bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
An Author’s Guide to Mastering Research Communication Skills: Introduction of a Medical Manuscript
Authors: El-Sobky Tamer
Published: December 2021

Skilled academic/medical writing is critical to research communication. The fundamental sections of a scholarly manuscript are introduction, methods, results and discussion. The introduction of a medical manuscript is aimed at briefing readers on the clinical extent and public health context of the research problem. It must justify the essentialness of the research to the scientific community and reveal any underlying research novelty. Skillfully conceived, designed and performed research protocols that are unskillfully presented can lose scientific credibility and impact. Without research communication skills authors would not be able to display the usefulness of their research for the scientific community. Generally, research communication or medical writing training/skills is underrepresented in curricular systems of medical schools globally. This can challenge publication quality and quantity of early-career authors/researchers. The author presents the academic experience he accumulated through peer review and supervision of vast manuscripts and theses. This article aimed at presenting a comprehensive roadmap for academic writing of the introduction and at identifying its common pitfalls.
Liver Steatosis is a Component of the Hepatocardiorenal Syndrome Provoked by a High-Lipid Diet and Activation of Ang II Pathways in Rats
Authors: Crisóstomo Thuany , Pardal Marco A. E. , Herdy Simone A. , Muzi-Filho Humberto , Mello Debora B. , Luzes Rafael , Vieyra Adalberto
Published: December 2021

Overweight/obesity is a growing pandemic nowadays that affects many organs and tissues. We have investigated whether a high-lipid diet provokes an imbalance between type 1 and type 2 angiotensin II (Ang II) receptors signaling, leading to liver alterations associated with previously described cardiovascular and kidney disturbances. Chronic administration of a high-lipid diet can provoke an hepatocardiorenal syndrome as the result of activation of the Ang II→type 1 receptor axis, which is completely counteracted by Ang-(3–4) the allosteric enhancer of the Ang II→type 2 receptor pathway.
Zircon (U-Th)/He Closure Temperature Lower than Apatite Ther-Mochronometric Systems: Reconciliation of a Paradox
Authors: Gérard Benjamin Gilles , Robert Xavier , Gautheron Cécile , Grujic Djordje , Audin Laurence , Bernet Matthias , Balvay Mélanie
Published: December 2021

We present here seven new zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) ages and three new zircon fission track ages (ZFT) analyzed from an age-elevation profile (Machu Picchu, Peru). ZFT data present older ages in comparison with the other thermochronological data, whereas the ZHe data interestingly present similar ages than the ones obtained with apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe). It has been proposed that He retention in zircon is linked to the damage dose, with an evolution of the closure-temperature from low values associated to low α-dose (<1016 α/g), subsequently increasing before decreasing again at very high α-dose (>1018 α /g). Studies have been focused on the He diffusion behavior at high α-dose, but little is known at low dose. We propose that the ZHe closure temperature at α-dose ranging from 0.6×1015 to 4×1016 α/g is in the range of ~60-80°C. This value is lower than the one proposed in the current damage model ZRDAAM and demonstrates that the ZHe and AHe methods could have similar closure temperatures at low α-dose (i.e. similar ages). These new data strengthen our previous geological conclusions and even highlight an about twice more important cooling rate than the one deduced from AHe and apatite fission-track data alone registered at Machu Picchu.
Developing and Field Testing a Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory System for Buses
Authors: Chen Hao , Rakha Hesham Ahmed
Published: December 2021

This paper develops a Green Light Optimal Speed Advisory (GLOSA) system for buses (B-GLOSA). The proposed B-GLOSA system is implemented on diesel buses, and field tested to validate and quantify the potential real-world benefits. The developed system includes a simple and easy to calibrate fuel consumption model that computes instantaneous diesel bus fuel consumption rates. The bus fuel consumption model, a vehicle dynamics model, the traffic signal timings, and the re-lationship between vehicle speed and distance to the intersection are used to construct an optimi-zation problem. A moving-horizon dynamic programming problem solved using the A-star algo-rithm is used to compute the energy-optimized vehicle trajectory through signalized intersections. The Virginia Smart Road test facility was used to conduct the field test on 30 participants. Each participant drove three scenarios including a base case uninformed drive, an informed drive with signal timing information communicated to the driver, and an informed drive with the recom-mended speed computed by the B-GLOSA system. The field test investigated the performance of using the developed B-GLOSA system considering different impact factors, including road grades and red indication offsets, using a split-split-plot experimental design. The test results demonstrated that the proposed B-GLOSA system can produce smoother bus trajectories through signalized in-tersections producing fuel consumption and travel time savings. Specifically, compared to the uninformed drive, the B-GLOSA system produces fuel and travel time savings of 22.1% and 6.1% on average, respectively.
An Introduction to Spiral Steroids
Authors: Chasalow Fred
Published: December 2021

