bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
THEORETICAL AND METODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL ASSESSMENT
Authors:   Oles Honchar Dnipro National University, DUCHYNSKA NINA
Published: March 2022

It has been pointed out in the article that intellectual capital has become a key component of the competitiveness of economic entities and national economies in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Economic globalization caused its transformation into businesses` intangible asset. Enterprises began to consider it when calculating their market value, as well as of equity offering, their participation in stock exchange trading. It has been stressed that these processes have proved the need to analyze the nature, structure and evaluation of intellectual capital. The study of intellectual capital assessment makes it possible to note that managers aimed at the efficient management and business development strategies` implementation need to focus on the relevance of intellectual capital`s formation, accumulation, use and evaluation. The article finds out that perceptual methods of intellectual capital assessment are mainly used. It is noted that current methods do not provide for monetary assessment of intellectual capital. They help to solve managerial tasks and allow to diagnose intangible resources of an enterprises. Local problems and attempts to assess intellectual capital have been highlighted. It has been made a conclusion about the need to intensify governmental role in legal framework development for comprehensive system of national intellectual capital assessment.
RESEARCH OF THE METHODS OF ASSESSING THE RELIABILITY OF THE MACHINE-BUILDING ENTERPRISE’S LOGISTICS SYSTEM
Authors: MASLAK OLGA , NIKITIUK VITALII ,   Kremenchug National University named after Mykhailo Ostrogradsky
Published: March 2022

The value of the logistics approach to management lies in the integration into a single chain of procurement, storage, production, transportation and marketing of finished products, namely the logistics system creation. The purpose of scientific research is to substantiate the essence of the reliability of the logistics system of the machine-building enterprise and to develop methods for its evaluation. The definitions “reliability of the logistics chain” and “reliability of the logistics system of the machine-building enterprise” are investigated and the terminology of the given definitions is generalized. Factors influencing the reliability of the logistics chain, namely: economic, organizational, technological and physical. A method for assessing the reliability of the logistics chain and logistics system of a machine-building enterprise is proposed. The components of reliability of the logistics system of the machine-building enterprise are formed – purchase of raw materials, storage of material resources, stock management, production of finished products, transportation, sale of finished products. The indicators which are a part of reliability of logistic system of the machine-building enterprise are offered. The essence of management of reliability of logistic system of the machine – building enterprise is defined and its algorithm is constructed. The most common methods of increasing the reliability of supply chains (logistics systems) are systematized. Measures to improve the reliability of the logistics system of the machine-building enterprise are presented. The reliability of the logistics system of a machine-building enterprise is an indicator of the ability of the system to maintain its properties at a given level for a certain period of time under established operating conditions. To increase the reliability of the logistics system of the machine-building enterprise, it is necessary to identify “weak” links in the system that require identification of reserves and their use, which will increase the logistics system reliability of the machine-building enterprise as a whole.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY: EVALUATION PROBLEMS AND CURRENT SITUATION
Authors: Dashko I. , Krylov D. ,   Zaporizhzhia National University
Published: March 2022

It is studied that today in the context of energy efficiency policy three components dominate – economic development and competitiveness, energy security and climate change prevention. The essence and content of energy efficiency are investigated in the article. The definition of energy efficiency terms used to describe both minor changes, such as the use of energy-saving equipment, and more efficient power plants and energy savings at the level of companies and industries in general, is described. The existing problems are considered and the current state of energy efficiency is analyzed. Analyzed empirical facts show that, for example, Ukrainian consumers and companies spend energy irrationally. In particular, the energy intensity of the Ukrainian economy is 3.8 times higher than in the European Union. The most energy-intensive industries in Ukraine – metallurgy, engineering, chemical and petrochemical (energy saving potential, according to experts in this market is 62-64%), housing and communal services (35-38%), services (5%), agriculture (3-5%). The most energy-intensive industries in Ukraine in 2018, kg of oil equivalent / $ GDP at purchasing power parity in 2013 prices are given. The goals of energy saving of Ukraine by sectors by 2020 compared to the level of 2005-2009 are indicated. The reasons for the obstacles to the introduction of energy efficiency are substantiated. An assessment of the promotion of energy efficiency, which should include: ensuring unimpeded and full access to information on existing energy efficiency support programs; organization of awareness-raising activities in the field of energy efficiency for the population, authorities, enterprises and financial institutions; conducting trainings for specialists.
SYSTEMATIC ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC SECURITY OF ENTERPRISES AT NETWORK STRUCTURES: MAIN INDICATORS AND METHODS OF IMPLEMENTATION
Authors:   Western Ukrainian National University, SHATARSKYI Artur
Published: March 2022

