bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Salman Rushdie’s Quichotte and the Post-truth Condition
Authors:   Research Scholar, Department of Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Agartala, Majumder Atri , Khuraijam Gyanabati ,   Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Agartala
Published: December 2020

The emergence of ‘post-truth’ has dramatically affected the contemporary socio-political discourses. The blurring of the distinctions between fact and fiction has become ostensible owing to the proliferation of social media and the pivotal role played by cyberspaces in creating volatile identities. The erosion of objectivity and the creation of a Baudrillardian ‘hyperreality’ have destabilized the position of truth irrevocably. The meteoric rise of far-right populist governments across the world with their jingoistic, xenophobic and parochial brand of politics, the erasure of subjective autonomy and invasion of privacy have pushed the world to the brink of moral anarchy, devoid of ethical values and veracity. Salman Rushdie’s latest work Quichotte (2019) is a postmodern rendering of Miguel De Cervantes’ picaresque novel Don Quixote. This paper attempts to critically analyse the novel vis-à-vis the ‘post-truth condition’. The evolution of the concept of truth is traced through the ideas of various philosophers such as Michel Foucault, Alain Badiou, Jean Baudrillard and other philosophers in order to ascertain the origin and theoretical implications of ‘post-truth’. Rushdie has foregrounded the contemporary socio-political issues like the impending catastrophic consequences of climate change, the prevalent opioid crisis and the precarious position of immigrants who are often victims of racist violence. He has characteristically employed magic realism and narrative pyrotechnics in the novel. The various intertextual references, allusions to popular culture, and autobiographical traces in Quichotteare also to be explored.
Re-Presenting Protestors as Thugs: The Politics of Labelling Dissenting Voices
Authors:   Assistant Professor, St. John’s College Anchal, affiliated to the University of Kerala,, Joseph Lalitha
Published: December 2020

The use of the word “thugs”, has always precipitated the crisis that has existed longue durée in the history of America. The word carries diverse meanings in different spaces, histories, communities, and countries. When used as a stigmatizing label, it can define, classify, restrict and fix boundaries within a society. Through an assessment of political rhetoric, tweets, and media reports, this article evaluates the hegemonic power embedded in the word and its strategic use by the world leaders for nefarious purposes in the post-truth era. It also explores the racial underpinnings of the word and the covert intentions behind its usage. This paper critically interrogates the social circumstances in which the word is used to suppress dissent. The role of post-truth media as the intermediaries and purveyors of the real and the fake is analyzed. Labelling theory is applied to demonstrate how policy makers, mark out a group in order to rationalize the discourse of state violence. The methods and the outcomes of stigmatizing labelling is illustrated, paying special attention to the role it plays in triggering social unrest. The essay argues that the polemics around the word “thug” enables the administrators to shift focus from the real issues, and thereby deny racial minorities their right to challenge the government policies and actions.
“In the mountains, we are like prisoners”: Kalinggawasan as Indigenous Freedom of the Mamanwa of Basey, Samar
Authors:   Professional Education Unit, Leyte Normal University, Molabola Apple Jane , Abiera Allan ,   Social Science Unit, Leyte Normal University, Kahambing Jan Gresil
Published: December 2020

The Lumad struggle in the Philippines, embodied in its various indigenous peoples (IPs), is still situated and differentiated from modern understandings of their plight. Agamben notes that the notion of ‘people’ is always political and is inherent in its underlying poverty, disinheritance, and exclusion. As such, the struggle is a struggle that concerns a progression of freedom from these conditions. Going over such conditions means that one shifts the focus from the socio-political and eventually reveals the ontological facet of such knowledge to reveal the epistemic formation of the truth of their experience. It is then the concern of this paper to expose the concept of freedom as a vital indigenous knowledge from the Mamanwa of Basey, Samar. Using philosophical sagacity as a valid indigenous method, we interview ConchingCabadungga, one of the elders of the tribe, to help us understand how the Mamanwa conceive freedom in the various ways it may be specifically and geographically positioned apart from other indigenous studies. The paper contextualizes the diasporic element and the futuristic component of such freedom within the trajectory of liberation. The Mamanwa subverts the conception of freedom as a form of return to old ways and radically informs of a new way of seeing them as a ‘people.’ It supports recent studies on their literature that recommend the development of their livelihood rather than a formulaic solution of sending them back to where they were. The settlement in Basey changes their identification as a ‘forest people’ into a more radical identity.
Negotiating Scottish ‘distinctiveness’ (?): Unmasking the British Conquest and the Construction of Empire in the 19th Century Indian Subcontinent
Authors:   Ph.D Research Scholar, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, WB., Pan Subhashis
Published: December 2020

