bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Sexuality, Sexual Abuse, Marriage, Partner Violence, and Parenting Skills Among Persons With Intellectual Disability
Authors: Gopalan Rejani Thudalikunnil , Kurishinkal Prathibha Augustus
Published: September 2019

Sexuality begins from the moment of birth and has an active role in the development, evolution, emotional balance, and affective stability of the individual. It has a significant role in interpersonal and couple's relationships. The sexuality of people with intellectual disability is important from the view of medical, pedagogical, psychological, and ethical aspects. As intellectually disabled person approach puberty their control of behavior and expression of sexuality may manifest in unacceptable ways. They are also at increased risk for physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. The chapter focused on the sexuality, the risk of sexual abuse, marriage, partner violence among people with intellectual disability. The requirement of sex education and components of sex education for various age ranges were also explained and effectiveness of such programs were also discussed. The chapter also discussed the parenting and challenges involved in parenting among intellectually disabled individuals.
Lucid Peninsula, a Physical Narrative Art Installation Comprising Interactive 360° Virtual Reality Components
Authors: Nisi Valentina , Dionisio Mara Sofia , Bala Paulo , Gross Tom , Up Time's , Nunes Nuno Jardim
Published: September 2019

This article describes the design of the Lucid Peninsula, a Physical Narrative Art Installation, developed to engage a wide variety of audiences with a possible future, in which the practice of lucid dreaming plays an important role. In this article, the authors present and discuss the results from the in-the-wild evaluation of the audience reception of the artwork. Of particular concern is the assessment of the role of the virtual reality (VR) interfaces designed to deepen involvement and interaction with the art piece. This article reports on the conception and production of the installation as well as its evaluation and derived insights. The study provides evidence of the positive role of the 360° mobile VR assets in strengthening the narrative and the artist's intent in the Lucid Peninsula artistic installation. Results show how the VR interface supported engagement, positive affect, and reflections on the physical narrative scenario.
Hotels Online Opinion Visualization
Authors: André Tiago Silva , Carvalho Elizabeth Simão
Published: September 2019

Nowadays there are several websites where a traveller can find information about hotels. These websites give an idea about the quality of the hotel in several aspects based on customer opinion. Although helpful, these websites do not offer visualizations in order to actually give a clear insight on available data. It does not really support travellers' decision because the information is generally showed as a text list, with or without some monochromatic symbol, not allowing any kind of interaction or taking into account relevant cognitive aspects. This article proposes a new visual interface for the booking and hotel sector, considering the customers' online opinion as its main input data.
Meta-Remediation as a Mechanism to Address Crowd Decision-Making in the Context of Media Art
Authors: Pinheiro Jose Alberto Raposo , Tavares Mirian
Published: September 2019

uTurn is a digital art installation that allows interaction inside a cinema-like environment or a similar public space — an exhibition system in the context of an audience, retrieving an elected media from the choices made by the majority of the public. The software in its core manages the selection — a meta-remediation that elects a media block, in the form of short-story movies (Vidbits) to be watched by a crowd. The interaction model assumes the need to find a preference in the viewing room in order to identify and choose the next Vidbit. The system allows navigation through media blocks in environments like a cinema room, a summer festival, or a public event. It can be configured to support visual concepts, or to integrate a narrative system in which other types of structures in the story demand that the content follows a segmentation of media. uTurn was exhibited during the 5th Artech International Conference, in 2015. The article addresses the creative process towards the production of the digital artifact using Apple's Quartz Composer.
The CARINA Metacognitive Architecture
Authors: Caro Manuel Fernando , Josyula Darsana P , Madera Dalia Patricia , Kennedy Catriona M , Gómez Adán A
Published: September 2019

Metacognition has been used in artificial intelligence to increase the level of autonomy of intelligent systems. However, the design of systems with metacognitive capabilities is a difficult task due to the number and complexity of processes involved. The main objective of this article is to introduce a novel metacognitive architecture for monitoring and control of reasoning failures in artificial intelligent agents. CARINA metacognitive architecture is based on precise definitions of structural and functional elements of metacognition as defined in the MISM meta-model. CARINA can be used to implement real-world cognitive agents with the capability for introspective monitoring and meta-level control. Introspective monitoring detects reasoning failure (for example, when expectation is violated). Metacognitive control selects strategies to recover from failures. The article demonstrates a CARINA implementation of reasoning failure detection and recovery in an intelligent tutoring system called FUNPRO.
A Controlled Stability Genetic Algorithm With the New BLF2G Guillotine Placement Heuristic for the Orthogonal Cutting-Stock Problem
Authors: Abou-Msabah Slimane , Baba-Ali Ahmed-Riadh , Sager Basma
Published: September 2019

