bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Should syndesmotic screws be removed after surgical fixation of unstable ankle fractures?
Authors: Dingemans S. A. , Rammelt S. , White T. O. , Goslings J. C. , Schepers T.
Published: November 2016

Aims

In approximately 20% of patients with ankle fractures, there is an concomitant injury to the syndesmosis which requires stabilisation, usually with one or more syndesmotic screws. The aim of this review is to evaluate whether removal of the syndesmotic screw is required in order for the patient to obtain optimal functional recovery.

Materials and Methods

A literature search was conducted in Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library for articles in which the syndesmotic screw was retained. Articles describing both removal and retaining of syndesmotic screws were included. Excluded were biomechanical studies, studies not providing patient related outcome measures, case reports, studies on skeletally immature patients and reviews. No restrictions regarding year of publication and language were applied.

Results

A total of 329 studies were identified, of which nine were of interest, and another two articles were added after screening the references. In all, two randomised controlled trials (RCT) and nine case-control series were found. The two RCTs found no difference in functional outcome between routine removal and retaining the syndesmotic screw. All but one of the case-control series found equal or better outcomes when the syndesmotic screw was retained. However, all included studies had substantial methodological flaws.

Conclusions

The currently available literature does not support routine elective removal of syndesmotic screws. However, the literature is of insufficient quality to be able to draw definitive conclusions. Secondary procedures incur a provider and institutional cost and expose the patient to the risk of complications. Therefore, in the absence of high quality evidence there appears to be little justification for routine removal of syndesmotic screws. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2016;98-B:1497–1504.
What is the lifetime risk of revision for patients undergoing total hip arthroplasty?
Authors: Abdel M. P. , Roth P. von , Harmsen W. S. , Berry D. J.
Published: November 2016

Aims

The purpose of this study was to determine the lifetime risk of revision surgery for patients undergoing Charnley cemented total hip arthroplasty (THA), with 40-year follow up, using death as a competing risk.

Materials and Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 2000 cemented Charnley THAs, with 51 living hips available at 40 years.

Results

The cumulative risk of revision or removal for any reason was 13% (95% confidence interval (CI) 12 to 15). Patients aged under 50 years at the time of surgery had a 35% (95% CI 28 to 42) risk of revision or removal for any reason (Hazard Ratio (HR) 3.6; 95% CI 2.5 to 5.2; p <  0.001), patients 50 to 59 years old had a 20% risk (95% CI 16 to 24) (HR 2.1; 95% CI 1.5 to 2.8; p < 0.0001), patients aged 60 to 69 years had a 9% risk (95% CI 7 to 11) (reference point), and patients ≥ 70 years old had a 5% risk (95% CI 4 to 7) (HR 0.96; 95% CI 0.6 to 1.5; p = 0.86) during their lifetime. Men had a higher risk of revision or removal for any reason (HR 2.1; 95% CI 1.7 to 2.7; p < 0.001).

Conclusion

With almost all the patients in this series followed up till either death or revision, we have been able to develop a ‘rule of thumb’ for lifetime likelihood of revision or implant removal for the Charnley THA: one in three for patients < 50 years, one in five for patients 50 to 59 years, one in ten for patients 60 to 69 years, and one in 20 for patients ≥ 70 years. The results provide a benchmark for comparison of outcomes, for the newer designs of THA. Cite this article: Bone Joint J 2016;98-B:1436–40.
Silencing of microRNA-138-5p promotes IL-1β-induced cartilage degradation in human chondrocytes by targeting FOXC1
Authors: Yuan Y. , Zhang G. Q. , Chai W. , Ni M. , Xu C. , Chen J. Y.
Published: November 2016

Objectives

Osteoarthritis (OA) is characterised by articular cartilage degradation. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been identified in the development of OA. The purpose of our study was to explore the functional role and underlying mechanism of miR-138-5p in interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β)-induced extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation of OA cartilage.

Materials and Methods

Human articular cartilage was obtained from patients with and without OA, and chondrocytes were isolated and stimulated by IL-1β. The expression levels of miR-138-5p in cartilage and chondrocytes were both determined. After transfection with miR-138-5p mimics, allele-specific oligonucleotide (ASO)-miR-138-5p, or their negative controls, the messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of aggrecan (ACAN), collagen type II and alpha 1 (COL2A1), the protein levels of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), and both the mRNA and protein levels of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-13 were evaluated. Luciferase reporter assay, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), and Western blot were performed to explore whether Forkhead Box C1 (FOCX1) was a target of miR-138-5p. Further, we co-transfected OA chondrocytes with miR-138-5p mimics and pcDNA3.1 (+)-FOXC1 and then stimulated with IL-1β to determine whether miR-138-5p-mediated IL-1β-induced cartilage matrix degradation resulted from targeting FOXC1.