In the current conditions of turbulence of economic processes in the field of network enterprises, valuation technologies are a powerful means of forming the effective functioning of economic entities aimed at maximizing profits and harmonizing relations between stakeholders. Please note that the enterprises of network structures depend on the state of economic security of the country. Meanwhile, it should be noted that currently the economic security of Ukraine is under threat, as all components of economic security are in danger. Problems of own economic security arise before each network structure not only in times of crisis, but also during work in the stable economic environment, the complex of the solved tasks at the same time has essential difference. The article examines the substantive characteristics of the concept economic security, as well as substantiates the methodological approaches to assessing the economic security of enterprises at network structures. A comprehensive study of the limit values of determinants in the system of economic security at network structures with the separation of indicators the state: stable, pre-crisis, crisis, critical. The peculiarities of the main approaches to ensuring the economic security of enterprises at network structures, in particular indicator, economic-mathematical, resource-functional, are substantiated.
TOOLS FOR FORMATION OF PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM OF INNOVATIVE-ACTIVE ENTERPRISE
Authors:   Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, BABCHYNSKA ОLENA
Published: March 2022

The peculiarities of forming an effective management system of development and use of the enterprise’s personnel are investigated. Some measures to improve the effectiveness of the management process of development and use of personnel are proposed. The scientific approaches concerning formation of the mechanism of management of development and use of personnel are considered. The analysis of scientific researches and publications concerning management of development and use of enterprise personnel is carried out. The paper emphasizes that the staff of an innovatively active enterprise is both a source of new ideas and a tool for their direct implementation in the practical activities of the enterprise. An essential condition for maintaining a stable positive economic dynamics of an innovatively active enterprise is staff development. The management system is the management of the enterprise, which exerts influence on the managed system in order to achieve the goals and objectives of the enterprise. Managed system – the staff of the enterprise, its quality characteristics, competencies, compliance with the needs of the enterprise and its development strategy. The target system includes strategic, tactical and operational goals and objectives, as well as criteria for selecting and evaluating the results of personnel development management of an innovatively active enterprise. The task of personnel development management of an innovatively active enterprise is to ensure compliance of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of personnel with the existing needs of the enterprise at the moment; development of innovative potential of the enterprise personnel. The innovative potential of an innovatively active enterprise should be understood as objective opportunities to maximize the intellectual potential of employees to achieve goals, as well as a set of tools, sources, opportunities and abilities, the use of which is aimed at solving any problems in innovation. The support system contributes to the realization of the goal of personnel development management of an innovatively active enterprise, by providing the necessary resources and creating the appropriate prerequisites.
TECHNOLOGIES FOR ENSURING EFFECTIVE MARKETING ACTIVITIES OF INDUSTRIAL ENTERPRISES
Authors:   Ariel University, Kalmanovych Oleksandr
Published: March 2022

In the conditions of strengthening of integration and globalization processes, frequent changes of conditions of functioning the industrial enterprises need to create adaptation mechanisms, to improve system of management of financial and economic activity, to define directions of increase of competitiveness of production and prospects of expansion of markets, and also to improve marketing activity. Making changes in the processes of marketing research, the formation of marketing strategies, market segmentation with consideration of issues regarding product positioning will increase the level of marketing efficiency in the enterprise. Only with the improvement of technologies to ensure effective marketing activities for the company it becomes possible to expand market segments, constantly monitor changes in consumer preferences (needs), as well as trends in doing business in a particular segment of sales and more. The article examines the essence of marketing and marketing activities of the enterprise. It is determined that the improvement of marketing activities, namely marketing technologies at the enterprise is an urgent task due to the growing role of marketing activities and its impact on the results of the enterprise. The interdependence of management functions and management functions of marketing activity of an industrial enterprise is proved. The role of such components of the management system as control and analysis in improving the efficiency of marketing activities of the business entity is proved. The basic directions of improvement of marketing activity of the industrial enterprise, in particular in marketing researches, in a price policy, at product development, in advertising activity, in organizational structure and in the organization of distribution of the goods are allocated. The influence of the formed marketing strategy on the achievement of the set current and strategic goals of doing business is substantiated. The basic concepts of marketing on the basis of which the company manages marketing activities are considered. The influence of the organization of the marketing structure (marketing department) and the corresponding information support on the effectiveness of marketing activities and obtaining the goals of the enterprise is studied. The necessity of forming a system of indicators according to which the management staff will be able to assess the level of efficiency of marketing activities of an industrial enterprise is proved.
INTERNATIONAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT FACTORS
Authors: PETRUSHENKO YURIY , ZHURAVKA FEDIR , MAREKHA IRYNA , NOVGORODCEVA MARIYA ,   Sumy State University
Published: March 2022