The orthogonal cutting-stock problem tries to place a given set of items in a minimum number of identically sized bins. Combining the new BLF2G heuristic with an advanced genetic algorithm can help solve this problem with the guillotine constraint. According to the item order, the BLF2G heuristic creates a direct placement of items in bins to give a cutting format. The genetic algorithm exploits the search space to find the supposed optimal item order. Other methods try to guide the evolutionary process. A new enhancement guides the evolutionary process, enriching the population via qualified individuals, without disturbing the genetic phase. The evolution of the GA process is controlled, and when no improvements after some number of iterations are observed, a qualified individual is injected to the population to avoid premature convergence to a local optimum. A generated set of order-based individuals enriches the evolutionary process with qualified chromosomes. The proposed method is compared with other heuristics and metaheuristics found in the literature on existing data sets.
Exploring Teachers' Value Beliefs of Integrating Digital Literacy in K-12 Classrooms
Authors: Sadaf Ayesha
Published: September 2019

The purpose of the exploratory study was to investigate teacher value beliefs of integrating digital literacy into their classrooms. Participants were forty-six teachers enrolled in an educational technology course. Data was collected from online survey and asynchronous online discussions. Findings suggest that teachers' value beliefs for integrating digital literacy into their classrooms are influenced by increasing student motivation and engagement in the classroom, modernizing the curriculum, making it more relevant to the students, and building student ability to be thoughtful readers and interpreters of the media messages. These results recommend that professional development activities should emphasize the potential impact of digital literacy on student learning and to take advantage of specific digital tools that support teacher value beliefs.
Digital Competence Assessment Across Generations
Authors: Khan Fawad , Vuopala Essi
Published: September 2019

Based on the European framework (DigComp), a self-assessment tool digital competency wheel is used for this quantitative study to measure the individuals' perceptions toward digital competence. With a sample of 197 individuals from different generations in Finland, this study aims to provide empirical evidence that generational technological abilities are diverse. The data in this study show that “Net Generation,” also coined as “digital natives,” has obtained the highest level of digital competence. Nevertheless, when looking at the performance of all the investigated groups, the slight inter-generational difference was found in the case of problem-solving, whereas programming was found as the least developed competency among these groups. Based on the results, the study concludes that digital competence is very much distributed across generations. This also contributes to intergenerational learning that may enhance technological skills across generations.
Video Games and Accessibility
Authors: Treglia Eugenia , Magnanini Angela , Caione Gianni
Published: September 2019

This essay aims, through a hermeneutic-argumentative approach, to present some ideas for inclusive teaching, starting with an educational re-evaluation of video games, for years considered a mere form of entertainment. Their use as educational mediators is a useful response to the needs of a school that is increasingly aware of the educational needs of all pupils. Through the recovery of the recreational dimension and the Accessibility paradigm, it is possible to offer teachers guidance and design insights in order to create educational itineraries of inclusion, finding in video games a possible tool capable of engaging the class in common activities, on the basis of equal opportunities and active participation, additionally for the development of digital skills.
Combination of Scheduling and Dynamic Data Replication for Cloud Computing Workflows
Authors: Siham Kouidri , Belabbas Yagoubi
Published: September 2019

Cloud computing is a powerful and high-capacity system, because it can satisfy various demands and share resources for users. It also to benefits from a capacity for treatment and unlimited storage. However, it is burdensome for the providers of internet services that the user demands are increasing as computer capacity is growing stronger and stronger. Therefore, the techniques of workflow scheduling and data replication are used to decrease the costs of the data intensive application. Unfortunately, these two approaches, which are very complementary, are used separately. In this article, a combination of workflow scheduling based on the clustering of data and dynamic data replication strategies has been introduced together. A Cloud simulator, Cloudsim, is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in comparison with well-known algorithms such as random data placement and the Build Time algorithm.
“TwitterSpamDetector”
Authors: Kabakus Abdullah Talha , Kara Resul
Published: September 2019

Twitter is the most popular microblogging platform which lets users post status messages called tweets. This popularity and the advanced API provided by Twitter to read and write Twitter data programmatically attracts the attention of spammers as well as legitimate users. Since Twitter has some unique characteristics, the traditional spam detecting methods cannot be directly used to detect spam on Twitter. Therefore, a spam detection framework which is specially designed for Twitter namely TwitterSpamDetector is proposed in this paper. TwitterSpamDetector uses Twitter-specific features to detect spam on Twitter. 77,033 tweets which are posted by 50,490 users collected using the API provided by Twitter. Naive Bayes is used to train TwitterSpamDetector using the selected features of Twitter which clearly classify the spammers from legitimate users. According to the evaluation result, TwitterSpamDetector's accuracy and sensitivity are calculated as 0.943 and 0.913, respectively.
Rule-Based Polarity Aggregation Using Rhetorical Structures for Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis
Authors: Sanglerdsinlapachai Nuttapong , Plangprasopchok Anon , Ho Tu Bao , Nantajeewarawat Ekawit
Published: September 2019

