bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“What Sound Does a Cat Make in Cantonese?”
Authors: Hadar Tamar
Published: November 2022

In this piece, I wish to examine the notion of translation and to question the need of an interpreter in music therapy settings. Through reflecting on a therapeutic relationship between me, an Israeli music therapist working in the United States, and a Chinese American family (two parents, a grandmother, and their 2-year-old infant that is likely autistic), I wish to ponder the losses and gains of establishing a relationship that refrains from using a dominant verbal language (represented by an interpreter). Embracing the absence of any verbal and cultural monopoly, this work will present a plural lingual approach and show how it provides an opportunity for clients whose primary language differs from the primary language of the therapist to walk their first steps in an unfamiliar world. I will then explore two parallel processes that took place in the therapeutic encounter: the first, relating to the family’s capacity to contain their infant’s minimal verbal state, and the second, relating to my own endeavor to communicate with the family as a non-native English speaker and as an immigrant music therapist. I hope that my reflections will provide insight regarding lingual plurality in a multicultural context in music therapy.
Bilingualism and Multilingualism: Evaluation of language policies
Authors: Ghosh Maitreyee
Published: November 2022

This paper focuses on the process of bilingualism and multilingualism, which are highly complex, multidimensional linguistic, psychological, and social behaviours. The growth of interest in multilingual acquisition in recent years has challenged some of the existing methods and premises
that were widely taken in bilingualism and second-language acquisition. Multilingualism usually refers to a speaker's knowledge and efficiency of using three or more languages while bilingualism is the sociolinguist's term to suggest a speaker's knowledge and use of more than one, i.e. two,
languages - their mother tongue and an additional language. This ensures that an individual understands the languages separately, in separate environments, and maintains this ideologies after gaining both.
Study on the electric and magnetic effect on NiFe2O4 nano particles and its memory effect
Authors: Banerjee Priyanka , Dey P.
Published: November 2022

We have done the fabrication of NiFe2O4 nanoparticle at room temperature under the variation of magnetic field. Here, we have measured current -voltage (I-V) characteristics and the impedance spectroscopy of our device. From our experiment, it has been found that
our sample shows magnetoresistance with positive value and magnetic field dependent electrical hysteresis. I-V curve reveals the existence of electrical memory effect in our sample. The memory window of our sample is found to inversely proportional to the applied magnetic field thus, electrical
hysteresis of our sample has been found to vary under the application of the magnetic field. In our work we have shown the magnetic field dependent electrical hysteresis and impedance spectroscopy of our sample.
Study on the effect of temperature on electrical parameters of lead free methylammonium tin halide based Perovskite Schottky Devices
Authors: Sahoo Dipankar , Karan Arnab Kanti , Manik Nabin Baran
Published: November 2022

Perovskite appears to be the most promising candidate for thin-film optoelectronic devices due to its excellent optoelectronic properties, low-cost fabrication, and high photovoltaic performance. However, tin-based perovskite devices possess a few issues related to thermal instability
and poor performance. A study on thermal instability will be important to understand the inner mechanism of the device. To find out the cause of thermal instability, a study on the temperature coefficient of different electrical parameters is necessary. In this work, the effect of temperature
on electrical parameters of methylammonium tin iodide (CH3NH3SnI3) and methylammonium tin chloride (CH3NH3SnCl3) based Schottky devices having an ITO/Perovskites/Al architecture has been studied using a SCAPS-1D simulator. The
coefficients of the temperature of these parameters have been calculated. The currentvoltage analysis shows the positive temperature coefficient of barrier height and negative temperature coefficient of the ideality factor. The estimated values of the absolute temperature coefficient of barrier
height and ideality factor are 1.28 meV per K and 0.07 per K for CH3NH3SnI3 and 1.14 meV per K and 0.02 per K for CH3NH3SnCl3 perovskite-based Schottky device, respectively. The comparative study shows that the CH3NH3SnCl3
perovskite has better thermal stability. We have also studied the variation of thickness, defect densities, and acceptor concentration of the perovskites, and finally, an optimized device of both types of Schottky devices has been proposed. This study reveals the temperature sensitiveness
of lead-free tin-based perovskite-based Schottky devices. The decrease in the value of different device parameters will be very informative for further study to get temperature invariant performances of lead-free perovskite solar cells.
Valley Hall Effect in Symmetrically Biased Dice Lattice
Authors: Tamang Lakpa , Ckakraborty Koushik , Biswas Tutul
Published: November 2022