Results

MiR-138-5p was significantly increased in OA cartilage and in chondrocytes in response to IL-1β-stimulation. Overexpression of miR-138-5p significantly increased the IL-1β-induced downregulation of COL2A1, ACAN, and GAGs, and increased the IL-1β-induced over expression of MMP-13.We found that FOXC1 is directly regulated by miR-138-5p. Additionally, co-transfection with miR-138-5p mimics and pcDNA3.1 (+)-FOXC1 resulted in higher levels of COL2A1, ACAN, and GAGs, but lower levels of MMP-13.

Conclusion

miR-138-5p promotes IL-1β-induced cartilage degradation in human chondrocytes, possibly by targeting FOXC1. Cite this article: Y. Yuan, G. Q. Zhang, W. Chai,M. Ni, C. Xu, J. Y. Chen. Silencing of microRNA-138-5p promotes IL-1β-induced cartilage degradation in human chondrocytes by targeting FOXC1: miR-138 promotes cartilage degradation. Bone Joint Res 2016;5:523–530. DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.510.BJR-2016-0074.R2.
Core surgical training outcome in Wales
Authors: Abdelrahman T , Thomas C , Iorwerth A , Pollitt MJ , Holt M , Lewis WG
Published: November 2016

Reconfiguration, reflection, and the rise of educational contracts.
Treasures from the Collections
Authors: Fouracre Dot
Published: November 2016

Women in the delivery room and the publishing house
Flora da Bahia: Winteraceae
Authors: Santos Taciso Maia , Oliveira Reyjane Patrícia de , Giulietti Ana Maria
Published: November 2016

The taxonomic treatment of the Winteraceae from Bahia, Brazil, is presented. Drimys brasiliensis was the only species recognized in the state. The Flora consists of descriptions, illustrations, general notes and a geographic distribution map of the species in the state.
Using the Teaching Interactions Procedure to Teach Social Skills to Children With Autism and Intellectual Disability
Authors: Hui Shyuan Ng Aubrey , Schulze Kim , Rudrud Eric , Leaf Justin B.
Published: November 2016

This study implemented a modified teaching interaction procedure to teach social skills to 4 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder with an intellectual disability. A multiple baseline design across social skills and replicated across participants was utilized to evaluate the effects of the modified teaching interaction procedure. The results demonstrated that the teaching interaction procedure resulted in all participants acquiring targeted social skills, maintaining the targeted social skills, and generalizing the targeted social skills.
Estrategias didácticas para la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de física universitaria: algunos ejemplos de integración
Authors: Giacosa Norah , Giorgi Silvia , Concari Sonia
Published: November 2016

Se muestran instancias de integraciónde estrategias didácticas con recursos tecnológicospotencialmente aptos para la enseñanza de la física.Las experiencias se realizaron en Argentina con estu-diantes de carreras de Ingenierías y Profesorado enFísica pertenecientes a tres universidades nacionalesde gestión pública. Los ejemplos que se seleccionaronpara esta presentación cubren contenidos relacio-nados con mecánica, electromagnetismo y óptica.Se sostiene que es posible incentivar el interés de losestudiantes por conocer y hacer complementando expe-riencias de laboratorios reales y resolución de problemasde lápiz y papel con actividades realizadas en entornosvirtuales. Se anhela que la sencillez y fácil reproducciónde estas actividades, como también la posibilidad deutilizar recursos de acceso libre, promueva su imple-mentación en las aulas universitarias.
La responsabilidad social y pedagógica de la evaluación de los aprendizajes
Authors: De Camilloni Alicia Wigdorovitz
Published: November 2016

Se presentan, inscriptas en el marco deuna definición amplia de la evaluación de los apren-dizajes, sus distintas funciones (informativa, forma-tiva y performativa), su importancia, sus alcances ysus requerimientos, en particular en lo que se refierea sus usos internos y externos, de los que se derivanacciones que tienen consecuencias sociales y pedagó-gicas que ponen en juego cuestiones de índole moralpara docentes, autoridades y decisores en materia depolíticas educativas.
La evaluación de los aprendizajes: entre las políticas educativas oficiales y las prácticas cotidianas
Authors: Rafaghelli Milagros
Published: November 2016

El texto se propone dar lugar a una discu-sión ampliada sobre las políticas y prácticas deevaluación en el campo educativo. Si bien en losúltimos años se ha investigado y escrito bastanteal respecto, la evaluación siempre produce nuevosdebates y renovados posicionamientos en virtud de losmovimientos políticos y pedagógicos que la sacuden einterpelan. El artículo es parte de un trabajo variadoy colectivo que resulta de talleres y encuentros conalumnos y docentes de distintos niveles y modali-dades del sistema educativo y que se ve enriquecidotanto con las conversaciones con tesistas, quienesdesde distintos intereses y enfoques construyen comoobjeto de estudio problemáticas relacionadas con laevaluación, como con las que ocurren entre los miem-bros de los equipos de cátedra e investigación de laFacultad de Ciencias de la Educación de la Univer-sidad Nacional de Entre Ríos.
Measuring Global Inequality
Authors: Yates Michael D.
Published: November 2016

