bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Functional Characteristics of the Respiratory System of People of All Ages
Authors: Isupov Igor , Syagailo Julia , Mazembah Artem
Published: September 2019

Studies of the functional state of the respiratory system have been widely used to assess the adaptive reserves of the human body. The functional state of the respiratory system is closely related to the functional characteristics of systemic and regional hemodynamics, functional reserves of the blood system. With changes in the social status of a person, the adaptive potential of his body can significantly decrease. Reliable markers of the limitations of adaptive potential in people of different ages are the decrease in the values of the main pulmonary volumes in the conditions of physiological rest and when performing test load tests. The negative dynamics of forced expirations due to the decrease in the strength of the auxiliary respiratory muscles and changing depending on age was established. The presence of this undesirable phenomenon can be a marker of reducing adaptation reserves in the study of the impact of environmental factors on the phenomenon of premature aging.
Modern fixed combinations of antihypertensive drugs in the treatment of arterial hypertension and obesity: can this comorbid pathology be effectively controlled?
Authors: Vasyuk Yu. A. , Shupenina E. Yu. , Yuschuk E. N. , Namazova G. A.
Published: September 2019

Aim. To assess the effect of azilsartan/chlortalidone and irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide fixed combinations on office, daily peripheral and central blood pressure (BP), daily parameters of aortic stiffness and structural and functional state of the left ventricle in patients with arterial hypertension (AH) and obesity.

Material and methods. The study included 46 patients with hypertension and obesity aged 35 to 55 years. In the beginning of the study and after 6 months of treatment with azilsartan/chlortalidone (AZL/C) or irbesartan/hydrochlorothiazide (IRB/H) all patients underwent a comprehensive clinical and instrumental and laboratory examination, including a general examination with anthropometric measurements, office measurement of BP, electrocardiography, echocardiography, 24-hour BP monitoring with analysis of central BP and the main parameters of aortic stiffness, biochemical blood tests.

Results. Long-term use of two fixed combinations of sartan and diuretic was accompanied by a significant decrease of office and daily BP. However, in the AZL/С use, this change was more pronounced than in the IRB/H. Also, in the AZL/H group, a significantly larger number of patients reach a normalization of 24-hour BP profile. Both studied drugs significantly reduced central BP, which indicates their positive effect on aortic stiffness. However, a significant change in the daily pulse wave velocity determined by the Vasotens system was not detected. During therapy, in both groups, a decrease in left ventricular myocardial mass indexed by body surface area was revealed. It was more noticeable in the AZL/H group and when height indexed2,7. In both groups, an insignificant decrease in creatinine level and an increase in glomerular filtration rate, more noticeable with the administration of AZL/H, were noted. There were no significant fluctuations in the level of uric acid and patients with AH and obesity.

Conclusion. According to studies, AH in obese patients is less well controlled than in patients with normal body weight. AZL/H and IRB/H are effective and safe drugs for the treatment of AH in obese patients. However, long-term treatment of AZL/H allows reaching a more pronounced decrease in peripheral and central BP, improving the structural and functional state of the left ventricular myocardium in comparison with IRB/H.
Maladaptive neuropathological syndrome of blood vessel aging
Authors: Artemenkov A. A.
Published: September 2019

This article discusses the relationship between maladaptation and blood vessel aging. The work shows that upright posture created an additional load on the circulatory system, and the lifestyle of a modern human is an additional risk factor of cardiovascular diseases. It has been suggested that a disorder of the nervous regulation of vascular tone is the main etiopathogenetic mechanism of morphofunctional changes in blood vessels and their aging. We discussed the statute that vascular reactions in humans is based on the formation of a maladaptive circuit in the cerebral cortex, consisting of a matrix of motor, sensory and associative cortical neurons involved in the maladaptive process. This hypothesis is based on the fact that any irritations entering the cerebral cortex from the periphery (thermal, pain, and others) cause cortical-vascular reflex reactions that change their tonic activity. Based on this principle, a model of vascular aging is further constructed, which is based on the maladaptive damage to all layers of the vascular wall (intima, media and adventitia). The opinion is expressed about the need for early diagnosis and prevention of vascular disorders to maintain human health. In conclusion, it is concluded that if the age of a person is really determined by the age of his blood vessels, then in order to achieve active longevity it is necessary to normalize the relationship in the adaptation-maladaptation-environment. Detailed study of hypertrophy and calcification of blood vessels is needed, since aging always reveals vascular wall thickening and stiffness increase.
Association of stress with cardiovascular diseases and risk factors in a population (ESSE-RF in Kemerovo region)
Authors: Shapovalova E. B. , Maksimov S. A. , Indukaeva E. V. , Artamonova G. V.
Published: September 2019

Aim. To assess the prevalence of stress and its association with socio-demographic characteristics, cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in the Siberian population.

Material and methods. A cross-sectional study was performed in the framework of the Russian multicenter epidemiological study ESSE-RF in the Kemerovo Region in 2013. The presented study included 1628 individuals aged 25 to 64 years. Information was assessed on the presence of stress, some socio-demographic and economic characteristics, a history of CVD, as well as behavioral habits and quality of life. To eliminate the modifying effect of socio-demographic characteristics, a logistic regression analysis was used. The odds ratio (OR) and the 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.

