bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Dynamic attention-based view of corporate headquarters in MNCs
Authors: Laamanen Tomi
Published: August 2019

While the usefulness of the attention-based view in understanding the role of headquarters-subsidiary relationships in multinational companies (MNC) is well established, recent research on corporate headquarters (CHQ) has moved beyond the simplistic conception of CHQ as a unitary entity. In this point of view, I review the development of the attention-based view and its use in research on CHQs in MNCs. Developing a better understanding of the dynamics of attention between the different subsidiaries and the increasingly dispersed and disaggregated headquarters activities in MNCs requires a more dynamic view of attention. Building on the recently introduced dynamic attention-based view, I identify potential research areas emerging from the application of the dynamic attention-based view to research on CHQ activities in MNCs.
Empowering strategic decision-making for wildfire management: avoiding the fear trap and creating a resilient landscape
Authors: Castellnou Marc , Prat-Guitart Núria , Arilla Etel , Larrañaga Asier , Nebot Edgar , Castellarnau Xavier , Vendrell Jordi , Pallàs Josep , Herrera Joan , Monturiol Marc , Cespedes José , Pagès Jordi , Gallardo Claudi , Miralles Marta
Published: August 2019

In recent years, fire services in Mediterranean Europe have been overwhelmed by extreme wildfire behavior. As a consequence, fire management has moved to defensive strategies with a focus only on the known risks (the fear trap). In this region, wildfires can change rapidly, increasing the uncertainty and causing complex operational scenarios that impact society right from the initial hours. To address this challenge, proactive approaches are an alternative to defensive and reactive strategies.

We propose a methodology that integrates the uncertainty of decisions and the cost of each opportunity into the strategic decision-making process. The methodology takes into account values such as fire-fighting safety, organizational resilience, landscape resilience, and social values.

Details of the methods and principles used to develop and implement a creative decision-making process that empower the fireline are provided. A tool that segregates the landscape into polygons of fire potential and defines the connectivity between those polygons is used. Two examples of operational implementation of this methodology are presented (2014 Tivissa Fire and 2015 Odena Fire).

These methods facilitate the analysis of possible scenarios of resolution and the costs of the opportunities that help build resilient emergency response systems and prevent their collapse. Moreover, they help explain the risk to society and involve citizens in the decision-making process. These methods are based on the experience and lessons learned by European incident commanders, managers, and researchers collected during the last decade.
Optical coherence tomography imaging of oral mucosa bullous diseases: a preliminary study
Authors: Di Stasio Dario , Lauritano Dorina , Loffredo Francesca , Gentile Enrica , Della Vella Fedora , Petruzzi Massimo , Lucchese Alberta
Published: August 2019

Objectives:

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive technique based on optical imaging with a micrometre resolution. The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential role of OCT in evaluating oral mucosa bullous diseases.

Methods:

two patients with bullous pemphigoid (BP) and one patient with pemphigus vulgaris (PV) were examined and images of their oral lesions were performed using OCT.

Results:

In OCT images, the BP blister has a clearly different morphology from the PV one compared to the blistering level.

Conclusion:

This exploratory study suggests that the OCT is able to distinguish epithelial and subepithelial layer in vivo images of healthy oral mucosa from those with bullous diseases, assisting the clinicians in differential diagnosis.The presented data are in accordance with the scientific literature, although a wider pool of cases is needed to increase statistical power. Histological examination and immunofluorescence methods remain the gold standard for the diagnosis of oral bullous diseases. In this context, the OCT can provide the clinician with a valuable aid both as an additional diagnostic tool and in the follow up of the disease.
Recent breakthroughs in virology
Authors: Greener Mark
Published: August 2019

Mark Greener summarises the recent developments in the study of viruses
Acute asthma attacks in the school setting: Diagnosis and prevention
Authors: Bostock-Cox Beverley
Published: August 2019

Beverley Bostock-Cox explains what school nurses can do to ensure the safety of pupils with asthma
On the Block Structure and Frobenius Normal Form of Powers of Matrices
Authors: Al Baidani Mashael , McDonald Judi
Published: August 2019

The Frobenius normal form of a matrix is an important tool in analyzing its properties. When a matrix is powered up, the Frobenius normal form of the original matrix and that of its powers need not be the same. In this article, conditions on a matrix $A$ and the power $q$ are provided so that for any invertible matrix $S$, if $S^{-1}A^qS$ is block upper triangular, then so is $S^{-1}AS$ when partitioned conformably. The result is established for general matrices over any field. It is also observed that the contributions of the index of cyclicity to the spectral properties of a matrix hold over any field. The article concludes by applying the block upper triangular powers result to the cone Frobenius normal form of powers of a eventually cone nonnegative matrix.
Navigating precarious visibility: Ugandan sexual minorities on Twitter
Authors: Strand Cecilia
Published: August 2019

