Search

Baryon number conservation is not guaranteed by any fundamental symmetry within the standard model, and therefore has been a subject of experimental and theoretical scrutiny for decades. So far, no evidence for baryon number violation has been observed. Large underground detectors have long been used for both neutrino detection and searches for baryon number violating processes. The next generation of large neutrino detectors will seek to improve upon the limits set by past and current experiments and will cover a range of lifetimes predicted by several Grand Unified Theories. In this White Paper, we summarize theoretical motivations and experimental aspects of searches for baryon number violation in neutrino experiments.

Directly imaging temperate rocky planets orbiting nearby, Sun-like stars with a 6 m class IR/O/UV space telescope, recently dubbed the Habitable Worlds Observatory, is a high-priority goal of the Astro2020 Decadal Survey. To prepare for future direct imaging (DI) surveys, the list of potential targets should be thoroughly vetted to maximize efficiency and scientific yield. We present an analysis of archival radial velocity data for southern stars from the NASA/NSF Extreme Precision Radial Velocity (EPRV) Working Group’s list of high-priority target stars for future DI missions (drawn from the HabEx, LUVOIR, and Starshade Rendezvous studies). For each star, we constrain the region of companion mass and period parameter space we are already sensitive to based on the observational baseline, sampling, and precision of the archival radial velocity (RV) data. Additionally, for some of the targets, we report new estimates of magnetic activity cycle periods, rotation periods, improved orbital parameters for previously known exoplanets, and new candidate planet signals that require further vetting or observations to confirm. Our results show that for many of these stars we are not yet sensitive to even Saturn-mass planets in the habitable zone, let alone smaller planets, highlighting the need for future EPRV vetting efforts before the launch of a DI mission. We present evidence that the candidate temperate super-Earth exoplanet HD 85512b is most likely due to the star’s rotation, and report an RV acceleration for δ Pav that supports the existence of a distant giant planet previously inferred from astrometry.

The article focuses on process intensification in the pulp and paper industry, where opportunities exist to improve efficiency and yield while reducing energy and water use and corresponding CO2 emissions. Topics include the kraft chemical pulping process, challenges of the process, and the production of final paper products.

We outline the unique opportunities and challenges in the search for “ultraheavy” dark matter candidates with masses between roughly 10 TeV and the Planck scale mpl ≈ 1016 TeV. This mass range presents a wide and relatively unexplored dark matter parameter space, with a rich space of possible models and cosmic histories. We emphasize that both current detectors and new, targeted search techniques, via both direct and indirect detection, are poised to contribute to searches for ultraheavy particle dark matter in the coming decade. We highlight the need for new developments in this space, including new analyses of current and imminent direct and indirect experiments targeting ultraheavy dark matter and development of new, ultra-sensitive detector technologies like next-generation liquid noble detectors, neutrino experiments, and specialized quantum sensing techniques.

Once retracted, the citation count of a research paper might be intuitively expected to drop precipitously. Here, we assessed the post-retraction citation of life and medical sciences papers from two top-ranked, multidisciplinary journals Nature and Science, from 2010 to 2018. Post-retraction citations accounted for a staggering 47.7% and 40.9% of total citations (median values), respectively, of the papers included in our analysis. These numbers are comparable with those from two journals with lower impact factors, and with retracted papers from the physical sciences discipline. A more qualitative assessment of five papers from the two journals with a high percentage (>50%) of post-retraction citations, all of which are associated with misconduct, reveal different contributing reasons and factors. Retracted papers associated with highly publicized misconduct cases are more prone to being cited with the retraction status indicated, or projected negatively (such as in the context of research ethics and misconduct discussions), with the latter also indicated by cross-disciplinary citations by humanities and social sciences articles. Retracted papers that retained significant validity in their main findings/conclusions may receive a large number of neutral citations that are somewhat blind to the retraction. Retracted papers in popular subject areas with massive publication outputs, particularly secondary publications such as reviews, may also have a high background citation noise. Our findings add further insights to the nature of post-retraction citations beyond the plain notion that these are largely made through sheer ignorance or negligence by the citing authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a study in which five physical science teachers were requested to take photographs and describe the science concepts embedded in these. Particularly, the science had to be relevant to the grade 10-grade 12 curriculum they were teaching. This study was an exploratory case study employing qualitative methods. To analyze data from the study, the four-field method for analyzing photographs was used (Käpylä, 2014). The analysis reveals that in all the narratives accompanying the captured photographs, the Indirect Observation-Cognitive Domain dominated. The overall findings of the study demonstrate that the corresponding narrations reflect the cognitive role of photographs. However, this paper argues that phenomenological thinking about human experience connects emotions and personal and social meanings to factual knowledge and knowledge structures, therefore these purposes of pictures in teaching and learning of physical science could be divided into cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.

