP was missed in this presented case.
Conditions for visual and high-resolution bistatic radar observations of Apophis in 2029
Creators: name: Vallejo, Agustín
name: Zuluaga, Jorge I.
name: Chaparro, Germán
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: On April 13, 2029, asteroid Apophis will pass within six Earth radii ($\sim$31000 km above surface), in the closest approach of this asteroid in recorded history. This event provides unique scientific opportunities to study the asteroid, its orbit, and surface characteristics at an exceptionally close distance. In this paper we perform a synthetic geometrical, geographical and temporal analysis of the conditions under which the asteroid can be observed from Earth, with a particular emphasis on the conditions and scientific opportunities for bistatic radar observations, the most feasible radar technique applicable during such a close approach. For this purpose, we compile a list of present and future radio observatories around the globe which could participate in bistatic radar observation campaigns during the closest approach of Apophis. We estimate signal-to-noise ratios, apparent sky rotation, surface coverage and other observing conditions. We find that a global collaboration of observatories across Australia, Africa, Europe and America will produce high-resolution delay-Doppler radar images with signal-to-noise ratios above $10^8$, while covering $\sim$85\% of the asteroid surface. Moreover, if properly coordinated, the extreme approach of the asteroid might allow for radio amateur detection of the signals sent by large radio observatories and citizen science projects could then be organized. We also find that for visual observations, the Canary Islands will offer the best observing conditions during the closest approach, both for professionals as well as for amateurs. The apparent size of Apophis will be 2-3 times larger than typical seeing, allowing for resolved images of the surface.
description: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 11 pages, 10 figures. For data and code see https://github.com/seap-udea/Apophis2029
Justifying Answer Sets using Argumentation
Creators: name: Schulz, Claudia
name: Toni, Francesca
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: I.2.3; I.2.4; F.4.1

description: An answer set is a plain set of literals which has no further structure that would explain why certain literals are part of it and why others are not. We show how argumentation theory can help to explain why a literal is or is not contained in a given answer set by defining two justification methods, both of which make use of the correspondence between answer sets of a logic program and stable extensions of the Assumption-Based Argumentation (ABA) framework constructed from the same logic program. Attack Trees justify a literal in argumentation-theoretic terms, i.e. using arguments and attacks between them, whereas ABA-Based Answer Set Justifications express the same justification structure in logic programming terms, that is using literals and their relationships. Interestingly, an ABA-Based Answer Set Justification corresponds to an admissible fragment of the answer set in question, and an Attack Tree corresponds to an admissible fragment of the stable extension corresponding to this answer set.
description: This article has been accepted for publication in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming
A shuttling-based two-qubit logic gate for linking distant silicon quantum processors
Creators: name: Noiri, Akito
name: Takeda, Kenta
name: Nakajima, Takashi
name: Kobayashi, Takashi
name: Sammak, Amir
name: Scappucci, Giordano
name: Tarucha, Seigo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
subject: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Control of entanglement between qubits at distant quantum processors using a two-qubit gate is an essential function of a scalable, modular implementation of quantum computation. Among the many qubit platforms, spin qubits in silicon quantum dots are promising for large-scale integration along with their nanofabrication capability. However, linking distant silicon quantum processors is challenging as two-qubit gates in spin qubits typically utilize short-range exchange coupling, which is only effective between nearest-neighbor quantum dots. Here we demonstrate a two-qubit gate between spin qubits via coherent spin shuttling, a key technology for linking distant silicon quantum processors. Coherent shuttling of a spin qubit enables efficient switching of the exchange coupling with an on/off ratio exceeding 1,000 , while preserving the spin coherence by 99.6% for the single shuttling between neighboring dots. With this shuttling-mode exchange control, we demonstrate a two-qubit controlled-phase gate with a fidelity of 93%, assessed via randomized benchmarking. Combination of our technique and a phase coherent shuttling of a qubit across a large quantum dot array will provide feasible path toward a quantum link between distant silicon quantum processors, a key requirement for large-scale quantum computation.
Prosodic boundary phenomena
Creators: name: Schubö, Fabian (Ed.)
name: Zerbian, Sabine (Ed.)
name: Hanne, Sandra (Ed.)
name: Wartenburger, Isabell (Ed.)
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: prosodic phrases
subject: spoken language
subject: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS)
subject: 400 Sprache::410 Linguistik::410 Linguistik

