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This study focussed on the development of fully biodegradable composites based on polybutylene succinate (PBS) in combination with raw materials from different processing stages of the pulp and paper industry. Sulfite pulp (SP), kraft pulp (KP) and screened sludge residue (SL) from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) were investigated as reinforcing fibres contributing to a circular economy. We report a comparative study of the physicochemical properties and mechanical performance of PBS composites reinforced with these cellulosic raw fibres and commercial pure microcrystalline cellulose (MC). The composites were characterised in tensile strength, elongation at break, modulus of elasticity, water absorption and wettability. The incorporation of the fibres into the polymer matrix was also investigated using torque rheometry. Critical concentrations were obtained with maximum incorporation in the range of 15–20 wt% for SP/KP and 25–30 wt% for SL. SP and KP composites showed at least as good physicochemical and mechanical properties as MC at the concentrations studied (0–20 wt%). SP-composites showed the highest tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. It was shown that these fibres from the pulp and paper industry can be used as reinforcement for PBS matrices without additional chemical purification and provide a valuable alternative to commercial microcrystalline cellulose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined how a group of Chinese undergraduate students understood paraphrasing and source use conventions for research paper writing in English. Prior scholarship has generated valuable insights about novice second language (L2) writers' unconventional source use practices, but little is known about how these writers interpret and understand source use expectations for English academic writing. We followed a group of nine Chinese undergraduate students for an academic term as they learned to paraphrase and write with sources for their research paper assignments. Drafts of students' papers were collected and rounds of text-based interviews were conducted where students were asked to explain their source use decisions. Findings showed that the students actively and constantly referenced their source use knowledge of Chinese essay writing to help make sense of source use expectations for English academic writing, although their understanding of English academic source use as well as their rendition of culture may likely be viewed by expert academic writers as 'insufficient' or 'inadequate'. We conclude by highlighting the importance of foregrounding learner voice and acknowledging the legitimacy of the interpretations of novice L2 writers as intercultural informants in the teaching of English academic source use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quantifiable predictability in the citation counts of articles is significant in scientometrics and informetrics. Many metrics based on the citation counts can evaluate the scientific impact of research articles and journals. Utilising time series models, an article's citation counts up to the y th year after publication can be predicted by those up to the previous years. However, the typically used models cannot predict the fat tail of the actual citation distributions. Thus, based on cumulative advantage of the citation behaviour, we propose a method to predict the accumulated citation counts, by using a random number sampled from a power-law distribution to modify the results given by a recurrent neural network (RNN), long short-term memory. Extensive experiments on the data set including 17 journals in information science verified the effectiveness of our method by the good fittings on distributions and evolutionary trends of the citation counts of articles. Our method has the potential to be extended to predict other popular assessment measures such as impact factor and h -index for journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating academic papers and groups is important in scholar evaluation and literature retrieval. However, current evaluation indices, which pay excessive attention to the citation number rather than the citation importance and unidirectionality, are relatively simple. This study proposes new evaluation indices for papers and groups. First, an improved PageRank (PR) algorithm introducing citation importance is proposed to obtain a new citation-based paper index (CPI) via a pre-ranking and fine-tuning strategy. Second, to evaluate the paper's influence inside and outside its research field, the focus citation-based paper index (FCPI) and diversity citation-based paper index (DCPI) are proposed based on topic similarity and diversity, respectively. Third, aside from the statistical indices for academic papers, we propose a foreign academic degree of dependence (FAD) to characterise the dependence between two academic groups. Finally, artificial intelligence (AI) papers from 2005 to 2019 are utilised for a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landmark 2016 Minimal Invasive Extracorporeal Technologies International Society (MiECTiS) position paper promoted the creation of a common language between cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists and perfusionists which led to the development of a stable framework that paved the way for the advancement of minimal invasive perfusion and related technologies. The current expert consensus document offers an update in areas for which new evidence has emerged. In the light of published literature, modular minimal invasive extracorporeal circulation (MiECC) has been established as a safe and effective perfusion technique that increases biocompatibility and ultimately ensures perfusion safety in all adult cardiac surgical procedures, including re-operations, aortic arch and emergency surgery. Moreover, it was recognized that incorporation of MiECC strategies advances minimal invasive cardiac surgery (MICS) by combining reduced surgical trauma with minimal physiologic derangements. Minimal Invasive Extracorporeal Technologies International Society considers MiECC as a physiologically-based multidisciplinary strategy for performing cardiac surgery that is associated with significant evidence-based clinical benefit that has accrued over the years. Widespread adoption of this technology is thus strongly advocated to obtain additional healthcare benefit while advancing patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recycling every viable material to produce new value-added products not only reduces waste, but also provides an opportunity to create sustainable and innovative solutions while preserving our natural resources. With this motivation, electrically conductive one-dimensional carbon fibers and two-dimensional aluminum flakes reinforced cellulose matrix composite papers were manufactured using recycled materials with a scalable, eco-friendly, and low-cost papermaking process. The designed composite paper showed 36.1 dB electromagnetic interference shielding efficiency (EMSE) with an absorbance-dominated performance by absorbing 98.85% of electromagnetic waves. An efficient impedance matching was obtained on the composite paper surface using reinforcements with different morphologies. Cellulose paper samples were converted to electrically conductive composites (0.415 S/cm), and the electrical conductivity was altered by tailoring the reinforcement ratios. Thermo-mechanical test results revealed that the cellulose matrix's storage modulus was increased from 1.44 to 2.1 GPa with a 46.5% improvement. The