bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Влияние цитофлавина на антиоксидантный статус пациентов с розацеа легкой и средней степени тяжести
Authors: Котельникова М. А. , Симонова Н. В. , Доровских В. А. , Штарберг М. А.
Published: July 2020

Изучена антиоксидантная активность цитофлавина у пациентов c розацеа: 26 пациентов (женщины в возрасте от 26 до 54 лет, основная группа) на фоне стандартного лечения получали препарат цитофлавин (НТФФ «ПОЛИСАН», Санкт-Петербург, Россия) внутрь по 600 мг по сукцинату (2 таблетки) 2 раза в сутки в течение 21 дня; 20 пациентов (женщины в возрасте от 28 до 52 лет, контрольная группа) получали только стандартное лечение. Группу сравнения составили практически здоровые пациенты (21 женщина). Результаты исследования показали, что содержание гидроперекисей липидов и диеновых конъюгатов в плазме крови пациентов c розацеа до лечения было выше относительно группы сравнения в среднем на 25 %, малонового диальдегида — на 41 и 44 %, уровень церулоплазмина был ниже на 25 %, витамина Е — на 22 %, каталазы — в среднем на 13 % (p ≤ 0,05). Стандартная терапия практически не влияла на антиоксидантный статус пациентов с розацеа. Введение в схему лечения цитофлавина способствовало достоверному снижению в плазме крови пациентов гидроперекисей липидов на 17 %, диеновых конъюгатов — на 13 %, малонового диальдегида — на 18 %, по сравнению с больными контрольной группы (p ≤ 0,05). При анализе влияния цитофлавина на активность компонентов антиоксидантной системы установлено, что содержание церулоплазмина в крови пациентов после применения препарата выше аналогичного показателя до лечения на 44 %, витамина E — на 14 %, каталазы — на 24 % (p ≤ 0,05). Таким образом, включение цитофлавина в схему комплексного лечения розацеа следует считать патогенетически обоснованным и перспективным.
Implementation and Optimization of Telehealth during the COVID-19 Public Health Crisis—Our Journey
Authors: Pirtle Claude J. , Tetleton-Burns Anna , Webb Ashley , Krodel Scott
Published: July 2020

Telehealth offered a great opportunity for the clinicians at West Tennessee Healthcare to provide an essential service to the community at large during these unprecedented times. Our telehealth footprint continues to enlarge daily with more clinicians and specialties becoming comfortable with the workflows and technology. The program is described herein.

The COVID-19 pandemic tests the ability of many primary care, urgent care, and hospital systems to adapt quickly to new circumstances. In many of these offices, virtual telehealth visits have become a strategy to decrease the use of personal protective equipment, and mitigate the risk of exposure of providers, staff, or patients to the coronavirus, among many other opportunities.1 West Tennessee Healthcare noted these same strong headwinds, as the pandemic and emergency decelerations began to send individuals to continue to reschedule appointments for a multitude of reasons—including fear.

West Tennessee Healthcare is located in an underserved area with a lack of access to healthcare in all of our servicing districts. Each of these districts holds a classification of a partial or full healthcare professional shortage area. In our over 40 primary and specialty care clinics, face-to-face visits began to shudder near the end of March with the Tennessee governor’s first social distancing and business step-down regulations. With the foresight of other health systems being impacted by COVID-19, our medical practices were forced into a dilemma to creatively continue to offer quality care, but from a new environment. Prior to this federal and state emergency, our clinics were in the planning stages of creating a telehealth environment but had not completed any medical telehealth visits.
“Franchise” Branch Campuses in Uzbekistan: The Internationalisation of Higher Education as a Solution?
Authors: Ubaydullaeva Dilnoza
Published: July 2020

Internationalization transformed the way Higher Education (HE) is provided. Used correctly, internationalization can bring a useful exchange of services and resources into a country’s HE sector. Although there is a growing body of research on HE internationalization broadly, current scholarship overlooks the correlation of excessive reliance on opening of foreign university branches as a way to internationalize the HE sector and the development of the local HE system. This research thus provides the first insights into how the internationalization of HE may not necessarily solve a developing country’s problems in the local HE sector. Using the case of Uzbekistan, it argues that, in the absence of systematic reforms in the local HE system, HE reform that over-relies on the imported internationalization in the form of foreign university branches is not sustainable. Such “franchise” or “imported” internationalization does not contribute to the development of local HE system.
COVID-19 Salgını: Yönetici Hemşirelerin Rol ve Sorumlulukları
Authors: Duygulu Sergül , Başaran Açıl Seher , Kuruca Özdemir Emine , Erdat Yıldız
Published: July 2020

