bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
New varieties of winter rye of intensive type
Authors: Esimbaeva E. M. , Petrovtseva N.A. , Pasynkova E. N.
Published: February 2020

The work of breeders of the Leningrad Research Institute of Agriculture Belogorka on the creation of new short-stature varieties of intensive type winter rye, characterized by increased resistance to adverse soil and climatic conditions of northern Europe is briefly described. The methods of selection used in the institute are presented, including the method of directed transpollination of crops “on a flower bed” developed in the winter rye laboratory. The characteristic of new varieties based on economic and useful features and on the main elements of the crop structure is given. It was shown that the new varieties significantly exceeded the standard Volkova variety in winter and lodging resistance, which allows obtaining a stable grain harvest even in unfavorable years. In addition, new varieties are characterized by the size and uniformity of seeds at the weight of 1000 grains 38–42 g, practically not inferior in this indicator to tetraploid and hybrid varieties of winter rye, which are more demanding of cultivation conditions.
Restoring the functional state of the hemostasis system in piglets experiencing an episode of transportation
Authors: Solovyova Lyubov P. , Kalysh Tamara V. , Voevodina Yulia A. , Zamuravkin Valery I.
Published: February 2020

Negative environmental impact can often adversely affect the functional properties of piglets and significantly weaken their viability. It is often possible to judge this by the dynamics of the activity of hemostasis indicators. The level of activity of platelets and coagulation systems very early change activity in the case of negative influences from the outside, causing the appearance of overt hemostasiopathy. This condition leads to the disruption of hemocirculation in the capillaries and a decrease in the severity of metabolism in the tissues. These changes lead to a slowdown in growth and a general weakening of animals, thereby leading to great economic damage. It was found that the appearance of transport stress in piglets leads to increased platelet aggregation and activation of homocoagulation mechanisms during inhibition of fibrinolysis. Due to the fact that this situation is very common, the possibility of eliminating these dysfunctions was studied. The study tested fumaric acid at 0.1 g/kg in the form of a feed additive for 20 days in piglets that underwent long-term transportation. As a result of using this supplement, it was possible to reduce platelet activity and blood coagulation and increase fibrinolysis activity, bringing them to control values. As a result of the study, it was found that the intake of fumaric acid in the body of piglets that have experienced the influence of a high-intensity medium optimizes the functional status of their hemostasis. This minimizes their risk of microthrombosis and weakened animal growth.
Concept of “smart” oil storage facility for agricultural purposes
Authors: Nagornov Stanislav , Levin Maksim , Levina Ekaterina
Published: February 2020

Technological parameters and technical level of the equipment at an oil storage facility influence motor fuel’s quality and its waste during reception, storage and transfer. The use of intelligent systems during the oil storage and handling process enhances quality preservation and reduction of motor fuel waste caused by evaporation, oxidation and hydration while stored in above-ground horizontal steel tanks. Systems managing “smart” oil-storage facilities combine technologies for on-line collection, transmission and storage of information with instant data processing and analysis, and managerial decision-making techniques. A methodological framework, that includes algorithms and a program with sensors to monitor indicators of an automated horizontal oil reservoir, has been developed to control the technological parameters (temperature, pressure, fuel level) of the tanks during storage of light oil products, and to protect fuel against flooding and evaporation. The application of the neural network forecasting technique for fuel waste from evaporation during storage, and processing of the data array, made it possible to calculate with a 98% accuracy rate the gasoline waste during storage in horizontal on-ground tanks with up to 100 m3 in volume capacity. The application of a neural network enables development of new fuel storage algorithms and calculation of the optimal storage amount to minimise losses. The concept and developed digital intelligent control solutions for oil storage allows combining data in oil management into a single information space, and to control the automated oil storage system with application of neural networks, deep learning and Big Data.
Economic efficiency of investments in producing a mixture from brewing waste for the recultivation of soil contaminated with oil and oil products
Authors: Rudenko Elena Yu. , Mukovnina Galina S. , Kashaev Artem G. , Temnikova Olga E. , Mukovnin Roman S.
Published: February 2020

The study of the economic efficiency of investments in the production of a mixture of brewing waste provides an opportunity to assess the possibility of its practical use for the restoration of soils contaminated with oil and oil products. The UNIDO methodology is applied to calculate the costeffectiveness of investments in the brewing waste drying line for the remediation of contaminated soils. Fulfillment of the underlying conditions for the effectiveness of investments and the absence of a negative balance in the financial plan indicate the efficiency and feasibility of investments.
Measures against cattle’s mono- and mixtinvasions with fasciolosis and strongylatoses of the gastrointestinal tract
Authors: Klimova Ekaterina , Mkrtchyan Manya , Babintseva Tatyana , Reshetnikova Alexandra , Kurskaya Yuliya
Published: February 2020