It is by now well known that significant and growing economic inequality is a central feature of the U.S. economy, as previous articles in Monthly Review have shown. However, the same is also the case for much of the rest of the world. Inequality arises in other countries for reasons similar to those in the United States, but each nation has its own history, along with widely divergent economic and political structures. Here we will look first at the most recent data on global inequality, and then at its causes and consequences.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.
Epic and Romance in The Lord Of The Rings
Authors: Simonson Martin
Published: November 2016

En el campo de la literatura comparada, El señor de los anillos ha sido analizada sobre todo en el contexto del romance y la épica. Sin embargo, este acercamiento deja de lado importantes aspectos genéricos, como la presencia del género de la novela y las tradiciones mitológicas. Si elegimos cualquier género concreto como vara de medir para evaluar el éxito de la obra en términos narrativos, tendemos a llegar a la conclusión de que El señor de los anillos no termina de encajar en ninguno. En la obra de Tolkien, existe una exploración narrativa y estilística de los límites de diferentes géneros literarios en que las principales tradiciones narrativas occidentales –el mito, la épica, el romance y la novela, con sus respectivos subgéneros– interactúan en un mundo previamente desconocido pero muy coherente que, debido a la cohesión requerida por el uso de semejante cronotopo, muestra una consistente contextualización de las referencias a las tradiciones previas. A diferencia de muchas expresiones literarias de modernistas contemporáneos, la resultante ausencia de ironía y parodia da lugar a un diálogo entre tradiciones en que los diferentes géneros exploran e interrogan sus propios límites sin dejar a otros como absurdamente incompatibles, risibles o superfluos.
El vampiro: de conde misterioso a estrella del rock y vuelta al ataúd
Authors: Segovia Esteban Sara
Published: November 2016

El presente artículo plantea un breve repaso a la evolución del mito y arquetipo del vampiro desde sus orígenes en el folclore europeo hasta nuestros días, con el vampiro de Polidori como primera manifestación literaria del mito y los vampiros de The Strain como últimos representantes de la cultura popular occidental. De este modo el legendario europeo, la literatura occidental y la cultura de la pequeña y la gran pantalla a finales del siglo xx y comienzos del xxi se integran en un estudio cuya pretensión es trazar la evolución de un arquetipo muy antiguo que sobrevive gracias a la adaptación y al cambio. Por último, se esboza una hipótesis de evolución a partir de la última aparición del vampiro en nuestras pantallas: The Strain.
Cultura material entre nupcias y óbitos en el Burgos del Setecientos
Authors: Sanz De La Higuera Francisco
Published: November 2016

La disponibilidad de inventarios de bienes elaborados, en primera instancia, en el alegre momento de las nupcias y, en último término, en las atribuladas circunstancias del óbito de uno de los cónyuges, generalmente el varón, por lo tocante a 14 hogares de la ciudad de Burgos en el devenir del siglo XVIII posibilita, a mi entender, efectuar un análisis crítico de la diacronía de la cultura material y sus niveles de fortuna de una manera atrevida y novedosa. Todo ello desde la perspectiva de los sesgos evolutivos de las categorías socioprofesionales y socioeconómicas en que cada uno de dichos hogares se encontraba incardinado. Con estas páginas la reconstrucción histórica de la cultura material del Setecientos se adentra en un territorio escasamente tratado en la historiografía modernista, salvo excepcionales y modélicas aportaciones.
Cubrick
Authors: Pedreira Pedro , Croswhite Chris , Bona Luis
Published: November 2016

This paper describes the architecture and design of Cubrick, a distributed multidimensional in-memory DBMS suited for interactive analytics over highly dynamic datasets. Cubrick has a strictly multidimensional data model composed of cubes, dimensions and metrics, supporting sub-second OLAP operations such as slice and dice, roll-up and drill-down over terabytes of data. All data stored in Cubrick is range partitioned by every dimension and stored within containers called
bricks
in an unordered and sparse fashion, providing high data ingestion rates and indexed access through any combination of dimensions. In this paper, we describe details about Cubrick's internal data structures, distributed model, query execution engine and a few details about the current implementation. Finally, we present results from a thorough experimental evaluation that leveraged datasets and queries collected from a few internal Cubrick deployments at Facebook.
Consistent regions
Authors: Jacques-Silva Gabriela , Zheng Fang , Debrunner Daniel , Wu Kun-Lung , Dogaru Victor , Johnson Eric , Spicer Michael , Sariyüce Ahmet Erdem
Published: November 2016

