bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The perfect victim: Reading trauma and victimhood in rape narratives in Indian comics
Authors: Das Shromona
Published: June 2023

This article is a feminist enquiry into the image of the grieving victim of sexual assault in the nation state of India; it is also a critical analysis of what it means to depict trauma, graphically, in this political climate where the rhetoric of women’s empowerment is constantly being strategically adapted within the Saffron camps of extremist Hindu forces. This article deals with the ideal victim of trauma in three Indian comics on rape and sexual assault through the lens of feminist discourses around justice, victimhood and feminist art history. The glorified, ideal victimhood is often placed within a narrative of Hindu iconography, which ironically, sometimes, manifests through a religio-political rhetoric of women’s empowerment. I read the image of this ‘ideal’ victimhood with reference to the comics series Priya’s Shakti, Pratheek Thomas’s graphic narrative Hush (2011) and my own comic Naming and Shaming (2018). I posit the reading of my own comics on the #MeToo movement and discuss my immense urge and severe unease while putting forth a visual representation of victimhood – and seeking that very act, as a point of departure – and a way of challenging the idea of an ideal victim.
Association of Alanine Aminotransferase Flares to Hepatitis B Surface Decline During Tenofovir Alone or With Pegylated Interferon Alfa
Authors: Perrillo Robert , Lok Anna S. , Leonard Kelsey , Ghany Marc G. , Terrault Norah , Belle Steven H. , Janssen Harry L.A. ,   for the Hepatitis B Research Network
Published: June 2023

INTRODUCTION:

We aimed to determine whether the intensity of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) flares during antiviral therapy is associated with the level of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) decline.

METHODS:

Quantitative HBsAg was determined during tenofovir monotherapy or tenofovir plus peginterferon alfa-2a in 201 participants with hepatitis B e antigen–positive or –negative chronic hepatitis B. A multivariable analysis identified factors associated with a shorter time to reduction in HBsAg.

RESULTS:

Fifty flares occurred during treatment of which 74% were moderate (ALT >5–10 × upper limit of normal) or severe (ALT >10 × upper limit of normal). These flares were associated with greater HBsAg decline compared with no flares. Significantly faster times to HBsAg decline >1 log10 IU (P = 0.04) and to HBsAg level <100 IU/mL (P = 0.01) were observed with severe flares.

DISCUSSIONS:

Flare severity is a potentially important factor associated with shorter time to HBsAg reduction. These findings can be useful when evaluating HBsAg response to evolving hepatitis B virus therapies.
Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors Suppress Hepatitis C Virus Replication in Infected Patients With Solid Tumors
Authors: Yibirin Marcel , Mustafayev Khalis , Hosry Jeff , Pundhir Pooja , Klingen Joseph , Yepez Guevara Eduardo , Granwehr Bruno P. , Kaseb Ahmed , Naing Aung , Patel Sapna , Shah Amishi Y. , Skoulidis Ferdinandos , Tawbi Hussein A. , Wang Lan , Miller Ethan , Zhang Hao Chi , Zurita-Saavedra Amado , Torres Harrys A.
Published: June 2023

INTRODUCTION:

Data are scarce regarding the virologic impact and safety of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. We examined the virologic impact of ICI in HCV-infected patients with solid tumors and their safety.

METHODS:

HCV-infected patients with solid tumor treated with ICI at our institution between April 26, 2016, and January 5, 2022, were enrolled in a prospective observational study. The primary outcomes were ICI-induced changes in HCV viremia (HCV inhibition and HCV reactivation) and safety of ICI.

RESULTS:

We enrolled 52 consecutive patients with solid tumors treated with ICI. Most were men (41; 79%), White (31; 59%), without cirrhosis (34; 65%), and with HCV genotype 1 (40; 77%). Four patients (7.7%) experienced HCV inhibition while receiving ICI including 1 patient who developed undetectable viremia for 6 months in the absence of direct-acting antivirals (DAA). Two patients (4%) developed HCV reactivation, both while receiving immunosuppressive therapy for ICI-related toxic effects. Adverse events occurred in 36 patients (69%), and 39 of the 47 adverse events (83%) were grade 1–2. Grade 3–4 adverse events occurred in 8 patients (15%), and in all cases, they were related to ICI, not to HCV. No HCV-associated liver failure or death occurred.

DISCUSSION:

Inhibition of HCV replication with virologic cure can develop in patients receiving ICI without DAA. HCV reactivation occurs primarily in patients receiving immunosuppressants for ICI-related toxic effects. ICI are safe in HCV-infected patients with solid tumors. Chronic HCV infection should not be considered a contraindication for ICI therapy.
Implementation of the EVRF2007 height reference frame in Poland
Authors: Borowski Łukasz , Kubicki Bartosz , Gołąb Janusz
Published: June 2023

