bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Gaussian Mixture Model with Local Consistency
Authors: Liu Jialu , Cai Deng , He Xiaofei
Published: September 2022

Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) is one of the most popular data clustering methods which can be viewed as a linear combination of different Gaussian components. In GMM, each cluster obeys Gaussian distribution and the task of clustering is to group observations into different components through estimating each cluster's own parameters. The Expectation-Maximization algorithm is always involved in such estimation problem. However, many previous studies have shown naturally occurring data may reside on or close to an underlying submanifold. In this paper, we consider the case where the probability distribution is supported on a submanifold of the ambient space. We take into account the smoothness of the conditional probability distribution along the geodesics of data manifold. That is, if two observations are close in intrinsic geometry, their distributions over different Gaussian components are similar. Simply speaking, we introduce a novel method based on manifold structure for data clustering, called Locally Consistent Gaussian Mixture Model (LCGMM). Specifically, we construct a nearest neighbor graph and adopt Kullback-Leibler Divergence as the distance measurement to regularize the objective function of GMM. Experiments on several data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of such regularization.
Bayesian Policy Search for Multi-Agent Role Discovery
Authors: Wilson Aaron , Fern Alan , Tadepalli Prasad
Published: September 2022

Bayesian inference is an appealing approach for leveraging prior knowledge in reinforcement learning (RL). In this paper we describe an algorithm for discovering different classes of roles for agents via Bayesian inference. In particular, we develop a Bayesian policy search approach for Multi-Agent RL (MARL), which is model-free and allows for priors on policy parameters. We present a novel optimization algorithm based on hybrid MCMC, which leverages both the prior and gradient information estimated from trajectories. Our experiments in a complex real-time strategy game demonstrate the effective discovery of roles from supervised trajectories, the use of discovered roles for successful transfer to similar tasks, and the discovery of roles through reinforcement learning.
Bayesian Matrix Factorization with Side Information and Dirichlet Process Mixtures
Authors: Porteous Ian , Asuncion Arthur , Welling Max
Published: September 2022

Matrix factorization is a fundamental technique in machine learning that is applicable to collaborative filtering, information retrieval and many other areas. In collaborative filtering and many other tasks, the objective is to fill in missing elements of a sparse data matrix. One of the biggest challenges in this case is filling in a column or row of the matrix with very few observations. In this paper we introduce a Bayesian matrix factorization model that performs regression against side information known about the data in addition to the observations. The side information helps by adding observed entries to the factored matrices. We also introduce a nonparametric mixture model for the prior of the rows and columns of the factored matrices that gives a different regularization for each latent class. Besides providing a richer prior, the posterior distribution of mixture assignments reveals the latent classes. Using Gibbs sampling for inference, we apply our model to the Netflix Prize problem of predicting movie ratings given an incomplete user-movie ratings matrix. Incorporating rating information with gathered metadata information, our Bayesian approach outperforms other matrix factorization techniques even when using fewer dimensions.
Multi-Instance Dimensionality Reduction
Authors: Sun Yu-Yin , Ng Michael , Zhou Zhi-Hua
Published: September 2022

Multi-instance learning deals with problems that treat bags of instances as training examples. In single-instance learning problems, dimensionality reduction is an essential step for high-dimensional data analysis and has been studied for years. The curse of dimensionality also exists in multiinstance learning tasks, yet this difficult task has not been studied before. Direct application of existing single-instance dimensionality reduction objectives to multi-instance learning tasks may not work well since it ignores the characteristic of multi-instance learning that the labels of bags are known while the labels of instances are unknown. In this paper, we propose an effective model and develop an efficient algorithm to solve the multi-instance dimensionality reduction problem. We formulate the objective as an optimization problem by considering orthonormality and sparsity constraints in the projection matrix for dimensionality reduction, and then solve it by the gradient descent along the tangent space of the orthonormal matrices. We also propose an approximation for improving the efficiency. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Automatic Attribution of Quoted Speech in Literary Narrative
Authors: Elson David , McKeown Kathleen
Published: September 2022

We describe a method for identifying the speakers of quoted speech in natural-language textual stories. We have assembled a corpus of more than 3,000 quotations, whose speakers (if any) are manually identified, from a collection of 19th and 20th century literature by six authors. Using rule-based and statistical learning, our method identifies candidate characters, determines their genders, and attributes each quote to the most likely speaker. We divide the quotes into syntactic classes in order to leverage common discourse patterns, which enable rapid attribution for many quotes. We apply learning algorithms to the remainder and achieve an overall accuracy of 83%.
Finite-State Controllers Based on Mealy Machines for Centralized and Decentralized POMDPs
Authors: Amato Christopher , Bonet Blai , Zilberstein Shlomo
Published: September 2022