Although invisibility has historically provided a degree of protection, Lesbian, Gay, Bi-, Trans-, Queer and Intersexuals need to materialize publicly as a group to successfully advocate for their rights. Decades of systematic exclusion of the community from traditional discourse-producing sites, such as media and physical spaces, could potentially render self-controlled digital spaces an attractive alternative for human rights advocacy and self-representation. The following article explores to what degree the Ugandan sexual minority community utilizes the microblogging platform Twitter’s inbuilt affordance of self-controlled visibility to counter and challenge pervasive homophobic discourses. Through a qualitative content analysis of a purposeful sample of tweets generated by the main sexual minority network (Sexual Minorities Uganda [SMUG]), during the latest general election, the study finds that the affordance of controlled visibility is not consistently exploited for disseminating alternative narratives to external audiences, but rather chooses to highlight the agency of SMUG and its network members.
From gamer personality, via motivation, to game choice: Typifying gamers and games based on survey data
Authors: Kolo Castulus , Lüst Niklas
Published: August 2019

Today’s economic success of video games is paralleled by a debate on presumed correlations of certain game play with problematic motivations and personalities, respectively. To shed light on a potential relation between personality, motivations and game choice we conducted an online survey (n = 1612). It confirms the applicability of the five-factor OCEAN model of personality in a German-speaking gaming context. Here, Yee’s gamer motivation model as a longer-term psychological concept, contrasting rather short-term motives and incentives, is replicated. Motivations are derived from a principal component analysis of over 40 items and found to form clusters that correlate with specific personalities. Additionally, with ‘motivational footprints’ and related ‘gamer personalities’ certain games are favoured. The results suggest that games should be seen as identity management tools rather than means to assume alternative personas. Knowing the particularly enticing combinations of motivations met, may guide the development of future games for selected personalities.
Investigating the “queen bee” phenomenon in Indonesia: a case study
Authors: Suharnomo S , Permatasari Devita
Published: August 2019

The purpose of this research was to explore the experience of some informants regarding the phenomenon of queen bee in Indonesia. Our study used qualitative method with case study approach. Data was gathered using in-depth interview on seven informants. The result shows that the queen bee leader did intimidating and mostly not supporting the career of her subordinate woman. Besides, the queen bee leader make distance not only to her subordinate which are female, but also to her female colleagues at work. Queen bee leader tend to give preferential treatment to men. This phenomenon has more negative impacts than positive impacts. The negative impact caused by the queen bee phenomenon is that it can cause victim to be feel intimidatied and stressed, the work atmosphere becomes less conducive, uncomfortable, disrupts the operations of the company. While the positive impact of the existence of the queen bee leader is the job need to be due became quicker to be completed.
Microwave-assisted protocol for squalene isolation and conversion from oil-deodoriser distillates
Authors: Bucciol Fabio , Scholz Gertraud , Scholz Hans Jürgen , Cravotto Giancarlo
Published: August 2019

Aiming to design a green and efficient protocol for squalane production from low-cost biomasses, a practical and scalable procedure for squalene extraction and hydrogenation to squalane is presented herein. The oil-deodoriser distillates that are produced by the vegetal-oil production chain are a renewable and cheap source of squalene. We were able to isolate an enriched fraction containing 89.0% of pure squalene (yield 55.4%) from a matrix containing about 2% squalene. Efficient microwave- assisted esterification under heterogeneous catalysis enabled the separation of fatty-acid methyl esters (FAME) via vacuum distillation. The residue was purified by flash-chromatography on a C-18 silica column using MeOH/H2O/2-propanol as the mobile phase. Finally, squalene was hydrogenated to the more stable squalane in a pressure-resistant microwave reactor. The reaction was performed over a Pd/C catalyst in EtOH, and even in solvent-free conditions, and was optimised using commercial squalene (5 bar of H2 at 100°C for 1 h).
Computational prediction of toxicity of small organic molecules: state-of-the-art
Authors: Machhar Janvhi , Mittal Ansh , Agrawal Surendra , Pethe Anil M. , Kharkar Prashant S.
Published: August 2019

The field of computational prediction of various toxicity end-points has evolved over last two decades significantly. Availability of newer modelling techniques, powerful computational resources and good-quality data have made it possible to generate reliable predictions for new chemical entities, impurities, chemicals, natural products and a lot of other substances. The field is still undergoing metamorphosis to take into account molecular complexities underlying toxicity end-points such as teratogenicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, etc. Expansion of the applicability domain of these predictive models into areas other than life sciences, such as environmental and materials sciences have received a great deal of attention from all walks of life, fuelling further development and growth of the field. The present chapter discusses the state-of-the-art computational prediction of toxicity end-points of small organic molecules to balance the trade-off between the molecular complexity and the quality of such predictions, without compromising their immense utility in many fields.
Best linear unbiased estimation for varying probability with and without replacement sampling
Authors: Haslett Stephen
Published: August 2019

When sample survey data with complex design (stratification, clustering, unequal selection or inclusion probabilities, and weighting) are used for linear models, estimation of model parameters and their covariance matrices becomes complicated. Standard fitting techniques for sample surveys either model conditional on survey design variables, or use only design weights based on inclusion probabilities essentially assuming zero error covariance between all pairs of population elements. Design properties that link two units are not used. However, if population error structure is correlated, an unbiased estimate of the linear model error covariance matrix for the sample is needed for efficient parameter estimation. By making simultaneous use of sampling structure and design-unbiased estimates of the population error covariance matrix, the paper develops best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) type extensions to standard design-based and joint design and model based estimation methods for linear models. The analysis covers both with and without replacement sample designs. It recognises that estimation for with replacement designs requires generalized inverses when any unit is selected more than once. This and the use of Hadamard products to link sampling and population error covariance matrix properties are central topics of the paper. Model-based linear model parameter estimation is also discussed.
Comparison of Hydration of Thermally Activated Water-Washed Kaolins in Cement Mortar
Authors: Wang Guiming , Ge Keyu , Sun Tao , Shui Zhonghe , Hu Teng , Jiang He , Wang Ziyan
Published: August 2019

