bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Enriching Non-Parametric Bidirectional Search Algorithms — Extended Abstract
Authors: Shperberg Shahaf , Felner Ariel , Sturtevant Nathan , Shimony Solomon , Hayoun Avi
Published: November 2022

NBS is a non-parametric bidirectional search algorithm, proved to expand at most twice the number of node expansions required to verify the optimality of a solution. We introduce new variants of NBS that are aimed at finding all optimal solutions. We then introduce an algorithmic framework that includes NBS as a special case. Finally, we introduce DVCBS, a new algorithm in this framework that aims to further reduce the number of expansions. Unlike NBS, DVCBS does not have any worst-case bound guarantees, but in practice it outperforms NBS in verifying the optimality of solutions.
Unifying Search-Based and Compilation-Based Approaches to Multi-Agent Path Finding through Satisfiability Modulo Theories
Authors: Surynek Pavel
Published: November 2022

We describe an attempt to unify search-based and compilation-based approaches to multi-agent path finding (MAPF) through satisfiability modulo theories (SMT). The task in MAPF is to navigate agents in an undirected graph to given goal vertices so that they do not collide. We rephrase Conflict-Based Search (CBS), one of the state-of-the-art algorithms for optimal MAPF solving, in the terms of SMT. This idea combines SAT-based solving known from MDD-SAT, a SAT-based optimal MAPF solver, at the low level with conflict elimination of CBS at the high level. Where the standard CBS branches the search after a conflict occurs, we refine the propositional model with a disjunctive constraint instead. Our novel algorithm called SMT-CBS hence does not branch at the high-level but incrementally extends the propositional model that is consulted with the SAT solver at each iteration. We experimentally compare SMT-CBS with CBS and MDD-SAT.
Unbounded Sub-Optimal Conflict-Based Search in Complex Domains
Authors: Walker Thayne , Sturtevant Nathan , Felner Ariel
Published: November 2022

Conflict-Based Search (CBS) is a state of the art algorithm for multi-agent pathfinding (MAPF). CBS has been studied in many domains, however, most research has focused on classic domains with point agents that move with unit time steps and unit costs. In this work, we are interested in MAPF solutions for classic domains and complex domains, that is, domains which include shaped agents, actions with non-unit costs, non-uniform action durations and/or non-holonomic or kinodynamic movement constraints. Prior work on sub-optimal formulations of CBS has focused on heuristics. Instead, our work introduces new types of constraints. We show that certain constraint formulations have properties that can cause CBS to run orders of magnitude faster, but may cause the algorithm to be incomplete and yield sub-optimal results. We introduce new conditional constraints which allow CBS to exploit constraint properties which cause it to run faster and still retain algorithmic completeness. We additionally formulate a new constraint accumulation technique called constraint overloading which utilizes conditional constraints in order to achieve further performance gains.
A Theoretical Comparison of the Bounds of MM, NBS, and GBFHS
Authors: Alcazar Vidal , Barley Mike , Riddle Pat
Published: November 2022

Recent work in bidirectional front-to-end heuristic search has led to the development of novel algorithms that have advanced the state of the art after many years without major developments. In particular, three different algorithms with very different behavior have been proposed: MM, NBS and GBFHS. In this paper we perform a theoretical comparison of these algorithms, defining lower and upper bounds for each of them and analyzing why a given algorithm displays beneficial characteristics that the others lack. With this information, we propose a simple and intuitive near-optimal algorithm to be used as a baseline for comparison in bidirectional front-to-end heuristic search.
Trial-Based Heuristic Tree-Search for Distributed Multi-Agent Planning
Authors: Schulte Tim , Nebel Bernhard
Published: November 2022

We present a novel search scheme for privacy-preserving multi-agent planning. Inspired by UCT search, the scheme is based on growing an asynchronous search tree by running repeated trials through the tree. We describe key differences to classical multi-agent forward search, discuss theoretical properties of the presented approach, and evaluate it based on benchmarks from the CoDMAP competition. As a secondary contribution, we describe a technique that extends the regular search approach by small explorative trials which are performed subsequent to each node expansion. We show that this technique significantly increases the number of problems solved for all algorithms considered, including MAFS.
Improving Bidirectional Heuristic Search by Bounds Propagation
Authors: Shperberg Shahaf , Felner Ariel , Shimony Solomon , Sturtevant Nathan , Hayoun Avi
Published: November 2022

Recent work in bidirectional heuristic search characterize pairs of nodes from which at least one node must be expanded in order to ensure optimality of solutions. We use these findings to propose a method for improving existing heuristics by propagating lower bounds between the forward and backward frontiers. We then define a number of desirable properties for bidirectional heuristic search algorithms, and show that applying the bound propagations adds these properties to many existing algorithms (e.g. to the MM family of algorithms). Finally, experimental results show that applying these propagations significantly reduce the running time of various algorithms.
Repairing Compressed Path Databases on Maps with Dynamic Changes
Authors: Verzeletti Marco , Botea Adi , Zanella Marina
Published: November 2022