Currently, in Poland, the State Spatial Reference System (SSRS) includes two height reference frames: PL-KRON86-NH and PL-EVRF2007-NH as the Polish implementation of the European Vertical Reference System (EVRF). The deadline for EVRF2007 implementation in Poland, as the only legally permitted height frame, is set at the end of 2023. Because of the administrative division, the implementation was planned in two stages: at the state level (government) and the local level (districts). In the article, the local ones are reviewed, especially regarding the aim of height conversion methods, costs and their progress. As a background, a historical perspective of height systems and frames used in Poland since the beginning of the 20th century is provided. The source of data was the Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography (HOGC), as well as the district surveying departments’ official answers; open documents posted on the Internet, e.g. tender documentation and their results were also analysed.
Crisis as Opportunities for Robust Government: A Systematic Review of Policy Process Literature
Authors: Zhang Manli , Crow Deserai A. , Dai Shihao , Ma Ben
Published: June 2023

Increasing risks and crises present a challenging new normal for contemporary emergency management. It is important for public organizations to build robust government structures that can adapt to changing circumstances, rather than conform to rigid established procedures. Nevertheless, scholars have not fully explored how the transition to such robustness develops after crisis events. This paper fills the research gap by proposing an event-driven policy process model based on 171 identified crisis event studies, whereby a crisis drives learning that leads to changes in government structures or policy processes. Using a systematic review of the literature, we find that variation in crisis type and scale of impact influence subsequent policy dynamics that are critical to learning by governments. Key process dynamics (e.g. agenda setting, policy formulation, and implementation) and various types of learning are identified in the crisis-driven process that leads to robustness in public organizations. In addition, the role of scientific evidence and learning decay also play roles in this transition.
Neuropathy in paediatric type 1 diabetes mellitus – clinical characterization and analysis of risk factors in the diabetes prospective follow-up registry DPV (Diabetes-Patienten-Verlaufsdokumentation)-registry
Authors: Pappa Angeliki , Haeusler Martin G. , Tittel Sascha R. , Boettcher Claudia , Hilgard Doerte , Knauer-Fischer Sabine , Pavel Marianne , Woelfle Joachim , Holl Reinhard W.
Published: June 2023

Objectives

Data on the prevalence, clinical features and risk factors associated with paediatric diabetic neuropathy (DN) are scarce.

Methods

We retrospectively analysed data from the DPV registry, including patients under 20 years of age, treated for type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) between 2005 and 2021. Patients with non-diabetic neuropathy were excluded. Data came from centres in Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Results

1,121 of the 84,390 patients included had been diagnosed with DN. Univariate analysis showed patients with DN to be older and predominantly female, with a longer duration of T1D, higher insulin dosages per kg and day, lower rates of insulin pump therapy, higher postprandial glucose-, higher HbA1c-and higher cholesterol levels, and higher diastolic and systolic blood pressure values. There was also a larger proportion of smokers and higher prevalence of diabetic retinopathy. Median duration of diabetes at diagnosis of DN was 8.3 years. Multivariable analysis, adjusted for demographics revealed an increased risk for DN among female patients and those who were older, underweight (BMI-SDS), smoked cigarettes or had a longer duration of T1D or higher levels of HbA1c and postprandial blood glucose. The presence of retinopathy and higher cholesterol levels were also linked to increased risk while not-using insulin pump therapy was not.

Conclusions

DN can develop after just a short duration of T1D. Prevention may be achieved by a lowering of HbA1c-and postprandial glucose levels through improved glycaemic control. This warrants further investigation. The slight female predominance suggests further hormonal and genetic etiological factors.
Quality assurance within the context of genome diagnostics (a german perspective)
Authors: Florian Kraft , Benet-Pagès Anna , Berner Daniel , Teubert Anna , Eck Sebastian , Arnold Norbert , Bauer Peter , Begemann Matthias , Sturm Marc , Kleinle Stephanie , B. Haack Tobias , Eggermann Thomas
Published: June 2023

The rapid and dynamic implementation of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS)-based assays has revolutionized genetic testing, and in the near future, nearly all molecular alterations of the human genome will be diagnosable via massive parallel sequencing. While this progress will further corroborate the central role of human genetics in the multidisciplinary management of patients with genetic disorders, it must be accompanied by quality assurance measures in order to allow the safe and optimal use of knowledge ascertained from genome diagnostics. To achieve this, several valuable tools and guidelines have been developed to support the quality of genome diagnostics. In this paper, authors with experience in diverse aspects of genomic analysis summarize the current status of quality assurance in genome diagnostics, with the aim of facilitating further standardization and quality improvement in one of the core competencies of the field.
Grand strategy of politeness in new social networks: revisiting Leech’s politeness theory among Iranian EFL learners using Telegram
Authors: Ahmadi Reza , Weisi Hiwa
Published: June 2023

Human beings utilize varied linguistic politeness to facilitate interaction and minimize the potential for conflict. With the advancement of the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and the introduction of new social networks, studying how politeness operates within human communication opened up new avenues for research, particularly within diverse cultures. For this reason, the current study sought to report on the “whats” and “hows” of politeness strategies identified in Telegram messages delivered by EFL Learners in Iran. Data were analyzed based on Leech’s (Leech, Geoffrey. 2007. Politeness: Is there an East-West divide? Journal of Politeness Research 3(2). 167–206) Grand Strategy of Politeness, considering the purpose of communication, politeness strategies, and context. The corpus for this study encompassed 1,413 text messages sent via Telegram by 9 EFL learners during one year. Findings indicated a number of different politeness strategies in Iranian culture, specifically the modesty constraint – the speaker maximizes dispraise of himself – which can be construed as one of the unique features and influences of Islamic teachings. Moreover, the Leech’s model might appropriately describe politeness principles in Asian contexts, including Iran, and how cultural dynamics manifest themselves in interpreting the concept of politeness.
Spencer-Brown, Luhmann and Klein on Symmetry
Authors: Guy Jean-Sébastien
Published: June 2023