Son zamanlarda devam eden Coronavirüs salgını (COVID-19), Dünya Sağlık Örgütü tarafından uluslararası pandemi yaratan bir halk sağlığı acil durumu olarak ilan edilmiştir. Salgın nedeniyle hastanelere çok sayıda hasta yatışı gerçekleşmekte olup, bu hastaların bakım ve tedavisi, hastalığın ciddiyeti ve sağlık çalışanları da dâhil birçok kişiye bulaşma riskinin yüksek olması nedeniyle özellik arz etmektedir. Hastalığa bağlı mortalite oranlarının azaltılması, zamanında, ihtiyaca yönelik kanıta dayalı bakım vererek iyileşmenin sağlanması ve sağlık çalışanlarının güvenli bir çalışma ortamında hastalara bakım verebilmesi için hemşirelik hizmetleri yöneticilerinin rol ve sorumlulukları bulunmaktadır. Bu derleme makalede, COVID-19 salgınında hastanelerde hemşirelik hizmetlerinin yönetimine ilişkin yönetici hemşirelere yardımcı olabilecek bilgilerin ilgili literatür doğrultusunda derlenerek verilmesi amaçlanmıştır. Bu kapsamda COVID-19 salgını altında hemşirelik hizmetleri yöneticilerinin sorumlulukları; hemşire ı̇ş yükü, uygun fiziki koşullar, yeterli araç-gereç, geliştirme ve kariyer planlama, sosyal haklar, ı̇ş sağlığı ve güvenliği, ekip ı̇ş birliği, ı̇letişim, takdir ve tanınma, etkili yönetim ve liderlik başlıkları altında ele alınmıştır.
The changing age-structure of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 deaths and cases a case study of Paraná, Brazil
Authors: Guimaraes Raquel , Nepomuceno Marília , Nasr Acácia Maria Lourenço Francisco , Garcia  , Lopes Maria Goretti David , Junior Nestor Werner , Preto Carlos Alberto Gebrim
Published: July 2020

The goal of this paper is to explore the demographic evolution of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 deaths and cases in the state of Paraná, Brazil. We focus on changes in the age-pattern of cases and deaths attributed to the COVID-19. Paraná is an interesting case of study in Brazil due to several aspects. First, it is one of the most developed states of the country. Second, the population growth rate is rapidly approaching zero growth, with an observed average growth rate of 0.78 percent per year in the decade 2010/2020, and of 0.28 percent per year in the period 2030/2040. Third, Parana has an older population age-structure than that of the whole country. Finally, although the state government pushed for earlier Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions to control the pandemic, data shows that they only took effect in the very late stages. Taken together, we claim that these aspects created a very particular setting, in which changes over time in the age-structure of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 could be observed: in the beginning of the pandemic, the age-structure of the deaths was concentrated among the elderly. As the pandemic unfolds, deaths were spreading over younger ages. Finally, we speculate on mechanisms behind the changes in the age structure of the COVID-19 deaths in Paraná.
Statistical Significance Testing at CHI PLAY: Challenges and Opportunities for More Transparency
Authors: Vornhagen Jan Benjamin , Tyack April , Mekler Elisa D
Published: July 2020

Statistical Significance Testing -- or Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) -- is common to quantitative CHI PLAY research. Drawing from recent work in HCI and psychology promoting transparent statistics and the reduction of questionable research practices, we systematically review the reporting quality of 119 CHI PLAY papers using NHST (data and analysis plan at https://osf.io/4mcbn/. We find that over half of these papers employ NHST without specific statistical hypotheses or research questions, which may risk the proliferation of false positive findings. Moreover, we observe inconsistencies in the reporting of sample sizes and statistical tests. These issues reflect fundamental incompatibilities between NHST and the frequently exploratory work common to CHI PLAY. We discuss the complementary roles of exploratory and confirmatory research, and provide a template for more transparent research and reporting practices.
Excuse Validation: A Study in Rule-Breaking
Authors: Turri John
Published: July 2020

Can judging that an agent blamelessly broke a rule lead us to claim, paradoxically, that no rule was broken at all? Surprisingly, it can. Across seven experiments, we document and explain the phenomenon of excuse validation. We found when an agent blamelessly breaks a rule, it significantly distorts people’s description of the agent’s conduct. Roughly half of people deny that a rule was broken. The results suggest that people engage in excuse validation in order to avoid indirectly blaming others for blameless transgressions. Excuse validation has implications for recent debates in normative ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of language. These debates have featured thought experiments perfectly designed to trigger excuse validation, inhibiting progress in these areas.
The Radicalism of Truth-insensitive Epistemology: Truth's Profound Effect on the Evaluation of Belief
Authors: Turri John
Published: July 2020

Many philosophers claim that interesting forms of epistemic evaluation are insensitive to truth in a very specific way. Suppose that two possible agents believe the same proposition based on the same evidence. Either both are justified or neither is; either both have good evidence for holding the belief or neither does. This does not change if, on this particular occasion, it turns out that only one of the two agents has a true belief. Epitomizing this line of thought are thought experiments about radically deceived “brains in vats.” It is widely and uncritically assumed that such a brain is equally justified as its normally embodied human “twin.” This “parity” intuition is the heart of truth-insensitive theories of core epistemological properties such as justification and rationality. Rejecting the parity intuition is considered radical and revisionist. In this paper, I show that exactly the opposite is true. The parity intuition is idiosyncratic and widely rejected. A brain in a vat is not justified and has worse evidence than its normally embodied counterpart. On nearly every ordinary way of evaluating beliefs, a false belief is significantly inferior to a true belief. Of all the evaluations studied here, only blamelessness is truth-insensitive.
Knowledge and the Norm of Assertion: A Simple Test
Authors: Turri John
Published: July 2020