In the article, the authors analyze the scope of international tourism development factors based on factological and statistical grounds. It was proven in the article that on the macro-level tourist markets can be grouped into national and oversea ones. The classification of the national markets implies their division into highly-intensive markets (USA, Germany, Great Britain, etc.), stabilized markets (Spain, Greece, Turkey, Poland, etc.), reformed markets (Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, China, etc.), ant accumulated markets (India, Tunis, Egypt, Cuba, etc.). The basic factors affecting the international tourist market include static (climate, natural resources, cultural heritage, etc.) and dynamic ones (population, urbanization, wealth, family, leisure, income, spending, technological advancement, international conflicts and their resolution, etc.). In the article, special attention is paid to the analysis of the dynamic factors of international tourism development, social and economic ones in particular. The presence of positive factors in the country promotes favorable conditions for enhancing its tourist attractiveness on the international level. It was found out that positive factors increase the inflows of tourists for the specific regions (Brazil, France, Great Britain, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Israel, and U.A.E.). On the national level, the following factors are crucial for the development of tourist industry: natural resources, politics, population and its well-being, cultural heritage and rich history. It was revealed, that in Ukraine tourist business is internationally-oriented, which has both pros and cons for the national economy. In the article, the authors presented a matrix with positive (catalysts) and negative (inhibitors) factors affecting tourist business in Ukraine. Among the positive drivers are large contribution to the national economy and state financial support. At the same time, imperfect infrastructure and lack of legal regulations can be referred to the negative factors. It was stressed in the article that drastic measures should be undertaken in order to increase social and economic performance of national tourist business in Ukraine and increase it international image.
THE PLACE OF FINANCIAL SECURITY OF THE INDUSTRY IN THE STRUCTURE OF NATIONAL SECURITY
Authors:   Stepan Gzhytskyi National University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnologies Lviv, Kunytska-Iliash Marta
Published: March 2022

The peculiarities of the economy are determined, which testify to the achievement in the state of the necessary level of economic security and a sufficient pace of development of the national economy. Adhering to the existing approaches to the distribution of components of economic security of the state, the priority of financial security is highlighted. Achieving the required level of financial security of the state is due to the sectoral characteristics of the economy and directly to the financial security of the industry. It is established that in the system of relations the financial security of the industry has a direct impact on the financial security of the state and at the same time indirectly determines the level of economic and national security of the state. A number of scientific assumptions concerning the substantive and essential characteristics of the concept of financial security of the industry are highlighted. It is proposed to divide the structural components of the financial security of the industry according to the areas of ensuring the financial interests of the industry, its enterprises and the state. In general, a number of approaches to the substantive and substantive interpretation of the financial security of the industry is characterized by different target orientation (business environment, intra-industry, government regulatory system, the level of globalization trends) in determining the main direction of achieving the desired state. It is proposed to consider the financial security of the industry as a leading component of economic security of the industry system, which characterizes the state of security and the degree of realization of economic interests of its development in the financial sphere. The basic characteristics of the financial security of the industry are the availability of financial resources, the ability to prevent financial risks and threats, stability and stability of the financial and economic condition of the industry, the conditions and opportunities for development and implementation of the financial component of economic potential.
STUDY OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF MEAT PRODUCT SUBCOMPLEX AND MEAT MARKET IN UKRAINE
Authors:   Vinnytsia National Agrarian University, SAKHNO ANDRII , SALKOVA IRYNA ,   National Aviation University
Published: March 2022

The importance of the meat product subcomplex in the production of agricultural products is substantiated, which allowed to identify and assess the importance of meat products in domestic markets in the face of growing needs of the population. The need for state support for agricultural production, in particular the development of animal husbandry as a major factor in the existence of meat production. The annual balance of beef, pork, chicken and other animals over the past five years was analyzed, which showed a trend of declining beef and pork production, but increased chicken production. A similar trend is observed for meat consumption per capita – only the production of chicken meat has been growing steadily over the past five years. It is proposed to focus on the organization of such a production and technological chain, which would allow the most efficient use of raw materials, carry out deep processing, expand the range and improve the quality of manufactured products to ensure food security. Opportunities have been identified in the production of poultry meat, which is sold on the domestic market at prices higher than the world, to increase its competitiveness not by increasing state support, but by reducing the cost and improving the quality of meat products. The necessity of capital investment in the development of agricultural enterprises as a basis for the formation of effective activities for the production of meat products, taking into account the social significance for the population of the state.
THE IMPACT OF INTER-MUNICIPAL COOPERATION OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES ON LOCAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Authors:   Sumy State University, DUVANOVA OKSANA
Published: March 2022