This paper outlines the development of a comparative research framework in subject didactics and applies this in the process of analysing the transformations from academic disciplines across different school subjects. The theoretical framework builds on the concepts of 'powerful knowledge' and 'transformation' and 'epistemic quality' within which transformation processes from the classroom to the societal level are considered as 'trajectories of powerful knowledge and epistemic quality'. The framework is used to analyse the findings from recent empirical studies across school subjects that have been reported on in publications arising from the Knowledge and Quality across School Subjects and Teacher Education (KOSS) network. The paper then focuses on analysing the transformations from disciplines across school subjects, given that the first boundary in defining powerful knowledge concerns knowledge that is specialized in both how it is produced and transmitted. To analyse this boundary, the findings from the empirical studies are grouped into broad subject categories. These are then compared with the corresponding disciplines by using the widely cited Biglan classification scheme of academic disciplines in higher education. Finally, we consider the implications for curriculum planning and teacher education policy and reflect on the concept of subject-specific educational content knowledge (SSECK).

The following paper continues the previous part, and examines the influence of crystallography on Fröbel's conception of mathematics. In this part we focus on yet unpublished material. These unpublished notes of Fröbel underline the visual transfer of drawing and images of crystals, mainly developed by Haüy, which were widespread at the turn of the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, into the Fröbelian activities. Hence, the paper shows that a transfer of knowledge occurred from crystallography to mathematical education as well as the interweaving of philosophical and scientific reflections in Fröbel's thought as early as the late 1810s. [For Part 1, see EJ1381074.]

Friedrich Fröbel is known as the founder of the modern kindergarten and for his development of novel learning materials called Gifts and Occupations. One of the foci of Fröbel's programme was mathematical education, which he addressed and taught through various activities that encouraged the largely implicit transmission of mathematical principles. Based on a historical analysis of Fröbel's background in mathematics and crystallography and drawing on Fröbel's notes, the first part of this paper proposes that the mathematics and the various Gifts taught and used in Fröbelian kindergartens have their roots in two traditions, both of which intersected in Fröbel's thought: first, a visual tradition, influenced by drawings of crystals; second, a tradition influenced implicitly by German Idealism consisting of geometric methods and conceptions as well as notions derived from crystallography used to analyse the structure of crystals and mainly developed by Christian Samuel Weiß. The second part of this paper will inspect these influences drawing on Fröbel's previously unpublished notes.

Students in higher engineering education should develop competencies to be prepared for their future professional careers. However, in the field of food technology it is not clear what set of competencies is most relevant. This paper created a comprehensive list of competencies for food technologists by combining both domain-specific and general literature (n = 4), and policy documents (n = 6). This list was used to establish the relative importance of its elements and map opportunities for optimal curricular improvement at Wageningen University. Data were collected via a survey and interviews with graduates and professionals. A comparison of the perceived importance of competencies versus the perceived opportunities for learning showed that "analytical thinking, critical thinking, problem solving" and "decision making" needed more attention in the study curriculum. The comprehensiveness of the list was assessed by pilot testing with respondents. The list and method show potential for other disciplines to identify and select important competencies.