In addition to the classical steroids, which have cholesterol as a precursor, there are steroids with 7-dehydrocholesterol as a precursor. This review describes the identification of these steroids, their biosynthesis and some aspects of their function. There are three classes of these compounds, distinguished by the number of their carbon atoms, 23, 24 and 25. Each class has a spiral steroid and is a phosphodiester. Up until these investigations, no spiral steroids or steroid phosphodiesters were known. There are at least 13 compounds of which six have been purified to near homogeneity. Each one has been characterized by its mass and proposed composition. They function by regulating the NaK-ATPase. Based on the tissues in which they have been detected, each class of compound seems to regulate a different isoform of the NaK-ATPase. This is an important site of endocrine regulation.
Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Snowmelt Runoff in Himalayan Region
Authors: Kumar Rohitashw , Manzoor Saika , Vishwakarma Dinesh Kumar , Kushwaha N. L. , Elbeltagi Ahmed , Sushanth Kallem , Kuriqi Alban
Published: December 2021

The current study was planned to simulate runoff due to the snowmelt in the Lidder River catchment of Himalayan region under climate change scenarios. A basic degree-day model, Snowmelt-Runoff Model (SRM) was utilized to assess the hydrological consequences of change in climate. The SRM model performance during the calibration and validation was assessed using volume difference (Dv) and coefficient of determination (R2). The Dv was found as 11.7, -10.1, -11.8, 1.96, and 8.6 during 2009-2014, respectively, while the R2 is 0.96, 0.92, 0.95, 0.90, and 0.94, respectively. The Dv and R2 values indicating that the simulated snowmelt runoff has a close agreement with the observed value. The simulated findings were also assessed under the different scenarios of climate change: a) increases in precipitation by +20 %, b) temperature rise of +2 °C, and c) temperature rise of +2 °C with a 20 % increase in snow cover. In scenario "b", the simulated results showed that runoff increased by 53 % in summer (April–September). In contrast, the projected increased discharge for scenarios "a" and "c" was 37 % and 67 %, respectively. In high elevation data-scarce mountain environments, the SRM is efficient in forecasting future water supplies due to the snowmelt runoff.
Identification of Fatigue Damage Stages in Polymer Composite Materials by using Acoustic Emission: Approach and Perspectives
Authors: Bashkov Oleg , Bryansky Anton , Efimov Timofey , Romashko Roman
Published: December 2021

The work is devoted to the study of the mechanisms of damage accumulation in a polymer composite material (PCM) during fatigue loading. Mechanical testing of a fiberglass sample was carried out by cyclic tension accompanied by registration of acoustic emission (AE). For the recorded AE signals, the Fourier spectra were calculated and used for clustering with Kohonen self-organizing map. Relations between clusters and types of damage in the PCM structure were established. The analysis of the peak frequencies of the Daubechies D14-wavelet components of AE signals was carried out. Obtained results has allows one to describe the processes of destruction in the PCM sample. It has been established that, on the base of local formation of microdamages in the matrix and the fracture of the fibers detected during recording of the AE data, it is possible to predict the destruction of the polymer composite material, while the beginning of a material destruction can be registered if the damage identified as an adhesion failure is observed. Perspectives of application of adaptive fiber-optic AE sensors for structural monitoring of PCMs on the base of preliminary experimental results are considered and discussed.
Mitigation of CaCO3 Influences on Ipomoea batatas Plants Using Bacillus megaterium BSM 2894 var.
Authors: Awad Ahmed A. M. , Ahmed AlShaymaa I. , Sweed Atef A.A.
Published: December 2021

Under Egyptian soil conditions, when phosphorus fertilizers were applied to the soil, it gets fixed and converts to unavailable form, leading to low solubility for the plant. This study were fulfilled on sweet potato (cv. Beauregard) under undesirable soil properties (CaCO3 10.8 vs 11.3%) using Bacillus megaterium DSM 2894 strain under different five mono calcium phosphate (CSP) levels [(69(CSP20); 138(CSP40); 207 (CSP60); 276 (CSP80) and 345 ((CSP100) kg ha-1 of calcium superphosphate (CSP)] to arise the potential efficiency of some nutrients uptake and decease the applied total amount of CSP in 2019 and 2020 seasons. The results mentioned that highest values were obtained by inoculated plants with DSM2894 strain under 20, 60 and 100% of CSP for all studied nutrients content in both seasons, except Mn content in the 2019. Also, inoculated plants with DSM2894 under previous treatments for all tuberous root nutrients content, except Fe and Zn contents in both seasons, in addition protein and anti-radical power and total yield. Statistically, leaf nutrients uptake and tuberous root content were highly significant affected by DSM and CSP combination. Appling of phosphorus fertilizer with DSM2894 mixture was gave the best values as compared with phosphorus fertilizer or DSM2894, individually.
Why and How We Should Join the Shift From Significance Testing to Estimation
Authors: Berner Daniel , Amrhein Valentin
Published: December 2021

