bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Student Participation in Assessment Processes
Authors: Quesada Victoria , Garcia-Jimenez Eduardo , Gomez-Ruiz Miguel Angel
Published: September 2019

The participation of students in higher education assessment processes has been proven to have many benefits. However, there is a diverse range of techniques and options when implementing participative assessment, with each offering new possibilities. This chapter focuses on the topic of student participation in assessment processes, and it explores the main stages when it can be developed: participation in design, during implementation, and in grading. This chapter also considers the different modalities that can be used, especially self-assessment, peer assessment, and co-assessment and the three stages that characterise them. Finally, it analyses three experiences of student participation in higher education assessment, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. These experiences show how participative assessment can be developed in everyday classes, in groups, or individually and how participative assessment can occur in different class settings. They also demonstrate the importance of design, assessment literacy, and some difficulties that might appear during the process.
Designing Digital Badges for Educational Games
Authors: Biles Melissa L. , Plass Jan L. , Homer Bruce D.
Published: September 2019

Findings from two studies on the design of digital badges for a middle school geometry game and their impact on motivational and cognitive learning outcomes are reported. Study 1 compared the effect of badges in the game to a group with no badges. Badges did not increase posttest performance for all. Learners with high situational interest performed better with badges, learners with low situational interest performed worse with badges. Study 2 compared mastery goal orientation badges with performance goal orientation badges. The interaction of condition and situational interest from Study 1 was replicated. Furthermore, students receiving performance badges performed better on the posttest than students in the mastery badges condition; the no-badges condition was not different from either of the other conditions. Results suggest badges do not always help in educational video games: Types of badges interact with students' interest and motivation to affect learning outcomes.
Assessment Shouldn't Be a Pay-Per-View Activity
Authors: Williams Robert , Woods Dan
Published: September 2019

This chapter begins with a consideration of the state of school-based assessments as an unavoidable consequence of the contemporary societal emphasis on accountability and curricular prescriptions at the state and national level in the United States of America. Additionally, the authors comment upon the potential inaccuracies inescapable in large scale, high-stakes, standardized assessment instruments, especially when such instruments are turned to the task of evaluation—whether norm- or criterion-referenced—in a teaching and learning engagement. Likewise, the chapter concludes with suggestions and templates (elaborately configured with specific activities and assessment rubrics included) to support teachers who want to develop their own, rigorous, valid, and reliable assessments instruments embedded seamlessly in student-centered learning activities, and that accommodate the reality of literacy as a culturally situated behavior that, for contemporary learners, includes all manner of meaning-making in all manner of modalities from the pencil and paper to the purely electronic (and potentially wordless, at times) video- or audio-based.
Higher Education Approach to Quality Management
Authors: Baragde Dileep Baburao
Published: September 2019

The situation of higher education in India does not concur with the worldwide benchmarks. Consequently, there is sufficient defense for an expanded evaluation of the quality of the nation's instructive foundations. Traditionally, these foundations accepted that quality is controllable by intrinsic assets, for example, knowledgeable and learned faculty with an impressive set of degrees and experience detailed at the end of the institute's admission brochure, and extrinsic assets like huge library rich with number of books and journals in the library, an ultra-modern campus, and size of the endowment, etc. This chapter aims at reviewing the higher education approach to quality management from an Indian perspective and deliberates on the tools and techniques like SIX SIGMA, LEAN, and TQM, most commonly used in higher education.
Quality Management and Academic Leadership
Authors: Cobbinah Joseph Ezale , Agyemang Samuel
Published: September 2019

Quality management in higher education is one of the measures that institutions put in place to ensure that courses and programs that are offered meet international and accreditation standards. This chapter examines how academic leaders can promote and manage quality in higher education institutions. Higher education institutions and senior faculty members appear to improve performance by ensuring that quality assurance unit enforces effective delivery to increase students and parents' satisfaction. Promotion of quality and the management of quality is not about long service but an exhibition of effective leadership that will help higher education institutions to navigate through the turbulence of challenges facing higher education institutions today. To achieve this, the academic leader is supposed to assist institutions to pursue their vision and mission to enable them to effectively manage quality.
Mentoring for Quality Enhancement and Fostering Industry-Ready Graduates in Higher Education
Authors: Presbury Rajka , Scerri Madalyn A.
Published: September 2019

Mentoring programs play a valuable role in higher education. Formal mentoring processes and relationships increase the overall perceived quality of an educational program and the professional success of new hotel management graduates. To evaluate an established mentoring program in higher education, a single case study of the Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School at Torrens University Australia (BMIHMS @TUA) was developed and that is presented and discussed in this chapter. The evaluation of the mentoring program found that mentoring relationships enable mentees to build knowledge and skills, develop networking opportunities, build confidence, and gain self-reflection abilities. The chapter offers insights and recommendations for higher education institutions to consider when setting up mentoring programs. The knowledge gained through this research will assist higher education institutions to better prepare students for a transition to work through mentoring whilst enhancing the quality of educational courses.
An Approach of Documents Indexing Using Summarization
Authors: Khalloufi Rida , El Ayachi Rachid , Biniz Mohamed , Fakir Mohamed , Sarfraz Muhammad
Published: September 2019