Guaranteed tuple processing has become critically important for many streaming applications. This paper describes how we enabled IBM Streams, an enterprise-grade stream processing system, to provide data processing guarantees. Our solution goes from language-level abstractions to a runtime protocol. As a result, with a couple of simple annotations at the source code level, IBM Streams developers can define
consistent regions
, allowing any subgraph of their streaming application to achieve guaranteed tuple processing. At runtime, a consistent region periodically executes a variation of the Chandy-Lamport snapshot algorithm to establish a consistent global state for that region. The coupling of consistent states with data replay enables guaranteed tuple processing.
SystemML
Authors: Boehm Matthias , Dusenberry Michael W. , Eriksson Deron , Evfimievski Alexandre V. , Manshadi Faraz Makari , Pansare Niketan , Reinwald Berthold , Reiss Frederick R. , Sen Prithviraj , Surve Arvind C. , Tatikonda Shirish
Published: November 2016

The rising need for custom machine learning (ML) algorithms and the growing data sizes that require the exploitation of distributed, data-parallel frameworks such as MapReduce or Spark, pose significant productivity challenges to data scientists. Apache SystemML addresses these challenges through declarative ML by (1) increasing the productivity of data scientists as they are able to express custom algorithms in a familiar domain-specific language covering linear algebra primitives and statistical functions, and (2) transparently running these ML algorithms on distributed, data-parallel frameworks by applying cost-based compilation techniques to generate efficient, low-level execution plans with in-memory single-node and large-scale distributed operations. This paper describes SystemML on Apache Spark, end to end, including insights into various optimizer and runtime techniques as well as performance characteristics. We also share lessons learned from porting SystemML to Spark and declarative ML in general. Finally, SystemML is open-source, which allows the database community to leverage it as a testbed for further research.
Generating flexible workloads for graph databases
Authors: Bagan Guillaume , Bonifati Angela , Ciucanu Radu , Fletcher George H. L. , Lemay Aurélien , Advokaat Nicky
Published: November 2016

Graph data management tools are nowadays evolving at a great pace. Key drivers of progress in the design and study of data intensive systems are solutions for synthetic generation of data and workloads, for use in empirical studies. Current graph generators, however, provide limited or no support for workload generation or are limited to fixed use-cases. Towards addressing these limitations, we demonstrate gMark, the first domain- and query language-independent framework for synthetic graph and query workload generation. Its novel features are: (i) fine-grained control of graph instance and query workload generation via expressive user-defined schemas; (ii) the support of expressive graph query languages, including recursion among other features; and, (iii) selectivity estimation of the generated queries. During the demonstration, we will showcase the highly tunable generation of graphs and queries through various user-defined schemas and targeted selectivities, and the variety of supported practical graph query languages. We will also show a performance comparison of four state-of-the-art graph database engines, which helps us understand their current strengths and desirable future extensions.
ArchimedesOne
Authors: Zhou Xiaofeng , Chen Yang , Wang Daisy Zhe
Published: November 2016

Knowledge bases are becoming increasingly important in structuring and representing information from the web. Meanwhile, web-scale information poses significant scalability and quality challenges to knowledge base systems. To address these challenges, we develop a probabilistic knowledge base system, A
rchimedes
O
ne
, by scaling up the knowledge expansion and statistical inference algorithms. We design a web interface for users to query and update large knowledge bases.

In this paper, we demonstrate the A
rchimedes
O
ne
system to showcase its efficient query and inference engines. The demonstration serves two purposes: 1) to provide an interface for users to interact with A
rchimedes
O
ne
through load, search, and update queries; and 2) to validate our approaches of
knowledge expansion
by applying inference rules in batches using relational operations and
query-driven inference
by focusing computation on the query facts. We compare A
rchimedes
O
ne
with state-of-the-art approaches using two knowledge bases: NELL-sports with 4.5 million facts and Reverb-Sherlock with 15 million facts.
Collaborative crowdsourcing with crowd4U
Authors: Ikeda Kosetsu , Morishima Atsuyuki , Rahman Habibur , Roy Senjuti Basu , Thirumuruganathan Saravanan , Amer-Yahia Sihem , Das Gautam
Published: November 2016

Collaborative crowdsourcing is an emerging paradigm where a set of workers, often with diverse and complementary skills, form groups and work together to complete complex tasks. While crowdsourcing has been used successfully in many applications, collaboration is essential for achieving a high quality outcome for a number of emerging applications such as text translation, citizen journalism and surveillance tasks. However, no crowdsourcing platform today enables the end-to-end deployment of collaborative tasks. We demonstrate Crowd4U, a volunteer-based system that enables the deployment of diverse crowdsourcing tasks with complex data-flows, in a declarative manner. In addition to treating workers and tasks as rich entities, Crowd4U also provides an easy-to-use form-based task UI. Crowd4U implements worker-to-task assignment algorithms that are appropriate for each kind of task. Once workers are assigned to tasks, appropriate worker collaboration schemes are enforced in order to enable effective result coordination.
YASK
Authors: Chen Lei , Xu Jianliang , Jensen Christian S. , Li Yafei
Published: November 2016

