bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Logistic and Economical Preconditions for Production of Pellets From Sawdust
Authors: Kwaśniewski Dariusz
Published: September 2019

The objective of the paper was to determine the costs of production and production effectiveness of pellets made of sawdust and characteristics of logistics of raw material carriage and distribution of pellets. The scope of the paper covered the research carried out in the branch of DREWEX company located in Chotelek town (Świętokrzyskie voivodeship, Province of Busko Zdrój). Unit costs of pellets production were: 513.4 PLN∙t−1 for option 1, 423.3 PLN∙t−1 for option 2 and 393.3 PLN∙t−1 for option 3. The most favourable was option 3 when the pellets were produced on the technology line in the 3-shift system day and night. The average distance to seven cities from which sawdust was delivered was 43.6 km and the distance to which production was distributed to ten cities was on average 105.5 km.
Investment Opportunities in Ecological Farms with Various Production Branches
Authors: Malaga-Toboła Urszula
Published: September 2019

Development investment capacity of farms depends on their potential and scale of production, and thus its revenue, which determines the scale of investment purchases. Most specialized farms have growth potential. Farmers take great interest in modernization and investing in new technologies, machinery and agricultural land, as confirmed by market analysis. Literature references offer information regarding the needs and investment opportunities of territorially diversified farms running conventional production, however the aim of the work is to determine the investment possibilities of organic farms with various production branches. The research included 50 farms certified as ecological producers. In order to answer the question which type of business has the greatest development potential, the examined facilities were divided into branch groups.
Comparing Nozzles with Different Wear Rate and Working with the Same Application Rate of Different Plant Protection Products in Aspect of Plants Condition
Authors: Parafiniuk Stanisław , Subr Alaa Kamel , Milanowski Marek , Krawczuk Anna
Published: September 2019

Three different types of nozzles (different wear rate) were used in this study. They are classified depending on the severity of their wear to three groups: new, worn and damaged nozzles. Those nozzles were spraying with the same application rate (303 l/ha) on two-year field trials; this was achieved by changing the spraying pressure for each group of nozzles in order to get the same application rate. This practice is usually done by operators of sprayers, who calibrate the sprayers on the same application rate every year without changing the nozzles, so they tend to reduce the spraying pressure in order to compensate the flow rate increase due to the nozzles yearly wear. Two types of plant growth regulators (PGR) agents were used in this study, namely: Moddus and Kelpak, they were applied to wheat plants field to reduce lodging. The results showed that applying PGR in the year 2015 produced an increase in the wheat yield and reduction in the plant height regardless the nozzle type, although there was not any occurrence of wheat lodging. In the year 2016, the new nozzles produced higher values of wheat yield than other two types of nozzles.
Analysis of the Development Opportunities of Solar Systems in Serbia
Authors: Tolmac Jasna , Prvulovic Slavica , Nedic Marija , Tolmac Dragisa
Published: September 2019

The paper analyzes the development opportunities of solar systems in the Republic of Serbia. Renewable energy sources and their energy potential, such as solar energy, should be considered in order to meet the needs of consumers. Solar energy can be considered the most modern renewable energy whose utility is still developing, and it is not represented as the utilization of hydro energy sources. Researches show that Serbia is a country with a high RES potential and that it has favorable conditions for production of electrical and heat energy from renewable sources. The aim of this paper is to present the possibilities of using solar energy in Serbia. Energy supply from renewable energy sources is a key factor for each country's strategy, because it directly contributes to reducing the negative effect on the environment.
Effectivity of Piezoelectric Transition Elements in Modelling of Electro-Mechanical Systems
Authors: Zielińska Magdalena , Zboiński Grzegorz
Published: September 2019

The paper presents the coupled electro-mechanical problem. In the numerical analysis of the issue, piezoelectric solid-to-shell transition elements were applied. They combine three-dimensional or hierarchical shell piezoelectric elements with piezoelectric first order elements. The mentioned first order of the element refers to the field of transversal displacements of an element. The mechanical field of the discussed piezoelectric elements may correspond to: the model of three-dimensional theory of elasticity, hierarchical shell models of higher orders or the first order shell model. The electrical field of the potential may be modelled with hierarchical dielectric first order models or higher in transverse direction or with a three-dimensional theory. Effectiveness of modification of algorithms of classical piezoelectric elements was assessed in this paper. To perform such an assessment, curves of convergence of hp method in model tasks are presented. Curves obtained with the use of classical and modified piezoelectric transition elements were set and compared.
Unrecognized posterior dislocation of the humeral joint – a case report in the electronic decision-making system
Authors: Dygut Jacek , Boroń Wiktor , Gołda Maria , Piwowar Monika
Published: September 2019

The paper presents a description of a humeral joint dislocation case placed in full version in the electronic system of presenting content and making decisions. The purpose of the publication is to draw the attention of especially young, inexperienced adepts of medical art to the fact of making mistakes in the medical art. The process of dealing with the correct and incorrect procedures that occur while trying to identify a medical problem is discussed. The presented case gives the opportunity to have a broad view of the issue and is also faced with the need to make decisions by choosing the course of action, at every stage of analyzing the case. Mistakenly made decisions are explained. Finally, the correct diagnosis and medical procedure about the case of a humeral joint dislocation is presented.
The living organism: evolutionary design or an accident
Authors: Irena Roterman , Leszek Konieczny
Published: September 2019

