julilili42/papers huggingface dataset:
Water flow elastography – A promising tool to measure tissue stiffness during minimally invasive surgery
2023-07-01

Mechanical properties are important markers for pathological processes in tissue. Elastography techniques are therefore becoming more and more useful for diagnostics. In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), however, the probe size is limited and the handling is restricted, thereby excluding the application of most established elastography techniques. In this paper we introduce water flow elastography (WaFE) as a new technique that benefits from a small and inexpensive probe. This probe flows pressurized water against the sample surface to locally indent it. The volume of the indentation is measured with a flow meter. We use finite element simulations to find the relation between the indentation volume, the water pressure, and the Young's modulus of the sample. We used WaFE to measure the Young's modulus of silicone samples and porcine organs, finding agreement within 10% to measurements with a commercial material testing machine. Our results show that WaFE is a promising technique for providing local elastography in MIS.
Y4O2(CN2)3Cl2, Its Relation to the Metal-Rich Y2Cl3, and the Photoluminescence of Y4O2(CN2)3Cl2:Ce
2023-07-01

Abstract Y 4 O 2 (CN 2 ) 3 Cl 2 and some isotypic rare earth ( RE ) carbodiimides RE 4 O 2 (CN 2 ) 3 Cl 2 ( RE = Sm, Gd, Tb) were prepared by solid-state metathesis reaction between RE Cl 3 , RE OCl and Li 2 CN 2 . The crystal structure of Y 4 O 2 (CN 2 ) 3 Cl 2 was solved and refined from single-crystal XRD data with the monocline space group C2/m . Homologous compounds with RE = Sm, Gd, Tb were assigned isotypically by means of XRD powder diffraction. The structure of Y 4 O 2 (CN 2 ) 3 Cl 2 is characterized by one-dimensional cluster chains which are showing a striking resemblance to the trans-edge bridging RE 6 -octahedra in the structures of Y 2 Cl 3 , β -Y 2 Cl 3 N, and RE 2 N(CN 2 )Cl, despite different numbers of cluster electrons. Crystals of RE 4 O 2 (CN 2 ) 3 Cl 2 appear as transparent rods. The presence of (NCN) 2− ions is confirmed by infrared spectroscopy. Y 4 O 2 (CN 2 ) 3 Cl 2 , doped with Ce 3+ is a photoluminescent material that is showing an emission band in the orange region (λ = 550 nm) of the visible spectrum.
180° view on general practitioners’ leadership skills: practice-level comparisons of leader and staff assessments using data from the cluster-randomised controlled IMPROVEjobstudy
2023-07-01

Objectives Strong primary care leaders are needed to assure high quality services for patient populations. This study analysed general practitioners’ (GP) leadership skills comparing practice-level self and staff assessments based on the full range of leadership model and the leader-member exchange (LMX). Setting The questionnaire survey was conducted among German general practice leaders and their staff participating in the IMPROVE job trial. Participants The study population comprised 60 German general practices with 366 participants: 84 GP practice leaders and 282 employees (28 physicians and 254 practice assistants). Primary and secondary outcome measures Leadership skills of the practice leaders were measured using the Integrative Leadership Questionnaire (German Fragebogen für integrative Führung) and the LMX-7 questionnaire. Leaders rated themselves and practice staff rated their leaders. The data was analysed by paired mean comparisons on the practice level. Results For most leadership dimensions, practice leaders rated themselves higher than their employees rated them. Differences were found for transformational leadership (p&lt;0.001, d=0.41), especially for the dimensions ‘innovation’ (p&lt;0.001, d=0.69) and ‘individuality focus’ (p&lt;0.001, d=0.50). For transactional leadership, the dimension ‘goal setting’ differed significantly (p&lt;0.01, d=0.30) but not the other dimensions. Scores for negative leadership were low and showed no differences between leaders and employees. Interestingly, employed physicians’ rated their practice leaders higher on the two transformational (‘performance development’, ‘providing a vision’) and all transactional dimensions. The LMX-7 scale showed high quality relationships between leaders and employees. Conclusions This 180° analysis of GPs’ leadership skills with self and employee ratings indicated good relationships. There is a potential to improve leadership regarding goal-setting, innovation and focusing on individual team members. These results allow for the development of targeted interventions. Trial registration number German Clinical Trials Register, DRKS00012677. Registered 16 October 2019.
A sweet spot for the sleeping brain: Linking human sleep physiology and glucoregulation
2023-07-01