India in the 19th century encapsulates a very different and contesting Scottish dimension to the expansion of British Empire. The Scottish legacy in the field of British colonial enterprise has been blurred over the time. Scotland, which was once a colony of the English, was incorporated in the Great Britain in the Union Act of 1707. But distinction between Scottish and English was never made. Thus, in the field of literature we do not find distinct Scottish identity of the contributors like- Walter Scott, R. L. Stevenson, Adam Smith, Thomas Carlyle- to name a few. They are placed in the ‘English literature’ without due emphasis on Scottish background and influence. Similarly, the common notion of the British imperial enterprise has masked the contribution of the Scottish administrators working under the British. Now, in the context of India when we talk about ‘Scottish Orientalism’, we need to focus on the already blurred identity of being ‘Scottish’ in the dominant English field. The Union Act (1707) between England and Scotland produced a space for the Scottish people to participate in the British imperial enterprise. This paper focuses to unmask the role of some of the Scottish scholar-administrators working under the British for a distinctively Scottish contribution to the expansion of the British imperial activities that helps to explore the nature of the intellectual and religious engagement. The study offers a distinctive Scottish Orientalist school as Scottish participation of empire remains open ended and it argues for a complex assessment of Scottish individuals who though shared some philological and philosophical interests and assumptions, nevertheless diverged in many other respects.
Perpetrator Plays the Victim: The Politics of Representation in the Captivity Narratives of the Whites
Authors:   Assistant Professor, Institute of Integrated &Honors Studies, Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra, Haryana, Pal Virender
Published: December 2020

This paper draws upon and brings into focus an interesting part of the colonial corpus- the captivity narratives. The discoverers of the New World who then shortly turned invaders had to face resistance from the Natives as they embarked upon their conquest, usurpation and assumption of Property in the virgin lands of the continent lying unexploited till the White man set foot on it. To rightfully and legally take that did not belong to the White intruders they had to be morally, culturally and even ethically superior. This question of ‘Might is Right’ is resolved easy through legal systems and machinery on one hand and narratives and discourse and institutions on the other. The Captive Narratives were put to work operating to dub and dismiss the Native. The captive narratives though taken together as a body worked as a device to denigrate the Natives and typecast them so that their extermination would be found as relieving rather than horrendous; as a step towards safety rather than a brutal incursion, they also offered rare insights when not written as part of a strategy but as biographical accounts of Whites held captive by the Reds. Especially, accounts that do not fall neatly onto the timeline set by the White diverge from popular, touted, dominant accounts that underscore barbaric customs of the Reds. These rare narratives by White people brought up by Natives cast a different light on the Red culture and offer substantial clues that the Red way of life was preferable.
Re-orientalism in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s The Selector of Souls
Authors:   Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat., Kaushal Urvashi
Published: December 2020

In his seminal work Orientalism Edward Said destabilized the Euro-American practice of constructing, approving and disseminating a stereotypical image of Asia as exotic backward called the ‘Orient’. This paper takes Said’s concept of Orientalism as a premise to highlight ‘self–orientalism’ or ‘re-Orientalism’ as a growing trend in South Asian diaspora writers, especially since the turn of the 21st century. It utilizes the idea of orientalism and reads Shauna Singh Baldwin’s The Selector of Souls against the grain to accentuate the reification of Indian culture into a commodity and homogenisation of complex cultural differences in multicultural India for the consumption of the West. In its effort to find answers for this growing trend, it analyses the nexus between location and commodification of literature produced by diaspora writers.
The Search for Identity in Doris Lessing’s The Good Terrorist and Abdallah Thabit’s The Twentieth Terrorist
Authors:   Nahrain University, Baghdad, Iraq, Jani Bushra Juhi
Published: December 2020

This paper investigates the search for identity in two culturally diverse novels, Doris Lessing’s The Good Terrorist (1985) and Abdallah Thabit’s autobiographical novel The Twentieth Terrorist (2006). The paper examines how identity crisis makes Lessing’s heroine, Alice, squat with a group of radicals in London and be drawn into their terrorist activities, and makes Zahi, the protagonist of Thabit’s novel, accept being recruited by extremist religious group. However, the findings of this study prove the transformation of both Alice and Zahi. Alice is a different woman at the end of the novel and Zahi escapes from being the terrorist number 20 of the September 11th attack.
Rhizomatous Identity in “The Yellow Wallpaper”: A Deleuzo-Guattarian Perspective
Authors:   Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Management, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, Puri Preeti , Shefali Shefali ,   Assistant Professor, DAV University
Published: December 2020