This article investigated the hydration process, mechanical properties, and pore distribution of two kinds of thermally activated water-washed kaolin in cement-based materials. The metakaolin was obtained through the calcination process at 600°C–700°C for 3 h, and its pozzolanic activity was evaluated using the X-ray diffraction analysis of metakaolin-lime blends. The results indicated that the well-crystallized kaolinite in Maoming, China, had a higher pozzolanic activity than the poorly crystallized kaolinite from Beihai, China, when calcined at the same temperature. The highest pozzolanic activity was observed during the calcination at 650°C, which also indicated a turning point for the specific surface area and the particle size distribution of both kaolins. Furthermore, when mixed at a replacement level of 10 wt%, the metakaolin in Maoming showed the promotion of the hydration of cement to a greater extent, an effective reduction in harmful voids (>20 nm), and a higher compressive strength (i.e., an increase by 120–140 %).
Study on Workability and Skid Resistance of Bio-Oil–Modified Fog Seal with Sand
Authors: Feng Ponan , Wang Hainian , Zhang Xiang , Mohd Hasan Mohd Rosli , You Zhanping , Gao Junfeng
Published: August 2019

The objective of this study is to evaluate different fog seal materials, including Tianjin BEST - micro-seal bonding reductant (BEST-MBR), American MasterSeal, and a newly designed bio-oil–modified fog seal with sand (BFSS) using various sand contents. The workability of all materials was tested based on the fluidity test, seepage performance test, and the indoor skid resistance test. A new method to evaluate the surface texture of solidified fog seal with sand (FSS) material was performed based on the aggregate image measurement system II. The test results show that when the seepage flow evaluation index is set to a 1.5-mm seepage width, the seepage flow value should not be less than 0.2, whereas when the width is 2 mm, the flow value should not be less than 0.7. In addition, the surface texture evaluation indicates that some smaller grooves are formed around the sand particles after the BFSS is solidified and the structural depth of the material surface is increased. The BFSS material with 20 % sand content is slightly better than the BEST-MBR in terms of skid resistance, whereas it is still lower than MasterSeal. The addition of bio-oil lowers the need for asphalt binder, leading to energy savings. Thus, BFSS is a relatively desirable FSS material.
Clinical presentation and management of primary ovarian neuroendocrine tumor in multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1
Authors: Jhawar Sakshi , Lakhotia Rahul , Suzuki Mari , Welch James , Agarwal Sunita K , Sharretts John , Merino Maria , Ahlman Mark , Blau Jenny E , Simonds William F , Del Rivero Jaydira
Published: August 2019

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) is an autosomal dominant condition characterized by parathyroid, anterior pituitary and enteropancreatic endocrine cell tumors. Neuroendocrine tumors occur in approximately in 5–15% of MEN1 patients. Very few cases of ovarian NETs have been reported in association with clinical MEN1 and without genetic testing confirmation. Thirty-three-year-old woman with MEN1 was found to have right adnexal mass on computed tomography (CT). Attempt at laparoscopic removal was unsuccessful, and mass was removed via a minilaparotomy in piecemeal fashion. Pathology showed ovarian NET arising from a teratoma. Four years later, patient presented with recurrence involving the pelvis and anterior abdominal wall. She was treated with debulking surgery and somatostatin analogs (SSAs). Targeted DNA sequencing analysis on the primary adnexal mass as well as the recurrent abdominal wall tumor confirmed loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at the MEN1 gene locus. This case represents to our knowledge, the first genetically confirmed case of ovarian NET arising by a MEN1 mechanism in a patient with MEN1. Extreme caution should be exercised during surgery as failure to remove an ovarian NET en masse can result in peritoneal seeding and recurrence. For patients with advanced ovarian NETs, systemic therapy options include SSAs, peptide receptor radioligand therapy (PRRT) and novel agents targeting mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

Learning points:

Ovarian NET can arise from a MEN1 mechanism, and any adnexal mass in a MEN1 patient can be considered as a possible malignant NET.

Given the rarity of this disease, limited data are available on prognostication and treatment. Management strategies are extrapolated from evidence available in NETs from primaries of other origins.

Care should be exercised to remove ovarian NETs en bloc as failure to do so may result in peritoneal seeding and recurrence.

Treatment options for advanced disease include debulking surgery, SSAs, TKIs, mTOR inhibitors, PRRT and chemotherapy.
Associations between subcutaneous fat density and systemic inflammation differ by HIV serostatus and are independent of fat quantity
Authors: Lake J E , Debroy P , Ng D , Erlandson K M , Kingsley L A , Palella F J , Budoff M J , Post W S , Brown T T
Published: August 2019

Objectives

Adipose tissue (AT) density measurement may provide information about AT quality among people living with HIV. We assessed AT density and evaluated relationships between AT density and immunometabolic biomarker concentrations in men with HIV.

Design

Cross-sectional analysis of men enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study.

Methods

Abdominal visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) density (Hounsfield units, HU; less negative = more dense) were quantified from computed tomography (CT) scans. Multivariate linear regression models described relationships between abdominal AT density and circulating biomarker concentrations.

