bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Prvý nález živej populácie ulitníka Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy, 1849) na Podunajskej nížine [First record of a viable population of the land snail Vertigo moulinsiana (Dupuy, 1849) in the Danube lowland (SW Slovakia)]
Authors: Čejka Tomáš , Čačaný Juraj , Horsák Michal
Published: March 2022

Until 2013, no published records of the Desmoulin's whorl snail (Vertigo moulinsiana) were known from the Danube lowland in the Slovak Republic. In this paper we present the first record of the Desmoulin's whorl snail in this area, and report the site conditions and the structure of accompanying land snail community. The site was examined by visual searching, including a 6-litre sample of plant litter collected and subsequently analysed. A numerous viable population of the species was recorded only by visual searching, whereas the litter sample did not yield any shells of the Desmoulin's whorl snail.
Making Black Femicide Visible
Authors: Threadcraft Shatema ,   University of Arkansas Press
Published: March 2022

Black women struggle to make the violence they experience visible for at least four reasons: the violence occurs in private, not in public; it is associated with sex, sexuality and intimacy; the violence is not amplified within the public and counterpublic spheres; and, finally and importantly, activists have not been as successful in constructing resonate narratives regarding the violence. Contemporary violence against black men, for example, is often understood through the lens of lynching, a phenomenon that earlier activists were able to link to the biblical crucifixion. The activists’ work ensured that lynching holds an important place in the story of black peoplehood; it helped to make blacks as a political people and has been crucial to black understandings of who we are and why we are here. Social visibility requires that black women tell stories that not only build social movements; they must also tell stories that help to build people.
Marital Shade
Authors: Simpson Anika , Taylor Paul C. ,   University of Arkansas Press
Published: March 2022

As legal scholar Ariela Dubler notes, the institution of marriage casts a long shadow across contemporary social life. Much more than a way of conferring social sanction on sexual and romantic relationships, marriage unlocks a wide range of social goods, from inheritance rights to medical records access. In addition, though, and as generations of feminists, queer activists, and others have made clear, this institution is part of a wider network of power relationships that it helps to shore up and conceal. Critics most often point to the way the marital regime quietly reinforces patriarchal, bourgeois liberal, and heteronormative assumptions, hiding them in the shadow of putatively benign, private, and natural social structures. This article brings the overlooked connections between marriage and race out of the shadows and more fully into view. Using and refining a fourfold notion of racial invisibility developed in Taylor’s Black Is Beautiful, we consider two respects in which this ocularcentric metaphor for racialized epistemic short-circuiting is particularly appropriate for discussing the marital regime.
Are Prisons Permissible?
Authors: Betts Reginald Dwayne , Gruen Lori ,   University of Arkansas Press
Published: March 2022

Class, race, and tough-on-crime political platforms are three of the most discussed, and thus most visible, forces that contribute to mass incarceration. The analysis of each of these forces has been illuminating, yet these broad narratives tend to obscure the burden of prison for those locked up within them. The social narratives that have developed to help understand the prison industrial system often inadvertently obscure the complex experiences and losses endured by prisoners. The psychic and physical toll that accrues from decades of social exile, the affronts to dignity that “corrections” regularly impose, and the injuries to one’s sense of themselves and their relationships that prison foments haven’t received the attention they deserve. This essay explores the question of the permissibility of causing harm through imprisonment and social abandonment, arguing that any adequate answer must make the particular experiences and actual concerns of incarcerated people socially visible.
Voices of Playful Learning Experimental, Affective and Relational Perspectives across Social Education and Teacher Education
Authors: Holflod Kim
Published: March 2022

The purpose of the article is to expand on the knowledge of playful learning in higher education through a Design-Based Research study across Danish social education and teacher education. It aims to develop a conceptual framework for playful learning in boundary-crossing collaboration within higher education pedagogy, with the study's empirical analysis examining three distinct voices of playful learning of experimentation (e.g., explorative, open-ended, creative collaboration), affectivity (e.g., emotional, sensory, and atmospheric collaboration), and relations (e.g., cultural, democratic, and polyphonic collaboration). The voices are polyphonic, though they are all expressed as social, active, and experiential ways of knowing and learning situated in playful framings outside 'ordinary' taéaching and learning. Finally, the article discusses tensions in developing playful learning in boundary-crossing collaboration between paradoxical longings for both conceptual unity and diversity, amid control and openness, which influences both practical applications and theoretical implications of developing playful learning in adult higher education.
La problemática jurídico-constitucional que plantea el segundo Estado de alarma y el final de su vigencia: ¿una vulneración reiterada de derechos fundamentales en la España autonómica?
Authors: García Mahamut Rosario
Published: March 2022