An impressive case has been built for the hypothesis that knowledge is the norm of assertion, otherwise known as the knowledge account of assertion. According to the knowledge account, you should assert something only if you know that it’s true. A wealth of observational data supports the knowledge account, and some recent empirical results lend further, indirect support. But the knowledge account has not yet been tested directly. This paper fills that gap by reporting the results of such a test. The knowledge account passes with flying colors
Evidence of Factive Norms of Belief and Decision
Authors: Turri John
Published: July 2020

According to factive accounts of the norm of belief and decision-making, you should not believe or base decisions on a falsehood. Even when the evidence misleadingly suggests that a false proposition is true, you should not believe it or base decisions on it. Critics claim that factive accounts are counterintuitive and badly mischaracterize our ordinary practice of evaluating beliefs and decisions. This paper reports four experiments that rigorously test the critic’s accusations and the viability of factive accounts. The results undermine the accusations and provide the best evidence yet of factive norms of belief and decision-making. The results also help discriminate between two leading candidates for a factive norm: truth and knowledge. Knowledge is the superior candidate.
A numerical investigation of the initiation of aortic dissection
Authors: FitzGibbon Brian , Fereidoonnezhad Behrooz , Concannon Jamie , Hynes Niamh , Sultan Sherif , Moerman Kevin Mattheus , McGarry Patrick
Published: July 2020

In the first part of this study we develop a realistic subject-specific aorta finite element model derived from a dual-venc MRI scan. We investigate if spontaneous dissection will occur under extreme hypertensive lumen blood pressure loading, or if significant reduction in interface strength must occur in order for dissection to initiate. Importantly, we also demonstrate that dissection initiation is a pure mode II fracture process, rather than a mixed mode or mode I process. In the second part of this study we construct a parameterised idealised aorta model in order to assess the relative contribution for several anatomical and physiological factors to dissection risk. Such parametric analyses provide fundamental insight into the mechanics of stress localisation and delamination in the aorta. Overall, our detailed series of simulations suggest that variations in anatomical features and hypertensive loading will not result in a sufficient elevation of the stress state in the aorta wall to initiate dissection. Our results suggest that initiation of aortic dissection requires a significant reduction in the mode II fracture strength of the aortic wall, suggesting that dissection is preceded by structural and biomechanical remodelling.
The role of emotional valence in learning novel abstract concepts
Authors: Vigliocco Gabriella , Ponari Marta , Norbury Courtenay
Published: July 2020

A recent study by Ponari et al. (2017), showed that emotional valence (i.e., whether a word evokes positive, negative or no affect) predicts age-of-acquisition ratings, and that up to the age of 8-9, children know abstract emotional words better than neutral ones. On the basis of these findings, emotional valence has been argued to provide a bootstrapping mechanism for the acquisition of abstract concepts. However, no previous work has directly assessed whether words’ valence, or valence of the context in which words are used, facilitates learning of unknown abstract words. Here, we investigate whether valence supports acquisition of novel abstract concepts. Seven to 10 years old children were taught novel abstract words and concepts (words typically learnt at an older age and that children did not know); words were either valenced (positive or negative) or neutral. We also manipulated the context in which words were presented: for one group of children, the teaching strategy emphasised emotional information; for the other, it emphasised encyclopaedic, non-emotional information. Abstract words with emotional valence were learnt better than neutral abstract words by children up to the age of 8-9, replicating previous findings; no effect of teaching strategy was found. These results indicate that emotional valence supports abstract concepts acquisition, and further suggest that it is the valence information intrinsic to the word’s meaning to have a role, rather than the valence of the context in which the word is learnt.
Enacted Extraversion as a Well-Being Enhancing Strategy in Everyday Life
Authors: van Allen Zack , Walker Deanna , Streiner Tamir , Zelenski John M.
Published: July 2020

Lab-based experiments and observational data have consistently shown that extraverted behavior is associated with elevated levels of positive affect. This association typically holds regardless of one’s dispositional level of trait extraversion, and individuals who enact extraverted behaviors in laboratory settings do not demonstrate costs associated with acting counter-dispositionally. Inspired by these findings, we sought to test the efficacy of week-long ‘enacted extraversion’ interventions. In three studies, participants engaged in fifteen minutes of assigned behaviors in their daily life for five consecutive days. Studies 1 and 2 compared the effect of adding more introverted or extraverted behavior (or a control task). Study 3 compared the effect of adding social extraverted behavior or non-social extraverted behavior (or a control task). We assessed positive affect and several indicators of well-being during pretest (day 1) and post-test (day 7), as well as ‘in-the-moment’ (days 2-6). Participants who engaged in extraverted behavior reported greater levels of positive affect ‘in-the-moment’ when compared to introverted and control behaviors. We did not observe strong evidence to suggest that this effect was more pronounced for dispositional extraverts. The current research explores the effects of extraverted behavior on other indicators of well-being and examines the effectiveness of acting extraverted (both socially and non-socially) as a well-being strategy.
Developmental Methods for Emotion Dynamics
Authors: Lougheed Jessica P.
Published: July 2020