In the farms of the Udmurt Republic, the most common endoparasites of cattle are Fasciola hepatica, Chabertia ovina and Haemonchus contortus and their association. Feces samples were taken individually and examined by flotation and sequential swabs. The therapeutic efficacy of anthelmintic drugs has been studied in 780 cows. Animals’ infection rate was determined by triple helminthocoproovoscopic examination of fecal samples by flotation and sequential washing before and after antiparasitic treatments (15, 30 and 90 days after deworming). The high degree of cattle infection in various regions of the Udmurt Republic with fasciolosis and strongilatosis of the gastrointestinal tract is due to optimal climatic conditions for the regular transmission of the pathogen to susceptible animals. The therapeutic efficacy of anthelmintic drugs has been studied in 675 cows, which were divided according to the principle of analogues into groups consisting of 45 animals. According to the results of our studies in case of nematode monoinvasion, the most effective antiparasitic drugs are closanthin 20 % (the cost of one dose per animal is 77 rubles) and ivermectins (the cost of deworming per animal does not exceed 40 rubles). Analyzing the extenseffectivity of the studied anthelmintic drugs, we found that closantin 20 % at a dose of 1 is the optimal drug in terms of efficacy and cost for monoinvasions (ID – 100 %) with fasciola or strongilates of the gastrointestinal tract, and their association (ID – 93.3 %), 1.25ml / 50kg of animal weight.
Increasing labor productivity as the major line of agricultural industry development
Authors: Smirnova Elena A. , Postnova Marina V.
Published: February 2020

The improvement of the agricultural sector efficiency, a shift to innovative development approaches to increase the competitiveness of domestic agriculture in modern conditions is possible only if labor productivity increases. This task is more relevant today than ever, since the main factor of production – labor (labor resources) has a steady downward trend. The study has shown that in the agricultural sector of the region there is an increase of labor productivity both by value and volume. The application of deterministic factor analysis has revealed that in the dynamics both factors (number of employees and cost of production) had a positive impact on increasing labor productivity, but the increase in production volumes in the industry had a more noticeable effect (the value of the factor varied from 57.7 to 69.7 %). However due regard must be paid to the fact that agricultural production is subject to fluctuations and the decrease in the number of workers in the industry is sustainable. The positive impact and the main factor in the growth of annual labor productivity is an increase in the average hourly output of workers due to an increase in the yield and technical re-equipment, and this should be noted as a strategically important direction for the development of the industry. The normalization of employment also acts as a factor in further increasing labor productivity.
Features of blood supply to the arteries of the forelimb of the northern domesticated reindeers
Authors: Potapov Mikhail , Nifontov Konstantin , Belogurov Aleksey
Published: February 2020

A role of the blood circulatory system in a regulation of organism’s physiological functions and in a development of pathological processes is enormous. In this work the specifics of the vascular supply of the northern reindeer’s limbs are presented which are characterized by monotonous scheme. However, the northern reindeer has anatomic specific due to advanced second and the fifth dactyls. In this article there is determination of the development of forelimb’s arterial vessels of the northern reindeer during postnatal ontogenesis. In the postnatal period of development, the most intensive growth in the length and diameter of the great arteries is observed in the first year of the animal’s life, especially in the first month.
Assessment of recreational forests by stages of recreational digression
Authors: Musin Haris G. , Denisov Stanisłav V. , Khalilov Ildar I. , Gafiyatov Rinat H.
Published: February 2020

The paper suggests standards of maximum permissible recreational loads specified for republics and regions of the Middle Volga region, characterized by specific forest-growing conditions according to dominant rocks and age groups. The sequence of determining the stages of digression is corrected through the attendance of recreational facilities and the critical number of visitors according to the given model. Based on actual recreational accounting it is possible to model factors to adjust the recreational capacity of the forest area to critical number of visitors. The study of forest areas for mass recreation is based on the method of recreational load evaluation. The use of refined standards of maximum permissible recreational loads will allow considering the peculiarities of recreational forest exploitation for the zone of southern taiga and coniferous-broadleaf forests.
Measurement of radioactivity and evaluation of activated nuclides due to secondary particles produced in stripper foil in J-PARC RCS
Authors: Yoshimoto Masahiro , Okabe Kota , Kinsho Michikazu
Published: February 2020

Multi-turn charge-exchange beam injection is the key technique to achieve high-intensity proton beam accelerators. In J-PARC RCS, 400-MeV H- beams from LINAC are injected into stripper foils such that most of the beams are converted into protons. The stripper foils are irradiated not only with the injected H- beams but also with the protons circulating during the beam injection period. The high energy and intense beam irradiation into the foil generates secondary neutrons and protons via nuclear reactions. These secondary particles cause high residual activation around the stripper foils. Therefore, an activation analysis method that uses sample pieces is required to investigate the secondary particle. Furthermore, a new experimental system to measure secondary particles from the foil was installed at the L3BT 100BD line. Initial testing of the system has been completed, and beam testing will commence in October 2018.
The production of deuterated polyethylene targets
Authors: Kheswa N , Dinoko TRS , Wiedeking M
Published: February 2020

In this contribution, we describe the method used to produce deuterated polyethylene (C2D4) targets. The modification of method based on polyethylene dissolution in hot xylene resulted with stable thin C2D4 targets.
The Argonne Target Library
Authors: Gordon Gavin , Gott Matthew , Greene John P.
Published: February 2020