This article discusses the concept of symmetry as Felix Klein developed it in his works on geometry as a measure of invariance. The objective is to generalize from Klein’s model and principles to be able to apply the concept of symmetry to the study of social structures or social formations in sociology. To achieve this goal, the article goes on to consider how the concept of symmetry bears on the Laws of Form of George Spencer-Brown and on Niklas Luhmann’s theory of functional differentiation. Both of them are reinterpreted in terms of symmetry breaking.
Distinction Dynamics: A Form Analysis of Self-Descriptions in Agile Teams
Authors: Grote Florian
Published: June 2023

Teams are the backbone and the most successful form of cooperation in contemporary product development organizations. Based on the agile mindset, many best practices of team organization have emerged. However, real teams do not always follow the blueprints of the methodology. They represent the complexity they face, which becomes evident in a situation where a global pandemic brings about dramatic changes in the contexts they operate in. This study is based on consultations with teams that sought outside support maneuvering their way through this complexity, and it looks for patterns in how they coped. How do teams describe their own journey? How do they set a focus and develop as teams? The study aims to identify and describe functional dynamics of decision-making in teams, to understand how structure and semantics, traditionally seen as separate, are interrelated in their morphogenesis.
Real-time vignetting compensation and exposure correction for panoramic images by optimizing irradiance consistency
Authors: Kinzig Christian , Feng Guanzhi , Granero Miguel , Stiller Christoph
Published: June 2023

Image-based object detection is a crucial task in autonomous driving. In many cases, objects are not correctly detected and classified if they are only partially visible due to a limited field of view. Also, even if stitched panoramic images are used, errors in object detection can still occur if the seam between individual images is visible. This happens due to vignetting or different exposure, although the images are optimally aligned. In this article, we present a real-time capable and effective method for vignetting compensation and exposure correction. Before runtime, the camera response function is determined and the vignetting model is preliminarily approximated. We obtain the irradiance from the intensity values of incoming images. Then, the vignetting model is applied. Afterwards, the pixels at the seam are used to correct the exposure. Finally, we convert the corrected irradiance back to intensity values. We evaluate our approach by measuring the image stitching accuracy in the overlapping area by the IoU of grayscale histograms and the mean absolute error of intensity values. The metrics are applied both on data recorded with our experimental vehicle and on the publicly available nuScenes dataset. Finally, we demonstrate that our approach runs in real-time on GPU.
Investigating adsorptive potential of Raphanus caudatus leaves biomass for methyl orange dye: isotherm and kinetic study
Authors: Naseem Khalida , Arif Muhammad , Anwar Aneela , Haider Sajjad , Akhtar Muhammad Saeed
Published: June 2023

This study emphasis the removal of methyl orange (MO) from aqueous medium by Raphanus caudatus powdered leaves biomass. Functional groups involved in the removal of MO dye from aqueous medium by leave biomass were identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy analysis. It was seen that removal of dye molecules from aqueous medium was affected by the change in adsorption condition such as adsorbent dose, agitation time and pH of the medium. Maximum adsorption capacity of Raphanus caudatus leave biomass powder for MO dye was found as 30.86 mg/g. Regression factor (R
2) value indicates the best fitting of Langmuir isotherm model for the adsorption process. Amount of adsorption energy calculated by Dubinin-Radushkevich (DR) isotherm model illustrates the chemical bond formation between dye and biomass particles. Recyclability results depict that biomass showed good adsorption capacity value for MO up to 4th reusability cycle.
Deletion of Transferrin Receptor 1 in Parvalbumin Interneurons Induces a Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia-Like Phenotype
Authors: Xiong Wenchao , Jin Liqiang , Zhao Yulu , Wu Yu , Dong Jinghua , Guo Zhixin , Zhu Minzhen , Dai Yongfeng , Pan Yida , Zhu Xinhong
Published: June 2023