A paradigm shift away from null hypothesis significance testing seems in progress. Based on simulations, we illustrate some of the underlying motivations. First, P-values vary strongly from study to study, hence dichotomous inference using significance thresholds is usually unjustified. Second, statistically significant results have overestimated effect sizes, a bias declining with increasing statistical power. Third, statistically non-significant results have underestimated effect sizes, and this bias gets stronger with higher statistical power. Fourth, the tested statistical hypotheses generally lack biological justification and are often uninformative. Despite these problems, a screen of 48 papers from the 2020 volume of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology exemplifies that significance testing is still used almost universally in evolutionary biology. All screened studies tested the default null hypothesis of zero effect with the default significance threshold of p = 0.05, none presented a pre-planned alternative hypothesis, and none calculated statistical power and the probability of ‘false negatives’ (beta error). The papers reported 49 significance tests on average. Of 41 papers that contained verbal descriptions of a ‘statistically non-significant’ result, 26 (63%) falsely claimed the absence of an effect. We conclude that our studies in ecology and evolutionary biology are mostly exploratory and descriptive. We should thus shift from claiming to “test” specific hypotheses statistically to describing and discussing many hypotheses (effect sizes) that are most compatible with our data, given our statistical model. We already have the means for doing so, because we routinely present compatibility (“confidence”) intervals covering these hypotheses.
Early Detection and Prediction of Some Threats in Complex Distributed Systems Based on Data Mining
Authors: Gizatullin Artur , Ivantsov Andrey , Pavlov Alexander , Pavlov Sergey , Khristodulo Olga
Published: December 2021

A method for predicting threats in complex distributed systems is proposed, based on the intelligent analysis of large data arrays on the results of monitoring changes in water level in water bodies and air temperature at the measurement point, which makes it possible to increase the efficiency of planning and implementing measures to fend off such and similar threats. The method is based on general approaches and mathematical models previously used by the authors to develop adaptive algorithms for controlling gas turbine engines, which is especially relevant in the context of the increasingly widespread introduction of automatic means for monitoring the state of complex distributed systems and the exponential growth in the number of data used to support decision-making. The choice of the future value of the water level at the measurement point is carried out based on the results of processing the data accumulated for all previous flood periods on the compliance of the water level and its changes per day with the values of air temperature and its changes for the same day. The results of an experimental assessment of the accuracy of predicting the water level in the water bodies of the Republic of Bashkortostan in the flood period of 2021 are presented, which confirm the applicability of the proposed forecasting method to support decision-making to fend off threats in complex distributed systems from a sharp rise in water.
Rendering of Newton’s Rings in Monochrome Light
Authors: Debelov Victor , Dolgov Nikita
Published: December 2021

Newton's rings are an interference pattern related to fringes of equal thickness. This image can be obtained on a simple experimental optical setup. Modern common renderers, based on zerothickness ray tracing, calculate highly realistic images of complex 3D scenes, which are computer models of scenes from the real world. However, they do not allow you to reproduce such phenomena as interference, because they ignore even the polarization of light. Interference is studied by physical optics, and it is natural to assume that if the calculation is based on the "tracing" of waves in the scene, this problem can be solved. An algorithm is known when a solid beam of light is used instead of a light wave. The results of the calculations show images of the interference effects; Newton's rings are also calculated. This is an acceptable solution for simple scenes involving a few objects. It is also good for optical design systems, when the result is important, and not the time spent. But not practical for universal renderers, which must calculate the image in an acceptable time for very complex scenes. In this paper, we propose an algorithm based on the traditional method of tracing paths consisting of zero-thickness rays. Only on the last ray of a path that crosses the picture plane is the modification made. It is assumed that these rays characterize spherical wavelets. In this paper, we consider the results of applying the mentioned heuristics to classical optical experiments.
BSDF Reconstruction of Inks and Paints for Light Guiding Plates
Authors: Sokolov Vadim Gennadjevich , Potemin Igor , Zhdanov Dmitry , Barladyan Boris Khaimovich
Published: December 2021