As part of the proposal to DOE-NP for the Center for Accelerator Target Science (CATS) initiative, one of the objectives was to develop an inventory of existing targets that will serve as a pool available to the community. Targets collections have been recovered from Yale University due to the closing of their Tandem Accelerator Facility. In addition, accumulated targets from target preparation in the Physics Division over several decades have also been assembled with the intent of providing them to whomever would have a use for them. Space has now become available to compile, catalogue and house these collections. Thus, the Argonne Target Library has been established and its progress and outlook will be discussed in detail.
Method development for producing thin 14C foils
Authors: Gott Matthew , Greene John , Pavlovsky Igor , Fink Richard
Published: February 2020

Thin, isotopic 14C foils are of great interest to the nuclear physics community as neutron-rich targets. Historically, these foils have been extremely difficult to prepare and an effort is underway to make them readily available. The stock material of 14C available at Argonne contains a number of oxide impurities (SiO2, MgO, and Al2O3), which affect the composition and stability of the fabricated foil. A simple, robust method was developed (using natC as a surrogate) to purify the 14C material while minimizing loss and potential spread of the material. Thin foils were fabricated using the purified carbon, the unpurified carbon/oxide mix, and purchased high-purity carbon powder. SEM and EDS of the resulting foils was performed and the efficacy of this purification method was demonstrated.
Nonlinear model reduction on metric spaces. Application to one-dimensional conservative PDEs in Wasserstein spaces
Authors: Ehrlacher Virginie , Lombardi Damiano , Mula Olga , Vialard François-Xavier
Published: February 2020

We consider the problem of model reduction of parametrized PDEs where the goal is to approximate any function belonging to the set of solutions at a reduced computational cost. For this, the bottom line of most strategies has so far been based on the approximation of the solution set by linear spaces on Hilbert or Banach spaces. This approach can be expected to be successful only when the Kolmogorov width of the set decays fast. While this is the case on certain parabolic or elliptic problems, most transport-dominated problems are expected to present a slow decaying width and require to study nonlinear approximation methods. In this work, we propose to address the reduction problem from the perspective of general metric spaces with a suitably defined notion of distance. We develop and compare two different approaches, one based on barycenters and another one using tangent spaces when the metric space has an additional Riemannian structure. Since the notion of linear vectorial spaces does not exist in general metric spaces, both approaches result in nonlinear approximation methods. We give theoretical and numerical evidence of their efficiency to reduce complexity for one-dimensional conservative PDEs where the underlying metric space can be chosen to be theL2-Wasserstein space.
Mutationsabhängige Mechanismen und deren Bedeutung für zielgerichtete Behandlungsstrategien am Beispiel von Bestrophin 1 und den Bestrophinopathien
Authors: Milenkovic Andrea , Brandl Caroline , Nachtigal Anna-Lena , Kellner Ulrich , Weber Bernhard H. F.
Published: March 2020

Das Bestrophin-1-Gen (BEST1) codiert für ein integrales Membranprotein und findet sich im basolateralen Aspekt des retinalen Pigmentepithels. Mutationen im BEST1 sind mit einer heterogenen Gruppe von erblichen Netzhautdystrophien assoziiert, den sog. Bestrophinopathien, die schon in jüngerem Alter zu einer Beeinträchtigung des Sehvermögens führen können. Die einzelnen Krankheitsbilder sind anhand ihrer phänotypischen Merkmale und Erbgänge abgrenzbar. Während die meisten BEST1-Mutationen einem autosomal-dominanten Erbgang folgen, bei dem bereits eine defekte Genkopie zur Erkrankung führt, sind bei der autosomal-rezessiven Bestrophinopathie heterozygote Mutationsträger i. d. R. symptomfrei. In diesem Übersichtsartikel soll am Beispiel der Bestrophinopathien die Bedeutung der Kenntnis von mutationsabhängigen Mechanismen für das Verständnis der Pathogenese, aber auch für die Entwicklung von zukünftigen Therapieansätzen, hervorgehoben werden.
Anämie ist nicht gleich Anämie
Authors: Jahn Claus
Published: February 2020

Perniziös, aplastisch oder renal? Anämien äußern sich in ähnlichen Symptomen, haben aber unterschiedlichste – für die Behandlung ausschlaggebende – Ursachen.
Was wissen Sie über…Blut?
Authors: Schmid Eva C.
Published: February 2020

In dieser Ausgabe beschäftigen sich alle Wissensquiz-Fragen mit dem Thema Blut.
Beruf am Ausbluten?
Authors: Kämper Siegfried
Published: February 2020

Der Heilpraktikerberuf steckt in einer Krise. Seit dem Erlass des Gesetzes für mehr Sicherheit in der Arzneimittelversorgung (GSAV) dürfen Heilpraktiker keine klassischen Eigenblutverfahren mehr anwenden. Auch ein Rechtsgutachten zum Heilpraktikergesetz läuft mittlerweile und stellt den Berufsstand auf die vielleicht bisher größte Bewährungsprobe. Wir haben mit Siegfried Kämper über Hintergründe, Herausforderungen und Handlungsempfehlungen gesprochen.
Morphometric Analysis of Foramen Magnum for Sex Determination in South Indian Population
Authors: K. Radhakrishna S. , H. Shivarama C. , A. Ramakrishna , B. Bhagya
Published: March 2020

In this study the foramen magnum was analyzed for sex differences using standard osteometric techniques.