Single-agent pathfinding on grid maps can exploit online compiled knowledge produced offline and saved as a Compressed Path Database (CPD). Such a knowledge is distilled by performing repeated searches in a graph, where each node corresponds to a distinct grid cell, typically by algorithms such as Dijkstra's. All-pairs shortest paths (APSPs) are computed and the first move along a shortest path is persistently stored in the CPD. This way, an optimal move can efficiently be retrieved for any pair of source and target cells that is considered while the agent is navigating. However, a CPD supports a static grid, that is, a grid where each cell is permanently either traversable or non-traversable. Our work instead assumes that the cells in the map can undergo dynamic changes. Reasoning about the altered map would require a new CPD. As creating it from scratch is computationally expensive, we present techniques to repair an existing CPD. We prove that using our technique leads to correct and optimal solutions. Experiments demonstrate the benefits of our approach. When a single obstacle of a given size is added or removed, the repair costs often are a small fraction of a recomputation from scratch.
Error Analysis and Correction for Weighted A*’s Suboptimality
Authors: Holte Robert , Majadas Rubén , Pozanco Alberto , Borrajo Daniel
Published: November 2022

Weighted A* (wA*) is a widely used algorithm for rapidly, but suboptimally, solving planning and search problems. The cost of the solution it produces is guaranteed to be at most W times the optimal solution cost, where W is the weight wA* uses in prioritizing open nodes. W is therefore a suboptimality bound for the solution produced by wA*. There is broad consensus that this bound is not very accurate, that the actual suboptimality of wA*'s solution is often much less than W times optimal. However, there is very little published evidence supporting that view, and no existing explanation of why W is a poor bound. This paper fills in these gaps in the literature. We begin with a large-scale experiment demonstrating that, across a wide variety of domains and heuristics for those domains, W is indeed very often far from the true suboptimality of wA*'s solution. We then analytically identify the potential sources of error. Finally, we present a practical method for correcting for two of these sources of error and experimentally show that the corrections frequently eliminate much of the error.
A Profit Guided Coordination Heuristic for Travelling Thief Problems
Authors: Namazi Majid , Newton M.A. , Sattar Abdul , Sanderson Conrad
Published: November 2022

The travelling thief problem (TTP) is a combination of two interdependent NP-hard components: travelling salesman problem (TSP) and knapsack problem (KP). Existing approaches for TTP typically solve the TSP and KP components in an interleaved fashion, where the solution to one component is held fixed while the other component is changed. This indicates poor coordination between solving the two components and may lead to poor quality TTP solutions. For solving the TSP component, the 2-OPT segment reversing heuristic is often used for modifying the tour. We propose an extended and modified form of the reversing heuristic in order to concurrently consider both the TSP and KP components. Items deemed as less profitable and picked in cities earlier in the reversed segment are replaced by items that tend to be equally or more profitable and not picked in the later cities. Comparative evaluations on a broad range of benchmark TTP instances indicate that the proposed approach outperforms existing state-of-the-art TTP solvers.
Evaluation of faecal sludge charcoal briquette produced from different binding materials
Authors: Sagor Sarker Mohammad , Bari Quazi Hmidul , Shafiquzzaman Md.
Published: November 2022

This study aims to evaluate the physical and thermal properties of briquettes made of faecal sludge (FS) charcoal. FS charcoal was produced by pyrolysis of the dry FS at 400°C and subsequently was briquetted with rice starch and different ratios of rice husk (RH) powder, corncob powder (CP), wheat powder (WP) and cow dung (CD). The ratios of FS charcoal and binding materials were chosen as 80 : 20, 75 : 25 and 70 : 30 for RH, CP and WP briquettes. For CD briquettes, the ratios were 70 : 30, 50 : 50 and 30 : 70. The bulk density and the compressive strength of all briquettes were in the ranges 1990–2150 kg/m3 and 172–815 kPa, respectively. The moisture contents of all briquette samples achieved 5–8%. The ash content in briquettes was comparatively higher, achieving 29–46%. The energy contents of all briquette samples were above 12.0 MJ/kg. The briquettes made of FS charcoal and CD were found to be suitable, having a low cost (US$0.18–0.28 per kg), sufficient compressive strength (>375 kPa) and desirable energy content (>13.40 MJ/kg). The FS charcoal briquettes showed a potential alternative to manage human waste for sustainable environmental protection.
Prevalence and Associated Factors of Resistant Hypertension among Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: An Example from Cameroon
Authors: HM Patrice , MM Danielle , MA Sidick , NV Ebenezer , NM Solange , FH Danielle , K Felicite , DT Anastase , KF Francois , AE Gloria
Published: November 2022