The work is devoted to the investigation of the best and reasonable methods to reconstruct the scattering properties of inks and paints widely used in modern electronic devices containing various light guiding plates and fibers. Typically scattering properties for inks have a volume scattering nature however it can be complicated with surface scattering because of the microroughness of ink layers. Both the volume and surface scattering reconstruction are considered in the given paper. Typically scattering properties of inks are described with bidirectional scattering functions (BSDF) and the BSDF is required from the internal side of the material of light-guiding elements. It cannot be measured directly because neither detector of the measuring device nor the light source cannot be placed inside the material. The only way to solve the problem of BSDF extraction for such cases is to build computer models of volume and surface scattering for inks and then with optimization procedures reconstruct parameters for these models which can provide surface scattering close enough to scattering of real samples of inks and paints. Light propagation in ink media is very complex requiring a long calculation time. As a result, the selection of an effective optimization procedure is the key point of the task. Several more typical real samples with printed inks are selected for investigation. The achieved results of BSDF extraction show very good agreement with data obtaining by real measurement. The comparison is based on numerical comparison of light scattering of ink samples as well as its visual appearance.
Ontology-Driven Toolset for Audio-Visual Stimuli Representation in EEG-Based BCI Research
Authors: Ryabinin Konstantin , Chuprina Svetlana , Labutin Ivan
Published: December 2021

In the last decade, the recent advances in software and hardware facilitate the increase of interest in conducting experiments in the field of neurosciences, especially related to human-machine interaction. There are many mature and popular platforms leveraging experiments in this area including systems for representing the stimuli. However, these solutions often lack high-level adaptability to specific conditions, specific experiment setups, and third-party software and hardware, which may be involved in the experimental pipelines. This paper presents an adaptable solution based on ontology engineering that allows creating and tuning the EEG-based brain-computer interfaces. This solution relies on the ontology-driven SciVi visual analytics platform developed earlier. In the present work, we introduce new capabilities of SciVi, which enable organizing the pipeline for neuroscience-related experiments, including the representation of audio-visual stimuli, as well as retrieving, processing, and analyzing the EEG data. The distinctive feature of our approach is utilizing the ontological description of both the neural interface and processing tools used. This increases the semantic power of experiments, simplifies the reuse of pipeline parts between different experiments, and allows automatic distribution of data acquisition, storage, processing, and visualization on different computing nodes in the network to balance the computation load and to allow utilizing various hardware platforms, EEG devices, and stimuli controllers.
Estimation of Optimal Number of Rays in the Bidirectional Photon Mapping Method
Authors: Ershov Sergey Valentinovich , Voloboy Alexey Gennadievich
Published: December 2021

The classic Monte-Carlo ray tracing is a powerful technique for simulating almost all effects in ray optics, but it may be prohibitively slow for, for example, calculation of images seen by a lens camera. Therefore, in practice there are often used its various modifications, in particular, bi-directional stochastic ray tracing with photon maps. The well-known flaw of all stochastic methods is their noise. The noise level, that is, the root mean square of pixel brightness calculated during given time, depends, besides all, on the number of rays traced from the light source and from the camera. The choice of the optimal parameters must provide the lowest noise level in a fixed time. This article is devoted to the choice of the optimal number of rays that minimizes the noise. It is proved that this minimal noise is in the same time homogeneous over the image. We produce the formulae to calculate the optimal number of rays from several coefficients which can be obtained from a bi-directional ray tracing of several auxiliary variants. It happens that this optimum is rather wide i.e. the noise level changes with the number of rays slowly, which allows to choose it including other factors e.g. limit this number to save memory.
Palm Vein Identification Based on Vein Segmentation and Triplet Loss Function
Authors: Trofimov Denis , Pavelyeva Elena
Published: December 2021

In this article the new neural network algorithm for palm vein identification using the triplet loss function is proposed. The neural network model is based on the VGG16 architecture. The similarity learning problem instead of the classification problem is considered. The number of image classes is assumed to be unknown so at the output of the neural network the feature vector is obtained, and then for the pair of palm vein images the distance between them is calculated. Minimization of triplet loss function while training leads to the decrease in distances between the images of the same class, while the distances between the images of different classes increase. The neural network was trained using preprocessed and segmented images from CASIA multi-spectral palmprint image database. The use of segmentation information for palm vein recognition improves the recognition results. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The value of EER=0.0084 is obtained.
An Approach to Comparing Multidimensional Geometric Objects
Authors: Seleznev Igor , Konopatskiy Evgeniy , Voronova Olga , Shevchuk Oksana , Bezditnyi Andrey
Published: December 2021