Results. The prevalence of stress was 22,6%; stress was statistically significantly more often recorded in women (28,1%) than in men (11,7%). After adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, stress was statistically significantly more often recorded in people with secondary and primary education compared with those with higher education (24,9% and 19,1%, p=0,006), as well as in people with middle and high financial affluence compared with low affluence (24,5% and 11,3%, p<0,001). This association is observed only at the expense of women. For unemployed participants, the stress rate is higher only among males — 18,8% versus 11,4% among workers (p=0,015). Stress was also statistically significantly more often recorded in groups with arterial hypertension, lack of sleep, quality of life on the EQ-VAS scale and on the EuroQol scale. Smokers are more likely to have stress (23,8% vs 22,0%) and have a history of stroke (35,3% vs 22,2%). Among all CVDs and their risk factors, an inverse association of stress with obesity was revealed only in men.

Conclusion. Study showed that people with stress are under large load of some cardiovascular risk factors. At the same time, ambiguous associations between stress and arterial hypertension and quality of life were obtained. This confirms the need for further study of the association of stress with other factors of cardiovascular risk, taking into account age and gender and socio-economic characteristics of the population.
Generation of Policy-Level Explanations for Reinforcement Learning
Authors: Topin Nicholay , Veloso Manuela
Published: September 2019

Though reinforcement learning has greatly benefited from the incorporation of neural networks, the inability to verify the correctness of such systems limits their use. Current work in explainable deep learning focuses on explaining only a single decision in terms of input features, making it unsuitable for explaining a sequence of decisions. To address this need, we introduce Abstracted Policy Graphs, which are Markov chains of abstract states. This representation concisely summarizes a policy so that individual decisions can be explained in the context of expected future transitions. Additionally, we propose a method to generate these Abstracted Policy Graphs for deterministic policies given a learned value function and a set of observed transitions, potentially off-policy transitions used during training. Since no restrictions are placed on how the value function is generated, our method is compatible with many existing reinforcement learning methods. We prove that the worst-case time complexity of our method is quadratic in the number of features and linear in the number of provided transitions, O(|F|2|tr samples|). By applying our method to a family of domains, we show that our method scales well in practice and produces Abstracted Policy Graphs which reliably capture relationships within these domains.
Learning Models of Sequential Decision-Making with Partial Specification of Agent Behavior
Authors: Unhelkar Vaibhav V. , Shah Julie A.
Published: September 2019

Artificial agents that interact with other (human or artificial) agents require models in order to reason about those other agents’ behavior. In addition to the predictive utility of these models, maintaining a model that is aligned with an agent’s true generative model of behavior is critical for effective human-agent interaction. In applications wherein observations and partial specification of the agent’s behavior are available, achieving model alignment is challenging for a variety of reasons. For one, the agent’s decision factors are often not completely known; further, prior approaches that rely upon observations of agents’ behavior alone can fail to recover the true model, since multiple models can explain observed behavior equally well. To achieve better model alignment, we provide a novel approach capable of learning aligned models that conform to partial knowledge of the agent’s behavior. Central to our approach are a factored model of behavior (AMM), along with Bayesian nonparametric priors, and an inference approach capable of incorporating partial specifications as constraints for model learning. We evaluate our approach in experiments and demonstrate improvements in metrics of model alignment.
AI-Sketcher : A Deep Generative Model for Producing High-Quality Sketches
Authors: Cao Nan , Yan Xin , Shi Yang , Chen Chaoran
Published: September 2019

Sketch drawings play an important role in assisting humans in communication and creative design since ancient period. This situation has motivated the development of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for automatically generating sketches based on user input. Sketch-RNN, a sequence-to-sequence variational autoencoder (VAE) model, was developed for this purpose and known as a state-of-the-art technique. However, it suffers from limitations, including the generation of lowquality results and its incapability to support multi-class generations. To address these issues, we introduced AI-Sketcher, a deep generative model for generating high-quality multiclass sketches. Our model improves drawing quality by employing a CNN-based autoencoder to capture the positional information of each stroke at the pixel level. It also introduces an influence layer to more precisely guide the generation of each stroke by directly referring to the training data. To support multi-class sketch generation, we provided a conditional vector that can help differentiate sketches under various classes. The proposed technique was evaluated based on two large-scale sketch datasets, and results demonstrated its power in generating high-quality sketches.
Satisfiability in Strategy Logic Can Be Easier than Model Checking
Authors: Acar Erman , Benerecetti Massimo , Mogavero Fabio
Published: September 2019

In the design of complex systems, model-checking and satisfiability arise as two prominent decision problems. While model-checking requires the designed system to be provided in advance, satisfiability allows to check if such a system even exists. With very few exceptions, the second problem turns out to be harder than the first one from a complexity-theoretic standpoint. In this paper, we investigate the connection between the two problems for a non-trivial fragment of Strategy Logic (SL, for short). SL extends LTL with first-order quantifications over strategies, thus allowing to explicitly reason about the strategic abilities of agents in a multi-agent system. Satisfiability for the full logic is known to be highly undecidable, while model-checking is non-elementary.The SL fragment we consider is obtained by preventing strategic quantifications within the scope of temporal operators. The resulting logic is quite powerful, still allowing to express important game-theoretic properties of multi-agent systems, such as existence of Nash and immune equilibria, as well as to formalize the rational synthesis problem. We show that satisfiability for such a fragment is PSPACE-COMPLETE, while its model-checking complexity is 2EXPTIME-HARD. The result is obtained by means of an elegant encoding of the problem into the satisfiability of conjunctive-binding first-order logic, a recently discovered decidable fragment of first-order logic.
Ontology-Mediated Query Answering over Log-Linear Probabilistic Data
Authors: Borgwardt Stefan , Ceylan İsmail İlkan , Lukasiewicz Thomas
Published: September 2019