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a severe neurodegenerative movement disorder, the underlying pathophysiology of which remains poorly understood. Mounting evidence has suggested that iron homeostasis dysregulation can lead to motor function impairment. However, whether deficits in iron homeostasis are involved in the pathophysiology of HSP remains unknown. To address this knowledge gap, we focused on parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons, a large category of inhibitory neurons in the central nervous system, which play a critical role in motor regulation. The PV+interneuron-specific deletion of the gene encoding transferrin receptor 1 (TFR1), a key component of the neuronal iron uptake machinery, induced severe progressive motor deficits in both male and female mice. In addition, we observed skeletal muscle atrophy, axon degeneration in the spinal cord dorsal column, and alterations in the expression of HSP-related proteins in male mice withTfr1deletion in the PV+interneurons. These phenotypes were highly consistent with the core clinical features of HSP cases. Furthermore, the effects on motor function induced byTfr1ablation in PV+interneurons were mostly concentrated in the dorsal spinal cord; however, iron repletion partly rescued the motor defects and axon loss seen in both sexes of conditionalTfr1mutant mice. Our study describes a new mouse model for mechanistic and therapeutic studies relating to HSP and provides novel insights into iron metabolism in spinal cord PV+interneurons and its role in the regulation of motor functions.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTIron is crucial for neuronal functioning. Mounting evidence suggests that iron homeostasis dysregulation can induce motor function deficits. Transferrin receptor 1 (TFR1) is thought to be the key component in neuronal iron uptake. We found that deletion ofTfr1in parvalbumin-positive (PV+) interneurons in mice induced severe progressive motor deficits, skeletal muscle atrophy, axon degeneration in the spinal cord dorsal column, and alterations in the expression of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP)-related proteins. These phenotypes were highly consistent with the core clinical features of HSP cases and partly rescued by iron repletion. This study describes a new mouse model for the study of HSP and provides novel insights into iron metabolism in spinal cord PV+interneurons.
Batik, Lengkeng, Zat Warna Alam PEMANFAATAN DAUN LENGKENG (Nephelium Logan) UNTUK PEWARNA BATIK
Authors: Amantika Ravika Setyo , Syamwil Rodia , Nurrohmah Siti
Published: June 2023

UTILIZATION OF LEAF LITCHI (NEPHELIUM LOGAN) FOR BATIK DYES.

Abstract : The purpose of this study to determine whether the leaves litchi can be used as natural dye for batik cloth. This research uses experimental method and the result in laboratory test to see the quality of dyeing result with leaf litchi. The analysis used that is analysis descriptive on all results test laboratory . The object of this research is leaf litchi , primissima mori cloth that has been batik, type mordan (alum, lime tohor, tunjung). Leaf extraction process litchi with type different mordant showing existence difference old age color on fabric morri that is without mordan produce most young color with value the mean T% 44,32, with alum with value the mean T% 46,71, then chalk with value the mean T% 77.79, and tunjung produce The oldest color with value average of TT% 94.02. Conclusions can be explained that leaf litchi can be used as a source of natural dyes in bati k and the type of mordan used can affect the direction of the resulting batik color

Keywords: Batik, Leaf litchi (Nephelium logan) , Natural Color Substance
APD (MASKER) COVID-19 UNTUK PENYANDANG DIFABLE
Authors: Russanti Irma , Rohmah Lailatul , Kharnolis Mein
Published: June 2023

Masker merupakan alat pelindung diri yang penting saat ini, penggunaan masker dapat menekan penyebaran virus COVID-19. Desain masker yang ada tidak dapat digunakan oleh semua orang terutama para difabel. Pengembangan desain masker diperlukan para difabel selain untuk melindungi diri juga memberikan kenyamanan dalam berkomunikasi.Tujuan penulisan artikel ini untuk mengetahui desain, bahan, dan daya pakai masker COVID-19 bagi difabel.  Untuk mendapatkan studi literatur ini dilakukan pencarian jurnal tentang desain, bahan, dan daya pakai masker yang baik untuk perlindungan masyarakat dan melindungi dari penyebaran droplet (cairan) yang diperoleh dari Google Scholar, Research Gate, Mendeley, dan PubMed mulai dari tahun 2017 hingga 2020 dan mendapatkan lebih dari 10 jurnal.Hasil studi literature menunjukkan bahwa bahan masker COVID-19 bagi difabel memiliki dua bahan yaitu bahan katun dan bahan mika dengan quilter cotton,desain masker COVID-19 bagi difabel memiliki bagian transparan pada bagian mulut, dan daya pakai masker COVID-19 bagi difabel yang baik memberikan perlindungan terhadap droplet dan kenyamanandalam berkomunikasi.
RISING STARS: Liver sinusoidal endothelial transcription factors in metabolic homeostasis and disease
Authors: Nagy Dorka , Maude Hannah , Birdsey Graeme M , Randi Anna M , Cebola Inês
Published: June 2023

Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) are highly specialised endothelial cells that form the liver microvasculature. LSECs maintain liver homeostasis, scavenging bloodborne molecules, regulating immune response, and actively promoting hepatic stellate cell quiescence. These diverse functions are underpinned by a suite of unique phenotypical attributes distinct from other blood vessels. In recent years, studies have begun to reveal the specific contributions of LSECs to liver metabolic homeostasis and how LSEC dysfunction associates with disease aetiology. This has been particularly evident in the context of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome, which is associated with the loss of key LSEC phenotypical characteristics and molecular identity. Comparative transcriptome studies of LSECs and other endothelial cells, together with rodent knockout models, have revealed that loss of LSEC identity through disruption of core transcription factor activity leads to impaired metabolic homeostasis and to hallmarks of liver disease. This review explores the current knowledge of LSEC transcription factors, covering their roles in LSEC development and maintenance of key phenotypic features, which, when disturbed, lead to loss of liver metabolic homeostasis and promote features of chronic liver diseases, such as non-alcoholic liver disease.
Effects of alternative raw materials and varying resin content on mechanical and fracture mechanical properties of particle board
Authors: Rathke Jörn , Sinn Gerhard , Harm Michael , Teischinger Alfred , Weigl Martin , Müller Ulrich
Published: June 2023