El estado de alarma declarado por el RD 926/2020, de 25 de octubre, y el RD 956/2020, de 3 de noviembre, que actualiza y modifica el anterior, constituyen objeto de análisis y estudio. Se abordan las dudas de constitucionalidad que suscita la prórroga directa de seis meses no solamente a efectos —y consecuencias— de la duración temporal del estado de alarma sino, muy especialmente, cuando ello se cohonesta con la habilitación para dictar —dentro del marco general de limitaciones de derechos— órdenes, resoluciones y disposiciones a las presidencias de las comunidades autónomas y de las ciudades autónomas como autoridad delegada. La vigencia de facto de 19 estados de alarma ha propiciado una falta de seguridad y certeza jurídica sin parangón. En ocasiones, se aprecia la aplicación por parte de los gobiernos autonómicos de medidas restrictivas de derechos fundamentales que no superan el test de proporcionalidad en lugar de haber ponderado y aplicado medidas menos invasivas. Las reformas operadas en la LJCA han constituido un paso relevante para un mejor control judicial.
Pode uma mulher negra existir? Histórias para gente disposta
Authors: Santos Raquel , Ferreira Janaina Farias de Souza , Silva Gilvânia Santos
Published: March 2022

Propomos com este artigo apresentar a costura das narrativas de três mulheres, professoras/educadoras e suas produções de presenças enquanto corpos femininos negros educadores. São relatos que cavam memórias e trazem a urgência em existir e levar este encantamento para suas práticas pedagógicas atravessados pelos cinco sentidos. Histórias estas que se cruzam e podem ser lidas/vividas em vários territórios do nosso país, dentro de qualquer escola, em especial as públicas, onde ainda se concentram corpos à margem dos lugares ditos como de poder. Estas vivências  se cruzam em questões singulares: de que forma corpos negros são vistos em espaços, dito educadores? Como esses corpos territórios criam epistemes a partir de suas vivências e dos encontros? Há espaço para estes encontros na educação? Percorremos nossas travessias acerca das descobertas das pesquisas de mestrado e cruzando nossas histórias pessoais e motivações que nos impulsionam a ainda seguir pela educação, criamos um diálogo com as reflexões e posicionamentos embasadas principalmente pelas teorias de Grada Kilomba, bell hooks e Nilma Lino Gomes, pesquisadoras que também trazem ensinamentos a partir de suas vivências para teorizar e praticar ações antirracistas em espaços de educação formal e não-formal unindo a escrevivência de Conceição Evaristo como lugar fértil de encontro de iguais, entendimento e sistematização de saberes pessoais e coletivos.
La demolición de la estatua: La poesía de Álvaro García en su contexto
Authors: Navarro Ramírez Sergio
Published: March 2022

En la década de los noventa, el poeta español Álvaro García desarrolla una obra y pensamiento poéticos que más tarde lo consagrarán como uno de los autores más influyentes de su generación. Su programa estético apuesta por un vaciamiento de la subjetividad en el poema y una mayor autonomía del poema respecto a la vivencia. Este ensayo ofrece el primer estudio académico del desarrollo de esta idea en el poeta español, centrando el análisis en el libro que marca el inicio de este tendencia, Intemperie. Además, establece las fuentes de este pensamiento poético y propone entenderlo como una reacción y crítica contra prácticas poéticas contemporáneas que dejará marcado poso en las generaciones que le siguen.
Intertextualidad y percepción de la historia reciente: El rey recibe (2018) de Eduardo Mendoza
Authors: Ramón García Emilio L.
Published: March 2022

El Rey Recibe presenta, bajo una apariencia de sencillez, un código doble de registros pertenecientes a 49 citas intertextuales, -literarias,de historiadores, pensadores, psiquiatras, reverendos, villancicos, revistas y de carteles- que lo complementan. Éstas no sólo nos recuerdan el carácter mestizo de la novela como género, sino que nos invitan a quitarle la máscara a los discursos que afirman ser reflejo objetivo del pasado, ahondando en el problema del conocimiento humano. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar el papel que juega cada una de ellas en tanto que pieza de un collage que pretende que nos replanteemos lo que creemos saber acerca del pasado, en concreto lo ocurrido durante la Transición en España, y a que, al desenmascararlas, nos acerquemos a los acontecimientos de este relato del tipo “faction”, mezcla de “fiction” (ficción) y “fact” (hechos), para conocerlos de nuevo.
Lo inaprensible y lo mudable de la novela corta
Authors: Gimeno Calderero Cristina
Published: March 2022

In this review we will contextualice and present Short novel in conflict. Five essays around Uncertainty (2020), from Raquel Velasco. In addition to framing this work, we will explain each of the five parts that compose it, pointing out what issues are adressed and the mecanisms for analyze short novel genre. This will lead us to a contextualization in short novel studies, as well as to a reflection on the theory of this genre.