Document indexing is an active domain, which is interesting a lot of researchers. Generally, it is used in the information retrieval systems. Document indexing encompasses a set of approaches that can be applied to index a document using a corpus. This treatment has several advantages, like accelerating the research process, finding the pertinent contains related to a query, reducing storage space, etc. The use of the entire document in the indexing process affects several parameters, such as indexing time, research time, storage space of treatment, etc. The focus of this chapter is to improve all parameters (cited above) related to the indexing process by proposing a new indexing approach. The goal of proposed approach is to use a summarization to minimize the size of documents without affecting the meaning.
Emotion Analysis of Different Age Groups From Voice Using Machine Learning Approach
Authors: Mohanty Mihir Narayan
Published: September 2019

Emotion detection from voice is a complex task, whereas from the facial expression it is easy. In this chapter, an attempt is taken to detect the emotion through machine using neural network-based models and compared. As no complete database is available for different age groups, a small database is generated. To know the emotion of different age groups substantially, three groups have been generated with each group of 20 subjects. The efficient prosodic features are considered initially. Further, the combination of those features are taken. Each set of features are fed to the models for classification and detection. Angry, happy, and sad are the three emotions verified for different group of persons. It is found that the classifier provides 96% of accuracy. In earlier work, cluster-based techniques with simple features pitch, speech rate, and log energy were verified. As an extension, the combination of features along with machine learning model is verified in this work.
Analysis of Speaker's Age Using Clustering Approaches With Emotionally Dependent Speech Features
Authors: Palo Hemanta Kumar , Behera Debasis
Published: September 2019

Emotions are age, gender, culture, speaker, and situationally dependent. Due to an underdeveloped vocal tract or the vocal folds of children and a weak or aged speech production mechanism of older adults, the acoustic properties differ with the age of a person. In this sense, the features describing the age and emotionally relevant information of human voice also differ. This motivates the authors to investigate a number of issues related to database collection, feature extraction, and clustering algorithms for effective characterization and identification of human age of his or her paralanguage information. The prosodic features such as the speech rate, pitch, log energy, and spectral parameters have been explored to characterize the chosen emotional utterances whereas the efficient K-means and Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithms have been used to partition age-related emotional features for a better understanding of the related issues.
Mammogram Classification Using Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform and Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix
Authors: Taifi Khaddouj , Taifi Naima , Fakir Mohamed , Safi Said , Sarfraz Muhammad
Published: September 2019

This chapter explores diagnosis of the breast tissues as normal, benign, or malignant in digital mammography, using computer-aided diagnosis (CAD). System for the early diagnosis of breast cancer can be used to assist radiologists in mammographic mass detection and classification. This chapter presents an evaluation about performance of extracted features, using gray-level co-occurrence matrix applied to all detailed coefficients. The nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) of the region of interest (ROI) of a mammogram were used to be decomposed in several levels. Detecting masses is more difficult than detecting microcalcifications due to the similarity between masses and background tissue such as F) fatty, G) fatty-glandular, and D) dense-glandular. To evaluate the system of classification in which k-nearest neighbors (KNN) and support vector machine (SVM) used the accuracy for classifying the mammograms of MIAS database between normal and abnormal. The accuracy measures through the classifier were 94.12% and 88.89% sequentially by SVM and KNN with NSCT.
Enhanced Ant Colony Algorithm for Best Features Selection for a Decision Tree Classification of Medical Data
Authors: Alaoui Abdiya , Elberrichi Zakaria
Published: September 2019

Classification algorithms are widely applied in medical domain to classify the data for diagnosis. The datasets have considerable irrelevant attributes. Diagnosis of the diseases is costly because many tests are required to predict a disease. Feature selection is one of the significant tasks of the preprocessing phase for the data. It can extract a subset of attributes from a large set and exclude redundant, irrelevant, or noisy attributes. The authors can decrease the cost of diagnosis by avoiding numerous tests by selection of features, which are important for prediction of disease. Applied to the task of supervised classification, the authors construct a robust learning model for disease prediction. The search for a subset of features is an NP-hard problem, which can be solved by the metaheuristics. In this chapter, a wrapper approach by hybridization between ant colony algorithm and adaboost with decision trees to ameliorate the classification is proposed. The authors use an enhanced global pheromone updating rule. With the experimental results, this approach gives good results.
Pre-Service Language Teachers' Experiences in the Digital Storytelling Process
Authors: Gürer Melih Derya
Published: September 2019