The presented work discusses some evolutionary phenomena underlining the complexity of organism creation and surprisingly the short evolutionary time of this process in particular. Uncommonness of this process ensued from the necessary simultaneous combining of highly complicated biological mechanisms, of which some were generated independently before the direct evolutionary demand. This in conclusion points to still not fully understood biological program ensuring superiority of the permanent evolutionary progress over effects of purely random mutational changes as the driving mechanism in evolution.
Phylogenetic analysis of selected representatives of the genusEricabased on the genes encoding the DNA-dependent RNA polymerase I
Authors: Gomolińska Angelika Maria , Szczecińska Monika , Sawicki Jakub , Krawczyk Katarzyna , Szkudlarz Piotr
Published: September 2019

Therpogenes are characterized by rapidly-evolving sequences. They encode subunits of plastid-encoded (PEP) polymerase (rpoA,rpoB,rpoC1 andrpoC2). This polymerase is one of the most important enzymes in the chloroplasts. The primary aim of the research was to study the rate of molecular evolution in therpogenes and to estimate these genes as phylogenetic markers based on the example of the genusErica(Ericaceae). The testedrpogenes demonstrated similarities on multiple levels, for example: phylogenetic informativeness, variation level, intragenic mutation rates and the effect of intragenic mutations on the properties of encoded peptides. This study did not confirm that the analyzedrpogenes are reliable markers and may be helpful in understanding phylogenetic relationships between species that belong to the same genus. TherpoC2 gene was found to be a most useful phylogenetic marker in theEricagenus, whilerpoC1 was found to be the least promising gene.
Seed germination in Solidago ×niederederi (Asteraceae) and its parental species after two different fruit storage periods
Authors: Pliszko Artur , Kostrakiewicz-Gierałt Kinga
Published: September 2019

In this paper, we present preliminary results from the study on the effect of fruit storage period on seed germination in Solidago ×niederederi and its parental species (S. canadensis and S. virgaurea). We aimed to test the hypothesis that a long fruit storage period (i) reduces the final percentage and speed of seed germination, as well as (ii) increases the number of dead seeds among non-germinated ones. We used fruit samples collected in Kraków, southern Poland, in 2013 and 2016, designating two different fruit storage periods of 3.5 years and 0.5 years, under dry, room temperature conditions. Seeds of all the observed species presented remarkably higher final percentage of germination after the short storage period than after the long one. The seeds subjected to the short fruit storage period achieved significantly higher values of Timson’s index and coefficient of velocity, as well as significantly lower values of the mean germination time than samples subjected to the long fruit storage period. After the long storage period, a significantly higher number of dead seeds among non-germinated seeds was found in S. ×niederederi and S. virgaurea. The performed studies showing that the long fruit storage period led to low contribution of germinated seeds in S. ×niederederi and its parental species suggested that the longtime seed desiccation had a negative impact on final germination. Considering that the hybrid can be potentially cultivated for scientific, medicinal or ornamental purposes, the suggested fruit storage period, under dry, room temperature conditions, should be shorter than three years. However, we realize that the response to long storage may vary in different populations and, therefore, further investigations are needed.
Design of a microgrid local energy market on a blockchain-based information system
Authors: Kirpes Benedikt , Mengelkamp Esther , Schaal Georg , Weinhardt Christof
Published: September 2019

In this paper, we propose a model-based system architecture for an interoperable blockchain-based local energy market for prosumers in a residential microgrid setting. Based on the Smart Grid Architecture Model our analysis deduced 21 organizational, informational, technical and blockchain requirements for a local energy market and its underlying information system. These are evaluated in the Landau Microgrid case study. We derive, that a clear value proposition for the key stakeholders, standardization of data exchange and communication, and a suitable physical implementation are the major challenges.
Third upper molar enlargement in sigmodontine rodents (Cricetidae): morphological disparity and evolutionary convergence
Authors: Ronez Christophe , Barbière Franck , De Santis Luciano , Pardiñas Ulyses F.J.
Published: September 2019

We studied the enlargement of the upper third molar (M3), with respect to the upper second molar in sigmodontine rodents, the largest subfamily of living cricetids. M3 is enlarged in extant and extinct members of at least six tribes (Andinomyini, Euneomyini, Oryzomyini, Phyllotini, Reithrodontini and Sigmodontini), all of them also sharing hypsodonty, planate crowns and overall dental simplification in the context of Sigmodontinae. Enlargement is expressed in four ways, including simplification or modest complication of occlusal design on a single plane. M3 enlargement in sigmodontines is primarily associated with increasing herbivory rather than strictly with phylogeny, and thus presents a classic example of evolutionary convergence.
Simulation for Jewelry Production Process Improvement Using Line Balancing: A Case Study
Authors: Supsomboon Srisawat
Published: September 2019