Background: Resistant arterial hypertension (RAH) is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We aimed to study the prevalence and associated factors of RAH in patients with CKD in 2 referral hospitals in Cameroon. Material and method: This was a cross-sectional and analytical study, from December 2020 to May 2021. All consenting patients over 18 years of age with hypertension and CKD stage 2-5 ND was included. Socio demographic, clinical and biological data were collected. Patients were considered to have RAH if they were on 4 antihypertensive drugs or a patient on 3 antihypertensive drugs, including 1 diuretic who presented with office blood pressure ≥ 140/90 mmhg and BP ≥ 135/85 mmhg after home BP self-measurement. Home BP self-measurement was performed using an OMRON brand electronic BP monitor every morning and evening for three consecutive days and the average of the 18 values was calculated. Chi-2 and exact Fischer tests was used to assess the association between variables. p<0,05 was considered significant. Results: A total of 194 patients were included, with 62.89% male. The mean age was 61.89 (13.13) years; 34.54% (67/194) had CKD stage 3a, 26.80% (52/194) stage 3b, 15.46% (30/194) stage 4 and 21.13% (41/194) stage 5. Hypertension: 47.93% (93/194), diabetes: 21.65%, (42/194) and chronic glomerulonephritis: 11.34% (22/194) were the main presumed etiologies of CKD. The prevalence of RAH was 26.29% (51/194), and age >60 years (p=0,001), CKD grade 5 (p=0,000), presence of diabetes (p=0,000), dyslipidemia (p=0,006), obesity (p=0,001) and smoking (p=0,001) were associated factors. Conclusion: RAH is frequent amongst CKD patients, and it is associated with cardiovascular risk factors and severity of CKD. It is necessary to identify these patients and put measure to control BP especially in those with risk factors.
Challenges of Developing Novel Vaccines and Large Scale Production Issues
Authors: F Ejeta
Published: November 2022

Live attenuated and inactivated pathogens, as well as subunit vaccinations, can give long-term protection against a variety of deadly diseases. Despite this progress, vaccine development for a number of infectious diseases, particularly those that are more capable of evading the adaptive immune response, remains a serious issue. Furthermore, the fundamental impediment to the greatest uptake of virus vaccines isn’t usually the efficacy of conventional procedures, but rather the requirement for more fast research and large-scale manufacture. As a result, the development of more powerful and adaptable vaccine platforms is critical. The complexities of developing the manufacturing process, formulation, and analytical assays, as well as the problem of scientific assay optimization, are the most well-known barriers to vaccine development failures or delays. Scientists argue that the extremely concentrated state of global vaccine manufacturing capacity limits large-scale vaccine production. At the moment, only a few countries have the capacity to make vaccines on their own. Scaling up vaccine production is difficult, and a shortage of manufacturing sites is limiting global vaccine availability. Vaccine manufacturing and the development of breakthrough technologies capable of producing huge quantities of vaccines against known and undiscovered infections are difficult tasks nowadays. Vaccines can be made as suspensions, emulsions, or freeze-dried powders with a variety of adjuvants. However, many of those manufactured vaccines face multiple problems from a pharmaceutical standpoint, including the risk for acute hypersensitivity reactions, the need for extremely cold storage temperatures, and handling and delivery requirements. These requirements should limit vaccine supply to different populations, which has a negative impact on health equity. In the production of vaccines during upstream and downstream processes, new facilities, equipment, and enabling technology may be required, some of which may have an impact on how existing vaccines are manufactured. Despite these advancements, long-standing difficult circumstances will persist or worsen. Despite the fact that the number of individuals required is significantly less than in massive phase 3 studies, pharmacokinetic investigations can be logistically challenging and expensive. Even if there are challenging scenarios for implementing new pharmacokinetic models, there may be significant value in doing so, even in the context of an approved medication. The use of this ethically complex and contentious method for vaccine evaluation would necessitate interdisciplinary, global oversight to ensure that the results are rigorous and justify the potential dangers to participants and their communities.
Review of: Pynchon’s Sound of Music
Authors: Ketzan Erik
Published: November 2022

A book review of Christian Hänggi's Pynchon’s Sound of Music (Diaphanes, 2020)
New species of Flagellozetes (Cosmogalumna) (Acari, Oribatida, Galumnidae) from Vietnam
Authors: Ermilov Sergey G. , Salavatulin Vladimir M.
Published: November 2022

Two new species of the genus Flagellozetes (Oribatida, Galumnidae) – F. (Cosmogalumna) carinodentatus sp. n. and F. (C.) pseudoareticulatus sp. n. – are described from the bark of different trees in Vietnam. A comparative analysis of the F. (Cosmogalumna) group included species with neural ridges on the notogaster is presented.
Aviation safety ranking values and bird species at Trabzon International Airport, Türkiye
Authors: Sari Alptuğ , Arpacık Ahmet , Başkaya Şağdan , Çelik Ali
Published: November 2022