En esta reseña contextualizaremos y presentaremos la obra de Raquel Velasco: La novela corta en conflicto. Cinco ensayos alrededor de la incertidumbre (2020). Además de encuadrar la obra, explicaremos cada una de las cinco partes que la componen señalando qué temas se abordan y mediante qué mecanismos. Esto nos llevará a una constextualización en el estudio de la novela corta, así como a una reflexión sobre la teoría de este género.
The Impact of Nintendo's "For Men" Advertising Campaign on a Potential Female Market
Authors: Schott Gareth , Thomas Siobhan
Published: March 2022

In order to emphasize the maturation of their hand-held console and increase its appeal to an adult market, Nintendo's UK advertising campaign for the Game Boy Advance SP drew explicitly upon Œlad' culture and a tongue-in-cheek appropriation of cologne advertising. In this campaign, the lead and most prominent promotional advert for the device used an image of the Game Boy with the tagline "For Men". This paper outlines why Nintendo's decision to present the Game Boy as a male accessory prompted exploration into its potential impact on the female market. Much of the emerging research field examining female participation in game cultures had at that point tended to focus its attention on exploring the experiences of different female groups with a variety of software titles and its associated communities. In contrast, this paper addresses participants' perceptions of the gaming industry and its relevance to them as a (potential) consumer by taking a hardware device as its focus. This was achieved by conducting a series of focus groups, with a range of both experienced and inexperienced female game players, during which participants were asked to engage with the hand-held device and experience both its single and networked game-play capabilities with the game Legend of Zelda. The findings address participants' awareness and views on the extent to which gaming is coded male and its ramifications for their participation in game cultures.
A Review of Agent Emotion Architectures
Authors: Slater Stuart Ian , Moreton Robert , Buckley Kevan , Bridges Andrew
Published: March 2022

This paper attempts to highlight some of the research that has been conducted worldwide in the area of computational models of emotions, with a particular emphasis on agent emotions suitable for simulations and games. The intended outcome is to both review some of the more prominent research in the field, and to also ascertain the level of formal psychology that may underpin such work with a view to proposing that there is scope for an architecture built from the ground up, that arises from non-conflicting theories of emotion.
Mass(ively) Effect(ive): Emotional Connections, Choice, and Humanity
Authors: Ward Natalie M.
Published: March 2022

A brief review of Bioware's successful sci-fi game Mass Effect, a combination first person shooter and role playing game.
Passionate Digital Play-Based Learning. (Re)Learning in computer games like Shadow of the Colossus
Authors: Mitgutsch Konstantin
Published: March 2022

Abstract: In the last decades the potentials for teaching and learning based on computer games have increasingly become a focus in scientific research and the computer industry. It is argued that computer games are a valuable tool to enrich learning. While in traditional educational institutions the enhancement of motivation for learning something was often reduced to a pressure to perform for someone, games are said to lead to a more learner-centred teaching. However the “great expectations” were not fulfilled: The reasonable symbiosis of meaningful content and an engaging environment transformed through digital media stayed beyond its instructional expectations. Especially the dimension of passion as a circular and non-linear process of relearning and learning anew was overlooked in a majority of theories, concepts and designs of games. In this understanding the passionate dimension of learning refers to a kind of learning, where the learners’ expectations disprove and he explores resistive experienced. The paper outlines how a unique game such as "Shadow of the Colossus" can open up a new horizon of experiences that lead to a passionate dimension of learning by playing digital games. By stressing a  theoretical learning perspective on the process of experience within the game "Shadow of the Colossus", a new understanding of learning based on playing games will be given. Therefore the paper will give insight into the concept of learning by passion and Digital Play-Based Learning and show a new dimension for twenty-first century learning games.
Key Dimensions of Contemporary Video Game Literacy: Towards A Normative Model of the Competent Digital Gamer
Authors: Klimmt Christoph
Published: March 2022

Recent developments in digital games technology, economy, and content have further expanded the popularity of the medium. At the same time, requirements for competent gaming or digital game literacy need to be reconsidered in the light of the rapid evolution of digital games. The paper outlines three important dimensions of contemporary video game literacy: (1) Resilience against effects of game content on automatic cognition (such as stereotypes and aggressive thinking), (2) the ability to cope with social affordances of multiplayer games, and (3) the ability to manage inertia processes in playing motivation that result in a perceived risk of losing investments of time and effort when deciding against playing. Finally, the importance to substantiate game literacy concepts with scientific theory and empirical research is articulated.
Games and Self-Imagining, a Comparative Media Perspective
Authors: Van Looy Jan
Published: March 2022

This article compares the self-positioning mechanisms used by the computer game American McGee’s Alice to those of its paper and film predecessors. After dismissing the claim that the virtual is ontologically different and therefore incomparable to the fictional, Kendall Walton’s theory of representation as make-believe is laid out. This theory is then used to describe the various techniques for entertaining laid out by the three works and relate them to their relative medium-specific qualities. Next, Walton’s concepts of subjective and objective imagining are presented to describe the positions of the imagined self vis-à-vis the represented events. When applied to the material at hand, it becomes clear that while Walton’s theory does not allow for simple categorisation and that all three media lay out complex strategies combining subjective and objective techniques, overall the game can be seen as evoking a primarily subjective experience with an objective counterweight whilst the book and the film should be seen as primarily objective with subjectifying elements.
Generations and Game Localization
Authors: Jayemanne Darshana
Published: March 2022