Thai jewelry is the world’s leading jewelry which has gained high reputation and recognition from customers worldwide. In the past decade, jewelry have become one of the top ten export product of Thailand with the current export value of around 58,000 million baht per year which is 3.4 percent of all Thailand export products. Due to the high competition in the world market, however, Thai jewelry manufacturers needs to continue to improve their product quality as well as process efficiency in order to gain more market share. Currently, computer-aided tools have become more powerful tool in jewelry production management. They have been used to design production process, plant and workstation layout, production planning, worker’s scheduling, and other decisive decision making in both high management and shop floor levels. This research demonstrates a case study of plant simulation application for jewelry production process improvement. The objective is to reduce bottlenecks and increase productivity in wax pattern and casting processes using line balancing. Various scenarios have been proposed in order to support different level of desired output rate due to the increase of demand. The results of line balancing and simulation models reduce bottlenecks. Hence, productivity is increased. The desired throughput rates are achieved with the minimum number of workers and machine in the system.
Organizational Innovation and Cost Reduction Analysis of Manufacturing Process – Case Study
Authors: Chandran Senthil , Poklemba Robert , Sopko Jakub , Šafár Leoš
Published: September 2019

Innovation is the key to the growth of each business in a fast-changing world. Innovations affect financial activities because the successful innovation opens the new markets, gives the opportunity to reduce costs or introduce new products and services with a higher profit margin. Each organization, institution, enterprise or individual can be innovative. Innovations may not be implemented only in large enterprises, but also in medium or small. The aim of this paper is to innovate and optimize the polishing process in production plant with variant production. In this paper case study is used as research method which includes measurements and observation. The paper is focused on five variants of one product. We obtained the required data by measuring in a manufacturing plant in southern India in Madurai. At the end the results are summarized, and the optimization of the polishing process is proposed.
Crystal structure of (N-n-butyl, N-methyl-dithiocarbamato-κ2 S,S′)-chlorido-dimethyl-tin(IV), C8H18ClNS2Sn
Authors: Lee See Mun , Lo Kong Mun , Tiekink Edward R.T.
Published: September 2019

C8H18ClNS2Sn, triclinic, P1̄ (no. 2), a = 6.4399(2) Å, b = 9.6430(3) Å, c = 11.6944(1) Å, α = 91.966(2)°, β = 101.821(2)°, γ = 105.391(3)°, V = 682.30(3) Å3, Z = 2, R
gt(F) = 0.0227, wR
ref(F
2) = 0.0609, T = 100 K.
Crystal structure of 4-chloro-N′-[(1E)-(3-ethoxy-2-hydroxyphenyl)methylidene]benzohydrazide – a Z′ = 3 structure, C16H15ClN2O3
Authors: Lee See Mun , Lo Kong Mun , Tiekink Edward R.T.
Published: September 2019

C16H15ClN2O3, orthorhombic, Pbca (no. 61), a = 18.7178(2) Å, b = 15.2296(2) Å, c = 32.0558(3) Å, V = 9137.97(18) Å3, Z = 24, R
gt(F) = 0.0407, wR
ref(F
2) = 0.1099, T = 100(2) K.
Mechanics of Investment Drivers in Chinese Economy
Authors: Shobande Olatunji Abdul , Shodipe Oladimeji Tomiwa
Published: September 2019

We examine the predictors of investment in the Chinese economy for the period 1973-2018. Our study adopts the Mark Nerlove (1962) partial adjustment hypothesis combined with instrumental econometric techniques based on the condition of the data used. Our results provide strong evidence that supports savings, export earnings, and final consumption expenditure as correlates of predictors of investment in China. Based on empirical results, we strongly recommend the integration of the unbaked population to a formal financial service to further stimulate more investment in the Chinese economy.
Emotion regulation: A treatment target for autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Reyes Nuri M. , Pickard Katherine , Reaven Judy
Published: September 2019

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to experience difficulties with emotion regulation (ER). Treatments designed to address ER difficulties in individuals with ASD are emerging. The authors review cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based treatments that have focused on ER difficulties in youth and young adults with ASD. In general, these treatments addressing ER skills have included awareness of emotions/psychoeducation about emotions, frustration tolerance, and ER skills, as well as practice and use of these skills during group therapy that sometimes includes caregivers. The results from these interventions are encouraging for individuals with high-functioning ASD because ER skills tend to improve following treatment. The inclusion of ER in other ASD treatments is discussed.
Outcomes of an emotion regulation intervention group in young adults with autism spectrum disorder
Authors: Hartmann Kathrin , Urbano Maria R. , Raffaele C. Teal , Kreiser Nicole L. , Williams Takeshia V. , Qualls Lydia R. , Elkins David E.
Published: September 2019

Individuals on the autism spectrum experience difficulties in social relationships and emotion regulation. The aim of the present exploratory research study was to develop and explore the effectiveness of a manualized emotion regulation group intervention for autistic adults to improve emotion regulation and social communication. The group participants included seven young adults (age > 18 years) on the autism spectrum. Primary outcome measures were the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS-2) and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Group participants reported significant improvements on the Social Communication and Interaction subscale (SCI; t = 2.601, p = .041), the Social Awareness (AWR; t = 3.163, p = .019), and the Social Cognition (COG; t = 4.861, p = .003) subscales of the SRS-2: Self Report. Overall, this study provides preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of a group treatment approach that focuses on emotion regulation to improve social interactions for young adults on the autism spectrum.
Dependencias no locales y cadenas de verbos auxiliares
Authors: García Fernández Luis , Krivochen Diego Gabriel
Published: September 2019