description: Synopsis: In spoken language comprehension, the hearer is faced with a more or less continuous stream of auditory information. Prosodic cues, such as pitch movement, pre-boundary lengthening, and pauses, incrementally help to organize the incoming stream of information into prosodic phrases, which often coincide with syntactic units. Prosody is hence central to spoken language comprehension and some models assume that the speaker produces prosody in a consistent and hierarchical fashion. While there is manifold empirical evidence that prosodic boundary cues are reliably and robustly produced and effectively guide spoken sentence comprehension across different populations and languages, the underlying mechanisms and the nature of the prosody-syntax interface still have not been identified sufficiently. This is also reflected in the fact that most models on sentence processing completely lack prosodic information. This edited book volume is grounded in a workshop that was held in 2021 at the annual conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS). The five chapters cover selected topics on the production and comprehension of prosodic cues in various populations and languages, all focusing in particular on processing of prosody at structurally relevant prosodic boundaries. Specifically, the book comprises cross-linguistic evidence as well as evidence from non-native listeners, infants, adults, and elderly speakers, highlighting the important role of prosody in both language production and comprehension.
ROOT preprocessing pipeline for machine learning with TensorFlow
Creators: name: Komm, Matthias
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020

description: One of the most common data format in HEP are ROOT TTrees. However, modern machine learning packages require that the training data is supplied in different formats such as numpy arrays, HDF5, Pandas dataframes, or TFRecords instead. Hence, before training a machine learning algorithm, one usually has to first implement and perform a conversion and optional preprocessing of the training data set. Furthermore, if the data set is much larger than the available memory, dynamic loading and unloading of partial sets has to be performed efficiently during the training instead. To overcome both tasks, we developed a novel interface between ROOT and Tensorflow for training neural networks, where ROOT TTrees are streamed directly into the TensorFlow queue and threading system. This custom workflow allows a flexible selection of input features and the asynchronous preprocessing of data on the CPU in parallel to the neural network training on the GPU. The capabilities of the pipeline are demonstrated for training a classifier to identify displaced jets from the decay of new long-lived particles using a data sample of O(100 GB). Plans on future developments will be given as well.
On the relative proof complexity of deep inference via atomic flows
Creators: name: Das, Anupam
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Logic in Computer Science (cs.LO)
subject: Logic (math.LO)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: We consider the proof complexity of the minimal complete fragment, KS, of standard deep inference systems for propositional logic. To examine the size of proofs we employ atomic flows, diagrams that trace structural changes through a proof but ignore logical information. As results we obtain a polynomial simulation of versions of Resolution, along with some extensions. We also show that these systems, as well as bounded-depth Frege systems, cannot polynomially simulate KS, by giving polynomial-size proofs of certain variants of the propositional pigeonhole principle in KS.
description: 27 pages, 2 figures, full version of conference paper
It takes more than a machine: A pilot feasibility study of point-of-care HIV-1 viral load testing at a lower-level health center in rural western Uganda
Creators: name: Ndizeye, Ronnie
name: Siedner, Mark J.
name: Mulogo, Edgar M.
name: Rockwell, Emmanuel
name: Nyehangane, Dan
name: Lotspeich, Sarah C.
name: Wohl, David A.
name: Ngelese, Herbert
name: Shem, Bwambale
name: Ntaro, Moses
name: Baguma, Emmanuel
name: Boyce, Ross M.
name: Rubinstein, Rebecca J.
name: Shook-Sa, Bonnie E.
Publisher: name: Public Library of Science
Year: 2023

description: Barriers continue to limit access to viral load (VL) monitoring across sub-Saharan Africa adversely impacting control of the HIV epidemic. The objective of this study was to determine whether the systems and processes required to realize the potential of rapid molecular technology are available at a prototypical lower-level (i.e., level III) health center in rural Uganda. In this open-label pilot study, participants underwent parallel VL testing at both the central laboratory (i.e., standard of care) and on-site using the GeneXpert HIV-1 assay. The primary outcome was the number of VL tests completed each clinic day. Secondary outcomes included the number of days from sample collection to receipt of result at clinic and the number of days from sample collection to patient receipt of the result. From August 2020 to July 2021, we enrolled a total of 242 participants. The median number of daily tests performed on the Xpert platform was 4, (IQR = 2–7). Time from sample collection to result was 51 days (IQR = 45–62) for samples sent to the central laboratory and 0 days (IQR = 0–0.25) for the Xpert assay conducted at the health center. However, few participants elected to receive results by one of the expedited options, which contributed to similar time-to-patient between testing approaches (89 versus 84 days, p = 0.07). Implementation of a rapid, near point-of-care VL assay at a lower-level health center in rural Uganda appears feasible, but interventions to promote rapid clinical response and influence patient preferences about result receipt require further study. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04517825, Registered 18 August 2020. Available at: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04517825.
A model of sonority based on pitch intelligibility
Creators: name: Albert, Aviad
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Sonority
subject: phonetics
subject: phonology
subject: Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP)
subject: 400 Sprache::410 Linguistik::410 Linguistik