Existing controller-based approaches for centralized and decentralized POMDPs are based on automata with output known as Moore machines. In this paper, we show that several advantages can be gained by utilizing another type of automata, the Mealy machine. Mealy machines are more powerful than Moore machines, provide a richer structure that can be exploited by solution methods, and can be easily incorporated into current controller-based approaches. To demonstrate this, we adapted some existing controller-based algorithms to use Mealy machines and obtained results on a set of benchmark domains. The Mealy-based approach always outperformed the Moore-based approach and often outperformed the state-of-the-art algorithms for both centralized and decentralized POMDPs. These findings provide fresh and general insights for the improvement of existing algorithms and the development of new ones.
A Trust Model for Supply Chain Management
Authors: Haghpanah Yasaman , DesJardins Marie
Published: September 2022

Many real-world applications, such as Supply Chain Management (SCM), can be modeled using multi-agent systems. One shortcoming of current SCM models is that their trust models are ad hoc and do not have a strong theoretical basis. We propose a trust model for SCM that is grounded in probabilistic game theory. In this model, trust can be gained through direct interactions, and/or by asking for information from other trustworthy agents. We will use this model to simulate and study supply chain market behavior.
Linear Dynamic Programs for Resource Management
Authors: Petrik Marek , Zilberstein Shlomo
Published: September 2022

Sustainable resource management in many domains presents large continuous stochastic optimization problems, which can often be modeled as Markov decision processes (MDPs). To solve such large MDPs, we identify and leverage linearity in state and action sets that is common in resource management. In particular, we introduce linear dynamic programs (LDPs) that generalize resource management problems and partially observable MDPs (POMDPs). We show that the LDP framework makes it possible to adapt point-based methods--the state of the art in solving POMDPs--to solving LDPs. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency of this approach in managing the water level of a river reservoir. Finally, we discuss the relationship with dual dynamic programming, a method used to optimize hydroelectric systems.
Inner Regions and Interval Linearizations for Global Optimization
Authors: Trombettoni Gilles , Araya Ignacio , Neveu Bertrand , Chabert Gilles
Published: September 2022

Researchers from interval analysis and constraint (logic) programming communities have studied intervals for their ability to manage infinite solution sets of numerical constraint systems. In particular, inner regions represent subsets of the search space in which all points are solutions. Our main contribution is the use of recent and new inner region extraction algorithms in the upper bounding phase of constrained global optimization. Convexification is a major key for efficiently lower bounding the objective function. We have adapted the convex interval taylorization proposed by Lin and Stadherr for producing a reliable outer and inner polyhedral approximation of the solution set and  alinearization of the objective function. Other original ingredients are part of our optimizer, including an efficient interval constraint propagation algorithm exploiting monotonicity of functions. We end up with a new framework for reliable continuous constrained global optimization. Our interval B&B is implemented in the interval-based explorer Ibex and extends this free C++ library. Our strategy outperforms the best reliable global optimizers.
Extensible Automated Constraint Modelling
Authors: Akgun Ozgur , Miguel Ian , Jefferson Chris , Frisch Alan , Hnich Brahim
Published: September 2022

In constraint solving, a critical bottleneck is the formulation of aneffective constraint model of an input problem. The Conjure system describedin this paper, a substantial step forward over prototype versions of Conjurepreviously reported, makes a valuable contribution to the automation ofconstraint modelling by automatically producing constraint models from theirspecifications in the abstract constraint specification language Essence. Aset of rules is used to refine an abstract specification into a concreteconstraint model. We demonstrate that this set of rules is readily extensibleto increase the space of possible constraint models Conjure can produce. Ourempirical results confirm that Conjure can reproduce successfully the kernelsof the constraint models of 32 benchmark problems found in the literature.
Simulated Annealing Based Influence Maximization in Social Networks
Authors: Jiang Qingye , Song Guojie , Gao Cong , Wang Yu , Si Wenjun , Xie Kunqing
Published: September 2022

The problem of influence maximization, i.e., mining top-k influential nodes from a social network such that the spread of influence in the network is maximized, is NP-hard. Most of the existing algorithms for the prob- lem are based on greedy algorithm. Although greedy algorithm can achieve a good approximation, it is computational expensive. In this paper, we propose a totally different approach based on Simulated Annealing(SA) for the influence maximization problem. This is the first SA based algorithm for the problem. Additionally, we propose two heuristic methods to accelerate the con- vergence process of SA, and a new method of comput- ing influence to speed up the proposed algorithm. Experimental results on four real networks show that the proposed algorithms run faster than the state-of-the-art greedy algorithm by 2-3 orders of magnitude while being able to improve the accuracy of greedy algorithm.
Learning Structured Embeddings of Knowledge Bases
Authors: Bordes Antoine , Weston Jason , Collobert Ronan , Bengio Yoshua
Published: September 2022

