bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Use of Frequency Analysis as a Complementary and Explanatory Element for Time Domain Analysis in Measurements of the Ability to Maintain Balance
Authors: Jurkojć Jacek , Wodarski Piotr , Michnik Robert , Marszałek Wojciech , Słomka Kajetan , Gzik Marek
Published: April 2021

Assessment of human balance is one of the most common diagnostic tests, both in medical applications and during sports training. Many new methods of measuring are introduced in these studies; however, the analysis of results is still carried out mainly based on the values determined in the time domain – the average COP speed or the ellipse field of the prediction. The aim of the current work is to present the possibilities for the practical application of frequency analyses in assessment of the ability to maintain body balance as a method supplementing standard analyses. As part of the study, measurements of the ability to maintain balance in sensory conflict conditions introduced in the form of an oscillating, three-dimensional, virtual scenery were carried out. 27 healthy volunteers (13 women and 14 men) took part in the study. The three-dimensional scenery, presented by means of the Oculus system, oscillated in the sagittal plane with frequencies equal to 0.7 Hz and 1.4 Hz. The frequency value during the measurement was constant or changed in the middle of the test. Measurements were conducted on the FDM Zebris platform. The results were analyzed using developed coefficients determined on the basis of the Short-time Fourier transform (STFT). The use of frequency-domain analyses confirmed that in the COP movement, one can observe a cyclical component corresponding to following the scenery, as well as the appearance of other cyclical components whose observation is important in terms of assessing the ability to maintain balance. It has been shown that the changes in the average COP speed that occur during the measurement can result from changes related to the movement of following the scenery as well as additional body movements indicating a greater or lesser loss of balance. It has been shown that there are differences in the COP movement provoked by the movement of the surrounding scenery, which depend on the parameters of the introduced disturbances – something that can only be observed in results obtained in the frequency domain. The conducted research shows that in measurements involving the ability to maintain one’s balance conducted in sensory conflict conditions, standard time-domain analyses should be supplemented with other types of data analysis, e.g. frequency domain analyses.
Stability of Action and Kinesthetic Perception in Parkinson’s Disease
Authors: Ricotta Joseph , Latash Mark
Published: April 2021

We present a review of action and perception stability within the theoretical framework based on the idea of control with spatial referent coordinates for the effectors at a number of hierarchical levels. Stability of salient variables is ensured by synergies, neurophysiological structures that act in multi-dimensional spaces of elemental variables and limit variance to the uncontrolled manifold during action and iso-perceptual manifold during perception. Patients with Parkinson’s disease show impaired synergic control reflected in poor stability (low synergy indices) and poor agility (low indices of anticipatory synergy adjustments prior to planned quick actions). They also show impaired perception across modalities, including kinesthetic perception. We suggest that poor stability at the level of referent coordinates can be the dominant factor leading to poor stability of percepts.
New Social and Legal Challenges Resulting from the Presence of Islam in 21st Century European Societies
Authors: Combalía Zoila
Published: April 2021

One of the greatest challenges facing the European societies and legal systems arises from the rapid changes that have taken place in recent decades, from a certain level of cultural and religious uniformity towards a landscape of diversity in which Islam has made its presence felt. The viability of coexistence between the Islamic and Western cultures should rest on two foundations: firstly, the acceptance of a common minimum defined by respect for a person´s dignity, that is, an agreement on the question of human rights. Along with this consensus there is also a need for respect and the integration of diversity. This study sets out to analyse the challenges that both issues raise..
Limited Tendering – A Barrier to Get the Best Value for Money or Effective Solution for Extraordinary Situations?
Authors: Kováčiková Hana , Blažo Ondrej
Published: April 2021

A public procurement should be an effective tool through which public authorities shall spend public finances sparingly. With modernisation of this area of law in 2014, a new concept of bids evaluation came forward – a value for money. Now it is more important than any time before to ensure fair tenders to be submitted during the procurement. It is a well-known fact, that only a true competition between the bidders decreases the prices and raises the quality of their bids. But how contracting authorities deal with these goals while procuring without competition? This article analyses limited tendering with focus on extreme urgency. Authors try to give an answer to the question, which attribute of this procedure prevails – its flexible use in extraordinary situations or its interfering effect to value for money achievement.which makes Slovakia open to severe criticism from international human rights bodies.
Sysyemic Lupus Erythematosus with Multiple Organ Damage
Authors: Nicola Andreea Alexandra , Dună Mădălina , Miler Ioana , Petre Nicoleta , Predeţeanu Denisa
Published: April 2021

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous rheumatic disease with various clinical manifestations and a multifactorial pathogenesis. Although the etiology of SLE is unknown, certain risk factors have been identified as promoters of an imbalance in the immune system with antibody formation and tissue damage secondary to the deposition of immune complexes. Women of childbearing age are predominantly affected, regardless of ethnicity.