The existence of two inequivalent valleys in the Brillouin zone of some two-dimensional crystals with honeycomb lattice structure provides electrons to possess an extra degree of freedom, known as pseudospin/valley in addition to their intrinsic charge and spin. A dice lattice, in which
the low energy excitations are described by the Dirac-Weyl Hamiltonian with pseudospin S = 1, also has the valley degree of freedom. Here, we consider an inversion-symmetry broken low energy model of a symmetrically biased dice lattice. We find that the Berry curvature has equal magnitude
with opposite signs in two valleys. This causes the electrons to acquire opposite anomalous velocities in the respective valleys. The Hall conductivity is calculated using the semi-classical formulation of electron dynamics. The dependence of the valley contrasted Hall conductivity on the
chemical potential at various temperatures is shown.
Assigning Suppliers to Meet a Deadline
Authors: Cohen Liat , Grinshpoun Tal , Stern Roni
Published: November 2022

Most real-world project have a deadline and consist of completing tasks. In our setting, each task needs to be executed by a single supplier, chosen from a subset of suppliers that have the required proficiency to handle that task. The suppliers differ in their execution times, which are stochastically taken from known distributions. The Supplier Assignment for Meeting a Deadline (SAMD) problem is the problem of assigning a supplier to each task in a manner that maximizes the chance to meet the overall project deadline. We propose an A*-based approach, along with an efficient admissible heuristic function, that guarantees an optimal solution for this problem. Experimentally, we compare our A*-based approach to an exhaustive brute-force approach and several heuristic methods. The results show that our A*-based approach compares favorably with the heuristic methods, and is orders of magnitude faster than the exhaustive alternative.
On SAT-Based Approaches for Multi-Agent Path Finding with the Sum-of-Costs Objective
Authors: Barták Roman , Švancara Jiří
Published: November 2022

Multi-agent path finding (MAPF) deals with the problem of finding collision-free paths for a set of agents. Each agent moves from its start location to its destination location in a shared environment represented by a graph. Reduction-based solving approaches for MAPF, for example reduction to SAT, exploit a time-expended layered graph, where each layer corresponds to specific time. Hence, these approaches are natural for minimizing makespan (the shortest time till all agents reach their destinations). Modeling the other frequently used objective, namely Sum of Costs (SOC; sum of paths lengths of all agents) is more difficult as the solution with the smallest SOC may not be reached in the time-expended graph with the smallest makespan. In this paper we suggest two novel approaches to estimate the makespan, that guarantees existence of a SOC-optimal solution. The approaches are empirically compared with an existing reduction-based method as well as with the state-of-the-art search-based optimal MAPF solver.
Optimal and Bounded-Suboptimal Multi-Agent Motion Planning
Authors: Cohen Liron , Uras Tansel , Kumar T. K. , Koenig Sven
Published: November 2022

Multi-Agent Motion Planning (MAMP) is the task of finding conflict-free kinodynamically feasible plans for agents from start to goal states. While MAMP is of significant practical importance, existing solvers are either incomplete, inefficient or rely on simplifying assumptions. For example, Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) solvers conventionally assume discrete timesteps and rectilinear movement of agents between neighboring vertices of a graph. In this paper, we develop MAMP solvers that obviate these simplifying assumptions and yet generalize the core ideas of state-of-the-art MAPF solvers. Specifically, since different motions may take arbitrarily different durations, MAMP solvers need to efficiently reason with continuous time and arbitrary wait durations. To do so, we adapt (Enhanced) Conflict-Based Search to continuous time and develop a novel bounded-suboptimal extension of Safe Interval Path Planning, called Soft Conflict Interval Path Planning. On the theoretical side, we justify the completeness, optimality and bounded-suboptimality of our MAMP solvers. On the experimental side, we show that our MAMP solvers scale well with increasing suboptimality bounds.
Challenging Human Supremacy in Skat
Authors: Edelkamp Stefan
Published: November 2022

After impressive successes in deterministic and fully-observable board games to significantly outclass humans, game playing research shifts towards non-deterministic and imperfect information card games, where humans are still persistently better. In this paper we devise a player that challenges human supremacy in Skat. We provide a complete player for playing selected variants of the game, with effective solutions for bidding and Skat putting, extracting knowledge from several million games. For trick play we combine expert rules with engineered tree exploration for optimal open card play. For dealing with uncertainty especially in Ouvert games we search the belief space.
Finding Optimal Longest Paths by Dynamic Programming in Parallel
Authors: Fieger Kai , Balyo Tomas , Schulz Christian , Schreiber Dominik
Published: November 2022

We propose an exact algorithm for solving the longest path problem between two given vertices in undirected weighted graphs. By using graph partitioning and dynamic programming, we obtain an algorithm that is significantly faster than other state-of-the-art methods. This enables us to solve instances that were previously unsolved and solve hard instances significantly faster. We also present a parallel version of the algorithm.
Novelty Messages Filtering for Multi Agent Privacy-Preserving Plannin
Authors: Gerevini Alfonso , Lipovetzky Nir , Peli Nico , Percassi Francesco , Saetti Alessandro , Serina Ivan
Published: November 2022