Many Knowledge Bases (KBs) are now readily available and encompass colossal quantities of information thanks to either a long-term funding effort (e.g. WordNet, OpenCyc) or a collaborative process (e.g. Freebase, DBpedia). However, each of them is based on a different rigorous symbolic framework which makes it hard to use their data in other systems. It is unfortunate because such rich structured knowledge might lead to a huge leap forward in many other areas of AI like nat- ural language processing (word-sense disambiguation, natural language understanding, ...), vision (scene classification, image semantic annotation, ...) or collaborative filtering. In this paper, we present a learning process based on an innovative neural network architecture designed to embed any of these symbolic representations into a more flexible continuous vector space in which the original knowledge is kept and enhanced. These learnt embeddings would allow data from any KB to be easily used in recent machine learning meth- ods for prediction and information retrieval. We illustrate our method on WordNet and Freebase and also present a way to adapt it to knowledge extraction from raw text.
Improving Semi-Supervised Support Vector Machines Through Unlabeled Instances Selection
Authors: Li Yu-Feng , Zhou Zhi-Hua
Published: September 2022

Semi-supervised support vector machines (S3VMs) are a kind of popular approaches which try to improve learning performance by exploiting unlabeled data. Though S3VMs have been found helpful in many situations, they may degenerate performance and the resultant generalization ability may be even worse than using the labeled data only. In this paper, we try to reduce the chance of performance degeneration of S3VMs. Our basic idea is that, rather than exploiting all unlabeled data, the unlabeled instances should be selected such that only the ones which are very likely to be helpful are exploited, while some highly risky unlabeled instances are avoided. We propose the S3VM-us method by using hierarchical clustering to select the unlabeled instances. Experiments on a broad range of data sets over eighty-eight different settings show that the chance of performance degeneration of S3VM-us is much smaller than that of existing S3VMs.
Towards Evolutionary Nonnegative Matrix Factorization
Authors: Wang Fei , Tong Hanghang , Lin Ching-Yung
Published: September 2022

Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) techniques has aroused considerable interests from the field of artificial intelligence in recent years because of its good interpretability and computational efficiency. However, in many real world applications, the data features usually evolve over time smoothly. In this case, it would be very expensive in both computation and storage to rerun the whole NMF procedure after each time when the data feature changing. In this paper, we propose Evolutionary Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (eNMF), which aims to incrementally update the factorized matrices in a computation and space efficient manner with the variation of the data matrix. We devise such evolutionary procedure for both asymmetric and symmetric NMF. Finally we conduct experiments on several real world data sets to demonstrate the efficacy and efficiency of eNMF.
Selective Transfer Between Learning Tasks Using Task-Based Boosting
Authors: Eaton Eric , DesJardins Marie
Published: September 2022

The success of transfer learning on a target task is highly dependent on the selected source data. Instance transfer methods reuse data from the source tasks to augment the training data for the target task. If poorly chosen, this source data may inhibit learning, resulting in negative transfer. The current most widely used algorithm for instance transfer, TrAdaBoost, performs poorly when given irrelevant source data. We present a novel task-based boosting technique for instance transfer that selectively chooses the source knowledge to transfer to the target task. Our approach performs boosting at both the instance level and the task level, assigning higher weight to those source tasks that show positive transferability to the target task, and adjusting the weights of individual instances within each source task via AdaBoost. We show that this combination of task- and instance-level boosting significantly improves transfer performance over existing instance transfer algorithms when given a mix of relevant and irrelevant source data, especially for small amounts of data on the target task.
Reasoning About General Games Described in GDL-II
Authors: Schiffel Stephan , Thielscher Michael
Published: September 2022

Recently the general Game Description Language (GDL) has been extended so as to cover arbitrary games with incomplete/imperfect information. Learning — without human intervention — to play such games poses a reasoning challenge for general game-playing systems that is much more intricate than in case of complete information games. Action formalisms like the Situation Calculus have been developed for precisely this purpose. In this paper we present a full embedding of the Game Description Language into the Situation Calculus (with Scherl and Levesque's knowledge fluent). We formally prove that this provides a sound and complete reasoning method for players' knowledge about game states as well as about the knowledge of the other players.
Co-Evolution of Selection and Influence in Social Networks
Authors: Cho Yoon-Sik , Steeg Greg , Galstyan Aram
Published: September 2022

Many networks are complex dynamical systems, where both attributes of nodes and topology of the network (link structure) can change with time. We propose a model of co-evolving networks where both node attributes and network structure evolve under mutual influence. Specifically, we consider a mixed membership stochastic blockmodel, where the probability of observing a link between two nodes depends on their current membership vectors, while those membership vectors themselves evolve in the presence of a link between the nodes. Thus, the network is shaped by the interaction of stochastic processes describing the nodes, while the processes themselves are influenced by the changing network structure. We derive an efficient variational inference procedure for our model, and validate the model on both synthetic and real-world data.
Understanding Natural Language Commands for Robotic Navigation and Mobile Manipulation
Authors: Tellex Stefanie , Kollar Thomas , Dickerson Steven , Walter Matthew , Banerjee Ashis , Teller Seth , Roy Nicholas
Published: September 2022

