bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Death in Times of SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. Legal Regulations of the Burial of the COVID-19 Deceased in Poland
Authors: Szczot Elżbieta
Published: December 2021

The article discusses the issues of death in times of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and burial of the COVID-19 deceased. It also presents some currently binding legal regulations as well as restrictions and obligations for the organizers of the funeral connected with the infection of the deceased with COVID-19. Moreover, it shows the influence of state law on funeral regulations in the denominational form and the cult of memory of the dead.
Solvency Test in Polish Simple Joint-Stock Company: A Review and Comparative Analysis
Authors: Herbet Andrzej , Wielgat Natalia
Published: December 2021

The subject of the article is a comparative analysis of the solvency test - a legal instrument that conditions causa societatis payments for limited liability companies upon ascertaining their impact on its future liquidity (ability to pay debts as they come due), which has recently been incorporated into the Polish legal system with reference to a simple joint-stock company (pol. Prosta Spółka Akcyjna) (Article 30015 § 5 of Polish Commercial Companies Code). Considering that the solvency test originated in common law, the comparative analysis of the instrument in question was set against the background of selected foreign legal systems, i.e., the law of New Zealand, United States and the United Kingdom, where the solvency test is shaped much differently than the polish one.
FLEXIBLE MANAGEMENT OF COSTS, PROFITS AND PRICES USING TARGETED PLANNING
Authors: ORLOV OLIVER , RYASNYKH EYHENIYA ,   Khmelnitskyi National University
Published: December 2021

Under market conditions, the main feature of enterprises is the focus on consumer demand, the desire for innovation, the implementation of appropriate scientific and technical innovation policy. Flexibility in management, the ability to restructure quickly without losing new opportunities can be more important than just cost savings. The high degree of uncertainty, which is characteristic of modern conditions of economic development, requires the use of flexible planning tools that allow you to quickly take into account changes in supply and demand, requirements for product quality, prices, etc. In the conditions of competition between producers and the need to improve their economic performance and, above all, profit, employees must have economic tools that would allow them to consider different options for prices, costs, scale of production, changes in the structure of its range and to monitor the consequences of these changes in the economy of the enterprise. One such tool is targeted planning of prices, costs and profits. It is believed that the methodology of target pricing and calculation of target costs was developed in Japan and it is based on a given level of price and profit. The difference between the target price and the target profit is the target cost. But this technology does not work in terms of multi-item production. The problem of the need for flexible management of costs, profits and prices in market conditions is outlining. On the basis of theoretical and empirical researches the critical analysis of foreign scientists’ points of view to the problem of “target profit” planning and “target prime cost” is given. As authors believe the latter are possible only for single-product manufacturing companies. It is suggested to form a flexible system of targeted planning suitable for multi-product companies on the basis of the fixed costs’ distribution in proportion to the marginal profit.
EFFICIENCY OF THE TAX SYSTEM ON THE BASIS OF TRANSPARENCY AND REFORM
Authors:   SESE “Academy of Financial Management”, Oleinikova Ludmila
Published: December 2021

The expediency is reasoned of creating a competitive environment in the context of globalization and limited factors of production, forcing countries to compete with each other and take measures to attract owners of factors of production by forming the optimal combination of institutional, public goods and tax preferences, where only tax preferences are not the key to success in competition, as opposed to general conditions of taxation in combination with infrastructural, institutional and public goods. Emphasis is placed on the rapid digitalization of economic processes and the globalization of even small businesses through online platforms that will significantly affect the struggle in the field of economic and institutional competition. It has been proven that it is already necessary to respond to new challenges which are associated with tax evasion, erosion of the tax base, a significant geographical gap between the location of factors of production and the jurisdiction of profit. It is established that the answers to these risks lie both in the plane of institutional readiness and in the plane of the effectiveness of the application of tax administration tools, including control, as well as the synergy of measures at the macro and micro levels. The variety of tools used in world practice to improve compliance with tax legislation is studied and their division into categories is indicated. The expediency of using mechanisms to ensure the transparency of the tax system is substantiated, along with measures to assure the transparency of taxpayers before the tax authorities at the national level, as well as mechanisms to provide accountability and transparency of the tax authorities themselves to the government, parliament and taxpayers. It is proposed, taking into account foreign experience, in addition to quantitative indicators of tax effectiveness, to use supplementary indicators that characterize the work of tax authorities, considering economy, effectiveness, efficiency, which will deepen the level of tax system performance.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE UNIVERSITY FOR THE CITY ECONOMY: AN EXAMPLE OF THE IMPACT OF A DISPLACED UNIVERSITY
Authors:   Berdyansk State Pedagogical University, NESTORENKO TETYANA
Published: December 2021