In multi-agent planning, agents jointly compute a plan that achieves mutual goals, keeping certain information private to the individual agents. Agents' coordination is achieved through the transmission of messages, but they can be a source of privacy leakage as they can permit a malicious agent to collect information about other agents' search processes and states. In this paper, we investigate the usage of novelty techniques in the context of (decentralised) multi-agent privacy preserving planning, addressing the challenges related to the agents' privacy and performance. In particular, we show that novelty based techniques allow a significant reduction on the number of messages transmitted among agents, increasing their privacy levels and also their performances. An experimental study analyses the effectiveness of our techniques and compares them with the state of-the-art. Finally, we examine the robustness of our approach considering different delays in the messages transmission as would occur in overloaded networks, due for example to massive attacks or critical situations.
Multi-Agent Pathfinding: Definitions, Variants, and Benchmarks
Authors: Stern Roni , Sturtevant Nathan , Felner Ariel , Koenig Sven , Ma Hang , Walker Thayne , Li Jiaoyang , Atzmon Dor , Cohen Liron , Kumar T. K. , Barták Roman , Boyarski Eli
Published: November 2022

The multi-agent pathfinding problem (MAPF) is the fundamental problem of planning paths for multiple agents, where the key constraint is that the agents will be able to follow these paths concurrently without colliding with each other. Applications of MAPF include automated warehouses, autonomous vehicles, and robotics. Research on MAPF has been flourishing in the past couple of years. Different MAPF research papers assume different sets of assumptions, e.g., whether agents can traverse the same road at the same time, and have different objective functions, e.g., minimize makespan or sum of agents' actions costs. These assumptions and objectives are sometimes implicitly assumed or described informally. This makes it difficult for establishing appropriate baselines for comparison in research papers, as well as making it difficult for practitioners to find the papers relevant to their concrete application. This paper aims to fill this gap and facilitate future research and practitioners by providing a unifying terminology for describing the common MAPF assumptions and objectives. In addition, we also provide pointers to two MAPF benchmarks. In particular, we introduce a new grid-based benchmark for MAPF, and demonstrate experimentally that it poses a challenge to contemporary MAPF algorithms.
NUMERICAL SOLUTION ON MIXED CONVECTION FLOW OF NANOFLUID AROUND A FINNED ANGULAR SECTOR OF HEAT SINK
Authors: Benkherbache S. , Si-Ameur Mohamed
Published: November 2022

The aim of this study is to investigate mixed convection flow of nanofluid around a three-dimensional (3D) finned angular sector of heat sink by means of numerical simulations. The finite-volume method is used to solve the governing equations of mass, momentum, and energy conservation. The Brownian motion of the nanoparticles in the base fluid is explicitly taken into account in the thermal conductivity model (Patel model). A parametric study is carried out to examine the effects of several key parameters on the rate of heat transfer; the angular sector apex angle, the volume fraction of suspended nanoparticles (0 ≤ φ ≤ 0.09), the Richardson number (Ri = Gr/Re2), and the size of the nanoparticles diameter (5, 20, 60, and 100 nm). It is shown that for a fixed low Richardson number Ri, the rate of heat transfer increases with the volume fraction of the nanoparticles, as forced convection mechanism is dominated. The heat-transfer enhancement is obtained for the nanofluid water/TiO2 rather than the water/Cu at higher nanoparticles volume concentration and highest Richardson number. Moreover, the Maxwell thermal conductivity model resulted in a maximum enhancement in the case of nanofluid water/TiO2 than that of water/Cu, whereas the nanofluid water/ Cu gives better heat-transfer enhancement at small particles than that of water/TiO2. It is observed too that the nanoparticles' diameter does not have a significant effect on the temperature field.
NUMERICAL MODEL OF ULTRASONIC COAGULATION OF DISPERSED PARTICLES IN ECKART FLOWS
Authors: Khmelev Vladimir N. , Golykh Roman N. , Shalunov Andrey V. , Nesterov Viktor A.
Published: November 2022

Ultrasonic agglomeration is a promising technology for the preprocessing of fine-dispersed particles (i.e., PM2.5), as it significantly improves the efficiency of traditional devices for the particles collecting in gases. However, the results of theoretical and experimental studies indicate that the agglomeration process is too slow, especially for PM2.5 and small concentrations of particles. This study proposes an approach to improving particle agglomeration efficiency and provides a mathematical model. This model considers the moving of particles by vortex acoustic (Eckart) flows arising in a standing wave in addition to the main known mechanisms of acoustic particle interaction (such as orthokinetic and hydrodynamic interaction). The results of the calculations showed an increase in the efficiency of ultrasonic agglomeration of submicron particles (more than 4 times) due to the formation of Eckart flows in the resonant gaps. The highest increase in efficiency is achieved at small particle counting concentrations (e.g., the agglomeration time is reduced by more than 4 times at a counting concentration of 0.25 × 1010 m-3 and the sound pressure level without a reflector of 150 dB). At higher concentrations (from 0.25 × 1010 to 1 × 1010 m-3) the agglomeration time is reduced by at least 1.5 times (in the range of sound pressure levels of 150-155 dB). The obtained results can be practically implemented in the designs of gas cleaning systems using Eckart flows with ultrasonic exposure on the resonant air gap.
Evaluation of Gentamicin Use in Pediatric Patients in Chena Primary Hospital Southwest Ethiopia: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: F Ejeta , G Mebratu , G Geto
Published: November 2022