SLE affects the kidneys in about 50% of patients, lupus nephritis (LN) being a major risk factor for overall morbidity and mortality. The lungs are commonly involved later in the course of the disease, pulmonary involvement in SLE being extremely varied. It includes along with pleuritis which is the most common manifestation, acute lupus pneumonitis, pulmonary vasculitis, pulmonary embolism, diffuse alveolar haemorrhage; opportunistic pulmonary infections or drug toxicity could be other pulmonary manifestations.

We present the case of a young woman with SLE complicated with lupus nephritis class V and pulmonary infarction due to thromobosis of a pulmonary artery. It is a case of SLE with multiple organ damage and life-threatening complications that require interdisciplinary management and appropriate treatment.
Carotid Atherosclerosis Assessment Using Ultrasonography – Making it an Easy and Valuable Tool for the General Practitioner
Authors: Popa Raluca , Stănescu Cristina , Stănescu Dan , Gurghean Adriana
Published: April 2021

The thromboembolism of an asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis (CAS) causes stroke in 10-15% cases and in Europe, stroke causes more than 1 million deaths a year. This important cause of mortality may be evaluated by duplex ultrasound (DUS).

In five decades of experience, carotid DUS has proven to be a risk -free procedure, being widely available, easy to use, inexpensive, painless and quite reproducible.

The purpose of this article was to try to extend the usual indications of DUS assessment of carotid atherosclerosis (CA) in order to offer a tool for less experienced ultrasonographers to gather useful information for optimizing patient’s management. We tried to review the literature and to provide a simple, easy to apply algorithm for estimating the presence and severity of CA.
Gender gaps in education: The long view1
Authors: Evans David K. , Akmal Maryam , Jakiela Pamela
Published: April 2021

Many countries remain far from achieving gender equality in the classroom. Using data from 126 countries, we characterize the evolution of gender gaps in low- and middle-income countries between 1960 and 2010. We document five facts. First, women are more educated today than 50 years ago in every country in the world. Second, they remain less educated than men in the vast majority of countries. Third, in many countries with low levels of education for both men and women in 1960, gender gaps widened as more boys went to school, then narrowed as girls enrolled; thus, gender gaps got worse before they got better. Fourth, gender gaps rarely persist in countries where boys attain high levels of education. Most countries with large, current gender gaps in educational attainment have low levels of male educational attainment, and many also perform poorly on other measures of development such as life expectancy and GDP per capita. Fifth, in the youngest cohorts, women have more education than men in some regions of the world. Although gender gaps in educational attainment are diminishing in most countries, the empirical evidence does not support the hypothesis that reducing the gender gap in schooling consistently leads to smaller gender gaps in labor force participation.
A Survey on Multi-Agent Based Collaborative Intrusion Detection Systems
Authors: Bougueroua Nassima , Mazouzi Smaine , Belaoued Mohamed , Seddari Noureddine , Derhab Abdelouahid , Bouras Abdelghani
Published: April 2021

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) have been widely used in many areas like modeling and simulation of complex phenomena, and distributed problem solving. Likewise, MAS have been used in cyber-security, to build more efficient Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), namely Collaborative Intrusion Detection Systems (CIDS). This work presents a taxonomy for classifying the methods used to design intrusion detection systems, and how such methods were used alongside with MAS in order to build IDS that are deployed in distributed environments, resulting in the emergence of CIDS. The proposed taxonomy, consists of three parts: 1) general architecture of CIDS, 2) the used agent technology, and 3) decision techniques, in which used technologies are presented. The proposed taxonomy reviews and classifies the most relevant works in this topic and highlights open research issues in view of recent and emerging threats. Thus, this work provides a good insight regarding past, current, and future solutions for CIDS, and helps both researchers and professionals design more effective solutions.
An effective integration of the PM 16-QAM modulation in enhanced metropolitan networks with the EDFA amplification
Authors: Róka Rastislav , Šalík Pavol
Published: April 2021

This paper deals with the integration of polarization multiplexed 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation format in optical metropolitan networks enhanced with the signal amplification. Before expensive experimental setup or practical testing and demonstration, we prefer creating of appropriate simulation platform for the optical transmission system. A novelty can be found in adjusting, optimizing and construction of the proposed optical system and functional parts for any modulation format used. So, such simulation platform is first introduced along with possibilities for numerical simulations of its optical components - laser and amplifier. By this way, essential noise tolerances for comparison with the data under real conditions are included. Subsequently, there are characterized implementations of terminal devices in detail with a possibility for upgrading to the dual-polarization mode operation. Finally, simulation results from the simulation platform are presented and a discussion about demands for effective exploitation of the polarization multiplexed 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation in enhanced optical metropolitan networks concludes our contribution.
Design and optimization of 1 × 2
N
Y-branch optical splitters for telecommunication applications
Authors: Serečunová Stanislava , Seyringer Dana , Seyringer Heinz , Uherek František
Published: April 2021