composite cellulose paper represented increased hydrophilicity with higher porosity. The environmentally friendly composite paper responses to the escalating environmental worries and possesses a tremendous possibility of being utilized as an electromagnetic shielding material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a major contradiction in contemporary urban planning. This is the relationship between the entrepreneurial modes of urban politics that shape contemporary planning practice and the interrelated dynamics of economic precarity and informalisation of low-income communities that exacerbate contagion, and therefore enable pandemic spread. Through a review of literature on the urban dimensions of COVID-19, and on the historical relationship between pandemics and urban planning, we develop a framework for analysing the debates that are emerging around planning approaches to addressing contemporary pandemic risk in low-income, informalised communities. We argue that post-pandemic debates about urban planning responses are likely to take shape around three discourses that have framed approaches to addressing informalised communities under entrepreneurial urbanism – a revanchist approach based on territorial stigmatisation of spaces of the poor, an incrementalist approach premised on addressing the most immediate drivers of contagion, and a reformist approach that seeks to address the structural conditions that have produced economic precarity and shelter informality. We further argue that any effort to assess the political outfall of the COVID-19 pandemic in a given context needs to take an inter-scalar approach, analysing how debates over informality take shape at the urban and national scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the introduction of Special Sections in the periodical, inviting Guest Editors to submit proposals for thematic issues. Topics discussed include the process for proposal submission and evaluation; the importance of global relevance and high-quality content; and the journal's recent achievement of reaching Q1 ranking.

In the era of print reading, being selected as a cover paper holds a crucial role in attracting greater attention and bolstering academic influence. It is important to assess its effect on scholarly attention and academic influence, particularly in light of the evolving reading habits among researchers. In this study, we empirically estimate the impact of ‘being selected as a cover paper’ on scholarly online attention (proxied by altmetric score) and academic influence (measured by citation counts). This analysis is based on a data set comprising 25,238 papers selected from 10 high-impact materials science journals (with journal impact factors exceeding 10) published between 2016 and 2020. Our findings indicate a positive correlation between ‘being selected as a cover paper’ and scholarly online attention, while its impact on academic influence is insignificant. Our results remain robust even when excluding the top 1% mostly cited papers, employing the negative binomial model and considering various time windows for estimation. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of ‘being selected as a cover paper’ on scholarly online attention holds across nearly all topics, consistent with the baseline result. In addition, online platforms, such as Twitter and News outlets, exhibit a higher frequency of sharing research featured as cover papers. We offer suggestive evidence that ‘being selected as a cover paper’ is not solely contingent on its quality. These findings contribute to the development of a precise, dynamic and multi-dimensional evaluation framework, crucial for navigating the revolution of science communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patent citations received by a paper are considered one of the most appropriate indicators for quantifying the technological impact of scientific research. In light of the large number of published research outcomes, technology developers need an effective method to identify academic work with potential technological impact and so as to provide scientific theories for the generation of relevant technologies. Focusing on the technical field of artificial intelligence (AI), this study constructs a set of 47 features from seven dimensions and uses feature selection and machine learning models to accurately predict how research papers impact AI technology. The results show that the random forest model is superior to the other tested models in predicting AI patent citations of papers, with citation-related features (such as ‘PaperCitations’ and ‘Background’) playing a vital role in the prediction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the interdisciplinarity scores of papers published in five major Economic journals by analysing their references. It also explores the relationship between interdisciplinarity and citation. The study considers the influence of the citation time window on accumulating citations and investigates the source of citation advantage for high interdisciplinarity papers. Empirical findings reveal a U-shaped curve relationship between the interdisciplinarity of papers and their citation frequency. Papers with high interdisciplinarity do enjoy a citation advantage, which primarily stems from the attention and citations from distant disciplinary papers and multidisciplinary journals. However, it often takes a longer time for the value of interdisciplinary papers to be recognised. Based on these findings, the study discusses the necessity and effectiveness of incentives for interdisciplinary research and provides recommendations for evaluating and managing interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research topics vary in their citation potential. In a metric-wise scientific milieu, it would be probable that authors tend to select citation-attractive topics especially when choosing open access (OA) outlets that are more likely to attract citations. Applying a matched-pairs study design, this research aims to examine the role of research topics in the citation advantage of OA papers. Using a comparative citation analysis method, it investigates a sample of papers published in 47 Elsevier article processing charges (APC)-funded journals in different access models including non-open access (NOA), APC, Green and mixed Green-APC. The contents of the papers are analysed using natural language processing techniques at the title and abstract level and served as a basis to match the NOA papers to their peers in the OA models. The publication years and journals are controlled for in order to avoid their impacts on the citation numbers. According to the results, the OA citation advantage that is observed in the whole sample still holds even for the highly similar OA and NOA papers. This implies that the OA citation surplus is not an artefact of the OA and NOA papers' differences in their topics and, therefore, in their citation potential. This leads to the conclusion that OA authors' self-selectivity, if it exists at all, is not responsible for the OA citation advantage, at least as far as selection of topics with probably higher citation potentials is concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authentication devices transform cheap paper into legitimate documents. They are the sensory, informational, and computational features that make up valuable papers like banknotes and passports, and they provide the confidence required in moments of exchange and passage. These devices – which include techniques like watermarks and specialized threads, proprietary substrates and inks, or RFID