We analyzed 100 (55 males and 45 females) skulls from the department of Anatomy, Yenepoya Medical College which were in good condition with a record of sex. The cranial base was visually assessed for foramen magnum shape. Morphometry (anteroposterior diameter (APD)& Transverse diameter (TD)) was determined and their differences by gender (p <0.05) were ascertained.

Oval shape was the most common followed by round, tetragonal and pentagonal in both sex. The results demonstrated that sexual dimorphism is present in the foramen magnum. APD and TD were higher in male skulls than females (34.04 vs 31.72 and 28.63 vs 26.59).

In incomplete skeletons, metric analysis of the foramen magnum may provide a statistically useful indication as to sex of the unknown skull.
Microwave propagation in a metamaterial-ferromagnetic waveguide
Authors: Wu Zhong , Ma Tian-ming
Published: February 2020

We theoretically investigate the propagation characteristics of transverse electric (TE) waves in a waveguide consisting of a nonlinear metamaterial and a linear ferromagnet. The investigation shows that the TE waves exist in a form of a surface wave localized at the interface between the metamaterial and ferromagnet and propagate backward in the metamaterial and forward in the ferromagnet. The effective wave power in the waveguide can be well balanced for some incident frequencies. It is manifested that the guiding structure exhibits the properties of passband and stop band that can be adjusted and switched into each other by controlling the intensity-dependent parameter at the interface. It is expected that such wave characteristics could provide ideas for novel device design and potential applications in information processing.
Theoretical study of the structure and magnetism of Ga1−xVxSb compounds for spintronic applications
Authors: Wan Wenhui , Zhao Shan , Wang Chuang , Ge Yanfeng , Liu Yong
Published: February 2020

In this paper, the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of Ga1−xVxSb compounds with various vanadium (V) contents (x) ranging from dilute doping to the extreme doping limit were systematically investigated by first-principles calculations. The results show that V atoms prefer to substitute for gallium (Ga) atoms, and the formation energy is lower under Sb-rich growth conditions than under Ga-rich growth conditions. Meanwhile, the SbGa antisite defects effectively decrease the energy barrier of the substitution process from 0.85 to 0.53 eV. The diffusion of V atoms in the GaSb lattice occurs through metastable interstitial sites with an energy barrier of 0.6 eV. At a low V concentration (x = 0.0625), V atoms prefer a homogeneous distribution with antiferromagnetic coupling among the V atoms. However, when x increases above 0.5, the magnetic coupling among V atoms changes to ferromagnetic coupling due to the enhanced superexchange interaction between the eg and t2g states of neighboring V atoms. At the extreme doping limit of x = 1.00, zinc blende VSb along with its analogs VAs and VP is an intrinsic ferromagnetic semiconductor that exhibits a large change in light absorption at the Curie temperature. The results indicate that Ga1−xVxSb compounds provide a platform to design next-generation electronic, spintronic, and optoelectronic devices.
Heat transport in methane-palladium nanocomposites
Authors: Nikonkov R. V. , Stachowiak P. , Jeżowski A.
Published: February 2020

The thermal conductivity of crystalline methane samples with spherical palladium nanoparticles of diameter 6, 8, 10, 12, 18 and 24 nm embedded in the CH4 structure was determined in the temperature range 2–35 K. The spherical nanoparticles featured a low dispersion of the sphere diameter and the volume fraction of the nanoparticles in the nanocomposites amounted to 0.15. Time relaxation approximation analysis shows that the matrix resistive phonon scattering processes are dominated by diffuse scattering of phonons by matrix-nanoparticle boundaries. Other considered intensities of resistive scattering mechanisms of phonons, i.e., scattering by point defects, by dislocation strain fields and by phonons in U-processes remain almost the same in nanocomposites and pure methane crystal. In transfer of the heat through the investigated nanocomposites non-resistive scattering of phonons by the nanoparticles, such as phonon specular scattering and multiple scattering of phonons show very high intensity. The nanocomposites formed of 18 and 24 nm nanospheres show anomalous power increase of the thermal conductivity coefficient dependence on temperature, exceeding the values known for a typical dielectric crystal.
Reaching the zero by 30 dog-mediated human rabies goal
Authors: Britton Andrea
Published: March 2020

It is unacceptable that as we advance into the 21st century rabies is still a threat to humans and animals alike. Given public health interventions that focus solely on disease prevention in humans have no effect on the reduction of infection in the reservoir hosts, the most effective way to combat human rabies infection is to control the disease transmission by mass vaccination of the animal source, e.g. dogs and wildlife1. This short communication focuses on the global strategic target to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 20302 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals by providing recent updates on World Health Organization (WHO) and OIE guidelines3–5 and recommendations as well as highlighting Australian rabies research activities to prevent an incursion of rabies into the country.
New insights into chlamydial zoonoses
Authors: Polkinghorne Adam , Branley James
Published: February 2020