Particle boards were produced from different types of wood particles, i.e. spruce, recovered particles, willow, poplar, and locust. Effects of raw material, as well as varying resin content on mechanical and fracture mechanical properties were investigated. For the analysis of mechanical properties, specific fracture energy, stress intensity factors, and the industrial European standard methods internal bond strength according to EN 319 and bending strength according to EN 310 were used. The total fracture energy was measured, and the stress intensity factor was calculated by means of data achieved through finite element simulations. Results of the fracture energy analysis were compared to internal bond strength (IB) and bending strength. While IB and the modulus of elasticity (MOE) showed a high variability, data scattering for fracture energy tests and modulus of rupture (MOR) were smaller, which are due to significant differences between the resin contents of the various board types.
Characterizing Changbai larch through veneering. Part 2: Effect of diameter at breast height and radial growth
Authors: Huang Suyong , Wang Brad Jianhe , Lu Jianxiong , Lei Yuancai , Dai Chunping , Sun Xiaomei
Published: June 2023

This is the second part of a large research initiative aimed at characterizing Changbai larch (Larix olgensis Henry) for veneer and high-valued product potential. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of the tree growth characteristics, particularly diameter at breast height (DBH) and radial growth from pith (or peeler core) to bark on clear wood and veneer properties. A population of 36 trees was chosen and classified into three DBH classes, namely 20, 25, and 30 cm, and crosscut into six segments each along the vertical stem. With the entire veneer ribbon peeled from the pith to bark for each segment, the effect of sapwood and heartwood on wood properties was revealed. The tree DBH and height were moderately and positively correlated. The tree DBH significantly affected properties of both clear wood and veneer in a similar pattern. For the larch veneer population, veneer mean ultrasonic propagation time (UPT) and density decreased but veneer mean dynamic modulus of elasticity (MOE) increased from the heartwood to sapwood or from the pith to bark. Among the three DBH classes, the 25 cm DBH yielded the highest mean veneer density and MOE, followed by the 20 cm DBH and 30 cm DBH. This was found to be caused by the radial evolution of veneer properties from the pith to bark in combination with the variation of veneer yield and stem position.
Lab testing for P3 moisture resistant overlaid particleboards made from wood residues
Authors: Garay Rose Marie
Published: June 2023

In Chile the amounts of wood sawdust, shavings, and chips available is around 2.72 million, 340 thousand, and 4.25 million m3/year, respectively, and about 30% of this material is employed in the manufacture of particleboards. Two types of particleboards were made from wood residues as moisture-resistant particleboards, and the main goal was to meet the requirements for P3 moisture resistance according to the European Standard EN 312. Five mats of each type were pressed without stops in a 30 cm diameter electrically heated hot press at 180°C for 3.5 min. Target board density was 680 kg/m3 (T1) and 720 kg/m3 (T2), mat moisture was 10%, resin dosage applied was 6%, and board thickness was 15 mm for both boards (0.5 x 0.5 m). Samples were designated as T1 and T2, on which both physical and mechanical tests were conducted. Density, moisture content, thickness swelling, and water absorption were measured. Mechanical tests included internal bond before and after cyclic test, as well as fire retardancy. The analysis of the high resolution images allowed us to ensure that there was no gap between the veneer and the particleboard; therefore it can be concluded that there was no adherence loss. Results for all tests showed that both boards met all the P3 standards for moisture resistant non-structural board for use in humid conditions.
Caracterización de tres centelladores de 1.5”x1.5”, 2”x2” y 3”x3” para la puesta a punto de una cadena para espectroscopía gamma
Authors: Villarreyes Eduardo , Patiño Galo , Luna Ana , Baltuano Oscar , Angulo Luis
Published: June 2023

Los detectores de radiación gamma que usan centelladores, siguen teniendo una gran relevancia en varios campos como es el estudio de las radiaciones en la física nuclear, en las medidas de radiación medioambiental, en la protección radiológica y en la industria. El grupo de investigación INFISA adscrito a la FCF de la UNMSM, que está ubicado en el Instituto de Investigación de Física, cuenta con tres centelladores sólidos inorgánicos de yoduro de sodio dopado con talio NaI(Tl) de tamaño de cristal de 1.5”x1.5” (REXON), 2”x2” (TELEDYNE) y 3”x3” (BICRON). En el presente trabajo presentamos los resultados de la comparación, mostrando las curvas tanto en eficiencia como en resolución al caracterizar los tres centelladores para la puesta a punto de la cadena de detección para su uso en espectroscopia gamma.
La aceleración de la luz en el vacío de un medio resistente
Authors: Monroy Oscar , Merma Marco
Published: June 2023