chips – are the product of security printing, an industry that continuously reinvents the possibilities of paper. Importantly, these components protect paper things from counterfeiting, allowing it to function as an original and authentic copy and to do the logistical work of connecting quotidian materials to global networks. The value of valuable papers is therefore not purely extrinsic, socially or discursively established, but is also performed through its intrinsic material qualities. These are the authentication devices that are read, assessed, and trusted as paper things are circulated, and they are what securely connects paper to infrastructures of mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how the Mexican state gathered, archived and destroyed information. It focuses on the US–Mexico campaign against foot-and-mouth disease between 1947 and 1952, whose paper archive Mexican officials burned near the successful conclusion of the campaign. This article argues that several factors shaped the context for this documentary bonfire and made the 1940s a key point of inflection in Mexico's history of official information-gathering: the dominant party's system of elite power-sharing, the growth of a reading public and the regime's drift rightward. At the same time, the nature of the foot-and-mouth disease campaign itself ensured that, despite its possible uses, the archive was particularly sensitive, providing evidence of the embarrassing gaps that began to yawn between the state's language of revolutionary nationalism and its political practise. Indeed, the bonfire represented the culmination of practises Mexican officials had already developed throughout the campaign to reconcile the demands of legibility and deniability, hemispheric integration and nationalism, political stability and state capacity. More broadly, the case illustrates the uneven effects of US assistance on the development of state capacity, the authoritarian but institutionally weak character of the early PRIísta state, and the role of archives in maintaining a coherent image of state sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tech mining is the application of text mining tools to science and technology information resources. The ever-increasing volume of scientific outputs is a boom to technological innovation, but it also complicates efforts to obtain useful and concise information for problem solving. This challenge extends to tech mining, where the development of techniques compatible with big data is an urgent issue. This article introduces a semi-supervised method for extracting layered technological information from scientific papers in order to extend the reach of tech mining. Our method starts with several pre-set seed patterns used to extract candidate phrases by matching the dependency tree of each sentence. Then, after a series of judgements, phrases are divided into two categories: 'main technique' and 'tech-component'. (A technique, for the purposes of this study, is a method or tool used in the article being analysed.) In order to generate new patterns for subsequent iterations, a weighted pattern learning method is also adopted. Finally, multiple iterations of the method are applied to extract technological information from each paper. A dataset from the field of optical switcher is used to verify the method's effectiveness. Our findings are that (1) by two loops of extraction process in each iteration, our method realises the layered technological information extraction, which contains the 'part–whole' relationships between main techniques and tech-components; (2) the recall rate for main techniques is superior to the baseline after iterating 23 rounds; (3) when layering is disregarded, in the aspect of the precision and the volume of techniques, the new method is higher than that for the baseline; and (4) adjusting another two parameters can optimise the efficiency – however, the effect is neither pronounced nor straightforward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the possibility of the use of paper twines as core reinforcement in thermoset pultruded sandwich composites. Paper twines and glass fiber rovings were co-impregnated with polyester resin and co-pultruded to form sandwich rods. Pultruded sandwich rods were up to 26% lighter with regard to typical monolithic glass fiber reinforced polyester rods. The specific flexural strength and Young's modulus of the sandwich rods were up to 25% higher than those of monolithic glass fiber/polyester commercial rods. Thanks to its light weight and its availability as a continuous twine, paper twines may be used with great flexibility in pultrusion of sandwich structures. This may lead to up to 20–30% weight reduction and cost saving without losing flexural performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a three-dimensional anisotropic multi-surface model for the in-plane elastoplastic deformation of paper and paperboard is developed. The model is based on the concept of structural tensors. It employs three different yield functions and parameterised consistency conditions for three different loading scenarios. The evolution of the yield surface with plastic strain is described by multiple hardening variables. Furthermore, the evolution equations are integrated using the unconditionally stable backward Euler method. Also, the internal variables are updated using a particular form of the elastic predictor/plastic corrector algorithm. The constitutive model is calibrated from a set of simple uniaxial tension tests performed in various directions of the material and is validated against loading in other directions. Additionally, the predictive capability as well as the numerical performance of the constitutive model is accessed against an existing non-quadratic plasticity model. Finally, the applicability of the constitutive model is demonstrated by performing a tensile test on a paperboard with a hole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this reply, the aim of the authors is to correct the calculation errors on solar depression angle and azimuth angle as recognized by Dr. Dalin in his critical review. However, these updated and corrected calculations do not affect the possibility for Antonio Colla of having observed the Noctilucent Cloud (NLC) plausible both in the direction and for the duration he described in his observations. In this reply, the authors offer two different interpretations in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transparent objects are encountered frequently in our daily lives, yet recognizing them poses challenges for conventional vision sensors due to their unique material properties, not being well perceived from RGB or depth cameras. Overcoming this limitation, thermal infrared cameras have emerged as a solution, offering improved visibility and shape information for transparent objects. In this paper, we present TRansPose, the first large-scale multispectral dataset that combines stereo RGB-D, thermal infrared (TIR) images, and object poses to promote transparent object research. The dataset includes 99 transparent objects, encompassing 43 household items, 27 recyclable trashes, 29 chemical laboratory equivalents, and 12 non-transparent objects. It comprises a vast collection of 333,819 images and 4,000,056 annotations, providing instance-level segmentation masks, ground-truth poses, and completed depth information. The data was acquired using an FLIR A65 thermal infrared camera, two Intel RealSense L515 RGB-D cameras, and a Franka Emika Panda robot manipulator. Spanning 87 sequences, TRansPose covers various challenging real-life