The article confirms that inter-municipal cooperation is a factor influencing the determinants of sustainable local development. The relationship between the number of communities that have concluded agreements on inter-municipal cooperation and a set of indicators of the indicators of sustainable development of territorial communities is formalized based on the use of the correlation-regression analysis toolkit using the STATA software package. There is a positive impact of increasing the number of communities that have concluded agreements on inter-municipal cooperation on the indicators of the economic component of sustainable development: gross regional product, agricultural output, exports of goods per capita; on the environmental component of sustainable development: reducing the growth rate of pollutant emissions from stationary sources of pollution and reducing the amount of fuel and energy resources consumed in the region. Regarding the indicators of the social component of sustainable development, there is a positive impact on the regional human development index, the share of graduates of secondary schools who received 160 points and above according to the results of external independent evaluation of Ukrainian language and literature, the planned capacity of outpatient clinics, average life expectancy at birth and reduction of а number of criminal offenses committed against human life and health. Dissemination of inter-municipal cooperation is a promising area for the development of territorial economic systems. It is not only an alternative to the consolidation of communities but also an effective means of ensuring the economic viability of communities in the context of decentralization. Today, inter-municipal cooperation of territorial communities in Ukraine is one of the important directions of local self-government reform.
INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT TRENDS OF SMALL BUSINESS ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE DIGITAL ECONOMY CONDITION
Authors:   Kyiv national economic university named after Vadym Hetman, TEPLIUK MARIIA
Published: March 2022

The article is devoted to the modern trends identification in the small businesses innovative development and their adaptability to the digital economy. The article presents the main characteristics of the digital economy and its impact on the small business’ innovative development. Transformation processes from idea generation, business idea formation to implementation of breakthrough innovations and small business enterprises activity are analyzed. The article considers, within the network intellectual digitization, technological trends: digital idea, smart applications and analytics, smart things, digital twins, cloud technologies, talk platforms, immersive experience, blockchain, managed models, prolonged adaptive risk and trust. Based on the results of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, the most significant economic factors of industrial production development in Ukraine have been found out. The economic factors of the enterprises development under the conditions of Industry 4.0 are systematized. It shows the essence of the paradigm shifts in economy, that respond to the trend to globalization and setting up the information society, especially to the impact of the fourth industrial revolution. The authors have noted increased productivity and profitability of production and the rise of collaboration effectiveness between the economic entities. Such factors as the need to develop a new type of intellectual value chain, production of individual and customized goods with reasonable prices and use of learning factories have specific meaning in the framework of this problem. However, in the context of the Ukraine industrial policy within of Industry 4.0, certain systemic economic factors that could have a negative impact on the development of priority sectors of industry have been identified. The results obtained can be used by business entities implementing the decoded platform. At the same time, drivers of innovative development of modern business at the local and global level are identified, such as: staff and innovation culture, customer understanding, research and development, business processes and business model.
Soziale Arbeit als Arbeit am Gemeinwesen
Authors: May Michael
Published: March 2022

Der Autor entfaltet einen eigenen, raumtheoretisch unterfütterten Begriff des Gemeinwesens ausgehend von unterschiedlichen Bestimmungsversuchen in der Geschichte von Philosophie und Sozialwissenschaften – von Hegel, über Marx und Arendt, bis zu Habermas und Negt. Daran anschließend wird eine Konzeption der Sozialen Arbeit als Arbeit am Gemeinwesen in kritischer Auseinandersetzung mit verschiedenen Theorien begründet und methodisch konkretisiert.
Value of a clinical test of sub-acromial impingement to predict response to physiotherapy with dynamic humeral centering: A preliminary study
Authors: Ferenczi Antoine , Ostertag Agnès , Lasbleiz Sandra , Lefèvre Clémence , Petrover David , Yelnik Alain , Orcel Philippe , Beaudreuil Johann
Published: March 2022

BACKGROUND: Dynamic humeral centering (DHC) is a physiotherapy modality that aims to prevent sub-acromial impingement of rotator cuff tendons. We recently developed a new clinical manoeuver – the Viggo-Cochin test – to enhance the ability of the Neer test to detect sub-acromial impingement. Here we hypothesised whether the DHC effect may differ between individuals with positive and negative Viggo-Cochin test results. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between DHC and Viggo-Cochin test results. METHODS: Individuals with shoulder pain due to sub-acromial impingement underwent the Neer and Viggo-Cochin tests at baseline. They were assessed before and after DHC by the Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI). A positive response to DHC was defined as a 20% reduction in the SPADI. RESULTS: We included 50 individuals (53 shoulders). The response to DHC did not differ by Neer test result at baseline: OR 0.73 [95% CI 0.22–2.38] (p= 0.601). By contrast, the response to DHC was 5-fold higher with a positive than negative Viggo-Cochin test result: OR 5.11 [95% CI 1.47–17.78] (p= 0.010). CONCLUSIONS: We found a higher clinical response to DHC with a positive than negative Viggo-Cochin test result at baseline in individuals with shoulder pain due to rotator cuff disease.
Identifying latent variables in Dynamic Bayesian Networks with bootstrapping applied to Type 2 Diabetes complication prediction
Authors: Yousefi Leila , Tucker Allan
Published: March 2022

