bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Use of Chou’s 5-steps rule to predict the subcellular localization of gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial proteins by multi-label learning based on gene ontology annotation and profile alignment
Authors: Bouziane Hafida , Chouarfia Abdallah
Published: July 2020

To date, many proteins generated by large-scale genome sequencing projects are still uncharacterized and subject to intensive investigations by both experimental and computational means. Knowledge of protein subcellular localization (SCL) is of key importance for protein function elucidation. However, it remains a challenging task, especially for multiple sites proteins known to shuttle between cell compartments to perform their proper biological functions and proteins which do not have significant homology to proteins of known subcellular locations. Due to their low-cost and reasonable accuracy, machine learning-based methods have gained much attention in this context with the availability of a plethora of biological databases and annotated proteins for analysis and benchmarking. Various predictive models have been proposed to tackle the SCL problem, using different protein sequence features pertaining to the subcellular localization, however, the overwhelming majority of them focuses on single localization and cover very limited cellular locations. The prediction was basically established on sorting signals, amino acids compositions, and homology. To improve the prediction quality, focus is actually on knowledge information extracted from annotation databases, such as protein–protein interactions and Gene Ontology (GO) functional domains annotation which has been recently a widely adopted and essential information for learning systems. To deal with such problem, in the present study, we considered SCL prediction task as a multi-label learning problem and tried to label both single site and multiple sites unannotated bacterial protein sequences by mining proteins homology relationships using both GO terms of protein homologs and PSI-BLAST profiles. The experiments using 5-fold cross-validation tests on the benchmark datasets showed a significant improvement on the results obtained by the proposed consensus multi-label prediction model which discriminates six compartments for Gram-negative and five compartments for Gram-positive bacterial proteins.
Error estimates for the iteratively regularized Newton–Landweber method in Banach spaces under approximate source conditions
Authors: Mahale Pallavi , Dixit Sharad Kumar
Published: July 2020

In 2012, Jin Qinian considered an inexact Newton–Landweber iterative method for solving nonlinear ill-posed operator equations in the Banach space setting by making use of duality mapping.
The method consists of two steps; the first one is an inner iteration which gives increments by using Landweber iteration, and the second one is an outer iteration which provides increments by using Newton iteration.
He has proved a convergence result for the exact data case, and for the perturbed data case, a weak convergence result has been obtained under a Morozov type stopping rule.
However, no error bound has been given.
In 2013, Kaltenbacher and Tomba have considered the modified version of the Newton–Landweber iterations, in which the combination of the outer Newton loop with an iteratively regularized Landweber iteration has been used.
The convergence rate result has been obtained under a Hölder type source condition.
In this paper, we study the modified version of inexact Newton–Landweber iteration under the approximate source condition and will obtain an order-optimal error estimate under a suitable choice of stopping rules for the inner and outer iterations.
We will also show that the results proved in this paper are more general as compared to the results proved by Kaltenbacher and Tomba in 2013.
Also, we will give a numerical example of a parameter identification problem to support our method.
Performance Modeling of Load Balancing Techniques in Cloud: Some of the Recent Competitive Swarm Artificial Intelligence-based
Authors: Bhargavi K , Sathish Babu B , Pitt Jeremy
Published: July 2020

Cloud computing deals with voluminous heterogeneous data, and there is a need to effectively distribute the load across clusters of nodes to achieve optimal performance in terms of resource usage, throughput, response time, reliability, fault tolerance, and so on. The swarm intelligence methodologies use artificial intelligence to solve computationally challenging problems like load balancing, scheduling, and resource allocation at finite time intervals. In literature, sufficient works are being carried out to address load balancing problem in the cloud using traditional swarm intelligence techniques like ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, cuckoo search, bat optimization, and so on. But the traditional swarm intelligence techniques have issues with respect to convergence rate, arriving at the global optimum solution, complexity in implementation and scalability, which limits the applicability of such techniques in cloud domain. In this paper, we look into performance modeling aspects of some of the recent competitive swarm artificial intelligence based techniques like the whale, spider, dragonfly, and raven which are used for load balancing in the cloud. The results and analysis are presented over performance metrics such as total execution time, response time, resource utilization rate, and throughput achieved, and it is found that the performance of the raven roosting algorithm is high compared to other techniques.
Effect of Nanofluid on Heat Transfer Enhancement for Mixed Convection Flow Over a Corrugated Surface
Authors: Roy Nepal Chandra , Siddiqa Sadia
Published: July 2020