This paper describes a new model for understanding natural language commands given to autonomous systems that perform navigation and mobile manipulation in semi-structured environments. Previous approaches have used models with fixed structure to infer the likelihood of a sequence of actions given the environment and the command. In contrast, our framework, called Generalized Grounding Graphs, dynamically instantiates a probabilistic graphical model for a particular natural language command according to the command's hierarchical and compositional semantic structure. Our system performs inference in the model to successfully find and execute plans corresponding to natural language commands such as "Put the tire pallet on the truck." The model is trained using a corpus of commands collected using crowdsourcing. We pair each command with robot actions and use the corpus to learn the parameters of the model. We evaluate the robot's performance by inferring plans from natural language commands, executing each plan in a realistic robot simulator, and asking users to evaluate the system's performance. We demonstrate that our system can successfully follow many natural language commands from the corpus.
An Efficient and Complete Approach for Cooperative Path-Finding
Authors: Luna Ryan , Bekris Kostas
Published: September 2022

Cooperative path-finding can be abstracted as computing non-colliding paths for multiple agents between their start and goal locations on a graph. This work proposes a fast algorithm that can provide completeness guarantees for a general class of problems without any assumptions about the graph's topology. Specifically, the approach can address any solvable instance where there are at most n-2 agents in a graph of size n. The algorithm employs two primitives: a "push" operation where agents move towards their goals up to the point that no progress can be made, and a "swap" operation that allows two agents to swap positions without altering the configuration of other agents. Simulated experiments are provided on hard instances of cooperative path-finding, including comparisons against alternative methods. The results are favorable for the proposed algorithm and show that the technique scales to problems that require high levels of coordination, involving hundreds of agents.
Creative Common: Copyright Zen
Authors: Stafford Ron
Published: September 2022

As a photographer, copyright has always been an issue for me—but solely from a creative standpoint. Until I began working as an academic library director, I never thought of copyright from an educational or use viewpoint. When I accepted my current position, I started an OER initiative at Northeastern Technical College and found myself needing to understand the nuances of copyright. My faculty began to incorporate videos, text, artwork, and varied forms of media in online classes. I had to know if they were following copyright and using educational fair use correctly. Quickly copyright became a large part of my workload. Working with OER repositories, I quickly realized Creative Commons was the most important aspect of copyright for myself and my faculty. During the height of COVID, I did the Creative Commons Certification Course and completed an independent study at the University of South Carolina, with Dick Kawooya, on OER and Copyright expert. After gaining this knowledge, my colleague Mark Knockemus presented this information at conferences and webinars. Copyright has become a significant part of my job. I enjoy educating and working with faculty to ensure we are not breaking the law and ensuring our students have class materials.
The Order of Success: A Slow Path to Copyright Librarianship
Authors: Schmidt LeEtta M.
Published: September 2022

No faculty lines were open when I graduated with my MLS at the library where I was employed as a staff member, but I was able to take advantage of organizational restructuring to obtain a management position over interlibrary loan. My department head at the time was assigned with providing copyright assistance. I seized the opportunity to learn more while I searched for a position that required my degree. I was supported while pursuing continuing education in copyright. I was also given increasing responsibilities that I suspected were beyond my rank. My eagerness to develop a professional skill set had worked both for and against me.
Türk Sinemasında İzmir’in Kurtuluşunun Kadın Kahramanı – Fato: Ya İstiklal Ya Ölüm (1951)
Authors: ATALAR Mustafa Mert
Published: September 2022

Yönetmen Turgut Demirağ tarafından çekilen Fato: Ya İstiklal Ya Ölüm filmi, milli mücadeleye ve İzmir’in kurtuluşu temasına farklı bir bakış açısıyla yaklaşması sebebiyle benzer temalı diğer filmlerden ayrılmaktadır. Çekimlerine 1949 yılında başlanan fakat çekim süreci içinde gerçekleşen bir trafik kazası yüzünden ancak 1951 yılında gösterime giren film, Fato adlı kadın kahramanı ön plana alması bakımından, sinemamızda özgün bir yere sahiptir. Gerek teknik açıdan gerekse sinema dili açısından dönemindeki yerli örneklere oranla daha yetkin olan bu çalışma, seyirci tarafından da ilgi görmüş ve uzun yıllar boyunca tekrar tekrar gösterime girmiştir. Kurtuluş Savaşı sırasında Yunan birliklerinin İzmir’den Ege’nin iç kısımlarına doğru ilerlemek için kullandıkları bir köprüyü imha etmekle görevlendirilmiş olan bir grup akıncıya kılavuzluk eden genç Fato, yeri geldiğinde bu gruba adeta önderlik edecek ve hayatı pahasına da olsa görevin başarıya ulaşmasında başrolü oynayacaktır. Bu çalışmada film, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nin ve Türk sinemasının içinde bulunduğu tarihsel koşullar içinde incelenecek ve filmin sinemamızdaki özgün yeri somut örneklerle ortaya konacaktır.
ADOPTION OF DIGITAL MEDIA BY AFRICAN LANGUAGE PRINT NEWSPAPERS: THE CASE OF ISOLEZWE
Authors: Salawu Abiodun , Tsutsa Fortune , Mpofu Philip
Published: September 2022