El objetivo de este trabajo es entender el comportamiento de las perífrasis verbales y, especialmente, de las perífrasis verbales formadas por más de un auxiliar, es decir, aquellas en las que hay una cadena de auxiliares. Para ello, se aportarán datos que afectan a dos fenómenos de desplazamiento de constituyentes: por un lado, la anteposición de la forma no finita del verbo léxico (específicamente, gerundios) y el consecuente problema de la posición del sujeto y, por otro, la subida de clíticos. Mostraremos que estos casos de anteposición de gerundio presentan dificultades teóricas y empíricas para los modelos de estructura de frase ortodoxos, que pueden no obstante solucionarse adoptando un enfoque de desplazamiento como multidominancia en una gramática de adjunción lexicalizada. La solución propuesta aquí, argumentaremos, puede extenderse a otras áreas de la gramática, como el movimiento Qu-.
La construccionalización de la desiderativa no sea que + subjuntivo como Motivación de un acto de habla previo
Authors: Núñez Pinero Lorena
Published: September 2019

En este artículo se ofrece un análisis de un tipo de construcción compuesta por dos oraciones: Trae el paraguas, no sea que llueva esta tarde y Trae el paraguas, no sea que se mojen los libros.La segunda oración, encabezada por una negación y un verbo de suceso, era una desiderativa negativa que se construccionalizó como subordinada. En la nueva construcción la subordinada desempeña la función pragmática Motivación, es decir, el hablante justifica con ella el acto de habla anterior. El hablante no desea el cumplimiento del evento introducido por la oración subordinada y por ello busca un remedio o, si no tiene remedio, una forma de resistirse a ello. Así, la función pragmática Motivación se codifica morfosintácticamente, bien mediante una oración de interpretación final negativa, o bien mediante una oración de interpretación causal.
Mas allá del supuesto de continuidad. Minimalismo radical en niños con TEL
Authors: Lorenzo Guillermo , Vares Elena
Published: September 2019

Este trabajo se plantea la cuestión de si las formas de lenguaje a que dan lugar los trastornos del desarrollo son continuas en relación con las formas propias del desarrollo típico. Se sugiere, en concreto, la adopción de una perspectiva que, paralelamente a la teoría generativa contemporánea, va “más allá” del criterio de adecuación explicativa y aborda el caso desde la perspectiva del llamado “problema de diseño”. El planteamiento implica preguntarse si el lenguaje desarrollado atípicamente obedece al tipo de criterios de optimización de diseño que hacen del lenguaje, técnicamente hablando, un objeto “cuasi” perfecto. El trabajo se basa en el análisis de una muestra de español de niños con TEL obtenida experimentalmente, que nos lleva a concluir que, en efecto, en las gramáticas subyacentes prevalecen los efectos de optimización (o “tercer factor”) sobre los principios gramaticales específicos de dominio.
Tradición y modernidad en la organización del discurso en español en el siglo XVIII
Authors: Garcés Gómez Mª Pilar
Published: September 2019

El objetivo de esta investigación es mostrar cómo se organiza el discurso en textos prosísticos del siglo XVIII, periodo de gran relevancia en la historia de la lengua española pues en él se desarrollan nuevos modelos de organización discursiva que se manifiestan en una forma de expresión más sencilla y a la vez más precisa y matizada. Nos centramos en el estudio de dos tipos de marcadores discursivos, de ordenación y de explicación, que presentan un empleo habitual en la prosa de esta época y que muestran, por un lado, una delimitación de las formas y una distribución de las funciones en los respectivos paradigmas y, por otro, la incorporación de nuevos signos y de nuevas funciones y valores discursivos en los ya existentes. El análisis nos permite demostrar que las funciones y valores discursivos que presentan estos marcadores en los textos escritos de la primera etapa del español moderno configuran los modos en que se establecerá la estructuración del discurso en los siglos XIX y XX, cuando se consolidan y se amplían estos usos. Las bases teóricas de la investigación se sustentan en los conceptos de gramaticalización por expansión, subjetivizacion y tradiciones discursivas; con los dos primeros se explican los factores internos que han motivado el desarrollo de estos marcadores discursivos hasta configurarse como tales en el Setecientos; el tercero permite dar cuenta de la incorporación, difusión y arraigo de los marcadores en diferentes géneros y modelos textuales.
Local Crowdsourcing for Annotating Audio: the Elevator Annotator platform
Authors: Karavellas Themistoklis , Prameswari Anggarda , Inel Oana , De Boer Victor
Published: September 2019