The paper proposes an approach to the comparison of multidimensional geometric objects, which is used to assess the variational geometric models of multifactor processes and phenomena obtained using the geometric theory of multidimensional interpolation. The proposed approach consists of two stages, the first of which consists in the discretization of multidimensional geometric objects in the form of a set of discretely given points, and the second is in comparing the obtained discrete point sets using a criterion that is essentially similar to the coefficient of determination. In this case, one of the discrete point sets is taken as a reference for comparison with another point set. For a correct comparison of multidimensional geometric models in the form of point equations, which are reduced to a system of parametric equations, it is necessary to perform interconnection of parameters. A computational experiment was carried out on the example of comparing geometric models of the physical and mechanical properties of fine-grained concrete. It showed the possibility of using the proposed approach for comparing multidimensional geometric objects and the reliability of the results obtained in comparison with scientific visualization methods. On the same example, it was found that for an accurate comparison of the investigated geometric models of the physical and mechanical properties of fine-grained concrete, it is enough to discretize 100 points. A further increase in the set of discrete points of the compared geometric objects has no significant effect on the criterion for assessing their similarity.
Predictive Geometric Models for Heat-Insulation Properties of Semi-Finished Fur and Down Products
Authors: Yurkov Victor , Dolgova Elena , Chizhik Margarita
Published: December 2021

This paper is devoted to geometric simulation of heat-insulation properties of fur and down products which are considered as multi-parameter and multi-component systems. We consider predictive models of heat resistance depended on physical characteristics of fur and pelt. There is a problem of construction co-ordinate geometric models on condition that the set of experimental data is limited. We solve the problem as a problem for static multi-component systems. The model is considered as a piecewise constant function in the space of input and output parameters. The paper proposes an algorithm of construction the clusters on the set of given experimental points. Moreover, we construct multidimensional convex covering on the set of the points. The covering is based on its two-dimensional projections. Results of the investigations allow us to substantiate producer’s choice of fur and down semi-finished products and its composition for manufacturing the product of special purpose. The method suggested in the paper may be one of geometric modulus of the software HYPER-DESCENT which has been developed formerly. Our geometric models together with software HYPER- DESCENT may be applied for simulation and prediction the properties of another multi- parametrical systems or technological processes of light industry.
The Analysis of Activity of the Teacher of Engineering Geometry in the Conditions of the Digital Educational Environment
Authors: Nosov Konstantin , Tarasova Lubov’
Published: December 2021

In article some aspects of activity of the teacher of engineering geometry in the conditions of remote work in the digital educational environment are considered. On the example of one of stages of work of the teacher of engineering geometry - check of the individual graphic tasks performed by students, the arising problems connected with "digitalization" of the geometric- graphic training in technical college are discussed. Data on the sequences of actions at the organization of "classical" process of training and training in the digital educational environment are compared and examples of algorithms of actions in the conditions of the digital educational environment are given. Also, between these two processes significant differences in the methodical and organizational formats connected first of all with differences in submission of information and financially technical support of these processes are detected. And in connection with a significant change in information and material content of discipline an engineering geometry the conclusion about the shift of priorities in acquisition by teachers of engineering geometry of necessary competences is drawn. On the example of the analysis of expenses of working hours and material inputs on technical support, the process of verification of individual graphic tasks, positive and negative sides of digitalization of the geometric-graphic training in technical college are considered.
Modelling Reflection from Real Surfaces
Authors: Basov Alexander , Boos George , Budak Vladimir , Grimailo Anton
Published: December 2021

Modelling Reflection from Real Surfaces Alexander Basov 1, George Boos 1, Vladimir Budak 1 and Anton Grimailo 1 1 National Research University "Moscow Power Engineering Institute", Krasnokazarmennaya 17, Moscow, 111250, Russia Abstract The article is devoted to modelling the reflection of radiation from real surfaces. Most of the existing models consider only the near-surface processes, although in reality the processes occurring in the volume of the layer also have a fairly significant contribution to the final radiance. The authors propose a mathematical model that takes into account volume scattering. The model is based on the radiative transfer equation, the numerical solution of which makes it possible to find the reflection and transmission radiance factors. The paper describes the features of the implementation of the model in the case of a multilayer medium, a method is proposed that makes it possible to consider the effect of a randomly uneven surface. To validate the model, calculations of the radiance of the reflected radiation from the asphalt concrete pavement were carried out: for this, the corresponding parameters were selected that describe the optical properties of the medium. A comparison of the simulation results with the results of measuring the radiative characteristics of an asphalt concrete pavement sample was carried out, which showed that the model gives sufficiently reliable results not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively. The created model allows high-speed calculations of the radiative characteristics of various surfaces for different angles of incidence and observation, which can be used both in lighting calculations and in the formation of realistic images in computer graphics.
Evaluating the Ergonomics of Online Store User Interfaces Based on Visual Analytics
Authors: Dergachev Konstantin , Dergacheva Elena
Published: December 2021