Digital media have transformed media’s news gathering, production and news dissemination traditions. However, African language newspapers’ use of digital media has been overlooked and understudied. Therefore, this study explores the adoption of digital media by Isolezwe, a South African indigenous language newspaper that publishes in IsiZulu. Data were gathered using the interview and observation methods. Deploying strands drawn from media convergence and diffusion of innovation theories, the study shows the convergence of African language print media and digital media, and advancement of African language newspapers towards increasing their digital and social media presence. This development has positively enhanced Isolezwe’s journalistic functions of newsgathering and dissemination. The study provides insights into understanding African language journalism in the context of the advancement of digital and communication technologies. Findings from this research show that Isolezwe has expanded its digital presence to social media. Over and above the online version, Isolezwe is also actively engaged on Twitter and Facebook which are the two most popular social networking sites in South Africa. The platforms are strategically deployed for newsgathering and news dissemination purposes. This is a timely contribution to existing scholarship on the adoption of digital media by indigenous languages newspapers in South Africa in particular and Africa in general. The study also provides insights into understanding African language journalism in the context of the advancement of digital and communication technologies.
Misfit Stresses Due to a Cylindrical Dilatational Inclusion of Annular-Sector Cross-Section in an Infinite Elastic Medium
Authors:   ITMO University, Russia, Gudkina Zh.V. ,   Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia, Krasnitckii S.A. ,   ITMO University, Russia,   Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia,   Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia, Gutkin M.Yu. ,   ITMO University, Russia,   Institute for Problems in Mechanical Engineering, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia,   Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia
Published: September 2022

An elastic model for a cylindrical dilatational inclusion of annular-sector cross-section in an infinite elastic medium is considered. The stress fields are found in a closed analytical form and are illustrated by stress maps. Specific features in the stress distribution are revealed and discussed in detail. It is shown that the stress magnitude can be so high that various mechanisms of stress relaxation can be activated.
Structural-Dependent Photocatalytic Properties of Zinc Oxide
Authors:   ITMO University, Russia, Sosnin Ilya M.
Published: September 2022

The present paper describes the effect of the structure of zinc oxide on its optical, electrical and photocatalytic properties. Examples of the influence of defects and lattice symmetry on photocatalytic activity are given. It is shown that oxygen vacancies allow to increase the rate of photocatalytic reaction due to donor properties and faceting allows to change the photocatalytic activity due to anisotropy of electric conductivity of zinc oxide. The mechanism of the influence of the dislocations and complex defects on zinc oxide photocatalytic properties is proposed. The present data can be used for development of photocatalysts based on zinc oxide, and for describing the photocatalytic properties of other semiconductors.
Elastic Field of a Dilatational Cylindrical Inclusion in an Elastically Isotropic Half-Space
Authors:   ITMO University, Russia, Nguyen Van T.
Published: September 2022

In this article, a new solution to the elasticity boundary-value problem for a dilatational cylindrical inclusion embedded in an elastically isotropic half-space is presented. To solve this problem, the results for the infinitesimally thin dilatational disk in an elastically isotropic half-space, are explored. For displacements, strains, and stresses of a dilatational cylindrical inclusion, the analytical expressions are obtained with Lipschitz-Hankel integrals. The comparison of the found solution with previously known one, is given.
Design and Analysis of the Electrical Properties of a Solid-State Lithium-Boron-Phosphate Electrolyte
Authors:   ITMO University, Russia, Volkovitskiy V.E. , Spiridonov V.A. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Azina L.V. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Panov D.I. ,   ITMO University, Russia
Published: September 2022

In this article, we report on the fabrication of a solid-state lithium-boron-phosphate electrolyte and the study of the dependence of its electrical properties on electrode materials and heat treatment. Impedance spectroscopy was used to analyze the solid-state electrolyte. The values of conductivity of samples heat-treated at 850 °C and 900 °C have been found as 2.02·10–4 S·cm–1 and 4.28·10–4 S·cm–1, respectively.
Spray-Pyrolysis Fabrication and Quality Study of β-Ga2O3 Thin Films
Authors:   ITMO University, Russia, Panov D.I. , Xi Z. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Spiridonov V.A. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Azina L.V. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Nuryev R.K. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Prasolov N.D. ,   Ioffe Institute, Russia, Sokura L.A. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Bauman D.A. ,   ITMO University, Russia, Bougrov V.E. ,   ITMO University, Russia
Published: September 2022