This study investigated pre-service language teachers' experiences and capabilities in digital storytelling (DST) about creating digital stories and their views on the use of DST in language teaching. A case study design was adopted. Eighty-three pre-service teachers participated in the study, and they created 25 digital stories. Data of this study came from the evaluation of digital stories and open-ended questionnaire. Pre-service teachers' digital stories were analyzed using rubrics and subjected to descriptive statistics. Moreover, the data from an open-ended questionnaire on pre-service teachers' perceptions regarding the DST in language teaching were analyzed using content analysis. The results revealed that despite being novice DST-developers, pre-service teachers were capable of creating digital stories. They reported that DST had the potential to enhance students' learning outcomes. In addition, they were eager to adopt DST in their future teaching. However, they complained that DST required too much time and effort with information and communication and pedagogical skills.
Understanding Consumer Fandom
Authors: Hao Andy
Published: September 2019

The interest in consumer fandom has been strong in the last two decades and different perspectives have been proposed to examine the issue. However, the current literature only offers limited insight into what consumer fandom means and what the main antecedents and consequences of consumer fandom are. To fill the gap, the aim of this chapter is to integrate various perspectives and theoretical bases on formulating consumer fandom and to present an integrated conceptual framework of the antecedents and consequences of consumer fandom. Grounded on social identity theory, the conceptual framework proposed in this chapter identifies two self-related antecedents: self-identify and self-discovery, and three social-related antecedents: social integration, social enhancement, and subjective norms. In addition, purchase and repurchase intention, loyalty, and word of mouth are highlighted as three consequences of consumer fandom. Level of engagement is identified as the moderator between consumer fandom and its consequences.
When Science Fiction Meets Reality
Authors: Burton Tyra Anne Mitchell
Published: September 2019

Eighty years after the first science fiction convention, geek culture has gone mainstream and facilitated exponential growth in the fandom convention industry. With fandom conventions facing increasing competition and changing demographics, standing out in the crowded convention space is essential. Dragon Con founded in 1987 created the idea of the multi-genre convention that has something for everyone. Since its inception, Dragon Con has changed to fit fans' evolving tastes and formed strategic relationships with key partners. With growth comes issues related to registration, wait lines, harassment and security which need to be addressed while trying to take into account the younger and more diverse fandoms.
Classifying Sport Consumers
Authors: Hedlund David P. , Biscaia Rui , Leal Maria do Carmo
Published: September 2019

Sport fans rarely attend sporting events alone. While traditional consumer and sport fan behavior research often examines fans based on demographic characteristics, recent advances in understanding how sport fans co-create and co-consume sporting events provides substantial evidence that sports fans should be examined as tribal groups. Tribal sport fan groups can be identified based on seven dimensions, including membership; geographic sense of community; social recognition; shared rivalry; and shared knowledge of symbols, rituals and traditions, and people. In this research, these seven dimensions are used to classify sport fans (n=1505) through hierarchical and k-cluster analyses. The results of the cluster analyses using the seven dimensions suggest six unique clusters, labelled as (1) casual fans, (2) moderate remote fans, (3) moderate local fans, (4) local developing tribal fans, (5) remote tribal fans, and (6) tribal fans. A discussion of these six fan groups and the implications regarding associations with demographics and other important variables are provided.
Anime Fans as Dramatists
Authors: Allison Brent
Published: September 2019

Though millions of school-aged children and youth are increasingly drawn to Japanese animation, or anime, schools in the United States have not capitalized on this potential conduit for cultural learning. This entails a significant loss in terms of the potential to reorient internationally-focused humanities and social science curricula towards culturally-relevant pedagogy. It would be helpful to explore how two populations that would likely be directly involved in anime curricula's implementation make sense of anime's pedagogical potential. This chapter explores the attitudes of Japanese animation fans towards the prospect of using anime in K-12 school curricula in contrast to the attitudes of aspiring public school teachers. Interview data from forty-four anime fans and forty-four aspiring teachers were analyzed to locate plotlines involving hypothetical teachers and students using anime in a classroom setting. Implications for teacher training programs and school curricula are discussed.
Development and Implementation of Digital Tools, Neural Networks, and Cyber Control Systems in Sliding Modes
Authors: Ivanov Mikhail , Vertakova Yulia , Mkrttchian Vardan
Published: September 2019

This chapter seeks to understand the EU-ACP trade relations under the economic partnership agreement (EPA) arrangement and its implications on economic nationalism of developing nations with specific reference to Zimbabwe. The research strongly leans on the view that EPAs have little or no economic benefit to the ACP. Even though the EU tagged the ensuing trade relationship with the ACP as partnership, in the real sense, it is more of paternalism. This is especially so as the EU dictates the terms and the pace of the negotiation, owns the incentives (in the form of aid and technical assistance), and either dispenses or withdraws it at will, depending on the “behavior” of the ACP countries. In order to benefit from EPAs, ACP countries must fund their own economies. ACP states should also address internal political challenges before committing to multiple economic fronts such as the EPAs.
The Fundamentals of Creating an Avatar-Based Expert for Decision Making in the Digital Era
Authors: Aleshina Ekaterina Yuryevna
Published: September 2019