Results

HIV+ men had denser SAT (−95 vs −98 HU HIV−, P < 0.001), whereas VAT density was equivalent by HIV serostatus men (382 HIV−, 462 HIV+). Historical thymidine analog nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (tNRTI) use was associated with denser SAT but not VAT. In adjusted models, a 1 s.d. greater SAT or VAT density was associated with higher levels of adiponectin, leptin, HOMA-IR and triglyceride:HDL cholesterol ratio and lower hs-CRP concentrations in HIV− men. Conversely, in HIV+ men, each s.d. greater SAT density was not associated with metabolic parameter improvements and was significantly (P < 0.05) associated with higher systemic inflammation. Trends toward higher inflammatory biomarker concentrations per 1 s.d. greater VAT density were also observed among HIV+ men.

Conclusions

Among men living with HIV, greater SAT density was associated with greater systemic inflammation independent of SAT area. AT density measurement provides additional insight into AT density beyond measurement of AT quantity alone, and may have implications for metabolic disease risk.
A Bayesian Genomic Multi-output Regressor Stacking Model for Predicting Multi-trait Multi-environment Plant Breeding Data
Authors: Montesinos-López Osval A , Montesinos-López Abelardo , Crossa José , Cuevas Jaime , Montesinos-López José C , Gutiérrez Zitlalli Salas , Lillemo Morten , Philomin Juliana , Singh Ravi
Published: August 2019

In this paper we propose a Bayesian multi-output regressor stacking (BMORS) model that is a generalization of the multi-trait regressor stacking method. The proposed BMORS model consists of two stages: in the first stage, a univariate genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP including genotype × environment interaction GE) model is implemented for each of the L traits under study; then the predictions of all traits are included as covariates in the second stage, by implementing a Ridge regression model. The main objectives of this research were to study alternative models to the existing multi-trait multi-environment (BMTME) model with respect to (1) genomic-enabled prediction accuracy, and (2) potential advantages in terms of computing resources and implementation. We compared the predictions of the BMORS model to those of the univariate GBLUP model using 7 maize and wheat datasets. We found that the proposed BMORS produced similar predictions to the univariate GBLUP model and to the BMTME model in terms of prediction accuracy; however, the best predictions were obtained under the BMTME model. In terms of computing resources, we found that the BMORS is at least 9 times faster than the BMTME method. Based on our empirical findings, the proposed BMORS model is an alternative for predicting multi-trait and multi-environment data, which are very common in genomic-enabled prediction in plant and animal breeding programs.
EXPERIMENTAL DATA ACQUISITION OF VIBRATION FORCE IN DIRECT CURRENT MOTOR FOR MINI SUMO ROBOT
Authors: Sinan Cabuk Ali
Published: August 2019

Vibration is the oscillating or periodic movement of electric motors from its position to a certain point, which has effect on performance. The vibration of electrical motor is essential causes of machine failure. Therefore, reaction force of electric motors is the most important parameter for their working life. It is monitoring and minimize the vibration generated by the electric motor. One of the objectives of this study is to present that forced vibration analysis is compatible technique for diagnosing electromagnetic and mechanical problems in electric motors. In this study aims at vibration analysis on Direct Current (DC) motor, that is the most preferred motors for robotic application. DC motor used in this study has 15 W output power, 400 min-1 shaft speed and 12 V terminal voltage, which is widely implemented in robot competition. Vibration forced was measured with accelerometer sensor on the motor. Test vibration results of the motor were checked it whether limiting value or not. In this study, vibration effect of DC motor in mini sumo robot is presented with during competition and smooth road conditions.
NUMBER OF QUESTIONS FOR CREATING ONLINE QUIZZES
Authors: Pehlivanova Tanya , Kanchev Kamen
Published: August 2019

This article presents results of a study of the opinion of former and current students on issues related to the evaluation with e-tests. The experience of lecturers conducting assessment in technical and computer disciplines with tests in e-learning environment Moodle from Faculty of Technics and Technologies of Yambol is also analyzed. Analyzes and research carried out show that the progress of the technologies and their entry into education leads to one negative effect. Some of the students use digital technologies to access exam test questions and learn only these questions rather than the teaching content. Conclusions are made on the minimum number of questions from which the tests should be formed. Measures have been proposed for easy and fast automated raising of the total number of questions in the bank by developing Plugins in Moodle, allowing the creation of new types of test questions.
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS OF THE HEALTH STATUS OF ELDERLY PEOPLE
Authors: Paskaleva Tanya , Torniyova Biyanka , Vizeva Maya , Shopov Dimitar
Published: August 2019