In this paper, we report on the successful fabrication of β-Ga2O3 thin films by spray-pyrolysis technique. We provide the data on the dependence of the quality of the β-Ga2O3 films on the regimes and parameters of fabrication. Scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy and optical spectroscopy are used to analyze film properties. X-ray diffraction phase analysis of the films after heat treatment at 900°C confirms the formation of β-Ga2O3 crystallites.
The first combined Russian experience of using perampanel in children and adolescents with epilepsy in everyday clinical practice
Authors: Rakhmanina O. A. , Volkov I.   V. , Volkova O.  K. , Aleksandrov Yu.  A. , Barkhatov M.  V. , Bakhtin I. S. , Berezhnaya G.  M. , Boldyreva S.  R. , Bochkova E.  N. , Gorbunova E.   K. , Karas A.  Yu. , Morozov D.  V. , Nurmukhametova S.   R. , Perunova N.  Yu. , Sivkova S.  N. , Telegina E.   V. , Tomenko T.  R. , Tsotsonava Zh.  M.
Published: September 2022

Background. Real world data help to provide more information on the effects and tolerability of therapy. However, data on the use of perampanel in Russian population of children remain limited.

Aim. To conduct a retrospective analysis of perampanel efficacy and tolerability in children and adolescents with epilepsy in real clinical practice.

Materials and methods. A total of 106 children aged 4–18 years receiving perampanel as part of combination therapy for epilepsy were observed at 18 centers. Seizure frequency at 1–3, after 6 and 12 months of treatment, presence and type of adverse events (AEs) were analyzed. The main assessed efficacy parameters were seizure control, significant (≥50 %) decrease in seizure frequency. All other outcomes (<50 % decrease, no change or increased seizure frequency) were considered to be no effect. The assessed safety parameters were the percentage of patients with or without AEs and the percentage of perampanel withdrawals due to AEs.

Results. We defined 3 age groups for comparison: children 4–6, 7–11 and 12–17 years old. Perampanel efficacy was 69 % (seizure control – 23.6 %, ≥50 % decrease in seizure frequency – 45.3 %). The mean duration of the effect was 7.3 ± 4.1 months. No significant difference in efficacy between age groups was found. However, some greater efficacy of perampanel was noted in adolescents: absence of effect in the form of remission or significant decrease in seizures frequency was noted only in 25.5 %, with 40 % in children 4–11 years old. Among those with inefficacy, 3.8 % reported seizure aggravation. AEs occurred in only 23 % of patients, with the least frequent occurrence in adolescents (11.8 %) and the most frequent in children aged 7–11 years (40 %). The most frequent AEs was sluggishness and/or drowsiness. Discontinuation of perampanel due to AEs was required in 7.6 %.

Conclusion. Perampanel has demonstrated high efficacy and good tolerability in real clinical practice among children from 4 years of age and adolescents with partial (focal) and secondary generalized seizures. The AEs that developed were not serious and very rarely led to withdrawal of the therapy. The results are comparable to those of phase III studies and previous real-world data. The usage of perampanel in children with primary generalized seizures should be further investigated.
Fecal occult blood testing in colorectal cancer screening programs
Authors: Severskaya N. V. , Nevolskikh A. A. , Avdeenko V. A. , Hailova Zh. V. , Ivanov S. A.
Published: September 2022

Colorectal carcinoma (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide and ranks second as a cause of cancer mortality. CRC screening is carried out in many countries for detection early-stage CRC and its prevention by removing precancerous lesions, and includes fecal occult blood testing and colonoscopy. Different countries use their own approach to screening, including methods of detection of fecal occult blood. The strategy for fecal occult blood testing is based on the fact that already in the early stages the tumor can bleed, and small traces of blood in the stool are detected before the onset of clinical symptoms of the disease. Different countries use their own approach to the CRC screening, including methods for fecal occult blood testing. Chemical and immunochemical methods are used to determine occult blood in the feces. The chemical method is based on the detection of heme peroxidase activity. The immunochemical method detects human globin using specific antibodies. The immunochemical method can be qualitative and quantitative. The sensitivity of a quantitative immunochemical test depends on the selected threshold and the stage of CRC. The lower the threshold value, the higher the sensitivity, but the lower the specificity due to false positive results. CRC screening programs use different thresholds for quantitative immunochemical testing in different countries, which is caused by the availability of colonoscopy in a positive test result, as well as the rate of CRC in this population. To increase the sensitivity of the immunochemical test, some programs suggest using it in combination with other methods: detection of DNA in stool, examination of other proteins in feces (transferrin, haptoglobin). This review presents the methods used in the world for fecal occult blood testing, their advantages and limitations; recommendations for reporting the results of a quantitative immunochemical test; thresholds recommended in screening programs in different countries for quantitative immunochemical tests. The results of pilot screening for fecal occult blood testing in some regions of the Russian Federation are also presented.
Perception of the organization's safety culture by medical staff in Germany and Russia
Authors: Tsaranov K. N.
Published: September 2022

Purpose of the study. To compare the perception of the safety culture of the organisation by medical staff in Germany and Russia.

Materials and methods. In the study carried out in Germany (Bohmann F. O. et al.), the original Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), was used. The Russian sample, an adapted and validated Russian-language version of the questionnaire was used (Tsaranov, K.N. et al.).