Predicting complications associated with complex disease is a challenging task given imbalanced and highly correlated disease complications along with unmeasured or latent factors. To analyse the complications associated with complex disease, this article attempts to deal with complex imbalanced clinical data, whilst determining the influence of latent variables within causal networks generated from the observation. This work proposes appropriate Intelligent Data Analysis methods for building Dynamic Bayesian networks with latent variables, applied to small-sized clinical data (a case of Type 2 Diabetes complications). First, it adopts a Time Series Bootstrapping approach to re-sample the rare complication class with a replacement with respect to the dynamics of disease progression. Then, a combination of the Induction Causation algorithm and Link Strength metric (which is called IC*LS approach) is applied on the bootstrapped data for incrementally identifying latent variables. The most highlighted contribution of this paper gained insight into the disease progression by interpreting the latent states (with respect to the associated distributions of complications). An exploration of inference methods along with confidence interval assessed the influences of these latent variables. The obtained results demonstrated an improvement in the prediction performance.
RGCF: Refined graph convolution collaborative filtering with concise and expressive embedding
Authors: Liu Kang , Xue Feng , Hong Richang
Published: March 2022

Graph Convolution Networks (GCNs) have attracted significant attention and have become the most popular method for learning graph representations. In recent years, many efforts have focused on integrating GCNs into recommender tasks and have made remarkable progress. At its core is to explicitly capture the high-order connectivities between nodes in the user-item bipartite graph. However, we found some potential drawbacks existed in the traditional GCN-based recommendation models are that the excessive information redundancy yield by the nonlinear graph convolution operation reduces the expressiveness of the resultant embeddings, and the important popularity features that are effective in sparse recommendation scenarios are not encoded in the embedding generation process. In this work, we develop a novel GCN-based recommendation model, named Refined Graph convolution Collaborative Filtering (RGCF), where a refined graph convolution structure is designed to match non-semantic ID inputs. In addition, a new fine-tuned symmetric normalization is proposed to mine node popularity characteristics and further incorporate the popularity features into the embedding learning process. Extensive experiments were conducted on three public million-size datasets, and the RGCF improved by an average of 13.45% over the state-of-the-art baseline. Further comparative experiments validated the effectiveness and rationality of each part of our proposed RGCF. We released our code at https://github.com/hfutmars/RGCF.
A feature selection strategy for improving software maintainability prediction
Authors: Gupta Shikha , Chug Anuradha
Published: March 2022

Software maintainability is a significant contributor while choosing particular software. It is helpful in estimation of the efforts required after delivering the software to the customer. However, issues like imbalanced distribution of datasets, and redundant and irrelevant occurrence of various features degrade the performance of maintainability prediction models. Therefore, current study applies ImpS algorithm to handle imbalanced data and extensively investigates several Feature Selection (FS) techniques including Symmetrical Uncertainty (SU), RandomForest filter, and Correlation-based FS using one open-source, three proprietaries and two commercial datasets. Eight different machine learning algorithms are utilized for developing prediction models. The performance of models is evaluated using Accuracy, G-Mean, Balance, & Area under the ROC Curve. Two statistical tests, Friedman Test and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test are conducted for assessing different FS techniques. The results substantiate that FS techniques significantly improve the performance of various prediction models with an overall improvement of 18.58%, 129.73%, 80.00%, and 45.76% in the median values of Accuracy, G-Mean, Balance, & AUC, respectively for all the datasets taken together. Friedman test advocates the supremacy of SU FS technique. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test showcases that SU FS technique is significantly superior to the CFS technique for three out of six datasets.
Improving the accuracy of multiclass classification in machine learning: A case study in a cell signaling dataset
Authors: González-Pérez Pedro Pablo , Sánchez-Gutiérrez Máximo Eduardo
Published: March 2022

It is important to make sense of the data within its context to propose a useful model to solve a problem. This domain knowledge includes information not contained in the data, but that will help us understand the data to be fed into a machine-learning algorithm and guide us on what features might help our model. Nevertheless, domain knowledge may become insufficient as the input variables increase, forcing the need to try automated feature selection techniques. In this study, we investigate whether the joint use of 1) feature selection techniques, such as Chi-square, Tree-based Feature Selection, Pearson’s Correlation, LASSO, Low Variance, and Recursive Feature Elimination, 2) outlier detection methods such as Isolation-Forest, and 3) Cross-Validation techniques lead to improving the accuracy in multiclass classification in machine learning. Specifically, we address the classification of patterns representing the activation state of cell signaling components into classes that symbolize the different cellular processes triggered in cancer cells. The results presented in this work have shown an accuracy increase with up to 80% fewer input features by only using 3 out of the 16 original descriptors.
Causal Relationships Between Relative Intake from the Macronutrients and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Two-Sample Mendelian Randomization Study
Authors: Wang Xiaoxin , Sun Hongru , Pan Sijia , Bai Xiao , Zhu Zhuolin , Zhang Runan , Li Chunlong , Chen Yang , Bao Meitong , Zhang Kewei , Feng Rennan
Published: March 2022