With the proliferation of the mobile use of the web, spatial keyword query (SKQ) services are gaining in importance. However, state-of-the-art SKQ systems do not provide systematic functionality that allows users to ask why some known object is unexpectedly missing from a query result and do not provide an explanation for such missing objects. In this demonstration, we present a system called YASK, a whY-not question Answering engine for Spatial Keyword query services, that is capable of answering why-not questions posed in response to answers to spatial keyword top-
k
queries. Two explanation and query refinement models, namely
preference adjustment and keyword adaption
, are implemented in YASK. The system provides users not only with the reasons why desired objects are missing from query results, but provides also relevant refined queries that revive the expected but missing objects. This demonstration gives attendees hands-on experience with YASK through a map-based GUI interface in which attendees can issue spatial keyword queries, pose why-not questions, and visualize the results.
Exploring databases via reverse engineering ranking queries with PALEO
Authors: Panev Kiril , Michel Sebastian , Milchevski Evica , Pal Koninika
Published: November 2016

A novel approach to explore databases using ranked lists is demonstrated. Working with ranked lists, capturing the relative performance of entities, is a very intuitive and widely applicable concept. Users can post lists of entities for which explanatory SQL queries and full result lists are returned. By refining the input, the results, or the queries, user can interactively explore the database content. The demonstrated system is centered around our PALEO framework for reverse engineering OLAP-style database queries and novel work on mining interesting categorical attributes.
F
Authors: Olteanu Dan , Schleich Maximilian
Published: November 2016

We demonstrate
F
, a system for building regression models over database views. At its core lies the observation that the computation and representation of materialized views, and in particular of joins, entail non-trivial redundancy that is not necessary for the efficient computation of aggregates used for building regression models.
F
avoids this redundancy by factorizing data and computation and can outperform the state-of-the-art systems MADlib, R, and Python StatsModels by orders of magnitude on real-world datasets.

We illustrate how to incrementally build regression models over factorized views using both an in-memory implementation of
F
and its SQL encoding. We also showcase the effective use of
F
for model selection:
F
decouples the data-dependent computation step from the data-independent convergence of model parameters and only performs once the former to explore the entire model space.
Trends and challenges in big data processing
Authors: Stoica Ion
Published: November 2016

Almost six years ago we started the Spark project at UC Berkeley. Spark is a cluster computing engine that is optimized for in-memory processing, and unifies support for a variety of workloads, including batch, interactive querying, streaming, and iterative computations. Spark is now the most active big data project in the open source community, and is already being used by over one thousand organizations.

One of the reasons behind Spark's success has been our early bet on the continuous increase in the memory capacity and the feasibility to fit many realistic workloads in the aggregate memory of typical production clusters. Today, we are witnessing new trends, such as Moore's law slowing down, and the emergence of a variety of computation and storage technologies, such as GPUs, FPGAs, and 3D Xpoint. In this talk, I'll discuss some of the lessons we learned in developing Spark as a unified computation platform, and the implications of today's hardware and software trends on the development of the next generation of big data processing systems.
HippogriffDB
Authors: Li Jing , Tseng Hung-Wei , Lin Chunbin , Papakonstantinou Yannis , Swanson Steven
Published: November 2016

As data sets grow and conventional processor performance scaling slows, data analytics move towards heterogeneous architectures that incorporate hardware accelerators (notably GPUs) to continue scaling performance. However, existing GPU-based databases fail to deal with big data applications efficiently: their execution model suffers from scalability limitations on GPUs whose memory capacity is limited; existing systems fail to consider the discrepancy between fast GPUs and slow storage, which can counteract the benefit of GPU accelerators.

In this paper, we propose HippogriffDB, an efficient, scalable GPU-accelerated OLAP system. It tackles the bandwidth discrepancy using compression and an optimized data transfer path. HippogriffDB stores tables in a compressed format and uses the GPU for decompression, trading GPU cycles for the improved I/O bandwidth. To improve the data transfer efficiency, HippogriffDB introduces a peer-to-peer, multi-threaded data transfer mechanism, directly transferring data from the SSD to the GPU. HippogriffDB adopts a query-over-block execution model that provides scalability using a stream-based approach. The model improves kernel efficiency with the operator fusion and double buffering mechanism.

We have implemented HippogriffDB using an NVMe SSD, which talks directly to a commercial GPU. Results on two popular benchmarks demonstrate its scalability and efficiency. HippogriffDB outperforms existing GPU-based databases (YDB) and in-memory data analytics (MonetDB) by 1-2 orders of magnitude.
Dscaler
Authors: Zhang J. W. , Tay Y. C.
Published: November 2016

The Dataset Scaling Problem (DSP) defined in previous work states:
Given an empirical set of relational tables D and a scale factor s, generate a database state D that is similar to D but s times its size
. A DSP solution is useful for application development (
s
< 1), scalability testing (
s
> 1) and anonymization (
s
= 1). Current solutions assume all table sizes scale by the same ratio
s
.

