Loop Effects Research Articles

Impacts of government social media on public engagement in low-carbon practices focusing on Japan

This study investigates the role of Government Social Media (GSM) in enhancing public engagement with Low-Carbon Practices (LCP) in Japan. Motivated by the need to foster sustainable development and mitigate climate change impacts, this research utilizes negative binomial regression model analyzing 1022 posts from nine Japanese government social media accounts. Our findings reveal that increased media richness negatively correlates with engagement, suggesting that content depth over visual appeal is more effective for LCP-related communication. Surprisingly, the dialogic loop reduces engagement, indicating complex public reactions to governmental initiatives. Content themes related to governmental actions and LCP information significantly enhance engagement, while emotional valence shows minimal impact. The study introduces 'social media capital' as a moderating factor, which mitigates the negative effects of dialogic loops and media richness on engagement, and influences the impact of content themes. These insights provide a foundation for future research and guide the development of effective public engagement strategies in environmental policy. The study highlights the need for nuanced GSM strategies that prioritize information quality and relevance to increase public participation in low-carbon initiatives.

The effect of the loop on the thermodynamic and kinetic of single base pair in pseudoknot.

RNA pseudoknots are RNA molecules with specialized three-dimensional structures that play important roles in various biological processes. To understand the functions and mechanisms of pseudoknots, it is essential to elucidate their structures and folding pathways. The most fundamental step in RNA folding is the opening and closing of a base pair. The effect of flexible loops on the base pair in pseudoknots remains unclear. In this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations and Markov state model to study the configurations, thermodynamic and kinetic of single base pair in pseudoknots. We find that the presence of the loop leads to a trap state. In addition, the rate-limiting step for the formation of base pair is the disruption of the trap state, rather than the open state to the closed state, which is quite different from the previous studies on non-pseudoknot RNA. For the thermodynamic parameters in pseudoknots, we find that the entropy difference upon opening the base pair between this simulation and the nearest-neighbor model results from the different entropy of different lengths of loop in solution. The thermodynamic parameters of the stack in pseudoknot are close to the nearest-neighbor parameters. The bases on the loop have different distribution patterns in different states, and the slow transition states of the loop are determined by the orientation of the bases.

Large fluctuations in the sky

Renormalization of quantum loop effects generated from large fluctuations is a hugely debatable topic of research these days which rules out the Primordial Black Hole (PBH) formation within the framework of single-field inflation. In this paper, we briefly discuss that the correct implementation of regularization, renormalization, and resummation techniques in a setup described by an ultra-slow-roll phase sandwiched between two slow-roll phases in the presence of smooth or sharp transitions can lead to a stringent constraint on the PBH mass (i.e. [Formula: see text]), which we advertise as a new No-go theorem. Finally, we will give some of the possible way-outs using which one can evade this proposed No-go theorem and produce solar/sub-solar mass PBHs.

Lepton flavor violation in semileptonic observables

In this paper, we perform a comprehensive study of lepton flavor violation (LFV) in semileptonic transitions in the framework of an effective field theory with general flavor structure. We account for the renormalization group equations, which induce nontrivial correlations between the different types of LFV processes. In particular, we show that these loop effects are needed to improve the bounds on several coefficients that are not efficiently constrained at tree level. For illustration, we consider a few concrete scenarios, with predominant couplings to third-generation quarks, and we explore the correlations between the various tree- and loop-level constraints on these models. As a by-product, we also provide expressions for several semileptonic LFV meson decays by using the latest determinations of the relevant hadronic form factors on the lattice. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Corrupt Traditions and Traditions of Corruption: Caste, Colonialism, and Corruption in Late Nineteenth-Century India

AbstractThis article examines the corruption scandal that exploded in 1889 with the apprehension of Arthur Crawford and the dismissal of several Mamlatdars in colonial western India. Using Ian Hacking's concept of “making up people” and the “looping effect,” this article demonstrates the instability of categories such as corruption and suggests that the everyday life of empire was undergirded by the colonial construction of deviancy to normalize the exceptionality of foreign rule. Additionally, the Crawford-Mamlatdar corruption scandal undercut the imperial ideology of the modernizing state. The corruption network revealed the simultaneity of imperial bureaucratic rationality along with the traditional patronage structures based on indigenous sexual and filial (caste) ties. It was precisely the British investigation that also revealed the reality of the homosocial empire and its privileging of caste recruitments. The Indian challenge to the case brought together rural and urban groups signalling the ascendance of a nationalistic solidarity. The Indians queried the imperial claims of moral superiority. At the same time, they acknowledged “native vulnerabilities” towards corruption, confirming the British stereotype of Indians as inherently corrupt. These selective claims, indicative of the emergence of upper caste, urban, and bourgeois notion of public virtue, signified the iterative nature of the “looping effect.”