The segments of a document that are relevant to a given aspect can be identified by using discourse relations of the rhetorical structure theory (RST). Different segments may contribute to the overall sentiment differently, and the sentiment of one segment may affect the contribution of another segment. This work exploits the RST structures of relevant segments to infer the sentiment of a given aspect. An input document is first parsed into an RST tree. For each aspect, relevant segments with their relations in the resulting tree are localized and transformed into a set of features. A set of classification rules is subsequently induced and evaluated on data. The proposed framework performs well in several experimental settings, with the accuracy values ranging from 74.0% to 77.1% being achieved. With proper strategies for removing conflicting rules and tuning the confidence threshold, f-measure values for the negative polarity class can be improved.
Seller Reviews and Consumers' Perceptions of Trust, Risks, and Uncertainty
Authors: Yang Jing , Sarathy Rathindra , Wu Tao
Published: September 2019

Based on the principal-agent theory, the authors posit that seller-related uncertainty is derived from buyer (the principal) fears of hidden information (information asymmetry) and hidden action (seller opportunism) on the part of sellers (the agents). The study evaluates the effects of the three antecedents of trust in the seller reviews context with a quasi-experiment. The authors enhance the validity of the research manipulation through a unique approach of creating reviews through a text mining process of actual seller reviews. This allows control over the content of reviews while retaining their realism. The findings validate that the principal-agent theory provides a good fit for understanding seller-related uncertainty in e-commerce transactions. Second, buyers appear to be more concerned about seller opportunism than with information asymmetry. Third, while assessments of integrity and competence of the vendor, assessed through reviews, play a role, benevolence does not.
System Architectures for Sensor-Based Dynamic Remaining Shelf-life Prediction
Authors: Jevinger Åse , Davidsson Paul
Published: September 2019

Different storage and handling conditions in cold supply chains often cause variations in the remaining shelf life of perishable foods. In particular, the actual shelf life may differ from the expiration date printed on the primary package. Based on temperature sensors placed on or close to the food products, a remaining shelf-life prediction (RSLP) service can be developed, which estimates the remaining shelf life of individual products, in real-time. This type of service may lead to decreased food waste and is used for discovering supply chain inefficiencies and ensuring food quality. Depending on the system architecture, different service qualities can be obtained in terms of usability, accuracy, security, etc. This article presents a novel approach for how to identify and select the most suitable system architectures for RSLP services. The approach is illustrated by ranking different architectures for a RSLP service directed towards the supply chain managers. As a proof of concept, some of the most highly ranked architectures have been implemented and tested in food cold supply chains.
Aggregating and Ranking Method for the Evaluation of Product Design Materials
Authors: Aikhuele Daniel Osezua
Published: September 2019

A new MCDM model based on a triangular intuitionistic fuzzy (TIF) aggregating and ranking model is proposed for the evaluation of adhesive materials used in joining fibre-reinforced plastic. The new model which uses the triangular intuitionistic fuzzy numbers (TIFN), TIF aggregating operators and the TIF ranking functions provides a more accurate method for assessing uncertain or imprecise information in the decision-making process. The model addresses the MCDM problem in which the available information cannot be assessed with exact numbers and requires the use of a more holistic approach which is a drawback in the existing MCDM methods used in the evaluation of design materials in literature. The result from the evaluation shows that the alternative T3 (Polyurethane) has the best chances of been used in joining the FRP with respect to the fracture mechanics-based criteria. With the ranking result presented, the study can conclude that the procedure used for the evaluation of the adhesive material has led to the selection of the best adhesive material for joining the FRP elements.
QSPR Modeling For Critical Temperatures Of Organic Compounds Using Hybrid Optimal Descriptors
Authors: Bouhedjar Khalid , Nacereddine Abdelmalek Khorief , Ghorab Hamida , Djerourou Abdelhafid
Published: September 2019

The simplified molecular input line entry system (SMILES) is particularly suitable for high-speed machine processing, based on the Monte Carlo method using CORAL software. Quantitative structure-property relationships (QSPR) of critical temperatures have been established using a dataset of 165 diverse organic compounds employing hybrid optimal descriptors defined by graph and SMILES notation. External validation is one of the most important parts in the evaluation of model performance. However, previous models on the same dataset have poor predictive power in the external test set, or the authors had not done that check. In the present work, the predictive ability of model has been tested using external validation. The statistical quality of the three splits are similar and good. The r2 values for the best model are: r2 = 0.98 for the training set, r2 = 0.95 for the calibration set, and r2 = 0.94 for the validation set.
Artificial Neural Network (ANN) Modeling of Odor Threshold Property of Diverse Chemical Constituents of Black Tea and Coffee
Authors: Krishna Jillella Gopala , Ojha Probir Kumar
Published: September 2019

The authors have developed an artificial neural network model using odor threshold (OT) property data for diverse odorant components present in black tea (76 components) and coffee (46 components). The models were validated in terms of both internal and external validation criteria signifying acceptable results. The authors found the significant features controlling the OT property using Mean Absolute Error (MAE)-based criteria in a backward elimination of descriptors, one in each turn. The present results well-corroborated the previously published PLS-regression based chemometric model results.
Student-Centered Pedagogy – Lessons from DPEP
Authors: Vivek P K  , Remya T P  , Veenus P K
Published: September 2019