Background: Some observational studies indicated the associations of relative carbohydrate, sugar, fat, and protein intake and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). But it remains unclear whether the associations are causal. Objective: This study aimed to identify the effects of relative carbohydrate, sugar, fat, and protein intake in the diet on AD. Methods: A two-sample Mendelian randomization was employed. Finally, 14 independent lead SNPs remained in the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium. These SNPs of relative carbohydrate, sugar, fat, and protein intake at the level of genome-wide significance (p < 5×10–8) were used as instrumental variables. The summary data for AD were acquired from the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project with a total of 54,162 individuals (17,008 AD patients and 37,154 control participants). Results: This two-sample Mendelian randomization indicated that increased relative protein intake (per 1 standard deviation) causally decreased the AD risk (OR = 0.48, 95% CI: 0.24–0.95, p = 0.036), and increased relative fat intake may decrease the risk of AD (OR = 0.22, 95% CI: 0.06–0.86, p = 0.029). No statistical significance with AD risk was seen for relative carbohydrate or relative sugar intake. Conclusion: A higher relative intake of protein can causally reduce the risk of AD in the elderly. Additionally, a higher relative intake of fat may be protective against AD. No evidence showed that AD was associated with relative carbohydrate and sugar intake.
Enhanced Association of Tau Pathology and Cognitive Impairment in Mild Cognitive Impairment Subjects with Behavior Symptoms
Authors: Ge Xinting ,   for Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Qiao Yuchuan , Choi Jiyoon , Raman Rema , Ringman John M. , Shi Yonggang
Published: March 2022

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) individuals with neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are more likely to develop dementia. Objective: We sought to understand the relationship between neuroimaging markers such as tau pathology and cognitive symptoms both with and without the presence of NPS during the prodromal period of Alzheimer’s disease. Methods: A total of 151 MCI subjects with tau positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning with 18F AV-1451, amyloid-β (Aβ) PET scanning with florbetapir or florbetaben, magnetic resonance imaging, and cognitive and behavioral evaluations were selected from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. A 4-group division approach was proposed using amyloid (A–/A+) and behavior (B–/B+) status: A–B–, A–B+, A+B–, and A+B+. Pearson’s correlation test was conducted for each group to examine the association between tau deposition and cognitive performance. Results: No statistically significant association between tau deposition and cognitive impairment was found for subjects without behavior symptoms in either the A–B–or A+B–groups after correction for false discovery rate. In contrast, tau deposition was found to be significantly associated with cognitive impairment in entorhinal cortex and temporal pole for the A–B+ group and nearly the whole cerebrum for the A+B+ group. Conclusion: Enhanced associations between tauopathy and cognitive impairment are present in MCI subjects with behavior symptoms, which is more prominent in the presence of elevated amyloid pathology. MCI individuals with NPS may thus be at greater risk for further cognitive decline with the increase of tau deposition in comparison to those without NPS.
Peripheral Immune Cells and Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology in Cognitively Intact Older Adults: The CABLE Study
Authors: Zhang Peng-Fei , Wang Zuo-Teng , Liu Ying , Hu Hao , Sun Yan , Hu He-Ying , Ma Ya-Hui , Tan Lan , Yu Jin-Tai
Published: March 2022

Background: Inflammation plays a role in occurrence and progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Whether peripheral immune cells are involved in major pathological processes including amyloid-β plaques and tau tangles is still controversial. Objective: We aimed to examine whether peripheral immune cells counts were associated with early changes in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of AD pathology in cognitively intact older adults. Methods: This study included 738 objective cognitive normal participants from the Chinese Alzheimer’s Biomarker and Lifestyle (CABLE) database. Group comparisons of peripheral immune cells counts were tested by analysis of covariance. Multiple linear regression models were used to examine the associations of peripheral immune cells counts with CSF AD biomarkers. Results: In preclinical AD, peripheral lymphocytes and eosinophils changed dynamically along with disease progression. Consistently, regression analysis showed that lymphocytes and eosinophils were associated with Aβ pathology. There were no interaction effects of peripheral immune cells counts with APOE ɛ4, gender, age, and educate. Eosinophil to lymphocyte ratio were also significantly associated with Aβ-related biomarkers. Conclusion: Our findings showed the relationship between peripheral immune cells and Aβ pathological biomarkers, which indicated that peripheral immune might play a role in progression of AD pathology.
Combination of optical properties acquired by first principles calculations with the empirical Tauc method for determining the band gap energy of alkaline-earth metal oxides: MO (M = Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba)
Authors: Kharroubi Bachir , Bousmaha Mohamed , Bezzerrouk Mohamed Amine , Akriche Ahmed , Naceur Rabie
Published: March 2022