Vallat et al.<sup>1</sup> demonstrate a positive association between the coupling of slow oscillations and sleep spindles, neurophysiological markers of NREM sleep, and next-morning glucose homeostasis. Extended findings in an independent dataset raise intriguing questions about its directionality and consistency.
Exploring Motor Network Connectivity in State-Dependent Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Proof-of-Concept Study
2023-07-01

Abstract State-dependent non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) informed by electroencephalography (EEG) has contributed to the understanding of NIBS inter-subject and inter-session variability. While these approaches focused on local EEG characteristics, it is acknowledged that the brain exhibits an intrinsic long-range dynamic organization in networks. This proof-of-concept study explores whether EEG connectivity of the primary motor cortex (M1) in the pre-stimulation period aligns with the motor network (MN) and how MN state affects responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of M1. One thousand suprathreshold TMS pulses were delivered to left M1 in 8 subjects at rest, with simultaneous EEG. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were measured from the right hand. Source-space functional connectivity of left M1 to the whole-brain was assessed using the imaginary part of the Phase Locking Value at the frequency of the sensorimotor μ-rhythm in a 1-second window before the pulse. Group-level connectivity revealed functional links between left M1, left supplementary motor area, and right M1. Also, pulses delivered at high MN connectivity states result in a greater MEP amplitude compared to low connectivity states. At single-subject level, this relation is more expressed in subjects that feature an overall high cortico-spinal excitability. In conclusion, this study paves the way for MN connectivity based NIBS. Highlights EEG pre-stimulus connectivity of left M1 largely corresponds to the motor network Stronger motor network (MN) connectivity corresponds to greater MEP amplitudes Linear regression models based on MN connectivity predicts MEP amplitude
The Beep-Speed Illusion Cannot Be Explained With a Simple Selection Bias
2023-07-01

Abstract: An object appears to move at higher speed than another equally fast object when brief nonspatial tones coincide with its changes in motion direction. We refer to this phenomenon as the beep-speed illusion ( Meyerhoff et al., 2022 , Cognition, 219, 104978). The origin of this illusion is unclear; however, attentional explanations and potential biases in the response behavior appear to be plausible candidates. In this report, we test a simple bias explanation that emerges from the way the dependent variable is assessed. As the participants have to indicate the faster of the two objects, participants possibly always indicate the audio-visually synchronized object in situations of perceptual uncertainty. Such a response behavior potentially could explain the observed shift in perceived speed. We therefore probed the magnitude of the beep-speed illusion when the participants indicated either the object that appeared to move faster or the object that appeared to move slower. If a simple selection bias would explain the beep-speed illusion, the response pattern should be inverted with the instruction to indicate the slower object. However, contrary to this bias hypothesis, illusion emerged indistinguishably under both instructions. Therefore, simple selection biases cannot explain the beep-speed illusion.
Preferences of women in difficult life situations for a physical activity programme: protocol of a discrete choice experiment in the German NU-BIG project
2023-07-01