El estudio de la velocidad de la luz en el vacío subyacente de un medio resistente, como mecanismo de transmisión de información, es complementado con el estudio de la aceleración de la luz en dicho medio. Aplicando la derivada temporal de segundo orden a las ecuaciones paramétricas, que representan el sustrato en el vacío subyacente del medio resistente, se obtiene una fórmula que describiría la aceleración con la que se transmite la información organizada. La ecuación obtenida varía con el tiempo para una magnitud dada del cuanto vectorial local, así como del coeficiente de resistencia descrito por el sustrato. Se consideran dos posibles direcciones simétricas para la aceleración de la luz en el vacío subyacente del medio resistente, las cuales estarían correlacionadas con las dos posibles direcciones del cuanto vectorial local. Prescindiendo del cuanto vectorial local la fórmula permite determinar el tiempo máximo y el tiempo mínimo en el que cesa la aceleración con la que se transmite la información en el sistema. Además, como consecuencia de la segunda derivada temporal del sustrato asociado al vacío subyacente del medio resistente, y admitiendo las correlaciones entre las pequeñas fluctuaciones de exceso/defecto de los cuantos vectoriales opuestos y de las aceleraciones opuestas, se deduce una segunda condición de cuasiequilibrio con la que se explicaría la precepción de los rayos de luz en línea recta en un medio homogéneo resistente. Finalmente, los resultados de la teoría son aplicados para describir la aceleración con la que se replica una partícula viral de ARN, demostrándose que la formación del ácido nucleico desacelera inversamente proporcional con el tiempo. También la teoría predice un intervalo de tiempo máximo y un intervalo de tiempo mínimo en el que la aceleración con la que se forma el ácido nucleico en una partícula viral de ARN se reduce a cero.
Review on diseases and health management of poultry and swine
Authors: Abdisa Serbessa Tagesu , Gemechu Geleta Yosef , Obsa Terfa Ifa
Published: June 2023

Poultry and swine production play an important role in countries' socioeconomic development by providing proteins that support food and nutrition security. However, several infectious and non-infectious diseases hinder the production of swine and poultry. Therefore, this review aim to provide highlight of the common disease and health management of poultry and swine. Poultry production has suffered from different pathogenic microorganisms that cause devastating economic losses in poultry industries worldwide. Poultry can be infected with common diseases like endoparasites, ectoparasites, infectious bronchitis, Marek's disease, fowl cholera, salmonellosis, infectious coryza, fowl pox, avian encephalomyelitis, etc. Health management is a system of preventive medicine that considers the whole poultry farms and the total influences, including social, with respect to relationships with others in the flock, psychological, and environmental factors that affect health. Swine production can be destructed by the influence of infectious diseases, which include Mycoplasma Hyopneumoniae, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus, Trichinella spp., Toxoplasma gondii, Salmonella spp., Campylobacter, and Leprospira. This all causes respiratory problems, leg problems, reproductive disorders, gastrointestinal problems, claw and skin problems, parasitic infections, and piglet mortality. Endoparasites and ectoparasites are regarded as the most significant constraints for welfare and health, as well as economic loss, in swine production, particularly during the post-weaning period. However, health management of swine production can reduce the effect of disease and optimize their productivity. Herd health management practices include vaccination, genetic improvement, and observation for all animals’ clinical signs, record keeping, detection and treatment of injury, sanitation, disease, pest control, and animal handlers. Generally, disease has a great risk to the health of poultry and swine animals that causes a decrement in their production. Therefore, the health management on poultry and swine farms should have to be strictly measured and further studies need to be conducted to solve the major problem of economic loss of production.
Assessment of the microbiological status of two Hungarian ostrich farms
Authors: Brassó Dóra Lili , Knop Renáta , Várszegi Zsófia , Bársony Péter , Komlósi István , Bacsadi Árpád , Bistyák Andrea
Published: June 2023

The aim of this study was to estimate the occurrence of bacterial infection and contamination in two ostrich-producing farms. Compared to other poultry species, the hatchability of ostrich eggs is especially low. In a quest to identify factors that may affect hatchability, we collected faecal samples from adult birds, as well as eggs with dead-in-shell embryos, dead chicks and swab samples from the surface of the eggs and from the environment. The samples were screened for the presence of bacteria by routine bacteriological culture methods. The most prevalent bacteria, detected in the samples, were Escherichia coli, Bacillus spp. and coliform bacteria, whereas Pseudomonas spp. were less frequently found. The intensity and species compositon of the bacterial contamination was comparable in the two farms. Our results revealed that the bacteria, present in the environment, may likely be transmitted to the surface of the eggs. If they are able to penetrate the shell then the embryos and chicks become infected easily. These findings draw the attention to the special importance of enforcing efficient decontamination and disinfection measures to keep the environment and egg surface free from germs. Besides the appropriate egg treatment procedure, the incubation and hatching technology should also be kept under control.
Exploring the complex and multifaceted interplay of the gut microbiome and cancer prevention and therapy
Authors: Kashyap Sukrit , Das Asmita
Published: June 2023