However, a real database tends to have tables that grow at different rates. This paper therefore considers
non-uniform scaling
(nuDSP), a DSP generalization where, instead of a single scale factor
s
, tables can scale by different factors.

D
scaler
is the first solution for nuDSP. It follows previous work in achieving similarity by reproducing correlation among the primary and foreign keys. However, it introduces the concept of a
correlation database
that captures fine-grained, per-tuple correlation.

Experiments with well-known real and synthetic datasets D show that D
scaler
produces D with greater similarity to D than state-of-the-art techniques. Here, similarity is measured by number of tuples, frequency distribution of foreign key references, and multi-join aggregate queries.
The accuracy of the germination rate of seeds based on image processing and artificial neural networks
Authors: Škrubej Uroš , Rozman Črtomir , Stajnko Denis
Published: November 2016

This paper describes a computer vision system based on image processing and machine learning techniques which was implemented for automatic assessment of the tomato seed germination rate. The entire system was built using open source applications Image J, Weka and their public Java classes and linked by our specially developed code. After object detection, we applied artificial neural networks (ANN), which was able to correctly classify 95.44% of germinated seeds of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.).
Variations in leaf total protein, phenolic and thiol contents amongst old varieties of mulberry from the Gorizia region
Authors: Ugulin Tina , Bakonyi Tamas , Berčič Rebeka , Urbanek Krajnc Andreja
Published: November 2016

Preserving the plant genetic resources of genus Morus is insuff­cient but undoubtedly vital for conservation of the world’s germplasm for our successors. This research was focused on old mulberry varieties from the Gorizia region in Slovenia which were assessed for their contents on crucial metabolites (proteins, phenolics and thiols) in leaves regarding their antioxidant and nutraceutical potentials. Total proteins were measured spectrophotometrically by following the procedure of Bradford, the total phenolic contents were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu method and thiols were established with monobromobimane fluorescent dye. The presented metabolite screening showed that some of the evaluated genotypes had higher concentrations of glutathione and were superior in contents of proteins and phenolics when compared to the results of other authors and could be propagated as highly recommendable feed for silkworms, and other animals.
Hybridisation of Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient and Higher Order Spectral Features for Musical Instruments Classification
Authors: Bhalke Daulappa Guranna , Rama Rao C. B. , Bormane Dattatraya
Published: November 2016

This paper presents the classification of musical instruments using Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Higher Order Spectral features. MFCC, cepstral, temporal, spectral, and timbral features have been widely used in the task of musical instrument classification. As music sound signal is generated using non-linear dynamics, non-linearity and non-Gaussianity of the musical instruments are important features which have not been considered in the past. In this paper, hybridisation of MFCC and Higher Order Spectral (HOS) based features have been used in the task of musical instrument classification. HOS-based features have been used to provide instrument specific information such as non-Gaussianity and non-linearity of the musical instruments. The extracted features have been presented to Counter Propagation Neural Network (CPNN) to identify the instruments and their family. For experimentation, isolated sounds of 19 musical instruments have been used from McGill University Master Sample (MUMS) sound database. The proposed features show the significant improvement in the classification accuracy of the system.
Decision Support System for Identifying Technical Condition of Combustion Engine
Authors: Deptuła Adam , Osiński Piotr , Radziwanowska Urszula
Published: November 2016

The paper is a continuation of the publication under the title “Acoustic diagnostics applications in the study of technical condition of combustion engine” and concerns the detailed description of decision support system for identifying technical condition (type of failure) of specified combustion engine. The input data were measured sound pressure levels of specific faults in comparison to the noise generated by undamaged motor. In the article, the whole procedure of decision method based on game graphs is described, as well as the interface of the program for direct usage.
Confidence Intervals for the Long-Term Noise Indicators Using the Kernel Density Estimator
Authors: Stępień Bartłomiej
Published: November 2016

A non-classical model of interval estimation based on the kernel density estimator is presented in this paper. This model has been compared with interval estimation algorithms of the classical (parametric) statistics assuming that the standard deviation of the population is either known or unknown. The non-classical model does not have to assume belonging of random sample to a normal distribution. A theoretical basis of the proposed model is presented as well as an example of calculation process which makes possible determining confidence intervals of the expected value of long-term noise indicators Aden and LN. The statistical analysis was carried out for 95% interval widths obtained by using each of these models. The inference of their usefulness was performed on the basis of results of non-parametric statistical tests at significance level α = 0.05. The data used to illustrate the proposed solutions and carry out the analysis were results of continuous monitoring of traffic noise recorded in 2004 in one of the main arteries of Krakow in Poland.
The Risks of Social Noise Exposure in the Vulnerable Population in Slovakia
Authors: Argalasova Lubica , Filova Alexandra , Hirosova Katarina , Vondrova Diana , Samohyl Martin , Krajcova Daniela , Jurkovicova Jana , Sevcikova Ludmila
Published: November 2016