description: Synopsis: Sonority is a central notion in phonetics and phonology and it is essential for generalizations related to syllabic organization. However, to date there is no clear consensus on the phonetic basis of sonority, neither in perception nor in production. The widely used Sonority Sequencing Principle (SSP) represents the speech signal as a sequence of discrete units, where phonological processes are modeled as symbol manipulating rules that lack a temporal dimension and are devoid of inherent links to perceptual, motoric or cognitive processes. The current work aims to change this by outlining a novel approach for the extraction of continuous entities from acoustic space in order to model dynamic aspects of phonological perception. It is used here to advance a functional understanding of sonority as a universal aspect of prosody that requires pitch-bearing syllables as the building blocks of speech. This book argues that sonority is best understood as a measurement of pitch intelligibility in perception, which is closely linked to periodic energy in acoustics. It presents a novel principle for sonority-based determinations of well-formedness – the Nucleus Attraction Principle (NAP). Two complementary NAP models independently account for symbolic and continuous representations and they mostly outperform SSP-based models, demonstrated here with experimental perception studies and with a corpus study of Modern Hebrew nouns. This work also includes a description of ProPer (Prosodic Analysis with Periodic Energy). The ProPer toolbox further exploits the proposal that periodic energy reflects sonority in order to cover major topics in prosodic research, such as prominence, intonation and speech rate. The book is finally concluded with brief discussions on selected topics: (i) the phonotactic division of labor with respect to /s/-stop clusters; (ii) the debate about the universality of sonority; and (iii) the fate of the classic phonetics–phonology dichotomy as it relates to continuity and dynamics in phonology.
سیر تحول تصویر بازنمایی شده از بافت تاریخی تهران در سینمای ایران
Publisher: name: دانشگاه کردستان
Year: 2022

description: بیان مسأله: فضاهای شهری به ویژه در بافت های تاریخی، تحولی را از سر گذرانده اند که حاصل فرآیندهای معنازدایی و ارائه صورت بندی های جدید از بافت های ناکارآمد شهری است. فرآیندی که به افول کیفیت و به تبع آن دگرگونی زندگی روزمرة ساکنین در این بافت ها می انجامد. از آن روی که فضاهای سینماتیک به عنوان یک فضای برساخته، به بهترین نحو، منطق سرشت نمای بازنمایی زندگی روزمرة شهری را منعکس می کنند، نگاه به فضاهای شهری از دریچة سینما، شاید ره یافتی باشد که شیوة نوینی از مواجهه با فضا و تاریخ را ممکن می کند\nهدف: شناسایی و طبقه بندی مضامین شهری و الگوهای غالب زیست روزمرة ساکنین بافت تاریخی تهران، از خلال داده های تصویری و روایی فیلم های سینمای ایران هدف اصلی پژوهش است\nروش: نوشتار حاضر از روش شناسی تحلیل مضمون بهره می برد و می کوشد تا نگرشی نوین نسبت به تحولات فضایی در محدوده تاریخی تهران اتخاذ نماید. برای این منظور تعداد 30 اثر سینمایی داستانی از سینمای ایران بین سال های 1398- 1343 به عنوان حجم نمونه انتخاب شدند\nنتیجه گیری: براساس یافته های پژوهش، سینمای ایران تصویری واجد معنا از ارتباط میان سیر تحول فضاهای شهری و الگوهای زیست روزمرة ساکنین بافت  تاریخی تهران، ارائه می نماید. این الگوها در قالب پنج مضمون با عناوین استحالة شهری، تحولات بافت اجتماعی محلات تاریخی تهران، گشتن و کاویدن در شهر، زندگی جمعی در خانة کاروانسراگونه و مقاومت در متن زندگی روزمرة محلات تاریخی  تهران صورت بندی می گردد. به نظر می رسد که تصویر بازنمایی شده از زندگی روزمرة ساکنین این محدوده در فیلم های سینمای ایران، با عبور از دهه های 70 و 80 به شدت دچار خدشه شده و فضاهایی که روزگاری به عنوان جایگاه تعاملات روزمره و شکل گیری کنش و دادخواهی بازتاب می یافتند، امروزه با تزریق معنای جدید به درون بافت و دستکاری تصویر ذهنی شهروندان از این محدوده، به فضاهایی ناامن و جدا افتاده از جریان زندگی شهر بدل شده اند
Referring to discourse participants in Ibero-Romance languages
Creators: name: Posio, Pekka (Ed.)
name: Herbeck, Peter (Ed.)
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: personal pronouns
subject: expressed vs. non-expressed
subject: 400 Sprache::410 Linguistik::410 Linguistik