The study investigated bird species at Trabzon International Airport (TIA) in Türkiye and their Aviation Safety Ranking Values (ASRV). During the study period between February 2021 and February 2022, 75 observations were carried out using direct and indirect observation methods (camera traps, bird nests, eggs, feathers and; pellets) to identify species. As a result, 109 bird species were identified belonging to 39 families. Migration status of the observed birds ranged from overwintering (27), to summer visitors (26), residents (17), wintering and passage migrants (14), passage migrants (9), residents and wintering (8), residents and summer visitors (5), and residents and passage migrants (3). The bird hazard ranking system is based on bird size, average weights, flocking characteristics, and flight behaviour. According to the criteria of the ASRV, a total of 36 bird species at TIA with hazard levels of intermediate (3), high (4), and very high (5) were determined. Among the species identified, 25 weighed between 700 and 2200 grams. Wildlife professionals should be assigned to all airports to successfully control bird strikes and increase flight safety, and bird observations should be performed regularly.
What's the impact of think analysis program in the critical thinking in high school students?
Authors: Aranda Vásquez Santos Williams
Published: November 2022

The objective was to verify if the application of the "Piensanalysis" program develops critical thinking in students of the 5th year of secondary school in the area of social sciences of the Engels Class Trujillo school. For this purpose, a pretest and posttest consisting of a development test made up of 5 informative texts was applied to evaluate critical thinking, to a sample of 40 students, 20 of them made up the experimental group and 20 the control group. The program that was applied to the experimental group consisted of 10 learning sessions based on active workshops with constructivist methodology. The results showed in the experimental group the absolute value of calculated t (Tc = 19.764), which is higher than the tabular t value (Ttab= 2.032) and a p<0.05 with 38 degrees of freedom, for which it was concluded that the The application of the "Pienslisis" program was significant, allowing to increase the development of critical thinking in 5th grade high school students in the area of social sciences at Engels Class Trujillo school.
Teaching performance for the elaboration of a didactic model with a critical-reflexive approach
Authors: Díaz Juan
Published: November 2022

The objective of this research study is to develop a didactic model with a critical-reflective approach to improve the performance of secondary school teachers. For this, the level of performance reflected by teachers in the pedagogical, institutional-collegiate and ethical-reflexive dimensions was investigated, using the "Scale of self-assessment of teaching performance" as an instrument.of research, showed a regular level, highlighting higher levels of difficulty in the institutional-collegiate and ethical-reflexive dimensions of performance. A didactic model is proposed with theoretical-practical bases supported by the critical-reflective approach, whose structure is made up of two dimensions: shared didactics focused on the exercise of the reflective cycle of pedagogical practice and professional training and strengthening actions to improve the teacher performance. The type of researchcorresponds to be descriptive-propositional.
Historical evolution of political communication in electoral processes in Peru: development of democratic consciousness
Authors: Verástegui Peña Jorge Guillermo
Published: November 2022

The objective of this study is to analyze the historical evolution of political communication in the electoral processes of Peru. Political communication has been filled with the means that are available to everyone, the use of the internet and social networks, form a conglomerate of digital communication, this digital issue is causing a great impact on all social and economic strata, political communication has advanced in such a way that communication between voter and politician is closer for the exchange ofideas and discuss proposals made by politicians, so when making a brief historical description of how political communication evolved in Peru as a state democracy and what were those changes that occurred in the political communication of Peru. It is concluded that the politician took advantage of the media to give a false promising speech and make them believe that in an eventual government of his, things would change radically, making the speech a weapon that the politician uses in his favor.
On the Question of the Social-Historical Significance of Psychological and Pedagogical Counseling in Overcoming Learning Difficulties
Authors: Abramov A.S.
Published: November 2022

Based on anarchist methodology, the essay analyzes the historical and social meanings of the social practice of psychological and pedagogical counseling in overcoming educational difficulties. The text provides a brief explanation of the concept of delusional work in the works of anthropologist D. Graeber, a comparative analysis of the functional significance of psychological and pedagogical counseling as a social practice and crazy work as a specific type of work activity. The theoretical and methodological comparison is accompanied by a reflexive analysis of the author’s own experience in the field of psychological and pedagogical counseling. The author offers a description of the social meaning of counseling in overcoming educational difficulties as a provision for a gradual revolution in pedagogical systems through a revolution in worldview, substantiates the need and prospects for such a view. The essay suggests potential problem epicenters for the development and spread of psychological and pedagogical counseling in educational activities, visible from an anarchist methodological perspective.
Requirements for the Presentation of Implemented Psychological and Pedagogical Practice
Authors: Draganova O.A. , Leonova O.I.
Published: November 2022