Introduction The BIG project (‘Bewegung als Investition in die Gesundheit’, ie, ‘Movement as Investment in Health’) was developed in 2005 as a community-based participatory research programme to offer accessible opportunities for physical activity to women in difficult life situations. Since then, the programme has been expanded to eight sites in Germany. A systematic evaluation of BIG is currently being conducted. As part of this effort, we strive to understand the preferences of participating women for different aspects of the programme, and to analyse their willingness to pay. Methods and analysis In this protocol, we describe the development and analysis plan of a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to investigate participants’ preferences for a physical activity programme for women in difficult life situations. The experiment will be embedded in a questionnaire covering several aspects of participation in the programme (eg, reach, efficacy and further effects) and the socioeconomic characteristics of all active participants. After a thorough search of the literature, BIG documents review and expert interviews, we identified five important attributes of the programme: course times, travel time to the course venue, additional social activities organised by BIG, consideration of wishes and interests for the further planning of courses and costs per course unit. Thereafter, we piloted the experiment with a sample of participants from the target group. After data collection, the experiment will be analysed using a conditional logit model and a latent class analysis to assess eventual heterogeneity in preferences. Ethics and dissemination Understanding women’s preferences will provide useful insights for the further development of the programme and ultimately increase participation and retention. The questionnaire, the included DCE and the pretest on participants received ethical approval (application no. 20-247_1-B). We plan to disseminate the results of the DCE in peer-reviewed journals, national conferences and among participants and programme coordinators and organisers.
“An Emotional Leap”: Australia’s and New Zealand’s Search for a Post-imperial Belonging
2023-07-01

Abstract In the 1960s, it became apparent that the seemingly strong ties between Britain and the former settler colonies of Australia and New Zealand were in danger of disintegrating. Britain’s entry into the European Economic Community in the early 1970s was a symbolic end point to their affiliation. Since belonging is closely linked to emotions, this prompted a re-ordering of emotional practices in Australian and New Zealand society. As Britain’s turn to Europe was interpreted by the majority in these countries as an abandonment, Britishness could no longer be the main self-descriptor of identity, and the “British World” no longer the world to live in. Multicultural policies meant a re-evaluation and re-shaping of social coexistence in Australia and New Zealand. Food cultures as cultural heritage were emotionally reinterpreted and appropriated, as they offered new possibilities for identification in the search for a new national identity. The relationship with neighbors in the South Pacific was also placed on a new emotional footing, while the British were excluded via mechanisms of “emotional othering.” These processes of emotional detachment from Britain had direct influences on how Australia and New Zealand positioned themselves in and in relation to the world.
Rewriting rules, changing worlds: Diegetic and ludic forms of metareference in The Magic Circle
2023-07-01

Abstract In addition to transmedial techniques such as metalepses, allegories, or obtrusive narrators, contemporary videogames also use medium-specific forms, including game rules, mechanics, or interfaces, to create metareference. Similarly, metareferential games seem not only concerned with questions of their fictionality but show particular interest in their own technological infrastructure and embeddedness in digital culture. In this article, I propose a systematic approach to analysing metareference in videogames, distinguishing between the gameworld and the game system as the two main layers of communication from which metareference emerges. In a case study of the indie metagame The Magic Circle (Question 2015), I show that the game’s distinctive metareferential style is the result of interactions between what I call diegetic and ludic forms of metareference, and which are produced at the level of the gameworld and the game system, respectively.
The Falsificationist View of Machine Learning
2023-07-01

Machine learning pushes the frontiers of algorithmic achievements, though the striving for state-of-the-art performance often obscures the fragility of enforcing decisions amid uncertainty. This paper interprets machine learning within Karl Popper’s epistemology. We assess machine learning paradigms’ fit for falsificationism and argue that the new interpretation can improve robustness. Though the price is to accept unambiguous decisions, the restriction of the hypothesis space still adds value. The context for our work is established by comparison with similar techniques and highlighting its limitations.
Valeria Merlo discussion of: Natural resource revenues and municipal finance
2023-07-01

Journal Article Valeria Merlo discussion of: Natural resource revenues and municipal finance Get access Valeria Merlo Valeria Merlo University of Tübingen Email: valeria.merlo@uni-tuebingen.de Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Economic Policy, Volume 38, Issue 115, July 2023, Pages 605–606, https://doi.org/10.1093/epolic/eiad040 Published: 06 February 2024
Reply on RC2
2023-07-02