Introduction: Pharmaceuticals should be used appropriately, safely, and only when necessary. Irrational prescribing, dispensing, and patient usage of drugs can squander up to 50% of drug expenditure. Drug use assessment is a good tool for evaluating the rational use of drugs in health institutions, and it has increased performance. The goal of this study is to evaluate rational use of Gentamicin in Chena’s primary hospital. Methods: The research was carried out by evaluating the medical records of 106 Gentamicin patients using a retrospective systematic review. The study was conducted by reviewing the medication records of 106 patients who received Gentamicin during hospitalization at Chena's primary hospital from June 2020 to June 2021. Results and conclusions: Most patients were dosed at 5mg/kg/day (67%). The duration of therapy was found to be high, in the range of 4-7 days (45.3%). Gentamicin was mainly used as a sepsis treatment (45.3%). With a frequency of 67.9%, Ampicillin was the most regularly co-administered medicine. Gentamicin was only appropriate in 43 cases (40.6%) for the justification of usage. The majority of inappropriate usage was observed in terms of duration during sepsis treatment, followed by frequency for severe acute malnutrition treatment. The prescriber's adherence to the national Standard Treatment Guideline (STG) was deemed to be insufficient. Prescribers should follow the national standard treatment guidelines to increase rational use and prevent the development of resistance. Short-term training intensification and antimicrobial control systems are two of the hospital's viable alternatives. Gentamicin therapy doesn’t meet the current STG of Ethiopia.
Notes on the lifecycle and distribution of Sphodromantis gastrica (Stål, 1858) (Mantodea: Mantidae) in South Africa
Authors: Greyvenstein Bianca , Du Plessis Hannalene , Van den Berg Johnnie
Published: November 2022

Sphodromantis gastrica (Stål) (Mantodea: Mantidae), also known as the African mantis, is suggested to be common and widespread in southern Africa. Limited information is available regarding the distribution of this species in South Africa and no information is available on its biology. The aim of this study was to determine the distribution of S. gastrica in South Africa based on historic insect collection records as well as to study its basic biology and developmental parameters under captive breeding conditions. A total of 153 South African museum records of Sphodromantis spp. were recorded during this study.  These records indicated that S. gastrica occurred in all but two provinces of South Africa. The incubation time of the S. gastrica oothecae were approximately 10 weeks and each ootheca contained an average of 84 egg chambers. The mean fertility rate was 54.6% while the survival rate until adulthood was 41.8%. The numbers of nymphal instars until adulthood ranged between four and nine. The mean lifespan of S. gastrica individuals were approximately 332 days and females lived longer than males.
ASSESSMENT OF SOIL HEAVY METAL POLLUTION IN PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY (KAMCHATKA TERRITORY)
Authors:   Kamchatka State Technical University, Avdoshchenko V.G. , Klimova A.V. ,   Kamchatka State Technical University
Published: November 2022

The results of determining the gross content of zinc, copper and lead in the surface soil layer, collected in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, are presented in the paper. Based on them the heavy metal pollution degree assessment in different places of the city during 2017–2020 is given. It was found that almost everywhere the lead content in soils corresponded to a very high or high degree of contamination. According to the concentration of copper and zinc, the soils were classified as low and medium polluted. During 2017–2020 an increase of copper and zinc concentration in soils was registered. The dynamics of changes in lead concentration, on the contrary, was poorly expressed during 2017–2018. In 2020 a decrease in its content was found in all observed areas. According to the integrated pollution indexes PLI and NPI, the most polluted soils were identified in such areas as ‟Hospital” (2017),‟Botanicheskiy Pereulok” (2018), ‟Stadium Spartak” (2020). All city soils were characterized by a weak degree of potential environmental risk resulting from heavy metal pollution. The obtained data can be used to monitor heavy metal contamination of urbanized territories soils in Kamchatka Territory.
cDNA protocol - Thermo Scientific RevertAid RT v1
Authors: Ponisio Lauren
Published: November 2022

cDNA protocol - Thermo Scientific RevertAid RT
Macherey-Nagel Nucleospin 96 Food protocol for bee pollen v1
Authors: Ponisio Lauren
Published: November 2022

Macherey-Nagel Nucleospin 96 Food protocol for bee pollen
Qiagen DNeasy 96 blood & tissue protocol for bee guts v1
Authors: Ponisio Lauren
Published: November 2022

Tissue protocol for bee guts.
S3: Step-by-step-guide using Blender in the work flow. v2
Authors: Kalke Paul
Published: November 2022