In this paper, we have investigated the structural, electronic and optical properties of alkaline earth oxides MO (M = Be, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba) using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave method (FP-LAPW) within the framework of density functional theory (DFT), as implemented in the Wien2k package within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) and GGA plus Tran and Blaha modified Becke and Johnson potential (TB-mBJ) for treating the exchange and correlation effects. The main objective of this work is to introduce the first principal calculations used for the determination of the optical parameters of alkaline-earth metal oxide materials before introducing them into the experimental Tauc formula to determine the band gap energy of both direct and indirect bang gap semiconductors. The obtained results are of great interest regarding the convergence of the obtained band gap energies using the combined method compared to several research works.
Dynamic gesture recognition based on YOLOv4 and deep-sort methodological research
Authors: Li Dongjie , Zhang Zilei , Zhao Hongyue
Published: March 2022

The dynamic gesture trajectory recognition results are low accurate and poor real-time due to the problems of occlusion, complex background and fast gesture movement. In this paper, we take advantage of the advantages of machine vision to extract the video keyframes by the three-frame differential method and use the annotation software to produce the dataset. The you only look once 4 (YOLOv4) algorithm is improved to reduce the redundancy of the network structure and enhance the applicability of the feature map for hand gesture recognition. Combined with the Deep-sort real-time tracking feature, the hand motion trajectory is obtained by introducing the epiphenomenal features to effectively avoid the situation that the object is not tracked when it is obscured. To avoid the problem of gradient disappearance during deep network training, the DenseNet-BC-169 network is used to balance the recognition rate and training time for gesture trajectory classification. Compared with FLIXT, the winner of the dynamic gesture recognition challenge, the final results showed a 6.13% improvement in accuracy and video processing with the IsoGD dataset reached 31fps, validating the effectiveness of this method.
Guidelines for collaborative development of sustainable data treatment software
Authors: Wuttke Joachim , Cottrell Stephen , Gonzalez Miguel A. , Kaestner Anders , Markvardsen Anders , Rod Thomas H. , Rozyczko Piotr , Vardanyan Gagik
Published: March 2022

Software development for data reduction and analysis at large research facilities is increasingly professionalized, and internationally coordinated. To foster software quality and sustainability, and to facilitate collaboration, representatives from software groups of European neutron and muon facilities have agreed on a set of guidelines for development practices, infrastructure, and functional and non-functional product properties. These guidelines have been derived from actual practices in software projects from the EU funded consortium ‘Science and Innovation with Neutrons in Europe in 2020’ (SINE2020), and have been enriched through extensive literature review. Besides guiding the work of the professional software engineers in our computing groups, we hope to influence scientists who are willing to contribute their own data treatment software to our community. Moreover, this work may also provide inspiration to scientific software development beyond the neutron and muon field.
The relationship between intuitive eating, eating disorders, and body image perceptions in young adult women
Authors: Koçyiğit Emine , Uzunlar Elif Adanur , Özer Şehriban Duyar , Zakkour Hazal Küçükkaraca , Akbulut Gamze
Published: March 2022

BACKGROUND:

The term intuitive eating is a new concept that has emerged in recent years. It is a way of eating that is based on responding to the body’s natural signals of hunger and satiety.

OBJECTIVE:

The study was conducted to evaluate the relationship between intuitive eating and eating disorders and body image perception in young adult women.

METHODS:

The study was conducted with 400 women aged 19–35 years. The data were collected with the Figure Rating Scale, the Intuitive Eating Scale-2 (IES-2), and the Eating Attitude Test-26.

RESULTS:

The mean body mass index was significantly higher in individuals who misperceived their body image. While 51.4% of the participants with normal eating behavior had appropriate body image perception, 38.8% of the participants with abnormal eating behavior had appropriate body image perception. The IES-2 total score was significantly lower in women with abnormal eating behavior and overweight/obese women.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our findings showed that intuitive eating is negatively associated with abnormal eating behavior and obesity in young adult women and that women with low intuitive eating inclinations misperceived their body image.
The value of ultrasound elastography combined with multi-parameters in the diagnosis of BI-RADS 4 breast lesions
Authors: Shi Jian , Chen Luzeng , Wang Bin , Zhang Hong , Xu Ling , Ye Jingming , Liu Yinhua , Shao Yuhong , Sun Xiuming , Zou Yinghua
Published: March 2022