The chapter considers political communication organization in terms of its structural and informational aspects. The specifics of classic and online political communication are described through the theory of factors of speech communication regulation. The detailed coverage of speech regulation factors enables the author to describe classic and online political discourse. The analysis reveals some similarities along with differences between the two above said types of political communication. Some of the author's statements are exemplified with excerpts from political texts. The research was carried out on the material of American political discourse referring mostly to conflict situations and use of the same ideas for communications about Avatars Technology by Prof. Vardan Mkrttchian.
Open Education in Digital Era With Avatar-Based Control and Estimation
Authors: Irina Potapova
Published: September 2019

Open education becomes the important approach for education in the digital age and it plays a significant role in broadening educational access and increasing higher educational opportunities. The author of the chapter considers the basic principles and emerging trends in quality assurance of distance higher education in the digital age. Considering the intelligent distance education system as a dynamic, time-developing system, one can speak of the underlying computer imitation model that has an independent theoretical and practical value. The objective of this chapter is to explore how can information technologies influence the distance education quality assurance, specifically, to develop a conceptual framework for the intelligent distance education system. In addition to direct application for educational quality management system's evaluation, the simulation model can be used to solve a much wider range of tasks: forecasting, risk assessment, rating of courses, individual teachers, and individual institutions.
Pain Assessment through Facial Expression
Authors: Singh Sanjay Kumar , Rastogi V. , Singh S. K.
Published: September 2019

Pain, assumed to be the fifth vital sign, is an important symptom that needs to be adequately assessed in heath care. The visual changes reflected on the face of a person in pain may be apparent for only a few seconds and occur instinctively. Tracking these changes is a difficult and time-consuming process in a clinical setting. This is why it is motivating researchers and experts from medical, psychology and computer fields to conduct inter-disciplinary research in capturing facial expressions. This chapter contains a comprehensive review of technologies in the study of facial expression along with its application in pain assessment. The facial expressions of pain in children's (0-2 years) and in non-communicative patients need to be recognized as they are of utmost importance for proper diagnosis. Well designed computerized methodologies would streamline the process of patient assessment, increasing its accessibility to physicians and improving quality of care.
Look of Life
Authors: Sichi Vittoria , Ercolani Giacomo , Franchini Luca , Golfari Luca , Varani Silvia , Rizzoli Daniela , Pannuti Raffaella , Roganti Daniele
Published: September 2019

The use of virtual reality (VR) shows promising results in improving the emotional wellbeing of cancer patients, reducing anxiety, depression, and pain symptoms. No data exist concerning the use of VR in cancer patients assisted at home. The ANT Foundation decided to conduct a pilot study to test the use of VR in cancer patients assisted at home. Fifty-eight ANT patients were randomized and assigned to a control group that didn't use VR devices and to an experimental group that used them. The primary objective of the pilot study was to determine whether VR device could be a viable instrument in homecare patients. Furthermore, the aim of the study was to discover if VR could have beneficial effects on patients' quality of life as well as discover which kind of videos were more effective. The innovative aspect of this study was to test the use of VR directly at home of patients, proposing a use of VR that is compatible with the needs and the daily rhythms of families, and investigating its effectiveness through appropriate validated psychometric questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.
Emergence in Interactive Embedded Art
Authors: Kuznetsov Andrew V.
Published: September 2019

This article is devoted to the problem of novelty in embedded art. Exciting possibilities of microelectronics for visual art are considered. Implementations of available microcontrollers, sensors and actuators are given. A new kind of interactions between spectators and artworks with embedded electronics was investigated. Special attention is paid to the effect of emergence, which is generated by this interaction. Computational artwork is being considered in a new unconventional context. An aesthetic difference between the deterministic and nondeterministic algorithms was shown. The combination of acrylic paintings with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was systematically studied to give useful recommendations for an artistic community. Produced artifacts were demonstrated at exhibitions and were used to teach students at the university and VHS Freiburg, Germany. The results showed a great public interest in embedded electronic systems and a tremendous theoretical and practical perspective for the permanently developing contemporary art.
A Comparative Study of Certain Classifiers for Bharatanatyam Mudra Images' Classification using Hu-Moments
Authors: Anami Basavaraj S , Bhandage Venkatesh Arjunasa
Published: September 2019