The article considers the importance of a displaced university for the economy of the host city. The main directions of the impact of the displaced university on the local economy are analysed. The role of the displaced university for the revenue of the budget of the host city is considered. The example of Donetsk National Technical University shows the importance of displaced university for employment of the local population and reducing the rate of migration. The study aims to determine the impact of displaced universities on the economy of host cities (on the example of Donetsk National Technical University and Pokrovsk city). As a result of moving to the territories controlled by the Ukrainian authorities, the displaced universities, on the one hand, lost a significant part of their assets and found themselves in a difficult situation due to limited resources to continue their core business (training future professionals). On the other hand, the relocation of such universities was the impetus for the further development of host cities. The displaced university provides local youth with the opportunity to obtain higher education without leaving for other cities. Through their activities, displaced universities are creating new jobs for locals. Also, displaced universities are becoming big taxpayers to the local budget. That is why the support of displaced universities by the state and international organizations (granting certain preferences, financial assistance, etc.) will contribute not only to the “survival” of such universities but also to the socio-economic development of host cities. The study found that Donetsk National Technical University as a displaced university has a positive impact on the economy of the city of Pokrovsk: the university uses and pays for utilities provided by local businesses, buys goods and food from local producers. The university pays local taxes and fees to the local budget. Also, the local budget receives the taxes from university staff. Thanks to the activities of the university, about 400 jobs were created in the Pokrovsk city.
INTERNATIONAL ASPECT OF RESEARCH OF THE ENVIRONMENT OF FUNCTIONING OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES OF UKRAINE, FROM THE POSITION OF ENSURING ECONOMIC SECURITY
Authors: Liubokhynets Larysa , Rudnichenko Yevhenii , Havlovska Nataliia ,   Khmelnytskyi National University
Published: December 2021

In the article presents the results of the analysis of the current state of the environment of enterprises from the standpoint of ensuring economic security at the level of national economy and countries. The main trends of dynamic changes in business conditions based on the analysis of international indicators are identified. Indicators of rating assessment of Doing Business business conditions and their dynamics in modern conditions of ensuring economic security of enterprises are characterized. The economic security of domestic enterprises significantly depends on the influence of external and internal factors. Such factors change quite strongly in accordance with global trends in socio-economic processes, as well as reflect the national characteristics of the economy. Factors influencing the development of industrial enterprises and their economic security can be analyzed through a rating assessment of Doing Business, which is the basis for deregulation of the national economy. According to the Doing Business report, from May 2018 to April 2019, 115 countries implemented 294 reforms aimed at regulating business activities, most of which were implemented in such areas as business creation, obtaining building permits, connecting to the power supply system, taxation, optimization property registration processes, automation of logistics of international trade. The smallest number of reforms was recorded in the area of insolvency, bankruptcy and liquidation of enterprises. At the same time, only 1% of the reforms were in low-income countries, and most of the reforms were implemented in middle-income countries. The Doing Business Rating is a tool for measuring the favorable business climate, the level of entrepreneurial activity and the level of corruption, the level of competitiveness of the country, which allows to identify priority areas for reform at the state level.
MARKETING MANAGEMENT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF DOMESTIC ECONOMIC ENTITIES IN THE TOURIST SERVICES MARKET OF UKRAINE
Authors:   Vinnytsia Cooperative Institute, DYBCHUK LIUDMYLA , HOLOVCHUK YULIIA , PCHELIANSKA GALYNA ,   Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics
Published: December 2021

The article is devoted to the problems of marketing strategy and activity of the tourist enterprise. In the context of the coronavirus infection pandemic, significant changes are taking place in the tourism industry. Adequate response of tourism enterprises to possible changes in data through marketing tools, a key element in modern conditions is – the creation of a sustainable brand and the use of marketing support tools. The article analyzes the relationship between these problems. As a result of the study, the authors identified the main trends, conditions of the tourism market and the generalized consequences of the pandemic: new attributes of travel, changes in the activities of tour operators, new technological solutions. Features of the market of tourist services are characterized. It is determined that an important problem that limits the possibilities of the fullest use of the entrepreneurial potential of tourism organizations is the insufficient level of strategically-oriented marketing justifications in the management decisions. The urgency of the research topic necessitated the improvement of management systems of business structures of various profiles and, in particular, operating in the market of tourist services, which retain a high potential for development in a crisis situation. One of the main areas of such improvement is to increase the level of marketing support of the management process with its ability to initiate significant business effects.
CONCEPTUAL PROVISIONS OF THE STATE POLICY OF ENSURING THE ECONOMIC SECURITY OF UKRAINE IN THE CONDITIONS OF MODERN THREATS AND DIGITALIZATION
Authors:   Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman, GARAFONOVA Olga , POLISHCHUK Liydmyla , DYKHNYCH Liudmyla ,   Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, YASHCHENKO Inna ,   Kyiv University of Culture
Published: December 2021