This article is an attempt to move beyond the conventional binary heuristic of identity to its progressive representation based on multiplicity, difference, and dispersion popularized by the ‘rhizomatic’ theory of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wall Paper”. It is a cliché belief that multiplicity comprises of numerous units, and these units can be eventually united under one category such as the ages of population. Deleuze and Guattari interrogated such logocentric assumptions, and ‘arborescent root- tree’ model of objectified structures, language, identity and self. This article seeks to trace the voyage of Jane’s identity whose dairy constitutes the story “The Yellow Wall Paper”. Her identity has evoked ramified and conflicting networks of references. Feminists broach that she is caged to be a conventional caring mother; for a Freudian she is a ‘hysteric’ struggling with temporary nervous depression, Lacanian posit that she is a ‘psychotic’ who persistently tries to satisfy the ‘gaze’ of her physician husband John, and for a Deleuzian the moment she fails to bear the burden of capitalism driven ‘bio-power’ and ‘nuclear family’ she becomes a ‘schizo’. The object of study of this article is not Jane’s mind which romanticizes asylums rather the interrelation between ‘bio-power’ and her ‘desire’. The article will portray that Jane’s ‘self’ is evacuated from its fixed position to cherish free form of human interaction, and her identity is not handcuffed by any law, rather it is in a state of constant ‘flux’, in a ceaseless motion of ‘becoming’, it is a ‘rhizome’, facilitating a non- hierarchical network.
Study of Trauma and Transgression of the ‘Adult-child’ in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy-Man
Authors:   Ph.D. Scholar. Tezpur University, Assam, India., Choudhury Jharna
Published: December 2020

Bapsi Sidhwa’s characterization of Lenny Sethi in her fourth novel, the 1991 historical fiction Ice-Candy-Man, is formulated by the heterogeneous impact of the 1947 partition of India on the psychopathology of children. This paper observes how the trope of trauma problematizes the embodiments of childhood, contradicting its axiomatic paradisiacal nature. Parallel to the chaos of communal massacre, mass migration, dysfunctional parenting and the marginality of women and children, Lenny’s traumatic experience surpasses a singular-episodic trauma, and is laden with a multiplicity of source factors, thereby generating “complex trauma” (van der Kolk et al., 2007, p. 202). The child narrator acquires symptoms of irregular curiosity, hyper-vigilance, somatic complaints, fear, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and transgresses specific social norms. Lenny is a choreographed child, a problem-child, taxonomized as the ‘adult-child’ in the paper. Now, the question is whether to see the ensuing malfunction symptoms as a diagnostic criterion or adaptative human resilience? Drawing from Anjali Gera Roy’s concept of “intangible violence” (Roy, 2020, p. 43) the paper examines textual openings where the stages of childhood and adulthood deconstruct itself, approximates, and overlaps inside each other; taking cues from a relatively less-documented narrative angle of the child victim of partition.
Removal of amoxicillin from aqueous solution using sludge-based activated carbon modified by walnut shell and nano-titanium dioxide
Authors: Kang Xiaorong , Liu Yali , Yang Can , Cheng Han
Published: December 2020

Dewatered municipal sludge was used as raw material to prepare activated carbon (SAC), and the SAC was modified by walnut shell and nano-titanium dioxide (MSAC). The results showed that the MSAC had a higher specific surface area (SBET) (279.147 m2/g) and total pore volume (VT) (0.324 cm3/g) than the SAC. Simultaneously, the functional groups such as C-O, C = O, and Ti-O-Ti on the surface of MSAC were enhanced due to modification. These physicochemical properties provided prerequisites for the diffusion and degradation of pollutants in MSAC. Furthermore, the MSAC was applied to adsorb amoxicillin (AMX) from aqueous solution, in batch experiments, the maximum removal rate (88.19%) was observed at an initial AMX concentration of 30 mg/L, MSAC dosage of 5.0 g/L, pH of 8, contact time of 180 min, and temperature of 25 °C. In addition, the adsorption process was well described by the Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model, indicating that the adsorption of AMX onto MSAC was dominated by multilayer chemisorption. Also, the adsorption thermodynamics suggested that the adsorption process of AMX onto MSAC was endothermic, feasible and spontaneous.
Análisis descriptivo de la cadena productiva del plátano en Casanare
Authors: Barrera-Siabato Andrea Isabel , Vargas-Tejedor Nelson , Moreno-López Nidia Milena , Barrera-Siabato Ana María
Published: December 2020

En Casanare existen asociaciones dedicadas al cultivo del plátano que suelen operar de manera independiente, lo que genera dificultades en la construcción del sistema de información para diseñar e implementar estrategias que incrementen el nivel de competitividad local y nacional. El presente artículo relaciona la densidad de cultivos de plátano por municipio, identifica actores, estructura de la red de valor, nivel de desarrollo y la proyección de acciones realizables a futuro. Se abordó un estudio descriptivo de campo, con enfoque cuantitativo con muestreo aleatorio simple, margen de confiabilidad de 94 % y porcentaje de error de 6 %; el instrumento fue aplicado a productores, comercializadores y grupos de interés; el análisis y dependencia de variables se validó mediante tablas de contingencia y pruebas de independencia, así como el uso de herramientas de georreferenciación. Los resultados de este trabajo establecen una mirada actual de la cadena del plátano en Casanare en cuanto a asociatividad, comercialización e insumos, así como la formulación de acciones aplicadas al contexto del departamento como línea base específica que apoye el Plan Estratégico Departamental de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación del departamento y de cadenas productivas nacionales.
Metodología para la evaluación interna de una cadena de valor
Authors: Vásquez-Barajas Eduardo Felipe , Bastos-Osorio Liliana Marcela , Mogrovejo-Andrade Johanna Milena
Published: December 2020