An interview with Alexander O. Smith, Steve Anderson and Matthew Alt.
Ten years later
Authors: Götzenbrucker Gerit , Köhl Margarita
Published: March 2022

How does the participation in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) affect the individual gamer’s self- development and social integration? The results of 1998/99’s empirical study dealing with the topic of “Integrative Potentials of New Technologies” (see Götzenbrucker 2001) already highlighted the fact that differing gaming environments attracted specific types of gamers. These various types of gamers were characterized by different kinds of lifestyles and divergent social positions. The aim of the actual study was to yield new insights into the long-term effects of playing MMORPGs. This was accomplished through interviews with 15 of the online gamers interviewed for 1999’s research project. In the course of the “gamer’s career” the game is gradually inscribed into everyday life through processes of “habitualization” and “ritualization” becoming a part of the gamer’s individual “media menus”. According to the long-term gamers’ diverging motivational sets 4 different types of gamers could be identified varying regarding their focus of playing and strategies of integrating the game into everyday life. Altogether, the findings provide an account of the mutual interference of playing habits and life situation. As activities related to media simultaneously involve time (see Neverla 2007) “time” is playing an important role in the process of incorporating social practices of gaming into every day life. When life situations change due to the transition from a period of education to a period of life determined by work time capacities diminish drastically. This is why the gamers develop specific strategies of adaptation. Another important parameter are “turning points” (for example birth of a child) in the gamers’ lives. Comparison highlighted the fact that the size of the gamers’ formerly large social networks has decreased and their configuration has changed: Although online gamer friends are still forming a big part of the gamers’ social networks (in sum 22% of all existing network-contacts) ex gamers (people who quitted gaming) by trend have less online gamer friends belonging to their social networks then before. Conversely in the still gamers’ networks the number of online gamer friends has increased. In conclusion the interviewees can be characterized as “innovaters” or “early adopters” as well as “pioneers of the digital generation” who form a part of a “technological avant-garde”. They represent a new “media lifestyle” which similarly incorporates the virtual and the real world.
Commodifying Scarcity: Society, Struggle, and Spectacle in World of Warcraft
Authors: Moberly Kevin
Published: March 2022

Overrun by monsters and tyrants, and ravaged by fanaticism, excess, and greed, World of Warcraft offers players a chance to struggle metaphorically against that which oppresses them: the excesses of late capitalism as they are represented by the game’s spectacular antagonisms. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, however, players must employ the very thing through which their oppression is manifested. Interpellated into the game as fetishized images, players must construct themselves and function in accordance with the limitations imposed upon them by the race and class of their characters. Players, as such, are incorporated into World of Warcraft’s spectacle even as they struggle against it. What World of Warcraft sells players is thus not liberation and fulfillment, but more of the same: a spectacular version of the present tense in which the race- and class-based antagonisms that define the status quo of late capitalism are represented as magical and fantastic. In approaching World of Warcraft in these terms, this article attempts to understand how the game commodifies struggle, not only securing the consent of players to produce themselves and perform as subjects, but in doing so, reproducing the illusion in which the society of World of Warcraft’s spectacle is manifested: the illusion that the spectacular hierarchies and inequalities of late capitalism are natural and inevitable rather than socially constructed.
Strange Reality: On Glitches and Uncanny Play
Authors: Holmes Eben G.
Published: March 2022

Videogames have had to struggle with balancing the requirements of 'good' gameplay with a drive toward increasing graphical and narrative realism, spurred on by constantly improving technologies of simulation and computer graphics. Despite these advances in hardware and programming techniques, videogames' simulations of reality have, for the most part, remained crude and cartoonish next to the allegorical richness of description in art, literature and film-a comparison that may be unfair, but nevertheless has been relentlessly repeated. This paper attempts to highlight some of the difficulties and failures of realism in videogames through the lens of the uncanny, which, it is argued, should be understood as an essential trait of videogames in their capacity as simulations of realities, and as modern technology.
Book Review: The Mergence of Spaces by Elke Hemminger
Authors: Schröder Arne
Published: March 2022

Review of Elke Hemmingers doctoral thesis The Mergence of Spaces. Experiences of Reality in Digital Role-Playing Games
The Computer Game as a Somatic Experience
Authors: Nielsen Henrik Smed
Published: March 2022

This article describes the experience of playing computer games. With a media archaeological outset the relation between human and machine is emphasised as the key to understand the experience. This relation is further explored by drawing on a phenomenological philosophy of technology which sketches the relation as founded on the player´s embodiment in-the-world. Through the framework of somaesthetics, three different, yet intertwined, embodied relations are outlined as facilitating somatic experiences revolving around the experiential, the representational, and the performative which displace the player´s habitual engagement with the world.
How to Define a Genre: A Lacanian-marxist Case Study of the NES Platform Game
Authors: Skare Nils
Published: March 2022