India is rich in culture and heritage where various traditional dances are practiced. Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance, which is composed of various body postures and hand gestures. This ancient art of dance has to be studied under guidance of dance teachers. In present days there is a scarcity of Bharatanatyam dance teachers. There is a need to adopt technology to popularize this dance form. This article presents a 3-stage methodology for the classification of Bharatanatyam mudras. In the first stage, acquired images of Bharatanatyam mudras are preprocessed to obtain contours of mudras using canny edge detector. In the second stage, Hu-moments are extracted as features. In the third stage, rule-based classifiers, artificial neural networks, and k-nearest neighbor classifiers are used for the classification of unknown mudras. The comparative study of classification accuracies of classifiers is provided at the end. The work finds application in e-learning of ‘Bharatanatyam' dance in particular and dances in general and automation of commentary during concerts.
Soybean Price Pattern Discovery Via Toeplitz Inverse Covariance-Based Clustering
Authors: Deng Hua Ling , Sūn Yǔ Qiàn
Published: September 2019

The high volatility of world soybean prices has caused uncertainty and vulnerability particularly in the developing countries. The clustering of time series is a serviceable tool for discovering soybean price patterns in temporal data. However, traditional clustering method cannot represent the continuity of price data very well, nor keep a watchful eye on the correlation between factors. In this work, the authors use the Toeplitz Inverse Covariance-Based Clustering of Multivariate Time Series Data (TICC) to soybean price pattern discovery. This is a new method for multivariate time series clustering, which can simultaneously segment and cluster the time series data. Each pattern in the TICC method is defined by a Markov random field (MRF), characterizing the interdependencies between different factors of that pattern. Based on this representation, the characteristics of each pattern and the importance of each factor can be portrayed. The work provides a new way of thinking about market price prediction for agricultural products.
Using Decision-Making Block of Computer-Based Intelligent Biomedical Avatar for Applied Research in Bioinformatics
Authors: Gamidullaeva Leyla Ayvarovna , Chernyshenko Vsevolod
Published: September 2019

A biomedical task in which the definitions and properties of applied research indicators under study in bioinformatics is formalized. A wide range of traditional approaches used for predicting medical time series were reviewed. Advanced algorithms for predicting moments of reversals of biomedical trends based on machine learning tools were investigated as well. The effectiveness of different kinds of approaches was discussed, and related examples are given. An original securities price dynamics trend classification algorithm, based on the use of the sliding window methodology and biomedical avatar, is described. A general scheme of the classification algorithm to identify biomedical market phases is analyzed and results of computer modelling are presented. Selection of initial and resulting metrics is grounded.
Opportunity Cost Estimation Using Clustering and Association Rule Mining
Authors: Agarwal Reshu
Published: September 2019

Information mining strategies are most appropriate for the classification, useful patterns extraction and predications which are imperative for business support and decision making. However, an efficient method for evaluating the penalty cost has not been proposed. In this article, considering the cross-selling effect, a quantitative approach to estimate the opportunity cost based on association rules in each cluster is proposed. This article helps in better decision making for improving sales, services and quality, which is useful mechanism for business support, investment, and surveillance. A numerical illustration is utilized to clarify the new approach. Further, to understand the effect of above approach in the real scenario, experiments are conducted on a real-world dataset.
Bridging the Gap Between the Digital and Print Reading Experience
Authors: Bailey Gavin
Published: September 2019

This article outlines the research the author conducted to date during his PhD. His PhD, “Augmenting the Reading Experience,” looks at methods to improve the reading experience for both digital and printed methods. So far, he has developed a prototype device that uses paper as an input method to interact with digital books. Turning a physical paper page causes an e-reader device to progress through the book, allowing the reader to have the user experience of a printed book, whilst also benefiting from the digital conveniences and features. Many modern readers own the same book in a number of formats and switch between them depending on the scenario. This introduces the problem of transitioning between formats. His current project the “Digital Bookmark” looks to allow seamless transitioning from one format to another by obtaining the latest page number and broadcasting it to all formats the reader is currently using.
Making Digital Money “Work” for Low-Income Users
Authors: Muralidhar Srihari Hulikal
Published: September 2019

This paper adds to the research on digitization and money in HCI. By presenting a case of rickshaw drivers in India and their use of Ola, an app-based taxi service like Uber, and Ola Money, an embedded m-wallet, this paper makes a threefold contribution. First, it shows how cash and digital money are not simply different manifestations of the ‘same' money for users. They provide distinct affordances and have different meanings and values, yielding rich insights for design. Second, it seeks to highlight the hidden work done by users around making digital money ‘work' for them. In doing so, it calls for a broader understanding of ‘moneywork' that goes beyond a temporal analysis, through the concept of ‘mobility work'. Finally, it highlights the role of ‘friction' in design. Friction is crucial to users' negotiation of the trade-off between consumption and saving, and can be leveraged to provoke reflection and user-awareness.
Eliciting Design Guidelines for Privacy Notifications in mHealth Environments
Authors: Murmann Patrick
Published: September 2019