Crowdsourcing and other human computation techniques have proven useful in collecting large numbers of annotations for various datasets. In the majority of cases, online platforms are used when running crowdsourcing campaigns. Local crowdsourcing is a variant where annotation is done on specific physical locations. This paper describes a local crowdsourcing concept, platform and experiment. The case setting concerns eliciting annotations for an audio archive. For the experiment, we developed a hardware platform designed to be deployed in building elevators. To evaluate the effectiveness of the platform and to test the influence of location on the annotation results, an experiment was set up in two different locations. In each location two different user interaction modalities are used. The results show that our simple local crowdsourcing setup is able to achieve acceptable accuracy levels with up to 4 annotations per hour, and that the location has a significant effect on accuracy.
Autocompletion interfaces make crowd workers slower, but their use promotes response diversity
Authors: Liu Xipei , Bagrow James
Published: September 2019

Creative tasks such as ideation or question proposal are powerful applications of crowdsourcing, yet the quantity of workers available for addressing practical problems is often insufficient. To enable scalable crowdsourcing thus requires gaining all possible efficiency and information from available workers. One option for text-focused tasks is to allow assistive technology, such as an autocompletion user interface (AUI), to help workers input text responses. But support for the efficacy of AUIs is mixed. Here we designed and conducted a randomized experiment where workers were asked to provide short text responses to given questions. Our experimental goal was to determine if an AUI helps workers respond more quickly and with improved consistency by mitigating typos and misspellings. Surprisingly, we found that neither occurred: workers assigned to the AUI treatment were slower than those assigned to the non-AUI control and their responses were more diverse, not less, than those of the control. Both the lexical and semantic diversities of responses were higher, with the latter measured using word2vec. A crowdsourcer interested in worker speed may want to avoid using an AUI, but using an AUI to boost response diversity may be valuable to crowdsourcers interested in receiving as much novel information from workers as possible.
¿Qué modos de uso propone el profesorado de matemáticas en formación inicial para la enseñanza del teorema de Pitágoras en educación secundaria?
Authors: Chaverri-Hernández Jorhan José , Hernández-Arce Kimberly , Castillo-Céspedes María José , Vallejos-Meléndez David , Picado-Alfaro Miguel
Published: September 2019

El artículo presenta un estudio de casos sobre los significados que un grupo de profesores de matemáticas en formación inicial otorga al teorema de Pitágoras. Para esto, se enfatizó el análisis de uno de los organizadores del currículo: los modos de uso de un concepto matemático. Los participantes fueron 20 estudiantes de Enseñanza de la Matemática, provenientes de las 4 universidades públicas de Costa Rica donde se oferta esta carrera. La información se recolectó mediante el diseño y la aplicación de un cuestionario compuesto por 7 ítems tanto para el planteo como para la resolución de tareas sobre los usos del teorema de Pitágoras. Se destacan las respuestas dadas a 2 de esos ítems, vinculados a la fenomenología de un concepto matemático. Se utilizó uno de los componentes del análisis didáctico, el análisis de contenido, como técnica para examinar y caracterizar las situaciones junto con los contextos que ese grupo de estudiantes propone en el planteamiento y la resolución de tareas matemáticas enlazadas a la funcionalidad del teorema. Los resultados muestran que dicho teorema se concibe con el propósito de resolver tareas en situaciones matemáticas, basadas en el cálculo de longitudes; aunado a esto, se reconocen a) ciertas dificultades en los participantes para plantear asignaciones basadas en circunstancias distintas a un entorno matemático y b) que la calidad de las tareas propuesta es diversa.
Las divergencias entre la ciudad y el Estado
Authors: Zambrano Pantoja Fabio Roberto
Published: September 2019

Las ciudades latinoamericanas son el resultado de la estrategia de un imperio urbano como fue el que construyó España en las Américas. España conquistaba y fundaba ciudades y al contrario del Imperio portugués, la huella de la urbanización marcaba la búsqueda de recursos. Donde había minas se fundaban ciudades mineras, donde había poblaciones de nativos tributarios se fundaban ciudades administrativas, y las ciudades puertos aseguraban la conexión con la metrópoli distante. Todas estas ciudades, así como las villas y parroquias de ellas dependientes, eran creaciones del Estado, y es por lo que una de sus funciones era la de representarlo. Es así como, más allá de su tamaño o de su esplendor arquitectónico, la existencia de la ciudad está asociada a la significación del poder real.
First record of Glycera guatemalensis and G. sphyrabrancha (Annelida: Glyceridae) from Western Mexico
Authors: García-Garza María Elena , Torres-Manríquez Iliana , Tovar-Hernández María Ana , De León-González Jesús Angel
Published: September 2019

Introduction: Glycerides, commonly called “blood worms”, are relatively thin polychaetes that reach considerable sizes. They have been reported for all the seas of the world from the intertidal zone to abyssal depths. Objective: Evidence the presence of two species of Glycera for the littorals of the Mexican Pacific. Methods: An analysis of the glycerides of the Pacific coast of Mexico was carried out, finding two species that were collected, one of shrimp trawl at a depth of 18 meters off Puertecitos, Baja California, as well as by manual sampling in the intertidal zone of Concepción Bay, Baja California Sur in the Gulf of California. For their taxonomic determination, morphological characters of greater relevance for their identification were examined, such as jaws, aileron shape, parapodia, chaetae, and the type of pharyngeal papillae. Results: We diagnosed and schematized Glycera guatemalensis Böggemann & Fiege, 2001 and Glycera sphyrabrancha Schmarda, 1861. Conclusions: Glycera guatemalensis described for Guatemala and Glycera sphyrabrancha described for Jamaica, are recorded for the first time for the Gulf of California.
Morphological and molecular differences between the Amphiamerican populations of Antillesoma (Sipuncula: Antillesomatidae), with the description of a new species
Authors: Silva-Morales Itzahí , López-Aquino Mónica J. , Islas-Villanueva Valentina , Ruiz-Escobar Fernando , Bastida-Zavala J. Rolando
Published: September 2019