India has always been a center of education from the glorious era of Nalanda and Thakshasila. The last three decades have witnessed some remarkable transformations in the traditional environment of teaching learning. The subject-oriented and teacher-oriented methods have given way to the student-oriented approach. One of the major breakthroughs in the reforms was the introduction of the District Primary Education Program. This concept revolutionized the entire primary education field. This article illustrates the design concepts and implementation strategies of the program, along with the impact on the teaching learning environment. This also elucidates some of the serious concerns about this activity-oriented approach.
Social Networking Sites Classroom Framework using Operant Conditioning of Learning
Authors: Al Sandi Yousuf Anwar , Ugalde Bernard Haber
Published: September 2019

In this information age, educational institutions have innovated to take the teaching and learning process to the next level. They are now infusing social media and social networks with traditional teaching as a method of instruction inside the classroom. Various studies have been carried out to find and suggest what social network is the best fit to adopt to education in general. However, there are no known standards on how to implement learning in social networks particularly in monitoring and responding to student behavior. This research is premised on the fact that positive response should be reinforced, and negative behavior is punished. Thus, this article presents how to use operant conditioning of learning inside a social network, particularly in managing a student's behavior. It was observed that there is an impact on the performance of students who used the developed classroom framework as compared to who did not. The result confirms that a monitored and guided social network approach can benefit students.
Impacts of Educational Technologies on Learning Engagement – A Case of Latvian and Thai's Learners
Authors: Birziņa Rita , Na-Songkhla Jaitip
Published: September 2019

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have changed the traditional approach to the teaching process in higher education, so it is important to observe how learning takes place in that technology-rich environment. Cognitive, social, and emotional engagement as part of the MOOCs learning context is a basic principle that prescribes the relationships and interactions between the teacher, student, and learning setting. Each of these components has multiple features and is related to the complex nature of learning and teaching. The qualitative exploratory research design as a case study was conducted with educators and students from two countries – Latvia and Thailand. They were involved in learning within a free massive open online course supported by the UK MOOCs platform – FutureLearn. The qualitative data processing program AQUAD was used for processing data. Results show that there are some differences and similarities in comprehension of the MOOCs impact on learning engagement between learners of Latvia and Thailand.
NEONATOLOGY: EVOLUTION FROM THE PAST TO FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Authors: Laschi Elisa , Perrone Serafina , Lembo Chiara , Buonocore Giuseppe
Published: September 2019

The begin of modern neonatology takes place in the 1940s, when physicians first started to have interest in the newborn so that the primary responsibility for the neonate passed from the obstetricians to the neonatologists. In the 19th century the term premature grouped together the concept of “preterm and weak infants”, meant as babies suffering from poor energy and vitality. The idea that premature infants could be treated was introduced in the second half of the 19th century, when crucial fields signed the basis for neonatal care over the last century, such as thermoregulation, Apgar score, respiratory support, prenatal corticosteroids, metabolic screening and jaundice. From then on, advances in neonatology have resulted in the reduction of infant mortality worldwide. To date, scientific evidences have shown that the environmental conditions experienced in early life can profoundly influence human biology and long-term health. Chemical contaminants in water and diet, tobacco smoke, air pollution, gestational diabetes, hypertension and pre-eclampsia are all conditions that lead to the lowest common denominator oxidative stress. Fetuses and newborns -especially preterm- are particularly susceptible to oxidative stress mediated damage. Recently, the “omics” sciences represent the major area of growing interest and research in neonatology. The analysis of the metabolic profile detectable in a human biological fluid allows to instantly identifying changes in the composition of endogenous and exogenous metabolites caused by the interaction between specific physiopathological states, gene expression, and environment. From metabolomics studies comes the need of individualized and tailored medicine.
FATTY LIVER AND GUT MICROBIOTA: A NEW MULTI-DIMENSIONAL APPROACH FOR PERSONALIZED PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
Authors: Bonino F. , Pane M. , Amoruso A. , Brunetto M.R.
Published: September 2019

Cardiovascular, degenerative, hepato-digestive, metabolic and neoplastic diseases are major causes of death; all of them are beckoned years before by fatty liver that can quantify by non-invasive ultrasound methods. Such a measure is sensitive and reproducible and qualifies as mirror of general health to monitor the efficacy of preventive care in pre-symptomatic subjects. One major determinant of alimentary and general health is the gut microbiota that regulates hepatic gene expression, lipid metabolism and contributes to hepatic inflammation and obesity. The microbiota can be dynamically modified by probiotic/ prebiotic supplementation, however a direct gut microbiota profiling by stool metagenomics is limited by sampling error. The study of blood and/or saliva metabolites (metabolomics) and circulating antimicrobial antibodies provide an indirect microbiota profiling. Studies need to be performed to test whether variation of metabolomics and antimicrobial antibody levels correlate with the in vivo bacteria dynamics. The non-invasive measure of fatty liver in combination with of the gut microbiota characterization by metagenomics, metabolomics and anti-microbial enzyme immune assays will provide an innovative technological approach to stratify individuals with fatty liver for both prevention, outcome prediction and personalized treatment and to identify new aetiologies, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets
A NEW SETUP FOR THE STUDY OF ADSORPTION/DESORPTION PROCESSES AND NANOPARTICLES FORMATION IN POROUS ALUMINA
Authors: Marinelli C. , Mariotti E. , Papi N. , Sarri F. , Ziccardi A. , Cecchi R. , Stiaccini L. , Viti C. , Khanbekyan A. , Gladskikh I. , Petrov P. , Vartanyan T.
Published: September 2019