Large-scale knowledge bases are at the heart of modern information systems. Their knowledge is inherently uncertain, and hence they are often materialized as probabilistic databases. However, probabilistic database management systems typically lack the capability to incorporate implicit background knowledge and, consequently, fail to capture some intuitive query answers. Ontology-mediated query answering is a popular paradigm for encoding commonsense knowledge, which can provide more complete answers to user queries. We propose a new data model that integrates the paradigm of ontology-mediated query answering with probabilistic databases, employing a log-linear probability model. We compare our approach to existing proposals, and provide supporting computational results.
Identification of Causal Effects in the Presence of Selection Bias
Authors: Correa Juan D. , Tian Jin , Bareinboim Elias
Published: September 2019

Cause-and-effect relations are one of the most valuable types of knowledge sought after throughout the data-driven sciences since they translate into stable and generalizable explanations as well as efficient and robust decision-making capabilities. Inferring these relations from data, however, is a challenging task. Two of the most common barriers to this goal are known as confounding and selection biases. The former stems from the systematic bias introduced during the treatment assignment, while the latter comes from the systematic bias during the collection of units into the sample. In this paper, we consider the problem of identifiability of causal effects when both confounding and selection biases are simultaneously present. We first investigate the problem of identifiability when all the available data is biased. We prove that the algorithm proposed by [Bareinboim and Tian, 2015] is, in fact, complete, namely, whenever the algorithm returns a failure condition, no identifiability claim about the causal relation can be made by any other method. We then generalize this setting to when, in addition to the biased data, another piece of external data is available, without bias. It may be the case that a subset of the covariates could be measured without bias (e.g., from census). We examine the problem of identifiability when a combination of biased and unbiased data is available. We propose a new algorithm that subsumes the current state-of-the-art method based on the back-door criterion.
Workup and Management of Immune-Mediated Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Toxicities That Develop During Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment
Authors: Hsu Christine , Marshall John L. , He Aiwu Ruth
Published: September 2019

Immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of a wide range of cancer types, including hepatocellular carcinoma. Workup and management of immune-mediated hepatitis, pancreatitis, or cholangitis that develops during immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment can be challenging. Immune-mediated hepatitis can be particularly challenging if patients have underlying viral hepatitis or autoimmune hepatitis. Patients with positive hepatitis B virus DNA should be referred to a hepatologist for antiviral therapy prior to immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. With untreated hepatitis C virus (HCV) and elevated liver enzymes, a liver biopsy should be obtained to differentiate between HCV infection and immune-mediated hepatitis due to anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) therapy. If autoimmune serologies are negative, then this supports a case of immune-mediated hepatitis secondary to anti-PD-1 therapy, rather than autoimmune hepatitis. In this case, an empiric steroid therapy is reasonable; however, if the patient does not respond to steroid therapy in 3–5 days, then liver biopsy should be pursued. The incidence of immune checkpoint-induced pancreatitis is low, but when it does occur, diagnosis is not straightforward. Although routine monitoring of pancreatic enzymes is not generally recommended, when pancreatitis is suspected, serum levels of amylase and lipase should be checked. Once confirmed, a steroid or other immunosuppressant (if steroids are contraindicated) should be administered along with close monitoring, and a slow tapering dosage once the pancreatitis is under control. Patients should then be monitored for recurrent pancreatitis. Finally, immune therapy-related cholangitis involves elevated bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase and, once diagnosed, is managed in the same way as immune-mediated hepatitis.

Key Points

Immune-mediated hepatitis, pancreatitis, and cholangitis are found in patients receiving or who have previously received immune checkpoint inhibitors. To work up immune-mediated hepatitis, viral, and autoimmune serologies, liver imaging will help to differentiate immune-mediated hepatitis from hepatitis of other etiology. Hepatology consult may be considered in patients with a history of chronic liver disease who developed hepatitis during immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. Liver biopsy should be considered to clarify the diagnosis for case in which the hepatitis is refractory to steroid or immunosuppressant treatment. Immune-mediated pancreatitis is treated with steroid or other immunosuppressant with a slow tapering and should be monitored for recurrence.
Nivolumab for the Treatment of Patients with Metastatic Non-Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (nccRCC): A Single-Institutional Experience and Literature Meta-Analysis
Authors: Chahoud Jad , Msaouel Pavlos , Campbell Matthew T. , Bathala Tharakeswara , Xiao Lianchun , Gao Jianjun , Zurita Amado J. , Shah Amishi Yogesh , Jonasch Eric , Sharma Padmanee , Tannir Nizar M.
Published: September 2019

Introduction

Nivolumab alone and in combination with ipilimumab is approved for the treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who received prior vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (VEGFR-TKI) and those who are treatment naive, respectively. However, the clinical activity of nivolumab in non-clear cell RCC (nccRCC) is unknown, as these patients were excluded from the trials.