El objetivo es diseñar una metodología para la evaluación interna de una cadena de valor. La metodología comprende un tipo de investigación cuantitativo, un método de investigación deductivo y un tipo de estudio explicativo. Sobre los resultados, la metodología diseñada para la evaluación interna se enfoca en el esquema de cadena de valor de Michael Porter con sus actividades principales y actividades de apoyo cruzadas en una matriz que permite describir y ponderar la relación de cada actividad principal con cada actividad de apoyo. La matriz propuesta ubica las 5 actividades principales en el eje vertical y a las 4 actividades de apoyo se ubica en el eje horizontal; distribuyendo el 100 % entre las 9 actividades de la siguiente manera: un porcentaje superior al 50 % para las 5 actividades principales por ser la parte central de una cadena de valor y el porcentaje restante para las actividades de apoyo porque sin ellas las actividades principales no estarían soportadas. En conclusión, el diseño de la metodología propuesta para la evaluación interna de la cadena de valor permite identificar actividades principales y de apoyo fuertes como ventajas competitivas o por mejorar como falencias, así como relaciones entre ellas.
Marketing viral: Aplicación y tendencias
Authors: Duque-Hurtado Pedro , Toro-Cardona Adrián , Ramírez-Carvajal Dahiana , Carvajal-Henao Martin Eugenio
Published: December 2020

El propósito de este documento es explorar la estructura intelectual del Marketing Viral, su evolución y tendencias de investigación. Para ello, a partir de técnicas y herramientas de la cienciometría se efectuó un análisis de citaciones, a partir de 188 publicaciones realizadas en el tema, desde el año 2000 hasta el 2020, en la base de datos Web of Science. Este artículo identifica tres subáreas que han emergido de la literatura. La primera enfocada a los factores que generan influencia en la toma de decisiones de los consumidores, cuando se interactúa con el contenido generado por la empresa. La segunda, explora cómo el Marketing Viral se ha visto potenciado a partir de la llegada de las redes sociales. Finalmente, la tercera, estudia el uso de influenciadores como elemento dinamizador de las campañas de este tipo. Este trabajo, explora la intersección entre la disciplina de marketing y el uso de las redes sociales, en especial, como estas últimas son un elemento para la propagación de los mensajes de las compañías y de los consumidores.
Quelle anthropologie pour la protection de la vie?
Authors: Szałata Kazimierz
Published: December 2020

This article is written in Frech.

Jeśli w samym centrum nauczania społecznego kościoła znajduje się człowiek, to rzeczą niesłychanie ważną staje się problem ochrony życia ludzkiego. Jak zauważa autor artykułu przygotowanego z okazji międzynarodowego Kolokwium Naukowego w Papieskiej Radzie Justitia et Pax przewartościowania, jakie obserwujemy w naszej kulturze sprawiły, że człowiek znalazł się w niebezpieczeństwie i to zwłaszcza wtedy, gdy jest słaby i zależny od innych. By podjąć problemy moralne związane z pokusą manipulacji, genetycznych, aborcji czy eutanazji potrzebna jest solidna baza filozoficzna. Autor idąc za sugestią Papieża Leona XIII, który wobec dominującego pozytywizmu wskazał na konieczność powrotu do klasycznej filozofii bytu w wersji arystotelesowsko-tomistycznej uzasadnia nieustanną aktualność papieskiej sugestii. Wobec dominacji przyrodniczych ujęć człowieka, w których nie da się wyraźnie zdefiniować początku i końca życia, potrzebna jest jasna, realistyczna filozofia personalistyczna zdolna do ukazania pełnej prawdy o człowieku, jako realnym bycie osobowym realizującym się poprzez duchowo cielesną strukturę.
Audyt zachowań jako narzędzie systemu zarządzania bezpieczeństwem i higieną pracy
Authors: Embros Grzegorz
Published: December 2020

In the article there were presented general assumptions concerning employees’ hazardous behaviour modification programme with use of a behavioural audit. The author depicted a method of the audit conduct underlining the meaning of a dialogue with an employee for proper identification of reasons for hazardous behaviours. Therefore, a crucial role of auditors’ selection and training was emphasised for they deliver data for further analysis. The quality of data obtained in the behaviour and work conditions observation process is vital for the programme success. Consequently, periodic trainings for behavioural auditors need to be carried out to deepen their knowledge and improve the methods of auditing.
Jak sobie radzić z niepłodnością? (Konwersatorium: Medycyna na miarę człowieka)
Authors: Chazan Bogdan
Published: December 2020

