Polymer literature contains a large and growing body of experimental knowledge, yet much of it is buried in unstructured text and inconsistent terminology, making systematic retrieval and reasoning difficult. Existing tools typically extract narrow, study-specific facts in isolation, failing to preserve the cross-study context required to answer broader scientific questions. Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) offers a promising way to overcome this limitation by combining large language models (LLMs) with external retrieval, but its effectiveness depends strongly on how domain knowledge is represented. In this work, we develop two retrieval pipelines: a dense semantic vector-based approach (VectorRAG) and a graph-based approach (GraphRAG). Using over 1,000 polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) papers, we construct context-preserving paragraph embeddings and a canonicalized structured knowledge graph supporting entity disambiguation and multi-hop reasoning. We evaluate these pipelines through standard retrieval metrics, comparisons with general state-of-the-art systems such as GPT and Gemini, and qualitative validation by a domain chemist. The results show that GraphRAG achieves higher precision and interpretability, while VectorRAG provides broader recall, highlighting complementary trade-offs. Expert validation further confirms that the tailored pipelines, particularly GraphRAG, produce well-grounded, citation-reliable responses with strong domain relevance. By grounding every statement in evidence, these systems enable researchers to navigate the literature, compare findings across studies, and uncover patterns that are difficult to extract manually. More broadly, this work establishes a practical framework for building materials science assistants using curated corpora and retrieval design, reducing reliance on proprietary models while enabling trustworthy literature analysis at scale.
I sitt siste verk, The Life of the Mind, hevder Hannah Arendt at Augustin må regnes som «the first philosopher of free will». I min doktoravhandling argumenterte jeg for at Arendt i stor grad hadde rett i sin påstand, selv om det også, slik Michael Frede har påvist, finnes spor av en konsepsjon om fri vilje hos Epiktet. I denne artikkelen argumenterer jeg imidlertid for at Arendts påstand er feil, da vi allerede hos Clemens av Alexandria finner et begrep om fri vilje. Clemens anvender nemlig Aristoteles’ term «prohairesis» på en ikke-aristotelisk måte, noe som legger grunnen for filosofihistoriens første konsepsjon om fri vilje; der Aristoteles tar til orde for at den «karaktersvake», som er kjennetegnet av å handle i tråd med begjæret og mot fornuften, også handler mot beslutningen (prohairesis), tar Clemens snarere som utgangspunkt at et slikt valg nettopp gjøres av beslutningen (prohairesis). Gitt at denne fortolkningen er riktig og at det er rett å betegne Athen-fødte Clemens av Alexandria som en ikke-vestlig filosof, må vi altså forlate vestlig filosofihistorie for å finne opphavet til et av historiens aller viktigste og mest debatterte begreper, nemlig «fri vilje».
In this article, we have analysed policy documents related to the digitalization of the Norwegian child welfare services. The project ‘DigiBarnevern’ is a national initiative intended to develop and improve the digital tools in child welfare services. In our article, we explore which arguments for digitalizing child welfare are used in Norwegian policy documents. The analysis is inspired by Carol Bacchi’s analytical approach of ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ This approach starts with the premise that policy documents are produced and implemented as answers to specific problems. Our analysis shows how the problems represented are inefficient services, a lack of systematization, arbitrary practices, and the lack of a quality system. Thus, digitalization seems to be the answer to comprehensive problems in child welfare services. By drawing on the literature of street-level bureaucracy and professional discretion, we discuss features of digital systems such as their potential to measure quality and how they can serve as tools to meet the aim of regulating frontline workers` room for discretion. Policy documents are not neutral tools. Instead, they are instruments and carriers of values that affect service provision and ultimately the clients.
Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology, Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Correlation coefficient is widely used in biomedical and biological literature, yet its frequent misuse and misinterpretation undermine the credibility and reproducibility of the scientific findings. We systematically reviewed 1326 records of correlation analyses across 310 articles published in Science, Nature, and Nature Neuroscience in 2022. Our analysis revealed a troubling pattern of poor statistical reporting and inferring: 58.71% (95% CI: [53.23%, 64.19%], 182/310) of studies did not explicitly report sample sizes, and 98.06% (95% CI: [96.53%, 99.60%], 304/310) failed to provide confidence intervals for correlation coefficients. Among 177 articles inferring correlation strength, 45.25% (95% CI: [38.42%, 53.10%], 81/177) relied solely on point estimates, while 53.63% (95% CI: [46.90%, 61.58%], 96/177) drew conclusions based on null hypothesis significance testing. This widespread omission and misuse highlight a systematic gap in both statistic literacy and editorial standards. We advocate clear reporting guidelines mandating effect sizes and confidence intervals in correlation analyses to enhance the transparency, rigor, and reproducibility of quantitative life sciences research.