This article’s purpose is to define the NES platform game as a specific genre through a materialist approach. Discarding both inductive and deductive ways, we select two games that can be said to be extreme translations of the genre and thus derive the concept from their analysis: the games are Super Mario Bros. 3 (SMB3) and Mega Man 2 (MM2). This article develops concepts from our materialist framework, notably the Lacanian Borromean knot and derived semiotics, and our own definition of narrative as a symbolic predication of the Real. After analyzing our games and establishing a model, we relate SMB3 to identification and MM2 to recognition, and define the NES “platformers” as games where there is at least one metaphorical non-jump button.
Ambivalence and Recursion in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Authors: Martin Paul
Published: March 2022

This article is a close reading of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (KCE Tokyo, 1997) that offers its various forms of recursion as performed by the player, the character and the plot as means of enriching the characterisation of the protagonist, Alucard, as ambivalent. It draws on theories of the labyrinth as a way of enacting a meaningful routine to illustrate this relationship between space, performance and meaning in the game.
Designing a Game for Playful Communication within Families
Authors: Toft Ida Marie , Naseem Amani
Published: March 2022

This article presents the game Junomi, a game designed to give families and teenagers opportunities to play with the way they communicate and also experience closeness and togetherness. Taking a research based approach and getting a detailed understanding of the situation to design for facilitated an investigation that helped seeing potentials for playful moments and spaces in the situation, as well as how the different elements and aspects of the situation could be made playable. Everyday communication is considered complex, heterogeneous and indefinable and the game does not, which models or simulate the complexity of the situation, but to create a frame that invites, suggests, reminds and encourage for a playful mind in the everyday and thereby gives possibilities for the families to, through play, explore and experiments with ways of communicating and ways of being together. The experience of the game depends largely on how the players choose to engage with the game.
Played and Designed Sociality in a Massive Multiplayer Online Game
Authors: Eklund Lina , Johansson Magnus
Published: March 2022

This empirical study focuses on online collaboration and social interaction in temporary group formations. A case study of a massive multiplayer online game World of Warcraft explores these issues. Within this context little attention has been paid to temporary collaboration groups. The phenomenon is analyzed using interaction data complemented with interview data, forum data and consideration of game design. We found two main types of interaction, sociable and instrumental, but investment in the social situation was exceedingly little. We conclude that the low levels of social interaction observed are the result of a game design that makes the cost of social play high and restricts the available space for players to act within the designed architecture of the game, thus limiting the possibilities for played sociality. The connection between designed and played sociality is crucial for understanding online collaboration as it shapes online social worlds and therefore users’ experiences within this social context.
“Tap, tap, flap, flap.” Ludic Seriality, Digitality, and the Finger
Authors: Heilmann Till A.
Published: March 2022

This article tries to answer the question, “What is ‘digital’ about digital media?” Building on the concept of ludic seriality as proposed by Shane Denson and Andreas Jahn-Sudmann and taking as an example the popular mobile Game Flappy Bird, it discusses the serial character of gameplay, in particular the intra-ludic serialization of in-game and operator actions. The article argues that the principle of digitality relates to the fingers of the human hand and the corresponding cultural techniques, from the ancient art of finger-counting which brought forth the abstract number concept to our current every day use of buttons and keys to operate digital devices.
Playing with Fear: The Aesthetics of Horror in Recent Indie Games
Authors: Thon Jan-Noel
Published: March 2022

This article explores the aesthetics of horror that recent indie games offer to their players. Following a general discussion of how the audiovisual, ludic, and narrative aesthetics of indie games relate to the fiction emotions, gameplay emotions, and artifact emotions that these games in general and horror indie games in particular invite their players to experience, the article offers in-depth analyses of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Neverending Nightmares, Darkwood, and The Forest. These four case studies allow for an extensive reconstruction of the various ways in which indie horror games are designed to evoke uncanny moods and abject horror as well as the subtle interplay between fear as a fiction emotion and fear as a gameplay emotion, the experience of which may also spark positive or negative artifact emotions that in turn may lead to aesthetic judgments of various kinds.
Introduction: Playfulness across Media
Authors: Thon Jan-Noël
Published: March 2022

This is the introduction to the guest-edited Playfulness across Media issue of Eludamos. The articles collected here seek to demonstrate the productivity of the concept of playfulness across disciplines and the importance of moving beyond the study of primarily game-based playfulness in order to explore how a playful mood, attitude, or state of mind can manifest itself in and be encouraged by a range of different practices of play and a range of different (post)digital media forms that include, but are certainly not limited to, digital and nondigital games. While there obviously are some very productive intersections between game studies and playfulness studies, the articles also clearly show that the latter cannot and should not be conflated with the former.
Long-term consumption of artificial sweeteners does not affect cardiovascular health and survival in rats
Authors: Guru Satvinder K. , Li Ying , Savinova Olga V. , Zhang Youhua
Published: March 2022

Background

Recent epidemiological cohort studies have suggested that consumption of artificial sweeteners (AS) is associated with adverse cardiovascular events and mortality. However, these population association studies cannot establish a causal relationship. In this study we investigated the effect of long-term (1-year) consumption of AS (Equal and Splenda, two commonly used AS) on cardiovascular health and survival in rats.