description: Synopsis: This volume brings together contributions by researchers focusing on personal pronouns in Ibero-Romance languages, going beyond the well-established variable of expressed vs. non-expressed subjects. While factors such as agreement morphology, topic shift and contrast or emphasis have been argued to account for variable subject expression, several corpus studies on Ibero-Romance languages have shown that the expression of subject pronouns goes beyond these traditionally established factors and is also subject to considerable dialectal variation. One of the factors affecting choice and expression of personal pronouns or other referential devices is whether the construction is used personally or impersonally. The use and emergence of new impersonal constructions, eventually also new (im)personal pronouns, as well as the variation found in the expression of human impersonality in different Ibero-Romance language varieties is another interesting research area that has gained ground in the recent years. In addition to variable subject expression, similar methods and theoretical approaches have been applied to study the expression of objects. Finally, the reference to the addressee(s) using different address pronouns and other address forms is an important field of study that is closely connected to the variable expression of pronouns. The present book sheds light on all these aspects of reference to discourse participants. The volume contains contributions with a strong empirical background and various methods and both written and spoken corpus data from Ibero-Romance languages. The focus on discourse participants highlights the special properties of first and second person referents and the factors affecting them that are often different from the anaphoric third person. The chapters are organized into three thematic sections: (i) Variable expression of subjects and objects, (ii) Between personal and impersonal, and (iii) Reference to the addressee.
Choice of a family planning outlet in urban areas: The role of distance and quality of services in Kenya and Uganda
Creators: name: Guilkey, David
name: Winston, Jennifer
name: Speizer, Ilene S.
name: Macharia, Peter M.
name: Calhoun, Lisa M.
Publisher: name: Frontiers Media S.A.
Year: 2023

description: Introduction Quality of care and physical access to health facilities affect facility choice for family planning (FP). These factors may disproportionately impact young contraceptive users. Understanding which components of service quality drive facility choice among contraceptive users of all ages can inform strategies to strengthen FP programming for all potential users of FP. Methods This study uses data from Population Services International's Consumer's Market for Family Planning (CM4FP) project, to examine drivers of facility choice among female FP users. The data collected from female contraceptive users, the outlet where they obtained their contraceptive method, and the complete set of alternative outlets in select urban areas of Kenya and Uganda were used. We use a mixed logit model, with inverse probability weights to correct for selection into categories of nonuse and missing facility data. We consider results separately for youth (18–24) and women aged 25–49 in both countries. Results We find that in both countries and across age groups, users were willing to travel further to public outlets and to outlets offering more methods. Other outlet attributes, including signage, pharmacy, stockouts, and provider training, were important to women in certain age groups or country. Discussion These results shed light on what components of service quality drive outlet choice among young and older users and can inform strategies to strengthen FP programming for all potential users of FP in urban settings.
A Neural Network Model of Continual Learning with Cognitive Control
Creators: name: Russin, Jacob
name: Zolfaghar, Maryam
name: Park, Seongmin A.
name: Boorman, Erie
name: O'Reilly, Randall C.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC)
subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Neural and Evolutionary Computing (cs.NE)
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: Neural networks struggle in continual learning settings from catastrophic forgetting: when trials are blocked, new learning can overwrite the learning from previous blocks. Humans learn effectively in these settings, in some cases even showing an advantage of blocking, suggesting the brain contains mechanisms to overcome this problem. Here, we build on previous work and show that neural networks equipped with a mechanism for cognitive control do not exhibit catastrophic forgetting when trials are blocked. We further show an advantage of blocking over interleaving when there is a bias for active maintenance in the control signal, implying a tradeoff between maintenance and the strength of control. Analyses of map-like representations learned by the networks provided additional insights into these mechanisms. Our work highlights the potential of cognitive control to aid continual learning in neural networks, and offers an explanation for the advantage of blocking that has been observed in humans.
description: 7 pages, 5 figures, paper accepted as a talk to CogSci 2022 (https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gn3w58z)
B-meson production in the Parton Reggeization Approach at Tevatron and the LHC
Creators: name: Karpishkov, Anton
name: Saleev, Vladimir
name: Nefedov, Maxim
name: Shipilova, Alexandra
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the inclusive hadroproduction of $B^0$, $B^+$, and $B_s^0$ mesons at leading order in the parton Reggeization approach using the universal fragmentation functions extracted from the combined $e^+e^-$ annihilation data from CERN LEP1 and SLAC SLC colliders. We have described $B$-meson transverse momentum distributions measured in the central region of rapidity by the CDF Collaboration at Fermilab Tevatron and CMS Collaboration at LHC within uncertainties and without free parameters, applying Kimber-Martin-Ryskin unintegrated gluon distribution function in a proton. The forward $B$-meson production ($2.0
description: 17 pages, 11 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1410.7139
Machine learning technique for signal-background separation of nuclear interaction vertices in the CMS detector
Creators: name: Kropivnitskaya, Anna
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2020