Moustapha Awwalou Diouf, Samuel Ouya, Jacques Klein
et al.
Software-defined networking (SDN) has shifted network management by decoupling the data and control planes. This enables programmatic control via software applications using open APIs. SDN's programmability has fueled its popularity but may have opened issues extending the attack surface by introducing vulnerable software. Therefore, the research community needs to have a deep and broad understanding of the risks posed by SDN to propose mitigating measures. The literature, however, lacks a comprehensive review of the current state of research in this direction. This paper addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art research in SDN security focusing on the software (i.e., the controller, APIs, applications) part. We systematically reviewed 58 relevant publications to analyze trends, identify key testing and analysis methodologies, and categorize studied vulnerabilities. We further explore areas where the research community can make significant contributions. This work offers the most extensive and in-depth analysis of SDN software security to date.
Salijona Dyrmishi, Mohamed Djilani, Thibault Simonetto
et al.
Adversarial attacks in machine learning have been extensively reviewed in areas like computer vision and NLP, but research on tabular data remains scattered. This paper provides the first systematic literature review focused on adversarial attacks targeting tabular machine learning models. We highlight key trends, categorize attack strategies and analyze how they address practical considerations for real-world applicability. Additionally, we outline current challenges and open research questions. By offering a clear and structured overview, this review aims to guide future efforts in understanding and addressing adversarial vulnerabilities in tabular machine learning.
Mohammad Amin Zadenoori, Jacek Dąbrowski, Waad Alhoshan
et al.
Large Language Models (LLMs) are finding applications in numerous domains, and Requirements Engineering (RE) is increasingly benefiting from their capabilities to assist with complex, language-intensive tasks. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 74 primary studies published between 2023 and 2024, examining how LLMs are being applied in RE. The study categorizes the literature according to several dimensions, including publication trends, RE activities, prompting strategies, and evaluation methods. Our findings indicate notable patterns, among which we observe substantial differences compared to previous works leveraging standard Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. Most of the studies focus on using LLMs for requirements elicitation and validation, rather than defect detection and classification, which were dominant in the past. Researchers have also broadened their focus and addressed novel tasks, e.g., test generation, exploring the integration of RE with other software engineering (SE) disciplines. Although requirements specifications remain the primary focus, other artifacts are increasingly considered, including issues from issue tracking systems, regulations, and technical manuals. The studies mostly rely on GPT-based models, and often use Zero-shot or Few-shot prompting. They are usually evaluated in controlled environments, with limited use in industry settings and limited integration in complex workflows. Our study outlines important future directions, such as leveraging the potential to expand the influence of RE in SE, exploring less-studied tasks, improving prompting methods, and testing in real-world environments. Our contribution also helps researchers and practitioners use LLMs more effectively in RE, by providing a list of identified tools leveraging LLMs for RE, as well as datasets.
Ottavia Benedicenti, Marit Måsøy Amundsen, Saima Nasrin Mohammad
et al.
Finfish aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food production sectors in the world, and numerous infectious diseases are a constant challenge to the fish farming industry, causing decreased fish health and, consequently, economic losses. Specific and sensitive tools for pathogen detection are crucial for the surveillance of environmental samples to prevent the spread of fish pathogens in farms. Monitoring of waterborne pathogens through filtration of water and subsequent molecular detection of target-specific DNA or RNA sequence motifs is an animal-friendly method. This approach could reduce or even replace the sacrifice of fish for monitoring purposes in aquaculture and allow earlier implementation of disease control measures. Sampling methods might be a bottleneck, and there is a need for simple sampling methods that still ensure the best detection probability. In this study, we tested different filtration methods with spiked freshwater and seawater for a panel of fish pathogens to discern a suitable procedure that can be easily applied on-site by farm personnel without compromising detection probability. Specifically, we tested combinations of different filtration flow rates, lysis buffers, and filters for the detection of some of the pathogens relevant to the aquaculture industry. The results showed that a “sandwich” filtration method using two different filters and a flow rate of up to 4.0 L/min ensured good pathogen detection. The filters, consisting of a hydrophilic glass fibre filter with binder resin on the top and a hydrophilic mixed cellulose esters membrane at the bottom, achieved the best concentration and qPCR detection of both viral and bacterial fish pathogens. This up-and-coming tool allows the detection of very different fish pathogens during a single filtration step, and it can be combined with one single automated total nucleic acid extraction step for all the investigated pathogens, reducing both analysis costs and time.