scenarios, including objects filled with water, diverse lighting conditions, heavy clutter, non-transparent or translucent containers, objects in plastic bags, and multi-stacked objects. Supplementary material can be accessed from the following link: https://sites.google.com/view/transpose-dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Classics Revisited paper examines the contribution of Geikie’s seminal paper, presented to The Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1880, to physical geography as part of geomorphology, weathering, and necrogeography. From this standpoint, physical geography is approached as interdisciplinary, housing geomorphology and cross-disciplinary and applied research in the areas of climate and the environment affecting urban settings. Mortuary evidence is specifically addressed here, as Geikie presented observations and discussion of older churchyards situated in Edinburgh, Scotland. His emphasis permitted a focus on rock-air interactions of funerary remains carved from calcareous materials, sandstones and flagstones, and granites. The former (marbles and limestones) represent the main content of the paper, with an emphasis on superficial solution, internal disintegration, and curvature and fracture affecting calcareous rocks. Geikie’s areas of research interest are still prevalent in the literature today and can be construed as a pioneering work, representing a formative part of rock weathering affected by both climatic and environmental geomorphology in an urban setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leveraging Rubik Tables, the authors designed a constant-factor optimal algorithm for stack rearrangement and multi-robot motion planning problems under extreme robot density. A general algorithm and several specialized algorithms are then introduced to solve the problem, constructing a product between the event model and a specification automaton. Toward that, the authors analyze closed-loop dynamics to identify conditions that lead to deadlock and, using duality theory and KKT conditions, derive geometric properties of robot configurations in deadlock. [Extracted from the article]

There is a considerable amount of waste produced daily from processing old corrugating containers. Dumping this waste product incurs a considerable cost to a paper recycling mill. In this study a sample of waste containing 45% fibrous and 55% non-fibrous solid was collected from an old corrugating containers paper-recycling mill and analyzed in a laboratory. The waste was used to produce wastes-urea formaldehyde composites and wastes-polyethylene composites. Physical and mechanical properties of the resulting manufactured panels were compared with commercially produced medium density fiberboard and particle board. The results presented the possibility of panel production from waste, even without inclusion of any additional material. Additives would obviously enhance the physical and mechanical characteristics of a product to render it more competitive with commercially produced panels. The results also revealed that water absorbability and thickness swelling of panels were much less compared with similar commercially available products. The mechanical characteristics of the manufactured panels were weaker relative to the commercially available ones, probably due to differences in density and thickness. Hence, wastes-urea formaldehyde composites and wastes-polyethylene composites panels can be recommended for application if physical properties are more important than mechanical properties. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues that understanding the power of TikTok's visual discourse is a crucial part of conceptualising the character, inspiration, and ambition of Iran's Gen-Z-led uprising, both at home and across the diaspora. TikTok is a social media platform that depends on visuality. As such, it creates its own specific forms of messaging. This paper seeks to apply an innovative methodology of 'Visual Discourse Tracing' to the Iranian protests. It uses this carefully devised, process-driven method, to highlight the core ways in which TikTok has amplified the message of the Iranian protests, connecting to the grassroots movement and to the longer history of Iranian women's struggle for freedom. Visuality and social media have been crucial in shaping the character of these contemporary protests, necessitating proper theorisation when understanding the wider Iranian protest movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a counter-map of automation in social services decision-making in Australia. It aims to amplify alternative discourses that are often obscured by power inequalities and disadvantage. Redden (2005) has used counter-mapping to frame an analysis of big data in government in Canada, contrasting with 'dominant outward facing government discourses about big data applications' to focus on how data practices are both socially shaped and shaping. This paper reports on a counter-mapping project undertaken in Australia using a mixed methods approach incorporating document analysis, interviews and web scraping to amplify divergent discourses about automated decision-making. It demonstrates that when the focus of analysis moves beyond dominant discourses of neoliberal efficiency, cost cutting, accuracy and industriousness, alternative discourses of service users' experiences of automated decision-making as oppressive, harmful, punitive and inhuman(e) can be located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that a renewed focus on how dominant international practices produce ontological insecurity can help better orient ontological security studies (OSS) to injustice in world politics, particularly as it affects structurally marginalized political actors at multiple levels. It makes this case by bringing the work of Iris Marion Young to bear on OSS, particularly her theory of justice as the elimination of domination and oppression. Drawing on Young's "Five Faces of Oppression," this paper argues that multiple injustices endemic to the international system should be understood as key producers of ontological insecurity in the international system, both in their direct ability to destabilize identities and in their undermining of disadvantaged actors' ontological security-seeking practices. On international scales, these processes transcend levels of analysis, affecting individuals, social groups, and even states in differing ways. Incorporating Young's work into OSS not only helps build a vital bridge between the oft estranged sub-disciplines of political theory and IR, but also can provide scholars a means of better theorizing how ontological insecurity is so often a product of the international system's injustices. The paper thus concludes by proposing a normative turn within OSS, asking whether global justice should be understood as a precondition for ontological security-seeking among multiple co-existing actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we pay attention to event-based iterative learning predictive control for the iterative learning system affected by network delays under two-dimensional (2D) framework. First, the well-posed iterative learning predictive system is introduced to depict the lost data induced by network delays. Subsequently, the prediction-batch–based event-triggered protocol is formulated to help alleviate the adverse influence of network delays. Based on these preparations, we attempt to solve iterative learning predictive control by virtue of the 2D system theorem. To this end, the 2D Roesser-type predictive control model is carried out to