The article focuses on the relevance of identification and typology of modern risks and threats to the economic security of Ukraine. According to the nature of modern risks and threats, they are classified as hybrid. The hybrid nature of modern threats to Ukraine’s economic security necessitates the application of new approaches to the formation and implementation of state policy to ensure the economic security of Ukraine’s national economy. It is shown that the economic security of the state is a complex dynamic system that requires constant monitoring and management of resilience to internal and external threats in order to ensure a positive impact on socio-economic development, improve macroeconomic development, ensure quality and necessary structural changes and institutional reforms. formation of the system of competitiveness of the national economy. Under such conditions, the general goal of state policy should be to improve Ukraine’s economic security system, ensure a higher level of its resistance to the impact of hybrid risks and threats, factors and conditions of globalization and the world order. The elements of the state policy of economic security of Ukraine are determined, namely – the initial conditions, the purpose of state policy, goals and principles of policy, directions of formation of the system of counteraction to security threats, financial-resource and organizational-managerial support. The practical significance of the research results is that the immaturity of the integral system of economic security of the state is identified, which is due to the imperfection of the institutional environment, the imbalance of its structure, the predominance of the role of informal institutions over formal ones. The scientific novelty of the study is to substantiate the conceptual provisions of state policy to ensure the economic security of the state in the face of non-standard hybrid risks and threats.
Tendencias en salud y salud mental en Pereira y Risaralda
Authors: Iodice Rosario , Villegas Moreno Martha Juliana , Nieto Betancurt Lucy , Ochoa Cucaleano Pedro Pablo , Aguirre Loaiza Héctor Haney , Gómez Gallego John James , Arango Arias Ana Lucia , Soto Echevarria Cesar Alberto , Javela González José Julián
Published: December 2021

Las políticas en salud y especialmente en salud mental son directrices fundamentales para la obtención de metas que apuntan a la calidad de vida, el bienestar de los ciudadanos y el desarrollo humano. Con ellas se establecen las rutas para el despliegue en los diferentes niveles y sectores de la salud, los actores y las actividades que concretarán su implementación. En Colombia, con el estímulo de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), se dio paso a la modernización de la legislación en materia de salud mental (Ley 1616 de 2013), dando preferencia a los niños, niñas y adolescentes en la mejora de la promoción y la prevención de la enfermedad, teniendo en cuenta el impacto económico negativo que deja a la sociedad. Es de vital importancia conocer documentos que permitan comprender el contexto de los profesionales, para reconocer y reflexionar sobre las necesidades del entorno y poder actuar de manera pertinente y ética sobre ellos. El propósito de este estudio, por tanto, ha sido reconocer las acciones y estrategias que los gobiernos departamental y municipal han construido, para brindar servicios de prevención de la enfermedad y la promoción de la salud. En un primer momento, se han explicado los conceptos acerca de estas acciones, la comprensión que la psicología tiene de ellos, y luego se ha procedido a describir los hallazgos de lo que se ejecuta en realidad, para finalmente dar a conocer un posible escenario tendencial.
La identidad de San José en los evangelios canónicos
Authors: Mancuello González Wilma
Published: December 2021

El artículo busca describir la identidad de san José atendiendo a los datos ofrecidos por los Evangelios canónicos, instrumentos efi caces de comunicación de Dios con los cristianos. En ellos, la identidad de san José aparece confi gurada desde tres ejes: su relación con María, con Jesús y con Dios. Se subraya que la noticia más antigua sobre quién fue José apunta a la fi gura de padre educador de Jesús; el hombre que lo dotó de una profesión digna en el contexto de una educación marcada por la libertad, el cariño y la corrección. Sobre su relación con María, los Evangelios afi rman que es su esposo el hombre que aprendió a amarla, la protegió, respetó su libertad y su vocación personal según el plan de Dios, viviendo con ella una historia de amor diferente al resto de las parejas humanas. Sobre su relación con Dios, Mateo anuncia que José fue un hombre de fe y de obras a modo de los grandes profetas y del patriarca Abraham. Lucas proclama que José mantiene un trato mediatizado con Dios por medio de sus mensajeros humanos. Por tanto, es un modelo de creyente cercano a las historias humanas de todos los tiempos y de todas las culturas.
La justicia de José, obediencia que nos alcanza la salvación de Dios
Authors: Céspedes De los Ríos Behitman Alberto
Published: December 2021

Después de situarnos en la fi gura de José presentada por los evangelios, nos interrogamos sobre qué quiere expresar el evangelista cuando afi rma que “José era un hombre justo” (Mt 1,19). Precisamente, esa justicia lo llevó a obedecer a Dios, a no entorpecer sus planes, a colaborar en su proyecto de salvación; ante el misterio de Dios, solo cabe guardar silencio y apartarse para que Dios siga adelante con su obra.
The use of whatsapp cooperative learning to improve writing ability
Authors:   Politeknik Negeri Bali, Yuliantini Ni Nyoman , Paramita I Gusti Ayu Dewi ,   Politeknik Negeri Bali, Setyono Evin Yudhi ,   Politeknik Negeri Bali, Suciani Ni Ketut ,   Politeknik Negeri Bali
Published: December 2021