The improvement and global change in education are associated with cross-cultural trends and modern
challenges. The comparative analysis of different systems encourages a new viewpoint on practice and
educational policy. The research highlights a comparative view of Early Childhood Education (ECE) in two
European countries − Norway and Ukraine, both with ancient historical and contemporary relations. This
study investigates the impact of philosophical and historical aspects of both countries, as well as various state
policies. The theoretical and conceptual framework is focused on the theory of child well-being by Pollard
and Lee (2003). The data collection is based on the quantitative (statistics related to Early Childhood
Education from both countries) and qualitative approaches (analysis and interpretation of Early Childhood
Education normative documents and pedagogical literature from Norway and Ukraine). The study has been
conducted per the Norwegian Guidelines for Research Ethics in the Social Sciences and the Humanities
(NESH, 2021). The normative documents and pedagogical literature were interpreted with an open,
independent, truthful, and critical approach, considering trust, credibility, and authenticity. The analyses,
which included normative documentary interpretation and systematic literature search, were systematized
into two categories: legislative framework, types of early childhood establishment, didactic approaches
to Early Childhood Education in both countries. The results show that Early Childhood Education in Norway
and Ukraine depends directly on the impact of national historical traditions and economic circumstances.
Personal orientation and social interaction are one of the priorities in Norwegian kindergartens. Children
spend a lot of time outside in all types of weather. In addition, there is a focus on collaboration and teamwo
rk. In Ukrainian kindergarten, the educational process has aesthetic, ethical, physical and intellectual appro
aches. The child’s intellectual development is connected to their moral growth. Moreover, positive attitudes
and a good climate provide good relationships in kindergarten. In both countries, early childhood educators
are open to new projects, innovations, and modern tasks, where personal interaction and the children’s mutual development are in priority
Aude Loumeaud, Philippe Pouletaut, Sabine Bensamoun
et al.
Purpose: From the myofibrils to the whole muscle scale, muscle micro-constituents exhibit passive and active mechanical properties, potentially coupled to electrical, chemical, and thermal properties. Experimental characterization of some of these properties is currently not available for all muscle constituents. Multiscale multiphysics models have recently gained interest as a numerical alternative to investigate the healthy and diseased physiological behavior of the skeletal muscle. Methods: This paper refers to the multiscale mechanical models proposed in the literature to investigate the mechanical properties and behavior of skeletal muscles. More specifically, we focus on the scale transition methods, constitutive laws and experimental data implemented in these models. Results: Using scale transition methods such as homogenization, coupled to appropriate constitutive behavior of the constituents, these models explore the mechanisms of ageing, myopathies, sportive injuries, and muscle contraction. Conclusion: Emerging trends include the development of multiphysics simulations and the coupling of modeling with the acquisition of experimental data at different scales, with increasing focus to little known constituents such as the extracellular matrix and the protein titin.
Identifying critical research within the growing body of academic work is an intrinsic aspect of conducting quality research. Systematic review processes used in evidence-based medicine formalise this as a procedure that must be followed in a research program. However, it comes with an increasing burden in terms of the time required to identify the important articles of research for a given topic. In this work, we develop a method for building a general-purpose filtering system that matches a research question, posed as a natural language description of the required content, against a candidate set of articles obtained via the application of broad search terms. Our results demonstrate that transformer models, pre-trained on biomedical literature, and then fine tuned for the specific task, offer a promising solution to this problem. The model can remove large volumes of irrelevant articles for most research questions. Furthermore, analysis of the specific research questions in our training data suggest natural avenues for further improvement.
Haywood Gelman, John D. Hastings, David Kenley
et al.