Materials and Methods

We reviewed the records of patients who received nivolumab for nccRCC and ccRCC with >20% rhabdoid with the primary endpoint to assess the objective response rate (ORR). We assessed radiographic response using RECIST, v1.1. Secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). We also reviewed the literature to identify studies reporting on the clinical activity of immune checkpoint inhibitors in nccRCC, and performed a meta-analysis of proportions for ORR and disease control rate (DCR).

Results

Twelve patients (30%) had papillary histology, 11 (27.5%) had unclassified, 8 (20%) had ccRCC with rhabdoid component, 5 (12.5%) had chromophobe, 3 (7.5%) had translocation, and 1 (2.5%) had mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma. Overall, seven patients (21.6%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 8.7%–37.9%) had an objective response, including three patients (8.8%, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.9%–23.7%) who achieved a complete remission. At a median follow-up of 24.5 monoths (95% CI, 17.7–32.6), median PFS was 4.9 monoths (95% CI, 3.53–10.27) and median OS was 21.7 monoths (95% CI, 7.83 mo to not reached). There were no treatment-related deaths. We also identified two retrospective studies reporting best ORR in patients with nccRCC receiving PD-1/PD-L1 checkpoint blockade. The ORR and DCR for the total cohort were, respectively, 18.6% (95% CI, 11.9%–26.4%) and 53.4% (95% CI, 44.2%–62.5%).

Conclusion

Nivolumab demonstrated activity in unclassified nccRCC and ccRCC with >20% rhabdoid; further randomized clinical trials are warranted.
Piperacillin/Tazobactam and Antibiotic-Associated Acute Kidney Injury in Critically Ill Children
Authors: Joyce Emily L. , Kane-Gill Sandra L. , Priyanka Priyanka , Fuhrman Dana Y. , Kellum John A.
Published: September 2019

Significance Statement

Antibiotic-associated AKI is prevalent and contributes to substantial morbidity and mortality in critically ill pediatric patients. Little is known about how empiric use of broad-spectrum antibiotics affects development of AKI. The authors show that treatment of critically ill children with piperacillin/tazobactam within the first 48 hours of intensive care unit admission is associated with subsequent development of AKI. They demonstrate a weaker, nonsignificant association between AKI and piperacillin/tazobactam used in combination with vancomycin in this population. This second finding adds to uncertainty about the nephrotoxicity of piperacillin/tazobactam in this highly susceptible population. Cefepime, a potential alternative antibiotic, which was not associated with AKI in the study, may be a suitable alternative for some indications.

Background

There continues to be uncertainty about whether piperacillin/tazobactam (TZP) increases the risk of AKI in critically ill pediatric patients. We sought to compare rates of AKI among critically ill children treated with TZP or cefepime, an alternative frequently used in intensive care units, with and without vancomycin.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study assessing the risk of AKI in pediatric intensive care unit patients after exposure to vancomycin, TZP, and cefepime, alone or in combination, within 48 hours of admission. The primary outcome was development of stage 2 or 3 AKI or an increase in AKI stage from 2 to 3 within the 6 days after the 48-hour exposure window. Secondary outcomes included lengths of stay, need for RRT, and mortality.

Results

Of 5686 patients included, 494 (8.7%) developed stage 2 or 3 AKI. The adjusted odds of developing AKI after medication exposure were 1.56 for TZP (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.23 to 1.99), 1.13 for cefepime (95% CI, 0.79 to 1.64), and 0.86 for vancomycin (95% CI, 0.69 to 1.07). The adjusted odds of developing AKI for vancomycin plus TZP versus vancomycin plus cefepime was 1.38 (95% CI, 0.85 to 2.24).

Conclusions

Observational data in critically ill children show that TZP use is associated with increased odds of AKI. A weaker, nonsignificant association between vancomycin plus TZP and AKI compared with vancomycin plus cefepime, creates some uncertainty about the nature of the association between TZP and AKI. However, cefepime is an alternative not associated with AKI.
Asociación entre la mastitis subclínica con la pérdida temprana de gestación en un hato de vacas lecheras
Authors: Miranda Santiago Xavier , Albuja Christian , Tríbulo Humberto
Published: September 2019