The possibilities of employing mobile health (mhealth) devices for the purpose of self-quantification and fitness tracking are increasing; yet few users of online mhealth services possess proven knowledge of how their personal data are processed once the data have been disclosed. Ex post transparency-enhancing tools (TETs) can provide such insight and guide users in making informed decisions with respect to intervening with the processing of their personal data. At present, however, there are no suitable guidelines that aid designers of TETs in implementing privacy notifications that reflect their recipients' needs in terms of what they want to be notified about and the level of guidance required to audit their data effectively. Based on an analysis of gaps related to TETs, the findings of a study on privacy notification preferences, and the findings on notifications and privacy notices discussed in the literature, this paper proposes a set of guidelines for the human-centred design of privacy notifications that facilitate ex post transparency.
Impact of Frame Duration and Modulation Coding Schemes With WiMAX Bandwidth Asymmetry in Transmission Control Protocol Variants
Authors: Bandhu Kailash Chandra , Bhansali Ashok
Published: September 2019

WiMAX stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access which is based on IEEE 802.16 specification and is considered as de facto standard for the broadband wireless data transfer over the internet. The different values of various WiMAX parameters for different TCP variants may affect the performance of the network. This article compares the performance of different TCP variants with bandwidth asymmetry, frame duration, and modulation coding schemes, along with the operating parameter namely number of wireless nodes. During the simulation study the performance was evaluated only for one-way data transfer. The finding suggests that the TCP New Reno performed better than other variants included in the simulation study for the comparison. The performance was measured on the basis of throughput, goodput and packets dropped.
Progranulin Decreases Susceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae in Influenza and Protects against Lethal Coinfection
Authors: Wang Xiaofang , Yuan Jun , Wang Hong , Gan Ning , Zhang Qun , Liu Bichen , Wang Jingyao , Shu Zhaoche , Rao Lubei , Gou Xuemei , Zhang Hong , Yin Yibing , Zhang Xuemei
Published: September 2019

Streptococcus pneumoniae coinfection is a major cause of mortality in influenza pandemics. Growing evidence shows that uncontrolled immune response results in severe tissue damage and thereby promotes death in coinfection. Progranulin (PGRN) is widely expressed in immune and epithelial cells and exerts anti-inflammatory role in many diseases. We found that PGRN levels were significantly elevated in clinical influenza/S. pneumoniae–coinfected patients. C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) and PGRN-deficient (PGRN−/−) mice were infected with influenza virus PR8 and then superchallenged with S. pneumoniae serotype 19F. Coinfected PGRN−/− mice showed increased mortality and weight loss compared with WT mice. PGRN deficiency led to increased bacterial loads in lungs without altering influenza virus replication, suggesting a role of PGRN in decreasing postinfluenza susceptibility to S. pneumoniae coinfection. Administration of recombinant PGRN improved survival of WT and PGRN−/− mice in lethal coinfection. Additionally, loss of PGRN resulted in aggravated lung damage along with massive proinflammatory cytokine production and immune cell infiltration during coinfection. Endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS) during influenza, and coinfection was strongly induced in PGRN−/− mice that subsequently activated apoptosis signaling pathways. Treatment of recombinant PGRN or inhibition of ERS by 4-phenylbutyrate decreased apoptosis and bacterial loads in lungs of coinfected mice. These results suggest that PGRN decreases postinfluenza susceptibility to S. pneumoniae coinfection via suppressing ERS-mediated apoptosis. Impaired bacterial clearance and increased lung inflammation are associated with the lethal outcome of coinfected PGRN−/− mice. Our study provides therapeutic implication of PGRN to reduce morbidity and mortality in influenza/S. pneumoniae coinfection.
The genetic status of the introduced giraffe population in Central South Africa
Authors: Van Niekerk Marieka E. , Deacon Francois , Grobler Paul J.
Published: September 2019

No abstract available.
Post-surgery Outcome Measurement of 30 Patients with Crooked Nasal Deformity using Rhinoplasty Outcome Evaluation Scale
Authors: Kumar Rakesh , Yadav Vishav , Chokkalingam Venkata Karthikeyan , Deka Ramesh Chander
Published: September 2019

Objective

The aim of the study was to assess the outcome of nasal deformity correction using rhinopasty outcome evaluation (ROE) scale.

Materials and methods

We conducted a prospective study of 30 patients with crooked nasal deformityin period 2008 to 2011 and assessed outcome with the help of ROE scale.

Results

Preoperative mean ROE score was 34.15 ± 15.58. All 30 patients ROE score was less than 85 in preoperative period.
Postoperative mean score was 86.50 ± 7.07 with a mean gain of 52.35. 21/30 patients (70%) had postoperative score of more
than 85 (excellent).

Conclusion

Rhinoplasty outcome evaluation scale is a useful subjective tool to assess the impact of deformity and outcome after surgery (patient's satisfaction).