describe the iterative learning predictive system, and then, the predictive control problem is considered for such 2D Roesser predictive model. The corresponding stability criteria and controller design are achieved, which also realize the tracking control of the iterative learning system. To conclude this paper, the examples are examined to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and controller design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper studies the design of interval observer–based event-triggered H ∞ controller for switched systems with frequent asynchronism. We first propose an interval observer–based event-triggered mechanism, which is used to transmit the observer states and the activated mode information for controller updating. Then, we design an interval observer–based event-triggered H ∞ controller for the considered systems. By using the controller mode–dependent Lyapunov function method, sufficient conditions for the globally exponential stability of the closed-loop switched systems are obtained under average dwell time switching law. Moreover, we prove that the interevent interval length is a positive constant, which can exclude the Zeno behavior. Compared with the literature, the paper removes the strict requirement of at most one switch between two event-triggered instants, that is, frequent switches within an interevent interval are allowed. Finally, a numerical example is given to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is intended to assess all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to ensure equity and inclusion. This paper explores the extent to which equity and inclusion are achieved for students with disability through NAPLAN reporting. Document analysis of publicly accessible NAPLAN reports, technical reports, handbooks and protocols was conducted to evaluate how this cohort is represented in NAPLAN reports. This paper demonstrates the paucity of NAPLAN reporting about students with disability. It highlights opportunities for NAPLAN data from this cohort to be reported and used to inform educational decisions at all levels (teachers, schools, systems and parents) for students with disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literary reading is under transformation. Digital devices supplement traditional paper books with e-books and audiobooks, and at the same time, ubiquitous digital connection challenges focused reading. Based on a qualitative interview study with adult leisure readers, this article explores how affordances offered by digital technologies influence reading habits. Informants demonstrate how e-books and audiobooks enhance reading experiences, as digital affordances influence the how and the when of literary consumption. Three prominent findings are stated. (1) Readers adapt reading mode to the situation, and experienced readers have developed strategies to maximise the ultimate combination of title, format and reading conditions. (2) Digital reading favours lighter texts. This dimension is more substantial for audiobooks, relating to the wide choice of combining audiobooks with other activities. (3) Being devoted readers motivates people to develop strategies to ensure further reading. These strategies effectively make readers practically and temporally disconnect to immerse in literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thesis of this paper is that, despite its substantial accomplishments over the past 40 years as a professional practice, knowledge management (KM) has yet to mature as an intellectual discipline. The goal of this conceptual paper is to accelerate this maturation by generalizing KM. The paper does so by identifying KM's generic social phenomena and how these phenomena can be better understood through the development of theory oriented around knowledge that defines, predicts, and explains them. KM theory is examined through an extensive review of the existing literature. Four levels of organizational KM are offered, including two that examine an organization's basis (resources) and essence (ideas and actions), while the second two build upon these to examine resource management in general, and the management of knowledge resources specifically. Treating KM as a theoretical object will lead to greater understanding of KM. This enriched understanding will lead to a more effective performance of KM. The achievement of this paper's goal (i.e., generalizing KM) will facilitate the maturation of KM into a discipline and practice that consistently contributes to organizational effectiveness. Little KM literature exists on the conceptualization of knowledge as a theoretical object, which offers the opportunity not only to develop theory that defines, predicts, and explains KM within organizations more systematically but also ultimately to understand better the ways in which KM contributes to individual happiness, community cohesion, and social prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine learning approaches have become a crucial tool in graph analysis. Despite the accurate results of the existing approaches, most of them are not scalable enough to be used in real-world problems. Networks provide two different kinds of information, nodes contents and nodes relations (network structure). Training deep graph neural networks (GNN) over large-scale graphs is challenging due to the limitation of the message passing framework. Graph Convolutional Networks (GCN) work on all node neighbours at once. Furthermore, it is usual to transform node features with a deep neural network before the GC operation. Therefore, the deep transform operation may apply up to hundreds of times for each target node which is heavy computation and hard to batch. This paper presents an abstract framework with two embedding components, the first component embeds node relations, and the second one embeds node contents. The model makes predictions by aggregating these embeddings through a combination component. The presented approach limits the deep transform only to the target node and uses random walk-based embedding instead of the GC operator to reduce the cost. The main goal of the proposed approach is to provide a light framework for the task. To this aim, node relations are embedded based on node neighbourhood structure by a biased variant of the DeepWalk model, called GuidedWalk, and an autoencoder embeds node contents. The experimental results on three well-known datasets show the superiority of the proposed model compared to the state-of-the-art GraphSAGE and TADW models with less computational complexity. On the Citeseer, Cora, and PubMed datasets, the model has achieved 3.23%, 0.88%, and 7.63% improvement in Macro-F1 and 3.25%, 0.7%, and 6.34% improvement in Micro-F1, respectively. Although GNNs are state-of-the-art models, considering node content is their main advantage. This paper shows that even a simple integration of node content to available random walk-based methods improves their performance up to GCNs without increasing the complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Earth and life sciences are replete with portmanteau (blended) words and neologisms. Researchers at the interfaces between the traditional disciplines within the Earth and life sciences have coined dual titles for 'new' disciplines, such as geobiology/biogeology and ecohydrology/hydroecology. An upsurge in such coinage over the last few decades reflects a healthy willingness of many researchers to cross traditional disciplinary boundaries and to include the human sphere within their domains. However, some of the titles cause confusion because their meanings are