English is one of the primary subject that was taught in Electronic Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Bali, which includes speaking, writing and listening. Other than speaking, writing also become one of the most challenging subject in Electronic Engineering. To overcome the low writing skills of students and create pleasant learning atmosphere during the Covid 19 Pandemic, the authors want to try out learning method, namely Cooperative Learning Method with online media in the form of whatsapp. This research is a quantitative research with quasi experimental approach. The groups used in this study consist of two groups namely the experimental group using Whatsapp Cooperative Learning methods and the control grouos using the conventional method. The data collection technique in this study was in the form of a questionnaire and given to the students in both classes. From the data, it can be concluded that learning with the Whatsapp Cooperative Learning method is more effective to be used in teaching writing. It can be seen from the value of 2 of -2, 087 with Sig 0,037< 0,05 means that there is significant difference between the control class and the experimental class. This significant difference can be said as the result of the use of Whatsapp Cooperative Learning in class.
Motivational perspective on students cheating during COVID-19 pandemic as the basic variable to create research instrument
Authors:   Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Kurniawati Dewi , Yusdisti Iga ,   Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Fadiyah Alifah ,   Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Fawziyyah Haniifah ,   Politeknik Negeri Jakarta, Lianza Liza Nadia ,   Politeknik Negeri Jakarta
Published: December 2021

Motivational perspective on students cheating during COVID-19 pandemic as the basic variable to create research instrument
„Kleine Meister“ – Evaluation eines pädagogischen Angebots zur Berufsfrühorientierung in Kindertageseinrichtungen
Authors: Eckhardt Andrea G. , Maas Louisa Thea , Hauke Sophie , Stolle Susann
Published: December 2021

Die Wahl eines Berufes ist ein lebenslanger komplexer Prozess und Ergebnis von familiärer Sozialisation, Lebenslage und Bildungsprozessen. Im Primar- und Elementarbereich ist Berufsorientierung ein nachrangiges Thema. In den Bildungs-, Erziehungs- und Orientierungsplänen der Bundesländer finden sich jedoch Hinweise und Beispiele für die pädagogische Arbeit zum Thema Berufe. Mit ihrem ganzheitlichen Förderauftrag und der lebensweltbezogenen Arbeit sind Kindertageseinrichtungen geeignete Orte für frühkindliche Bildungsprozesse und Ansatzpunkt für erste Auseinandersetzungen mit Berufen. In diesem Beitrag werden Ergebnisse der Evaluation des Projektes „Kleine Meister“, einem Projekt zur Berufsfrühorientierung, präsentiert. Die Ergebnisse der Evaluation zeigen, dass Vorschulkinder durch die pädagogische Arbeit ihr Wissen zu den Berufen im Projektzeitraum signifikant verbessern konnten. Damit zeigt sich, dass der Elementarbereich einen wirksamen Beitrag zur Berufsorientierung leisten kann.
Die mediale Darstellung des Föderalismus während der Corona-Pandemie – Eine Auswertung von Positionen, Konnotationen und Bewertungen in deutschen Tageszeitungen
Authors: Reus Iris
Published: December 2021

Die vorliegende Studie stellt die erste umfassende und systematische Analyse der Medienberichterstattung zum deutschen Föderalismus dar. Ausgewertet wurden Positionen, Konnotationen und Bewertungen in 449 Statements aus 14 Tageszeitungen im Zusammenhang mit der Corona-Pandemie für den Zeitraum März bis September 2020. Methodisch werden quantitative und qualitative Ansätze kombiniert, um sowohl Verteilungsmuster als auch Themen und Motive zu erfassen. Die Ergebnisse bestätigen für die Krise, was die Literatur für ‚normale Zeiten‘ annimmt: Eine deutliche Mehrheit aller veröffentlichten Statements zum Föderalismus fällt negativ aus. Dies änderte auch die Phase der Einheitlichkeit der Landesregelungen infolge der Einigung auf einen umfassenden bundesweiten Lockdown nicht. Die erfolgreiche Stabilisierung des Infektionsgeschehens ‚trotz‘ unterschiedlicher Lockerungen in den Ländern führte (absolut) zu weniger negativen Statements, aber nicht zu substantiell positiven. Mehrheitlich negative Statements finden sich in der Gruppe der Bevölkerung, der JournalistInnen und auch der PolitikerInnen insgesamt; mehrheitlich positive Statements finden sich lediglich bei LandespolitikerInnen der CDU/CSU.
NSU, rassistische Gewalt und affektives Wissen
Authors: Inan Çiğdem
Published: December 2021

Ausgehend von der sekundären Viktimisierung der NSU-Opfer, die im Zuge der polizeilichen Ermittlungen als Täter identifiziert wurden, beschäftigt sich der Artikel mit den affektiven Dimensionen struktureller Rassismuserfahrung. Durch die Täter-Opfer- Umkehrungen und die fehlende Bereitschaft zu umfassender Aufarbeitung des NSU-Komplexes schalteten sich rassistische Mechanismen in den Prozess der Trauer ein, sodass diese selbst enteignet wurde. Entlang des Verhältnisses von rassistischer Gewalt und migrantisch situiertem Wissen im Kontext des NSU-Komplexes werden die Begriffe des „Außer-Sich“- Seins (Butler), der wake work (Sharpe) sowie der undercommons (Harney/Moten) herangezogen, um nach Konzepten für eine Politik der Trauer zu suchen.
„Brecht den roten Uni-Terror!“ – ‚1968‘ im Visier der extremen Rechten
Authors: Virchow Fabian
Published: December 2021