Insider threats (InTs) within organizations are small in number but have a disproportionate ability to damage systems, information, and infrastructure. Existing InT research studies the problem from psychological, technical, and educational perspectives. Proposed theories include research on psychological indicators, machine learning, user behavioral log analysis, and educational methods to teach employees recognition and mitigation techniques. Because InTs are a human problem, training methods that address InT detection from a behavioral perspective are critical. While numerous technological and psychological theories exist on detection, prevention, and mitigation, few training methods prioritize psychological indicators. This literature review studied peer-reviewed, InT research organized by subtopic and extracted critical theories from psychological, technical, and educational disciplines. In doing so, this is the first study to comprehensively organize research across all three approaches in a manner which properly informs the development of an InT education platform.
The study examined access to library information resources by university students during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study investigated measures that were adopted by academic libraries for smooth delivery of library information resources to their patrons. It also identified technological tools that were employed by libraries to facilitate access to library information resources. We also investigated the challenges faced by students in accessing library information resources. A systematic literature review approach using PRISMA guidelines was employed to investigate the relevant literature on the subject. The keyword search strategy was employed to search for relevant literature from four scholarly databases Scopus, emerald, Research4life, and Google Scholar. In this study, 23 studies that fulfilled the criteria were included. The findings revealed that the majority of the reviewed studies indicate that, during the COVID-19 pandemic many academic libraries in Africa adopted different approaches to facilitate access to library information resources by university students including expanding access to electronic resources off-campus, virtual reference services, circulation and lending services. To support access to different library services and information resources academic libraries in Africa used various digital technological tools like social media, library websites, email and video conferencing. Moreover, the study revealed that limited access to internet services and ICT devices, inadequate electronic library collection and inadequate digital and information literacy were the major challenges faced by patrons during the pandemic. This study recommends investment in ICT infrastructures and expanding electronic resource collections which are vital resources in the digital era.
Throughout the last two decades, successful school leadership has been subject to extensive research in Norway and comparisons across countries as part of the International Successful School Principals Project (ISSPP). This paper identifies and discusses how and why Norwegian research on the relationship between school leadership positions and governance regimes comes into play when defining terms such as “success” and “effectiveness”. A critical literature review establishes analysis and discussion as the basis for an improved understanding of the notion of success in ISSPP research in the Norwegian education policy context. The findings show that success is consistently attached to a collaborative, political, and democratic perspective, as well as trust, power, and the definition of quality in education. Furthermore, ISSPP studies of cases in the Norwegian context have contributed to the educational leadership field by positioning school leadership within a combination of local, national, and global political and cultural environments. The differences and similarities between countries that do not share a common cultural heritage or language must be considered. In particular, there is a need to discuss the relationship between national history and policy and the conceptualization of successful school leadership.
Srishti Palani, Aakanksha Naik, Doug Downey
et al.
Scholars who want to research a scientific topic must take time to read, extract meaning, and identify connections across many papers. As scientific literature grows, this becomes increasingly challenging. Meanwhile, authors summarize prior research in papers' related work sections, though this is scoped to support a single paper. A formative study found that while reading multiple related work paragraphs helps overview a topic, it is hard to navigate overlapping and diverging references and research foci. In this work, we design a system, Relatedly, that scaffolds exploring and reading multiple related work paragraphs on a topic, with features including dynamic re-ranking and highlighting to spotlight unexplored dissimilar information, auto-generated descriptive paragraph headings, and low-lighting of redundant information. From a within-subjects user study (n=15), we found that scholars generate more coherent, insightful, and comprehensive topic outlines using Relatedly compared to a baseline paper list.
Building energy efficient software is an increasingly important task for mobile developers. However, a cumulative body of knowledge of techniques that support this goal does not exist. We conduct a systematic literature review to gather information on existing techniques that allow developers to increase energy efficiency in mobile apps. Based on a synthesis of the 91 included primary studies, we propose a taxonomy of techniques for improving the energy efficiency in mobile apps. The taxonomy includes seven main categories of techniques and serves as a collection of available methods for developers and as a reference guide for software testers when performing energy efficiency testing by the means of benchmark tests.
Nico Puhlmann, Alex Wiesmaier, Patrick Weber
et al.
Citizens have gained many rights with the GDPR, e.g. the right to get a copy of their personal data. In practice, however, this is fraught with problems for citizens and small data holders. We present a literature review on solutions promising relief in the form of privacy dashboards for citizens and GDPR services for small data holders. Covered topics are analyzed, categorized and compared. This is ought to be a step towards both enabling citizens to exercise their GDPR rights and supporting small data holders to comply with their GDPR duties.