This paper presents the design and optimization of 1 × 2
N
Y-branch optical splitters for telecom applications. A waveguide channel profile, used in the splitter design, is based on a standard silica-on-silicon material platform except for the lengths of the used Y-branches, design parameters such as port pitch between the waveguides and simulation parameters for all splitters were considered fixed. For every Y-branch splitter, insertion loss, non-uniformity, and background crosstalk are calculated. According to the minimum insertion loss and minimum non-uniformity, the optimum length for each Y-branch is determined. Finally, the individual Y-branches are cascade joined to design various Y-branch optical splitters, from 1 × 2 to 1 × 64.
The French Language Olympiad: Promoting language and culture learning
Authors: Meristo Merilyn
Published: April 2021

The aim of this paper is to shed light on promoting teaching and learning the French language and culture through the Olympiad, initiated by a group of practitioners in a community of practice. What makes this Olympiad rather unique is its main focus on cultural knowledge combining it with linguistic aspects. The Olympiad takes place in four different categories taking into account students’ age and prior experience in learning French (e.g. first or second foreign language). In addition, the regional round is organised in Moodle enabling more participants to take part and the national one in situ, at the University of Tallinn. Since the first Olympiad in 2014, the number of competitors has increased and both, private and municipality funded (public) schools participate. The paper provides a detailed overview of the olympiad process: how it was initiated and how it is annually run as well as a description of challenges faced by the organisers.
Teacher beliefs and their manifestation in teaching from the perspective of pre-service teacher trainees
Authors: Součková Zuzana
Published: April 2021

Teacher beliefs play an important role in addressing the issue of teacher training. Teaching philosophy has long been a question of great interest in a wide range of fields in teacher education. There is a growing body of literature that recognises the importance of what teacher trainees or teachers in general think, believe and do in teaching. Studies over the past two decades have provided important information on the possible factors that may impact the formation of teacher beliefs. The paper attempts to explore the relationship between previous school experience and the formation of teacher beliefs among teacher trainees who can provide viewpoints of a teacher and a student at the same time. Moreover, the paper examines teaching methods and techniques that the trainees apply in their teaching as a result of what they believe in as teachers. Data were obtained from semi-structured interviews conducted with pre-service teacher trainees as a part of feedback sessions during teaching practice. By employing qualitative approach, the research contributes to a deeper understanding of the formation and manifestation of teacher beliefs in teaching.
Weighted Dirichlet Process Mixture Models to Accommodate Complex Sample Designs for Linear and Quantile Regression
Authors: Elliott Michael R. , Xia Xi
Published: April 2021

Standard randomization-based inference conditions on the data in the population and makes inference with respect to the repeating sampling properties of the sampling indicators. In some settings these estimators can be quite unstable; Bayesian model-based approaches focus on the posterior predictive distribution of population quantities, potentially providing a better balance between bias correction and efficiency. Previous work in this area has focused on estimation of means and linear and generalized linear regression parameters; these methods do not allow for a general estimation of distributional functions such as quantile or quantile regression parameters. Here we adapt an extended Dirichlet Process Mixture model that allows the DP prior to be a mixture of DP random basis measures that are a function of covariates. These models allow many mixture components when necessary to accommodate the sample design, but can shrink to few components for more efficient estimation when the data allow. We provide an application to the estimation of relationships between serum dioxin levels and age in the US population, either at the mean level (via linear regression) or across the dioxin distribution (via quantile regression) using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Identifying Outliers in Response Quality Assessment by Using Multivariate Control Charts Based on Kernel Density Estimation
Authors: Jin Jiayun , Loosveldt Geert
Published: April 2021

When monitoring industrial processes, a Statistical Process Control tool, such as a multivariate HotellingT2chart is frequently used to evaluate multiple quality characteristics. However, research into the use ofT2charts for survey fieldwork–essentially a production process in which data sets collected by means of interviews are produced–has been scant to date. In this study, using data from the eighth round of the European Social Survey in Belgium, we present a procedure for simultaneously monitoring six response quality indicators and identifying outliers: interviews with anomalous results. The procedure integrates Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) with aT2chart, so that historical “in-control” data or reference to the assumption of a parametric distribution of the indicators is not required. In total, 75 outliers (4.25%) are iteratively removed, resulting in an in-control data set containing 1,691 interviews. The outliers are mainly characterized by having longer sequences of identical answers, a greater number of extreme answers, and against expectation, a lower item nonresponse rate. The procedure is validated by means of ten-fold cross-validation and comparison with the minimum covariance determinant algorithm as the criterion. By providing a method of obtaining in-control data, the present findings go some way toward a way to monitor response quality, identify problems, and provide rapid feedbacksduringsurvey fieldwork.
Measuring and Modeling Food Losses
Authors: Mingione Marco , Fabi Carola , Lasinio Giovanna Jona
Published: April 2021