not self-evident; rather, they sometimes demand extra research to reveal their meanings, thus rendering science less 'open' at a time when Open Science is being vigorously encouraged. After discussing the question of disciplinary neologisms, the paper probes the interchangeability of 15 dual 'new' discipline titles and concludes that six are more-or-less synonymous, three are nonsynonymous, and six are indeterminate for varying reasons. We question the usefulness of some, but by no means all, disciplinary neologisms, given that their meanings are not immediately apparent. Looking beyond portmanteau titles and other neologisms, the paper discusses the rise of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, as seen in the concepts of the Critical Zone, multifunctional landscapes, and Earth System Science, the last of which supports a conceptual model of the planet as an interdependent set of spheres from global to local scales that has the advantages of combining the biotic, abiotic, and human spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the social theoretical foundations of a sociology of media and communication by making use of the cultural–historical school in psychology. Such perspective gains relevance in digital capitalism and the blurring of production and Internet usage. The paper first revisits Habermas's influential notion of communicative action and agency. Second, it uses activity theory as an alternative, more promising way of theorising because it links communication closer to work. A model of communicative action is introduced and a conceptual link between media and human tool use is established. Third, the paper elaborates on the notion of activity in the digital world and posits that digitalisation can be understood as a 'machinisation' of mental and communicative-coordinative work. The developed perspective, the paper concludes, allows critical media and communication sociology to operate with meaningful concepts of communicative expropriation, exploitation and alienation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ibn Khaldûn (1332–1406) was a philosopher, historian and sociologist. This paper asks: What elements of the Political Economy of Communication are there in Ibn Khaldûn's work and how do they matter in digital capitalism? It presents relevant passages from Khaldûn's main work Muqaddimah and points out parallels between the Muqaddimah and works in Political Economy, especially Karl Marx's approach of the Critique of Political Economy. The comparison of Khaldûn to Marx is not an arbitrary choice. Several scholars have pointed out parallels between the two's works with respect to general Political Economy. It, therefore, makes sense to, also, compare Khaldûn and Marx in the context of the Political Economy of Communication. The paper analyses the relevance of Khaldûn's ideas in digital capitalism. Khaldûn's works are situated in the context of media and communication theory, digital automation, Facebook, Google, labour in informational and digital capitalism, Amazon, the tabloid press, fake news and post-truth culture. The analysis shows that Khaldûn's Muqaddimah is an early work in Political Economy that can and should inform our contemporary critical analysis of communication in society, communication in capitalism and class society, ideology and digital capitalism. What connects Marx and Khaldûn is that they were critical scholars who although living at different times in different parts of the world saw the importance of the analysis of class and communication. Their works can and should inform the Political Economy of Communication and the analysis of digital capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the state and informal land development in Global South metropolises has yet not received much attention in urban studies. Concerning that knowledge gap, this paper investigates how the state regulates and inspects irregular and clandestine land subdivisions in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (MRBH). A mixed-methods approach, focused on the inner workings of the land development control policy led by the MRBH Agency between 2009 and 2018, provides new evidence of the relationships between inspectors, developers, and prosecutors, among other actors. By delving deep into the intricate nexus between a changing regulatory landscape and the bureaucratic, street-level, and everyday enforcement practices by officials, the paper reveals how land development control, directly and indirectly, shapes informal land development in the MRBH. Particularly, it sheds light on how land development control unrolls through a contradictory combination of overregulation on one side and tolerance on the other. In light of this, I argue that, as land development control evolves without effectively tackling the land question and the structural drivers of informality, the state becomes paradoxically entangled in the production of the same forms of informality it is expected to curb. Therefore, land development control is better understood as a fragile and ambivalent state compromise between the need to regulate urban expansion and market-driven informal urbanisation. By creating opportunities for rent extraction and capital accumulation which are explored by informal land developers, the state has been crucial for property-led informal urbanisation in metropolitan Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes hope as a lens for critical urban research for the purpose of grasping the interplay between forces of change and stability as manifested in popular uprisings, as well as in broader, self-organised spatial practices in everyday life. This hopeful lens allows for reimagining hope through the concept of 'the political', defined in the post-foundationalist literature as an ontological condition assuming the inherent impossibility for 'politics' to reach its final closure, fixation or stability. The hopes thus arising from 'the political' provide critical urban scholars with better tools to navigate the ever-present possibilities for emancipatory change and action, arising from an ontological lack of foundations, upon which political orders are temporarily based. In this paper, we show how theoretical notions from post-foundationalism can expand the current sense of hope by instilling a non-teleological view on inherent possibilities for matters to be otherwise, thus implying the absence of certainty about presupposed ideas of what genuine political change should look like. Through this lens, hope appears linked to concrete openings for alternatives found in everyday life. By laying out such a hopeful approach, we aim to expand the awareness of urban 'scholars' to ponder both mundane and radical materialisations and practices of 'the political' within urban settings. Ultimately, by reimagining hope to look beyond or alongside postpolitics, we unlock a future-oriented research agenda that adds nuance to an ontologically restricted conception of 'politics', which allows for broader empirical attunement to ever-present embodied signs of unfinished urban alternatives generated by 'the political'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing class structure of cities has been a topic of considerable importance and debate for over a 150 years, since the industrial revolution created a large industrial proletariat in many western cities. But the rise of post-industrial society, the decline of the manufacturing industry, a shrinking industrial working class, and the growth of the professional and managerial class from the 1970s onwards has provoked fresh debate about this, as has the emergence