BACKGROUND: Female breast cancer has surpassed lung cancer as the most commonly diagnosed cancer, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases (11.7%) in the global cancer statistics 2020. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic value of ultrasound elastography combined with multi-parameters in differentiating category 4 benign and malignant lesions in the breast imaging reporting and data system (BI-RADS). METHODS: This study retrospectively analyzed 206 patients (213 breast lesions) who visited the Department of Breast Surgery and underwent a breast core needle biopsy in the Department of Ultrasound in Peking University First hospital from April to December 2019. The shear wave velocity (SWV) values were collected at the following locations by virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ): breast lesion interior, breast lesion margin, surrounding glands, and surrounding fat. Simultaneously, the strain ratio (SR) of breast lesions to glands and the area ratio (AR) of breast lesions were collected under strain elastography and a two-dimensional ultrasound mode. RESULTS: Univariate analysis found that the SWV value, measured by ultrasound elastography parameters, and the AR between the elasticity and the two-dimensional ultrasound breast lesions showed statistical differences when differentiating benign and malignant lesions (p< 0.05). Binary logistic regression analysis found that the SWV values of the lesion interior and the surrounding glands were statistically significant. The joint predictors were calculated and analyzed by Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), and it was found that the joint predictors and the SWV values of the lesion interior have great diagnostic value. The cut-off value, sensitivity and specificity of the joint predictor and the SWV value of the lesion interior were > 3.65, 88.35% and 76.36% and > 5.55 m/s, 79.61% and 82.73%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasound elastography combined with multi-parameters has good diagnostic value in differentiating BI-RADS 4 breast lesions.
First clinical results of a novel minimally-invasive fusion system for the sacroiliac joint
Authors: Kasapovic Adnan , Schwetje Desirée , Ali Thaer , Jaenisch Max , Gathen Martin , Bornemann Rahel , Abdallah Hany , Vieweg Uwe
Published: March 2022

BACKGROUND: Sacroiliac joint (SIJ) painful dysfunction is a common source of low back pain (LBP). Several surgical treatment options for SIJ fusion were described. A promising treatment option with demonstrated clinical improvement is the minimally-invasive SIJ fusion. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this case study was to document the effectiveness and safety of the new SIJ system (Torpedo®) over a period of 6 months after the minimally invasive implantation. METHODS: Patients with failed conservative treatment of painful SIJ dysfunction were enrolled successively in two centers. The Diagnosis was made by positive response to SIJ-injection with local anesthetic and at least by two positive SIJ provocation tests. The Torpedo® Implant system was used for the implantation. This workpiece made of titanium alloy is characterized by a helical profile geometry (CST: chronical spinal turn) with a hydrophilic surface. The evaluated endpoints LBP and grade of disability were assessed using a 0–10 numerical rating scale (NRS), and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) preoperatively and at one, three and six months postoperatively. RESULTS: 15 patients (10 female, 5 male; mean age 59 ± 13 years) were operated on one after the other. The pain intensity decreased in all 15 patients. After 6 months, a decrease in the median values of 70% (quartiles 1–3: 65–79%) was calculated. The median values of the Oswestry Disability Index after 6 months were 62% (quartiles 1–3: 53–67) lower than before the operation. Before surgery, 13 patients (87%) were taking opioids for pain management. Six months after the operation, opioids were only needed by 3 patients (20%). Implant malpositioning was not detected on plain radiograph. No surgical site infections or perioperative complications occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical improvement in early follow up and the absence of surgery related complications demonstrate a high grade of device-related safety and effectiveness of the treatment with a novel minimally-invasive SIJ fusion system.
Omic or Multi-omics Approach Can Save The Mankind
Authors: Ali Johar , Afridi Ome Kalsoom
Published: March 2022

The publication of the first draft of human genome, has led to the explosion of high throughput technologies including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomic, proteomics, and metabolomics aiming to characterize the various biological molecules (DNA, RNA, proteins, and metabolites). These high throughput technologies collectively called as omics revolutionized medical research in the last two decades. The advent of next generation sequencing (NGS) reduced the time and economic cost of traditional sequencing and has led to the emergence of genomics as the first discipline of omics. Following the emergence of genomics, a number of projects such as The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), 1000 Genome Project (1KGP), and the International Cancer Genome Consortium have been accomplished. These projects contributed significantly to the understanding of genetic variations in different cancers, for instance, TCGA produced over 2.5 petabytes of big data. Furthermore, the big data produced by these mega projects has been made publicly available to the clinicians and researchers to fast-track the diagnosis and prognosis of complex rare diseases. In developed countries, a multi-omics approach has been applied holistically to the clinical practice for the diagnosis and prognosis of various cancers and rare Mendelian diseases.