El objetivo del presente estudio fue evaluar la asociación entre los diferentes grados de mastitis subclínica con la pérdida temprana de gestación durante los primeros 90 días posteriores al servicio en vacas lecheras Holstein. La investigación se realizó en una explotación lechera ubicada en Ecuador, en la provincia de Pichincha, cantón Mejía. Para el estudio se analizaron los datos de 619 vacas durante el periodo de octubre de 2015 hasta octubre de 2016. El Grupo control (CMT 0) vacas que no presentaron mastitis subclínica hasta los 90 días posteriores a la inseminación artificial (IA). El grupo CMT T-1, vacas diagnosticadas con mastitis subclínica grado trazas y grado 1 hasta los 90 días posteriores a la IA y el grupo CMT 2-3, vacas que presentaron mastitis subclínica grado 2 y 3 hasta los 90 días posteriores a la IA. El diagnóstico de gestación se realizó por ultrasonografía transrectal entre los 28 y 35 días posteriores a la IA y se realizó un seguimiento ecográfico a los 60 y 90 días de gestación. Se encontró una pérdida de gestación entre los 30 a 60 días del 12% y entre los 60 a 90 días del 5%. Con este resultado se evidenció una asociación entre mastitis subclínica grado 2 y 3 con la pérdida temprana de gestación (OR 2,6; p <0,01). Se postula que un proceso infeccioso en la ubre posterior a la IA desencadenaría la liberación de mediadores inflamatorios como la prostaglandina F2α que ocasionaría lisis del cuerpo lúteo.
Regionalización de la precipitación, su agresividad y concentración en la cuenca del río Guayas, Ecuador
Authors: Ilbay Mercy Lucila , Zubieta Barragán Ricardo , Lavado-Casimiro Waldo
Published: September 2019

La agresividad de la lluvia contribuye a la erosividad del suelo en regiones de alta montaña, y por tal a la sedimentación en la parte baja de la cuenca. La reducción de incertidumbre acerca de la agresividad de la lluvia en regiones costeras y andinas contribuye a la formulación de medidas de mitigación que contribuyan a la reducción de erosión y pérdida de nutrientes. Este estudio presenta un análisis espacial y temporal de la agresividad climática en la cuenca del río Guayas ubicada en la costa y Andes ecuatoriales. Se seleccionó datos mensuales registrados de 30 estaciones pluviométricas para el periodo de 1968-2014. Se determinó zonas homogéneas de precipitación mediante el método k-means. Los resultados indicaron dos regiones homogeneas predominantes, la primera ubicada al oeste en la zona costera y andina (85.2% del área de la Cuenca), con un índice de agresividad alto y muy alto, mientras que la distribución de la precipitación en la segunda región (Alta montaña) resultó de muy baja a baja agresividad. La mayor agresividad potencial de la lluvia le corresponde una mayor acumulación de precipitación promedio anual, lo que indica una alta influencia estacional de las lluvias, i.e, una mayor cantidad de lluvia puede precipitar en un número reducido de meses consecutivos.  Los valores de concentración revelan una gradiente regional en dirección este-oeste, que va de moderadamente a fuertemente estacional. El análisis de tendencias de la concentración de lluvia mensual no muestra cambios significativos en el periodo de estudio. No obstante, nuestros hallazgos explican el porqué la región oeste y sur de la cuenca del río Guayas está expuesta a problemas de sedimentación en la parte baja, producto de la capacidad erosiva de la lluvia en la parte alta y media de la cuenca.
Detección de antibióticos betalactámicos, tetraciclinas y sulfamidas como contaminantes emergentes en los ríos San Pedro y Pita del cantón Rumiñahui.
Authors: Ramirez-Cando Lenin Javier , Chicaiza Ramírez Sabrina Estefania , Ramos López Allan David , Álvarez César Iván
Published: September 2019

Las actividades que se realizan en el diario vivir, como la higiene personal o el cuidado de la salud, pueden provocar efectos negativos en el ecosistema, generando alteraciones sobre el medio ambiente, dado que se consumen varias sustancias de diferente origen y composición química, de estas sustancias se conoce relativamente poco con respecto al impacto que tendrá en el ambiente y en el ser humano, sustancias que son reconocidas con el nombre de contaminantes emergentes. El presente trabajo experimental fue desarrollado en las parroquias de Uyumbicho, Amaguaña, dos localidades ubicadas a 1km de la orilla del río San Pedro y la parroquia de Sangolqui cerca al río Pita, se evaluó la probable existencia de residuos de antibióticos betalactámicos y sulfamidas, en los 13 puntos de muestreo distribuidos de la siguiente manera:  9 en el río San Pedro y 4 en el río Pita, se realizaron 6 muestreos de agua, para ser analizadas mediante la utilización de un kit de detección  para antibióticos, las muestras fueron analizadas 2 veces cada mes, por 3 meses, se procesó las imágenes con técnica fotogramétricas y estadísticas para cuantificar los antibióticos, de manera rápida y sencilla. Los resultados obtenidos son claros con un total del 41 de 78 muestras que representa el 52% de casos positivos con presencia de residuos de antibióticos betalactámicos y sulfamidas en los afluentes de los ríos San Pedro y Pita.
Banca pública, seguridad social y acceso a financiamiento de vivienda en Ecuador
Authors: King Mantilla Katiuska
Published: September 2019

En el año 2009 en Ecuador se creó legalmente el Banco de la Seguridad Social (Biess), el cual entra a operar formalmente un año después. Este Banco utiliza recursos de la seguridad social para otorgar, entre otros, créditos hipotecarios para la vivienda de los afiliados. De esta forma, las reservas de la seguridad social obtenían un mejor rendimiento y se otorgaba más beneficios a los cotizantes. El repago del crédito estaba asegurado con el flujo de ingresos, cotizaciones previas y otras garantías. Esta política impulsó la construcción inmobiliaria y redujo las tasas de interés en el crédito de vivienda debido en parte a que los cotizantes podían pasar su crédito privado al banco de los afiliados. La presencia del Biess y la compra de cartera modificó la regulación financiera en el segmento de vivienda. El artículo realiza un balance de esta política para analizar si sería replicable a otros segmentos considerando la intervención de operadores públicos bien manejados como una alternativa de regulación financiera.
Participación ciudadana en la radio comunitaria en la región central de Ecuador
Authors: Mullo-López Alex Hernan , Toro Bravo Juan P. , Álvarez Garzón Lorena C.
Published: September 2019