Methods

Adult Sprague-Dawley rats (both sexes, 4–5 months old) were randomized into the following 3 groups: control (n = 21), AS Equal (n = 21) and Splenda (n = 18). In the AS groups, Equal or Splenda was added to the drinking water (2-packets/250 ml), while drinking water alone was used in the control rats. The treatment was administered for 12 months. Cardiovascular function and survival were monitored in all animals.

Results

It was found that rats in the AS groups consistently consumed more sweetened water than those in the control group. AS did not affect body weight, non-fasting blood cholesterol, triglycerides, blood pressure or pulse wave velocity. There were no significant differences in left ventricular wall thicknesses, chamber dimension, cardiac function or survival. AS did not affect heart rate or atrial effective refractory period. However, rats in both Equal and Splenda groups had prolonged PR intervals (63 ± 5ms in Equal, 68 ± 6 ms in Splenda, vs 56 ± 8 ms in control, p < 0.05) and a tendency of increased atrial fibrillation inducibility.

Conclusion

Long-term consumption of AS does not affect cardiovascular structure, function or survival but may cause some electrophysiological abnormalities with prolonged PR intervals and a tendency of increased atrial fibrillation inducibility in rats.
Full-length transcriptome analysis of Adiantum flabellulatum gametophyte
Authors: Cai Zeping , Xie Zhenyu , Huang Luyao , Wang Zixuan , Pan Min , Yu Xudong , Xu Shitao , Luo Jiajia
Published: March 2022

Ferns are important components of plant communities on earth, but their genomes are generally very large, with many redundant genes, making whole genome sequencing of ferns prohibitively expensive and time-consuming. This means there is a significant lack of fern reference genomes, making molecular biology research difficult. The gametophytes of ferns can survive independently, are responsible for sexual reproduction and the feeding of young sporophytes, and play an important role in the alternation of generations. For this study, we selected Adiantum flabellulatum as it has both ornamental and medicinal value and is also an indicator plant of acidic soil. The full-length transcriptome sequencing of its gametophytes was carried out using PacBio three-generation sequencing technology. A total of 354,228 transcripts were obtained, and 231,705 coding sequences (CDSs) were predicted, including 5,749 transcription factors (TFs), 2,214 transcription regulators (TRs) and 4,950 protein kinases (PKs). The transcripts annotated by non-redundant protein sequence database (NR), Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG), eukaryotic ortholog groups (KOG), Swissprot, protein family (Pfma), nucleotide sequence database (NT) and gene ontology (GO) were 251,501, 197,474, 193,630, 194,639, 195,956, 113,069 and 197,883, respectively. In addition, 138,995 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and 111,793 long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) were obtained. We selected nine chlorophyll synthase genes for qRT-PCR, and the results showed that the full-length transcript sequences and the annotation information were reliable. This study can provide a reference gene set for subsequent gene expression quantification.
Prediction of Fire Risk Ratings of Wood Species for Fire Prevention Design
Authors: Chung Yeong-Jin , Jin Eui
Published: March 2022

In this study, fire risk was evaluated using Chung's equations-II, Chung's equations-III, and Chung's equation-IV to predict the fire risk and grade of wood for construction materials. Spruce wood, Rigida pine, Lauan, Chestnut, Oak, and Zelkova wood were used as test pieces. The fire characteristics of the test pieces were investigated using a cone calorimeter (ISO 5660-1) equipment. After combustion of the specimen, FPI-II measured by Chung's equations was 1.36 to 113.49 s2/kW, and FGI-II was 0.01 to 0.29 kW/s2. FPI-III was 4.53~378.30 based on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and FGI-III was 0.07~1.93 based on PMMA. The fire risk index-IV, which is a fire risk rating index, was 0.33 and 0.43 for Spruce and Lauan, respectively, indicating that they are woods with relatively high fire risk.
Immunohistochemical Analysis in Salivary Duct Carcinoma of the Upper Labial Mucosa: A Rare Case Report
Authors: Shah Jigna S , Dubey Jaya , Bulchandani Alka
Published: March 2022

Salivary Duct Carcinoma (SDC) is a rare typically high grade, aggressive malignancy arising from the ductal epithelium of salivary glands characterised by ductal formations and central necrosis having pathomorphological resemblance to ductal breast carcinoma. Parotid and submandibular salivary glands are the most commonly affected while very few cases involving the minor salivary glands of the palate, labial mucosa, floor of mouth have been reported. This high grade malignancy must be treated aggressively by complete local excision with radical neck dissection and postoperative radiation therapy seems to offer maximum benefit for the patients. This article highlights a case of a 80-year-old male patient having an intra oral ulcer over a swelling which was since 5 years on the left side of upper lip with left submandibular lymph nodes enlargement is reported. An immunohistochemical analysis of the biopsy specimen was carried out which concluded a SDC. The swelling was surgically excised followed by postoperative radiotherapy and adjuvant chemotherapy. The patient was on a regular follow-up for two and a half years without any local recurrence or distant metastasis.
Mesiodens with Supernumerary Root in a Non Syndromic Child: A Rare Case with Unusual Morphology and its Management
Authors: Thimmegowda Umapathy , Venkatahanumaiah Sanchitha , Chikkanarasaiah Nagarathna , Krishnamurthy Navin Hadadi
Published: March 2022