description: The CMS inner tracking system is a fully silicon-based high precision detector. Accurate knowledge of the positions of active and inactive elements is important for simulating the detector, planning detector upgrades, and reconstructing charged particle tracks. Nuclear interactions of hadrons with the detector material create secondary vertices whose positions map the material with a sub-millimeter precision in situ, while the detector is collecting data from LHC collisions. A neural network (NN) with two hidden layers was used to separate secondary vertices due to combinatorial background from those arising from nuclear interactions with material. The NN was trained and tested on data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded in 2018 at the LHC. Supervised NN training is performed using Keras and Matplotlib in a Jupyter notebook. Secondary vertices in the training data are classified as signal or background, based on their geometrical position. Even though the variables used in training show only small differences between background and signal, the NN has impressive separation power. Tomographies of the CMS inner tracker detector before and after background cleaning are presented. Slides of the presentation.
Converting ECG and other paper legated biomedical maps into digital signals
Creators: name: Silva, A. R. Gomes e
name: de Oliveira, H. M.
name: Lins, R. D.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2015
Subjects: subject: Other Computer Science (cs.OH)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: This paper presents a digital signal processing tool developed using MatlabTM, which provides a very low-cost and effective strategy for analog-to-digital conversion of legated paper biomedical maps without requiring dedicated hardware. This software-based approach is particularly helpful for digitalizing biomedical signals acquired from analogical devices equipped with a plottingter. Albeit signals used in biomedical diagnosis are the primary concern, this imaging processing tool is suitable to modernize facilities in a non-expensive way. Legated paper ECG and EEG charts can be fast and efficiently digitalized in order to be added in existing up-to-date medical data banks, improving the follow-up of patients.
description: 6 pages, 9 figures
Editorial: Women in Pediatric Dentistry Research: Are We There Yet?
Creators: name: Modesto Vieira, Adriana
name: Ribeiro, Apoena de Aguiar
Publisher: name: Frontiers Media S.A.
Year: 2023