La radio comunitaria se expone como una propuesta emancipadora de los pueblos, que apertura canales comunicacionales en la esfera pública, hacia el diálogo intercultural. La presente investigación utiliza metodologías cualitativas para analizar  la labor que cumplen  las radios comunitarias de la región central de Ecuador a fin de promover el progreso social, mediante el fomento de procesos participativos que garanticen contenidos que satisfagan las demandas sociales. Finalmente, se determina que sumado al conocido problema económico se evidencia que no existen estrategias de comunicación horizontal que faciliten el empoderamiento de los ciudadanos alrededor del medio de comunicación. La Ley Orgánica de Comunicación no diversifica a las radios comunitarias para que en función de sus diferencias se impulse una intervención equitativa en el espectro radioeléctrico. Así mismo no impulsa el empoderamiento de la gente como voluntarios. El tema de capacitación es una necesidad que puede ser satisfecha desde la academia.
MEME KANSERİ BİYOPSİ ve REZEKSİYON MATERYALLERİNDE HORMON RESEPTÖRLERİ (ER/PgR) ve HER2 DEĞERLERİNİN KARŞILAŞTIRILMASI
Authors: DEVRİM Tuba , AYDEMİR Merva
Published: September 2019

Amaç:
Meme kanseri tanısı almış olgularda, biyopsi
ve rezeksiyon materyalleri arasındaki uyumun değerlendirilmesi ve tümör alt
tipleri, östrojen reseptörü (ER),
progesteron reseptörü (PgR) ve HER2 düzeylerine göre patolojik
durumlarının karşılaştırılması ve sonuçların literatür eşliğinde irdelenmesi amaçlanmıştır.

Gereç ve Yöntem: Kırıkkale Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi
Tıbbi Patoloji Ana Bilim Dalı’nda Ocak 2013 ve Haziran 2019 tarihleri arasında
malign tanı almış, meme biyopsi ve rezeksiyon materyalleri bulunan hastalara
ait patoloji raporları incelendi. Her iki materyali de bölümümüzde bulunan 14 olgunun, hemotoksilen-eozin ve
immünhistokimyasal ER, PgR ve HER2 preparatları arşivden çıkarılarak tekrar
değerlendirildi. Sonuçlar arasındaki tutarlılıklar hesaplandı.

Bulgular:
Meme karsinomu tanısı alan olguların
biyopsi ve rezeksiyon materyalleri arasındaki tümör derece uyumu % 78,5 olarak saptandı. Her iki materyal arasında
skor tutarlılıkları ER ile % 100, PgR ile %92,8, HER2 % 78,5 olarak belirlendi. Moleküler alt tiplerdeki
uyum ise % 88,9 olarak saptandı.

Sonuç: Çalışmamız kapsamındaki meme karsinomu vakalarına
ait biyopsi ve rezeksiyon materyalleri arasında; tümör derecesi, ER/PgR
ekspresyonu, HER2 skorları ve moleküler alt tipler bakımından yüksek
oranda tutarlılık saptandı. Söz konusu yüksek tutarlılık oranına rağmen,
tümörün tamamını temsil etme özelliğine sahip rezeksiyon materyallerinin, tedavi ve prognozda önemli bilgiler veren ER/PgR
ve HER2 skorları bakımından değerlendirmelerinin hasta yönetimindeki başarıyı arttıracağı sonucuna varılmıştır.
Prevalence of Salivary Gland Neoplasms in the Head and Neck in Educational Hospitals in Cairo Governorate (Retrospective Cross Sectional Study) v1
Authors: Sayed Wegdan
Published: September 2019

Salivary gland neoplasms are morphologically diverse as they originate from different glandular cell types. The incidence of salivary gland neoplasms has slowly increased during the last four decades. The etiology of salivary gland neoplasms is mostly unknown; however, specific gene mutations are associated with some types of salivary tumors (Lin et al., 2018). Salivary gland tumors generate considerable interest because of their heterogeneous nature and variable histology, clinical behavior and tumor grade. More than 30 malignant and benign histologic subtypes were classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) with more concern in defining translocations and gene fusions in monomorphic salivary gland tumors (Seethala and Stenman, 2017). Mammary analogue secretory carcinoma (MASC) is a recently described salivary gland neoplasm characterized by a challenging histological diagnosis. It overlaps with other salivary gland tumors, particularly acinic cell carcinoma. The majority of mammary analogue secretory carcinomas were previously misdiagnosed as acinic cell carcinoma, with the latter tumor being the chief differential diagnosis before MASC was recognized in 2010 (Boon et al., 2018 and Hung et al., 2019). The epidemiology of salivary gland cancer is not very well documented, as they are relatively infrequent and exhibit a marked heterogeneity (García-Martín et al., 2019). Therefore, the aim of the present study is to assess the relative prevalence of salivary neoplasms in educational hospitals in Cairo. Also efforts will be made to correlate the observations of current study with the previous published studies. Patients: Patients reports with salivary gland neoplasms in the head and neck region in educational hospitals in Cairo Governorate. Exposure: Salivary glands neoplasms in the head and neck region diagnosed based on histopathological examinations. Control: Not applicable. Outcome: Prevalence rate.
Regulamentação da prostituição: polêmica e argumentação
Authors: Silva Edvania Gomes da , Pires Lara Maria Dos Santos
Published: September 2019