Ausgangspunkt des Beitrages ist die Beobachtung, dass im Diskurs der extremen Rechten vielfach Bezüge auf ‚die 68er‘ hergestellt werden. Entlang zentraler Publikationen der extremen Rechten identifiziert der Text zunächst, welche Feindbildkonstruktionen gegenüber ‚den 68ern‘ und wichtigen Protagonist*innen einer Demokratisierung von Hochschulen und Gesellschaft im zeitgenössischen Kontext sichtbar wurden. Im zweiten Teil der Ausführungen werden aktuelle Deutungen der ‚68er‘ rekonstruiert, die in der APO und der Bewegung der Studierenden entweder die Fortsetzung einer ‚anti-deutschen‘ Politik der US-amerikanischen ‚Re-Education‘ sehen (‚cultural marxism’) oder zumindest für einige der bekanntesten Protagonisten nationalrevolutionäre Positionen behaupten.
Impact Analysis of Highway System on Wetland Vegetation in Northern China
Authors: Yang Tong , Chen Cheng , Wang Xiaoke , Xie Shilin
Published: December 2021

Wetlands in northern China are complex ecosystems composed of grasslands, lakes, rivers and swamps, which have immense ecological values. When a highway system passes through a wetland, it has adverse effects on its ecosystem. However, in many cases, it is difficult to avoid a highway system pass through a wetland. Taking the Erka wetland in northern China as an example, nine survey lines, perpendicular to the highway, were set up. According to the distance from the highway, the plant multi-element information was collected. After the analysis of plant growth habits, spatial characteristics and profile features, the following four conclusions were drawn: (1) the highway system divided the plants habitat and made the vegetation communities on both sides develop anisotropically; (2) the highway system interfered with the interspecific competition of the nearby plant populations, making it easier for the plant communities with fast propagation speed, drought resistance and anti-interference to establish advantages; (3) the plant growth within 80 m of the highway was inhibited and (4) the wetland plant community succeeded to grassland plant community. In order to reduce the adverse impact of highway system on wetland ecosystems, it is suggested that in the follow-up highway upgrading project, either diversion of highway or construction of bridge or culvert excavation should be considered.
Current Protection Applicability Analysis of Flexible DC Power Supply Network
Authors: Gao Yuan , Yang Bingyuan , Li Dongsheng
Published: December 2021

In the flexible AC/DC distribution system supplying passive network, when the modular multi-level converter (MMC) inverter AC line fault occurs, the MMC short-circuit current amplitude is greatly affected by the control strategy, which may affect the operation performance of three-stage current protection. In view of this, a flexible AC/DC distribution network system supplying power to the passive network is built on the RTDS platform, and then the AC fault traverse strategy is designed in the MMC controller. Based on the thinking of coordinated control and protection of the fault through the strategy into two cases with no input to higher current protections performance simulation contrast, the simulation results show that asymmetric fault occurred when MMC inverter AC line, under the effect of communication failure through the strategy, the current main protection I, II period of refusing action, only by this line nearly backup protection current section III delay removal of fault. The three-stage current protection based on the fault current characteristics of pure AC system has poor action performance and is no longer suitable for the AC line of MMC inverter station.
Identification and Characterization of High Permeability Zones Using Conventional Logging and Production Logging Data: A Case Study of Kela 2 Gas Field
Authors: Zhang Yongzhong , Liu Hualin , Huang Weigang , Liu Zhaolong , Chang Baohua
Published: December 2021

High permeability zones in the water-drive gas reservoir tend to act as dominant channels for formation water to invade into gas reservoir from the aquifer. The presence of high permeability zones results in uneven water flow front in reservoir and early water breakthrough in gas well, which seriously affects the gas field development. In this paper, conventional logging and production logging data are used to identify and characterize high permeability zones, so as to guide the optimization of development plan of Kela 2 gas field. A method to determine the lower limit of high permeability zones by using cumulative frequency curve of permeability distribution is proposed, and high permeability zones of 21 wells are identified. These high permeability zones account for 10–15% of the effective reservoir thickness in single wells, and they are mainly distributed in the middle of the Bashijiqike (K1bs) Formation (i.e., K1bs12, K1bs21 and K1bs22). The analysis of production logging data shows that the effective gas producing intervals only account for 29.2% of the total number of test intervals, most of which are related to high permeability zones. Further study shows that the high gas flow from the high permeability zones dominates the wellbore production profile, and the gas in low permeability zones flows vertically to the high permeability zones and horizontally to wellbore through these zones. Through the analysis of production profiles over the years and computer modelling, it is confirmed that water channelling occurred in some gas wells at the depth where the high permeability zones are located, which leads to a significant decline in production of these wells. Based on the study of distribution and behaviour characteristics of the high permeability zones, two suggestions on controlling inhomogeneous water invasion are put forward to realize the sustainable and stable production of the gas field.
The Enhanced Effect of Bicarbonate Anion for the Removal of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid on a Palladium/Nickel-Foam Electrode
Authors: Liu Q X , Tian Q P , Ye X Y , Liu F R , Yuan H M , Lou C Y
Published: December 2021