Recent scientific research has indicated that the gut microbiota constitutes a nuanced, diverse ecosystem of microorganisms that have gained significant attention due to its crucial involvement in shaping human health and diseases. In particular, the gut microbiota plays a pivotal role in cancer prevention, and disturbances in its composition and function, known as dysbiosis, that have been linked to an increased risk of developing various malignancies. The gut microbiota exerts a myriad of effects on the production of anti-cancer compounds, the host's immune system and inflammation, underscoring its crucial involvement in cancer. Additionally, recent studies have shown that the gut microbiota has a role in the development of cancer, influencing cancer risk, co-infections, disease progression, and treatment response. The observation of reduced efficacy of immunotherapy in patients receiving antibiotic treatment indicates a substantial influence of the microbiota in mediating the toxicity and response of cancer therapy, notably immunotherapy, and its immune-related side effects. A growing body of research has focused on cancer treatments that target the microbiome, including probiotics, dietary modifications, and faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). The forthcoming era of personalised cancer therapies is anticipated to prioritise tumor evolution, molecular and phenotypic heterogeneity, and immunological profiling, with gut microbiota assuming a pivotal position in this domain. This review aims to offer clinicians a comprehensive perspective on the microbiota-cancer axis, including its influence on cancer prevention and therapy and highlights the importance of integrating microbiome science into the design and implementation of cancer therapies.
Konstytucjonalizm przeciwko demokracji konstytucyjnej? Uwagi na tle Against Constitutionalism Martina Loughlina
Authors:   Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu, Włoch Wojciech
Published: June 2023

The subject of the article is a polemic with M. Loughlin’s thesis that constitutionalism as a philosophy of governance can be realized only in one form. Referring to the theory of worldviews, it can be said that the styles of constitutional interpretation stem from different experiences and accompany different practices. Although various doctrines may be united by a commitment to democracy, irreducible social pluralism determines the constant dispute over the best interpretation of the constitution. Constitutional democracy can be one of the forms of constitutionalism, if it is perceived as an interpretative concept.
Wysłuchanie publiczne w Polsce – legitymizujący wymiar partycypacji obywateli w procesie ustawodawczym
Authors:   Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, Lorencka Małgorzata , Bokszczanin Izolda ,   Uniwersytet Warszawski
Published: June 2023

The article is devoted to the practice of using participatory tools in the law-making process in Poland. The subject of the study was the public hearing introduced into the Polish legal order in 2005. It mainly used the institutional-legal and comparative methods. Embedded in the framework of the theoretical concepts of participatory, deliberative, and pluralist democracy, the presented analyses focus on the legitimizing dimension of the public hearing procedure. The analysis of the normative construction and practice of using this institution allows for formulating general conclusions that indicate its legitimizing potential, including its potential to influence institutional arrangements. At the same time, however, this practice revealed a specific “sensitivity” of public hearing procedure to the political and social context, carrying the risk of transforming it into a kind of facade institution for the representative rule (with a somewhat illusory participatory character.
Skutek bezpośredni obowiązywania orzeczenia Trybunału Konstytucyjnego po jego opublikowaniu
Authors:   Menedżerska Akademia Nauk Społecznych w Warszawie, Tkaczyk Edyta
Published: June 2023

The subject of this elaboration is legal effect of the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal, that arises after it has been published. The purpose of this elaboration is to present doubts related to application of rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal, based on the art. 8 para. 2 of the Constitution due to the art. 118 and 190 of the Constitution. Pursuant to these articles, the ruling is given legal effect after its publication, not earlier. By adjudicating with regard to the provision being at variance with the Constitution, the Constitutional Tribunal actually imposes the effect on the legal system in the form of repeal of this provision. On the one hand the legal system becomes constitutional but on the other a legal loophole may arise from lack of regulations.
Recenzja: Grzegorz Kryszeń, Referendum jako instytucja demokracji bezpośredniej, ISBN: 978-83-65696-78-6, Wydawnictwo Temida 2, Białystok 2020, ss. 182
Authors:   Uniwersytet Warszawski, Stępniak Kamil
Published: June 2023

Review: Grzegorz Kryszeń, Referendum as an Institution of Direct Democracy, ISBN: 978-83-65696-78-6, Publishing House Temida 2, Białystok 2020, pp. 182
Catch Me If You Can: Deceiving Stance Detection and Geotagging Models to Protect Privacy of Individuals on Twitter
Authors: Dogan Dilara , Altun Bahadir , Zengin Muhammed Said , Kutlu Mucahid , Elsayed Tamer
Published: June 2023

The recent advances in natural language processing have yielded many exciting developments in text analysis and language understanding models; however, these models can also be used to track people, bringing severe privacy concerns. In this work, we investigate what individuals can do to avoid being
detected by those models while using social media platforms. We ground our investigation in two exposure-risky
tasks, stance detection and geotagging. We explore a variety of simple techniques for modifying text, such as inserting typos
in salient words, paraphrasing, and adding dummy social media posts. Our experiments show that the performance of
BERT-based models fine-tuned for stance detection decreases significantly due to typos, but it is not affected by paraphrasing.
Moreover, we find that typos have minimal impact on state-of-the-art geotagging models due to their increased reliance
on social networks; however, we show that users can deceive those models by interacting with different users, reducing
their performance by almost 50%.
Understanding and Detecting Hateful Content Using Contrastive Learning
Authors: González-Pizarro Felipe , Zannettou Savvas
Published: June 2023