We present a setup devoted to the study of adsorption and desorption processes of alkali atoms after deposition on a 300 nm thick porous alumina substrate in an Ultra High Vacuum chamber. Rubidium atoms, delivered by a dispenser source, enter the 20-30 nm diameter pores, diffuse in and stick to their walls. A 1 W power laser is used in order to induce detachment and take the atoms back in the vapor phase in a very tight confinement region. The desorbed atoms coming out the sample can be monitored via both a resonant optical detection and an electronic amplifier after ionization. The desorbing laser is also able to promote the formation of Rubidium nanoparticles, as the high Rb vapor density in the pores favors aggregation around nucleation point defects. In this way, the apparatus allows for the study of the fundamental processes related to atom – surface interactions in presence of light as well as of several promising application to nanomaterials.
[CONSIDERATIONS ON DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA BY ANDRIES VAN WESELE (1514-1564) AND JAN STEPHAN VAN CALCAR (1499?- 1545): THE RULE AND FEELING]
Authors: Passavanti Giandomenico
Published: September 2019

[During the 15th and 16th century, significant innovations developed in medical studies as a result of an analytical revision of classical medicine as reworked by Galenus. Many anatomists began performing dissections on human corpses, thus verifying and correcting the theories of Galenus, who had only performed animal dissection. Remarkable results were achieved by Andries van Wesele (Andreae Vesalii); thanks to his excellent classical education and his knowledge of Greek and Latin, he became interested in anatomy and carried out a large number of dissections on corpses which enabled him to acquire a thorough knowledge of human anatomy. Furthermore, Andreae Vesalii actively sought the collaboration of artists such as Jan Stephan van Calcar to illustrate his works. The De Humani Corporis Fabrica is probably the best result of such collaborations. Although we do not know how many tabulae were actually created by Calcar (only seven have been proven to be his), his work has been a great influence on the book. Not only do the tabulae provide an extremely detailed anatomic description of the human body, they are also aesthetically impeccable. The illustrations of the musculoskeletal system and the thorax are particularly impressive: while the first group of tabulae is more innovative and original, the illustrations of the thorax are still inspired by classical standards of beauty. The importance given to aesthetics also stands out in the illustrations of skeletal segments and entrails and in typographic details such as the paragraph letters at the beginning of each section. To print his book, Vesalii chose Johannes Herbster (known as Oporinus), whose medical knowledge and innovative vision were key factors to a high-quality edition. The scientific accuracy, the aesthetic value and the competence of its printer have all contributed to make the De Humani Corporis Fabrica an absolute masterpiece].
Explaining shifts in systematic risk after merger: Some empirical evidence
Authors: Barr G. D.I. , Van den Honert R. C.
Published: September 2019

In this paper we discuss the change in the beta of an acquiring firm after merger, and examine the unexplained difference between the beta predicted by capital market theory and the beta actually calculated. The analysis is done within two different frameworks, equity beta on the one hand and asset beta (which removes leverage effects from equity beta) on the other. It is found that by using an asset beta approach proportionately more of the beta shifts can be explained by characteristics of the target and acquiring firms than when using the equity beta approach. It is hypothesized that the asset beta approach, which removes the confounding nonlinear effect of debt, constitutes a superior framework to examine shifts in beta.In hierdie artikel bespreek ons die verandering in die sistematiese risiko (beta) van 'n oornemende maatskappy na samesmelting en ons ondersoek die onverklaarde verskil tussen die beta wat deur kapitaalmarkteorie voorspel word en die beta wat werklik bereken word. Die analise word aan die hand van twee verskillende raamwerke gedoen: enersyds volgens aandeelbetas en andersyds volgens batebetas (wat die effek van skuld van die aandeelbeta verwyder). Daar is bevind dat as die batebenadering gebruik word, word eweredig meer van die betaverandering deur die eienskappe van die oorgenome en oornemende maatskappye verduidelik as wanneer die aandeelbetabenadering gebruik word. Daar word veronderstel dat die batebenadering, wat die verwarrende nie-linecre effek van skuld verwyder, 'n meer voortreflike raamwerk is om die veranderings in beta te ondersoek.
Magnetic Schrödinger operators as the quasi-classical limit of Pauli–Fierz-type models
Authors: Correggi Michele , Falconi Marco , Olivieri Marco
Published: September 2019