Within the context of Sustainable Development Goals, progress towards Target 12.3 can be measured and monitored with the Food Loss Index. A major challenge is the lack of data, which dictated many methodology decisions. Therefore, the objective of this work is to present a possible improvement to the modeling approach used by the Food and Agricultural Organization in estimating the annual percentage of food losses by country and commodity. Our proposal combines robust statistical techniques with the strict adherence to the rules of the official statistics. In particular, the case study focuses on cereal crops, which currently have the highest (yet incomplete) data coverage and allow for more ambitious modeling choices. Cereal data is available in 66 countries and 14 different cereal commodities from 1991 to 2014. We use the annual food loss as response variable, expressed as percentage over production, by country and cereal commodity. The estimation work is twofold: it aims at selecting the most important factors explaining losses worldwide, comparing two Bayesian model selection approaches, and then at predicting losses with a Beta regression model in a fully Bayesian framework.
Generalised Regression Estimation Given Imperfectly Matched Auxiliary Data
Authors: Zhang Li-Chun
Published: April 2021

Generalised regression estimation allows one to make use of available auxiliary information in survey sampling. We develop three types of generalised regression estimator when the auxiliary data cannot be matched perfectly to the sample units, so that the standard estimator is inapplicable. The inference remains design-based. Consistency of the proposed estimators is either given by construction or else can be tested given the observed sample and links. Mean square errors can be estimated. A simulation study is used to explore the potentials of the proposed estimators.
What Factors Matter for the Sustainable Professional Development of Teachers? Analysis from Four Countries
Authors: Brandisauskiene Agne , Cesnaviciene Jurate , Miciuliene Rita , Kaminskiene Lina
Published: April 2021

In the 21st century, teachers’ learning is viewed through the lens of sustainable development as a holistic, transformative and collaborative learning process. Acknowledging that teacher professional development is a prerequisite for educational quality, it becomes necessary to look for professional development factors that could be relevant to sustainable professional development. The article explores factors of sustainable professional development of teachers based on data of TALIS 2018 from four Baltic countries (Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania). The study also discusses distinct characteristics of teacher professional development in the analyzed countries. Although traditional forms and methods of professional development still prevail in all countries, teachers also learn through active cooperation. Finnish teachers, more often than teachers in the other countries, worked in teams and shared material, knowledge, etc. with each other; Estonian teachers, more so than teachers in the other countries, took part in long-term training; Latvian teachers were more likely than teachers in the other countries to observe other teachers’ classes and provide feedback. Lithuanian teachers were perhaps the most active in terms of learning, but young teachers with fewer years of service were more likely to engage in long-term and collaborative activities. Finally, the implications for further research are discussed.
Comparative expression analysis of inflammatory and immune-related genes in cattle during acute infection with foot-and-mouth disease virus in Egypt
Authors: El Nahas Abeer F. , Abd El Naby Walaa S.H. , Khatab Shymaa A. , Fergany Al-Zahraa A. , Rashed Rashed R.
Published: April 2021

Introduction

Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly infectious viral disease affecting all cloven-footed domestic animals. The three foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) serotypes A, O and SAT2 are at present the greatest threat to susceptible animals in Egypt. The aim of the present study was, for the host factors associated with different FMDV infections in cattle during the acute phase, to compare these factors’ influence on the expression of the IL-10, TLR-2, TNF-α, CXCL10, CD48, NFATC4 and IFNG inflammatory and immune-related genes.

Materials and methods

Vesicular fluid and epithelium samples were obtained from at least three infected cattle on the same affected farm during three different FMDV outbreaks and were used for serotyping of the virus and for expression analysis of host genes. A two-step RT-PCR was used for diagnosis of the virus with primers specific for each serotype.

Results

In quantitative PCR analysis, the expression patterns of TLR-2 and IFNG were prominent, while NFATC4 expression was absent in all FMDV-infected cattle. The highest expression of CD48 was associated with increased expression of other inflammatory and immune-related genes (IL-10, TLR-2, TNF-α and IFNG), which may be an indication of rapid virus clearance.

Conclusion

The use of vesicular fluid and epithelium for investigation of viral and immune-related gene expression levels in acute FMDV infection is possible. Host-dependent variation in the expression of the studied genes was observed in different FMDV serotype outbreaks.
Testing of pilot 2 m3 exposure chamber for formation of brochantite based patina on copper and copper alloys – objects of practical dimensions
Authors: Bureš R. , Rak P. , Stoulil J.
Published: April 2021