We investigate the degree to which impact in science and technology is associated with surprising breakthroughs, and how those breakthroughs arise. Identifying breakthroughs across science and technology requires models that distinguish surprising from expected advances at scale. Drawing on tens of millions of research papers and patents across the life sciences, physical sciences and patented inventions, and using a hypergraph model that predicts realized combinations of research contents (article keywords) and contexts (cited journals), here we show that surprise in terms of unexpected combinations of contents and contexts predicts outsized impact (within the top 10% of citations). These surprising advances emerge across, rather than within researchers or teams—most commonly when scientists from one field publish problem-solving results to an audience from a distant field. Our approach characterizes the frontier of science and technology as a complex hypergraph drawn from high-dimensional embeddings of research contents and contexts, and offers a measure of path-breaking surprise in science and technology. Here, using hypergraph modeling the authors show that surprising research (in terms of unexpected combinations of research contents and contexts) is associated with impact and arises from scientific outsiders solving problems in distant disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1990, a large and dynamic global science system has evolved, based on grass roots collaboration, and resting on the resources, infrastructure and personnel housed by national science systems. Euro-American science systems have become intensively networked in a global duopoly; and many other countries have built national science systems, including a group of large- and middle-sized countries that follow semi-autonomous trajectories based on state investment, intensive national network building, and international engagement, without integrating tightly into the global duopoly. The dual global/national approach pursued by these systems, including China, South Korea, Iran and India, is not always fully understood in papers on science. Nevertheless, China is now the number two science country in the world, the largest producer of papers and number one in parts of STEM physical sciences. The paper investigates the remarkable evolution of China's science funding, output, discipline balance, internationalisation strategy and national and global networking. China has combined global activity and the local/national building of science in positive sum manner, on the ground of the nationally nested science system. The paper also discusses limits of the achievement, noting that while China-US relations have been instrumental in building science, a partial decoupling is occurring and the future is unclear.

This document is an editorial for a special issue of the journal "Technologies" focused on data science and big data in various fields such as biology, physical science, and engineering. The editorial highlights the importance of analyzing large amounts of data generated by digital technologies and the need for data scientists to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to extract valuable knowledge. The special issue includes 12 papers covering topics such as machine learning techniques for customer churn prediction, agile program management in the U.S. Navy, deep learning for cybersecurity in Industry 5.0, self-directed learning during the COVID-19 era, decision tree-based neural networks for data classification, data-driven governance in technology companies, and more. The papers explore different approaches, models, and tools in the context of data science and big data. [Extracted from the article]

The ability to do inquiry does not necessarily translate to understandings about scientific inquiry or the processes by which scientific knowledge is generated. The study reported in this paper focuses on what students know about scientific inquiry and what impact school science may have on this knowledge. We investigated grade 12 physical and life sciences students' understandings about eight core aspects of the nature of scientific inquiry (NOSI) at a diversity of high schools in South Africa. Data were collected in two phases. In phase 1, the Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI) questionnaire was administered to 203 grade 12 students from six schools across different socio-economic spectra (township, former model c and independent schools). Phase 2 constituted follow-up semi-structured interviews with 20% of the questionnaire respondents (n = 41). The findings revealed that grade 12 students held mostly naïve and mixed understandings about the NOSI. Though observed differences indicated that students at elite independent schools held more informed views than students at suburban and township schools, chi-square test of association (X2) for different school types showed a statistically significant difference in students' understandings only for one NOSI aspect. This finding was regarded as being insignificant to make claims of differences in students' NOSI understandings for the different school types. The implications of these findings and future directions for research are also discussed.