Chlamydiae are obligate intracellular bacterial pathogens of humans. Infections in animals are also widespread with some species, such as Chlamydia psittaci, long recognised as a serious threat to human health. Critical to the public health response of any zoonotic disease outbreaks is reliable and up-to-date information on the epidemiology of the target pathogen. Aided by advances in the use of quantitative PCR, molecular typing and culture-independent genomic studies, significant recent work has highlighted an expanded diversity and host range of chlamydial pathogens in animals. New and unexpected cases of chlamydial zoonoses have now been recently documented in Australia and elsewhere, emphasising the importance of multi-disciplinary ‘One Health' collaboration and the use of standardised methods to detect and characterise chlamydial pathogens in humans and animals.
Tetraspanin-6 negatively regulates exosome production
Authors: Ghossoub Rania , Chéry Marion , Audebert Stéphane , Leblanc Raphael , Egea-Jimenez Antonio Luis , Lembo Frédérique , Mammar Sarah , Le Dez Flavien , Camoin Luc , Borg Jean-Paul , Rubinstein Eric , David Guido , Zimmermann Pascale
Published: February 2020

Exosomes, extracellular vesicles (EVs) of endosomal origin, emerge as master regulators of cell-to-cell signaling in physiology and disease. Exosomes are highly enriched in tetraspanins (TSPNs) and syndecans (SDCs), the latter occurring mainly in proteolytically cleaved form, as membrane-spanning C-terminal fragments of the proteins. While both protein families are membrane scaffolds appreciated for their role in exosome formation, composition, and activity, we currently ignore whether these work together to control exosome biology. Here we show that TSPN6, a poorly characterized tetraspanin, acts as a negative regulator of exosome release, supporting the lysosomal degradation of SDC4 and syntenin. We demonstrate that TSPN6 tightly associates with SDC4, the SDC4-TSPN6 association dictating the association of TSPN6 with syntenin and the TSPN6-dependent lysosomal degradation of SDC4-syntenin. TSPN6 also inhibits the shedding of the SDC4 ectodomain, mimicking the effects of matrix metalloproteinase inhibitors. Taken together, our data identify TSPN6 as a regulator of the trafficking and processing of SDC4 and highlight an important physical and functional interconnection between these membrane scaffolds for the production of exosomes. These findings clarify our understanding of the molecular determinants governing EV formation and have potentially broad impact for EV-related biomedicine.
Arabic learners’ acquisition of English past tense morphology
Authors: Zhao Helen , Shirai Yasuhiro
Published: February 2020

The current study investigates the roles of lexical aspect and phonological saliency in second language acquisition of English
past tense morphology. It also explores whether the effects of these factors are affected by data elicitation tasks and
learners’ L2 proficiency. We created a learner corpus consisting of data from oral personal narratives from twenty Arabic EFL
learners from two proficiency groups (low vs. intermediate/advanced), which were transcribed in CHAT format, tagged, and
included in the TalkBank corpora. We also administered a written cloze task. Despite task variations, we find
strong evidence that supported the influence of lexical semantics in Arabic learners’ acquisition of past tense marking,
confirming the predictions of the Aspect Hypothesis.
Cross-linguistic comparison of automatic detection of speech breaks in read and
narrated speech in four languages
Authors: Barbosa Plínio A.
Published: February 2020

This chapter tests an algorithm for the automatic detection of
speech breaks in read and narrated speech in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), European Portuguese
(EP), French, and German. The algorithm is independent of previous transcription or
linguistic analysis (syllable, phone labeling and segmentation), requiring only the audio
file. It operates in two stages: vowel onsets detection firstly, followed by V-to-V duration
intervals normalization for smoothed duration z-scores. Peaks over 2.5 of the latter were
considered speech breaks. Compared to human segmentation, hits for reading (70%) were higher
than for narration (60%). Crosslinguistic results show EP and French having the highest
proportion of hits. A test with the English Navy audio file reveals a hit
proportion similar to German.
Applying criteria of spontaneous Hebrew speech segmentation to English
Authors: Izre'el Shlomo
Published: February 2020

Taking prosody to be the leading component in speech segmentation,
this chapter attempts to transfer segmentation methodologies from Hebrew to English
spontaneous speech. Following a process of segmentation by perception of two English chunks
a detailed acoustic analysis has been conducted, using acoustic criteria that have been
found meaningful for similar analyses of Hebrew, as detailed in my chapter for Part I of this volume, “The Basic Unit of Spoken Language
and the Interface Between Prosody, Discourse and Syntax: A View from Spontaneous Spoken
Hebrew”. This process has produced suggestive results. Further analysis into the interface
of prosody with discourse has also been found meaningful. Some terminological issues are
discussed as well.
The Moscow approach to local discourse structure
Authors: Kibrik Andrej A. , Korotaev Nikolay A. , Podlesskaya Vera I.
Published: February 2020