Formation of natural patina on copper and copper alloys objects takes tens of years. There are solutions for patination, which are used in restorers’ practice. However, these artificial patinas are usually based on nitrates, carbonates or chlorides. Patina based on brochantite is the most stable phase under atmospheric conditions. This type of patina was successfully formed in laboratory in a small exposure chamber with higher content of SO2. This work is next step of the experiment to make this method become more practicable. It started with construction 2 m3 exposure chamber and simulation of ideal conditions for patination process. The length of drying phase, homogeneity of conditions, pH of feeding water, colour of patina, placement of samples and final appearance were observed. The chamber construction allows to achieve ideal pH value of feeding water, samples surface became dry during the ventilation and temperature during condensation was stable at 40 °C. These conditions are ideal for patination process.
Gravimetrical, theoretical, and surface morphological investigations of corrosion inhibition effect of 4-(benzoimidazole-2-yl) pyridine on mild steel in hydrochloric acid
Authors: Resen A.M. , Hanoon M. , Salim R.D. , Al-Amiery A.A. , Shaker L.M. , Kadhum A.A.H.
Published: April 2021

The corrosion inhibition efficiency of the novel pyridine namely, 4-(Benzoimidazole-2-yl)pyridine has been studied for mild steel in a 1 M hydrochloric acid environment by utilizing gravimetrical techniques. The synthesized inhibitor exhibits a significant inhibitive efficiency of 93.8% at 0.005 M. The adsorption isotherm of the investigated inhibitor on mild steel surface obeys the Langmuir isotherm. Surface morphology investigated by utilizing scanning electron microscopy (SEM) demonstrates a smooth metal surface with the addition of 4-(Benzoimidazole-2-yl)pyridine in a hydrochloric acid environment. Quantum chemical calculations using density functional theory (DFT) have been used to investigate the molecular structure and behavior of 4-(Benzoimidazole-2-yl) pyridine as a corrosion inhibitor. Different parameters have been calculated using DFT, such as energies of highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest occupied molecular orbital (EHOMO and ELUMO), energy gap (∆E), and dipole moment (μ). These parameters were important to elucidate the behavior of the investigated molecule as a corrosion inhibitor in acidic solution and also suggest the mechanism of inhibition.
The change in the morphology of the blasted surface after phosphating and cataphoretic coating
Authors: Brezinová J. , Guzanová A. , Draganovská D. , Brezina J. , Viňáš J.
Published: April 2021

The paper focuses on the quality of coatings applied by cataphoretic deposition and cataphoretic deposition technology with a phosphate layer. The quality of the coatings was evaluated by determining the roughness of the coatings, the morphology of the coatings, spectral analyses were performed detecting the presence of individual elements in the coatings. There was analysed also defect – uncoated spot.
Striving for a restitution of the former splendor? Reasons for municipal splits in Poland
Authors: Łukomska Julita
Published: April 2021

Shaping the administrative division of the country is influenced by various factors. Based on the analysis of 22 municipal divorces in Poland between 1995 and 2019 the article attempts to identify the determinant factors of these splits. The article examines environmental (economic or cultural) and political factors which may stimulate the fragmentation initiatives. The results indicate that in Poland cultural factors appear to be at least as important as economic ones. An argument of great significance in the process of a new municipality creation (both in the case of successful and unsuccessful splits) was the memory of the inhabitants about the time when they were operating as a separate municipality. In case of rural municipalities the existence of a second almost equally important population centre in the municipality was an important factor contributing to the municipal splits.
Modeling and Analyzing the Factors Affecting the Mortality of Pedestrians in Urban Accidents
Authors: Tortum Ahmet , Motamadnia Alireza
Published: April 2021

The nature of urban and rural accidents has been different from each other in some of the factors and even the severity of damage rate, mayhem, and death. In this research, using statistical methods and binary logistic regression model, we have addressed to analyze important parameters such as age, gender, education level, the color of the pedestrian dress, season of accident, time of accident, the speed of the vehicle colliding with pedestrians and road surface conditions at the time of accident on the way of death (at the scene of the incident or in the hospital) pedestrians who have been traumatized. After the creation of the binary logistic regression model, it was determined that only the parameters of speed and the accident time have been significant in the level less than 5%. And other parameters such as age, gender, the season of accident occurrence, the color of the pedestrian dress, road surface conditions and education level had no significant effect in terms of statistical on the incidence of mortality arising from a pedestrian accident with the motor vehicle. The results revealed that by adopting decisions related to the traffic calming, attention to passages lighting and brightness the mortality rate of a pedestrian due to the urban accidents can be reduced.
The Presence of Real Reality: Six Theses on Dance Animateuring
Authors: Foster Raisa
Published: April 2021

Tanssi-innostaminen® (‘dance animateuring’ in English) is an artistic and pedagogical method, which I have developed in order to empower both individuals and communities. By dance animateuring I refer to dance/ movement based activity, in which everyone can find their own way of moving and expressing by movement, but also reflecting the self and its connections to the other and the whole world. In this paper I will argue the six theses that define my approach to contemporary art making in dance animateuring practice: 1) The dancer should never aim to produce something specific but only to be present. 2) The performance shows that everyone can dance. 3) The performance is born from action, not from an idea. 4) The performance is multisensory and multidisciplinary artwork. 5) The performance is incomplete and ambiguous. 6) The performance challenges the conventional ways of seeing the world and people.
Dans er mer enn trim – dans sett i et kulturelt og helsefremmende perspektiv
Authors: Husøy Gjertrud
Published: April 2021