Step-by-step-guide how to use Blender to analyse and visualize your segmented structures, for example exporting it as a video as mp4-file.
Dar dikim aralıklarında kurulan kavak (Populus x euramericana ve Populus deltoides klonları) ağaçlandırmalarında artım ve büyüme
Authors: KOÇER Sacit , KARA Muhammed
Published: November 2022

Bu çalışmada, levha ve kağıt endüstrisinin talebine uygun odun üretimine yönelik, dar dikim aralıklarındaki kavak ağaçlandırmalarının gelişimleri araştırılmıştır. Bu amaçla, P.x euramericana ve P. deltoides klonlarıyla (I-214, I-45/51, SAMSUN (I-77/51), İZMİT (S.307-26) ve 89.M.060) deneme ağaçlandırmaları tesis edilmiştir. Denemelerde 3m x 1,5m (4,5 m2/ağaç), 3m x 2m (6,0 m2), 3m x 3m (9,0 m2), 3m x 4m (12,0 m2) ve 3m x 5m (15,0 m2) olmak üzere, 5 değişik dikim aralığı uygulanmıştır. Tüm kavak klonları için, bonitet tabloları ve çift girişli hacim tabloları düzenlenmiştir. Ayrıca, 3 bonitet sınıfı ve 5 değişik dikim aralığına göre, 3 – 12 yaş kademesi için hasılat tabloları hazırlanmıştır. Dar dikim aralıklarındaki kavak ağaçlandırmalarında çap, boy ve meşcere unsurlarının artım ve büyüme ilişkileri ortaya konulmuştur. Analiz sonuçlarına göre, en uygun klonun 89.M.060 ve dikim aralığının 4,5 m2/ağaç olduğu belirlenmiştir.
Personal and Professional Development of a Teacher: Modern Understanding and Innovative Practice
Authors: Mitina L.M.
Published: November 2022

The article describes the process of preparation, holding and results of the XVIII International Scientific and Practical Conference “Strategies and Resources for the Personal and Professional Development of a Teacher: Modern Reading and Systemic Practice”, which took place on July 4–5, 2022, on the basis of the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education in Moscow. The results of the conference are considered in the context of a task related to determining the conditions under which a person’s transition from development caused by external influences and oriented to external sources of reinforcement to conscious self-development takes place. The solution of this theoretical problem is intended to become the basis for developing strategies, resources and methods for the personal and professional development of a teacher, the use of which in educational practice will help the student to enter the trajectory of self-determination and self-realization.
Diagnosis of Communicative Competence of Junior Schoolchildren
Authors: Kolmogorova L.S. , Kolmogorova L.A.
Published: November 2022

The article is devoted to the description of approaches to the characterization of communicative competence and the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standard in the field of communicative competence of junior schoolchildren. The author’s modification of L. Michelson’s test “Communicative Skills” for diagnosing the communicative competence of junior schoolchildren is presented, aimed at diagnosing competent (position “on an equal footing”), dependent (position “"from below”) and aggressive (position “from above”) reactions of the child in various communicative situations. The technique is based on the theory of T. Gordon, who considers the position in communication as a criterion of communicative competence. The methodology allows you to determine both the level of formation of communicative competence in general, and each of the diagnosed 12 communicative skills. It can be used in the activities of the psychological education service as part of the psychological and pedagogical support for the implementation of elementary school educational standards. Analysis of the results allows us to identify communication problems that are most pronounced both in an individual student and in the class as a whole.
Experience of the Federation of Psychologists of Education of Russia on the Formation and Development of Readiness for Volunteer Activities of Students and Specialists of the Education System
Authors: Umnyashova I.B. , Gilyano A.S. , Baranova E.M.
Published: November 2022

The article presents the experience of the All-Russian public organization “Federation of Psychologists of Education of Russia” (hereinafter referred to as the FPER) on the formation and development of the readiness of students of educational organizations of higher and secondary vocational education and specialists of the education system to participate in volunteer activities in the FPER. In 2021, volunteers of the FPE of Russia developed and tested the program of the School of Volunteers, labor intensity — 32 hours, implementation period — 3 months. Participants of the program are volunteers / candidates for volunteers of the FPER (students of educational institutions of higher and secondary vocational education, specialists of the education system). The objectives of the program are to form and develop ideas about the legal and ethical foundations of volunteering in the Russian Federation; development of practical skills in the field of organizing and implementing volunteer events and projects; development of personal competencies of participants in volunteer activities; acquaintance with examples of successful psychological and pedagogical practice in the field of development of the psychological culture of the population. The program is implemented in full-time form, including using remote educational technologies.
Directional Sensitivity of DAS and Its Effect on Rayleigh-Wave Tomography: A Case Study in Oxnard, California
Authors: Fang Jiaqi , Yang Yan , Shen Zhichao , Biondi Ettore , Wang Xin , Williams Ethan F. , Becker Matthew W. , Eslamian Dominic , Zhan Zhongwen
Published: November 2022