One of the tests of the expert round of the federal stage of the All-Russian Contest of professional skills “Teacher-Psychologist of Russia” — during its remote format — was the task “Protection of psychological and pedagogical practice”. The article discusses the requirements of the federal state educational standards of general education and the professional standard “Teacher-psychologist (psychologist in the field of education)”, which should be taken into account when preparing for this competitive test. A description is given of the structural and content elements of psychological and pedagogical programs and projects, the main recommendations for the development within the framework of participation in the Contest. The recommendations presented in the article, first of all, correspond to the criterion for assessing the competitive test "compliance with the requirements of the professional standard “Teacher-psychologist (psychologist in the field of education)” and other regulatory legal documents that regulate the activities of a teacher-psychologist in the field of education, and are also substantiation of the labor function “Psychological, pedagogical and methodological support for the implementation of basic and additional educational programs”.
Construction of Data Driven Decomposition Based Soft Sensors with Auto Encoder Deep Neural Network for IoT Healthcare Applications
Authors: Sowmya M S , Sharma S S P M , Bhagat Akash Kumar , Verma Pooja , Verma Sunny , Wadhwa Durgesh
Published: November 2022

The architecture of IoT healthcare is motivated towards the data-driven realization and patient-centric health models, whereas the personalized assistance is provided by deploying the advanced sensors. According to the procedures in surgery, in the emergency unit, the patients are monitored till they are stable physically and then shifted to ward for further recovery and evaluation. Normally evaluation done in ward doesn’t suggest continuous parameters monitoring for physiological condition and thus relapse of patients are common. In real-time healthcare applications, the vital parameters will be estimated through dedicated sensors, that are still luxurious at the present situation and highly sensitive to harsh conditions of environment. Furthermore, for real-time monitoring, delay is usually present in the sensors. Because of these issues, data-driven soft sensors are highly attractive alternatives. This research is motivated towards this fact and Auto Encoder Deep Neural Network (AutoEncDeepNN) is proposed depending on Health Framework in the internet assisting the patients with trigger-based sensor activation model to manage master and slave sensors. The advantage of the proposed method is that the hidden information are mined automatically from the sensors and high representative features are generated by multiple layer’s iteration. This goal is consistently achieved and thus the proposed model outperforms few standard approaches which are considered like Hierarchical Extreme Learning Machine (HELM), Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). It is found that the proposed AutoEncDeepNN method achieves 94.72% of accuracy, 41.96% of RMSE, 34.16% of RAE and 48.68% of MAE in 74.64 ms.
Multimodal Sentiment Sensing and Emotion Recognition Based on Cognitive Computing Using Hidden Markov Model with Extreme Learning Machine
Authors: Verma Diksha , Barnwal Sweta Kumari , Barve Amit , Kannan M K Jayanthi , Gupta Rajesh , Swaminathan R
Published: November 2022

In today's competitive business environment, exponential increase of multimodal content results in a massive amount of shapeless data. Big data that is unstructured has no specific format or organisation and can take any form, including text, audio, photos, and video. Many assumptions and algorithms are generally required to recognize different emotions as per literature survey, and the main focus for emotion recognition is based on single modality, such as voice, facial expression and bio signals. This paper proposed the novel technique in multimodal sentiment sensing with emotion recognition using artificial intelligence technique. Here the audio and visual data has been collected based on social media review and classified using hidden Markov model based extreme learning machine (HMM_ExLM). The features are trained using this method. Simultaneously, these speech emotional traits are suitably maximised. The strategy of splitting areas is employed in the research for expression photographs and various weights are provided to each area to extract information. Speech as well as facial expression data are then merged using decision level fusion and speech properties of each expression in region of face are utilized to categorize. Findings of experiments show that combining features of speech and expression boosts effect greatly when compared to using either speech or expression alone. In terms of accuracy, recall, precision, and optimization level, a parametric comparison was made.
Neurological Disorders Detection Based on Computer Brain Interface Using Centralized Blockchain with Intrusion System
Authors: Utomo Imam Yuwono, Eviani Damastuti,
Published: November 2022