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> The European Alps are hypothesized to have experienced diachronous surface uplift in response to post-collisional processes such as, e.g., slab break-off. Therefore, understanding the geodynamic and geomorphic evolution of the Alps requires knowledge of its surface uplift history. This study presents the simulated response of regional climate and oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation (&delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub>) to different along-strike topographic evolution scenarios. These responses are modeled to determine if diachronous surface uplift in the Western and Eastern Alps would produce &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub> signals in the geologic record that are sufficiently large and distinct for stable isotope paleoaltimetry. This is tested with a series of sensitivity experiments conducted with the water isotope tracking atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM) ECHAM5-wiso. The topographic scenarios are created from the variation of two free parameters, (1) the elevation of the West-Central Alps and (2) the elevation of the Eastern Alps. Results suggest significant changes in the spatial patterns of &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub>, the elevation-dependent rate of change in &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub> (&ldquo;isotopic lapse rate&rdquo;), near-surface temperatures, precipitation amounts, and atmospheric circulation patterns in response to the different scenarios. The predictions for the diachronous surface uplift experiments are distinctly different from simulations forced with present-day topography and for simulations where the entire Alps experience synchronous surface uplift. Topographic scenarios with higher elevations in the West-Central Alps produce higher magnitude changes and an expansion of the affected geographical domain surrounding the Alps when compared to present-day topography. Furthermore, differences in &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub> values of up to &minus;2 to &minus;8 &permil; are predicted along the strike of the Alps for the diachronous uplift scenarios, suggesting that the signal can be preserved and measured in geologic archives. Lastly, the results highlight the importance of sampling far-field and low-elevation sites using the &delta;-&delta; paleoaltimetry approach to discern between different surface uplift histories.
Reply on RC1
2023-07-02

<strong class="journal-contentHeaderColor">Abstract.</strong> The European Alps are hypothesized to have experienced diachronous surface uplift in response to post-collisional processes such as, e.g., slab break-off. Therefore, understanding the geodynamic and geomorphic evolution of the Alps requires knowledge of its surface uplift history. This study presents the simulated response of regional climate and oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation (&delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub>) to different along-strike topographic evolution scenarios. These responses are modeled to determine if diachronous surface uplift in the Western and Eastern Alps would produce &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub> signals in the geologic record that are sufficiently large and distinct for stable isotope paleoaltimetry. This is tested with a series of sensitivity experiments conducted with the water isotope tracking atmospheric General Circulation Model (GCM) ECHAM5-wiso. The topographic scenarios are created from the variation of two free parameters, (1) the elevation of the West-Central Alps and (2) the elevation of the Eastern Alps. Results suggest significant changes in the spatial patterns of &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub>, the elevation-dependent rate of change in &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub> (&ldquo;isotopic lapse rate&rdquo;), near-surface temperatures, precipitation amounts, and atmospheric circulation patterns in response to the different scenarios. The predictions for the diachronous surface uplift experiments are distinctly different from simulations forced with present-day topography and for simulations where the entire Alps experience synchronous surface uplift. Topographic scenarios with higher elevations in the West-Central Alps produce higher magnitude changes and an expansion of the affected geographical domain surrounding the Alps when compared to present-day topography. Furthermore, differences in &delta;<sup>18</sup>O<sub>p</sub> values of up to &minus;2 to &minus;8 &permil; are predicted along the strike of the Alps for the diachronous uplift scenarios, suggesting that the signal can be preserved and measured in geologic archives. Lastly, the results highlight the importance of sampling far-field and low-elevation sites using the &delta;-&delta; paleoaltimetry approach to discern between different surface uplift histories.
The Pre-Aksumite Period: indigenous origins and development in the Horn of Africa
2023-07-03