A mathematical model for mixed convection flow of a nanofluid along a vertical wavy surface has been studied. Numerical results reveal the effects of the volume fraction of nanoparticles, the axial distribution, the Richardson number, and the amplitude/wavelength ratio on the heat transfer of Al2O3-water nanofluid. By increasing the volume fraction of nanoparticles, the local Nusselt number and the thermal boundary layer increases significantly. In case of

Ri
=
1.0

\mathrm{Ri}=1.0

, the inclusion of 2 % and 5 % nanoparticles in the pure fluid augments the local Nusselt number, measured at the axial position 6.0, by 6.6 % and 16.3 % for a flat plate and by 5.9 % and 14.5 %, and 5.4 % and 13.3 % for the wavy surfaces with an amplitude/wavelength ratio of 0.1 and 0.2, respectively. However, when the Richardson number is increased, the local Nusselt number is found to increase but the thermal boundary layer decreases. For small values of the amplitude/wavelength ratio, the two harmonics pattern of the energy field cannot be detected by the local Nusselt number curve, however the isotherms clearly demonstrate this characteristic. The pressure leads to the first harmonic, and the buoyancy, diffusion, and inertia forces produce the second harmonic.
Overcoming the curse of dimensionality in the numerical approximation of Allen–Cahn partial differential equations via truncated full-history recursive multilevel Picard approximations
Authors: Beck Christian , Hornung Fabian , Hutzenthaler Martin , Jentzen Arnulf , Kruse Thomas
Published: July 2020

One of the most challenging problems in applied mathematics is the approximate solution of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) in high dimensions. Standard deterministic approximation methods like finite differences or finite elements suffer from the curse of dimensionality in the sense that the computational effort grows exponentially in the dimension. In this work we overcome this difficulty in the case of reaction–diffusion type PDEs with a locally Lipschitz continuous coervice nonlinearity (such as Allen–Cahn PDEs) by introducing and analyzing truncated variants of the recently introduced full-history recursive multilevel Picard approximation schemes.
A controlled deflection routing and wavelength assignment based scheme in Optical Burst Switched (OBS) networks
Authors: Nleya Bakhe , Khumalo Philani , Mutsvangwa Andrew
Published: July 2020

Heterogeneous IoT-enabled networks generally accommodate both jitter tolerant and intolerant traffic. Optical Burst Switched (OBS) backbone networks handle the resultant volumes of such traffic by transmitting it in huge size chunks called bursts. Because of the lack of or limited buffering capabilities within the core network, burst contentions may frequently occur and thus affect overall supportable quality of service (QoS). Burst contention(s) in the core network is generally characterized by frequent burst losses as well as differential delays especially when traffic levels surge. Burst contention can be resolved in the core network by way of partial buffering using fiber delay lines (FDLs), wavelength conversion using wavelength converters (WCs) or deflection routing. In this paper, we assume that burst contention is resolved by way of deflecting contending bursts to other less congested paths even though this may lead to differential delays incurred by bursts as they traverse the network. This will contribute to undesirable jitter that may ultimately compromise overall QoS. Noting that jitter is mostly caused by deflection routing which itself is a result of poor wavelength and routing assigning, the paper proposes a controlled deflection routing (CDR) and wavelength assignment based scheme that allows the deflection of bursts to alternate paths only after controller buffer preset thresholds are surpassed. In this way, bursts (or burst fragments) intended for a common destination are always most likely to be routed on the same or least cost path end-to-end. We describe the scheme as well as compare its performance to other existing approaches. Overall, both analytical and simulation results show that the proposed scheme does lower both congestion (on deflection routes) as well as jitter, thus also improving throughput as well as avoiding congestion on deflection paths.
Conventional band demultiplexer with high quality factor and transmission power based on four optimized shaped photonic crystal resonators
Authors: Larioui Fateh , Lebbal Mohamed Redha , Bouchemat Touraya , Bouchemat Mohamed
Published: July 2020

In this work, we propose a new filter design based on a ring resonator. This structure has 99% transmission ratio and high sensitivity to detect small refractive index variations of the order of 0.002. More specifically, the small size of this resonator gives the advantage to model a demultiplexer of size 463 µm2 based on four ports which operates in the conventional transmission band. Also, we show that our demultiplexer structure can reach more than 90% transmission ratio with an optical quality factor of about 3800, the spectral width is 0.72 nm and a crosstalk between −13.28 and −32.13. In our study, we emphasized the plane wave method to study the photonic band gap and FDTD to determine the transmission spectrum.
Enhanced redirection strategy for peer to peer services in high-speed and large-capacity ethernet passive optical networks
Authors: Yu Jinxia , Han Shangya , Ye Qing , Qin Panke , Tang Yongli , Xiaojun Wang  , Li Lixiang
Published: July 2020