How to cite this article

Yadav V, Kumar R, Chokkalingam VK, Deka RC, Hota A. Post-surgery Outcome Measurement of 30 Patients with Crooked Nasal Deformity using Rhinoplasty Outcome Evaluation Scale. Clin Rhinol An Int J 2015;8(1):5-7.
Primary Clival Mucocele: ENT Perspective in Early Diagnosis and Management
Authors: Thakar Alok , Chappity Preetam
Published: September 2019

Primary clival mucocele is a rare lesion encountered in our daily practice. The previous scant literature enumerate cases which presented with intracranial complications and were usually treated by neurosurgeons. We are presenting a case of a 24-year old female who presented to us with unilateral headache and recurrent episodes of sinusitis. The patient's radiology suggested a primary clival mucocele, which was drained endoscopically. The patient on follow-up is symptom free. This paper tries to implicate the importance of the otorhinolaryngologist in diagnosing this rare lesion and preventing its progression and thus, intracranial complications.

How to cite this article

Chappity P, Thakar A. Primary Clival Mucocele: ENT Perspective in Early Diagnosis and Management. Clin Rhinol An Int J 2015;8(1):27-29.
Physicochemical Profile and Shelf Life Estimation of Nishamalaki churna
Authors: Galib Ruknuddin , Gulati Poonam D , Yadav Pramod , Prajapati Pradeep K
Published: September 2019

Context:

With increasing popularity, the quality of medicines has become an important issue. Shelf life is an important component that is mandatory to be displayed on the label of all medicinal products. This is also applicable to Ayurveda; thus, it becomes essential to establish shelf life of formulations that are being marketed and used in therapeutics. The shelf life of Nishamalaki churna, a frequently used formulation for the management of diabetes, is not reported till date.

Aim:

The aim of this study is to evaluate the shelf life of Nishamalaki churna through the accelerated stability study.

Methods:

Physicochemical parameters were measured at the temperature of 40 ± 2 °C and the relative humidity was 75 ± 5%. The analysis was repeated at the intervals of 1,3, and 6 months, and the average 10% degradation time was calculated and extrapolated to find the shelf life.

Results:

Shelf life of Nishamalaki churna is found to be 3 years 7 months.

Conclusion:

The Gazette of Government of India prescribes a limit of 2 years as the shelf life for churnas (powdered formulations). The observations of the current study reveal that Nishamalaki churna is stable for a longer duration than the prescribed period of 2 years when stored appropriately in well-closed containers.
Śākadravya (Vegetables) as Pathya in Metabolic Disorders–A Review from Classical Texts of Āyurveda with Current Evidences
Authors: Naik Raghavendra , Borkar Sneha D , Bhat Sulochana , Acharya Rabinarayan
Published: September 2019

Aim:

To review the vegetables mentioned as pathya for metabolic diseases like prameha/madhumeha, hrdroga, and sthaulya from 15 different classical texts and to analyze the available data critically with the help of reported research activities to establish their role in the prevention and management of metabolic disorders.

Background:

Metabolic syndrome is a multifactorial disorder, which can be prevented by changes in lifestyle and dietary habits. Among the preventive measures given for various disorders, the classical texts of Āyurveda describe all the vegetables along with their guna (properties), karma (action), and prayoga (indication) in different disease conditions under śākavarga. As diet is considered as the best preventive medicine, vegetables are indicated as pathya (wholesome diet) for metabolic diseases like prameha/madhumeha, hrdroga, and sthoulya, and can be used in the prevention and management of metabolic disorders.

Review results:

It is observed that among 318 vegetables mentioned in compiled texts, 29 vegetables are indicated in prameha/madhumeha and 33 vegetables are indicated in hrdroga. Majority of these vegetables are reported for their antidiabetic (18), anti-hyperlipidemia (14), cardio-protective (15), anti-hypertensive (7), and antiplatelet (5) activities.

Conclusion:

Vegetables mentioned under śākavarga in classical texts of Āyurveda can be effectively used as pathya in metabolic disorders.

Clinical significance:

On the basis of review results, further scientific studies can be planned clinically to evaluate the beneficial effects of these vegetables in clinical practice.
Modeling the aerosol chemical composition of the tropopause over the Tibetan Plateau during the Asian summer monsoon
Authors: Ma Jianzhong , Brühl Christoph , He Qianshan , Steil Benedikt , Karydis Vlassis A. , Klingmüller Klaus , Tost Holger , Chen Bin , Jin Yufang , Liu Ningwei , Xu Xiangde , Yan Peng , Zhou Xiuji , Abdelrahman Kamal , Pozzer Andrea , Lelieveld Jos
Published: September 2019