Looping Bureaucracies. Imperial Administrations and Socio-Political Change in Asia (1750–1950)

AbstractFrom the early modern period onwards, European dynasties sought to expand their power in South and Southeast Asia, establishing localised institutions that incorporated both European models and precolonial Asian practices. Studies on local resistance to imposed bureaucratisation overlook how locals navigated the bureaucracy for societal or political change. In this special issue, historians of colonial India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia investigate how knowledge products of European bureaucracies provided unintended opportunities for local agents to navigate the imperial state, and moreover to alter said knowledge products or bureaucracies. The authors critically engage with the concept of the “looping effect,” coined by the late Canadian philosopher of science Ian Hacking, to describe a process where administrative practices led to social mobilisation in colonial contexts.

Epidemic spreading on spatial higher-order network

Higher-order interactions exist widely in mobile populations and are extremely important in spreading epidemics, such as influenza. However, research on high-order interaction modeling of mobile crowds and the propagation dynamics above is still insufficient. Therefore, this study attempts to model and simulate higher-order interactions among mobile populations and explore their impact on epidemic transmission. This study simulated the spread of the epidemic in a spatial high-order network based on agent-based model modeling. It explored its propagation dynamics and the impact of spatial characteristics on it. Meanwhile, we construct state-specific rate equations based on the uniform mixing assumption for further analysis. We found that hysteresis loops are an inherent feature of high-order networks in this space under specific scenarios. The evolution curve roughly presents three different states with the initial value change, showing different levels of the endemic balance of low, medium, and high, respectively. Similarly, network snapshots and parameter diagrams also indicate these three types of equilibrium states. Populations in space naturally form components of different sizes and isolations, and higher initial seeds generate higher-order interactions in this spatial network, leading to higher infection densities. This phenomenon emphasizes the impact of high-order interactions and high-order infection rates in propagation. In addition, crowd density and movement speed act as protective and inhibitory factors for epidemic transmission, respectively, and depending on the degree of movement weaken or enhance the effect of hysteresis loops.

The Looping Effects of Medicalizing Grief

The most recent versions of official psychiatric diagnostic guidelines include a new addition: Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD). PGD is controversial due to concerns about harmful looping effects. Some opponents of PGD’s inclusion in the DSM worry that the diagnosis may pathologize normal human experiences and alienate grievers from their grief. This paper argues that these concerns are less troubling than they initially appear (in part because they assume an unhelpful, and conceptually optional, background understanding of health conditions as pathologies) and calls attention to overlooked beneficial looping effects that might be achieved by medicalizing (some) experiences of grief.

Het Alice in Wonderland-syndroom en psychotische ervaringen: een differentiaaldiagnostische uitdaging

Alice in Wonderland syndrome and psychotic experiences: a challenging differential diagnosis Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) is an understudied condition associated with a variety of symptoms, from visual and somesthetic perceptual distortions to disturbances in time perception and symptoms in the psychotic spectrum. The syndrome is pathophysiologically associated with cortical dysfunction in sensory brain areas. When AIWS symptoms occur, possible underlying neurological conditions should be investigated as they may be amenable to treatment. From a psychiatric perspective, distinguishing it from disorders within the psychotic spectrum poses a challenge. This article aims to clearly describe the phenomenology and definition of AIWS and to explore whether a strict differential diagnosis with psychotic experiences is possible. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, psychiatric disorders have to this date only been associated with AIWS in adults. A case of a 14-year-old girl with depression and subclinical psychotic symptoms with an unclear origin of AIWS is presented. Presumably, there was a looping effect and the subclinical psychotic symptoms were mistakenly identified as AIWS symptoms. Due to substantial differences in prognosis and treatment, the authors want to emphasize the importance of differentiating AIWS from a (subclinical) psychotic syndrome. It is crucial to thoroughly examine each individual AIWS symptom phenomenologically in all its facets. Additionally, clinicians should be aware of the influence of the looping effect.