Emotions and their development are complex processes. Emotions are dynamic; involve multiple biological, psychological, and social systems; and can be idiosyncratic. However, much of the research on emotional development has used methods that do not capture the dynamic nature of emotions; focus only on one biological, psychological, or social system; and/or do not account for individual differences. I provide an overview of current methods for developmental studies on emotion dynamics. First, I introduce methods for examining emotions as dynamic processes. Then, I extend this discussion to multiple burst designs that capture emotion dynamics at multiple time scales (Ram & Diehl, 2015). Throughout, I discuss approaches for both individual and interpersonal emotion dynamics that are applicable across the lifespan. I conclude with a discussion of future directions in the study of emotion dynamics and their development.
Tracking Human Interactions with a Commercially-available Robot over Multiple Days: A Tutorial
Authors: Chaudhury Bishakha , Hortensius Ruud , Hoffmann Martin , Cross Emily S.
Published: July 2020

As research examining human-robot interaction moves from the laboratory to the real world, studies seeking to examine how people interact with robots face the question of which robotic platform to employ to collect data in situ. To facilitate the study of a broad range of individuals, from children to clinical populations, across diverse environments, from homes to schools, a robust, reproducible, low-cost and easy-to-use robotic platform is needed. Here, we describe how a commercially available off-the-shelf robot, Cozmo, can be used to study embodied human-robot interactions in a wide variety of settings, including the user’s home. In this Tutorial, we describe the steps required to use this affordable and flexible platform for longitudinal human-robot interaction studies. First, we outline the technical specifications and requirements of this platform and accessories. We present findings from validation work we performed to map the behavioural repertoire of the Cozmo robot and introduce an accompanying interactive emotion classification tool to use with this robot. We then show how log files containing detailed data on the human-robot interaction can be collected and extracted. Finally, we detail the types of information that can be retrieved from these data. This low-cost robotic platform will provide the field with a variety of valuable new possibilities to study human-robot interactions within and beyond the research laboratory, which are user-driven and unconstrained in both time and place.
Indirect illusory inferences from disjunction: a new bridge between deductive inference and representativeness
Authors: Sablé-Meyer Mathias , Mascarenhas Salvador
Published: July 2020

(Preprint of article forthcoming in Review of Philosophy and Psychology ; accepted March 2021.) We provide a new link between deductive and probabilistic reasoning fallacies. Illusory inferences from disjunction are a broad class of deductive fallacies traditionally explained by recourse to a matching procedure that looks for content overlap between premises. In two behavioral experiments, we show that this phenomenon is instead sensitive to real-world causal dependencies and not to exact content overlap. A group of participants rated the strength of the causal dependence between pairs of sentences. This measure proved to be a near perfect predictor of fallacious reasoning by an independent group of participants in illusory inference tasks with the same materials. In light of these results, we argue that all extant accounts of these deductive fallacies require non-trivial adjustments. Crucially, these novel indirect illusory inferences from disjunction bear a structural similarity to seemingly unrelated probabilistic reasoning problems, in particular the conjunction fallacy from the heuristics and biases literature. This structural connection was entirely obscure in previous work on these deductive problems, due to the theoretical and empirical focus on content overlap. We argue that this structural parallelism provides arguments against the need for rich descriptions and individuating information in the conjunction fallacy, and we outline a unified theory of deductive illusory inferences from disjunction and the conjunction fallacy, in terms of Bayesian confirmation theory.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger: Sense of coherence moderates growth from stress amidst the first wave of COVID-19 outbreak
Authors: Lau Bobo Hi Po , Chan Cecilia Lai-Wan , Ng Siu-Man
Published: July 2020

PurposeThis study explored the role of perceived severity of the pandemic, post-traumatic stress and sense of coherence in the development of post-traumatic growth from exposure to COVID-19 among Hong Kong citizens. MethodsA longitudinal online survey was launched during the first local outbreak in Spring 2020. Time 1 was collected at the peak of the outbreak (Mid-March to early-April) with measurements of post-traumatic stress, perceived severity, and sense of coherence; while Time 2 was conducted at the palliation of the outbreak (late-April to early May) with post-traumatic growth measured. Moderated mediation models were tested with SPSS PROCESS version 3.30. ResultsAmong the 327 participants who completed both T1 and T2 questionnaires, 28.4% exhibited probable post-traumatic stress disorder, while 18.0% experienced significant post-traumatic growth in at least one domain. Post-traumatic growth was more likely among people with higher socio-economic backgrounds and with family or close friends having experienced medical quarantine or being tested positive for SAR-CoV-2. The interaction between sense of coherence and post-traumatic stress significantly mediated the link relationship of perceived severity on post-traumatic growth, such that growth was more likely among participants with higher post-traumatic stress and sense of coherence. ConclusionEchoing with the transformational model, our findings highlight the importance of traumatic stress and adaptive coping resources in developing post-traumatic growth. Severe judgments of the novel and challenging pandemic could be conducive to growth, especially when the individuals possess high sense of coherence.
Structure, intensity and player duels in under-13 football training in Switzerland
Authors: Uebersax Jonas , roth ralf , Bächle Tobias , Faude Oliver
Published: July 2020