The volume of the online commerce market is growing steadily; however, the online store conversion remains at a fairly low level. One of the reasons for the low conversion rate of online stores is the lack of the ergonomic design. The interface expert assessment and usability testing allow identifying interface errors of existing sites. The methodology is proposed for testing the ergonomics of the graphical user web interface of online stores based on choosing alternatives and visual analytics. The methodology is based on combining expert assessment of user interfaces with usability testing throughout the design process. Expert assessment is a quick way to find the main ergonomic problems, which is recommended to be used at the stages of developing technical specification, prototyping and final testing. The expert assessment mechanism of ergonomics is improved based on interface checklists and visual analysis of results. Within each of the ergonomics criteria (speed, errors, subjective satisfaction, comprehensibility), uniquely defined characteristics are selected to evaluate the ergonomics of the online store interface. Each ergonomic characteristic is assigned a weighting coefficient that determines its importance. The degree and quality of implementing the characteristics on a 0 to 5 scale are taken into account. Acceptable test results are obtained for the peer review method of the online stores interfaces for comparing the interfaces of Eldorado, M.Video and DNS sites.
Image Processing in Contact Endurance Research
Authors: Kirichek Andrey , Barinov Sergey , Yashin Aleksandr
Published: December 2021

Machine parts operating under contact cyclic loads are subject to a destruction risk in the event of their working surface pitting (destruction). To increase the service life of such parts, various finishing and hardening technologies are used. In the absence of standard methods used to assess the durability of parts operating under contact endurance conditions, they have should be developed in relation to a specific case. The fractal geometry methods' usage in analyzing the surface layer state of parts operating under contact endurance conditions is complicated due to high equipment cost and fine and coarse noise high risk, which negatively affects the quality of generated images. The aim of the work is to develop a simple and accessible method for evaluating the results of contact endurance tests, based on the analysis of the investigated surface images. The developed patented technique consists of several stages. At the first stage, high-resolution photographing of the surface under investigation is performed using a microscope, providing magnification of no more than 1 ? 50. At the second stage, the obtained image is analyzed in the cad editor, where the number and area of the investigated defects are determined. At the third stage, wear result numerical assessment is carried out according to the proposed algorithm.
Development of Visual and Audio Speech Recognition Systems Using Deep Neural Networks
Authors: Ivanko Denis , Ryumin Dmitry
Published: December 2021

In this paper we design end-to-end neural network for the low-resource lip-reading task and audio speech recognition task using 3D CNNs, pre-trained CNN weights of several state-of- the-art models (e.g. VGG19, InceptionV3, MobileNetV2, etc.) and LSTMs. We present two phrase-level speech recognition pipelines: for lip-reading and acoustic speech recognition. We evaluate different combinations of front-end and back-end modules on the RUSAVIC dataset. We compare our results with traditional 2D CNN approach and demonstrate the increase in recognition accuracy up to 14%. Moreover, we carefully studied existing state-of-the-art models to be use for augmentation. Based on the conducted analysis we have chosen 5 most promising model’s architectures and evaluated them on own data. We have tested our systems on a real-word data of two different scenarios: recorded in idling vehicle and during actual driving. Our independently trained systems demonstrated acoustic speech accuracy up to 90% and lip-reading accuracy up to 61%. Future work will focus on the fusion of visual and audio speech modalities and on speaker adaptation. We expect that fused multi-modal information will help to further improve recognition performance compared to a single modality. Another possible direction could be the research of different NN-based architectures to better tackle end-to-end lip-reading task.
Method for Adaptation of Algorithms to GPU Architecture
Authors: Bulavintsev Vadim , Zhdanov Dmitry
Published: December 2021

We propose a generalized method for adapting and optimizing algorithms for efficient execution on modern graphics processing units (GPU). The method consists of several steps. First, build a control flow graph (CFG) of the algorithm. Next, transform the CFG into a tree of loops and merge non-parallelizable loops into parallelizable ones. Finally, map the resulting loops tree to the tree of GPU computational units, unrolling the algorithm’s loops as necessary for the match. The mapping should be performed bottom-up, from the lowest GPU architecture levels to the highest ones, to minimize off-chip memory access and maximize register file usage. The method provides programmer with a convenient and robust mental framework and strategy for GPU code optimization. We demonstrate the method by adapting to a GPU the DPLL backtracking search algorithm for solving the Boolean satisfiability problem (SAT). The resulting GPU version of DPLL outperforms the CPU version in raw tree search performance sixfold for regular Boolean satisfiability problems and twofold for irregular ones.
Software Package for Searching People and Vehicles Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
Authors: Bulatitskiy Dmitriy , Selifontov Andrey , Shevchenko Sergey , Filippov Victor
Published: December 2021