The study is aimed to quantify the effects of social noise exposure (personal music players (PMP), events with high noise exposure) and the exposure to the other environmental noise sources in the selected sample of Slovak university students. The validated ICBEN methodology was used to assess noise annoyance. The measurement of ambient noise levels was done using hand-held sound level analyzer. There were 526 university students (143 males and 383 females, average age 23±2.2) enrolled into the study so far, 192 in the exposed housing facility to road traffic noise and 326 in the control housing facility in Bratislava. The social noise exposure was quantified and followed according to the authorized methodology of the study Ohrkan. From the total sample 416 (79.4%) students reported the use of PMP in the last week for the average time of 314 minutes. There was a significant difference in PMP use between the exposed (85.34%) and the control group (76.31%) (p = 0.01). Among PMP users 28.1% exceeded the LAV (lower action value for industry = 80 dB). The results showed the importance of road traffic and the social noise as well and the need for prevention and intervention in these vulnerable groups.
Native and non-native speaker identities in interaction: Trajectories of power
Authors: Liddicoat Anthony J.
Published: November 2016

In intercultural interactions in which native speakers communicate with non-native speakers there is potential for asymmetries of power to shape how interaction occurs. These inequalities are not simply the result of a difference in command of the language between interlocutors but rather they relate to the social construction and performance of the identities of each participant. Using data drawn from intercultural interactions in a range of contexts, this article examines some of the ways in which the inequalities of power between native speakers and non-native speakers is an interactionally accomplished product by examining instances of intercultural interaction. Such inequalities are seen in instances of intervention in interactions that create and reaffirm the ideology of native speakers’ authority over language. The most obvious of such interventions are those in which the native speaker takes up an authoritative stance in relation to the linguistic productions of non-native speakers that emphasize the features and circumstances of their production rather than their communicative function. Such interventions may, however, occur in more covert ways. Where such interventions occur they may be ratified as legitimate activities by non-native speaker participants, and the power asymmetry is thereby co-constructed by the participant. However, such asymmetries may also be resisted by non-native speakers when they reassert their communicative intent and in so doing reframe the interaction away from inequalities.
“Where are you really from?”: Nationality and Ethnicity Talk (NET) in everyday interactions
Authors: Hua Zhu , Wei Li
Published: November 2016

The article examines the significance of questions such as “where are you really from?” in everyday conversational interactions. Defining this kind of talk as nationality and ethnicity talk (NET), i. e. discourse that either explicitly or inexplicitly evokes one’s nationality or ethnicity in everyday conversation, the paper discusses what constitutes NET, how it works through symbolic and indexical cues and strategic emphasis, and why it matters in the wider context of identity, race, intercultural contact and power relations. The discussion draws on social media data including videos, blogs, on-line comments and the authors’ observations, and focuses on NET around Asian people living outside Asia. It argues that the question “where are you really from” itself does not per se contest immigrants’ entitlement. However, what makes difference to the perception of whether one is an “interloper” – someone who is not wanted – is the “tangled” history, memory and expectation imbued and fuelled by power inequality.
“Misunderstanding” and (mis)interpretation as strategic tools in intercultural interactions between preschool children
Authors: Bernstein Katie A.
Published: November 2016

Misunderstandings in intercultural interactions are often taken as givens – unintentional side effects of coming to interactions with different languages and frames of reference – but also as givens that with enough effort and learning on the parts of participants might be repaired or even avoided. Researchers have warned, however, that assuming the intercultural-ness of these interactions to be the a priori cause of misunderstandings ignores possibly more complex, and less comfortable, explanations involving power relations and social identities. Drawing on data from a year-long ethnography of 11 Nepali- and Turkish-speaking children learning English in preschool in the United States, this paper argues that in some cases, it is less helpful to see intercultural-ness as a cause of misunderstanding than as an alibi for it. Through the lens of “strategic misunderstanding”, this paper shows how one English-speaking student exploited the gap in language ability and in symbolic power between himself and an English language learner (ELL) peer in order to fake misunderstanding and thus accomplish his own social aims.
Language choices and symbolic power in intercultural communication: A case study of a multilingual, immigrant Filipino woman in South Korea
Authors: Shin Jaran
Published: November 2016