Supernumerary teeth, also known as hyperdontia, are an odontostomatologic aberration characterised by the presence of an excessive number of teeth. They are divided into four categories based on their shapes and sizes: conical, tuberculate, supplementary and odontomes. The most typical location for mesiodens is the palatal midline between the two maxillary central incisors. Mesiodens is common with incidence of occurrence being 0.3-0.8% for primary teeth and 0.15-3.8% for permanent teeth. A supernumerary root is characterised as the existence of an extra root than the typical number, but a mesiodens with a supernumerary root is a very unusual condition encountered, and its occurrence in children is extremely rare. This unusual morphology is not associated with any syndromes. In the present case, the morphology of the crown of mesiodens was found to be conical in shape both clinically and radiographically, but on extraction of mesiodens unusual root morphology with a supernumerary root was seen. Variations in the crown morphology where the crown of mesiodens had five lobes that was separated by developmental grooves and root dilacerations have been noted. However, no case of mesiodens with a supernumerary root has been reported in the literature by far and this paper attempts towards it. Therefore, the present case emphasises on the importance of considering the morphological variations prior to the onset of the treatment. So, hereby authors present a eight-year-old female with rare and unusual case with a mesiodens with a supernumerary root and its management.
Response Surface Optimization of Dietary Iron, Calcium and Vitamin C in Soyamilk for Complementary Feeding
Authors: Patrick Udoudo Unyime , John Chisimkwuo , Okoro Loveline
Published: March 2022

Response surface methodology (RSM) is a collection of tools developed in the 1950s for the purpose of determining optimum operating conditions. In this work, a three level three factor (33) factorial design that metamorphosed to the response surface design with two augmented central point was employed. In its applications a secondary data from the department of Food Science and Technology (FST), Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), containing the mineral components of soymilk for complementary feeding of infants was used. The analysis for the First Order (FO), Two Way Interaction (TWI) and the Polynomial (PQ) model was carried out and the augmented response surface analysis was performed. Following the path of steepest ascent, an optimality condition from the surface and contour lines shows that dietary iron is significant for varying the colour content, while calcium was significant for varying the ash and moisture content. It was then recommended that for optimal colour content in the soymilk, 3.07mg/100ml of Dietary Iron, 154.1mg/100ml of Calcium and 24.23mg/100ml of Vitamin C should be used, for optimal ash content in the soymilk, 2.22mg/100ml of Dietary Iron, 152.03mg/100ml of Calcium and 13.53mg/100ml of Vitamin C should be used while for optimal moisture content in the soymilk, 2.9858mg/100ml of dietary Iron, 335.71mg/100ml of Calcium and 25.48mg/100ml of Vitamin C should be used.
Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Vegetative Growth and Flowering of Okra [Abelmoschus esculentus (L.) Moench.]
Authors: Kumari Sonu , Meena M. L. , Moond S. K. , Mandeewal Rameshwr Lal , Kalirawna Aditya , Kalirawna Subhash
Published: March 2022

A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effects of BAP, GA3, and NAA on flowering and growth attributes of okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench) cv. Arka Anamika at the Instructional  farm, Agricultural Research Station, Jodhpur Rajasthan during Kharif, 2020. Three treatments each of BAP@ T1-25, T2-50, andT3-75(ppm), GA3 @T4-25, T5-50, andT6-75 (ppm), and NAA @ T7-25, T8-50, and T9-75 (ppm)were used besides controls i.e. T0 with water spray. These three growth regulators were found to enhance early flowering. Other parameters of growth were also found to be increased by treatments with plant growth regulators in okra. Among the growth parameters, the highest inter-nodal length (6.68 cm), plant height (156.4 cm), and leaf area index (3.1) aswas recorded with GA3 @ 75 ppm treatment, whereas maximum stem diameter (43.88 mm), number of branches per plant (5.10) and number of nodes on the main stem (25.05) were recorded with NAA @ 75 ppm. The minimum number of days to the appearance of first flowering (35.50), 50% flowering (41.80), and node on which the first flower appeared (3.82) were also recorded with NAA @ 75 ppm.
Straw Paper for Art Applications – A Paper Development Study
Authors: Dölle Klaus , Palmer Karl , Palumbo Nicolas , Neary Brian , Shick Ian , Rothwell Ian
Published: March 2022

Each paper grade, especially art papers have their own unique requirements by the artist using the paper in regard to mechanical integrity, surface topography, optical appearance and printability based on the unique artistic process applied during printing.

Wheat straw fiber, a left over product from agricultural operations, can be used in many papermaking grades if properly processed prior to papermaking.