description: Since Lucy Hobbs Taylor, the first woman to earn a degree in dentistry more than 150 years ago, the inclusion of women in dentistry has slowly progressed. Women make up only 30% to 40% of the dental workforce in Oceania, Europe, Africa and Asia (1). Besides the higher number of women in the profession, research shows that women earn less, even after adjusting for specialty and hours worked. Additionally, all else equal, dentists who are women are less likely to own a practice, more likely to be in dental service organizations and more likely to treat Medicaid patients (2).
Quark star model with charged anisotropic matter
Creators: name: Sunzu, Jefta M.
name: Maharaj, Sunil D.
name: Ray, Subharthi
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We find two new classes of exact solutions to the Einstein-Maxwell system of equations. The matter distribution satisfies a linear equation of state consistent with quark matter. The field equations are integrated by specifying forms for the measure of anisotropy and a gravitational potential which are physically reasonable. The first class has a constant potential and is regular in the stellar interior. It contains the familiar Einstein model as a limiting case and we can generate finite masses for the star. The second class has a variable potential and singularity at the centre. A graphical analysis indicates that the matter variables are well behaved.
description: 9 pages, Submitted for publication
Tensor Network Path Integral Study of Dynamics in B850 LH2 Ring with Atomistically Derived Vibrations
Creators: name: Bose, Amartya
name: Walters, Peter L.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The recently introduced multisite tensor network path integral (MS-TNPI) allows simulation of extended quantum systems coupled to dissipative media. We use MS-TNPI to simulate the exciton transport and the absorption spectrum of a B850 bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) ring. The MS-TNPI network is extended to account for the ring topology of the B850 system. Accurate molecular dynamics-based description of the molecular vibrations and the protein scaffold is incorporated through the framework of Feynman-Vernon influence functional. To relate the present work with the excitonic picture, an exploration of the absorption spectrum is done by simulating it using approximate and topologically consistent transition dipole moment vectors. Comparison of these numerically exact MS-TNPI absorption spectra are shown with second-order cumulant approximations. The effect of temperature on both the exact and the approximate spectra is also explored.
description: 18 pages, 19 figures, 1 table
A structure-preserving finite element approximation of surface diffusion for curve networks and surface clusters
Creators: name: Bao, Weizhu
name: Garcke, Harald
name: Nürnberg, Robert
name: Zhao, Quan
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Numerical Analysis (math.NA)
subject: Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We consider the evolution of curve networks in two dimensions (2d) and surface clusters in three dimensions (3d). The motion of the interfaces is described by surface diffusion, with boundary conditions at the triple junction points/lines, where three interfaces meet, and at the boundary points/lines, where an interface meets a fixed planar boundary. We propose a parametric finite element method based on a suitable variational formulation. The constructed method is semi-implicit and can be shown to satisfy the volume conservation of each enclosed bubble and the unconditional energy-stability, thus preserving the two fundamental geometric structures of the flow. Besides, the method has very good properties with respect to the distribution of mesh points, thus no mesh smoothing or regularization technique is required. A generalization of the introduced scheme to the case of anisotropic surface energies and non-neutral external boundaries is also considered. Numerical results are presented for the evolution of two-dimensional curve networks and three-dimensional surface clusters in the cases of both isotropic and anisotropic surface energies.
description: 29 figures
Novel engineering and characterization of sensing materials and fluidic devices for neuroscience
Creators: name: Hexter, Melissa
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2023

description: Many aspects of neurophysiology such as the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric illness remain unclear due to challenges in non-invasively probing the brain while considering its chemical and physical heterogeneity. Further investigation of the neurochemicals responsible for neuropsychiatric illness, as indicated by the monoamine hypothesis of depression, is therefore limited without addressing these obstacles. The Hashemi lab studies these neurotransmitters and develops translational tools to minimize challenges associated with in vivo analysis while maximizing the predicative power of in vitro models of the brain. The work in this thesis furthers our understanding of the behaviour of carbon fiber micro-electrodes for serotonin measurement and the fluid dynamics of FSCV measurements. This information is critical for the acquisition of physiologically relevant measurements from translational models of neuropsychiatric illness. In this thesis, I begin by reviewing techniques that have been developed to monitor neurotransmitters in Chapter 1. Next, in Chapter 2, I outline the specific methods used to collect measurements with FSCV/FSCAV and to construct the electrodes and fluidic devices characterized in this work. In Chapter 3, I establish a design criterion for the development of fluidic devices for FSCV measurements. I then use this criterion to design a flow cell for FSCV measurements and challenge its reproducibility and stability. This work enabled the validation of the analyte specific decay and variability of CFMEs. Chapter 4 introduced a simple and inexpensive fabrication protocol for a versatile carbon-based electrode with excellent electrochemical kinetics and sensitivity for serotonin measurements with FSCV. After characterizing the performance of this electrode, it was integrated into a simple polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based device to provide a preliminary platform for the optimization of measurements from cells using FSCV (Chapter 5). This work identified adhesion, dead space, electrode geometry, and material rigidity as key parameters in the design of a microfluidic device with an incorporated capacity for FSCV measurements. Chapter 6 concludes the thesis and highlights the future implications of the work. In sum, this work offers novel tools for characterizing sensors for FSCV measurement and a concept for a microfluidic device capable of sensor calibration and measurement from patient-specific in vitro models of the brain. This type of analytical platform would permit the characterization of neurotransmission for preclinical pharmacological screening and/or elucidation of personalized therapies for neuropsychiatric illness.
Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope detection of two new HI 21cm absorbers at $z \approx 2$
Creators: name: Kanekar, Nissim
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: I report the detection of HI 21cm absorption in two high column density damped Lyman-$α$ absorbers (DLAs) at $z \approx 2$ using new wide-band $250-500$ MHz receivers onboard the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope. The integrated HI 21cm optical depths are $0.85 \pm 0.16$ km/s (TXS1755+578) and $2.95 \pm 0.15$ km/s (TXS1850+402). For the $z=1.9698$ DLA towards TXS1755+578, the difference in HI 21cm and CI profiles and the weakness of the radio core suggest that the HI 21cm absorption arises towards radio components in the jet, and that the optical and radio sightlines are not the same. This precludes an estimate of the DLA spin temperature. For the $z = 1.9888$ DLA towards TXS1850+402, the absorber covering factor is likely to be close to unity, as the background source is extremely compact, with all the 5 GHz emission arising from a region of size $\leq 1.4$ mas. This yields a DLA spin temperature of ${\rm T_s} = (372 \pm 18) \times (f/1.0)$ K, lower than typical ${\rm T_s}$ values in high-$z$ DLAs. This low spin temperature and the relatively high metallicity of the $z = 1.9888$ DLA ([Zn/H] $= (-0.68 \pm 0.04)$) are consistent with the anti-correlation between metallicity and spin temperature that has been earlier found in damped Lyman-$α$ systems.
description: 5 pages, 2 figures; in press in Astrophysical Journal Letters. References updated and a typo removed, to match final ApJL version
Tools for efficient Deep Learning
Creators: name: Zhao, Ruizhe
Publisher: name: Imperial College London
Year: 2022