The relationship between health and physical activity is well documented through research, but we know less about the health effects of cultural activity. The background for this project is a passionate interest in dance in general and especially folk dance. Many questions have emerged such as: What do we know about the connection between dance and health? Can social dance promote health and prevent disease? This article will present folkdance in a physical, psychosocial and cultural view.
Democratic Bodies? Reflections on «Postmodern Dance» in the United States and Finland
Authors: Järvinen Hanna
Published: April 2021

By looking at how ’postmodern dance’ signifies in the dominant American and local Finnish contexts, I offer a critical reading of how the notion of ’democracy’ is intertwined with particular dancing bodies and ideas of nation and ethnicity. This requires a historical outline for how ’democracy’ entered the discourse of dance, and specifically, how its meaning has shifted in relation to the canon of the art form. Using the contrast between the hegemonic centre and what is constituted as a (geographic, linguistic, ethnic) periphery reveals how ’democracy’ is used in contemporary dance discourses to obfuscate power relations inherent to art and its institutions, especially in relation to the agency of dancers.
«Get in Your Theatres; the Street is Not Yours»: The Struggle for the Character of Public Space in Tunisia
Authors: Harrington Heather
Published: April 2021

How people move and appear in public spaces is a reflection of the cultural, religious and socio-political forces in a society. This article, built on an earlier work titled ’Site-Specific Dance: Women in the Middle East’ (2016), addresses the ways in which dance in a public space can support the principles of freedom of expression and gender equality in Tunisia. I explore the character of public space before, during, and after the Arab Spring uprisings. Adopting an ethnographic and phenomenological approach, I focus on the efforts of two Tunisian dancers – Bahri Ben Yahmed (a dancer, choreographer and filmmaker based in Tunis, who has trained in ballet, modern dance and hip hop) and Ahmed Guerfel (a dancer based in Gabès, who has trained in hip hop) – to examine movement in a public space to address political issues facing the society. An analysis of data obtained from Yahmed and Guerfel, including structured interviews, videos, photos, articles and e-mail correspondence, supports the argument that dance performed in public spaces is more effective in shaping the politics of the society than dance performed on the proscenium stage. Definitions and properties of everyday choreography, site and the proscenium stage are analysed, along with examples of site-specific political protest choreography in Egypt, Turkey and Tunisia. I engage with the theories of social scientist Erving Goffman, which propose that a public space can serve as a stage, where people both embody politics and can embody a protest against those politics.
Job Burnout and Counterproductive Work Behaviour of the Jordanian Bank Employees
Authors: Lubbadeh Tareq
Published: April 2021

Background/Purpose: This study investigated the relationship between job burnout and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) among 307 employees drawn from various banks within Jordan. This study also examined the levels of job burnout and CWB with regard to gender, age, marital status, and education.

Methodology: For data collection, the convenience sampling method is utilized to survey frontline bank employees. The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory scale, which assesses exhaustion, disengagement, and the CWB scale from the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (IWPQ), were used for data collection. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science 25.0.

Results: The study results suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between job burnout two dimensions and CWB. The research also shows that age, education, and marital status affect both job burnout and CWB. Nevertheless, gender was found to have a significant effect only on the disengagement dimension of job burnout. Further, the study implies that exhaustion and disengagement are vital predictors influencing CWB.

Conclusion: With regard to the results, the phenomena of job burnout provide the means that can provoke deviant behavior in the workplace.
Camouflaging of areas occupied by units of the Soviet Army Northern Group of Forces (NGF) on Polish and Soviet military topographic maps
Authors: Sobczyński Eugeniusz , Szulczewski Adam
Published: April 2021

The authors present the political conditions in Poland after World War II which influenced the development of military topographic maps. The article shows examples of camouflaging on topographic maps of garrisons and field facilities occupied in Poland by the Northern Group of Forces of the Soviet Army (NGF).
Self-esteem of medical students and their attitudes towards the nurse profession
Authors: Gierszon Patrycja , Milanowska Joanna , Łopuszańska Urszula , Sidor Katarzyna , Paziewska Magdalena , Samardakiewicz Marzena
Published: April 2021

Introduction. The profession of a nurse is next to the medical profession, one of the pillars of medical care in Poland and in the world. In recent years, the need to see the importance of this profession and the responsibility associated with it, both by the public and the doctors, is increasingly underlined.

Aim. The research carried out is an attempt to answer the question, what attitudes towards nurses are shaped by future doctors already during the studies and what influence on students’ self-esteem on these attitudes.

Material and methods. The research was conducted among 89 students of the medical faculty, Medical University in Lublin in April 2018. A questionnaire of own authorship was used, constructed on the basis of descriptive research carried out by Maik M. et al and the Rosenberg Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SES). The obtained results were subjected to statistical analysis using the STATISTICA program, version 13.1.