The paper by Kiss and Szalay ([12]) titled I Sensitivity of buildings' carbon footprint to electricity decarbonization: a life cycle-based multi-objective optimization approach i examines how changes in electricity mix impacts GHG emissions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes the need to immediately tackle climate change by significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and capping global warming at 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels (IPCC, [8]). The study found that total GHG emissions from maize production were on average 429 ± 27 kg CO2-eq/ton grain, with the highest emissions occurring during the dry season. This SI further contributes to raising awareness to the topic of measuring GHG emissions, decarbonization measures as well as climate neutrality. [Extracted from the article]

This paper evaluates how the contribution of scientific publications on climate change from the University of São Paulo (USP) evolved between 1989 and 2022. The study conducted a bibliometric analysis of 2874 research articles collected from the Web of Science and Scopus databases to explore main trend topics and reveal influential journals and collaboration networks using the Bibliometrix software. The study shows an increasing and more significant temporal publication distribution from 2010 onwards. Based on the author's affiliations, results indicate that the most important partnerships are national (67%), while the international co-authorships are predominantly with research collaborators of the Global North (North America and Europe). Several papers published in the period are in high-impact factor journals, evidence on climate change from USP. Environmental services, Atlantic Forest, Tropical Forest, Amazon, biodiversity, and Land use are the hotspot research topics to which USP researchers contribute. The evolution of three thematic groups was identified: (i) physical science, (ii) causes and effects, and (iii) strategies, discussed in themes such as organic matter, deforestation, and mitigation, respectively. This research is helpful to get insights into the current research development trends, to show the broadness of the scientific production, and the importance of the USP role in the climate change theme. Ultimately, it provides valuable information for further studies and suggests the possibility of advancing the research agenda on climate change with the Global South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a compilation of various scientific papers and preprints covering a wide range of topics, including protein folding, cell migration, machine learning, deep neural networks, neural scaling laws, representations and generalization in artificial and brain neural networks, and the neuron as a direct data-driven controller. The papers discuss different aspects of these subjects, providing a comprehensive overview of the current research in these fields. This document can be a valuable resource for library patrons conducting research on these topics, particularly in the fields of neuroscience and artificial intelligence. [Extracted from the article]

In 2014, an intervention paper was published in I The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe canadien i , calling for greater integration of physical and critical human geography, through an intellectual practice termed I critical physical geography i (Lave et al., [16]). Bruce Rhoads, one of the authors of the original CPG Intervention piece (Lave et al., [16]), phrased this critique clearly in a recent paper: [T]he extent to which CPG differs fundamentally from political ecology ... remains unclear. In doing so, the authors advance CPG scholarship by (1) creating new trading zones and creoles distinctive to CPG, and (2) developing and applying their own interactional expertise in ways that contribute to the fuller realization of CPG's three core tenets. Almost a decade after the publication of the initial CPG intervention piece, CPG is expanding into new topics (e.g., predator reintroduction, urban climatology), new methodologies (e.g., dendroprovenancing, network analysis), and new conversations with allied fields (e.g., Black Geographies, Indigenous Geographies, Queer Ecologies). [Extracted from the article]

The National Academy of Science has published studies showing strong scientific evidence that global warming is caused by human consumption of fossil fuels, yet recent surveys have shown young adults in the U.S. are disengaged or disagree with this fact. Accordingly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) published learning objectives to educate the world population on global warming and renewable energy by 2030. In this paper, we introduce a reflective writing activity physics educators can employ to foster a deeper understanding of global warming in introductory college physics and physical science courses, without overloading their teaching time.