We evaluated the structure (i.e., the different training parts), contents (i.e., the various activities used), intensity and occurrence of contact situations and headers during training sessions in under-13 football in Switzerland. 242 players from 20 different teams on average aged 11.4 (SD 0.7) years participated. The participants were filmed during a typical training session while they were equipped with a heart rate sensor. The sessions were systematically recorded to allow for detailed analyses. Furthermore, a preliminary and explorative analysis of the influence of the level of play on these results was conducted. The overall findings indicated that training included 33.4% playing forms, 29.5% training forms, 28.4% inactivity time and 8.7% athletics. The highest heart rates were achieved in the playing forms (166 min-1, 83% HRmax) compared to the other two activities (training forms 154 min-1, 77% HRmax; athletics 150 min-1, 75% HRmax). Each player had 12.8 duels and 0.6 headers per training. Overall most duels were conducted from anterior direction. Playing forms induce higher cardio-circulatory load as well as a better learning environment. Potentially dangerous situations like contact with other players or headers occurred in a single player on average every 6 minutes during a training session.
Genetic Diversity in Finger Millet Landraces revealed by RAPD and SSR Markers
Authors: Joshi Bal Krishna , Joshi Darbin , Ghimire Surya Kanta
Published: July 2020

Genetic diversity assessment is the preliminary work for development of variety and conservation of diversity. Finger millet is a very important crop in Nepal however, its genetic potential has not been fully utilized. Genetic diversity was assessed in forty landraces of finger millet using 9 RAPD and 5 SSR markers. These landraces were collected from Kaski and Dhading districts. None of single primers of these RAPD and SSR could separate all 40 landraces. The average number of bands were 6.33 and 7.8 per RAPD and SSR primers respectively. Mean polymorphism information content was of 0.314 for RAPD and 0.37 for SSR. Primer OPA-4 produced the highest number of bands and the lowest numbers of bands were produced by OPA-16. Among the SSR primers, SSR-06 produced the highest number of polymorphic bands and UGEP-53 produced the lowest bands. RAPD based dendrogram has generated four clusters and SSR based dendrogram has generated two clusters. In both dendrogram and principal component analyses, Purbeli landrace was found unique locating separately in the cluster and scatter plot. Nei's genetic distance produced by RAPD and SSR primers was similar that is 0.327 by RAPD and 0.296 by SSR markers. Genetic distance produced by SSR markers was higher than distance produced by RAPD marker. These landraces were from two districts and therefore have shown intermediate diversity. These molecular marker-based findings should would be more useful if we could link with agromorphological traits. Inclusion of large number of landraces collected from different areas are required to get higher level diversity in addition to associate genetic diversity with geographical sites. Groupings of these landraces could be useful for selecting landraces in breeding program as well as planning conservation program.
Phytochemicals Levels and Antioxidant Capacities of Figs Flowers Fruits
Authors: Mohammed Messaoudi , Maroua Merah
Published: July 2020

Since antiquity, phenolic compounds produced by plants were known as free radical scavengers and as powerful antioxidants. Huge interest has been made by researchers to the traditional uses of medicinal plants against illnesses related to oxidative stress. This study measures the correlation that can be existed between the antioxidant capacity and phytochemical s levels of four varieties of Ficus carica fruits, figs flowers or "Bakor" as called locally in Algeria. Therefore, extracts were assessed for determining their antioxidative potentials using both test of total antioxidant capacity and DPPH (1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl) free radical scavenging test followed by quantitative phytochemical analysis to estimate the total flavonoid level (TFL), the total phenolic level (TPL), the total anthocyanin level (TAL) and the condensed tannins level of plants methanolic extracts. A positive correlation was observed between phenolics content and the antioxidant capacity of figs flowers methanol extracts. The methanolic extract of Bechar (MeOH Var.2) chelated 87,9± 1,23 % of the DPPH free radical with IC50 value equal to 0,185 mg/g DW. A high antioxidant ability of almost all extracts is, probably, related to the appreciable rates of flavonoids, phenolics and tannins showed by those fig extracts. The highest value of phenolics level was detected among the variety 1 methanolic extract of Bechar (MeOH Var.1) of 10,4 mg GAE/g DW.
Standardization of Ayurvedic Drug- Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, Hippophae salicifolia, Ocimum tenuiflorum and Reinwardtia indica and Combined Herb-Herb
Authors: Kumari Rinki , Dubey G.P.
Published: July 2020