Streszczenie nie jest dostępne
Chorować bez domu (Konwersatorium: Medycyna na miarę człowieka; panel dyskusyjny)
Authors: Hozer-Chachulska Magdalena
Published: December 2020

Streszczenie nie jest dostępne.
15 anos pensando a Educação Escolar em Ibero-América
Authors: Bizelli José Luís , Santos Cruz José Anderson
Published: December 2020

Passados 15 anos da assinatura do Convênio de Colaboração Acadêmica entre a UNESP – através da sua Faculdade de Ciência e Letras de Araraquara – e Universidade de Alcalá de Henares – através do Departamento de Ciências da Educação –, celebra-se aqui a constituição de um grupo de investigadores que vêm se dedicando a pensar, escrever, analisar e propor iniciativas para a Educação Escolar no território ibero-americano.
Embora os trabalhos do grupo vertebrem a Revista Ibero-Americana de Estudos em Educação e estejam consolidados em dezenas de livros, é possível apontar alguns eixos que estruturam o trabalho realizado: 1. Políticas Públicas e Gestão da Educação; 2. Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação em Educação; 3. Formação do Educador, Trabalho Docente e Práticas Pedagógicas; 4. Educação Sexual, Sexualidade e Gênero; 5. Educação Especial; 6. Educação Superior; 7. Internacionalização.
Liderazgo y autoevaluación institucional
Authors: Berrios Alejandro , Aravena Margarita , García-Carmona Marina , Martín Bris Mario
Published: December 2020

Este trabajo describe la influencia positiva del liderazgo en los procesos de autoevaluación institucional en una organización que busca levantar un diagnóstico de gestión participativa propiciando la colaboración de todos los agentes involucrados, cuyo propósito es subsanar las debilidades y necesidades detectadas para luego tomar decisiones distribuidas, colegiadas y consensuadas en beneficio de las personas y por ende de la organización. Para conseguir la gestión participativa, es necesario que la institución cuente con una metodología para autoevaluarse y por medios de técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas es posible implementarla periódicamente según la planificación estratégica y de los procesos de acreditación que vaya consiguiendo cada organización.
Desarrollo de las habilidades cognitivas propias de las artes escénicas en el aula
Authors: Barba Dávalos Marina
Published: December 2020

La memoria, la atención, la escucha activa y el trabajo en equipo son habilidades que se desarrollan a un alto nivel en las artes escénicas. Los bailarines son capaces de recordar coreografías, sus movimientos, sus posiciones y desplazamientos en el espacio, a la vez que escuchan y siguen la música y al resto del cuerpo de baile. Un músico, tanto si memoriza como si lee la partitura previamente estudiada, mientras la interpreta satisfaciendo las exigencias técnicas y expresivas, está atento al resto de los miembros de la orquesta y al director. Los actores expresan el significado de un texto memorizado mientras interactúan con el resto del elenco, con los objetos escenográficos y con el propio espacio escénico. El objetivo de esta investigación es, a partir del análisis de las estrategias de aprendizaje y actuación de las diferentes disciplinas, proyectar una metodología de aplicación en el aula que permita desarrollar estas habilidades.
Bilingual Families
Authors: Crisfield Eowyn
Published: December 2020

This insightful, practical book can be used as a stand-alone guide for families on their language journey, or as an accompaniment to the author’s successful seminars for families and schools. Learn from the author’s extensive experience of helping and advising families on how to raise their children as successful bilinguals and multilinguals.
Analysis of Linear Surfaces of Building Structures
Authors: Volkova S. N. , Shleenko A. V. , Morozova V. V. , Sivak E. E.
Published: December 2020

Purpose of reseach is to analyze the practice in the application of surfaces formed by the movement of a straight line. It is known that among the second-order surfaces cones, cylinders, hyperboloids of one sheet and hyperbolic paraboloids, as well as lines represented in the polar coordinate system in the form of intricate shapes that can be represented in space by the above-mentioned surfaces, adding a third dimension, have rectilinear generators. The strength resulting from covering each point of the listed surfaces with straight lines from different families does not make the structure heavier but strengthens it and makes it light compared to monoliths without reinforcements made of other materials, in which stability is not based on Shukhov calculation formulas. Methods Finding families of rectilinear generators for second-order surfaces calculation of which is based on the separation of equations that represent a second-order surface as a difference of squares in one part of the equation and as a product with an arbitrary parameter in the other part. Results. Analyzing second-order surfaces, we came to the conclusion that cones, cylinders are prone to this method of Shukhov calculations; equation of the form F (x,y)=0 in space defines a cylindrical surface whose generators are parallel to axis oz. Similarly, F (x, z)=0 defines a cylindrical surface with generators parallel to axis oy and F (y;z)=0 is a cylindrical surface with generators parallel to axis ox. A hyperboloid of one sheet, hyperbolic paraboloid, i.e. 10 surfaces out of 14, make up more than 70%. Conclusion. As a result of applying these formulas for calculating reinforced building structures, city buildings will acquire a new appearance, which will create a comfortable environment for residents, as well as lead to saving construction material resources.
Vibration Stability of the Impulse System of the Electric Drive Control
Authors: Yanochkina O. O. , Boldyreva E. O.
Published: December 2020