Com base nos postulados da Análise do Discurso (AD), mais precisamente nos trabalhos de Dominique Maingueneau (2005 [1984], 2010) e Ruth Amossy (2017), investigamos, neste artigo, a relação que se estabelece entre os discursos contrários e favoráveis à regulamentação da prostituição como profissão. Para tanto, formulamos a hipótese de que tal relação é constitutivamente polêmica, pois há, nesse caso, a emergência de uma incompatibilidade constitutiva. Para verificar o funcionamento da referida relação, analisamos, nos textos do corpus, indícios linguísticos, que emergem com certa regularidade e que apontam para um funcionamento discursivo. Os resultados indicam que a polêmica estabelecida entre os dois posicionamentos estudados funciona como fonte de argumentos tanto para o posicionamento Proponente quanto para o Oponente, já que cada um deles constitui sua legitimidade com base na desqualificação do outro.
Cyberpsychological Approach to the Analysis of Multisensory Integration
Authors: Voiskounsky A.E.
Published: September 2019

The paper relates to the branch of cyberpsychology associated with risk factors during immersion in a virtual environment. Specialists in the development and operation of virtual reality systems know that immersion into this environment may be accompanied by symptoms similar to the “motion sickness” of transport vehicle passengers (ships, aircraft, cars). In the paper, these conditions are referred to as a cybersickness (or, cyberdisease). The three leading theories, proposed as an explanation of the causes of cybersickness, are discussed: the theory of sensory conflict, the theory of postural instability (the inability to maintain equilibrium), and the evolutionary (aka toxin) theory. A frequent occurrence of symptoms of cybersickness is a conflict between visual signals and signals from the vestibular system. It is shown that such conflicts can be stimulated in the framework of a specially organized experiment (e.g., the illusion of out-of-body experience) using virtual reality systems. When competing signals (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, etc.) reach the brain, the data gained with the use of virtual reality systems give a chance to hypothetically determine the localization of the specific area in the brain that ensures the integration of multisensory stimuli.
The Impact of Social Media Platforms on Self-Injurious Behavior in Adolescents
Authors: Polskaya N.A. , Yakubovskaya D.K.
Published: September 2019

The paper provides a review of studies on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in online social networking. Content characteristics of online self-injury narrative are examined by focusing on such categories as hashtags, images, and comments. Negative and positive aspects of social networks’ impact on the risk of self-injury in adolescent are summarized. The presence of NSSI content online and the ability to communicate on issues relating to self-injury can either improve psychological well-being of the users by increasing their mood and self-acceptance, giving means to receive support from others and get information on mental health resources, or increase the person’s susceptibility to self-injuries by initiating their interest in this subject and reinforcing, and encouraging repeated self-harm. Therefore, mental health professionals are facing a global challenge: to create supportive and helpful online content, which implies the development of a new methodology, including language and terminology, that could integrate existing online discourse on self-injury and transform it from within.
Effects of ploughing and mulching on soil and organic matter losses after a wildfire in Central Portugal
Authors: Lopes A.R. , Prats S.A. , Silva F.C. , Keizer J.J.
Published: September 2019

Forest wildfires typically increase runoff and associated soil and organic matter losses. Both ploughing and mulching with forest residues have been applied in recently burnt areas in Portugal to mitigate these effects in soil erosion, but their effectiveness has never been compared directly. To this end, soil and organic matter losses by water after a wildfire were studied in two eucalypt plantations in central Portugal that had been affected by the same wildfire (August 2015). One of the sites was instrumented with six erosion plots (2 m by 8 m), divided over two blocks with one treatment per block: control (doing nothing) and ploughing to 0.2 m depth with a tracked excavator. The other site was instrumented with nine erosion plots, divided over three blocks with three treatments in each block: control (doing nothing) and mulching with forest logging residues at reduced (2.6 Mg ha-1) and standard application rates (8 Mg ha-1). Mulching was performed one month after the wildfire, whereas ploughing took place one year after the wildfire. For this study, soil and organic matter losses were monitored at 12 occasions from July 2016 to May 2017, roughly coinciding with the second post-fire year. Over this relatively dry period sediment losses at the control plots of both ploughed and mulched sites averaged 1.6 and 0.6 Mg ha-1 respectively. The corresponding losses of the ploughed plots were 19% lower, whereas those of the mulched plots were 67 and 93% lower at the reduced and standard mulch rates, respectively. The organic matter content of the eroded sediments was 22% in the unploughed plots, and ploughing reduced this figure in half, which could be explained by the inversion of the topsoil horizons by the excavator. Mulching at the standard application rate seemed to produce a clear enrichment in organic matter content compared to mulching at the reduced rate as well as doing nothing (25 vs. 16 and 14%). The two main findings of this research were that i) erosion rates exceeded the 1 Mg ha-1 tolerable soil loss during the second post-fire year, indicating that mitigation measures have to be implemented, ii) ploughing was clearly less suited for mitigating post-fire erosion than mulching with forest logging residues, even at application rates as low as that typically used in operational post-fire emergency stabilization with straw mulching.
A JOGI TERMINOLÓGIA MINT MODERN DISZCIPLÍNA JELENTŐSÉGE A KÖZÉRTHETŐ JOGI DOKUMENTÁCIÓBAN ÉS A JOGI KOMMUNIKÁCIÓBAN
Authors: NÉMETH Gabriella
Published: September 2019