The paper considers the relevance of using a single software package for processing images made by unmanned aerial vehicles and coordinating the actions of search participants during operations to search for people and vehicles in the natural environment. An approach to the creation of such a package is proposed, its architecture is developed, the technologies used in the development and the main technical solutions are described. An algorithm for processing data for a search operation is developed and implemented. The package core, which recognizes search objects on aerial photographs, is built on a convolutional artificial neural network YOLOv5. The characteristics of the network operation depending on the structure of the training sample and the network parameters are studied. The experimental operation of the package by one division of the crisis management center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in Bryansk region is described.
Approximate Instancing for Modeling Plant Ecosystems
Authors: Garifullin Albert , Frolov Vladimir Alexandrovich , Khlupina Anastasiya A
Published: December 2021

Modeling and rendering large scenes with thousands of plants is still a challenging problem. Geometric models of individual plants consist of millions of triangles each and their complexity must be reduced in advance to make real-time rendering possible. Existing solutions usually implemented as a part of plants generator, make an ecosystem simulator an indivisible all-in-one solution which is hard to modify and integrate. The proposed algorithm performs approximate instancing over a set of plants represented with a specific structure. Groups of structurally similar branches are replaced with instances of one of them during the clustering process. Also, a new fast and universal procedural plants generation method is proposed. This algorithm collects statistics of spatial distribution of branches in the original set of plants and creates new plants trying to imitate parameters from original ones using instances of existing branches. Our generator is able to amplify the amount of plants in the ecosystem with small time and memory overhead. Unlike most existing algorithms the whole process is independent from the original plants generator in our solution.
Capital Structure and Performance of Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria
Authors: Erhomosele Osareme
Published: December 2021

Investigations into the relationship between capital structure and firm performance over the years have consistently produced mixed results in the light of prevailing theories relevant to the concept of capital structure. The study examined the nature of the relationship between the capital structure of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria and the trend of performance recorded in the industry. Leverage was adopted as a surrogate for capital structure, while firm performance was proxied by profit efficiency and return on equity. A regression analysis test was applied to a balanced panel data, pooled from a sample of 11 DMBs to determine the impact of capital structure on performance. The study found evidence that supports a non-monotonic relationship between capital structure and performance of DMBs, as predicted by the agency cost theoretical model. A major recommendation elicited from the findings of the study advocates for legal control on the proportion of debt DMBs can include in their capital structure if they are to operate as efficiently as expected.
The Effect of Green Technology Adoption Strategy on Duopoly Competition
Authors: Shen Chenglin , Zhang Xinxin
Published: December 2021

Given consumers’ trade-offs between conventional economic and environmental attributes of products, we provide a game-theoretic model to explore the role of GTA strategy in duopoly competition by incorporating two salient features: Two product types — The green product produced by a firm with GTA strategy and the ordinary product produced by a firm without GTA strategy, and two consumer segments, i.e., the green consumers who are willing to pay for green products and the ordinary consumers who are willing to pay for ordinary products. Our analysis shows that GTA strategy may either increase or decrease the green firm’s quality provision. The subtle relationship between the green firm’s quality strategy and GTA strategy not only affects its own equilibrium performances but its rival’s. We also find that two consumer segments may be better off in the presence of a lower GTA intensity. Additionally, although the GTA strategy benefits the environment, the GTA investment is not the more the better. Finally, we find that GTA strategy would lead to higher social welfare only when the GTA efficiency is high enough. Our work not only provides an alternative economic explanation why some firms choose to implement GTA strategy and some do not in reality, but gives managerial insights for firms with different GTA strategies as well as policy insights for the social planner.
Determinants of Neonatal Mortality in Kenya: Evidence from the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2014
Authors: Imbo Akinyi , Mbuthia Elizabeth , Ngotho Douglas
Published: December 2021

Background: Globally, there has been a marked decline in neonatal mortality and overall child mortality indicators from 1990 to date. In Kenya, neonatal deaths remain unacceptably high, contributing to 40% of under-five mortality rates (U5MR) making it an important health priority. The objective of this study was to identify the determinants of neonatal mortality in Kenya. An understanding of the determinants of neonatal mortality will provide evidence for better interventions to reduce these deaths.
Methods: Neonatal deaths from singleton live-born infants were extracted from women’s dataset collected for the 5-year period preceding the study published in the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS), 2014. Data were obtained from 18,951 births. There were 356 neonatal deaths recorded. Data were weighted using an individual weighting factor to adjust for the study design and reduce sample variability. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Logistic regression was conducted to adjust for confounding factors.
Results: Neonatal mortality rate was established at 19/1000 (95% CI:16.8-20.7). Mothers with no education had higher odds of experiencing deaths of neonates with adjusted Odds Ratio (aOR)=2.201, 95% CI: 1.43-4.15,p=0.049) compared to mothers with higher education. Low Birth Weight (LBW) neonates were 3.2 times likely to die in the first 28 days (aOR=3.206, 95% CI: 1.85-12.08, p=0.006) compared to neonates with >3.5 kilograms at birth. Mothers who did not attend ANC during pregnancy and those who attended between 1-3 ANC visits had higher odds of losing their infants (aOR=3.348, 95% CI:1.616-8.53, p=0.041, and aOR=2.316, 95% CI: 1.10-4.88, p=0.027) respectively, compared to mothers who attended >4 ANC visits.
Conclusion and Global Health Implications: Improving maternal health and nutrition during pregnancy should be enhanced to ensure adequate weight gain and reduce instances of low birth weight. Community referrals and follow-up for expectant women to take up the requisite 4 ANC visits should be encouraged. Girls’ education should be emphasized to reduce the proportion of illiterate mothers.
 