Purpose of reseach is Study of vibration stability of the impulse system of direct current electric drive in order to ensure operating modes with specified dynamic characteristics. Methods. The stability analysis of periodic solutions of differential equations with discontinuous right-hand side is reduced to the problem of studying local stability of fixed map points. Results. The analysis of stability is carried out depending on the supply voltage of the electric drive and the gain of the correcting link in the feedback circuit. It is revealed that the boundary of the stability region on the plane of the variable parameters has a pronounced extremum in the form of a maximum at the bifurcation point of codimension two, also called the resonance point 1: 2. On one side of this point, the stability region is bounded by the NeimarkSacker bifurcation line, and on the other, by the period-doubling bifurcation line. This means that with a change in the parameters, the radius of the stability region first increases, reaching a maximum at the resonance point 1: 2, and then decreases. This important conclusion can be used in optimization calculations. Conclusion. The analysis of the vibration stability of the impulse system of direct current electric drive, the behavior of which is described by differential equations of the discontinuous right-hand side, is carried out. The problem of finding periodic solutions to differential equations is reduced to the problem of finding fixed points of the map. The fixed points of the map satisfy a system of nonlinear equations, which was solved numerically by the NewtonRaphson method. The stability of periodic solutions of differential equations corresponds to the stability of fixed points of the corresponding map. The studies were carried out with variation of the gain in the feedback circuit and the supply voltage. It is revealed that the loss of a fixed point occurs through the supercritical Neimark-Sacker bifurcation, when the complex-conjugate pair of multipliers leaves the unit circle when the parameters change. However, with an increase in the supply voltage, the Neimark-Saker bifurcation boundary passes into the perioddoubling bifurcation boundary at the 1: 2 resonance point.
Methodology for Studying the Wear of Drill Pipe Threads during Repeated Making up and Holding under Load
Authors: Yakhimovich V. A. , Breki A. B. , Alkhimenko A. A. , Kurakin M. K. , Lyashenko D. V. , Ageev E. V. , Kutepov S. N. , Gvozdev A. E.
Published: December 2020

Purpose of reseach is to develop a methodology for studying the wear of drill pipe threads during repeated making up and holding under load. Methods. For the research, stand “IRS-1” was used. This stand is a device for creating a torque of up to 80 kNm and transferring it to a made-up pipe. It is equipped with a make-up torque sensor and a control system that performs make-up until the specified tightening torque is achieved or periodically applies the torque to the made-up thread pair. The test procedure for IRS-1 stand consists of the following sequence of actions: before starting the tests, the threaded protectors are removed; the threads on the nipple and sleeve are cleaned of the preservative grease and traces of corrosion by dry wiping and subsequent degreasing; the thread on the nipple is measured according to the measurement chart using a gauge. The gauge is made on the basis of the threaded surface impression and is a plate with cutouts in the form of a cross-section of four threads. The gap between the gauge and the thread is measured using a set of probes from 0.01 to 0.09 mm in increments of 0.01 mm, over 0.1 mm to 0.45 mm in increments of 0.05 mm, over 0.5 mm to 1 mm in increments of 0.1 mm. Results. A new tribotechnical stand of IRS-1 model was designed and created, which allows implementing various techniques for studying the wear of drill pipe threads during repeated making-up and holding under load. An important feature of the designed stand is a make-up torque sensor and a control system that perform make-up until the specified tightening torque is achieved or periodically applies the torque to the made-up threaded pair. The maximum torque generated by the stand is 80 kNm. A particular technique was developed. The technique includes the requirements of the API 7G-2 standard and has shown its effectiveness in the study of thread wear of steel drill pipes. To implement the technique, a special gauge was developed on the basis of the threaded surface impression and is a plate with cutouts in the form of a cross-section of four threads. Within this technique, a measurement chart with two selected measurement areas was developed. An algorithm for making up a pipe at a uniform speed was created. The algorithm includes three stages. There was developed an algorithm of measurements using reference marks, providing measurements at four points in each selected area. Conclusion. The results obtained can be used to create resource-saving technologies for processing ingot, powder, and nanocomposite materials with different dispersion of phase and structural components that are operated under extreme conditions and states.
Study of the Influence of Pine Wood Shelf Life on Endurance under Compression along the Grains
Authors: Masalov A. V. , Solodilova V. A.
Published: December 2020