Dislocation loop and irradiation-induced synergistic-competitive mechanism in Cu-rich precipitates: a phase-field study

Both irradiation and dislocations have been proposed as routes to rationally manipulate spatial distribution and micromorphology of precipitate. An interesting effect emerges in Fe–10at.%Cu–3at.%Mn–1.5at.%Ni–1.5at.%Al alloy due to the synergistic-competitive roles of dislocation loop and irradiation. Base on cascade mixing, vacancy-interstitial atoms and dislocation stress field model, we examine nucleation and growth dynamics of Cu-rich precipitates, where both dislocation loop and irradiation act in conjunction. Analytical treatments identify regimes, where the distribution of elements and point defects due to irradiation and dislocations are specific to the Cu-rich precipitates. Simulation results reveal that density, size and distribution of Cu-rich precipitates are a manifestation of the competing effects of the dislocation loop and the irradiation rate. More specifically, the dislocation loop preferentially assists the formation of precipitates and new dislocations at lower irradiation rates. Only the irradiation induces the formation of Cu-rich precipitates with the irradiation rate continues to increase. Equipped with molecular dynamics, where reproduces major interaction features of the solutes with point defects under displacement cascade, can verify multi-component morphologies of Cu-rich precipitates. This modeling framework provides an avenue to explore the role of dislocation loop and irradiation on the microstructural evolution of Cu-rich precipitates.

"It starts on TikTok": Looping Effects and The Impact of Social Media on Psychiatric Terms

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of TikTok on the public's understanding and engagement with psychiatric and psychological concepts. The rise of mental health-related content on social media has been linked to an increase in adults seeking a diagnosis of ADHD (Yeung et al., 2022). By reviewing a case study: the revision of the term "object permanence" from a developmental stage to an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptom, I argue that a looping effect, modeled after Hacking (1999), can explain the pattern of language revision for psychological terms on TikTok. Interviews with TikTok users provide preliminary evidence for this looping effect and the research is contextualized within the broader psychiatric discourse.

A just energy transition for Indigenous peoples: From ideal deliberation to fairness in Canada and Australia

In response to the global climate crisis, renewable energy projects are being developed on Indigenous territories. As renewable energy sources are not without social and ecological impacts, it is crucial to consider who benefits from these projects and who bears the consequences. In settler states such as Canada and Australia, the power dynamics are affecting the role of Indigenous peoples in the energy transitions. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for a just energy transition (JET) based on a comprehensive literature review of justice movements, energy transitions, and Indigenous experiences in Canada and Australia. The literature on environmental, climate, and energy justice examines three dimensions of justice: procedural, distributional, and recognition. While these dimensions offer important perspectives for our analysis, they are not sufficient on their own. This paper argues that promoting justice for Indigenous knowledge renewal is crucial for establishing a fair energy future. In addition to knowledge renewal, our framework comprises two more JET components: socioeconomic impact distribution, and procedural power. We argue that the JET components are deeply interrelated in an insidious loop effect. This means that all justice issues have the same roots, perpetuated by the historical consequences of colonisation. The question is how to simultaneously address them to transform a negative cycle into a positive one. Drawing on Indigenous rights in Canada and Australia this paper highlights the importance of improved bilateral communication strategies to break the insidious loop effect. Before discussing project strategies, it is crucial to consider the fairness of the decision-making process.

Statistical modeling and significance estimation of multi-way chromatin contacts with HyperloopFinder.

Recent advances in chromatin conformation capture technologies, such as SPRITE and Pore-C, have enabled the detection of simultaneous contacts among multiple chromatin loci. This has made it possible to investigate the cooperative transcriptional regulation involving multiple genes and regulatory elements at the resolution of a single molecule. However, these technologies are unavoidably subject to the random polymer looping effect and technical biases, making it challenging to distinguish genuine regulatory relationships directly from random polymer interactions. Here, we present HyperloopFinder, a method for identifying regulatory multi-way chromatin contacts (hyperloops) by jointly modeling the random polymer looping effect and technical biases to estimate the statistical significance of multi-way contacts. The results show that our model can accurately estimate the expected interaction frequency of multi-way contacts based on the distance distribution of pairwise contacts, revealing that most multi-way contacts can be formed by randomly linking the pairwise contacts adjacent to each other. Moreover, we observed the spatial colocalization of the interaction sites of hyperloops from image-based data. Our results also revealed that hyperloops can function as scaffolds for the cooperation among multiple genes and regulatory elements. In summary, our work contributes novel insights into higher-order chromatin structures and functions and has the potential to enhance our understanding of transcriptional regulation and other cellular processes.

Justification for coercion in a public health crisis: not just a matter of individual harm.