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) provides dense arrays ideal for seismic tomography. However, DAS only records average axial strain change along the cable, which can complicate the interpretation of surface-wave observations. With a rectangular DAS array located in the City of Oxnard, California, we compare phase velocity dispersion at the same location illuminated by differently oriented virtual sources. The dispersion curves are consistent for colinear and noncolinear virtual sources, suggesting that surface-wave observations in most of the cross-correlations are dominated by Rayleigh waves. Our measurements confirm that colinear channel pairs provide higher Rayleigh-wave signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For cross-correlations of noncolinear channel pairs, the travel time of each connecting ray path can still be obtained despite the lower SNR of Rayleigh wave signals. The inverted Rayleigh-wave dispersion map reveals an ancient river channel consistent with the local geologic map. Our results demonstrate the potential of DAS-based 2D surface-wave tomography without special treatment of directional sensitivity in areas where one type of wave is dominating or can be identified.
Understanding New Threats against Digital Forensics and Computer Vision Systems
Authors:   , Zhao Xinwei , Stamm Matthew C , Walsh John MacLaren
Published: November 2022

Image editing softwares, such as Photoshop and GIMP, allow people to easily modify, remove or create digital contents. Technological advances, however, also make it more challenging than ever to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the multimedia contents. In the past decades, multimedia forensic techniques have been developed to identify sources of digital contents or to detect forged contents. Along with study of multimedia forensics, anti-forensics also attracts a lot of attention from the community. Anti-forensic techniques attempt to find loopholes of forensic algorithms and fool them. Understanding the weakness of the existing forensic algorithms help researchers and investigators to improve forensic techniques. This thesis focuses on understanding the threat, potential, and limitation of malicious attacks against multimedia forensics and computer vision systems. In the first part of the thesis, we investigated the traditional anti-forensic techniques built on linear mathematical models, and discussed the strength and limitation of these attacks. Next, we proposed the state-of-the-art GAN-based anti-forensic attacks against deep learning based forensic algorithms. Additionally, we showed that we can use GAN-based anti-forensic attacks to remove forensic traces from AI-synthesized images to fool CNN detectors. In the last part of the thesis, we extended our research to investigate attacks against computer vision systems in the real world. In particular, our study focuses on defending against the real world attacks that operate by physically modifying an object in a way that does not seem malicious to a human, but can fool computer vision systems. We demonstrated the e effectiveness of our proposed defense against multi-sticker attack attacked US traffic signs
The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stress in Students Enrolled in Advanced Academic Courses
Authors:   , Ramatowski Samuel Nathan , Grant Kristine Sheena Lewis
Published: November 2022

The purpose of this qualitative research was to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the lived experiences and stress of high school graduates who were enrolled in advanced academic courses during the 2020-2021 school year. This multiple case study explored how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the experiences of AP/IB high school graduates during their senior year and how this pandemic might have contributed to elevated levels of stress. It is vital for educators to better understand the factors that are detrimental to the health of their students. The following research questions guided this study: (a) How do AP/IB high school graduates in the Class of 2021 describe their lived experiences during senior year in the midst of COVID-19? (b) What contributed to their stress while completing their advanced coursework? (c) What helped to mitigate their stress while completing their advanced coursework? Consistent with previous findings in the literature, the findings of this qualitative multiple case study indicated that learning from home presented its fair share of challenges, the circumstances of the pandemic left participants isolated at home with fewer opportunities to socialize with peers, the college application process was a major stressor for many participants, and there were apparent gender differences in how the participants described their senior year. This research was necessary and significant as it provided deeper insight as to how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the experiences of recent high school graduates and helped answer why high school students are stressed to the point of negative health outcomes.
Relationship Between Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices and Teacher Effectiveness
Authors:   , Mosconi Tasha , Lyttle Constance
Published: November 2022

Culturally responsive teaching practices have started to gain traction as one instructional approach to closing the achievement gap. Teachers play a vital role in supporting student learning. To address the achievement disparity, there is a need to ensure that students of color and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds have access to quality and effective teachers. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to explore the relationship between teachers' knowledge, perceptions, and implementation of culturally responsive practices and their overall teacher effectiveness in the classroom. The quantitative study involved teachers working with Kindergarten through 12th-grade students who were evaluated using the Danielson Framework Teacher Evaluation rubric during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. Participants completed a survey for the researcher to gain an understanding of their knowledge, perceptions, and implementation of culturally responsive teaching practices. Participants were also asked to upload their summative evaluation scores. The survey and evaluation scores were analyzed using the Pearson r correlational coefficient to understand the relationship between the teachers' knowledge, perceptions, and implementation and the evaluation scores on the Danielson Framework for Teaching. Although a correlation was not established between teacher effectiveness and teacher knowledge, perceptions, and implementation, it is significant that there were correlations between teachers' knowledge, perception, and implementation. This provides solid evidence of the importance for teachers to be better trained and supported in utilizing culturally responsive teaching practices in their classrooms. These results should inform legislators, policymakers, school and district administrators, and educational preparation programs to create better structures to support teachers in implementing these practices in order to best support student needs.
Quantifying Recombination in CdTe Photovoltaics Using Numerical Simulation of Transient Spectroscopy Data
Authors:   , Truong Triet Minh , Baxter Jason B.
Published: November 2022