An important problem of network traffic is how to efficiently carry massive amounts of data traffic generated by Peer-to-Peer (P2P) services in high-speed and large-capacity optical access networks. P2P file-sharing traffic is regarded as one of the biggest bandwidth consumption in the world. Internet service providers can reduce the bandwidth burden in the feeder fiber by localizing the network traffic. In this paper, we propose an enhanced redirection strategy based on the optimized MPCP protocol (ERS-MPCP) to redirect the traffic into the access network and reduce the latency. A Markov chain is used for mathematical modeling. In the proposed strategy, we build a simulation platform for network simulation. Simulation results show that our strategy can improve the overall redirection success rate by up to 9%, thereby reducing the data traffic burden on the core network.
All optical half subtractor based on threshold switching and beams interference mechanisms
Authors: Askarian Asghar
Published: July 2020

In this paper, ultra-fast, compact and high contrast ratio all optical half subtractor based on photonic crystal designed and simulated. The proposed design will be constructed using both threshold switching and interference of beams mechanisms. The proposed structure is composed of six waveguides and a nonlinear ring resonator. The simulation results show that the contrast ratio for D and B ports were obtained about 18.80 and 15.05 dB, respectively. Also the maximum rise, fall and steady-state times and total footprint for suggested all optical half subtractor are 0.5, 0.25, 1.5 ps and 234 μm2, respectively.
Genetic analysis and long-term treatment monitoring of 11 children with glycogen storage disease type IIIa
Authors: Du Caiqi , Wei Hong , Zhang Min , Hu Minghui , Li Zhuoguang , Zhang Cai , Luo Xiaoping , Liang Yan
Published: July 2020

Objectives

To investigate the clinical and genetic characteristics of children with glycogen storage disease type IIIa (GSD IIIa) and to explore the muscle involvement and manifestations of GSD IIIa patients.

Methods

The clinical data of 11 patients with GSD IIIa diagnosed by genetic testing from 2003 to 2019 were retrospectively analyzed.

Results

Twenty variants of AGL gene were detected in 11 patients, eight of which were novel variants. Before treatment, the height was significantly backward. All patients had hepatomegaly. Abnormal biochemical indicators were mainly manifested as significantly increased serum liver and muscle enzymes, accompanied by hypertriglyceridemia, hypoglycemia, hyperlactacidemia, slightly elevated pyruvic acid, and metabolic acidosis. After treatment, the height and liver size of the patients were significantly improved. At the same time, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), triglyceride (TG), lactic acid and pyruvic acid in children were significantly decreased, while creatine kinase (CK) was significantly increased. During follow-up monitoring, six patients developed ventricular hypertrophy. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (691.67 ± 545.27 vs. 362.20 ± 98.66), lactic acid (3.18 ± 3.05 vs. 1.10 ± 0.40), and pyruvic acid (64.30 ± 39.69 vs. 32.06 ± 4.61) were significantly increased in patients with ventricular hypertrophy compared with those without ventricular hypertrophy.

Conclusions

In clinical cases of upper respiratory tract infection or gastrointestinal symptoms accompanied by hypoglycemia, dyslipidemia, metabolites disorders, elevated serum liver, and muscle enzymes, the possibility of GSD IIIa should be vigilant. During treatment monitoring, if lactic acid, pyruvic acid, LDH, and CK rise, it indicates that the disease is not well controlled and there is the possibility of cardiac hypertrophy.
Association study of DLK1 in girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty
Authors: Lee Hae Sang , Kim Kyung Hee , Hwang Jin Soon
Published: July 2020

Objective

Mutations in the delta-like 1 homolog (DLK1) gene have recently been reported in patients with idiopathic central precocious puberty (CPP). We aimed to investigate DLK1 mutations or polymorphisms in girls with CPP.

Methods

A total of 100 girls diagnosed with idiopathic CPP were enrolled. DLK1 coding regions were sequenced in girls with idiopathic CPP and healthy girls (controls). The relationship between identified sequence variations and CPP was evaluated via comparison of allele frequencies between patients with CPP and normal healthy controls.

Results

We identified five polymorphisms in DLK1. There was no significant difference with regard to allele frequency between patients with CPP and controls. Polymorphism c.549C>T (p.G183G) in DLK1 gene was identified in only one patient with CPP. In silico analysis with human splicing finder suggested that the variant (c.549C>T) leads to splicing defect.