We study the quasi-classical limit of the Pauli–Fierz model: the system is composed of finitelymany non-relativistic charged particles interactingwith a bosonic radiation field. We trace out the degrees of freedom of the field, and consider the classical limit of the latter. We prove that the partial trace of the full Hamiltonian converges, in resolvent sense, to an effective Schrödinger operator with magnetic field and a corrective electric potential that depends on the field configuration. Furthermore, we prove the convergence of the ground state energy of the microscopic systemto the infimum over all possible classical field configurations of the ground state energy of the effective Schrödinger operator.
Determinants of manual control of water hyacinth expansion over the Lake Tana, Ethiopia
Authors: Yitbarek M. , Belay M. , Bazezew A.
Published: September 2019

Water hyacinth is an exotic freshwater weed damaging wetland resources over the Lake Tana basin, Ethiopia. Different measures, including manual labour and harvesting machinery are in use to reduce its damage and expansion. Yet, the invasion of the weed appears expanding its scope across the wetlands of the Lake. This paper presented the study made to identify determinant factors affecting manual control of water hyacinth expansion over the Lake wetlands. It tried to analyse the expansion trend of the water hyacinth and community efforts to control its extension. Data were gathered from questionnaire surveys, group discussions, interviews and field observations. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used for data analysis. The study revealed that the water hyacinth cover in the Lake’s wetland increased from ≤10, 000 ha in 2011 to over 50, 000 ha in 2017. Wetland terrain, water depth, food availability, farming time, employment and government support were found significantly influencing the manual control practices of households. Hence, government support must increase to motivate people involvement in manual weed removal campaigns. Micro-relief maps and floating boats need be readily available to help participants easily identify risky terrains and expand the physical weed removal into the deeper waters.Key Words: Water hyacinth, Invasive weeds, Manual control, Wetlands, Lake Tana, Ethiopia
Factors influencing the acquisition of compuerbased test training by chemistry students of Anambra State Colleges of Education
Authors: Igboegwu Ekene N.
Published: September 2019

This study is based upon the conception that students perform poorly in computer-based examinations. The study therefore investigated on the factors that influence the acquisition of computer-based test training using chemistry education students in Anambra state Colleges of Education. In each of the factors identified there was no significant difference on the response of the students in both Colleges of Education. Concerted efforts by the students, themselves, trainers and students’ institutions were advocated towards improving the training of CBT to enhance achievement in CBT examinations.Key Words: Computer based training, assessment, formative examination
Exploring the benefits of the 4th industrial revolution: The Nigerian experience
Authors: Ajah Ifeyinwa Angela , Chigozie-Okwum Chioma Chinyere
Published: September 2019

This paper identified the ways in which Nigeria and her Information technology professionals can beneficially position themselves in the wake of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). The fourth industrial revolution refers to a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human. The research identified that key driving forces for the fourth industrial revolution included disruptive technologies, Internet of Things, Robotics, Artificial intelligence, and Virtual Reality. Skills that would be sort after in this digital economic era include professionals who have expertise in artificial intelligence, cyber security, as well as proactive developers who can build dynamic systems to suit into the digital revolution. Nigeria as seen in the research missed out on the three previous industrial revolutions and is about to miss out on the fourth industrial revolution and the research proffers solutions on how to prevent this disaster from happening and the role IT educators need to play to ensure a smooth glide of the Nigerian economy into the fourth industrial revolution.Key words: Industrial Revolution, Artificial Intelligence, Industry 4.0, Computing, It Professionals
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between HOTAIR polymorphisms and susceptibility to breast cancer
Authors: Wang Bei , Yuan Fenglai , Zhang Feng , Miao Zongning , Jiang Donglin
Published: September 2019

Introduction

Many studies are drawing attention to the associations of HOTAIR polymorphisms and susceptibility to breast cancer, while the results remain inconsistent. We conducted a meta-analysis on the association of four common HOTAIR polymorphisms with breast cancer susceptibility.

Material and methods

Eligible published articles were searched in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library databases and Web of Science databases up to July 2019. Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were used to identify potential links between lncRNA HOTAIR polymorphisms and the risk of breast cancer.

Results

Our results showed no significance in all genetic models of all four SNPs. Pooled analyses detected crucial links between the rs1899663 polymorphism and decreased susceptibility to breast cancer in five genetic models rather than the dominant model in the hospital-based control subgroup. For the rs920778 polymorphism, we found that it significantly decreased breast cancer risk under recessive, homozygous and heterozygous models within the west Asian subgroup and increased breast cancer risk under allele and dominant models within the East Asian subgroup. Additionally, rs920778 polymorphism decreased breast cancer risk under recessive and heterozygous models in the hospital-based control subgroup. However, no significant association was observed between the rs4759314 polymorphism and breast cancer risk in overall and stratified analyses. For rs12826786 polymorphism, it was greatly associated with decreased breast cancer risk under recessive, homozygous and heterozygous models in the hospital-based control subgroup.