Results. According to the indicator "Experience of work" among German medical workers, the results of the questionnaire showed higher results for all of the studied indicators except "Stress recognition" in the group of medics with more than 5 years of work experience. Among Russian medics higher results were observed in the group of respondents with less than 5 years of work experience except for the "Perceptions of management".

For the indicator "professional position" among medics in Germany, the results of the questionnaire showed higher results for all of the studied indicators in the group of medics who occupy the professional position of "physician". In Russia nursing staff score higher on the "Working conditions" factor, while physicians score higher on "Teamwork climate", "Safety climate" and "Stress recognition", showed a coincidence of results on "Job satisfaction" and "Perceptions of management" scales.

The neuroradiology department scores higher than the neurology department of German clinics on the factors "Teamwork climate", "Safety climate", "Job satisfaction" and "Working conditions". The coincidence with the results of the mean values in both groups is observed for the factor "Perceptions of management". Russia has the highest scores for most of the factors: "Safety climate", "Job satisfaction", "Perceptions of management" and "Working conditions" were shown by the staff in the reception and diagnostic department. Low scores were found for the factors "Teamwork climate" and "Safety climate" among staff in the infectious diseases department, and "Stress recognition" in the intensive care and combustiology departments.

Conclusion. Significant differences were revealed according to the indices "length of professional experience", "professional position" and "department of work" among employees of medical clinics in Russia and Germany. The results enable the identification of target points for the design of a medical organisation development program aimed at increasing the level of evaluation of the safety culture of a medical organisation.
Influence of copper nanoparticles on the growth characteristics of tumors in white outbreed rats
Authors: Kachesova P. S. , Goroshinskaya I. A. , Zhukova G. V. , Shalashnaya E. V. , Kaplieva I. A. , Borodulin V. B.
Published: September 2022

Purpose of the study. To study the effect of copper nanoparticles on the characteristics of the transplanted tumors of rats, as well as to assess the dependence of the effect on the method of administration of nanoparticles.

Materials and methods. In experiments on 163 white outbred male rats, 160–200 g, the size and growth rate of transplanted sarcoma 45 and Pliss' lymphosarcoma were determined in dynamics when a suspension of copper nanoparticles in physiological saline was injected intratumorally or intraperitoneally in a total dose of 10 mg/kg. Nanoparticles had a "core-shell" structure with variable diameter in the range of 30–75 nm. Contrary to other researches, we started the exposure to metal nanoparticles only when the tumors had become visible and had grown up to the sizes at which their spontaneous regression was unlikely.

Results. In most animals (up to 89 %), significant antitumor effects of copper nanoparticles were obtained up to complete regression of tumors with large volumes. The effects of nanodispersed copper differed in tumors with different histological structures and growth patterns. Experiments on a transplantable, slowly growing sarcoma 45 showed a decrease in the specific tumor growth rate after a single injection of nanoparticles (1.25 mg/kg), a decrease in tumor size could be observed after 4 injections (a total dose of 5 mg/kg). In the case of a rapidly growing tumor model (Pliss' lymphosarcoma), a decrease in tumor growth rates caused by copper nanoparticles occurred at later stages of exposure, after the animals received nanoparticles at a total dose of 5–10 mg/kg. The efficiency depended on the approach of nanoparticles injection.

Conclusion. In case of sarcoma 45, intraperitoneal injection of copper nanoparticles was more effective than intratumoral one, while in rats with Pliss' lymphosarcoma intratumoral injection of the nanoparticles had some advantages. The results indicate that nanodispersed copper is a promising antitumor factor. The mechanisms of regression of large transplanted tumors under the influence of copper nanoparticles are discussed.
The application of PET/CT with 18F-FDG in the differential diagnosis of lung solitary lesions
Authors: Afonin G. V. , Glukhareva A. E. , Smolenov E. I. , Kolobaev I. V. , Beketov E. E. , Petrov L. O. , Ivanov S. A.
Published: September 2022

Purpose of the study. The study was aimed to investigate the effectiveness of PET / CT with 18 fluoro‑2 deoxy-D-glucose (18F-FDG) in the differential diagnosis of focal lung neoplasms.

Materials and methods. Patients (n = 108) with newly diagnosed lung focal lesions were enrolled in the study. All patients underwent PET / CT with 18fluoro‑2deoxy-D-glucose in the "whole body" mode in accordance with the standard protocol. The next step was surgical treatment with morphological verification. According to the results of the morphological conclusion, malignant neoplasm was not diagnosed in 11 (10.2 %) patients, while post-inflammatory changes were detected in 7 patients (SUVmax from 2.3 to 15.15), hamartoma was verified in 3 patients (SUVmax from 1.1 to 4.2) and anthracosis was detected in 1 patient.