The Pre-Aksumite Period (mid-second to late first millennia BC) witnessed the rise of complex societies in the Horn of Africa. Archaeological survey and excavations in the Gulo Makeda region of Eastern Tigrai by the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP) have produced new data and insights into this critical juncture in the cultural history of the region. Based on data from Mezber and other archaeological sites, we present a new Pre-Aksumite chronology and discuss the material culture, settlement, political organisation, economy, agricultural history and regional interactions of this period. We recommend the use of the term ‘Pre-Aksumite Period’ to encompass this time when the earliest polities developed in the region. Mezber provides us with a glimpse into the lifeways of indigenous peoples inhabiting the northern Horn of Africa who encountered South Arabian visitors to the region during the early first millennium BC. Data from Mezber shift our focus from external influences to considering the culture and development of autochthonous peoples of the Ethiopian/Eritrean highlands who had an active role in negotiating cultural contacts. This perspective constitutes a missing piece of the puzzle needed to better understand the broader socio-economic, political and cultural dynamics of the Pre-Aksumite Period.
Subspace partitioning in the human prefrontal cortex resolves cognitive interference
2023-07-03

The human prefrontal cortex (PFC) constitutes the structural basis underlying flexible cognitive control, where mixed-selective neural populations encode multiple task features to guide subsequent behavior. The mechanisms by which the brain simultaneously encodes multiple task–relevant variables while minimizing interference from task-irrelevant features remain unknown. Leveraging intracranial recordings from the human PFC, we first demonstrate that competition between coexisting representations of past and present task variables incurs a behavioral switch cost. Our results reveal that this interference between past and present states in the PFC is resolved through coding partitioning into distinct low-dimensional neural states; thereby strongly attenuating behavioral switch costs. In sum, these findings uncover a fundamental coding mechanism that constitutes a central building block of flexible cognitive control.
How Authoritarianism Transforms: A Framework for the Study of Digital Dictatorship
2023-07-03

Abstract While digital technologies have induced profound global transformations, political scientists often lack the analytical tools to grasp their effects on politics. In particular, digitization's impact on dictatorships remains not only empirically understudied, but seriously under-conceptualized. How do new technological possibilities affect autocratic politics? This contribution starts from the inner logic of authoritarianism rather than from technical innovation. It first maps the ways in which autocrats employ various digital technologies to maintain power. This helps us identify seven core areas where dictatorial politics are transformed by the use of new tools. We delineate the key characteristics of these areas of change and conclude that, in their sum, technologically induced transformations significantly alter the nature of dictatorship if and when it is digitized.
“How is your thesis going?”–Ph.D. students’ perspectives on mental health and stress in academia
2023-07-03

Mental health issues among Ph.D. students are prevalent and on the rise, with multiple studies showing that Ph.D. students are more likely to experience symptoms of mental health-related issues than the general population. However, the data is still sparse. This study aims to investigate the mental health of 589 Ph.D. students at a public university in Germany using a mixed quantitative and qualitative approach. We administered a web-based self-report questionnaire to gather data on the mental health status, investigated mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, and potential areas for improvement of the mental health and well-being of Ph.D. students. Our results revealed that one-third of the participants were above the cut-off for depression and that factors such as perceived stress and self-doubt were prominent predictors of the mental health status of Ph.D. students. Additionally, we found job insecurity and low job satisfaction to be predictors of stress and anxiety. Many participants in our study reported working more than full-time while being employed part-time. Importantly, deficient supervision was found to have a negative effect on Ph.D. students’ mental health. The study’s results are in line with those of earlier investigations of mental health in academia, which likewise reveal significant levels of depression and anxiety among Ph.D. students. Overall, the findings provide a greater knowledge of the underlying reasons and potential interventions required for advancing the mental health problems experienced by Ph.D. students. The results of this research can guide the development of effective strategies to support the mental health of Ph.D. students.