Purpose of research. Study of the influence of pine wood shelf life on endurance under compression along the grains, as well as grounds for results obtained. Wood is anisotropic, depending on the grains, the mechanical and physical properties of the material differ greatly. Methods Wood is anisatropic, the change in its endurance depends not only on conditions, shelf life, moisture, but also on the direction of the grains in the timber. However, the relevance of using this material still remains unchanged. The tests were carried out on a press of the UM-5 type. After carrying out the compression test, moisture tests were performed and the test results of the specimens were reported at 12% moisture. Untested samples were stored from 1981 to 2019 in the laboratory of the Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering at South-West University. In 2019, the stored samples were prepared for testing and tested. Results. To obtain substantiated data on the influence of wood shelf life on endurance, an experiment was carried out with the bars that had undergone a 39-year wait in the laboratory of the Department of Industrial and Civil Engineering. From among the samples, 16 samples were selected, which were tested for short-term compression load along the grains. For these samples diagrams “Load-displacement” were recorded on the press UM-5. The experiment showed two types of sample destruction which led to the corresponding conclusion. Conclusion. The strength characteristics revealed as a result of experiments from core and sapwood of pine on samples 20x20x30 in 1981 and in 2020 significantly differed from normal ones, this was influenced by a relatively small number of samples.
An Algorithm to Optimize Pain Detection and Management in Older Patients in Routine Practice
Authors:   Internal and Geriatric Medicine Department, University Hospital of Marseille, Hôpital de Sainte-Marguerite, 270, bd Sainte-Marguerite, 13009 Marseille Cedex, France, Bonin-Guillaume Sylvie ,   Institut Neurosciences des Systèmes, UMR-INSERM 1106, Aix-Marseille University, 27, bd Jean-Moulin, 13005 Marseille Cedex, France, Rat Patrice
Published: December 2020

Acute or persistent pain is a common occurrence and is often undertreated in older patients, especially those with an inability to communicate verbally (ICV). Regular comprehensive pain assessment, including self-rating and/or behavior scales, is critical but difficult to implement in routine clinical practice. The choice of the most appropriate scale for each patient is not easy, even for trained and skilled medical personnel. Indeed, the use of scales for short pain-behavior exposes to pain under-detection due to false-negative results, whereas extensive behavior scales are time-consuming, require pre-rating knowledge of the patient, and can also yield false-positive scores because of an overlap between pain-associated behaviors and those of other non-painful conditions (i.e., dementia, delirium, or depression). We describe the process used to devise an at-a-glance algorithm targeting medical personnel. This algorithm combines short and long pain scales specifically validated for geriatric populations with ICV or without. This algorithm has been tested by health workers in several settings. The final version of this algorithm reliably detected nociceptive acute or chronic pain in older patients and can easily be applied to older patients in routine practice in any setting. This algorithm ensured a rapid and easy-to-use comprehensive assessment of pain in older patients to determine the need for analgesic administration.
Five Lessons Learned From Randomized Controlled Trials on Mobile Health Interventions: Consensus Procedure on Practical Recommendations for Sustainable Research
Authors: Pach Daniel , Rogge Alizé A , Wang Jiani , Witt Claudia M
Published: December 2020

Background

Clinical research on mobile health (mHealth) interventions is too slow in comparison to the rapid speed of technological advances, thereby impeding sustainable research and evidence-based implementation of mHealth interventions.

Objective

We aimed to establish practical lessons from the experience of our working group, which might accelerate the development of future mHealth interventions and their evaluation by randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Methods

This paper is based on group and expert discussions, and focuses on the researchers’ perspectives after four RCTs on mHealth interventions for chronic pain.

Results

The following five lessons are presented, which are based on practical application, increase of speed, and sustainability: (1) explore stakeholder opinions, (2) develop the mHealth app and trial simultaneously, (3) minimize complexity, (4) manage necessary resources, and (5) apply behavior change techniques.

Conclusions

The five lessons developed may lead toward an agile research environment. Agility might be the key factor in the development and research process of a potentially sustainable and evidence-based mHealth intervention.
Trends in Web Searches About the Causes and Treatments of Autism Over the Past 15 Years: Exploratory Infodemiology Study
Authors: Saposnik Florencia E , Huber Joelene F
Published: December 2020

Background

Ninety percent of adults in the United States use the internet, and the majority of internet users report looking on the web for health information using search engines. The rising prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), uncertainty surrounding its etiology, and variety of intervention approaches contribute to questions about its causes and treatments. It is not known which terms people search most frequently about ASD and whether web search queries have changed over time. Infodemiology is an area of health informatics research using big data analytics to understand web search behavior.

Objective

The objectives were to (1) use infodemiological data to analyze trends in web-based searches about the causes and treatments of ASD over time and (2) inform clinicians and ASD organizations about web queries regarding ASD.

Methods

Google Trends was used to analyze web searches about the causes and treatments of ASD in the United States from 2004 to 2019. The search terms analyzed for queries about causes of ASD included vaccines, genetics, environmental factors, and microbiome and those for therapies included applied behavior analysis (ABA), gluten-free diet, chelation therapy, marijuana, probiotics, and stem cell therapy.