Traditional and thin film photovoltaics are at the forefront of the renewable energy revolution. Investigating how recombination in the device affects its carrier dynamics and ultimately its performance is essential to optimizing the solar cell design. In this work, a one-dimensional numerical COMSOL model is proposed to simulate CdTe solar cells. The relevant physics and mathematical formulas implemented in the model are discussed in detail. The results from the model closely align with the theoretical understanding of semiconductor physics and concur with results from SCAPS, a more well-known, established software. Experimental time-resolved photoluminescence and time-resolved terahertz spectroscopic signals from CdTe photovoltaics were fit with the simulated signal decays to estimate the bulk lifetimes and surface recombination velocities. The fitting provides a better approximation for the recombination parameters than traditional biexponential models and enables the comparison of different processing approaches and their effects on the CdTe samples. To simplify the process of creating the model, an application was designed to automatically define the rigorous mathematical expressions for different photovoltaic architectures, allowing more users to run simulations. The model will serve as a useful predictive tool for evaluating material properties of thin film photovoltaics at laboratory scale and, potentially, industrial scale. The tool also has great potential to assist research and development effort in understanding how changes to processing materials and design influence recombination.
Maximizing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence to Perform Evaluations in Ungauged Washbowls
Authors: Achar Sandesh
Published: November 2022

Long short-term memory networks (LSTM) offer precision in the prediction that has never been seen before in ungauged basins. Using k-fold validation, we trained and evaluated several LSTMs in this study on 531 basins from the CAMELS data set. This allowed us to make predictions in basins for which we did not have any training data. The implication is that there is usually sufficient information in available catchment attributes data about similarities and differences between catchment-level rainfall-runoff behaviors to generate out-of-sample simulations that are generally more accurate than current models when operating under ideal (i.e., calibrated) conditions, i.e., when using under idealized conditions. In other words, existing models are generally less accurate when working under idealized conditions than out-of-sample simulations. We found evidence that including physical limits in LSTM models improves simulations, which we believe should be the primary focus of future research on physics-guided artificial intelligence. Putting in place additional physical constraints on the LSTM models.
Palestinian Healthcare Workers Mental Health Challenges during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study
Authors: Hwaij Reem , Ghrayeb Farid , Marzo Roy , Alrifai Ayesha
Published: November 2022

Healthcare workers have been working on the frontlines since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019. In Palestine Healthcare workers have been experiencing compounded stress given their preexisting limited access and resources as imposed by the Israeli colonial system and their management of the novel coronavirus. This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on Palestinian healthcare workers’ mental health in relationship to various demographic variables that have been found to correlate to expressed distress in previous literature. Using brief online questionnaires, 596 healthcare workers from various professions rated their experiences of depression, anxiety and risk perception. Descriptive analysis was carried out to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that the overwhelming majority of our participants were experiencing depressive and anxious symptoms, with females, physicians, and less experienced Healthcare workers showing elevated levels of symptomology. It is recommended that psychological services be offered to healthcare workers in Palestine with specific emphasis on the identified risk factors.
Quantitative Progression analysis of Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19, Pulmonary Fibrosis (PASC-PF) and Artificial Intelligence driven CT scoring of Lung involvement in Covid-19 infection using HRCT-Chest images
Authors: Subramanian Rajasekaran , Rubi R. , Dedeepya Mogilisetti , Gorugantu Sravan
Published: November 2022