The COVID pandemic was an exceptional public health situation - which brought with it unprecedented restrictions across the global populace. But what was it about this pandemic which caused us to implement such drastic restrictions on liberty? Much of the ethical debate on restrictive measures such as lockdowns and vaccine requirements focused on the potential harm that individuals cause to other individuals by the risk of infection. I will suggest that this may come from a reliance on J.S. Mill's harm principle as providing the ultimate justification for coercion - i.e., the well-accepted principle that state coercion is justified in order to prevent the imposition of unacceptable risk of harm to others. Though there have been attempts, in the wider public health ethics literature, to use the harm principle as a basis for restricting contribution to collective harms, I will suggest that these attempts cannot rely on the harm principle alone. I will then turn to the ways in which an individual-based line of reasoning does not capture a distinctive sort of harm posed by the COVID pandemic (and others like it): the potential failure of healthcare systems. I will draw out three ways in which a focus on the harm that an individual poses to another individual fails to capture the full scope of harm wrought by the collapse of healthcare systems. First, it can't adequately capture the cumulative and "looping effects" of the harm caused by strained healthcare systems. Second, it fails to capture the widespread ripple effects the failure of a central societal institution can have on other institutions. And third, the failure of a healthcare system can impose "psychic costs", affecting the moral character of all members of society, reducing trust in institutions, and potentially posing an existential threat to the fabric of society. Finally, I will sketch some implications of the recognition of this distinctive sort of harm for the justification of coercive public health measures.

Gravitational wave effects and phenomenology of a two-component dark matter model

We study an extension of the Standard Model (SM) which could have two candidates for dark matter (DM) including a Dirac fermion and a vector dark matter (VDM) under a new U(1) gauge group in the hidden sector. The model is classically scale-invariant and the electroweak symmetry breaks because of loop effects. We investigate the parameter space allowed by current experimental constraints and phenomenological bounds. We probe the parameter space of the model in the mass range 1<MV<5000\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$1< M_V<5000$$\\end{document} GeV and 1<Mψ<5000\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$1<M_{\\psi }<5000$$\\end{document} GeV. It has been shown that there are many points in this mass range that are in agreement with all phenomenological constraints. The electroweak phase transition has been discussed and it has been shown that there is region in the parameter space of the model consistent with DM relic density and direct detection constraints that, at the same time, can lead to first-order electroweak phase transition. The gravitational waves produced during the phase transition could be probed by future space-based interferometers such as LISA and BBO.

Complete determination of SU(3)F amplitudes and strong phase in Λc+→Ξ0K+

The BESIII collaboration has recently reported the first time measurement of the decay asymmetry α(Λc+→Ξ0K+)=0.01±0.16(stat)±0.03(syst) and also a sizable phase shift of δP−δS=−1.55±0.25 or 1.59±0.25 between S- and P-wave amplitudes. This implies significant strong phase shifts in the decay amplitudes. The strong phases indicate the existence of rescattering or loop effects, which are challenging to calculate due to nonperturbative effects. By employing the flavor SU(3)F symmetry and applying the Körner-Pati-Woo theorem to reduce the number of parameters, we find that the current data already allow us to obtain, for the first time, model-independent decay amplitudes and their strong phases. The establishment of the existence of sizable strong phases opens a window for future investigations into CP violation. In our fit, a notable discrepancy emerges in the branching ratio of Ξc0→Ξ−π+. The direct relationship between Γ(Λc+→Λe+νe) and Γ(Ξc0→Ξ−e+νe), along with newly discovered SU(3)F relations, collectively suggests an underestimation of B(Ξc0→Ξ−π+) in experimental findings. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Effect of microstructure on sag resistance of ultra-high strength spring steel evaluated by hysteresis loop

Sag refers to the reduction in the free height of coil springs during actual usage, hence sag resistance is one of the crucial properties of spring steel and its improvement is essential for prolonging the service life of springs. However, limited research has been conducted on the effect of microstructure on sag resistance in recent years. This study aims to investigate the relationship between microstructure and sag resistance in 65SiCrV6 spring steel. The steel was quenched from various temperatures to obtain microstructures with varying sub-block size, and tempered at different temperatures to obtain microstructures with distinct tempered carbides morphology. The microstructures were characterized and the sag resistance was evaluated by hysteresis loop effect formed during cyclic tensile test. The results revealed that smaller sub-block sizes of martensite and higher proportions of high-angle grain boundary (HAGB) are beneficial for improving sag resistance. Incoherent granular cementite precipitated in the tempered microstructure improves sag resistance by enhancing interactions with dislocations, and coarsened cementite does not reduce the sag resistance due to the generation of back stress in heterogeneous microstructure. The hysteresis loop effect resulting from heterostructure as well as interactions between dislocations and tempered carbides increases with rising tempering temperature until it reaches a saturation state. This study highlights the importance of optimizing the microstructure with both small sub-block size and incoherent cementite precipitation through appropriate heat treatment process to enhance sag resistance, meanwhile provides valuable insights into understanding the micromechanism of sag resistance in spring steel.