Copyright © 2021 Imbo et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.
Geographic, Health Care Access, Racial Discrimination, and Socioeconomic Determinants of Maternal Mortality in Georgia, United States
Authors: Armstrong-Mensah Elizabeth Afibah , Dada Damilola , Bowers Amber , Muhammad Aruba , Nnoli Chisom
Published: December 2021

Over the past decade, the United States has been taking steps to reduce its rising maternal mortality rate. However, these steps have yet to produce positive results in the state of Georgia, which tops the list of all 50 states with the highest maternal mortality rate of 46.2 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births for all women, and a maternal mortality rate of 66.6 deaths per 100,000 live births for African American women. In Georgia, several social determinants of health such as the physical environment, economic stability, health care access, and the quality of maternal care contribute to the high maternal mortality rate. Addressing these determinants will help to reduce the state’s maternal mortality rate. This commentary discusses the relationship between social determinants of health and maternal mortality rates in Georgia. It also proposes strategies for reversing the trend.We conducted an ecological study of the relationship between social determinants of health and maternal mortality in Georgia. We searched PubMed and Google Scholar and reviewed 80 English articles published between 2005 and 2021. We identified five key social determinants associated with high maternal mortality rates in Georgia - geographic location of obstetric services, access to health care providers, socioeconomic status, racism, and discrimination. We found that expanding Medicaid coverage, reducing maternal health care disparities among the races, providing access to maternal care for women in rural areas, and training a culturally competent health workforce, will help to reduce Georgia’s high maternal mortality rate.
 
Copyright © 2021 Armstrong-Mensah et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.
Orthodontic treatment in impacted maxillary canines. A review of the literature
Authors: Aquino-Valverde Alexandra J. , Barrientos-Sánchez Datfne Milagros , Atoche-Socola Katherine Joselyn
Published: December 2021

The prevalence of impacted maxillary canines is 1 to 3%, with approximately 50% of impacted canines causing root resorption of adjacent teeth. If the permanent canine has not acquired its correct position, evaluation by an orthodontist is necessary to determine the most adequate treatment. Surgery and orthodontic treatment are used for the treatment of impacted canines in the maxilla affecting permanent dentition. Selection of the most adequate treatment to achieve the correct position of the canine tooth depends on the position of the canine. This article summarizes the different techniques available and describes their advantages, and cost-benefit considerations. The objective of this literature review is to describe the etiology of impacted maxillary canines and provide an update of the information on orthodontic treatments available for these patients.
Live sob demanda:
Authors: Trentin Amanda Keler , Felippsen Eduardo Alberto , Koshita Leticia Hikari
Published: December 2021

A formação acadêmica no Instituto Federal do Paraná (IFPR) Campus Assis Chateaubriand vai além dos conteúdos ministrados em sala de aula, uma vez que a vivência estudantil apresenta demandas que se relacionam com saberes indiretamente associados à sala de aula, mas que auxiliam na formação acadêmica e humanitária. Nessa perspectiva, o projeto de extensão Live Sob Demanda objetiva promover transmissões ao vivo, por meio do YouTube, que abordem temas relevantes ausentes ou pouco trabalhados durante a formação estudantil. As temáticas, discutidas de forma online por professores, discentes, egressos e por outros convidados, abrangem diversas áreas de conhecimento e discorrem de conteúdos variados. Assim, o projeto permite a interação entre instituição, comunidade e estudantes por meio dos comentários nos vídeos e durante as lives, e também propicia um ambiente colaborativo para a construção do conhecimento e para o compartilhamento de experiências. Para mais, os estudantes partícipes do projeto, além de elaborarem os roteiros e as apresentações dos vídeos, o que estimula a aprendizagem de novos conhecimentos, têm a possibilidade de se familiarizar com a produção de conteúdo audiovisual apoiado pelos professores. Desse modo, o contato com o ambiente das lives e dos vídeos, desde sua organização até sua execução, oportuniza aos acadêmicos a criação de seu próprio perfil na rede social, podendo produzir novos conteúdos que sejam candidatos a remuneração na plataforma. Desta forma, ingressam no mercado de trabalho, seja como primeiro emprego ou como renda complementar.