Covid-19 is a contagious respiratory disease caused by SARS-COV-2 coronavirus, continue to spread across the world since Jan'2020. Covid-19 can be diagnosed by Nucleic Acid Testing, Antigens Test and Serology Tests or by Digitized Medical Imaging tools like X-ray and High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT)-Chest images. Advanced computational technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) - Deep Learning models can assist the radiologist in quantitative, accurate, infection severity and consistent diagnosis, by training the computational system to learn the features of Covid-19 by feeding practitioner's annotated CT images. Quantitative HRCT assessment of severity of COVID-19 infection was widely appreciated by medical fraternity, various government administrations across the world during the early phase of infection. During digitized HRCT-Chest images analysis, the typical features of COVID-19 like bilateral peripheral Ground Glass Opacities (GGO) and/or consolidation, predominantly involving the lower lobes of lung are analyzed. Bilateral peripheral rounded patchy ground glass opacities have been analyzed. HRCT images analysis helps to identify pre-dominant patterns of lung abnormalities like unilateral, multifocal and peripherally GGOs. Most patients make a complete recovery, few of them continue to experience sequalae long after they recover from the acute infection. The most common sequalae symptoms reported were lost of taste or smell, fatigue, and shortness of breath. This constellation of sequalae symptoms, is called Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC). A subset of patients recovering from infection continue to have persistent respiratory symptoms and chest imaging abnormalities. Our AI-Deep Learning Model is calculating the extent of lung involvement (% of involvement) which is common in the acute phase of infection, was recognized early in the pandemic. While the GGOs and consolidations slowly improved after Covid-19 recovery, fibrosis was seen considerable percentage of patients on follow-up scans after discharge. Results arriving out from our AI model is very much helpful to focus on the post-acute lung disease in COVID-19. Our Deep Learning model analytics on quantitative HRCT metrics of fibrotic lung disease quickly facilitate a role in the evaluation of post covid symptoms, lung fibrotic changes or pulmonary fibrosis.
Facilitation of Cognition in Older Adults: Traditional and Non-Traditional Approaches to Inducing Change
Authors: Park Denise , Smith Evan
Published: November 2022

Plasticity is a concept of major importance in understanding the process of cognitive aging. Differences among individuals in neuroplasticity play an important role in accounting for different trajectories of cognitive change over time. In the present paper, we define neuroplasticity as the ability to change brain and behavior and discuss cognitive training and cognitive engagement as mechanisms of change in the context of The Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition (STAC). We review evidence for structural and functional plasticity in older adults as a function of different intervention strategies. We suggest that plasticity, particularly as expressed in changes in functional activation or connectivity, can provide a mechanism to remediate the effects of cognitive decline. While evidence that cognition can be preserved or even improved in later life by leveraging residual plasticity is growing, the field has far from a complete understanding of the mechanisms of plasticity and the factors which facilitate its expression, especially in later life.
Auvelity as a Potential Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease
Authors: Lepkowsky Charles
Published: November 2022

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia affecting older adults. Alzheimer’s disease also shares a significant association with Major Depressive Disorder. Glutamatergic excitotoxicity via NMDA receptors is believed to be a key mechanism underlying neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease. Blockade of NMDA receptors by NMDA antagonists like Memantine appears to inhibit glutamatergic excitotoxicity. Memantine also increases dopaminergic activation through agonism of sigma-1 receptors. The combination of these two mechanisms is believed to underlie Memantine’s improvements in memory, cognition and general functioning in AD patients. Auvelity was recently approved by the FDA for the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder in adults. Auvelity’s relevant mechanism of action is a combination of its blockade of NMDA receptors with consequent antagonism of the glutamatergic neurotransmitter pathway, and its agonism of the sigma-1 receptor. Because Auvelity and AD medications like Memantine employ the same mechanism of action, it is hypothesized that Auvelity might be a potential medical treatment for reducing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
Iron Deficiency in the Absence of Anemia - A Common, Complex and Challenging Disease to Treat
Authors: Soppi Esa
Published: November 2022

Iron deficiency in absence of anemia and blood count changes is a common disorder. Since iron is an essential cofactor not only of hemoglobin and myoglobin but also of numerous enzymes fundamental for many biological processes, it is understandable that the spectrum of iron deficiency related symptoms may be complex, severe and difficult to associate with iron deficiency. This often leads to significant diagnostic delays and a multitude of misleading diagnoses and treatments. Therefore, considering a diagnosis of iron deficiency without anemia requires a high degree of alertness. The second step in the diagnostic process, following consideration of the possibility of iron deficiency, is a careful history that covers all potential causes of deficient iron stores since the patient’s birth and beyond combined by the appropriate investigations. The ferritin concentration is key for ascertaining the diagnosis. A ferritin concentration of less than 30 µg/L in a symptomatic individual means iron deficiency, but the patient may be iron deficient with much higher ferritin concentrations. Simultaneous determination of C-reactive protein with ferritin is practically useless. The treating physician should be familiar with the complexity of ferritin determinations and the interpretation of the results. The mainstay of treatment is oral iron but a considerable proportion of patients are intolerant or insufficiently responsive to oral iron and require intravenous iron therapy. The longer the duration of the iron deficiency, the more complicated the treatment and the patient’s recovery may become. For some patients, iron deficiency seems to be a chronic disorder requiring management exceeding 5 years. In 1–5% of patients, particularly those with a duration of iron deficiency in absence of anemia of more than 15–25 years, the restoration of iron stores does not lead to clinical recovery within 5 years of follow-up. Iron deficiency without anemia has a high impact on the well-being and quality of life of the affected individuals and impacts significantly also on society, since the challenges in recognition, diagnosis and treatment of the condition generate costs probably in excess of 100 million euros/5 million inhabitants.