Trans Tricksters, Looping Effects, and Gender Diagnoses as Containment

This essay examines how medical rhetorics helped justify the recent torrent of anti-trans legislation. Beginning with the “legitimacy wars” between psychiatry and psychology, I trace how competing disciplines established their own expertise by denying trans patients’ agency and self-knowledge. After identifying the “trans trickster” trope that emerges from these rhetorics, I trace how the trans trickster haunts arguments used to ban gender-affirming health care and sports participation for trans youth. I draw from sociologist Ian Hacking’s “looping effects” to explain how medical logics affect public perception and how those understandings loop back into medical research. The binary, linear models of gender transition established by trans medicine helped justify cisnormative policies around transgender identity, which in turn restricted further scientific inquiry such that more imaginative gender formations remain illegible. To conclude, I argue that medical paradigms work in relation with trans imagination would expand scientific explorations of human diversity, and that those understandings too could loop through public policy and perception.

Janus faced: The co-evolution of war and peace in the human species.

The human species presents a paradox. No other species possesses the propensity to carry out coalitionary lethal attacks on adult conspecifics coupled with the inclination to establish peaceful relations with genetically unrelated groups. What explains this seemingly contradictory feature? Existing perspectives, the "deep roots" and "shallow roots" of war theses, fail to capture the plasticity of human intergroup behaviors, spanning from peaceful cooperation to warfare. By contrast, this article argues that peace and war have both deep roots, and they co-evolved through an incremental process over several million years. On the one hand, humans inherited the propensity for coalitionary lethal violence from their chimpanzee-like ancestor. Specifically, having first inherited the skills to engage in cooperative hunting, they gradually repurposed such capacity to execute coalitionary killings of adult conspecifics and subsequently enhanced it through technological innovations like the use of weapons. On the other hand, they underwent a process of cumulative cultural evolution and, subsequently, of self-domestication which led to heightened cooperative communication and increased prosocial behavior within and between groups. The combination of these two biocultural evolutionary processes-coupled with feedback loop effects between self-domestication and Pleistocene environmental variability-considerably broadened the human intergroup behavioral repertoire, thereby producing the distinctive combination of conflictual and peaceful intergroup relations that characterizes our species. To substantiate this argument, the article synthesizes and integrates the findings from a variety of disciplines, leveraging evidence from evolutionary anthropology, primatology, archeology, paleo-genetics, and paleo-climatology.

Effect of loops on the mean-square displacement of Rouse-model chromatin.

Chromatin polymer dynamics are commonly described using the classical Rouse model. The subsequent discovery, however, of intermediate-scale chromatin organization known as topologically associating domains (TADs) in experimental Hi-C contact maps for chromosomes across the tree of life, together with the success of loop extrusion factor (LEF) model in explaining TAD formation, motivates efforts to understand the effect of loops and loop extrusion on chromatin dynamics. This paper seeks to fulfill this need by combining LEF-model simulations with extended Rouse-model polymer simulations to investigate the dynamics of chromatin with loops and dynamic loop extrusion. We show that loops significantly suppress the averaged mean-square displacement (MSD) of a gene locus, consistent with recent experiments that track fluorescently labeled chromatin loci. We also find that loops reduce the MSD's stretching exponent from the classical Rouse-model value of 1/2 to a loop-density-dependent value in the 0.45-0.40 range. Remarkably, stretching exponent values in this range have also been observed in recent experiments [Weber et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 238102 (2010)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.104.238102; Bailey et al., Mol. Biol. Cell 34, ar78 (2023)1059-152410.1091/mbc.E23-04-0119]. We also show that the dynamics of loop extrusion itself negligibly affects chromatin mobility. By studying static "rosette" loop configurations, we also demonstrate that chromatin MSDs and stretching exponents depend on the location of the locus in question relative to the position of the loops and on the local friction environment.