This paper is a case study of a Filipino woman who migrated to Korea to marry a Korean farmer and who ends up using her knowledge of English to navigate power differences in her exchanges with Korean interlocutors. I extend the tradition of research on intercultural communication by drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power. Employing the ethnography of an embedded case study, this paper adopts inductive thematic analysis and discourse analysis to show (a) Natalie’s attitudes toward Korean and English, (b) her use of English in the Korean school setting as a parent to destabilize power differences, (c) her encounters with institutional/ideological walls that reinforce power differences, and (d) her daughter’s strategies of appropriating her mother’s English speaking status. The data reveal how Natalie – being in an inferior social position due to her status as a foreign bride – strategically used the symbolic power of English in an effort to position herself as a legitimate interlocutor. The clash between the global legitimacy of English and the local legitimacy of Korean replicates on a microscale the larger symbolic struggles that are going on the geopolitical level in intercultural encounters. By discussing the historical, (post)colonial reality that study participants faced, this paper ultimately demonstrates a conflict between various symbolic orders and highlights the eminently paradoxical struggle for symbolic power.
More than fifty shades of grey: Copyright on social network sites
Authors: Pihlaja Stephen
Published: November 2016

Social Network Sites (SNS) have increasingly grown as platforms for users to publish and promote content (which includes videos, written texts, and images), in addition to interacting socially. While all published material both online and offline is normally protected by copyright laws, what constitutes copyrighted material on SNS can be difficult to distinguish. Moreover, users on these sites can have differing expectations of how their content is used and viewed by others, causing confusion around both the legal and ethical obligations of others when they use or cite others’ content. Knowing when to attribute content to users and when to protect user privacy is, therefore, a key issue for researchers, particularly linguists working with language data from SNS. Using three case studies, this article looks at content from SNS where applying copyright rules might be problematic: videos that have been published and subsequently removed from a site; user comments on videos published on YouTube and Facebook; and user comments on sites, which might be considered sensitive, such as adult video pages. I discuss the legal obligations in using this content, by first presenting examples where there is a clear legal requirement to cite the copyrighted work of users. I then highlight the ambiguity of copyright law and suggest ways problematic cases might be addressed, enabling the researcher to act both legally and ethically in copying and using online material. In conclusion, I argue based on these studies that attribution of publicly available content on SNS should be the default position, but that the effect of reproducing materials for academic purposes should be taken into account.
Théâtre et communication de masse: L’exemple du concert party au Togo
Authors: Ricard A. , Weston J.
Published: November 2016

Bei der Untersuchung der Massenmedien in der Dritten Welt ist ihr spezifischer Charakter allzu oft vernachlässigt worden. Kann die Vitalität der folkloristischen Kommunikationsformen von Kleingruppen neue Medien für die Masse, z. B. für eine Stadt hervorbringen? Die Untersuchung zeigt, daß das Publikum der „concert party“, einer Art Folklore-Theater im togolesischen Lomé, gewisse Gruppenmerkmale aufweist, daß es sich dabei aber zugleich schon um ein Massenpublikum handelt, verstreut über den gesamten städtischen und sozialen Raum. In einer Übergangsgesellschaft wie der togolesischen lassen sich also halb-folkloristische, halb-massengerechte Kommunikationsformen beobachten, die zu Recht populär genannt werden dürfen.
The Canadian Experience of Pay-TV: The Failure of Policy and the Policy of Failure
Authors: Meier Werner A.
Published: November 2016

Canada is years ahead of most countries in the fields of Pay-TV, Cable-TV and Direct Broadcasting Satellite (DBS). With this lead, Canada is able to give some important lessons in advanced technology and communications policy to highly industrialized countries. The introduction of pay-tv in 1983 in Canada gives the opportunity to analyze the performance of the Canadian model. In the first part of this paper, the most important facts and events, from the beginning of the pay-tv experiment to the recent decision for reorganization of the market are briefly described. The second part contains an analysis of the ongoing difficulties especially as concerns the contradiction between cultural and industrial strategies. The gap between claims and reality are attributable to private industry as well as to the CRTC and the DOC for their inability to learn from past experience concerning the problems of Canadian cultural and communications policy.
La musique – Discours national ou langage universel?
Authors: Freund Wolfgang S.
Published: November 2016

The present essay questions the idea generally admitted that „music” could be, under all circumstances, an universal language likely to pull down ideological borders and prejudices between people and civilizations. For his argument, the author takes advantage of the opposition prevailing between european and middle-eastern music on the one hand, pointing out on the other hand the importance of different kinds of music such as classical music, light music, music for publicity, as well as military music. The military music is understood in terms of an epistemological code for different artistico-cultural articulations, specific to highly industrialized countries. In conclusion, the author is forwarding substantial doubts as to understanding music as language without borders, insisting on its socio-cultural, and therefore regional profiles.
Individual Communication Styles
Authors: Dragneva Raissa
Published: November 2016

The article presents a brief description of a series of integrated studies on the communication style and way of life of individual personalities, bearers of the basic personality systems, provisionally called synthetic-reflective and analytic-active. A set of psychological, psycho-linguistic and sociological methods has helped investigate the ways of communication behaviour of a number of individuals in various kinds of communication (small social groups, binary interpersonal communication between spouses and close friends, communication with objects of culture and spending leisure time). Correlations were drawn between the communication activity and the components of the basic personality system.