Introduction: The sipunculans are a group of marine invertebrates that have been little studied in the tropical eastern Pacific (TEP). Antillesoma antillarum is a species belonging to the monospecific family Antillesomatidae, considered widely distributed in tropical and subtropical localities across the globe. Objective: The main objective of this work was to examine the morphological and molecular differences between specimens from both coasts of tropical America to clarify the taxonomy of this species. Methods: We examined the morphology with material from the Mexican Caribbean and southern Mexican Pacific. To perform molecular analyses, two sequences of the COI molecular marker were obtained from specimens collected in Panteón Beach, Oaxaca, southern Mexican Pacific, and compared with four sequences identified as A. antillarum in GenBank, all of them from different localities. A phylogenetic reconstruction was performed with the maximum likelihood method and genetic distances were calculated with the Kimura 2P model and compared to reference values. Results: The phylogenetic analysis revealed three different lineages of Antillesoma that are well supported by bootstrap values: Antillesoma antillarum sensu stricto from the Caribbean Sea and Florida; a sister group to the one represented by our samples from the Mexican Pacific; and a third group from Thailand. Conclusion: Based on morphological traits and molecular data, Antillesoma mexicanum sp. nov. is described from the Mexican Pacific, differing from A. antillarum in the trunk papillae, color patterns and, additionally, the specimens from the Caribbean attain significantly bigger trunk sizes than the ones Pacific.
Efecto del cadmio sobre la mortalidad de adultos de Polydora sp. (Polychaeta: Spionidae) en el laboratorio
Authors: Herrera-Perez Melissa , Méndez Nuria
Published: September 2019

Introducción: diversos estudios han demostrado el efecto del Cd sobre la mortalidad y otras respuestas fisiológicas de diversas especies de poliquetos. Objetivo: evaluar el efecto tóxico del Cd en la mortalidad de adultos de Polydora sp. como especie prueba para estudios ecotoxicológicos. Métodos: los especímenes fueron recolectados en el humedal costero Poza de la Arenilla, Callao, Peru. Los organismos fueron aclimatados durante dos semanas con agua de mar y sedimento y posteriormente, tres días en agua de mar, con 30 ‰ de salinidad y temperatura entre 20 a 22 °C. Los organismos se expusieron a las concentraciones nominales 75, 11.25, 1.69, 0.25; 0.04 mg/L de Cd y un control. Se analizaron tres réplicas de diez individuos por tratamiento durante 72 horas para registrar mortalidad. Se aplicaron las pruebas de Kruskal-Wallis y de U-Man Whitney para detectar las diferencias significativas entre tratamientos. Resultados: el efecto adverso del Cd sobre la mortalidad fue mucho más evidente en los tratamientos de 11.25 y 75 mg/L a partir de las primeras 24 horas de exposición. La concentración letal media de Cd a 72h fue de 2.59 mg/L. Conclusiones: la CL50 está en el mismo orden de magnitud de otras especies de poliquetos. Este es el primer estudio ecotoxicológico en Perú con poliquetos en condiciones de laboratorio. Se sugiere la utilización de Polydora sp. como especie prueba en experimentos de ecotoxicología, utilizando concentraciones nominales subletales de Cd que no superen los 1.6 mg/L para la observación de varias respuestas fisiológicas.
Frank Lehman, Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema
Authors: Heine Erik
Published: September 2019

Frank Lehman, Hollywood Harmony: Musical Wonder and the Sound of Cinema

New York: Oxford University Press, 2018 [xvii, 292 pp. ISBN: 9780190606404 $39.95 (trade paper)]. The Oxford Music/Media Series.
Technology-Based Teaching Material Development Training for Pre-Service Teachers to Improve Students’ Learning Outcomes
Authors: Fakhruddin Zulfah , Amzah Amzah , Nurchalis Nur Fadillah
Published: September 2019

This research aimed to examine the effectiveness of technology-based English teaching material development training to improve students’ learning outcomes. This research used quasi-experimental design. The instrument of this research was a multiple-choice test. In collecting data, the writers applied pre-test, treatment, and post-test to students. There were four pre-service teachers who involved in the treatment of this research. Two of them taught in experimental classes and the other two taught in control classes. Pre-service teachers who taught in experimental classes had been trained for ten meetings, while those who taught in control classes had not been trained. This research used SPSS 17 to analyze the data. The result of this research found that there was significant difference of students’ learning outcomes between experimental and control classes after having the treatment. Students’ learning outcomes in experimental classes was higher than in control classes. The effect size of significant level after calculated by Eta squared was 0,042. Event though it had small effect, the technology-based English teaching material training given to the pre-service teachers was quite effective to improve students’ learning outcome in MTs Negeri Parepare.
Optimal Dynamic Auctions Are Virtual Welfare Maximizers
Authors: Mirrokni Vahab , Leme Renato Paes , Tang Pingzhong , Zuo Song
Published: September 2019