Ageing is a clearly identifiable time and life period that is associated with a number of medico-social problems, which are to a great extent connected to the changes that occur in the organism at that age. Together with the problems, due to involutive processes and the functional peculiarities, one should not underestimate such, connected to morbidity.
Aim: To research and analyze the health status of the elderly people.
Materials and methods - There has been conducted a direct individual anonymous questionnaire amongst elderly people aged 60 or more, through accidental principle, in the period between April 2016 and February 2018.
Results: The analysis of the health status of the elderly people shows multiple pathologies - highest is the rate of the cardiac diseases. A characteristic feature of the pathology with the elderly people is its multitude - 49% have stated two and three diseases. Women have more often three and more diseases, and with men there prevail the percentage without any diseases. The city dwellers are with higher average rate of the number of diseases and it is more often that they suffer from chronic diseases. 65,2% of the respondents with lower incomes (up to 150 lv.) have been in dispensaries owing to a chronic disease. Highest is the rate of the respondents who assess their health status as satisfactory – 49,1%.
INFLUENCE OF DIETARY CINNAMOMUM VERUM EXTRACT ON THE GROWTH AND ECONOMIC EFFICACY OF COMMON CARP /CYPRINUS CARPIO L. /, REARED IN A RECIRCULATION SYSTEM
Authors: Stoyanova S. , Zhelyazkov G. , Sirakov I. , Velichkova K. , Staykov Y.
Published: August 2019

The use of herbs as feed additives for fish showed a stimulating effect on growth, feed assimilation and increase its digestibility. The aim of research was to assess the outcome of feeding dietary cinnamon extract on the survival rate, growth performance, feed conversion and production efficiency of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.), farmed in recirculation system. Thirty-two carps were distributed in two experimental variants, with two replicates of eight fish per group each. The average weight of the carps from the control and experimental group (CG) and EG) was 866.56 ± 113.99 g and 869.38 ± 96.88 g, respectively (p>0.05). The average individual carp grown EG was by 18.98% higher vs CG fish, with no significant differences between groups (p> 0.05). The economic efficiency of feed with extract of cinnamon in the experimental group had better coefficient of economic efficiency 2.71, which is lower by 4.61% compared to the coefficient of the controls
Tantangan dan Peluang Pengembangan Keterampilan Bahasa Arab Komunikatif di Pesantren Modern Gontor Putri 4 Sulawesi Tenggara
Authors: Wahyuni Imelda
Published: August 2019

Ciri khusus pesantren sebagai lembaga Pendidikan Islam adalah terdapatnya pelatihan Bahasa Arab. Dalam hal ini, strategi lembaga pesantren menjadi bahasan penting dalam mendukung pencapaian kemampuan bahasa oleh santri. Tulisan ini mengkaji tentang model pembelajaran bahasa komunikatif yang diterapkan di Pondok Pesantren Modern Darussalam Gontor Putri 4 Sulawesi Tenggara. Data kualitatif deskriptif dikumpulkan melalui wawancara dan observasi. Artikel ini menggali lebih jauh bagaimana pesantren dapat menangkap peluang dan menghadapi tantangan pembelajaran bahasa komunikatif untuk mengembangkan kemampuan bahasa Arab santri. Temuan penelitian ini menunjukkan pengembangan kemampuan bahasa Arab santri terpenuhi dengan adanya tenaga edukasi yang direkrut berdasarkan sistem manajerial terpusat. Sedangkan tantangan pembelajaran bahasa komunikatif dihadapi dengan membangun komitmen santri untuk memperioritaskan upaya berbahasa komunikatif. Peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa dukungan kebijakan pimpinan dalam mengelaborasi tujuan struktural dan fungsional pendidikan bahasa menjadi wilayah dasar dalam perumusan tata kerja program pendidikan di pesantren.
Semantic Relationships Guided Representation Learning for Facial Action Unit Recognition
Authors: Li Guanbin , Zhu Xin , Zeng Yirui , Wang Qing , Lin Liang
Published: August 2019

Facial action unit (AU) recognition is a crucial task for facial expressions analysis and has attracted extensive attention in the field of artificial intelligence and computer vision. Existing works have either focused on designing or learning complex regional feature representations, or delved into various types of AU relationship modeling. Albeit with varying degrees of progress, it is still arduous for existing methods to handle complex situations. In this paper, we investigate how to integrate the semantic relationship propagation between AUs in a deep neural network framework to enhance the feature representation of facial regions, and propose an AU semantic relationship embedded representation learning (SRERL) framework. Specifically, by analyzing the symbiosis and mutual exclusion of AUs in various facial expressions, we organize the facial AUs in the form of structured knowledge-graph and integrate a Gated Graph Neural Network (GGNN) in a multi-scale CNN framework to propagate node information through the graph for generating enhanced AU representation. As the learned feature involves both the appearance characteristics and the AU relationship reasoning, the proposed model is more robust and can cope with more challenging cases, e.g., illumination change and partial occlusion. Extensive experiments on the two public benchmarks demonstrate that our method outperforms the previous work and achieves state of the art performance.
Optimal Projection Guided Transfer Hashing for Image Retrieval
Authors: Liu Ji , Zhang Lei
Published: August 2019

Recently, learning to hash has been widely studied for image retrieval thanks to the computation and storage efficiency of binary codes. For most existing learning to hash methods, sufficient training images are required and used to learn precise hashing codes. However, in some real-world applications, there are not always sufficient training images in the domain of interest. In addition, some existing supervised approaches need a amount of labeled data, which is an expensive process in terms of time, labor and human expertise. To handle such problems, inspired by transfer learning, we propose a simple yet effective unsupervised hashing method named Optimal Projection Guided Transfer Hashing (GTH) where we borrow the images of other different but related domain i.e., source domain to help learn precise hashing codes for the domain of interest i.e., target domain. Besides, we propose to seek for the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) solution of the hashing functions of target and source domains due to the domain gap. Furthermore, an alternating optimization method is adopted to obtain the two projections of target and source domains such that the domain hashing disparity is reduced gradually. Extensive experiments on various benchmark databases verify that our method outperforms many state-of-the-art learning to hash methods. The implementation details are available at https://github.com/liuji93/GTH.
Hierarchical Photo-Scene Encoder for Album Storytelling
Authors: Wang Bairui , Ma Lin , Zhang Wei , Jiang Wenhao , Zhang Feng
Published: August 2019