Conclusions

HOTAIR rs920778, rs1899663 and rs12826786 polymorphisms may contribute to breast cancer susceptibility.
Both in vitro T cell proliferation and telomere length are decreased, but CD25 expression and IL-2 production are not affected in aged men
Authors: Albarrán-Tamayo Froylan , Murillo-Ortiz Blanca , González Amaro Roberto , López Briones Sergio
Published: September 2019

Introduction

Aging is a natural process involving dysfunction of multiple organs and is characterized by increased susceptibility to infections, cancer and autoimmune diseases. The functionality of the immune system depends on the capacity of lymphocytes to proliferate in response to antigenic challenges, and telomere length has an important role regulating the number of cell divisions. The aim of this study was to determine the possible relationship between telomere length, interleukin 2 (IL-2) production, CD25 expression and proliferation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in aged men.

Material and methods

Telomere length was measured by RT-PCR in PBMCs from young and aged men. IL-2 production and CD25 expression were determined by ELISA and flow cytometry, respectively. Cell proliferation was measured by CFSE dilution assays upon in vitro stimulation with concanava­lin A (Con A).

Results

PBMCs from aged men showed a shorter telomere length and a reduced capacity to proliferate in vitro, compared to young men. In contrast, no significant differences in the level of CD25 expression on T lymphocytes, and in vitro production of IL-2 were detected in both groups. In addition, no significant correlation was detected between levels of CD25 expression, IL-2 production, cell proliferation, and telomere length in aged men.

Conclusions

In aged men the telomere length shortening and the reduced T cell proliferation are not related to the capacity of IL-2 production and CD25 expression on T lymphocytes.
Kawasaki disease among children in the United States
Authors: Ramphul Kamleshun , Mejias Stephanie , Joynauth Jyotsnav
Published: September 2019

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a medium-sized-vessel vasculitis that affects mostly children. The 2016 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kid’s Inpatient Database (HCUP KID) was used in weighted form to investigate differences in gender, month of year, race, region, total charges, and household income in the United States. 5503 weighted cases were found. It was more common in males (3345, 60.8%) than females (2158, 39.2%) (p < 0.01). Most admitted KD patients were white (1913, 38.1%). A higher prevalence of Kawasaki disease was seen among patients of Asian or Pacific Islander background (0.2%). The southern regions of the United States reported the highest rate of admission with 2036 patients (37%). The median age on admission was 2 years (interquartile range [IQR] of 1–5, p < 0.01) and the median charge was $32,170 (IQR: $20,825–$50,502.05) (p < 0.01). Most admissions of Kawasaki disease were recorded in winter with a peak in March (623, 11.3%) (p < 0.01).
Front matter and TOC
Authors: Nara Hiroshi
Published: September 2019

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Abordagem morfopedológica para avaliação histórica da estrutura da paisagem no Vão do Paranã (GO)
Authors: Ponciano Tássia Andrielle , Rodrigues Hellbia Samara Moreira de Carvalho , Faria Karla Maria Silva de
Published: September 2019

As mudanças no uso e ocupação da terra em áreas de relevância ambiental e social exigem da ciência geográfica análises integradoras da paisagem que ressaltem as relações do meio físico e biótico com as atividades antrópicas. O artigo teve objetivo de analisar o processo histórico de ocupação e as mudanças da estrutura da paisagem entre 1984 e 2015 na microrregião do Vão do Paranã considerando os compartimentos morfopedológicos como unidades de análise integrada da paisagem. A área destaca-se pela relevância ambiental internacional pressionada pelo avanço da fronteira agrícola direcionada de sul e de oeste. A metodologia utilizou-se da análise temporal do uso da terra, avaliando a estrutura da paisagem com uso de métricas e avaliação do comportamento histórico da ocupação e limitações ambientais em compartimentos morfopedológicos. Os resultados indicam a presença de seis compartimentos com processo de fragmentação da vegetação remanescente e avanço exponencial da agricultura em áreas inclusive frágeis. Destacou-se o favorecimento à ocupação antrópica no CMP I e III e a indicação de conservação ambiental nos demais.

Palavras-chave: Compartimentos Morfopedológicos; Fragmentação, Métricas da Paisagem.
(Re)construyendo el patrimonio cultural: de muelle portuario a paseo turístico-recreativo
Authors: Pinassi Carlos Andrés , Silenzi Débora Virginia
Published: September 2019

Ingeniero White, localizado en el sudoeste bonaerense (Argentina), surge como nodo ferroportuario en el contexto del Modelo Agroexportador. Producto del devenir espacio-temporal se identifican una serie construcciones vinculadas al ferrocarril y el puerto. Actualmente, se lleva a cabo un concurso de ideas para poner en valor uno de los antiguos muelles de esta área. En este contexto, el objetivo de la investigación consiste en analizar desde una mirada crítica la propuesta de refuncionalización del antiguo muelle de elevadores en la localidad, los actores sociales implicados y los discursos asociados en torno a la (re) construcción de este lugar como sitio patrimonial, turístico y recreativo. A partir de un enfoque de investigación de carácter cualitativo, basado en el análisis de documentos y en entrevistas a informantes clave, se evidencia la configuración de un discurso por parte de los agentes dominantes, estructurado a través de la participación ciudadana y de una noción integral del patrimonio cultural, que queda plasmado en los instrumentos de planificación, pero que en la realidad se desvanece.