This chapter is an exploratory study in which we apply an approach
to local discourse structure and prosody, developed for spoken Russian, to English talk. A
key conceptual element of our approach is the notion of elementary discourse unit (EDU).
EDUs are identified on the basis of prosodic criteria and demonstrate substantial
correspondence to clauses. A range of structural, prosodic and discourse-semantic phenomena
are reviewed, including pausing, discourse accent, phase, and spoken sentence. The analysis
begins with those phenomena that are characteristic of both monologic and multi-party
discourse, and proceeds with those features that are only found in interactional exchange.
The Russian-oriented system of discourse transcription and analysis turns out to be
generally applicable to the English evidence.
Individual differences in first language acquisition and their theoretical implications
Authors: Kidd Evan , Bidgood Amy , Donnelly Seamus , Durrant Samantha , Peter Michelle S. , Rowland Caroline F.
Published: March 2020

Much of Lieven’s pioneering work has helped move the study of individual differences to the centre of child language research. The goal of the present chapter is to illustrate how the study of individual differences provides crucial insights into the language acquisition process. In part one, we summarise some of the evidence showing how pervasive individual differences are across the whole of the language system; from gestures to morphosyntax. In part two, we describe three causal factors implicated in explaining individual differences, which, we argue, must be built into any theory of language acquisition (intrinsic differences in the neurocognitive learning mechanisms, the child’s communicative environment, and developmental cascades in which each new linguistic skill that the child has to acquire depends critically on the prior acquisition of foundational abilities). In part three, we present an example study on the role of the speed of linguistic processing on vocabulary development, which illustrates our approach to individual differences. The results show evidence of a changing relationship between lexical processing speed and vocabulary over developmental time, perhaps as a result of the changing nature of the structure of the lexicon. The study thus highlights the benefits of an individual differences approach in building, testing, and constraining theories of language acquisition.
Diffusion maps embedding and transition matrix analysis of the large-scale flow structure in turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection
Authors: Koltai Péter , Weiss Stephan
Published: February 2020

By utilizing diffusion maps embedding and transition matrix analysis we investigate sparse temperature measurement time-series data from Rayleigh–Bénard convection experiments in a cylindrical container of aspect ratio

between its diameter (D) and height (L). We consider the two cases of a cylinder at rest and rotating around its cylinder axis. We find that the relative amplitude of the large-scale circulation (LSC) and its orientation inside the container at different points in time are associated to prominent geometric features in the embedding space spanned by the two dominant diffusion-maps eigenvectors. From this two-dimensional embedding we can measure azimuthal drift and diffusion rates, as well as coherence times of the LSC. In addition, we can distinguish from the data clearly the single roll state (SRS), when a single roll extends through the whole cell, from the double roll state (DRS), when two counter-rotating rolls are on top of each other. Based on this embedding we also build a transition matrix (a discrete transfer operator), whose eigenvectors and eigenvalues reveal typical time scales for the stability of the SRS and DRS as well as for the azimuthal drift velocity of the flow structures inside the cylinder. Thus, the combination of nonlinear dimension reduction and dynamical systems tools enables to gain insight into turbulent flows without relying on model assumptions.
Trotterized adiabatic quantum simulation and its application to a simple all-optical system
Authors: Sun Yifan , Zhang Jun-Yi , Byrd Mark S , Wu Lian-Ao
Published: February 2020

As first proposed for the adiabatic quantum information processing by Wu et al (2002 Phys. Rev. Lett.
89 057904), the Trotterization technique is a very useful tool for universal quantum computing, and in particular, the adiabatic quantum simulation of quantum systems. Given a boson Hamiltonian involving arbitrary bilinear interactions, we propose a static version of this technique to perform an optical simulation that would enable the identification of the ground state of the Hamiltonian. By this method, the dynamical process of the adiabatic evolution is mapped to a static linear optical array which is robust to the errors caused by dynamical fluctuations. We examine the cost of the physical implementation of the Trotterization, i.e. the number of discrete steps required for a given accuracy. Two conclusions are drawn. One is that the number of required steps grows much more slowly than the system size if the number of non-zero matrix elements of Hamiltonian is not too large. The second is that small fluctuations of the parameters of optical elements do not affect the first conclusion. This implies that the method is robust against the certain type of errors as we considered. Last but not least, we present an example of implementation of the simulation on a photonic chip as well as an optimized scheme. By such examples, we show a reduction of the costs compared to its classical counterpart and the potential for further improvement, which promotes a more general application.
Perturbative many-body transfer
Authors: Chetcuti Wayne Jordan , Sanavio Claudio , Lorenzo Salvatore , Apollaro Tony J G
Published: February 2020

The transfer of excitations between different locations of a quantum many-body system is of primary importance in many research areas, from transport properties in spintronics and atomtronics to quantum state transfer in quantum information processing. We address the transfer of n > 1 bosonic and fermionic excitations between the edges of a one-dimensional chain modelled by a quadratic hopping Hamiltonian, where the block edges, embodying the sender and the receiver sites, are weakly coupled to the quantum wire. We find that perturbative high-quality transfer is attainable in the weak-coupling limit, for both bosons and fermions, only for certain modular arithmetic equivalence classes of the wire’s length. Finally we apply our findings to the transport of spins and the charging of a many-body quantum battery.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Authors: McWilliams Abagail
Published: February 2020

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a legitimate responsibility to society, based on the principle that corporations should share some of the benefit that accrues from the control of vast resources. CSR goes beyond the legal, ethical, and financial obligations that create profits.