The herbal medicines have reached extensive acceptability as therapeutic agents for various clinical diseases due to global demand. Therefore, standardization is the essential and initial step to drug development. It is for the establishment of consistent biological activity, a consistent chemical profile and biomarker identification. It improves the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine to provide the best herbal medicine to society and increase popularity rather than non-standardized extracts.  In addition, it is essential to practice or maintain a quality assurance program for the production and manufacturing of herbal medicine that includes the basis of organoleptic characters and photomicrographs, physicochemical, proximate analysis phytochemical evaluation and quality control analysis and order to assess the quality of drugs, based on the concentration of their active principles. WHO has provided specific guidelines for the assessment of the safety, efficacy and quality of herbal drugs as a prerequisite for global harmonization and of utmost importance. In the present study, the herbal extracts were cleaned, dried in the shade and powdered by passing through the sieve as per the method described in the standard protocol. An overview covering various techniques employed in the extraction and characterization of Nyctanthes arbortristis, Hippophae salicifolia, Ocimum tenuiflorum and Reinwardtia indica, standardization is reported in this study. The obtained data would be very significant for future clinical aspects, as the bioactive molecules present in the extracts may exhibit synergistic effect with other bioactive compound and show a better therapeutic value. Thus, this study provides standardized and therapeutically potential data of active polyherbal formulations for the different ailments.
Building Safe Didactic Dialogues for Action Model: Mobilizing
Community with Micronesian Islanders
Authors: Nguyen-Truong Connie K. Y. , Leung Jacqueline , Micky Kapiolani , Nevers Jennifer I.
Published: July 2020

Background: Despite mandates by the United States (U.S.) government to ensure the inclusion of women and minorities in federally funded research, communities of color continue to participate less frequently than non-Latinx Whites. There is limited research that examines maternal health outcomes and early childhood resources. Pacific Islanders (PI) have grown substantially in a county in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. (from 4,419 to 9,248, of which 52% are female). About 62.7% of PI women are not accessing prenatal care in the first trimester, and this is substantially higher than the national target of 22.1%. Researchers found that PI children are leaving school to
take care of family obligations. The purpose of the educational innovative project, Building Safe Didactic Dialogues for Action model, was to respond to Micronesian Islanders (MI) parent leaders’ need to feel safe and to build a close kinship to encourage dialogue about difficult topics regarding access and utilization of early education systems and prenatal/perinatal health for community-driven model for action planning and solutions.

Approach: Popular education tenets were used in the project to be culturally sensitive to the human experience. The MI community health worker outreached to MI parent leaders in an urban area in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S. Eight partners participated in this project: parent leaders from the MI community-at-large, community partners from the MI Community organization, and academic nurse researchers. Didactic dialogues lasted two hours per session for four. Topics included: collaborative agreements, MI parent leaders’ identified needs and existing resources regarding preschool and immunization, parent–child relationship (stress and trauma, adverse childhood experiences), and MI experience regarding prenatal care access and postpartum depression. Group discussion on reflection was used to evaluate utility.

Outcomes: Building Safe Didactic Dialogues for Action model was foundational via mobilizing community with MI, trust and rapport building, and engaging in a safe and courageous space for dialogues for action planning and solutions as community and academic partners as stakeholders.

Conclusion: Many previously unspoken issues such as abuse, language, and cultural beliefs including barriers were openly shared among all
partners. Dynamic thoughts towards identifying needs for change and then planning steps toward creating positive change created an atmosphere of empowerment for change.
How Do Acculturation, Maternal Connectedness, and Mother-Daughter Sexual Communication Affect Asian American Daughters’ Sexual Initiation
Authors: Kim BoRam , Cai Yurun , Aronowitz Teri
Published: July 2020

Purpose: There was a growth of approximately ten million Asian American individuals in the United States between 2000 and 2015. Asian Americans have conservative values surrounding sexual health and sexual communication is a cultural taboo. Researchers have shown discrepancies on whether the level of acculturation influences Asian mother-daughter sexual communication. In other minority populations there is evidence that a connected mother–daughter relationship increases sexual communication and delays sexual initiation. The purpose of this study was to examine whether motherdaughter connectedness and level of acculturation predict sexual communication in turn affecting the age of female Asian emerging adult’s sexual initiation.

Methods: This was a longitudinal, secondary analysis of AddHealth examining whether mother-daughter connectedness and level of acculturation predict sexual communication. There were 243 Asian American mother-daughter dyads in Wave I with linked data in Wave III who were included in the study. Acculturation, connectedness,
and sexual communication were all measured using interval level data. Results: Connectedness did not significantly contribute to the relationship between any of the concepts. Although it was predicted that sexual communication would delay initiation, the opposite was found. Also, communication mediated the relationship between acculturation and initiation.