Palladium/nickel-foam (Pd/Ni) electrode is used as a typical efficient electrocatalytic electrode for the removal of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) in surface water and industrial wastewater. Many researches had reported how to enhance the dechlorination efficiency of the Pd/Ni electrode by using less Pd loading. However, there are few reports of choosing a suitable electrolyte solution to improve the efficiency of dechlorination. Efforts were made in this work of the different catholyte influenced the dechlorination efficiency. The results showed the fastest removal efficiency of 2,4-D in 34 mmol/L NaHCO3 than in 34 mmol/L NaCl, 34 mmol/L NaClO4, 17 mmol/L Na2SO4 catholyte, respectively on Pd/Ni electrode with pd loading of 0.202 mg/cm2 at constant potential of -0.55 V (vs saturated calomel electrode). The dechlorination current efficiency (CE) was 20.5% in the 34 mmol/L NaHCO3 catholyte more than three times that in 17 mmol/L Na2SO4 catholyte for that HCO3- was the most likely source of protons for adsorbed active hydrogen (H*) in Pd active centers.
A Performance Evaluation Model of Single-Cell Pseudotime Trajectory Inference Algorithms
Authors: Zhu Jiuru , Chen Jiaqing , Li Peizheng , Chen Yuanze
Published: December 2021

The study on single-cell pseudotime trajectory is of great significance to the exploration of the environmental factors of life and diseases. The large scale and complexity of single-cell data make the single-cell pseudotime trajectory algorithms face great challenges. A performance evaluation model is proposed to measure the performance of existing pseudotime trajectory inference algorithms and mine the problems existing in the inference algorithms in order to promote the improvement of the inference algorithms. Under the condition of given original single-cell data, the model uses the Spearman correlation coefficient to evaluate the performance of the inference algorithms from noise resistance and robustness. Experiments on the algorithms Monocle2 and Scout were conducted to analyze the application effect of the model.
A Pragmatic Approach to Semantic Annotation for Search of Legal Texts – An Experiment on GDPR
Authors: Nazarenko Adeline , Lévy François , Wyner Adam
Published: December 2021

Tools must be developed to help draft, consult, and explore textual legal sources. Between statistical information retrieval and the formalization of textual rules for automated legal reasoning, we defend a more pragmatic third way that enriches legal texts with a coarse-grained, interpretation-neutral, semantic annotation layer. The aim is that legal texts can be enriched on a large scale at a reasonable cost, paving the way for new search capabilities that will facilitate mining of legal sources. This new approach is illustrated on a proof-of-concept experiment that consisted in semantically annotating a significant part of the French version of the GDPR. The paper presents the design methodology of the annotation language, a first version of a Core Legal Annotation Language (CLAL), together with its formalization in XML, the gold standard resulting from the annotation of GDPR, and examples of user questions that can be better answered by semantic than by plain text search. This experimentation demonstrates the potential of the proposed approach and provides a basis for further development. All resources developed for that GDPR experiment are language independent and are publicly available.
Improving Legal Case Summarization Using Document-Specific Catchphrases
Authors: Mandal Arpan , Bhattacharya Paheli , Mandal Sekhar , Ghosh Saptarshi
Published: December 2021

Legal case summarization is an important problem, and several domain-specific summarization algorithms have been applied for this task. These algorithms generally use domain-specific legal dictionaries to estimate the importance of sentences. However, none of the popular summarization algorithms use document-specific catchphrases, which provide a unique amalgamation of domain-specific and document-specific information. In this work, we assess the performance of two legal document summarization algorithms, when two different types of catchphrases are incorporated in the summarization process. Our experiments confirm that both the summarization algorithms show improvement across all performance metrics, with the incorporation of document-specific catchphrases.
Semantic Search and Summarization of Judgments Using Topic Modeling
Authors: Wu Tien-Hsuan , Kao Ben , Chan Felix , Cheung Anne SY , Cheung Michael MK , Yuan Guowen , Chen Yongxi
Published: December 2021

Online legal document libraries, such as WorldLII, are indispensable tools for legal professionals to conduct legal research. We study how topic modeling techniques can be applied to such platforms to facilitate searching of court judgments. Specifically, we improve search effectiveness by matching judgments to queries at semantics level rather than at keyword level. Also, we design a system that summarizes a retrieved judgment by highlighting a small number of paragraphs that are semantically most relevant to the user query. This summary serves two purposes: (1) It explains to the user why the machine finds the retrieved judgment relevant to the user’s query, and (2) it helps the user quickly grasp the most salient points of the judgment, which significantly reduces the amount of time needed by the user to go through the returned search results. We further enhance our system by integrating domain knowledge provided by legal experts. The knowledge includes the features and aspects that are most important for a given category of judgments. Users can then view a judgement’s summary focusing on particular aspects only. We illustrate the effectiveness of our techniques with a user evaluation experiment on the HKLII platform. The results show that our methods are highly effective.
An Information Retrieval Pipeline for Legislative Documents from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies
Authors: Souza Ellen , Vitório Douglas , Moriyama Gyovana , Santos Luiz , Martins Lucas , Souza Mariana , Fonseca Márcio , Félix Nádia , Carvalho André C.P.L.F. , Albuquerque Hidelberg O. , Oliveira Adriano L.I.
Published: December 2021