Conclusions

The sequencing of DLK1 gene has uncovered only one potentially meaningful variant. However, our results demonstrate that DLK1 mutations are a relatively rare cause of idiopathic CPP.
Association between eating behavior, anthropometric and biochemical measurements, and peptide YY (PYY) hormone levels in obese adolescents in outpatient care
Authors: Fernandes Simone P. , Alessi Janine , Santos Zilda E. A. , de Mello Elza D.
Published: July 2020

Objective

To evaluate the eating behavior of obese adolescents and its association with biochemical, anthropometric and peptide YY (PYY) measures.

Methods

Fifty-one obese adolescents received counseling for weight management at 12 monthly appointments. Fasting serum PYY levels, total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), triglycerides (TG), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), insulin and glucose levels, waist circumference (WC) and results from the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ-21) were assessed.

Results

Over one year there was a significant increase in PYY levels (p = 0.026), reduction in TC (p = 0.003), TG (p = 0.022), BMI (p = 0.002), BMI z-score (p < 0.001) and WC (p = 0.003). During this period there was a decrease in the uncontrolled eating score (UE), illustrating that adolescents displayed more self-control (p = 0.008) at the end of the study; however, this result was independent of BMI and BMI z-score (p = 0.407). The reduction in UE was associated with a significant improvement in insulin levels (rs = 0.326; p = 0.020). The reduction in UE was also associated with lower levels of blood glucose (r = 0.332; p = 0.017), and the increase of cognitive restriction, with the reduction of insulin insulin (rs = −0.294; p = 0.036) and TG (r = −0.368; p = 0.008) and an increase in Cognitive Restraint.

Conclusions

Our results show that after a year of monitoring weight loss, adolescents had more controlled eating behaviors, increased PYY levels, and reduced weights.
Pharmacological treatment strategies for patients with monogenic obesity
Authors: Kühnen Peter , Wiegand Susanna , Biebermann Heike
Published: July 2020

The leptin melanocortin signaling pathway is playing a pivotal role for body weight regulation. Genetic defects within this cascade are leading to severe hyperphagia and early onset obesity. In most cases, due to persistent hyperphagia the affected patients are not able to stabilize body weight for a longer period of time with conservative treatment strategies based on lifestyle interventions. Therefore, it is of importance to implement alternative treatment options for these patients. This review provides an overview about the published pharmacological treatment attempts in respect to monogenic forms of obesity and summarizes recent research progress about the role of MC4R signaling and POMC derivatives for body weight regulation.
Time-varying NoVaS Versus GARCH: Point Prediction, Volatility Estimation and Prediction Intervals
Authors: Chen Jie , Politis Dimitris N.
Published: July 2020

The NoVaS methodology for prediction of stationary financial returns is reviewed, and the applicability of the NoVaS transformation for volatility estimation is illustrated using realized volatility as a proxy. The realm of applicability of the NoVaS methodology is then extended to non-stationary data (involving local stationarity and/or structural breaks) for one-step ahead point prediction of squared returns. In addition, a NoVaS-based algorithm is proposed for the construction of bootstrap prediction intervals for one-step ahead squared returns for both stationary and non-stationary data. It is shown that the “Time-varying” NoVaS is robust against possible nonstationarities in the data; this is true in terms of locally (but not globally) financial returns but also in change point problems where the NoVaS methodology adapts fast to the new regime that occurs after an unknown/undetected change point. Extensive empirical work shows that the NoVaS methodology generally outperforms the GARCH benchmark for (i) point prediction of squared returns, (ii) interval prediction of squared returns, and (iii) volatility estimation. With regard to target (i), earlier work had shown little advantage of using a nonzero α in the NoVaS transformation. However, in terms or targets (ii) and (iii), it appears that using the Generalized version of NoVaS—either Simple or Exponential—can be quite beneficial and well-worth the associated computational cost.
Improving the detection rate of binturongs (Arctictis binturong) in Palawan Island, Philippines, through the use of arboreal camera-trapping
Authors: Debruille Agathe , Kayser Pauline , Veron Géraldine , Vergniol Murielle , Perrigon Melissa
Published: July 2020

Although remote camera-traps are used worldwide for ecological studies, the methods of use are often based on ground-level detection. This inherently limits the ability to detect arboreal species. This study aims to test arboreal camera trapping as an alternative method to improve the detection of the binturong (Arctictis binturong). We obtained a total of 41 independent detections of binturongs for 2,973 trap-nights, representing a detection rate of 1.38%. Thus, although statistical comparison with other surveys is not possible, this is currently the highest detection rate for the species. This is encouraging to further develop this method for research on binturongs.
Evaluation of COVID-19 based on ACE2 expression in normal and cancer patients
Authors: Ren Peng , Gong Caifeng , Ma Shaohua
Published: July 2020