Palabras clave: Patrimonio cultural; Discursos patrimoniales y turísticos; Muelle de elevadores; Ingeniero White.
Fantasies of Forgetting Our Mother Tongue
Authors: Aumiller Rachel
Published: September 2019

From Augustine's drive toward an imaginary time before speech to Marx's drive toward an imaginary time after speech as we know it, we learn that we are always already bound by our mother tongue. When Derrida turns to both Augustine and Marx to repeat the fantasy of escaping the mother tongue, he makes explicit the intertwined fantasy of escaping the mother's touch. I explore the theological and political underpinnings of twentieth-century psychoanalytic framings of the touch of language upon our skin, leading to Derrida's specific fantasy of the lick of the mother tongue.
“One Does Not Write for Slaves”: Wynter, Sartre, and the Poetic Phenomenology of Invention
Authors: Paris William Michael
Published: September 2019

This article interrogates how Sylvia Wynter and Jean-Paul Sartre phenomenologically describe the relationship between freedom and invention. It is argued that from both thinkers a poetic phenomenology of invention can be derived. But the difference between Wynter and Sartre is that Sartre presupposes that literature can only be addressed to already “free” subjects who must take responsibility for their freedom in order to combat alienation. Thus, Sartre claims, “One does not write for slaves.” What is left undertheorized is the epistemic content of “freedom.” In contrast, Wynter reads the Black Aesthetics movement as providing an example of how literature must be addressed to those who are not free. In doing so they can invent new understandings of what it means to be free. The question of whether freedom precedes invention, à la Sartre, or invention must precede freedom, as Wynter claims, will affect how one conceptualizes subjectivity and liberation.
Intersubjectivity and Self-awareness in Husserl and Patočka
Authors: Čapek Jakub
Published: September 2019

Some phenomenological accounts of intersubjectivity, from Husserl to Zahavi, argue that self-awareness precedes our understanding of others. The account of intersubjectivity developed by Jan Patočka embraces the opposite claim: it is through the other that self-awareness is possible. This essay deals with Patočka's reading of the Husserlian appresentation as appresentation of myself in the other. Having reconstructed the systematic background of Patočka's claim that our self-awareness passes through the other, I conclude by reconsidering the question of the primacy of self-awareness over intersubjectivity.
The Failure of Judgment: Disgust in Arendt's Theory of Political Judgment
Authors: Aavitsland Vilde Lid
Published: September 2019

Hannah Arendt, the twentieth century's great theorist of political judgment, was also infamous for her own political judgments. Most notably, her essay “Reflections on Little Rock” sparked massive criticisms, accusing Arendt for holding racist views. Rather than rejecting Arendt's theory of judgment on this basis, this article argues that her theory makes it possible to theorize the immanent possibility of a failure of judgment. By developing the role of disgust on both the sensuous and reflective level of political judgment, we can account for the failure of political judgment along, for example, racial and gendered lines.
Predicting the Incidence of Pressure Ulcers in the Intensive Care Unit Using Machine Learning
Authors: Cramer Eric M. , Seneviratne Martin G. , Sharifi Husham , Ozturk Alp , Hernandez-Boussard Tina
Published: September 2019

Background: Reducing hospital-acquired pressure ulcers (PUs) in intensive care units (ICUs) has emerged as an important quality metric for health systems internationally. Limited work has been done to characterize the profile of PUs in the ICU using observational data from the electronic health record (EHR). Consequently, there are limited EHR-based prognostic tools for determining a patient’s risk of PU development, with most institutions relying on nurse-calculated risk scores such as the Braden score to identify high-risk patients.Methods and Results: Using EHR data from 50,851 admissions in a tertiary ICU (MIMIC-III), we show that the prevalence of PUs at stage 2 or above is 7.8 percent. For the 1,690 admissions where a PU was recorded on day 2 or beyond, we evaluated the prognostic value of the Braden score measured within the first 24 hours. A high-risk Braden score (<=12) had precision 0.09 and recall 0.50 for the future development of a PU. We trained a range of machine learning algorithms using demographic parameters, diagnosis codes, laboratory values and vitals available from the EHR within the first 24 hours. A weighted linear regression model showed precision 0.09 and recall 0.71 for future PU development. Classifier performance was not improved by integrating Braden score elements into the model.Conclusion: We demonstrate that an EHR-based model can outperform the Braden score as a screening tool for PUs. This may be a useful tool for automatic risk stratification early in an admission, helping to guide quality protocols in the ICU, including the allocation and timing of prophylactic interventions.