The ordinary 3D wave equation for nondissipative, homogeneous, isotropic media admits solutions where the point sources are permitted to move, but as shown in this paper, it does not admit solutions where the receiver is allowed to move. To overcome this limitation, a new wave equation that permits both the receiver and the source to move is derived in this paper. This new wave equation is a generalization of the standard wave equation, and it reduces to the standard wave equation when the receiver is at rest. To derive this new wave equation, we first mathematically define a diverging spherical wave caused by a stationary point source. From this purely mathematical definition, the wave equation for a stationary source and a moving receiver is derived, together with a corresponding free-space Green function. Utilizing the derived Green function, it is shown that unlike the standard wave equation this new wave equation also permits solutions where both the receiver and the source are permitted to move. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that, instead of an ordinary wave equation, the wave equation for a moving source and a moving receiver governs the waves emitted by moving point sources and received by moving receivers. This new wave equation has possible applications in acoustics, electrodynamics, and other physical sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manifold visualisation techniques are commonly used to visualise high-dimensional datasets in physical sciences. In this paper, we apply a recently introduced manifold visualisation method, slisemap, on datasets from physics and chemistry. slisemap combines manifold visualisation with explainable artificial intelligence. Explainable artificial intelligence investigates the decision processes of black box machine learning models and complex simulators. With slisemap, we find an embedding such that data items with similar local explanations are grouped together. Hence, slisemap gives us an overview of the different behaviours of a black box model, where the patterns in the embedding reflect a target property. In this paper, we show how slisemap can be used and evaluated on physical data and that it is helpful in finding meaningful information on classification and regression models trained on these datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document provides a summary of a special issue on smart sensors for structural health monitoring (SHM) and nondestructive evaluation (NDE). It discusses the importance of developing defect detection and monitoring techniques for structures to ensure their integrity and prevent failure. The document highlights the challenges faced in implementing SHM and NDE, as well as the various techniques and smart sensors used in these fields. It also provides an overview of 33 papers published in the special issue, covering topics such as sensor technology, signal processing, and field applications. The authors hope that these papers will inspire future research in these rapidly developing areas. [Extracted from the article]

The increase in simulated flood inundation areas and depths (6%-31% for different GCMs) in the future showed the importance of improving flood management tools for the sustainable development of urban water environments. The paper by Burch et al. (2010) addresses a different aspect of flood risk management in response to climate change and illustrates an advance in best practice for flood risk management and climate change planning. In terms of flood risk management, NBSs include natural flood management measures (NFMs), and these are the subject of the paper in this VSI by Dittrich et al. (2019). [Extracted from the article]

The rise of China as a scientific research superpower has been frequently discussed in media and literature. However, past analyses are usually based on the geographical database and they ignore how the millions of emigrated Chinese students, who are now being considered the major research workforce in many countries, affect their academic outputs. Here we quantitatively analyze the contribution of Chinese scholars in physical science around the globe by their publications in a country's papers from 2010 to 2021 as well as their citations. Contrary to common perception, we find that increasing the number of Chinese scholars does not correlate with the net publication growth or decline in their host countries before the Chinese population exceeds a critical value. On the other hand, increasing Chinese authors in a paper improves its citations. The phenomena, though anomalous, are observed in many subfields of physics across the globe. Our analysis suggests that although Chinese scholars do not change the perceived publication capabilities of many countries but may have reshaped their research culture as well as workforce distributions. The results would be valuable for R&D, higher education, and immigration policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the study detailed here was to engage with Directors of Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) during the first year of their new Centres to form a snapshot view of the nature and type of training that was being incorporated and how this might affect the wider institution – in this case the university. Using an organisational learning lens, this paper empirically examines the work-in-progress of the responsible innovation (RI) training in CDTs to assess how new RI understandings are being created, retained and transferred within the CDTs, questioning whether this process represents a programme of "institutionalisation". Design/methodology/approach: During the past decade, RI has become increasingly embedded within the EU and UK research context, appearing with greater frequency in funding calls and policy spaces. As part of this embedding, in its 2018 funding call for CDTs, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) required RI training to be included in the programme for all doctoral students. Findings: The paper concludes that, at present, institutionalisation is highly variegated, with the greater organisational change required to truly embed RI mindsets. Originality/value: The paper provides original, empirical research evidence of RI institutionalisation in UK CDTs, and, using a "learning organisation" lens, examines areas of value to both RI and learning organisation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B Professor Adrian E. Raftery b (University of Washington): It is a pleasure to congratulate the authors of these two papers on the important topic of statistical aspects of climate change. For forecasting, numerical weather prediction models did forecast the 2021 heatwave quite successfully even though it was outside the range of all previous experience. They developed new statistical methods for climate problems ranging from the integrated assessment of future global climate change to the detailed modelling of granular atmospheric processes. The purpose is clear, to provide probabilistic forecasts of future water damage for any building in Norway, both with current climate and accounting for future climate change, for insurance purposes. [Extracted from the article]