A wheat straw containing art paper for artistic water color, oil, and encaustic (wax) painting applications was development and produced with a 10% and 15% northern bleached softwood content using a 12-inch (304 mm) wide laboratory scale paper machine, operated at a speed of 3.76 ft/min (1.14 m/min) with and without operating a calendar. The basis weight of the paper product was 350 g/m² with a caliper of 1050 μm to 1640 μm,

The paper products burst load in psi ranged between 2.49 and 4.71. Tensile peak load measured in kilogram-force (kgf) per 15mm wide testing strip ranged from 4.08 to 9.32 for the machine direction and 1.96 to 4.74 for the cross machine direction.

The roughness range of the wheat straw art paper was 2909 ml to 2963 ml for the top side and 2880 ml to 2954 ml for the bottom side of the paper.

The ISO brightness and opacity of the yellowish wheat straw art paper was at 22.74% and 100.00%, The ISO color value was for the L*, a*, b* Hunter color scale 69.46%, 02.02, and 15.47 respectively.

The finished art paper product met the expectations by the artists. The paper was used for several encaustic art studio projects.
Evaluation of Fade Margin in Telecommunication Network in Auchi, Nigeria
Authors: Egwunyenga E. G. , Okonigene R. E. , Osahenvemwen A. O
Published: March 2022

Fading is a concept that is associated with communications, be it digital or analogue. This work deals with the careful analysis, performance, and evaluation of fade margin on a particular mobile network in Nigeria, using Auchi as a case study. With the careful analysis that was carried out on three (3) different links using some collated data such as latitude, height of tower, power, antenna gain and model, frequency, path length and distance etc. It was discovered that the said mobile network fade margin across the three different links was within the acceptable range of 10db to 30db. Also, it was discovered that the longer the pathlength, the higher the fade margin value, as confirmed in the results. Thus, the major characteristics needed to determine the fade margin and evaluation process were effective and realizable.
A Comparative Study to Assess the Problems Faced During Postnatal Period among Mothers with Normal Vaginal Delivery and Cesarean Delivery at Selected Private Maternity Care Hospital of the Nadiad City, Gujarat
Authors: Patel Dharti , Bariya Divyaben , Patel Hirvaben , Makwana Kapilkumar , Prajapati Minesh , Patel Nilesh , Macwan Nishit , Parmar Pragati , Patel Richa , Savaliya Paras
Published: March 2022

Introduction: Postnatal period brings many physiological changes in mothers. This period is crucial for the mother as there is a new addition to her life. Hence the health of the postnatal mother is associated with the type of delivery.

Objective: This study aims to assess and compare the problems faced during postnatal period among mothers with normal vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery.

Methods: Quantitative research approach & a comparative descriptive research design was used with 60 postnatal mothers who had fulfilled the inclusion criteria, among them 30 mothers with normal vaginal delivery and 30 mothers with cesarean delivery were selected using purposive sampling technique. Data was collected using modified standardized observation checklist to assess the problems faced during postnatal period among mothers with normal vaginal delivery and cesarean delivery.

Setting: The postnatal ward of selected private maternity care hospital-N.D. Desai medical college and hospital of Nadiad city, Gujarat.

Results: There was statistically significant difference found in problems faced during postnatal period in group 1 and group 2 which shows that mean difference between group 1 and group 2 was 1.79 and standard deviation 0.15. In group 1 overall percentage of severity of pain according to mild, moderate, severe and no pain criteria were 57%, 20%, 0% and 23% respectively and in group 2 overall percentage of severity of pain according to mild, moderate, severe and no pain criteria were 0%, 70%, 30% and 13% respectively

Conclusion: The study concluded that postnatal mothers with cesarean delivery have to face more problems than those following normal vaginal delivery. The level of pain score was also high in mothers with cesarean delivery.
Bounding of earthquake response via critical double impulse for efficient optimal design of viscous dampers for elastic‐plastic moment frames
Authors: Akehashi Hiroki , Takewaki Izuru
Published: March 2022

An input velocity adjustment method of the critical double impulse (DI) is presented for efficient design of viscous dampers for elastic‐plastic moment frames. The input velocity is adjusted so that the input energy to the lowest eigenmode under the critical DI is equal to those under the selected recorded ground motions. This adjustment makes the critical DI work as the active earthquake. The response bounding property of the critical DI is supported by, (1) the multi‐modal property of the critical DI, (2) the usual excitation of the lowest mode response under recorded ground motions, (3) the large proportion of the instantaneous input energy to the total input energy in the critical DI. The proposed method can treat not only pulse‐like near‐fault ground motions but also ground motions of random nature. To validate the proposed method, the input energies and the maximum interstory drifts under the recorded ground motions and the critical DI with the adjusted input velocity are investigated for elastic single‐degree‐of‐freedom (SDOF) models, elastic proportionally damped MDOF models, and elastic‐plastic proportionally damped MDOF models. The optimization method presented in the previous paper is extended so that the critical DI can be treated for the design of viscous dampers for elastic‐plastic moment frames.