In the research literature, corporate social responsibility is defined in a variety of ways, depending on the aspect of CSR being examined. An inclusive definition is that social responsibility requires the firm to take into account the interests of all stakeholders, where stakeholders are defined as everyone who affects or is affected by the firm’s decisions and actions. A firm-focused definition holds that social responsibility includes actions that further a social goal, beyond what is required by ethics, law, and profitability. A political economy–oriented definition posits that firms have a responsibility to correct market failures such as negative externalities and government failures such as limits to jurisdiction that result in worker rights violations.

When implemented, altruistic CSR implies that firms provide a social good unrelated to the firms’ business that does not benefit the bottom line. Strategic CSR implies that firms are simultaneously profitable and socially responsible. To achieve this, CSR must be a core value of the firm and must be integrated into processes and products. When employed strategically, CSR can be an element of a differentiation strategy, leading to premium prices, enhanced brand and firm reputation, and supportive community relations. Corporate environmental responsibility often takes the form of overcompliance with regulation, improving the environment more than is required. A primary benefit of this is to stave off further regulation.

To capture the benefits of being socially responsible, the firm must make stakeholders aware of its record. This has led to triple bottom line reporting—that is, reporting about firm performance in terms of profits, people, and the planet. Social enterprises go a step further and make social responsibility the primary goal of the organization.
Hyperincarceration and Indigeneity
Authors: Anthony Thalia , Blagg Harry
Published: February 2020

Indigenous people have been subject to policies that disproportionately incarcerate them since the genesis of colonization of their lands. Incarceration is one node of a field of colonial oppression for Indigenous people. Colonial practices have sought to reduce Indigenous people to “bare life,” to use Agamben’s term, where their humanity is denied the basic rights and expression in the pursuit of sovereign extinguishment. Across the settler colonies of Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada, and the United States, the colonial drive to conquer land and eliminate Indigenous peoples has left deep scars on Indigenous communities and compromised bonds to kin, culture, and country. Indigenous people have been made refugees in their own countries.

Contemporary manifestations of penal incarceration for Indigenous people are a continuation of colonial strategies rather than a distinct phase. The concept of “hyperincarceration” draws attention to the problem of incarceration and its discriminatory targets. It also turns our attention to the turnstile of incarceration in Western postmodernity. However, the prison is but one form of exclusion for Indigenous people in a constellation of eliminatory and assimilatory practices, policies, and regimes imposed by colonial governance. Rather than overemphasizing the prison, there needs to be a broader conceptualization of colonial governance through “the camp,” again in the words of Agamben. The colonial institutionalization of Indigenous people, including in out-of-home care, psychiatric care, and corrective programs, is akin to a camp where Indigenous people are relegated to the margins of society. We eschew a narrow notion of hyperincarceration and instead posit a structural analysis of colonial relations underpinning the camp.
Morphology in Kra-Dai Languages
Authors: Luo Yongxian
Published: February 2020

The Kra-Dai languages (also known as Kam-Tai, Tai-Kadai, Tai-Kradai, Daic) are generally described as one of the most representative and extreme examples of isolating and analytic types; they are tonal, lacking in inflectional morphology of the type found in Indo-European. Kra-Dai languages can be said to have no distinction for number and gender in morphology, although many languages have lexical items to indicate number and gender, and some of these are increasingly used as prefixable morphemes. The majority of basic vocabulary items are monosyllabic, but disyllabic and multi-syllabic words also abound.

The main strategies of morphological devices in Kra-Dai include the use of prefixes, suffixes, infixes, compounding, and reduplication. There are also phonological alternations involving stem-internal initial, vowel, or tone changes to form doublets or word families.

In compounding, a significant number of compounds are idiosyncratic. Some are exocentric compounds. Opinions are divided over the identification of certain word classes due to their multifunctionality. Questions have been raised about the distinction between nouns and classifiers, and between verbs and prepositions, between adjectives and adverbs, among others. These word classes exhibit cross-boundary morphosyntactic features.

Kra-Dai languages possess a rich system of noun classifiers. Some of them play a crucial role in ethno-biological taxonomy imbedded in morphological systems. A number of lexical items function as grammatical morphemes in morphosyntactic operations to mark case and other semantico-syntactic relations. Serial verb constructions are widely used without overt marking to indicate grammatical relations. Temporal and aspectual meanings are expressed through tense-aspect markers typically derived from verbs, while mood and modality are conveyed via a rich array of discourse particles as well as a set of modal-auxiliary verbs and pragmatic devices. Word formation and related morphosyntactic processes in Kra-Dai are shown to exhibit features, some of which reflect what is the universal, but others, what is culture specific.
Prefrontal Cortical Reactivity and Connectivity Markers Distinguish Youth Depression from Healthy Youth
Authors: Dhami Prabhjot , Atluri Sravya , Lee Jonathan C , Knyahnytska Yuliya , Croarkin Paul E , Blumberger Daniel M , Daskalakis Zafiris J , Farzan Faranak
Published: February 2020