We are interested in the setting where a seller sells sequentially arriving items, one per period, via a dynamic auction. At the beginning of each period, each buyer draws a private valuation for the item to be sold in that period and this valuation is independent across buyers and periods. The auction can be dynamic in the sense that the auction at period t can be conditional on the bids in that period and all previous periods, subject to certain appropriately defined incentive compatible and individually rational conditions. Perhaps not surprisingly, the revenue optimal dynamic auctions are computationally hard to find and existing literatures that aim to approximate the optimal auctions are all based on solving complex dynamic programs. It remains largely open on the structural interpretability of the optimal dynamic auctions.

In this paper, we show that any optimal dynamic auction is a virtual welfare maximizer subject to some monotone allocation constraints. In particular, the explicit definition of the virtual value function above arises naturally from the primal-dual analysis by relaxing the monotone constraints. We further develop an ironing technique that gets rid of the monotone allocation constraints. Quite different from Myerson’s ironing approach, our technique is more technically involved due to the interdependence of the virtual value functions across buyers. We nevertheless show that ironing can be done approximately and efficiently, which in turn leads to a Fully Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme of the optimal dynamic auction.
Variance Reduction in Monte Carlo Counterfactual Regret Minimization (VR-MCCFR) for Extensive Form Games Using Baselines
Authors: Schmid Martin , Burch Neil , Lanctot Marc , Moravcik Matej , Kadlec Rudolf , Bowling Michael
Published: September 2019

Learning strategies for imperfect information games from samples of interaction is a challenging problem. A common method for this setting, Monte Carlo Counterfactual Regret Minimization (MCCFR), can have slow long-term convergence rates due to high variance. In this paper, we introduce a variance reduction technique (VR-MCCFR) that applies to any sampling variant of MCCFR. Using this technique, periteration estimated values and updates are reformulated as a function of sampled values and state-action baselines, similar to their use in policy gradient reinforcement learning. The new formulation allows estimates to be bootstrapped from other estimates within the same episode, propagating the benefits of baselines along the sampled trajectory; the estimates remain unbiased even when bootstrapping from other estimates. Finally, we show that given a perfect baseline, the variance of the value estimates can be reduced to zero. Experimental evaluation shows that VR-MCCFR brings an order of magnitude speedup, while the empirical variance decreases by three orders of magnitude. The decreased variance allows for the first time CFR+ to be used with sampling, increasing the speedup to two orders of magnitude.
Practical Algorithms for Multi-Stage Voting Rules with Parallel Universes Tiebreaking
Authors: Wang Jun , Sikdar Sujoy , Shepherd Tyler , Zhao Zhibing , Jiang Chunheng , Xia Lirong
Published: September 2019

STV and ranked pairs (RP) are two well-studied voting rules for group decision-making. They proceed in multiple rounds, and are affected by how ties are broken in each round. However, the literature is surprisingly vague about how ties should be broken. We propose the first algorithms for computing the set of alternatives that are winners under some tiebreaking mechanism under STV and RP, which is also known as parallel-universes tiebreaking (PUT). Unfortunately, PUT-winners are NP-complete to compute under STV and RP, and standard search algorithms from AI do not apply. We propose multiple DFS-based algorithms along with pruning strategies, heuristics, sampling and machine learning to prioritize search direction to significantly improve the performance. We also propose novel ILP formulations for PUT-winners under STV and RP, respectively. Experiments on synthetic and realworld data show that our algorithms are overall faster than ILP.
Running Time Analysis of MOEA/D with Crossover on Discrete Optimization Problem
Authors: Huang Zhengxin , Zhou Yuren , Chen Zefeng , He Xiaoyu
Published: September 2019

Decomposition-based multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) are a class of popular methods for solving multiobjective optimization problems (MOPs), and have been widely studied in numerical experiments and successfully applied in practice. However, we know little about these algorithms from the theoretical aspect. In this paper, we present a running time analysis of a simple MOEA with crossover based on the MOEA/D framework (MOEA/D-C) on four discrete optimization problems. Our rigorous theoretical analysis shows that the MOEA/D-C can obtain a set of Pareto optimal solutions to cover the Pareto front of these problems in expected running time apparently lower than the one without crossover. Moreover, the MOEA/D-C only needs to decompose an MOP into a few scalar optimization subproblems according to several simple weight vectors. This result suggests that the use of crossover in decomposition-based MOEA can simplify the setting of weight vector for different problems and make the algorithm more efficient. This study theoretically explains why some decomposition-based MOEAs work well in computational experiments and provides insights in design of MOEAs for MOPs in future research.
Evolving Action Abstractions for Real-Time Planning in Extensive-Form Games
Authors: Mariño Julian R. H. , Moraes Rubens O. , Toledo Claudio , Lelis Levi H. S.
Published: September 2019