Conclusions: Further studies are needed to explore how connectedness is defined by Asian American mother-daughter dyads. In addition, more detailed operational definitions of acculturation and communication are needed, specifically the
timing of sexual communication.
ESTIMATION OF BIOLOGICAL ABSORPTION COEFFICIENTS OF ELEMENTS AND HEAVY METALS FOR THE BIOMASS OF BUCKWHEAT
Authors: Ilinskiy Andrey
Published: July 2020

The paper presents the results of lysimetric experiment on podzolized Chernozem to study the coefficients of biological absorption of heavy metals and trace elements for buckwheat phytomass using various systems of mineral fertilizers. Analysis of empirical accumulation series showed that buckwheat phytomass accumulates zinc and cadmium more intensively than copper and lead. In the variant with optimal doses of mineral fertilizers, the content of zinc and lead in buckwheat phytomass decreased, which may be due to the effect of biological dilution when using mineral fertilizers.
INFLUENCE OF TECHNOGENIC EMISSIONS OF THE AGMZ ON THE ECOLOGICAL TOXICOLOGICAL STATE OF THE AGROECOSYSTEMS OF THE DEBET RIVER BASIN, RA
Authors: Hunanyan S. A. , Jhangiryan T. A. , Mkrtchyan A. L.
Published: July 2020

Upon the investigations the contamination rate of soil and vegetation cover of the basin at river Debed and the impact of technogenesis on the agro-chemical properties of soil and yield capacity of agricultural crops has been identified. It has been found out that the content of heavy metal forms exceeds that of the control one by the following figures: Cu-in 47,5 and 31,8; Pb-32,9 and 36,1; Mo-35,9 and 23,8; Zn-9,5 and 19,1; Co-5,1 and 5,9; Cd25,5 and 23,1 times. The humus content has decreased in 1,2-2,7 times, that of the total and mobile nitrogen has decreased in 1,1-2,17 and 1,4-2,6 times, phosphorus content in 1,0-1,87 and 1,08-2,74 times, potassium content in 1,0-1,38 and 1,13-2,06 times. The environmental reaction has turned from the neutral and poorly alkaline into poorly acidic and acidic one. The amount of HM in the soil and plants has exceeded the MAC (maximum allowable concentration) and the yield capacity of agricultural crops has fallen down by 7,5-29 %.
LEGAL AND ECONOMIC MECHANISM OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
Authors: Orumo Kenoll , Elokhin A.P. , Ksenofontov A.I.
Published: July 2020

This research examines Nigeria’s environmental legal framework and the unresolved issues amidst environmental pollution and degradation in the country. Economic development activities, especially in the oil and gas sector, accelerate the deterioration of the environmental quality and play a prominent role in the transmission of communicable diseases in Nigeria and devastation of the land for agriculture. This paper, therefore, examines the various sources of Nigeria's environmental problems, its existing legal and institutional arrangements and suggests strategies for effective environmental management in Nigeria.
Política de gratuidad y desempeño académico en educación superior técnica profesional. Lecciones a partir del caso de Duoc UC.
Authors: Flores Roberto , Iglesias Catalina , Paredes Ricardo , Valdés Natalia
Published: July 2020

This paper analyses the relationship between the gratuity policy implemented in Chile and measures of student academic performance from a higher vocational education and training institution. The research contributes evidence in a little explored field, especially regarding vocational education and training. Through the use of lineal and logistic regression models, it is possible to conclude that gratuity had an effect on reducing the number of dropouts and improving academic progress. The most significant effect is observed with students who in its absence, would have had to make a co-payment, since the financial aid they received would not have covered all expenses. Â However, if gratuity beneficiaries are compared to those that would not have had to pay, because their scholarships and loans covered all expenses, the results show that the gratuity policy is less effective in terms of the two academic indicators analyzed.Â Â Â
Residual numbness of the upper extremity after cervical surgery in patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy
Authors: Iwamae Masayoshi , Suzuki Akinobu , Tamai Koji , Terai Hidetomi , Hoshino Masatoshi , Toyoda Hiromitsu , Takahashi Shinji , Ohyama Shoichiro , Hori Yusuke , Yabu Akito , Nakamura Hiroaki
Published: July 2020

OBJECTIVE

Although numbness is one of the chief complaints of patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), preoperative factors relating to residual numbness of the upper extremity (UE) and impact of the outcomes on cervical surgery are not well established. The authors hypothesized that severe preoperative UE numbness could be a risk factor for residual UE numbness after surgery and that the residual UE numbness could have a negative impact on postoperative outcomes. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the preoperative factors that are predictive of residual UE numbness after cervical surgery and demonstrate the effects of residual UE numbness on clinical scores and radiographic parameters.

METHODS

The study design was a retrospective cohort study. The authors analyzed data of 103 patients who underwent cervical laminoplasty from January 2012 to December 2014 and were followed up for more than 2 years postoperatively. The patients were divided into two groups: the severe residual-numbness group (postoperative visual analog scale [VAS] score for UE numbness > 40 mm) and the no/mild residual-numbness group (VAS score ≤ 40 mm). The outcome measures were VAS score, Japanese Orthopaedic Association scores for cervical myelopathy, physical and mental component summaries of the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), radiographic film parameters (C2–7 sagittal vertical axis, range of motion, C2–7 lordotic angle, and C7 slope), and MRI findings (severity of cervical canal stenosis, snake-eye appearance, severity of foraminal stenosis). Following univariate analysis, which compared the preoperative factors between groups, the variables with p values < 0.1 were included in the multivariate linear regression analysis. Additionally, the changes in clinical scores and radiographic parameters after 2 years of surgery were compared using a mixed-effects model.