I et essay han ikke publiserte, bringer Hans Blumenberg Hannah Arendts bok Eichmann i Jerusalem inn i en uventet og avslørende forbindelse med Freuds senere verk Mennesket Moses og den monteistiske religion. Begge tenkerne, hevder Blumenberg, tar til orde for en problematisk «rigorisme» av sannheten. Men i motsetning til Arendt, antar Blumenberg, ville Freud ha erkjent den mytiske betydningen av Jerusalem-rettssaken mot Eichmann hvis han hadde vært i stand til å etterleve den. Arbeidet med essayet, som bærer tittelen «Moses egypteren», starter på slutten av 1970-tallet og faller dermed inn i perioden med Blumenbergs intensive opptatthet av temaet myte og spørsmål om myteresepsjon. Hva gjør myten? Hvordan forholder myter seg til påstandene som styrer søken etter sannhet og rettferdighet? Blumenberg frykter at sannhet og rettferdighet er kategorier som neppe gjelder for Eichmann og forbrytelsen han representerer. Blumenberg ga skarp kritikk av Arendts analyse av rettsforhandlingene, gjerningsmannen og ofrene, som han i stor grad fant formastelig og moralistisk. Sist, men ikke minst, er det konfrontasjonen med jødedommen og jødisk historie som forbinder forfatteren med hovedpersonene i teksten hans: med Freud, Arendt og – som vi vet fra en uttalelse i et brev – også med Hans Jonas, som ikke er adressert. i selve essayet. Denne posthume teksten har dermed en eksistensiell dybdedimensjon som enhver leser kan føle.
Research has continued to shed light on the extent and significance of gender disparity in social, cultural and economic spheres. More recently, computational tools from the Natural Language Processing (NLP) literature have been proposed for measuring such disparity using relatively extensive datasets and empirically rigorous methodologies. In this paper, we contribute to this line of research by studying gender disparity, at scale, in copyright-expired literary texts published in the pre-modern period (defined in this work as the period ranging from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century). One of the challenges in using such tools is to ensure quality control, and by extension, trustworthy statistical analysis. Another challenge is in using materials and methods that are publicly available and have been established for some time, both to ensure that they can be used and vetted in the future, and also, to add confidence to the methodology itself. We present our solution to addressing these challenges, and using multiple measures, demonstrate the significant discrepancy between the prevalence of female characters and male characters in pre-modern literature. The evidence suggests that the discrepancy declines when the author is female. The discrepancy seems to be relatively stable as we plot data over the decades in this century-long period. Finally, we aim to carefully describe both the limitations and ethical caveats associated with this study, and others like it.
Silje Langseth Dahl, Rebekka Hylland Vaksdal, Mathias Barra
et al.
In recent years, multifetal pregnancy reduction (MFPR) has increasingly been a subject of debate in Norway. The intensity of this debate reached a tentative maximum when the Legislation Department delivered their interpretative statement, Section 2 - Interpretation of the Abortion Act, in 2016 in response to a request from the Ministry of Health (2014) that the Legislation Department consider whether the Abortion Act allows for MFPR of healthy fetuses in multiple pregnancies. The Legislation Department concluded that the current abortion legislation [as of 2016] allows for MFPR subject to the constraints that the law otherwise stipulates. The debate has not subsided, and during autumn 2018 it was further intensified in connection with the Norwegian Christian Democratic "crossroads" policy and signals from the Conservatives to consider removing section 2.3c and to forbid MFPR.
Many of the arguments in the MFPR debate are seemingly similar to arguments put forward in the general abortion debate, and an analysis to ascertain what distinguishes MFPR from other abortions has yet to be conducted. The aim of this article is, therefore, to examine whether there is a moral distinction between abortion and MFPR of healthy fetuses. We will cover the typical arguments emerging in the debate in Norway and exemplify them with scholarly articles from the literature. We have dubbed the most important arguments against MFPR that we have identified the harm argument, the slippery-slope argument, the intention argument, the grief argument, the long-term psychological effects for the woman argument, and the sorting argument. We conclude that these arguments do not measure up in terms of demonstrating a morally relevant difference between MFPR of healthy fetuses and other abortions. Our conclusion is, therefore — despite what several discussants seem to think — that there is no morally relevant difference between the two. Therefore, on the same conditions as we allow for abortions, we should also allow MFPR.
Keywords: abortion, ethics, medical ethics, MFPR, selective MFPR