of gentrification in many cities. This paper looks at the changing social class structure of London from 2001 to 2021 using data from the population Census. It shows that the higher professional and managerial class continued its long term growth after a pause in 2001–2011. But the number and proportions of small employers, the self-employed and routine workers have also grown. There is therefore continuing professionalisation but also 'asymmetric polarisation'. The paper also examines the geography of social class change by borough over the period and shows that while the professional and managerial class grew in all boroughs, suggesting a gradual upward class change across London, it was highest in the most gentrified inner London boroughs. However, the percentage point growth of the self-employed and routine groups was generally higher in the mostly suburban boroughs where professional and managerial class percentage point change growth was smallest (and vice versa) which suggests an intensified social class sorting and divergence across London with the lower class groups growing most rapidly in suburban outer London where housing costs are less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the problem of the distributed interval estimation is investigated for wireless sensor networks under the energy-limited attack and the stochastic communication protocol (SCP). A model with randomness and restrictions is constructed to describe the energy-limited attack, which is considered to occur in two positions, one is the transmission process of sensors and local estimators (LEs), and another is the transmission process of LEs and their neighbor nodes. Furthermore, to mitigate the communication burden, the SCP is adopted to distribute network access rights to sensor nodes. All in all, the objective of this paper is to develop a distributed interval estimator (DIE) which can use local and neighbor information to generate an interval that covers all potential estimation states when SCP, bounded noises, and energy-limited attacks are all present at the same time. To achieve this, the positive system theory and the stability analysis theory are used to obtain some sufficient conditions for the error dynamic system to be positive system and stable, and the needed DIE gains are achieved by solving the linear matrix inequality. Finally, an example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the offered method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To send and receive data simultaneously, reduce network interference, and effectively improve energy efficiency, this paper analyzes the network characteristics of Multi-Radio Multi-Channel Wireless Sensor Network and optimizes the power and channel of each radio frequency interface. Based on the novel energy efficiency model and energy consumption efficiency model, this paper establishes a distributed optimization game model using Game Theory to maximize network energy efficiency, minimize energy consumption, and ensure network connectivity. Based on the game model, an efficient distributed resource allocation game algorithm is designed, in which a joint power control and channel allocation can quickly converge to Nash Equilibrium with low complexity. At the same time, the simulation results show that the distributed resource allocation game algorithm can effectively improve the energy efficiency, reduce network interference and bit error rate to ensure the successful data transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how writers in the South Korean broadcasting industry have collectively struggled against their precarious working conditions and faced distinctive difficulties in taking their collective actions, including unionization. Based on semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 23 research participants, this paper examines why and how these South Korean writers have established various forms of collective worker organization: from a professional association to informal grassroots communities, to a women-only trade union, to two unions of media workers who are freelance or on contract. I argue that the activism of these writers reflects the intersection of different identities, ranging from women to freelancers to cultural workers and that their activism promotes the idea that working creatively, autonomously and equitably should be recognized as a basic labour right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between 1942 and 1945, Jewish inmates of a forced labour camp and later Auschwitz subcamp at Blechhammer (Blachownia Slaska, Upper Silesia) worked alongside British prisoners of war on the construction site of a giant synthetic fuel facility, the Oberschlesische Hydrierwerke. This paper examines the multifaceted forms of interaction between these two groups, who were situated at the opposite ends of a spectrum ranging from high survival rates to certain death. By reframing the Jewish inmates' perceptions of the POWs, it seeks to shed new light on a controversial debate on the nature of the relationship between them and the British prisoners. The paper argues that important aspects have been missing from this debate, as the Jewish inmates were not sufficiently represented and not viewed as active protagonists. The relations between Jews and British POWs were not one-sided, but rather interdependent in complex ways. Both groups used these contacts to gain strategic information on the war and jointly contributed to the Allied resistance effort. The barter with British POWs played a crucial role in the collective and individual survival strategies of Jewish inmates, whereas the British increasingly depended on the Jewish inmates to procure basic foods, when German rations ceased to be allocated. An analysis of the effects of British aid-giving showed that the actual impact on the physical survival of the emaciated inmates was negligible. However, these gifts were commonly interpreted as humanitarian gestures by both sides. Altogether, the British were encouraging symbols of resistance against the Nazi regime in the eyes of the inmates. Negative experiences were rarely corroborated and were often linked to poor English language skills, or a stronger identification with other nationalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Besides its use as a powerful systems analysis tool, simulation has also been used for decades in educational settings as a teaching and learning method. Simulation can replace or augment real-world inquiry-based experiences by providing learners with a low-cost and risk-free experimentation platform to develop knowledge and skills in a simulated environment. This paper presents an overview of current applications and the ongoing transition from physical experimentation to digital simulations and immersive simulated learning environments in engineering education. The paper highlights major implementation and research gaps related to simulation-based learning and immersive simulated learning environments, namely, lack of integration with learning theories and limited formal assessments of effectiveness. Potential implementation approaches and important areas for future educational research are discussed and exemplified in response to the identified gaps. The discussions presented are intended for simulationists, educational researchers, and instructors who are interested in designing and/or utilizing engineering education interventions involving simulated learning environments and immersive technologies in their teaching and educational research. In particular, the Immersive Simulation-Based Learning (ISBL) approach discussed in