Up to 50% of youth with depression do not respond to conventional first-line treatments. However, little research has been conducted on the pathophysiology of youth depression, hindering the identification of more effective treatments. Our goal was to identify neurophysiological markers that differentiate youth with depression from healthy youth and could serve as targets of novel treatments. We hypothesized that youth with depression would exhibit network-specific cortical reactivity and connectivity abnormalities compared with healthy youth. Transcranial magnetic stimulation combined with electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imaging was employed in combination with clinical and behavioral assessments to study cortical reactivity and connectivity in bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), motor cortex, and inferior parietal lobule, sites linked to the frontoparietal network, sensorimotor network, and default mode network, respectively. In youth depression, greater cortical reactivity was observed specific to the left and right DLPFC stimulation only, which correlated with anhedonia scores. Additionally, the connectivity of the right DLPFC was significantly higher in youth depression. Source reconstruction attributed the observed connectivity dysregulation to regions belonging to the default mode network. The neurophysiological signatures identified in this study have high potential to inform the development of more effective and targeted interventions for the youth depression population.
Age-Dependent Changes in Synaptic NMDA Receptor Composition in Adult Human Cortical Neurons
Authors: Pegasiou Chrysia M , Zolnourian Ardalan , Gomez-Nicola Diego , Deinhardt Katrin , Nicoll James A R , Ahmed Aminul I , Vajramani Girish , Grundy Paul , Verhoog Matthijs B , Mansvelder Huibert D , Perry V H , Bulters Diederik , Vargas-Caballero Mariana
Published: February 2020

The molecular processes underlying the aging-related decline in cognitive performance and memory observed in humans are poorly understood. Studies in rodents have shown a decrease in N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) that contain the GluN2B subunit in aging synapses, and this decrease is correlated with impaired memory functions. However, the age-dependent contribution of GluN2B-containing receptors to synaptic transmission in human cortical synapses has not been previously studied. We investigated the synaptic contribution of GluN2A and GluN2B-containing NMDARs in adult human neurons using fresh nonpathological temporal cortical tissue resected during neurosurgical procedures. The tissue we obtained fulfilled quality criteria by the absence of inflammation markers and proteomic degradation. We show an age-dependent decline in the NMDA/AMPA receptor ratio in adult human temporal cortical synapses. We demonstrate that GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors contribute to synaptic responses in the adult human brain with a reduced contribution in older individuals. With previous evidence demonstrating the critical role of synaptic GluN2B in regulating synaptic strength and memory storage in mice, this progressive reduction of GluN2B in the human brain during aging may underlie a molecular mechanism in the age-related decline in cognitive abilities and memory observed in humans.
Traceable Payments and VAT Design: Effects on VAT Performance
Authors: Madzharova Boryana
Published: February 2020

This article studies the role of cashless payments in third-party reporting for the purposes of value-added tax (VAT) compliance management. In economies with well-developed financial institutions, the traceability of digital payments could serve as a deterrent to sales suppression even in the absence of explicit policies utilizing electronic payments for tax enforcement. Using country-level data for the European Union, this article shows that a 1% increase in the value of payments made with cards to gross domestic product (GDP) improves VAT performance by 0.05–0.09%. This effect is found to be strongest in economies characterized by low level of trust in public institutions, and does not vary with the extent of third-party reported information used by tax administrations, or the presence of a large-scale VAT invoice matching system. The result is robust to a rich number of characteristics controlling for various aspects of VAT’s design.
Improved Meet-in-the-Middle Attacks on Reduced-Round Deoxys-BC-256
Authors: Liu Ya , Shi Bing , Gu Dawu , Zhao Fengyu , Li Wei , Liu Zhiqiang
Published: February 2020

In ASIACRYPT 2014, Jean et al. proposed the authentication encryption scheme Deoxys, which is one of the third-round candidates in CAESAR competition. Its internal block cipher is called Deoxys-BC that adopts the tweakey frame. Deoxys-BC has two versions of the tweakey size that are 256 bits and 384 bits, denoted by Deoxys-BC-256 and Deoxys-BC-384, respectively. In this paper, we revaluate the security of Deoxys-BC-256 against the meet-in-the-middle attack to obtain some new results. First, we append one round at the top and two rounds at the bottom of a 6-round distinguisher to form a 9-round truncated differential path with the probability of $2^{-144}$. Based on it, the adversary can attack 9-round Deoxys-BC-256 with $2^{108}$ chosen plaintext-tweaks, $2^{113.6}$ encryptions and $2^{102}$ blocks. Second, we construct a new 6.5-round distinguisher to form 10-round attacking path with the probability of $2^{-152}$. On the basis of it, the adversary could attack 10-round Deoxys-BC-256 with $2^{115}$ chosen plaintext-tweaks, $2^{171}$ encryptions and $2^{152}$ blocks. These two attacks improve the previous cryptanalytic results on reduced-round Deoxys-BC-256 against the meet-in-the-middle attack.