description: In the era of Deep Learning (DL), there is a fast-growing demand for building and deploying Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) on various platforms. This thesis proposes five tools to address the challenges for designing DNNs that are efficient in time, in resources and in power consumption. We first present Aegis and SPGC to address the challenges in improving the memory efficiency of DL training and inference. Aegis makes mixed precision training (MPT) stabler by layer-wise gradient scaling. Empirical experiments show that Aegis can improve MPT accuracy by at most 4\%. SPGC focuses on structured pruning: replacing standard convolution with group convolution (GConv) to avoid irregular sparsity. SPGC formulates GConv pruning as a channel permutation problem and proposes a novel heuristic polynomial-time algorithm. Common DNNs pruned by SPGC have maximally 1\% higher accuracy than prior work. This thesis also addresses the challenges lying in the gap between DNN descriptions and executables by Polygeist for software and POLSCA for hardware. Many novel techniques, e.g. statement splitting and memory partitioning, are explored and used to expand polyhedral optimisation. Polygeist can speed up software execution in sequential and parallel by 2.53 and 9.47 times on Polybench/C. POLSCA achieves 1.5 times speedup over hardware designs directly generated from high-level synthesis on Polybench/C. Moreover, this thesis presents Deacon, a framework that generates FPGA-based DNN accelerators of streaming architectures with advanced pipelining techniques to address the challenges from heterogeneous convolution and residual connections. Deacon provides fine-grained pipelining, graph-level optimisation, and heuristic exploration by graph colouring. Compared with prior designs, Deacon shows resource/power consumption efficiency improvement of 1.2x/3.5x for MobileNets and 1.0x/2.8x for SqueezeNets. All these tools are open source, some of which have already gained public engagement. We believe they can make efficient deep learning applications easier to build and deploy.
Identification of far-red light acclimation in an endolithic Chroococcidiopsis strain and associated genomic features: Implications for oxygenic photosynthesis on exoplanets
Creators: name: Billi, Daniela
name: Napoli, Alessandro
name: Mosca, Claudia
name: Fagliarone, Claudia
name: De Carolis, Roberto
name: Balbi, Amedeo
name: Scanu, Matteo
name: Selinger, Vera M.
name: Antonaru, Laura A.
name: Nürnberg, Dennis J.
Publisher: name: Freie Universität Berlin
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: FaRLiP
subject: desert cyanobacteria
subject: Chroococcidiopsis
subject: astrobiology
subject: biosignature
subject: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie::572 Biochemie

description: Deserts represent extreme habitats where photosynthetic life is restricted to the lithic niche. The ability of rock-inhabiting cyanobacteria to modify their photosynthetic apparatus and harvest far-red light (near-infrared) was investigated in 10 strains of the genus Chroococcidiopsis, previously isolated from diverse endolithic and hypolithic desert communities. The analysis of their growth capacity, photosynthetic pigments, and apcE2-gene presence revealed that only Chroococcidiopsis sp. CCMEE 010 was capable of far-red light photoacclimation (FaRLiP). A total of 15 FaRLiP genes were identified, encoding paralogous subunits of photosystem I, photosystem II, and the phycobilisome, along with three regulatory elements. CCMEE 010 is unique among known FaRLiP strains by undergoing this acclimation process with a significantly reduced cluster, which lacks major photosystem I paralogs psaA and psaB. The identification of an endolithic, extremotolerant cyanobacterium capable of FaRLiP not only contributes to our appreciation of this phenotype’s distribution in nature but also has implications for the possibility of oxygenic photosynthesis on exoplanets.
Consumerism in Healthcare - A scoping Review
Creators: name: KUDZAI MUKUMBA
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Social and Behavioral Sciences