RESULTS

Among 103 patients, 42 (40.8%) had residual UE numbness. In the multivariate analysis, sex and preoperative UE pain were found to be independent variables correlating with residual UE numbness (p = 0.017 and 0.046, respectively). The severity of preoperative UE numbness did not relate to the residual UE numbness (p = 0.153). The improvement in neck pain VAS score and physical component summary of the SF-36 was significantly low in the severe residual-numbness group (p < 0.001 and 0.040, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Forty-one percent of the CSM patients experienced residual UE numbness for at least 2 years after cervical posterior decompression surgery. Female sex and preoperative severe UE pain were the predictive factors for residual UE numbness. The patients with residual UE numbness showed less improvement of neck pain and lower physical status compared to the patients without numbness.
The cortical organization of language: distilling human connectome insights for supratentorial neurosurgery
Authors: Poologaindran Anujan , Lowe Stephen R. , Sughrue Michael E.
Published: July 2020

Connectomics is the production and study of detailed “connection” maps within the nervous system. With unprecedented advances in imaging and high-performance computing, the construction of individualized connectomes for routine neurosurgical use is on the horizon. Multiple projects, including the Human Connectome Project (HCP), have unraveled new and exciting data describing the functional and structural connectivity of the brain. However, the abstraction from much of these data to clinical relevance remains elusive. In the context of preserving neurological function after supratentorial surgery, abstracting surgically salient points from the vast computational data in connectomics is of paramount importance. Herein, the authors discuss four interesting observations from the HCP data that have surgical relevance, with an emphasis on the cortical organization of language: 1) the existence of a motor speech area outside of Broca’s area, 2) the eloquence of the frontal aslant tract, 3) the explanation of the medial frontal cognitive control networks, and 4) the establishment of the second ventral stream of language processing. From these connectome observations, the authors discuss the anatomical basis of their insights as well as relevant clinical applications. Together, these observations provide a firm platform for neurosurgeons to advance their knowledge of the cortical networks involved in language and to ultimately improve surgical outcomes. It is hoped that this report encourages neurosurgeons to explore new vistas in connectome-based neurosurgery.
Safety of responsive neurostimulation in pediatric patients with medically refractory epilepsy
Authors: Panov Fedor , Ganaha Sara , Haskell Jennifer , Fields Madeline , La Vega-Talbott Maite , Wolf Steven , McGoldrick Patricia , Marcuse Lara , Ghatan Saadi
Published: July 2020

OBJECTIVE

Approximately 75% of pediatric patients who suffer from epilepsy are successfully treated with antiepileptic drugs, while the disease is drug resistant in the remaining patients, who continue to have seizures. Patients with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) may have options to undergo invasive treatment such as resection, laser ablation of the epileptogenic focus, or vagus nerve stimulation. To date, treatment with responsive neurostimulation (RNS) has not been sufficiently studied in the pediatric population because the FDA has not approved the RNS device for patients younger than 18 years of age. Here, the authors sought to investigate the safety of RNS in pediatric patients.

METHODS

The authors performed a retrospective single-center study of consecutive patients with DRE who had undergone RNS system implantation from September 2015 to December 2019. Patients were followed up postoperatively to evaluate seizure freedom and complications.

RESULTS

Of the 27 patients studied, 3 developed infections and were treated with antibiotics. Of these 3 patients, one required partial removal and salvaging of a functioning system, and one required complete removal of the RNS device. No other complications, such as intracranial hemorrhage, stroke, or device malfunction, were seen. The average follow-up period was 22 months. All patients showed improvement in seizure frequency.

CONCLUSIONS

The authors demonstrated the safety and efficacy of RNS in pediatric patients, with infections being the main complication.
Mechanical failure of the Mobi-C implant for artificial cervical disc replacement: report of 4 cases
Authors: DiCesare Jasmine A. T. , Tucker Alexander M. , Say Irene , Patel Kunal , Lanman Todd H. , Coufal Frank J. , Millard Justin , Deckey Jeffrey E. , Shetgeri Siddharth , McBride Duncan Q.
Published: July 2020

Cervical spondylosis is one of the most commonly treated conditions in neurosurgery. Increasingly, cervical disc replacement (CDR) has become an alternative to traditional arthrodesis, particularly when treating younger patients. Thus, surgeons continue to gain a greater understanding of short- and long-term complications of arthroplasty. Here, the authors present a series of 4 patients initially treated with Mobi-C artificial disc implants who developed postoperative neck pain. Dynamic imaging revealed segmental kyphosis at the level of the implant. All implants were locked in the flexion position, and all patients required reoperation. This is the first reported case series of symptomatic segmental kyphosis after CDR.