In this paper, we propose a novel model with a hierarchical photo-scene encoder and a reconstructor for the task of album storytelling. The photo-scene encoder contains two subencoders, namely the photo and scene encoders, which are stacked together and behave hierarchically to fully exploit the structure information of the photos within an album. Specifically, the photo encoder generates semantic representation for each photo while exploiting temporal relationships among them. The scene encoder, relying on the obtained photo representations, is responsible for detecting the scene changes and generating scene representations. Subsequently, the decoder dynamically and attentively summarizes the encoded photo and scene representations to generate a sequence of album representations, based on which a story consisting of multiple coherent sentences is generated. In order to fully extract the useful semantic information from an album, a reconstructor is employed to reproduce the summarized album representations based on the hidden states of the decoder. The proposed model can be trained in an end-to-end manner, which results in an improved performance over the state-of-the-arts on the public visual storytelling (VIST) dataset. Ablation studies further demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical photo-scene encoder and reconstructor.
Deep Single-View 3D Object Reconstruction with Visual Hull Embedding
Authors: Wang Hanqing , Yang Jiaolong , Liang Wei , Tong Xin
Published: August 2019

3D object reconstruction is a fundamental task of many robotics and AI problems. With the aid of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), 3D object reconstruction has witnessed a significant progress in recent years. However, possibly due to the prohibitively high dimension of the 3D object space, the results from deep CNNs are often prone to missing some shape details. In this paper, we present an approach which aims to preserve more shape details and improve the reconstruction quality. The key idea of our method is to leverage object mask and pose estimation from CNNs to assist the 3D shape learning by constructing a probabilistic singleview visual hull inside of the network. Our method works by first predicting a coarse shape as well as the object pose and silhouette using CNNs, followed by a novel 3D refinement CNN which refines the coarse shapes using the constructed probabilistic visual hulls. Experiment on both synthetic data and real images show that embedding a single-view visual hull for shape refinement can significantly improve the reconstruction quality by recovering more shapes details and improving shape consistency with the input image.
Analysis of the rock stratum in a mining area in China with virtual reality technology
Authors: Yang Zhigang , Wang Yongqiang
Published: August 2019

Virtual reality (VR) technology can promote the development of mining activities. A mining area in Henan, China, was taken as an example, and a VR system of the mining area was established through the VR-Platform software. Mechanical data of the rock stratum in the mining area were analysed with a rock-fracture-process analysis system. The fracture of the mine roadway was taken as an example to analyse the rock stratum fracture of a circular roadway, a rectangular roadway and the roadway support. It was found that roadways with different shapes had different fracture situations. The cracks occurred randomly, and a closed or non-closed near-annular fracture zone might appear. The roadway support could effectively reduce the fracture of the rock stratum and improve the stability of the roadway. This study proved the important value of VR technology in the mineral industry, which is conducive to providing a scientific guidance for the planning of the mining of the mining area and promoting the orderly development of mining work.
Credit Migration and Covered Interest Rate Parity
Authors: Liao Gordon Y.
Published: August 2019

This paper examines the connection between deviations in covered interest rate parity and differences in the credit spread of bonds of similar risk but different currency denomination. These two pricing anomalies are highly aligned in both the time series and the cross-section of currencies. The composite of these two pricing deviations – the corporate basis – represents the currency-hedged borrowing cost difference between currency regions and explains up to a third of the variation in the aggregate corporate debt issuance flow. I show that arbitrage aimed at exploiting one type of security anomaly can give rise to the other.
Banco de semillas después de un incendio en un matorral xerófilo
Authors: Martínez Orea Yuriana , Castillo Argüero Silvia , Guadarrama Chávez M. Patricia , Sánchez Irene
Published: August 2019

A través de la emergencia de plántulas estudiamos los efectos del fuego en el banco de semillas del suelo de un matorral xerófilo en dos años consecutivos. Comparamos su composición y abundancia en dos sitios, uno quemado y uno no quemado. Una proporción importante de semillas murió debido a las altas temperaturas alcanzadas por el fuego. La riqueza y diversidad de especies fueron negativamente afectadas. Estas variables mostraron diferencias significativas entre sitios y años. Después de un año, la abundancia y diversidad del banco de semillas alcanzaron mayores valores. En términos de riqueza dominaron las hierbas perennes y en términos de abundancia, dominó una especie arbórea. El fuego no fue un factor determinante en la composición de especies. Estos resultados son importantes para explicar los cambios en la vegetación después del fuego, especialmente si consideramos que este sitio es una reserva natural inmersa en un área urbana.
International Policy Diffusion and Participatory Budgeting
Authors: Sabourin Eric Pierre
Published: August 2019

es una reseña
CZ Biohub RNA Library Prep Protocol on Echo 550 v1
Authors: Caldera Saharai , Y Mayday Madeline , M Khan Lillian , D. Chow Eric , S. Zinter Matt , L. DeRisi Joseph
Published: August 2019