The spread of hate speech and hateful imagery on the Web is a significant problem that needs to be mitigated to improve our Web experience. This work contributes to research efforts to detect and understand hateful content on the Web by undertaking a multimodal analysis of Antisemitism and Islamophobia on 4chan’s /pol/ using OpenAI’s CLIP. This large pre-trained model uses the Contrastive Learning paradigm. We devise a methodology to identify a set of Antisemitic and Islamophobic hateful textual phrases using Google’s Perspective API and manual annotations. Then, we use OpenAI’s CLIP to identify images that are highly similar to our Antisemitic/Islamophobic textual phrases. By running our methodology on a dataset that includes 66M posts and 5.8M images shared on 4chan’s /pol/ for 18 months, we detect 173K posts containing 21K Antisemitic/Islamophobic images and 246K posts that include 420 hateful phrases. Among other things, we find that we can use OpenAI’s CLIP model to detect hateful content with an accuracy score of 0.81 (F1 score = 0.54). By comparing CLIP with two baselines proposed by the literature, we find that CLIP outperforms them, in terms of accuracy, precision, and F1 score, in detecting Antisemitic/Islamophobic images. Also, we find that Antisemitic/Islamophobic imagery is shared in a similar number of posts on 4chan’s /pol/ compared to Antisemitic/Islamophobic textual phrases, highlighting the need to design more tools for detecting hateful imagery. Finally, we make available (upon request) a dataset of 246K posts containing 420 Antisemitic/Islamophobic phrases and 21K likely Antisemitic/Islamophobic images (automatically detected by CLIP) that can assist researchers in further understanding Antisemitism and Islamophobia.
SciLander: Mapping the Scientific News Landscape
Authors: Gruppi Maurício , Smeros Panayiotis , Adalı Sibel , Castillo Carlos , Aberer Karl
Published: June 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the spread of misinformation on social media and the Web as a whole.
The phenomenon dubbed `infodemic' has taken the challenges of information veracity and trust to new heights by massively introducing seemingly scientific and technical elements into misleading content.
Despite the existing body of work on modeling and predicting misinformation, the coverage of very complex scientific topics with inherent uncertainty and an evolving set of findings, such as COVID-19, provides many new challenges that are not easily solved by existing tools.
To address these issues, we introduce SciLander, a method for learning representations of news sources reporting on science-based topics.
We extract four heterogeneous indicators for the sources; two generic indicators that capture (1) the copying of news stories between sources, and (2) the use of the same terms to mean different things (semantic shift), and two scientific indicators that capture (1) the usage of jargon and (2) the stance towards specific citations.
We use these indicators as signals of source agreement, sampling pairs of positive (similar) and negative (dissimilar) samples, and combine them in a unified framework to train unsupervised news source embeddings with a triplet margin loss objective.
We evaluate our method on a novel COVID-19 dataset containing nearly 1M news articles from 500 sources spanning a period of 18 months since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.
Our results show that the features learned by our model outperform state-of-the-art baseline methods on the task of news veracity classification.
Furthermore, a clustering analysis suggests that the learned representations encode information about the reliability, political leaning, and partisanship bias of these sources.
Quotatives Indicate Decline in Objectivity in U.S. Political News
Authors: Hu Tiancheng , Horta Ribeiro Manoel , West Robert , Spitz Andreas
Published: June 2023

According to journalistic standards, direct quotes should be attributed to sources with objective quotatives such as ``said'' and ``told,'' since nonobjective quotatives, e.g., ``argued'' and ``insisted,'' would influence the readers' perception of the quote and the quoted person. In this paper, we analyze the adherence to this journalistic norm to study trends in objectivity in political news across U.S. outlets of different ideological leanings. We ask: 1) How has the usage of nonobjective quotatives evolved? 2) How do news outlets use nonobjective quotatives when covering politicians of different parties? To answer these questions, we developed a dependency-parsing-based method to extract quotatives and applied it to Quotebank, a web-scale corpus of attributed quotes, obtaining nearly 7 million quotes, each enriched with the quoted speaker's political party and the ideological leaning of the outlet that published the quote. We find that, while partisan outlets are the ones that most often use nonobjective quotatives, between 2013 and 2020, the outlets that increased their usage of nonobjective quotatives the most were ``moderate'' centrist news outlets (around 0.6 percentage points, or 20% in relative percentage over seven years). Further, we find that outlets use nonobjective quotatives more often when quoting politicians of the opposing ideology (e.g., left-leaning outlets quoting Republicans) and that this ``quotative bias'' is rising at a swift pace, increasing up to 0.5 percentage points, or 25% in relative percentage, per year. These findings suggest an overall decline in journalistic objectivity in U.S. political news.
Weakly Supervised Learning for Analyzing Political Campaigns on Facebook
Authors: Islam Tunazzina , Roy Shamik , Goldwasser Dan
Published: June 2023

Social media platforms are currently the main channel for political messaging, allowing politicians to target specific demographics and adapt based on their reactions. However, making this communication transparent is challenging, as the messaging is tightly coupled with its intended audience and often echoed by multiple stakeholders interested in advancing specific policies. Our goal in this paper is to take a first step towards understanding these highly decentralized settings. We propose a weakly supervised approach to identify the stance and issue of political ads on Facebook and analyze how political campaigns use some kind of demographic targeting by location, gender, or age. Furthermore, we analyze the temporal dynamics of the political ads on election polls.