description: Consumerism, in the healthcare context, is a movement which focuses mainly on the involvement of patients/consumers in the healthcare team with regard to decisions affecting their overall care. Fine (1988) wrote about how the emergence of consumerism in healthcare was about the almost unheard of impetus to share information with patients/consumers. To this day, consumerism has no one set definition. Consumerism focuses on the role of patients/consumers in the healthcare encounter, from taking financial responsibility, to personal health seeking behaviour by patients/clients when seeking care, to the acceptance of and the value of their involvement in the overall decision making. (Downie, 2017). In recent years there has been a transition from the use of the word ‘patient’ to the use of the term ‘consumer’ in a number of healthcare settings. However, the use of the term ‘consumer’ remains either related to context or a matter of preference in many healthcare settings and encounters. The digital era and its impact on healthcare systems and encounters has changed the way many patients or ‘consumers’ of health care seek out their health care knowledge. Despite the rise of popularity of this term, a systematic mapping of the literature has not yet occurred. There is a need to map out what is known about consumerism in healthcare, as reflected in the current literature.
Graph Lifelong Learning: A Survey
Creators: name: Febrinanto, Falih Gozi
name: Xia, Feng
name: Moore, Kristen
name: Thapa, Chandra
name: Aggarwal, Charu
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Machine Learning (cs.LG)
subject: Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences
subject: I.2.6
subject: 68T07, 68T05

description: Graph learning is a popular approach for performing machine learning on graph-structured data. It has revolutionized the machine learning ability to model graph data to address downstream tasks. Its application is wide due to the availability of graph data ranging from all types of networks to information systems. Most graph learning methods assume that the graph is static and its complete structure is known during training. This limits their applicability since they cannot be applied to problems where the underlying graph grows over time and/or new tasks emerge incrementally. Such applications require a lifelong learning approach that can learn the graph continuously and accommodate new information whilst retaining previously learned knowledge. Lifelong learning methods that enable continuous learning in regular domains like images and text cannot be directly applied to continuously evolving graph data, due to its irregular structure. As a result, graph lifelong learning is gaining attention from the research community. This survey paper provides a comprehensive overview of recent advancements in graph lifelong learning, including the categorization of existing methods, and the discussions of potential applications and open research problems.
description: 19 pages, 4 figures
Extreme Water Loss and Abiotic O$_2$ Buildup On Planets Throughout the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
Creators: name: Luger, Rodrigo
name: Barnes, Rory
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2014
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We show that terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of M dwarfs older than $\sim$ 1 Gyr could have been in runaway greenhouses for several hundred Myr following their formation due to the star's extended pre-main sequence phase, provided they form with abundant surface water. Such prolonged runaway greenhouses can lead to planetary evolution divergent from that of Earth. During this early runaway phase, photolysis of water vapor and hydrogen/oxygen escape to space can lead to the loss of several Earth oceans of water from planets throughout the habitable zone, regardless of whether the escape is energy-limited or diffusion-limited. We find that the amount of water lost scales with the planet mass, since the diffusion-limited hydrogen escape flux is proportional to the planet surface gravity. In addition to undergoing potential desiccation, planets with inefficient oxygen sinks at the surface may build up hundreds to thousands of bars of abiotically produced O$_2$, resulting in potential false positives for life. The amount of O$_2$ that builds up also scales with the planet mass; we find that O$_2$ builds up at a constant rate that is controlled by diffusion: $\sim$ 5 bars/Myr on Earth-mass planets and up to $\sim$ 25 bars/Myr on super-Earths. As a result, some recently discovered super-Earths in the habitable zone such as GJ 667Cc could have built up as many as 2000 bars of O$_2$ due to the loss of up to 10 Earth oceans of water. The fate of a given planet strongly depends on the extreme ultraviolet flux, the duration of the runaway regime, the initial water content, and the rate at which oxygen is absorbed by the surface. In general, we find that the initial phase of high luminosity may compromise the habitability of many terrestrial planets orbiting low mass stars.
description: 24 pages, 15 figures. Accepted in Astrobiology