Preparation of high-quality sequencing libraries is a costly and time-consuming component of metagenomic next generation sequencing (mNGS). While the overall cost of sequencing has dropped significantly over recent years, the reagents needed to prepare sequencing samples are likely to become the dominant expense in the process. Furthermore, libraries prepared by hand are subject to human variability and needless waste due to limitations of manual pipetting volumes. Reduction of reaction volumes, combined with sub-microliter automated dispensing of reagents without consumable pipette tips, has the potential to provide significant advantages. Here, we describe the integration of several instruments, including the Labcyte Echo 550 acoustic liquid handler and the iSeq and NovaSeq Illumina sequencing platforms, to miniaturize and automate mNGS library preparation, significantly reducing the cost and the time required to prepare samples. Through the use of External RNA Controls Consortium (ERCC) spike-in RNAs, we demonstrated the fidelity of the miniaturized preparation to be equivalent to full volume reactions. Furthermore, detection of viral and microbial species from cell culture and patient samples was also maintained in the miniaturized libraries. For 384-well mNGS library preparations, we achieved a savings of over 80% in materials and reagents alone, and reduced preparation time by 90% compared to manual approaches, without compromising quality or representation within the library.
RNA Isolation from Plant Tissue Protocol 1: Qiagen RNeasy Plant Mini Kit v1
Authors: Leebens-Mack Jim , Carrigan Charlotte
Published: August 2019

Protocol implemented by: Jim Leebens-Mack and Charlotte Carrigan The first protocol used for isolation of total RNA was Qiagen’s RNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). These kits are commercially available and widely used in RNA isolation. For detailed methods associated with this kit we refer readers to the “RNeasy Mini Handbook” available for download at www.qiagen.com. This protocol is part of a collection of eighteen protocols used to isolate total RNA from plant tissue. (RNA Isolation from Plant Tissue Collection: https://www.protocols.io/view/rna-isolation-from-plant-tissue-439gyr6)
An Analysis of a Noun Phrase in Ichindali
Authors: Kibona Neema Jangstony
Published: August 2019

Ichindali is one of the Ethnic Community Languages spoken by an increasing population of the Ndali people in Mbeya region. The Ndali people live in southern Tanzania, Mbeya Region. Ileje District has 124,451 speakers in 2012. Ileje is bordered to the North by Mbeya rural and Rungwe district, to the East by Kyela district. Ndali people live in an area which crosses the Tanzania Malawi border. This paper investigates the way noun phrases are formed in Ichindali and the order of their formation (constituents) in this particular language. Therefore the main objectives of this paper were: i. To find out the Criteria for categorizing noun phrase elements in Ichindali. ii. To examine the various kinds of dependents in Ichindali noun phrase. In arriving at these objectives, the writer posed the following questions as a guide: i. What are the criteria relevant in categorizing the dependents of the noun in Ichindali? ii. What kinds of dependents form a noun phrase in Ichindali? A conclusion has been drawn from this work is that, the structure of a noun phrase in Ichindali is N-Det-Mod. An NP can function as a subject, direct or primary objects which is normally expressed in the accusative case, indirect or secondary object in dative case as well as an object of preposition.
A Linguistic Study of Shop Signs in Salt, Jordan
Authors: ALHyari Dania A. , Hamdan Jihad M.
Published: August 2019

Shop signs are seen as a reflection of the socio-cultural background of the place in which the shop is located. This paper studies the shop signs in Salt, Jordan because it is one of the most popular cities in the country and it has not yet been explored adequately. These shop sings are collected from two main streets in two different areas of Salt: Hamzih Prince Street and Al Hamam Street. A digital camera is used to capture the shop signs on these streets. In addition, the study examines the shop signs using both quantitative and qualitative measures. It focuses on the language choice, the arrangement of languages and the linguistic features of these signs, i.e. phonetic, morphological, semantic, and syntactic. In addition, it studies the pragmatic functions of these shop signs. The study concludes that Salt is a conservative and traditional county in Jordan.
Vocabulary Learning via Reading: Is Input Modification Useful?
Authors: Rashtchi Mojgan , Porkar Reza
Published: August 2019

Since authentic texts address native speakers, they might lack the reader-friendly attributes which can help EFL learners to read and understand them. Also, learning the new vocabulary through reading can be difficult for EFL learners. As such, in order to utilize these texts as teaching materials in EFL classes, they should be modified. The present study investigated Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners and how they acquire English language vocabulary incidentally from modified English texts while their primary task is reading for meaning. In order to measure the impact of lexical input modification on the improvement of foreign language vocabulary learning, 60 adult Iranian EFL learners between the ages of 18 and 22 in two intact classes were selected and randomly assigned to two homogenous groups of control and experimental. The analysis of the data revealed that incidental second language vocabulary learning could be improved effectively by lexical input modifications such as lexical and typographical elaboration.
Ortaçağ’da Ulemânın İktidara Karşı Kullandığı Dil/Üslûb Örneği: Abdü’l-Kayyûm, “İmam Gazzâlî’nin Mektupları” Adlı Eserinin Değerlendirmesi
Authors: GÜLER Hatice
Published: August 2019