A brain-computer interface (BCI) would afford real-time communication, pointedly refining the standard of lifespan, brain-to-internet (B2I) connection, and interaction between the external digital devices and the brain. This assistive technology invents information and transmission advancement patterns, like directly linking the brain and multimedia gadgets to the cyber world. This system will convert brain data to signals which is understandable by multimedia gadgets without physical intervention and exchanges human-related languages with external atmosphere control protocols. These progressive difficulties would limit security severely. Hence, the rate of ransomware, attacks, malware, and other types of vulnerabilities will be rising radically. On the other hand, the necessity to enhance conventional processes for investigating cyberenvironment security facets. This article presents a Neurological Disorders Detection based on Computer Brain Interface Using Centralized Blockchain with Intrusion System (NDDCBI-CBIS). The projected NDDCBI-CBIS technique focuses on the identification of neurological disorders and epileptic seizure detection. To attain this, the presented NDDCBI-CBIS technique pre-processes the biomedical signals. Next, to detect epileptic seizures, long short-term memory (LSTM) model is applied. The experimental evaluation of the NDDCBI-CBIS approach can be tested by making use of the medical dataset and the outcomes inferred from the enhanced outcomes of the NDDCBI-CBIS technique.
Wearable Sensors for Evaluation Over Smart Home Using Sequential Minimization Optimization-based Random Forest
Authors: Gupta Neeraj , Janani S , R Dilip , Hosur Ravi , Chaturvedi Abhay , Gupta Ankur
Published: November 2022

In our everyday life records, human activity identification utilizing MotionNode sensors is becoming more and more prominent. A difficult issue in ubiquitous computing and HCI is providing reliable data on human actions and behaviors. In this study, we put forward a practical methodology for incorporating statistical data into Sequential Minimization Optimization-based random forests. In order to extract useful features, we first prepared a 1-Dimensional Hadamard transform wavelet and a 1-Dimensional Local Binary Pattern-dependent extraction technique. Over two benchmark datasets, the University of Southern California-Human Activities Dataset, and the IM-Sporting Behaviors datasets, we employed sequential minimum optimization together with Random Forest to classify activities. Experimental findings demonstrate that our suggested model may successfully be utilized to identify strong human actions for matters related to efficiency and accuracy, and may challenge with existing cutting-edge approaches.
Gifted State of Mind
Authors:   , Lubin Rebecca C. , Flowers Alonzo M.
Published: November 2022

In current research on educational inequities, the absence of leadership perspectives on elementary gifted education pedagogy as it relates to the disproportionate exclusion of Black girls demonstrates a substantial gap. Further, the multidimensional marginalization of economically disadvantaged Black girls distanced from these opportunities early in their scholarship extrapolates into limitations to other socio-academic prospects for this population. The overall socioeconomic health and advancement of economically disadvantaged Black girls are symbiotic with the institution of education which is interrelated to other socioeconomic features including social and economic standing, professional experiences, and material resources (i.e., income). This study contributes to the gap in research by presenting findings from an instrumental qualitative study utilizing prompted journal reflections, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group from educational leaders at an urban local school district on the East Coast referenced under the pseudonym of Keystone Public Schools (KPS) in the city of New Troy. Preceding research implies connections between positive socio-academic outcomes of economically disadvantaged Black girls in the urban local school district and access to the opportunity of elementary gifted education approaches as well as those connections of the same defined population that are barred access to these opportunities. Also, this study will explore the perspectives of leadership on how an inclusionary enrichment approach to gifted education in KPS influences the socioeconomic advancement of economically disadvantaged Black girls and the programs and structures these leaders perceive to be essential for this population's adequate access to these opportunities. Qualitative data will include prompted journal reflections, individual in-depth semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. The findings may provide practical recommendations for future implementation to support the expansion of elementary gifted education pedagogy in New Troy's Keystone Public Schools (KPS). In broader applications, the guiding transformative leadership paradigm may inform findings and future research with the aim of transforming this inequity into better quality instruction in urban schools across the nation. Keywords: economically disadvantaged Black girls, elementary gifted education pedagogy, transformative leadership, educational equity, critical disability studies, specialized instruction, qualitative instrumental case study
The Impact of Family Stress on Mobile Military-Connected Children
Authors:   , Schaffer Allison Christine , Tecce DeCarlo Mary Jean
Published: November 2022

This mixed methods study examined parents' perceptions of their military-connected children's experiences, academic performance, and social-emotional wellbeing during relocations to Okinawa, Japan, during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study looked through the lens of the contextual model of family stress to determine if a connection existed between families' coping and responses to stress and the challenges military-connected children experience during relocations. A survey was distributed to 14 participants using convenience sampling to determine military-connected families' coping and responses to stress. Based on the survey results, using extreme case sampling, participants were placed in one of two groups: those whose ratio scores were greatest in the secondary control engagement coping subscale on the Response to Stress Questionnaire (RSQ) and those whose ratio scores were greatest in the involuntary engagement subscale on the RSQ. The researcher asked three survey participants from each group to participate in interviews for the qualitative phase of this research study. The researcher carefully designed interview questions to answer the primary research question: How do parents' perceptions of how they respond to stress contribute to the parents' perceptions of their children's academic performance and social-emotional wellbeing during relocations to Okinawa, Japan? After qualitative data collection, the researcher transcribed the data and employed several coding methods during first cycle and second cycle coding to develop three themes: (a) Parental support is necessary as military-connected children adapt to new school settings, (b) emotional support and coping strategies are essential as military-connected children adapt, and (c) the military community and resources are invaluable. The researcher concluded that military relocations are challenging despite the differences in the way parents respond to and cope with stress. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic made an already difficult life event even more challenging and increased the stressor. By examining family stress experienced by military-connected families during relocation and the impact it has on their children, the military community, parents, and educators of military-connected children can better understand the relationship between how a family responds to and copes with family stress and military-connected children's experiences during relocations.
A Practical Implementation of the [delta]-GLMB Filter
Authors:   , Rothschild Asaf Yehuda , Chmielewski Thomas
Published: November 2022