Result. The vast majority of medical students (80%) believe that the role of a nurse is underestimated both in society and in the medical community. Students think that this work requires sacrifice and constant vigilance. Students who have encountered nursing staff notice symptoms of burnout in some of them, such as depersonalization of patients (56%). However, most of them (60%) think that this is ungrateful work and often interferes with family life. Students do not agree that the nurse should always be smiling and optimistic (75%). She values her features such as patience, good organization of time (86%) and ability to cooperate with doctors (91%). Most of students think that a nurse is a partner of a doctor (73%), while almost half (49%) of them see imperfections in cooperation both professional groups, resulting from the lack of mutual respect (64%). Students notice the commitment and hard work performed by nurses (70%), and also, although to a lesser extent, they appreciate their knowledge (56%).

Conclusion. Appreciation of the nurse’s role on the part of doctors seems to be particularly important due to the need for cooperation of medical staff. The quality of cooperation between the interdisciplinary team and, consequently, the quality of care and medical care depends to a large extent on the mutual respect, understanding and correct communication between these professional groups.
“Warn Them” or “Just Block Them”?: Investigating Privacy Concerns Among Older and Working Age Adults
Authors: Ray Hirak , Wolf Flynn , Kuber Ravi , Aviv Adam J.
Published: April 2021

Prior work suggests that older adults are less aware of potential digital privacy risks compared to younger groups. We seek to expand on these findings by using drawmetrics with 20 older adults (60+) to visualize their experiences with digital privacy via drawing sessions. We further compared older adults with 20 adults of working age (18-59) with the goal of identifying both overlapping concerns and key differences that may be missed when viewing each group in isolation. We extended our evaluation with a survey with questions and themes derived from open-coding of the drawn images and confirmed three key differences between the age groups. These include older adults perceiving a greater threat from using online banking and e-commerce compared to working age adults, older adults exhibiting greater levels of concern about global scale threats, and working age adults showing more privacy-related concern regarding social media. Our findings can be used to potentially tailor applications to better accommodate privacy concerns for older adults.
Website Fingerprinting in the Age of QUIC
Authors: Smith Jean-Pierre , Mittal Prateek , Perrig Adrian
Published: April 2021

With the meteoric rise of the QUIC protocol, the supremacy of TCP as the de facto transport protocol underlying web traffic will soon cease. HTTP/3, the next version of the HTTP protocol, will not support TCP. Current website-fingerprinting literature has ignored the introduction of this new protocol to all modern browsers. In this work, we investigate whether classifiers trained in the TCP setting generalise to QUIC traces, whether QUIC is inherently more difficult to fingerprint than TCP, how feature importance changes between these protocols, and how to jointly classify QUIC and TCP traces. Experiments using four state-of-theart website-fingerprinting classifiers and our combined QUIC-TCP dataset of ~117,000 traces show that while QUIC is not inherently more difficult to fingerprint than TCP, TCP-trained classifiers may fail to detect up to 96% of QUIC visits to monitored URLs. Furthermore, classifiers that take advantage of the common information between QUIC and TCP traces for the same URL may outperform ensembles of protocol-specific classifiers in limited data settings.
Defending Against Microphone-Based Attacks with Personalized Noise
Authors: Liu Yuchen , Xiang Ziyu , Seong Eun Ji , Kapadia Apu , Williamson Donald S.
Published: April 2021

Voice-activated commands have become a key feature of popular devices such as smartphones, home assistants, and wearables. For convenience, many people configure their devices to be ‘always on’ and listening for voice commands from the user using a trigger phrase such as “Hey Siri,” “Okay Google,” or “Alexa.” However, false positives for these triggers often result in privacy violations with conversations being inadvertently uploaded to the cloud. In addition, malware that can record one’s conversations remains a signifi-cant threat to privacy. Unlike with cameras, which people can physically obscure and be assured of their privacy, people do not have a way of knowing whether their microphone is indeed off and are left with no tangible defenses against voice based attacks. We envision a general-purpose physical defense that uses a speaker to inject specialized obfuscating ‘babble noise’ into the microphones of devices to protect against automated and human based attacks. We present a comprehensive study of how specially crafted, personalized ‘babble’ noise (‘MyBabble’) can be effective at moderate signal-to-noise ratios and can provide a viable defense against microphone based eavesdropping attacks.
Scalable Privacy-Preserving Distributed Learning
Authors: Froelicher David , Troncoso-Pastoriza Juan R. , Pyrgelis Apostolos , Sav Sinem , Sousa Joao Sa , Bossuat Jean-Philippe , Hubaux Jean-Pierre
Published: April 2021

