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1. An introduction to decoupling and harmonic analysis over Q_p

   Li, Zane Kun (January 2024, Contemporary mathematics American Mathematical Society)

   The goal of this expository paper is to provide an introduction to decoupling by working in the simpler setting of decoupling for the parabola over Q_p. Over Q_p, commonly used heuristics in decoupling are significantly easier to make rigorous over Q_p than over R and such decoupling theorems over Q_p are still strong enough to derive interesting number theoretic conclusions. 

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2. Efficient community detection in multilayer networks using boolean compositions

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fdata.2023.1144793  

   Santra, Abhishek; Irany, Fariba Afrin; Madduri, Kamesh; Chakravarthy, Sharma; Bhowmick, Sanjukta (August 2023, Frontiers in Big Data)

   Networks (or graphs) are used to model the dyadic relations between entities in complex systems. Analyzing the properties of the networks reveal important characteristics of the underlying system. However, in many disciplines, including social sciences, bioinformatics, and technological systems, multiple relations exist between entities. In such cases, a simple graph is not sufficient to model these multiple relations, and a multilayer network is a more appropriate model. In this paper, we explore community detection in multilayer networks. Specifically, we propose a novel network decoupling strategy for efficiently combining the communities in the different layers using the Boolean primitives AND, OR, and NOT. Our proposed method, network decoupling, is based on analyzing the communities in each network layer individually and then aggregating the analysis results. We (i) describe our network decoupling algorithms for finding communities, (ii) present how network decoupling can be used to express different types of communities in multilayer networks, and (iii) demonstrate the effectiveness of using network decoupling for detecting communities in real-world and synthetic data sets. Compared to other algorithms for detecting communities in multilayer networks, our proposed network decoupling method requires significantly lower computation time while producing results of high accuracy. Based on these results, we anticipate that our proposed network decoupling technique will enable a more detailed analysis of multilayer networks in an efficient manner. 

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3. ¹ H‐decoupling and Isotopic Labeling for the Measurement of the Longitudinal Relaxation Time of Hyperpolarized ¹³ C‐Methylenes in Choline Analogs

   https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.201900016  

   Uppala, Sivaranjan; Gamliel, Ayelet; Harris, Talia; Sosna, Jacob; Gomori, J. Moshe; Jerschow, Alexej; Katz‐Brull, Rachel (April 2019, Israel Journal of Chemistry)

   Abstract The T₁of a hyperpolarized site in solution is a key parameter that determines the time‐window in which its NMR signals are observable. For¹³C sites adjacent to protons,¹H‐decoupling has been shown to increase the hyperpolarized signal resolution and SNR. Additionally, polarization transfer to protons has shown utility in increasing the sensitivity of detection. However,¹H‐decoupling could lead to a change in the decay rate of a hyperpolarized¹³C site. Here we tested this possible effect in a case where the protons are directly bound to an sp³hyperpolarized¹³C site (using [1,2‐¹³C₂]choline) and¹H‐decoupling was applied continuously throughout the hyperpolarized decay measurement. We found that¹H‐decoupling did not lead to any significant changes in the¹³C polarization decay time but did result in the expected collapse of J‐coupling and produced sharper signals. This result suggested that¹H‐decoupling did not affect the decay rate of hyperpolarized sp^{3 13}C sites. The deuterium‐substitution approach (using [1,1,2,2‐D₄,1‐¹³C]choline) showed a dramatic prolongation of T₁. Upper bounds on the T₁of all investigated sites were calculated. 

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4. Human Rights in the Oil and Gas Industry: When Are Policies and Practices Enough to Prevent Abuse?

   https://doi.org/10.1177/00076503211017435  

   Olsen, Tricia; Rehbein, Kathleen; Westermann-Behaylo, Michelle; Snelson-Powell, Annie (July 2021, Business & Society)

   null (Ed.)

   Multinational enterprises are aware of their responsibility to protect human rights now more than ever, but severe human rights violations, including physical integrity abuses (e.g., death, torture, disappearances), continue unabated. To explore this puzzle, we engage theoretically with the means-ends decoupling literature to examine if and when oil and gas firms’ policies and practices prevent severe human rights abuse. Using an original dataset, we identify two pathways to mitigate means-ends decoupling: (a) while human rights policies alone do not reduce human rights abuses, firms with a high-quality human rights policy over the long-term reduce severe human rights abuses; (b) firms that combine preparedness—which we define as a firm’s capabilities, practices, and engagement—with a long-term human rights policy also reduce the likelihood of human rights abuses. Preparedness, we argue, can lead to reinforcement dynamics between long-term policy efforts and additional capabilities that provide a more holistic understanding of firm behavior. 

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5. Does Outsourcing Reduce Public Scrutiny Toward Elected Officials?: Insights From US Municipal Water Management

   https://doi.org/10.1111/padm.13058  

   Barnes, Jesse L; Koebele, Elizabeth A; Deslatte, Aaron (March 2025, Public Administration)

   ABSTRACT Amidst 21st‐century climate‐related threats, municipal elected officials (EOs) may outsource public services to third parties to avoid the political costs of adopting “unpopular” sustainability policies—a strategy known as political decoupling. However, decoupling raises accountability concerns and may not improve sustainability, leading some municipalities to “recouple” services. To help understand the political impacts of these decisions, we assess how public scrutiny toward EOs in US municipalities changes after varying degrees of coupling in the water provision sector (i.e., how much service delivery shifts away from or toward municipal oversight). Analysis of local media coverage shows public attention toward EOs decreases after higher degrees of decoupling and recoupling, public opinion becomes polarized toward EOs after decouplings, and the public links sustainability‐related issues to EOs after high degrees of decoupling. The results highlight how reforming public services relates to political accountability‐related factors and raise critical questions about the political decoupling strategy. 

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