the paper provides a framework for simulationists to reuse the models developed as part of their simulation projects for educational purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influential scientific papers tend to be primarily based on combinations of prior works. However, assessing the potential impact of a new scientific paper remains a challenging task. In this article, we introduce an innovative framework to investigate the relationship between the embedding of citation networks and a paper’s future citation counts, based on the graph representation learning approach. First, we employ three Nobel Prize-winning topic papers from the Web of Science as our data source. Through data preprocessing and direct citation network modelling, we train the struc2vec model to obtain embeddings of papers’ citation network structure. Then, we perform visualisation and analysis on two types of networks. One is the direct-citation network, in which we identify four patterns of linkage between newly published papers and existing knowledge, and the other is the co-citation network, where we measure three structural variation indicators of new papers based on existing research findings. Finally, a statistical test is used to examine the predictive potentials of network embeddings. The results demonstrate that the structural features captured by the graph representation learning model can be used to predict a paper’s citation counts and impact. This article innovatively combines cluster analysis, visual analysis and statistical analysis to gain insights into the relationship between the hard-to-explain structural embeddings of newly published papers in a citation network and their future citations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marked by the killing of a senior ICT professional working for the Electoral Commission and the invalidation of the presidential election by the Supreme Court, the 2017 Kenyan elections make for a good case through which to study how digital technologies shape contemporary electoral practice. This article examines the practice of electoral transparency through technology and argues that it can be conceived as a socio-technical device based both on distancing people from knowledge of the electoral infrastructure and on staging a simplified discourse on public access to the electoral infrastructure. Drawing on interviews with key actors in election technology implementation and ethnographic observations of public events around it, the article argues that digital technology has had three sets of implications for elections. First, it has shaped the electoral infrastructure and the nature of the final result (now a paper and digital hybrid). Second, it has shaped the distribution of knowledge among electoral professionals, giving a central role to ICT actors, objects, and knowledge in the definition of electoral transparency. Third, the centrality of ICTs in elections and the order of knowledge they bring are highly controversial and criticized by other electoral actors who demand for material proof for understanding the inner workings of elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper is a composite of fibers, air and additives where the fiber/fiber joints keep the network structure together. A study was undertaken to establish the link between the properties of the contact zone between fibers and paper performance under mechanical loading. The contact zone between fibers was investigated using light microscopy. A staining technique was developed for evaluating the influence of surface charge on fiber/fiber joint strength. The joint strength was linearly correlated with paper tensile strength and with the average amplitude of the acoustic events measured by acoustic emission testing. The fiber surface conformability was improved by changing the surface charge. This resulted in increased fiber/fiber joint strength as the relative contact area became larger. Increasing the molecular adhesion in the contact zone with the aid of strength additives also improved the fiber/fiber joint strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of temperature and relative humidity on the moisture content of paper honeycomb sandwich panels was studied, and the ideal three-dimensional diagram between the moisture content of paper honeycomb sandwich panels and the temperature and relative humidity was constructed by the GAB model. The evaluation equation of critical stress and plateau stress were obtained. The results indicate that the moisture content of paper honeycomb sandwich panels rises with the increase of relative humidity and declines with the increase of temperature; as the moisture content increases, the critical stress and plateau stress of paper honeycomb sandwich panels decline linearly; with the increase of the moisture content, the energy absorption of paper honeycomb sandwich panels increased firstly and then decreased; the evaluation equation of critical stress and plateau stress can predict the mechanical properties of paper honeycomb sandwich panels in different temperatures and relative humidities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital photogrammetry has experienced rapid development regarding the technology involved and its ease of use over the past two decades. We revisit the work of Jim Chandler who in 1999 published a technical communication seeking to familiarise novice users of photogrammetric methods with important theoretical concepts and practical considerations. In doing so, we assess considerations such as camera calibration and the need for photo-control and check points, as they apply to modern software and workflows, in particular for structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry. We also highlight the implications of lightweight drones being the new platform of choice for many photogrammetry-based studies in the geosciences. Finally, we present three examples based on our own work, showing the opportunities that SfM photogrammetry offers at different scales and systems: at the micro-scale for monitoring geomorphological change, and at the meso-scale for hydrological modelling and the reconstruction of vegetation canopies. Our examples showcase developments and applications of photogrammetry which go beyond what was considered feasible 20 years ago and indicate future directions that applications may take. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that, in-line with Chandler's recommendations, the pre-calibration of consumer-grade cameras, instead of relying entirely on self-calibration by software, can yield palpable benefits in micro-scale applications and that measurements of sufficient control points are still central to generating reproducible, high-accuracy products. With the unprecedented ease of use and wide areas of application, scientists applying photogrammetric methods would do well to remember basic considerations and seek methods for the validation of generated products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue is organized by selected papers presented at International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR 2019), held on October 6-10, 2019, at Hanoi, Vietnam. The guest editors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the authors for their patience by the review process that was slowed down due to the difficulties caused by the worldwide pandemic and are very delighted this special issue is finally complete. The robotics fundamental contributions are about algorithmic foundation for manipulation and innovative robotics design and two papers are included for each topic. [Extracted from the article]