Results

Google Trends results are normalized on a scale ranging from 0 to 100 to represent the frequency and relative interest of search topics. For searches about ASD causes, vaccines had the greatest frequency compared to other terms, with an initial search peak observed in 2008 (scaled score of 81), reaching the highest frequency in 2015 (scaled score of 100), and a current upward trend. In comparison, searches about genetics, environmental factors, and microbiome occurred less frequently. For web searches about ASD therapies, ABA consistently had a high frequency of search interest since 2004, reaching a maximum scaled score of 100 in 2019. The analyses of chelation therapy and gluten-free diet showed trending interest in 2005 (scaled score of 68) and 2007 (scaled score of 100), respectively, followed by a steady decline since (scaled scores of only 10 and 16, respectively, in 2019). Searches related to ASD and marijuana showed a rise in 2009 (scaled score of 35), and they continue to trend upward. Searches about probiotics and stem cell therapy have been relatively low (scaled scores of 22 and 18, respectively), but are gradually gaining interest. Web search volumes for stem cell therapy in 2019 surpassed both gluten-free diet and chelation therapy as web-searched interventions for ASD.

Conclusions

Google Trends is an effective infodemiology tool to analyze large-scale web search trends about ASD. The results showed informative variation in search trends over 15 years. These data are useful to inform clinicians and organizations about web queries on topics related to ASD, identify knowledge gaps, and target web-based education and knowledge translation strategies.
Anxiety and Sleep Disturbances Among Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Cross-Sectional Online Survey
Authors: Gupta Bhawna , Sharma Vyom , Kumar Narinder , Mahajan Akanksha
Published: December 2020

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has become a serious concern among the global medical community and has resulted in an unprecedented psychological impact on health care workers, who were already working under stressful conditions.

Objective

In this study, we aimed to evaluate and measure the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the anxiety levels and sleep quality among health care workers in India, as well as to determine how the unavailability of personal protective equipment affects their willingness to provide patient-related care.

Methods

We conducted an online cross-sectional study using piloted, structured questionnaires with self-reported responses from 368 volunteer male and female health care workers in India. Study participants were identified through social networking platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp. The survey evaluated the participants’ degree of signs and symptoms of anxiety and sleep quality based on the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale and single-item Sleep Quality Scale, respectively. Information on the availability of personal protective equipment was collected based on responses to relevant survey questions.

Results

The majority of health care workers (126/368, 34.2%) were in the age group 45-60 years, and 52.2% (192/368) were doctors. Severe anxiety (ie, GAD-7 score >10) was observed among 7.3% (27/368) health care workers, whereas moderate, mild, and minimal anxiety was observed among 12.5% (46/368), 29.3% (108/368), and 50.8% (187/368) health care workers, respectively. Moreover, 31.5% (116/368) of the health care workers had poor-to-fair sleep quality (ie, scores <6). Univariate analysis showed female gender and inadequate availability of personal protective equipment was significantly associated with higher anxiety levels (P=.01 for both). Sleep disturbance was significantly associated with age <30 years (P=.04) and inadequate personal protective equipment (P<.001). Multivariable analysis showed that poorer quality of sleep was associated with higher anxiety levels (P<.001).

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic has potentially caused significant levels of anxiety and sleep disturbances among health care workers, particularly associated with the female gender, younger age group, and inadequate availability of personal protective equipment. These factors put health care workers at constant risk of contracting the infection themselves or transmitting it to their families. Early identification of at-risk health care workers and implementation of situation-tailored mitigation measures could help alleviate the risk of long-term, serious psychological sequelae as well as reduce current anxiety levels among health care workers.
Use of Different Food Image Recognition Platforms in Dietary Assessment: Comparison Study (Preprint)
Authors: Van Asbroeck Stephanie , Matthys Christophe
Published: December 2020

BACKGROUND

In the domain of dietary assessment, there has been an increasing amount of criticism of memory-based techniques such as food frequency questionnaires or 24 hour recalls. One alternative is logging pictures of consumed food followed by an automatic image recognition analysis that provides information on type and amount of food in the picture. However, it is currently unknown how well commercial image recognition platforms perform and whether they could indeed be used for dietary assessment.

OBJECTIVE

This is a comparative performance study of commercial image recognition platforms.

METHODS

A variety of foods and beverages were photographed in a range of standardized settings. All pictures (n=185) were uploaded to selected recognition platforms (n=7), and estimates were saved. Accuracy was determined along with totality of the estimate in the case of multiple component dishes.

RESULTS

Top 1 accuracies ranged from 63% for the application programming interface (API) of the Calorie Mama app to 9% for the Google Vision API. None of the platforms were capable of estimating the amount of food. These results demonstrate that certain platforms perform poorly while others perform decently.

CONCLUSIONS

Important obstacles to the accurate estimation of food quantity need to be overcome before these commercial platforms can be used as a real alternative for traditional dietary assessment methods.