Napjaink globális technológiai fejlődése új kihívások elé állítja a nyelvi szolgáltatókat. Az Országos Fordító és Fordításhitelesítő Iroda (OFFI) a kihívásokra olyan modernizált megoldásokkal felel, amelyek igénybevétele a minőségbiztosított nyelvi közvetítés és a pozitív ügyfélélmények elérését egyaránt támogatja. Az OFFI terminológiai fejlesztési projektjei is ezt a célt támogatják. A magyar állami fordítóiroda terminológiai adatbázisában a magyar jogrendszernek és a közigazgatásnak azon legfontosabb terminusait dolgozza fel, amelyek nemcsak magyarországi igazságügyi nyelvi közvetítési tevékenység során merültek fel igényként a fordítók, tolmácsok és az igazságügyi eljárásokban dolgozók (bírák, ügyvédek, igazságügyi szakértők és más szereplők) részéről, hanem nemzetközi (jog)összehasonlításhoz is olykor hasznos nyelvi tartalmakat hordozhatnak.
Prediction of tensile strength of concrete produced by using pozzolanic materials and partly replacing natural sand by manufactured sand
Authors: Mane Kiran Mansingrao , Kulkarni Dilip K. , Prakash K. B.
Published: September 2019

The overuse level of cement and natural sand for civil industry has several undesirable social and ecological consequences. As an answer for this, industrial wastes or by-products (pozzolanic materials) such as fly ash, GGBFS, silica fume and metakaolin can be used to interchange partially cement and natural sand by manufacturing sand (M-sand). In this study, Artiﬁcial Neural Networks (ANNs) models were developed for predicting the tensile strength, at the age of 28 days, of concretes containing partly pozzolanic materials and partly replacing natural sand by manufactured sand. Tensile strength test were performed and test results were used to construct ANN model. A total of 131 values was used for modeling ANN, 80% in the training phase, and 20% in the testing phase. To construct the model, 25 input parameters were used to achieve one output parameter, referred to as the tensile strength of concrete containing partly pozzolanic materials and manufactured sand. The results obtained in both, the training and testing phases strongly show the potential use of ANN to predict 28 days tensile strength of concretes containing partly pozzolanic materials and manufactured sand.
Investigation of roller compacted concrete: Literature review
Authors: Calis Gokhan , Yıldızel Sadık Alper
Published: September 2019

Roller compacted concrete is a type of zero slump product produced from the same materials with conventional concrete. There are various methods for the design of RCC namely; corps of engineers’ practice, high paste method, roller compacted dam method and maximum density method. Development of RCC has led a significant shift in the construction projects primarily in dams as the traditional practise of placing, compacting and consolidation is slow. By using RCC in earth and rock filled dams made the construction process quicker and consequently shortened the duration of construction. RCC used dam projects and be completed 1-2 years earlier than the other dams as mentioned in the article of Bagheri and Ghaemian (2004). Use of RCC has substantially increased in the last decades especially for pavement applications. It has a low construction cost and can be done quickly compared to asphalt. It is widely constructed in areas/ roads carrying heavy loads in low speed. On the other hand, in recent years' utilization of RCC in urban areas such as highways and streets has also increased. It has been proved that RCC has a competitive advantage over high performance asphalt pavements in terms of high compressive strength, durability, low maintenance cost, longer service life. Like conventional concrete, fibre addition is widely preferred in RCC as well. Fibre addition has contribution to mechanical properties of RCC and sustainability.
Blood Cell Count Using Deep Learning Semantic Segmentation
Authors: Tran Thanh , Binh Minh Lam , Lee Suk-Hwan , Kwon Ki-Ryong
Published: September 2019

Clinically, knowing the number of red blood cells (RBCs) and white blood cells (WBCs) helps doctors to make the better decision on accurate diagnosis of numerous diseases. The manual cell counting is a very time-consuming and expensive process, and it depends on the experience of specialists. Therefore, a completely automatic method supporting cell counting is a viable solution for clinical laboratories. This paper proposes a novel blood cell counting procedure to address this challenge. The proposed method adopts SegNet - a deep learning semantic segmentation to simultaneously segment RBCs and WBCs. The global accuracy of the segmentation of WBCs, RBCs, and the background of peripheral blood smear images obtains 89% when segment WBCs and RBCs from the background of blood smear images. Moreover, an effective solution to separate grouped or overlapping cells and cell count is presented using Euclidean distance transform, local maxima, and connected component labeling. The counting result of the proposed procedure achieves an accuracy of 93.3% for red blood cell count using dataset 1 and 97.38% for white blood cell count using dataset 2.