This work investigates information retrieval methods to address the existing difficulties on the Preliminary Search, part of the law making process from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. For such, different preprocessing approaches, stemmers, language models, and BM25 variants were compared. Two legislative corpora from Chamber were used to build and validate the pipeline. All texts were converted to lowercase and had stopwords, accentuation, and punctuation removed. Words were represented by their stem combined with word unigram and bigram language models. Retrieving the bill that was originated from a specific job request, the BM25L with Savoy stemmer reached a R@20 of 0.7356. After removing queries with inconsistencies or which made reference exclusively to attachments, to other job requests, or to bills, the R@20 increased to 0.94.
Human Evaluation Experiment of Legal Information Retrieval Methods
Authors: Novotná Tereza
Published: December 2021

In this article, I present the results of the human evaluation experiment of three commonly used methods in legal information retrieval and a new “multilayered” approach. I use the doc2vec model, citation network analysis and two topic modelling algorithms for the Czech Supreme Court decisions retrieval and evaluate their performance. To improve the accuracy of the results of these methods, I combine the methods in a “multilayered” way and perform the subsequent evaluation. Both evaluation experiments are conducted with a group of legal experts to assess the applicability and usability of the methods for legal information retrieval. The combination of the doc2vec and citations is found satisfactory accurate for practical use for the Czech court decisions retrieval.
Optimizing image segmentation of pavement defects using graph-based method
Authors: Nguyen T.H. , Nguyen T.L. , Afanasiev A.D. , Pham T.L.
Published: December 2021

Pavement defect detection and classification systems based on machine learning algorithms are already very advanced and are increasingly demonstrating their outstanding advantages. One of the most important steps in the processing is image segmentation. In this paper, some image segmentation algorithms used in practice are presented, compared and evaluated. The advantages and disadvantages of each algorithm are evaluated and compared based on the criteria PA, MPA, F1. We propose a method to optimize the process of image segmentation of pavement defects using a combination of Markov Random Fields and graph theory. Experiments were conducted on 3 datasets from Portugal, Russia and Vietnam. Empirical results show that the segmentation of pavement defects is more accurate and effective when the two methods are combined.
Differentially private synthetic mixed-type data generation for unsupervised learning
Authors: Tantipongpipat Uthaipon Tao , Waites Chris , Boob Digvijay , Siva Amaresh Ankit , Cummings Rachel
Published: December 2021

We introduce the DP-auto-GAN framework for synthetic data generation, which combines the low dimensional representation of autoencoders with the flexibility of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). This framework can be used to take in raw sensitive data and privately train a model for generating synthetic data that will satisfy similar statistical properties as the original data. This learned model can generate an arbitrary amount of synthetic data, which can then be freely shared due to the post-processing guarantee of differential privacy. Our framework is applicable to unlabeled mixed-type data, that may include binary, categorical, and real-valued data. We implement this framework on both binary data (MIMIC-III) and mixed-type data (ADULT), and compare its performance with existing private algorithms on metrics in unsupervised settings. We also introduce a new quantitative metric able to detect diversity, or lack thereof, of synthetic data.
Comparative analysis of AI-based models for short-term photovoltaic power forecasting in energy cooperatives
Authors: Dimitropoulos Nikos , Mylona Zoi , Marinakis Vangelis , Kapsalis Panagiotis , Sofias Nikolaos , Primo Niccolo , Maniatis Yannis , Doukas Haris
Published: December 2021

Energy communities can support the energy transition, by engaging citizens through collective energy actions and generate positive economic, social and environmental outcomes. Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are gaining increasing share in the electricity mix as the economy decarbonises, with Photovoltaic (PV) plants to becoming more efficient and affordable. By incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, innovative applications can be developed to provide added value to energy communities. In this context, the scope of this paper is to compare Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) algorithms for the prediction of short-term production in a solar plant under an energy cooperative operation. Three different cases are considered, based on the data used as inputs for forecasting purposes. Lagged inputs are used to assess the historical data needed, and the algorithms’ accuracy is tested for the next hour’s PV production forecast. The comparative analysis between the proposed algorithms demonstrates the most accurate algorithm in each case, depending on the available data. For the highest performing algorithm, its performance accuracy in further forecasting horizons (3 hours, 6 hours and 24 hours) is also tested.
An intelligent fuzzy-based emergency alert generation for persons with episodic memory decline problems
Authors: Chrysafiadi Konstantina , Tsichrintzi Evangelia-Aikaterini
Published: December 2021