Multi-target tracking involves jointly estimating the number of targets and their dynamic states from noisy sensor measurements. Notable multi-target tracking algorithms such as the multiple hypothesis filter (MHT) and joint probabilistic data association (JPDA) filter are the most popular multi-target tracking filters. However, these filters were developed as extensions to single-target tracking, and in 2017, Ronald Mahler noted that, while these filters work well, they were not developed within a rigorous mathematical framework. Mahler made a case for the development of a new multitarget tracking paradigm, the random finite set (RFS) approach, based on concepts from point process theory [13]. Since its formal inception in 2007, the RFS approach has garnered over 1000 publications from more than 20 different countries and has successfully been applied to areas such as defense, cell microscopy, robotics, and space debris tracking [11, 4]. In 2017, Vo and Vo proposed the joint delta-generalized labeled multi-Bernoulli (delta-GLMB) filter as the first multi-target tracking filter that provides an exact closed-form solution to the Bayes multi-target tracking filter (the RFS analogue to Bayes recursive filter) [24]. Over the past few years, the delta-GLMB filter [24, 22, 23] has gained much attention and is challenging the dominance of classic multi-target racking methods. The focus of this thesis is translating delta-GLMB code developed by the authors of [22] to python via an object-oriented design. A synthetic dataset was created to provide a baseline for comparison to the MHT algorithm. The MHT performance was determined using an open-source implementation on the dataset. The comparison between the MHT and delta-GLMB showed that both filters performed similarly with respect to cardinality estimation, although the delta-GLMB filter performed slightly better with respect to localization. This thesis also serves as a tutorial to introduce the reader to multi-target tracking and, specifically, to provide a practical implementation guide of the delta-GLMB filter proposed in [22]. This thesis also aims to provide minimal mathematical and theoretical details sufficient to understand RFS theory and the delta-GLMB filter
Machine preservation and ex situ assessment of the donor heart: a new paradigm in heart transplantation
Authors: Guihaire Julien , Van Simon , Brunet Dorothee , Akamkam Ali , Gaillard Maïra , Vallee Aurelien , Thes Jacques , Haulon Stephan
Published: November 2022

Heart transplantation is the gold standard treatment for advanced heart failure in selected patients. Organ shortage is however a major concern, leading transplant teams to expand the criteria for donor selection. Organ retrieval is routinely performed nowadays in donors older than 55 years, with impaired left ventricular function and/or hypertrophy, or after prolonged cardiac arrest such as after circulatory-determined death. All these conditions are associated with an increased high of primary graft failure, the main cause of early death after heart transplantation. Machine preservation technology has been recently applied to allow for extended preservation of the donor heart. Compared to conventional static cold storage, this approach can also provide viability assessment of the donor heart before transplant, especially in case of ex situ normothermic blood perfusion. After a brief review of currently available preservation machines, we sought to describe different approaches for assessment of the donor heart using ex situ organ perfusion, from metabolic monitoring to cardiac imaging and hemodynamic investigations.
Clinical Characteristics of Adult COVID-19 Pneumonia and Other Viral Pneumonias: Comparisons of Imaging Findings
Authors: Shimada Daishi , Seki Masafumi
Published: November 2022

Different viral infections show characteristic imaging findings based on their particular pathophysiology. SARS-COV-2 shows characteristically high transmissibility and virulence, and it can evade the human immune system. COVID-19 patients frequently develop severe illness involving cytokine storm leading to acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as well as alveolar flood and severe vascular damage resulting in sepsis and organ damage. These basically develop from bilateral ground-glass infiltrations that are also found in the adult viral pneumonias, such as measles, respiratory syncytial virus, human metapneumovirus, and cytomegalovirus pneumonias. Secondary bacterial pneumonia due to co-infection with bacteria is a major issue in viral pneumonia, especially in influenza pneumonia, but patients with adult viral pneumonias are very different from bacterial pneumonia patients, and they are usually young, produce less sputum, and sometimes show characteristic skin lesions, including rash and vesicular lesions. Accurate diagnosis of the specific pathogen of viral pneumonia is important to perform the appropriate treatment and prevent infection, and it can recently be performed by multiplex PCR.
Copper nutriture and ischemic heart disease: a brief review
Authors: Klevay Leslie
Published: November 2022