A key challenge for planning systems in real-time multiagent domains is to search in large action spaces to decide an agent’s next action. Previous works showed that handcrafted action abstractions allow planning systems to focus their search on a subset of promising actions. In this paper we show that the problem of generating action abstractions can be cast as a problem of selecting a subset of pure strategies from a pool of options. We model the selection of a subset of pure strategies as a two-player game in which the strategy set of the players is the powerset of the pool of options— we call this game the subset selection game. We then present an evolutionary algorithm for solving such a game. Empirical results on small matches of µRTS show that our evolutionary approach is able to converge to a Nash equilibrium for the subset selection game. Also, results on larger matches show that search algorithms using action abstractions derived by our evolutionary approach are able to substantially outperform all state-of-the-art planning systems tested.
Pareto Optimization for Subset Selection with Dynamic Cost Constraints
Authors: Roostapour Vahid , Neumann Aneta , Neumann Frank , Friedrich Tobias
Published: September 2019

In this paper, we consider the subset selection problem for function f with constraint bound B which changes over time. We point out that adaptive variants of greedy approaches commonly used in the area of submodular optimization are not able to maintain their approximation quality. Investigating the recently introduced POMC Pareto optimization approach, we show that this algorithm efficiently computes a φ = (αf/2)(1− α1f )-approximation, where αf is the sube modularity ratio of f, for each possible constraint bound b ≤ B. Furthermore, we show that POMC is able to adapt its set of solutions quickly in the case that B increases. Our experimental investigations for the influence maximization in social networks show the advantage of POMC over generalized greedy algorithms.
One-Network Adversarial Fairness
Authors: Adel Tameem , Valera Isabel , Ghahramani Zoubin , Weller Adrian
Published: September 2019

There is currently a great expansion of the impact of machine learning algorithms on our lives, prompting the need for objectives other than pure performance, including fairness. Fairness here means that the outcome of an automated decisionmaking system should not discriminate between subgroups characterized by sensitive attributes such as gender or race. Given any existing differentiable classifier, we make only slight adjustments to the architecture including adding a new hidden layer, in order to enable the concurrent adversarial optimization for fairness and accuracy. Our framework provides one way to quantify the tradeoff between fairness and accuracy, while also leading to strong empirical performance.
Making Money from What You Know - How to Sell Information?
Authors: Alkoby Shani , Wang Zihe , Sarne David , Tang Pingzhong
Published: September 2019

Information plays a key role in many decision situations. The rapid advancement in communication technologies makes information providers more accessible, and various information providing platforms can be found nowadays, most of which are strategic in the sense that their goal is to maximize the providers’ expected profit. In this paper, we consider the common problem of a strategic information provider offering prospective buyers information which can disambiguate uncertainties the buyers have, which can be valuable for their decision making. Unlike prior work, we do not limit the information provider’s strategy to price setting but rather enable her flexibility over the way information is sold, specifically enabling querying about specific outcomes and the elimination of a subset of non-true world states alongside the traditional approach of disclosing the true world state. We prove that for the case where the buyer is self-interested (and the information provider does not know the true world state beforehand) all three methods (i.e., disclosing the true worldstate value, offering to check a specific value, and eliminating a random value) are equivalent, yielding the same expected profit to the information provider. For the case where buyers are human subjects, using an extensive set of experiments we show that the methods result in substantially different outcomes. Furthermore, using standard machine learning techniques the information provider can rather accurately predict the performance of the different methods for new problem settings, hence substantially increase profit.
Potential Life-Years Lost: The Impact of the Cancer Drug Regulatory and Funding Process in Canada
Authors: Gotfrit Joanna , Shin John J.W. , Mallick Ranjeeta , Stewart David J. , Wheatley-Price Paul
Published: September 2019

Background

Canada has an established publicly funded health care system with a complex drug approval and funding process. After proof of efficacy (POE; key publication/presentation) and before becoming publicly accessible, each drug undergoes a Health Canada approval process, a health technology assessment (HTA), a pricing negotiation, and finally individual provincial funding agreements. We quantified potential life-years lost during this process.

Methods

We analyzed drugs for advanced lung, breast, and colorectal cancer that underwent the HTA process between 2011 and 2016. Life-years lost were calculated by multiplying documented improvement in progression-free and overall survival, number of eligible patients, and time from POE to first public funding. For conservative calculation, we assumed all eligible patients in Canada had access at the time of first public funding, whereas in reality provinces fund at different time points.

Results

We analyzed 21 drugs. Of these, 15 have been funded publicly. The time from POE to first public funding ranged from 14.0 to 99.2 months (median 26.6 months). Total overall life-years lost from POE to first public funding were 39,067 (lung 32,367; breast 6,691). Progression-free life-years lost from POE to first public funding were 48,037 (lung 9,139, breast 15,827, colorectal 23,071).

Conclusion

The number of potential life-years lost during the drug regulatory and funding process in Canada is substantial, largely driven by delays to funding of colorectal cancer drugs. Recognizing that interprovincial differences exist and that eligible patients may not all receive a given drug, if even a fraction does so, the impact of delays remains substantive. Collaborative national initiatives are required to address this major barrier to treatment access.