Many humans deal with problems that concern episodic memory decline. These problems can cause annoying, and sometimes, dangerous incidents, like failing to recall the name of a friend or forgetting to take a medicine or turn off the cooker. Concerning the above, this paper presents a fuzzy rule-based mechanism that generates emergency alerts when a dangerous situation is caused by an inconsistency in the human’s actions in the home environment. In such a way, the system protects persons with episodic memory decline problems or lapses of attention from dangerous situations that may be caused by their memory disorder and allows them to complete an everyday activity. For the paper’s needs the application of the presented mechanism is limited to the usage of a cooker. The system takes as input the time, the size and the content of the pot that is used to the cooker, calculates the degree of emergency and describes it using fuzzy sets and, finally, applies rules over the fuzzy sets to generate alert messages that notify the monitored person about the next action that s/he has to do in order to complete a particular activity. For the evaluation of the system, we have developed a simulation program that asks users to complete some activities during a specific time period. The system embeds the presented fuzzy rule-based mechanism and monitors the user’s actions and generated alerts, which concern the usage of the stove burner. The simulation software was used by 15 users. Their reactions and opinions about the system’s alerts and the assistance it offers, are positive.
Metaheuristic adapted convolutional neural network for Telugu speaker diarization
Authors: V Sethuram , Prasad Ande , Rajeswara Rao R.
Published: December 2021

In speech technology, a pivotal role is being played by the Speaker diarization mechanism. In general, speaker diarization is the mechanism of partitioning the input audio stream into homogeneous segments based on the identity of the speakers. The automatic transcription readability can be improved with the speaker diarization as it is good in recognizing the audio stream into the speaker turn and often provides the true speaker identity. In this research work, a novel speaker diarization approach is introduced under three major phases: Feature Extraction, Speech Activity Detection (SAD), and Speaker Segmentation and Clustering process. Initially, from the input audio stream (Telugu language) collected, the Mel Frequency Cepstral coefficient (MFCC) based features are extracted. Subsequently, in Speech Activity Detection (SAD), the music and silence signals are removed. Then, the acquired speech signals are segmented for each individual speaker. Finally, the segmented signals are subjected to the speaker clustering process, where the Optimized Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is used. To make the clustering more appropriate, the weight and activation function of CNN are fine-tuned by a new Self Adaptive Sea Lion Algorithm (SA-SLnO). Finally, a comparative analysis is made to exhibit the superiority of the proposed speaker diarization work. Accordingly, the accuracy of the proposed method is 0.8073, which is 5.255, 2.45%, and 0.075, superior to the existing works.
Rural Versus Non-Rural Residence and Psychosocial Outcomes Among Caregivers of Patients with Dementia and Related Disorders
Authors: Besser Lilah M. , Galvin James E.
Published: December 2021

We used data on 718 dementia caregivers and multivariable linear regression to test associations between residential locale and psychosocial outcomes (grief, wellbeing, burden, quality of life [QOL], self-efficacy/mastery, and social networks). Rural residence (versus urban or suburban) was not associated with the psychosocial outcomes. However, for rural caregivers, greater self-efficacy/mastery was associated with lower grief (versus urban/suburban) and burden (versus suburban), and greater social network quality was associated with lower burden (versus suburban) and higher QOL (versus urban). Interventions targeting self-efficacy/mastery and social networks may be particularly effective at improving rural caregivers’ mental health and QOL.
Late-Life Obesity Associated with Tau Pathology in Cognitively Normal Individuals: The CABLE Study
Authors: Zhang Xiao-Xue , Ma Ya-Hui , Hu He-Ying , Ma Ling-Zhi , Tan Lan , Yu Jin-Tai
Published: December 2021

Background: Existed evidence suggests that midlife obesity increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), while there is an inverse association between AD and obesity in late life. However, the underlying metabolic changes of AD pathological proteins attributed to obesity in two life stages were not clear. Objective: To investigate the associations of obesity types and obesity indices with AD biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in different life stages. Methods: We recruited 1,051 cognitively normal individuals (61.94±10.29 years, 59.66%male) from the Chinese Alzheimer’s Biomarker and LifestylE (CABLE) study with CSF detections for amyloid-β 42 (Aβ42), total-tau (T-tau), and phosphorylated tau (P-tau). We utilized body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-height ratio, and metabolic risk factors to determine human obesity types. Multiple linear models and interaction analyses were run to assess the impacts of obesity on AD biomarkers. Results: The metabolically unhealthy obesity or healthy obesity might exert a reduced tau pathology burden (p < 0.05). Individuals with overweight, general obesity, and central obesity presented lower levels of tau-related proteins in CSF than normal controls (p < 0.05). Specially, for late-life individuals, higher levels of obesity indices were associated with a lower load of tau pathology as measured by CSF T-tau and T-tau/Aβ42 (p < 0.05). No similar significant associations were observed in midlife. Conclusion: Collectively, late-life general and central obesity seems to be associated with the reduced load of tau pathology, which further consolidates the favorable influence of obesity in specific life courses for AD prevention.