In this paper, we address the problem of privacy-preserving distributed learning and the evaluation of machine-learning models by analyzing it in the widespread MapReduce abstraction that we extend with privacy constraints. We designspindle(Scalable Privacy-preservINg Distributed LEarning), the first distributed and privacy-preserving system that covers the complete ML workflow by enabling the execution of a cooperative gradient-descent and the evaluation of the obtained model and by preserving data and model confidentiality in a passive-adversary model with up to N −1 colluding parties.spindleuses multiparty homomorphic encryption to execute parallel high-depth computations on encrypted data without significant overhead. We instantiatespindlefor the training and evaluation of generalized linear models on distributed datasets and show that it is able to accurately (on par with non-secure centrally-trained models) and efficiently (due to a multi-level parallelization of the computations) train models that require a high number of iterations on large input data with thousands of features, distributed among hundreds of data providers. For instance, it trains a logistic-regression model on a dataset of one million samples with 32 features distributed among 160 data providers in less than three minutes.
Face-Off: Adversarial Face Obfuscation
Authors: Chandrasekaran Varun , Gao Chuhan , Tang Brian , Fawaz Kassem , Jha Somesh , Banerjee Suman
Published: April 2021

Advances in deep learning have made face recognition technologies pervasive. While useful to social media platforms and users, this technology carries significant privacy threats. Coupled with the abundant information they have about users, service providers can associate users with social interactions, visited places, activities, and preferences–some of which the user may not want to share. Additionally, facial recognition models used by various agencies are trained by data scraped from social media platforms. Existing approaches to mitigate associated privacy risks result in an imbalanced trade-off between privacy and utility. In this paper, we address this trade-off by proposing Face-Off, a privacy-preserving framework that introduces strategic perturbations to images of the user’s face to prevent it from being correctly recognized. To realize Face-Off, we overcome a set of challenges related to the black-box nature of commercial face recognition services, and the scarcity of literature for adversarial attacks on metric networks. We implement and evaluate Face-Off to find that it deceives three commercial face recognition services from Microsoft, Amazon, and Face++. Our user study with 423 participants further shows that the perturbations come at an acceptable cost for the users.
Déjà vu: Abusing Browser Cache Headers to Identify and Track Online Users
Authors: Mishra Vikas , Laperdrix Pierre , Rudametkin Walter , Rouvoy Romain
Published: April 2021

Many browser cache attacks have been proposed in the literature to sniff the user’s browsing history. All of them rely on specific time measurements to infer if a resource is in the cache or not. Unlike the state-of-the-art, this paper reports on a novel cache-based attack that is not a timing attack but that abuses the HTTP cache-control and expires headers to extract the exact date and time when a resource was cached by the browser. The privacy implications are serious as this information can not only be utilized to detect if a website was visited by the user but it can also help build a timeline of the user’s visits. This goes beyond traditional history sniffing attacks as we can observe patterns of visit and model user’s behavior on the web. To evaluate the impact of our attack, we tested it on all major browsers and found that all of them, except the ones based on WebKit, are vulnerable to it. Since our attack requires specific HTTP headers to be present, we also crawled the Tranco Top 100K websites and identified 12, 970 of them can be detected with our approach. Among them, 1, 910 deliver resources that have expiry dates greater than 100 days, enabling long-term user tracking. Finally, we discuss possible defenses at both the browser and standard levels to prevent users from being tracked.
Configuration of soft-tissue sarcoma on MRI correlates with grade of malignancy
Authors: Sedaghat Sam , Ravesh Mona Salehi , Sedaghat Maya , Both Marcus , Jansen Olav
Published: April 2021

Background

The aim of the study was to assess whether the configuration of primary soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) on MRI correlates with the grade of malignancy.

Patients and methods

71 patients with histologically proven STS were included. Primary STS were examined for configuration, borders, and volume on MRI. The tumors were divided into high-grade (G3), intermediate-grade (G2) and low-grade (G1) STS according to the grading system of the French Federation of Cancer Centers Sarcoma Group (FNCLCC).

Results

30 high-grade, 22 intermediate-grade and 19 low-grade primary STS lesions were identified. High- and intermediate-grade (G3/2) STS significantly most often appeared as polycyclic/multilobulated tumors (p < 0.001 and p = 0.002, respectively). Low-grade (G1) STS mainly showed an ovoid/nodular or streaky configuration (p = 0.008), and well-defined borders. The appearance of high-, intermediate- and low-grade STS with an ovoid/nodular configuration were mainly the same on MRI. All streaky G3/2 sarcoma and 17 of 20 patients with polycyclic/multilobulated G3 sarcoma showed infiltrative borders. High-grade streaky and polycyclic/multilobulated STS are larger in volume, compared to intermediate- and low-grade STS.

Conclusions

Configuration of STS on MRI can indicate the grade of malignancy. Higher-grade (G2/3) STS most often show a polycyclic/multilobulated configuration, while low-grade STS are mainly ovoid/nodular or streaky. Infiltrative behavior might suggest higher-grade STS in streaky and polycyclic/multilobulated STS.