The idea that dietary fat is poisonous arose nearly ¾ of a century ago. Criteria for associating disease incidence with environmental change were published a couple decades later. Intakes of dietary fat did not increase while ischemic heart disease risk was increasing; in contrast, dietary copper decreased. Intakes of copper calculated from food tables are falsely high by an average of 77%. Approximately half of adults consume less than 0.9 mg of copper per day when chemical analyses are done. This amount is less than nutritional guidelines. When hypercholesterolemia was discovered in copper deficient rats, a search was begun for anatomical, chemical and physiological similarities between animals deficient in copper and people with ischemic heart disease; more than 80 of these similarities have been identified. The copper deficiency theory on the etiology and pathophysiology of ischemic heart disease is the simplest and most general theory that has been proposed because it incorporates other theories on fetal programming, homocysteine and iron overload. It satisfies classical criteria of nutritional deficiency and association of an environmental characteristic with disease prevalence.
Kids Cooking Schools: A Case Report of How Culinary Education Promotes Nutrition and Knowledge among Children in a Midwestern (U.S.) State
Authors: Garden-Robinson Julie
Published: November 2022

Reaching children with nutrition and health programming remains a timely issue now and in the future. Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the U.S. in the several decades. According to the World Health Organization (2021), 340 million children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 were overweight or obese as of 2016. Obese children are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, with 70% showing at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Obesity also increases the risk for diabetes, stroke, cancer and osteoarthritis. Meals eaten as a family at home can save money and tend to include less fat, less soda pop and more fruits and vegetables, and they tend to be higher in calcium, fiber and other essential nutrients. The "On the Move to Better Health Kids Cooking School" and the "Kids Baking School" curricula, both developed at a Midwestern U.S. Land Grant University moved forward in new ways during the pandemic and have reached more than 3,000 children face-to-face and virtually, including the results from 1,600 participants reported in this document. The programs used a variety of new approaches to involve not only children, but also their families at home and our community partners. Children showed increased nutrition and food safety knowledge. They reported increased consumption of fruit, vegetable and whole grains, and increased confidence in using kitchen tools. Parents reported increased fruit and vegetable consumption among their children.
Emerging Evidence from Landmark Clinical Trials on Perioperative Immunotherapy in Resectable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
Authors: Mackay Emily , McGuire Anna
Published: November 2022

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide, with high rates of local and distant recurrence limiting survival even after curative-intent surgical resection. Traditional adjuvant chemotherapy benefits only 5% of patients, and as such additional treatment modalities are urgently needed to improve NSCLC patient outcomes. Systemic therapy with PD1 and PDL1 immune check-point inhibitors (ICIs) has emerged as a promising treatment option in many types of solid malignancies, including lung cancer. Encouraging results from immunotherapy trials in metastatic lung cancer populations, and now newer results from ongoing clinical trials in early stage locally advanced lung cancers, suggested an evolving role for perioperative immune checkpoint inhibition in resectable NSCLC. In this review we examine the latest advances in the landscape of clinical trials on immunotherapy in resectable NSCLC. We discuss the key findings and specific clinical challenges related to neoadjuvant administration of these immune therapies in the CheckMate816, Impower030, AEGEAN and KEYNOTE671 phase III clinical trials. The role of adjuvant ICI is also discussed examining the ANVIL, Impower010, and PEARLS trials. By understanding the remaining unanswered questions and clinical dilemmas that exist in this rapidly evolving field for ICIs in early stage NSCLC, clinicians may provide patients options which may markedly improve survival outcomes for this life-threatening disease.
Management of Latent Tuberculosis Infection in Solid Organ Transplant Candidates: Short Regimens
Authors: Simkins Jacques , Natori Yoichiro , Anjan Shweta , Guerra Giselle , Vianna Rodrigo
Published: November 2022

Tuberculosis reactivation causes significant morbidity and mortality especially in immunocompromised patients such as solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients. Therefore, treating latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is critical. The treatment of LTBI with former first line regimen, isoniazid monotherapy for 9 months, can be challenging, as it is associated with higher toxicity risk and lower treatment completion rates. Isoniazid monotherapy for 9 months is more likely to cause liver toxicity compared to other regimens and its rate of completion can be lower than 50%. As of result of this, there has been a shift in the treatment of LTBI. The following short-regimens: 3 months of weekly isoniazid plus rifapentine, 4 months of daily rifampin and 3 months of daily isoniazid plus rifampin, have replaced 9-month isoniazid monotherapy as first line treatments for LTBI, after the new guidelines of LTBI management were published in 2020 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Tuberculosis Controllers Association. These short regimens for LTBI are effective and safe in SOT candidates. However, close monitoring for drug-drug interactions are paramount.