İmam
Gazzâlî’nin Selçuklu hükümdarlarına, vezirlerine, veliahtlarına ve zamanının
ilim insanlarına hitâben yazdığı mektupların toplandığı eser olan Abdü’l-Kayyûm
tarafından hazırlanan İmam Gazzâlî’nin Mektupları, ortaçağda ulemânın iktidara
hitâben kullandığı dil ve üslûbu anlatması bakımından mühimdir. Eserde iktidara
gönderilen mektuplarda, gününün yenileyicisi olan ve zâlimlere boyun eğmeyi
reddeden tam bir şuur yansıtılmaktadır. Bu mektuplar aynı zamanda, çağının
olaylarını yansıtması bakımından da ilgi çekicidir. Gazzâlî’yi, Selçuklu
hükümdarlarını, yetkililerini, kayırma, taraf tutma, adaletsizlik ve rüşvet
gibi, o dönemde toplumun temel hastalıkları konusunda ikâz ettiği üslûbu
incelendiği vakit bu mektuplara ilgi daha da artmaktadır. Tavsiyelerini
sunarken âyet-i kerîmeler ve hadîs-i şerifler çerçevesinde hareket etmiştir. Bu
çalışmada, iktidara karşı kullanılacak dile örnek teşkil etmesi açısından
Abdü’l-Kayyûm’un “İmam Gazzâlî’nin Mektupları” adlı bu eserinin uslûbî
değerlendirmesi yapılmıştır.
Behavioral Patterns of the Modern Age Addiction: Nomophobia of Future Managers
Authors: ÖZDEMİR Halil Özcan , ARSLAN Hüsnüye Neşe
Published: August 2019

Nomophobia, is one of
the most recent phobias of the 21st century emerged due to the
improvement of communication technologies and changing expectance of people in
communicating. This study aims to explore the level of nomophobia based on some
of the major demographic factors such as age, gender and monthly income.
Furthermore, it looks into the relationship between variables of phone use,
such as frequency of checking the phone and time of phone ownership, and the
four dimensions of nomophobia. As the instruments of the study, a demographic
questionnaire and the Nomophobia Questionnaire designed by Yıldırım and Correia
(2015) were administered to 242 Business and Administration students at a
Turkish university. The findings revealed that the level of nomophobia did not
differ based on the demographic variables. It found that the more frequent the
participants checked their phone the lower their level of nomophobia was. In a
similar vein, participants who checked their phone in the morning and night
have indicated to be less nomophobic. The results were discussed and
implications suggested.
İş Doyumu ve Yaşam Doyumu İlişkisi: Bir Kamu Kurumu Üzerinde Analitik Bir Araştırma
Authors: BAĞCI Zübeyir , KOLBAŞI Emine
Published: August 2019

Bu
çalışmada yaşamlarının önemli bir kısmını işyerlerinde geçiren çalışanların iş
doyumları ile yaşam doyumları arasındaki ilişki incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu
amaçla bir kamu kurumunda çalışan 131 personel üzerinde analitik bir araştırma
gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırma için gerekli olan veriler anket tekniği
kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Hazırlanan anket formunda katılımcıların demografik
özellikleri ile iş ve yaşam doyumlarına ilişkin sorular yer almıştır.
Katılımcıların iş doyumları Brayfield ve Rothe (1951) tarafından geliştirilen tek
boyutlu “İş Doyumu Endeksi” ile ölçülmüştür. Katılımcıların yaşam doyumları ise
Diener ve arkadaşları (1985) tarafından geliştirilen tek boyutlu “Yaşam Doyum
Ölçeği” ile ölçülmüştür. Araştırmada analiz yöntemi olarak tanımlayıcı
istatistikler ile korelasyon ve regresyon analizleri kullanılmıştır. Yapılan
regresyon analizi sonucunda iş doyumunun yaşam doyumu üzerinde anlamlı bir etkiye
sahip olduğu belirlenmiştir.
Avrupa Ülkelerindeki Gelişmeler Işığında Türkiye’ de Engelli Evde Bakım Hizmetlerinin Değerlendirilmesi: Sivas İli Örneği
Authors: KARAGÖZ Naim , ÜSTÜN Selin , ILIMAN Ebrar
Published: August 2019

Sağlık hizmetleri, herkesçe
en önemli hizmet grubundadır. Sağlık hizmetlerinin maliyetli harcamalarının
karşılanmasında ihtiyaç sahiplerinedevlet
desteğinin sağlanması çok önemli bir politikadır. Özellikle engelli kişilerin
ihtiyaçlarının karşılanması süreklilik arz ettiğinden diğer sağlık
harcamalarına göre uzun dönemde daha yüksek maliyetlidir. Bu nedenle engelli
kişilerin ihtiyaçlarını karşılarken devlet tarafından desteklenmesi daha da
önemlidir. Aile ve Sosyal Politikalar Bakanlığı’nın 2006 yılı itibari ile
sunmaya başladığı Engelli Evde Bakım hizmeti, ağır engeli bulunan kişiler ve
yakınları için önemli bir destek sağlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada Avrupa ülkeleri
(Almanya örneği) ile Türkiye’de engelli evde bakım hizmeti arasındaki
farklılıklar, bu farklılığın nedeni ve Sivas ilinde engelli evde bakım
hizmetinden faydalanan kişi sayısı incelenmiştir. İnceleme esnasında engelli
evde bakım hizmetinden faydalanan kişi sayısının arttığının gözlemlenmesi söz
konusu hizmet modelinin amacına eriştiğini göstermektedir.