Results. The median radiopharmaceutical accumulation (SUVmax) was 6.0 (ICR 3.9–8.4, n = 108). In turn, in patients with diagnosed lung cancer this indicator was 7.0 (ICR 5.8–10.9, n = 60), in patients with metastatic lesions 4.3 (ICR 2.5–7.1, n = 37). The threshold for SUVmax was 5.4 for the detection of malignant tumors. PET/CT with 18F-FDG demonstrated high data variability regarding the size of lung focal lesion. An error within 35 % was observed in 76 % of cases, underestimating small lesions (up to 40 mm) but overestimating the major neoplasms. Application of a linear model for adjustment of neoplasm size assessment allows to estimate the actual size of neoplasms with parameters 5.862 + 0,817 × х (х – PET / CT size) in 84.5 % of cases with an error of 50 %. The optimal diagnosing size for metastatic lesions is in the range between 16.4 and 19 mm.

Conclusion. Taken together the results of the study show that PET / CT with 18F-FDG gives a relatively accurate estimation of the tumor size. Application of the linear model corrects a radiological size measurements and helps to predict an actual size of a neoplasm in 84.5 % of cases with an error of 50 %. The prospective threshold for SUVmax was at least 5.4 for the detection of malignant neoplasms.
The effect of conservation in various cryoprotectants on the properties and morphological structure of the umbilical cord arteries
Authors: Brumberg V. A. , Astrelina T. A. , Malivanova T. F. , Kobzeva I. V. , Suchkova Yu. B. , Nikitina V. A. , Usupzhanova D. Yu. , Brunchukov V. A. , Lishchuk S. V. , Kyzlasov P. S. , Kazhera A. A. , Troyakov V. M. , Samoilov A. S.
Published: September 2022

Purpose of the study. The aim of this work was to study the effect of conservation in various cryoprotectants on the biomechanical and morphological properties of the umbilical cord (UCA) arteries.

Materials and methods. The material for this work was 12 umbilical arteries, which were divided into 4 study groups: (1) native UCA – control without freezing; (2) APC frozen in 5 % dextran with the addition of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) to 10 % and 7.5 % human serum albumin (HSA); (3) APC frozen in glycerin and (4) UCA frozen in propanediol. For all groups, morphological and biomechanical studies were carried out. The statistical data were processed using the GraphPad Prism 9.2.0 program. Analysis of variance was used to find significant differences.

Results. Freezing with 5 % dextran, 10 % DMSO and 7.5 % human albumin did not lead to significant changes in the morphology of vascular tissue compared to control. The conserved vascular tissue retains a moderate level of type I collagen, regardless of the method of conservation. The presence of statistically significant differences between the control and frozen UCAs was shown for Young's modulus (p < 0.05; 6.9 [6.8; 7.0] for the native artery; 2.3 [2.0; 2.6] for the artery preserved with the use of dextran, DMSO and human albumin; 2.3 [1.4; 3.2] for the artery preserved in glycerin and 0.8 [0.6; 1.0] – in propanediol, respectively).

Conclusion. 1) Freezing and storage of UCA at 5 % dextran, 10 % DMSO and 7.5 % HSA does not lead to a significant change in the morphology of vascular membranes and cell nuclei; 2) The preservation of type I collagen according to the results of IHC is qualitatively reduced from a conditional indicator of +2 to +1 for frozen agroindustrial complexes compared with control ones; 3) Conservation leads to a significant decrease in the modulus of elasticity of the walls of the agroindustrial complex compared with control vessels (p < 0.05).
The background culture of modernity as the factor of moral transformations of the age
Authors:   Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine, Rohozha M. M.
Published: September 2022

Axiological transformations of the epoch of Modernity are in the sight of researchers from different fields of social sciences and humanities. They are key for understanding of different processes in the contemporary world. Simultaneously, shaping circumstances of the epoch which made those spiritual transformations possible usually remain beyond scholars' concern. The main attention of the current article is focused on research of Modernity immediate social practice, which generated specific spiritual mood of the age, accumulated in the Enlightenment programs and simultaneously was influenced and corrected by those programs. John Rawls's concept of the background culture became the theoretical ground for the article. The background culture of the epoch of Modernity is comprehended as immediate immanent social experience of the civil society caused by social institutions created in that period. The involving of the individual in that experience allowed him / her to comprehend basic socio-moral values as directed on optimization of public interaction. Components of the background culture are: great geographical discoveries, the development of the industrial economy, Reformation and religious wars, early bourgeois revolutions, forming of national constitutional governments. Basic socio-moral values of the background culture are: frontier as Zeitgeist when expansivity and the habit to live in conditions of the stable instability in permanent changeable world were incorporated; individualism as the result of synthesis of free economic activity and the protestant enthusiasm with its internal religiosity of the believer; compelled (mechanic) solidarity, conditioned by the rational economy; tolerance as the derivative from the modus vivendi principle in conditions of competing the good life strategies based on religious believes; law-abiding as the unity of traditional medieval and Anglo-Saxon law with the comprehension of necessity to follow legal norms for civil peace and economic prosperity.