Abstract. Enhanced aerosol abundance in the upper troposphere and
lower stratosphere (UTLS) associated with the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) is
referred to as the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL). The chemical
composition, microphysical properties, and climate effects of aerosols in the
ATAL have been the subject of discussion over the past decade. In this work,
we use the ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) general circulation
model at a relatively fine grid resolution (about 1.1×1.1∘)
to numerically simulate the emissions, chemistry, and transport of aerosols
and their precursors in the UTLS within the ASM anticyclone during the years
2010–2012. We find a pronounced maximum of aerosol extinction in the UTLS
over the Tibetan Plateau, which to a large extent is caused by mineral dust
emitted from the northern Tibetan Plateau and slope areas, lofted to an
altitude of at least 10 km, and accumulating within the anticyclonic
circulation. We also find that the emissions and convection of ammonia in
the central main body of the Tibetan Plateau make a great contribution to
the enhancement of gas-phase NH3 in the UTLS over the Tibetan Plateau
and ASM anticyclone region. Our simulations show that mineral dust, water-soluble compounds, such as nitrate and sulfate, and associated liquid water
dominate aerosol extinction in the UTLS within the ASM anticyclone. Due to
shielding of high background sulfate concentrations outside the anticyclone
from volcanoes, a relative minimum of aerosol extinction within the
anticyclone in the lower stratosphere is simulated, being most pronounced in
2011, when the Nabro eruption occurred. In contrast to mineral dust and
nitrate concentrations, sulfate increases with increasing altitude due to
the larger volcano effects in the lower stratosphere compared to the upper
troposphere. Our study indicates that the UTLS over the Tibetan Plateau can
act as a well-defined conduit for natural and anthropogenic gases and
aerosols into the stratosphere.
HESS Opinions: Beyond the Long-term Water Balance: Evolving Budyko's
Legacy for the Anthropocene towards a Global Synthesis of Land-surface
Fluxes under Natural and Human-altered Watersheds
Authors:   A. Sankarasubramanian, Wang Dingbao , Archfield Stacey , Reitz Meredith , Vogel Richard M. , Mazrooei Amirhossein , Mukhopadhyaya Sudarshana
Published: September 2019

Abstract. Global hydroclimatic conditions have been significantly altered over the past century by anthropogenic influences that arise from the warming global climate and also from local/regional anthropogenic disturbances. Traditionally, studies have used coupling of multiple models to understand how land-surface fluxes vary due to changes in global climatic patterns and local land-use changes. We argue that Budyko's framework that relies on the supply and demand concept could be effectively adapted and extended to quantify the role of drivers – both changing climate and local human disturbances – in altering the land-surface response across the globe. We review the Budyko framework along with potential extensions with an intent to further the applicability of the framework to emerging hydrologic questions. Challenges in extending the Budyko framework over various spatio-temporal scales and evaluating the water balance at these various scales with global data sets are also discussed.
Benchmarking Author Recognition Systems for Forensic Application
Authors: Van Halteren Hans
Published: September 2019

This paper demonstrates how an author recognition system could be benchmarked, as a prerequisite for admission in court. The system used in the demonstration is the FEDERALES system, and the experimental data used were taken from the British National Corpus. The system was given several tasks, namely attributing a text sample to a specific text, verifying that a text sample was taken from a specific text, and verifying that a text sample was produced by a specific author. For the former two tasks, 1,099 texts with at least 10,000 words were used; for the latter 1,366 texts with known authors, which were verified against models for the 28 known authors for whom there were three or more texts. The experimental tasks were performed with different sampling methods (sequential samples or samples of concatenated random sentences), different sample sizes (1,000, 500, 250 or 125 words), varying amounts of training material (between 2 and 20 samples) and varying amounts of test material (1 or 3 samples). Under the best conditions, the system performed very well: with 7 training and 3 test samples of 1,000 words of randomly selected sentences, text attribution had an equal error rate of 0.06% and text verification an equal error rate of 1.3%; with 20 training and 3 test samples of 1,000 words of randomly selected sentences, author verification had an equal error rate of 7.5%. Under the worst conditions, with 2 training and 1 test sample of 125 words of sequential text, equal error rates for text attribution and text verification were 26.6% and 42.2%, and author verification did not perform better than chance. Furthermore, the quality degradation curves with slowly worsening conditions were not smooth, but contained steep drops. All in all, the results show the importance of having a benchmark which is as similar as possible to the actual court material for which the system is to be used, since the measured system quality differed greatly between evaluation scenarios and system degradation could not be predicted easily on the basis of the chosen scenario parameters.
Referencias fílmicas en el ensayo "La obra de arte en la época de su reproductibilidad técnica" de Walter Benjamin: genética documental y recursos audiovisuales
Authors: Puyal-Sanz Alfonso
Published: September 2019

A partir de lo que aquí se denomina genética documental, se desglosarán las publicaciones originales sobre cine que Benjamin manejó durante la redacción del ensayo “La obra de arte en la época de su reproductibilidad técnica”, en su última versión de 1939. El presente artículo se centrará tanto en los autores como en los textos cinematográficos que Benjamin citó, así como en las teorías que se desprenden de dichos textos. Las fuentes documentales de primera mano resultan sustanciales para contrastar el estado de la teoría cinematográfica del momento con el propio pensamiento de Benjamin. Este sistema de citas está además ligado al método de “montaje literario” qué el escritor empleaba. Las fuentes escritas se ampliarán con las películas a las que autor hace referencia a lo largo del ensayo.