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is now a serious public health problem. Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) recognized as the receptor of SARS-CoV is also necessary for SARS-CoV-2. However, the impact of ACE2 on SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility and the situation of malignant tumor patients in this outbreak are unclear. So, it is important to understand the expressions of ACE2 in different normal tissues and cancers. The results showed that the kidneys, duodenum, intestine, gallbladder and testis had the highest ACE2 expressions, followed by the colon, rectum and seminal vesicles. The lungs had a very low expression. ACE2 expressions were upregulated in renal cancer, gastrointestinal tumor and lung cancer. ACE2 expression levels may affect SARS-CoV-2 infection and severity. A total of 3,421 cases with COVID-19 have been collected. Among them, 43 cases (1.26%) had malignant tumor coexisting conditions. The rate of severe events for malignant tumor patients was 39.02% (16/41), while the rate of severe events for all patients was 10.79% (194/1,798). The clinical symptoms and signs were studied for the following three systems: respiratory (31–92%), digestive (10–13%) and urinary systems (3.38%). It seems that symptom severity is not related to protein expression levels. This might be the reason for SARS-CoV-2 showing higher regeneration index and susceptibility. More research is needed to explore the mechanisms and treatments.
Numerical solution of time-dependent Emden-Fowler equations using bivariate spectral collocation method on overlapping grids
Authors: Mkhatshwa Musawenkhosi P. , Motsa Sandile S. , Sibanda Precious
Published: July 2020

In this work, we present a new modification to the bivariate spectral collocation method in solving Emden-Fowler equations. The novelty of the modified approach is the use of overlapping grids when applying the Chebyshev spectral collocation method. In the case of nonlinear partial differential equations, the quasilinearisation method is used to linearize the equation. The multi-domain technique is applied in both space and time intervals, which are both decomposed into overlapping subintervals. The spectral collocation method is then employed in the discretization of the iterative scheme to give a matrix system to be solved simultaneously across the overlapping subintervals. Several test examples are considered to demonstrate the general performance of the numerical technique in terms of efficiency and accuracy. The numerical solutions are matched against exact solutions to confirm the accuracy and convergence of the method. The error bound theorems and proofs have been considered to emphasize on the benefits of the method. The use of an overlapping grid gives a matrix system with less dense matrices that can be inverted in a computationally efficient manner. Thus, implementing the spectral collocation method on overlapping grids improves the computational time and accuracy. Furthermore, few grid points in each subinterval are required to achieve stable and accurate results. The approximate solutions are established to be in excellent agreement with the exact analytical solutions.
10 Years of Evaluation Practice in Media Assistance: Who, When, Why and How?
Authors: Noske-Turner Jessica
Published: July 2020

Evaluating the impact of media assistance is challenging for several reasons. Primary among them is that these kinds of initiatives operate in a complex political, social, and cultural environment. Although there has been increased attention to evaluation of media assistance, with a series of international conferences, funded research projects, and publications addressing this topic, it remains a problematic area of practice. This paper provides a survey of recent media assistance evaluation practices through an analysis of 47 evaluation documents of programs and projects from 2002–2012, identifying trends in methodology choices, and critiquing the quality of the evidence enabled through different evaluation approaches. It finds clear patterns in how, when and by whom evaluations are undertaken, but finds that these practices rarely generate useful, insightful evaluations.
Mediated Spies
Authors: Bjerke Paul
Published: July 2020

This article explores how 13 mainstream newspapers in five countries (Norway, Sweden, BRD, DDR and UK) covered the first week of three high-profile spy affairs in the late Cold War: Arne Treholt (Norway), Geoffrey Prime (UK) and Günter Guillaume (BRD).

The Eastern European newspapers followed in their governments’ footsteps and prolonged the politics of silence. In the West, newspapers framed the espionage using an issue-specific cultural frame,the traitor.Stories are spiced up by irrelevant and false facts, inspired by the spy stories in the fiction media. The traitor frame is constructed in two variations: the single spy betraying his country and the government forsaking its people by being “soft on the Soviets” or “careless about security”. The study indicates no significant differences in coverage between the four Western countries or between the three espionage affairs.
Enhanced separation of cellulose from bamboo with a combined process of steam explosion pretreatment and alkaline-oxidative cooking
Authors: Lu Hongxia , Lin Xiaoyu , He Beihai , Zhao Lihong
Published: July 2020

A synergistic process with steam explosion pretreatment (SEP) followed by sodium carbonate-oxygen cooking (SCOC) upon bamboo was evaluated for its effect on separating hemicellulose and lignin from bamboo while preserving cellulose, providing cellulose substrate susceptible to chemicals in producing platform chemicals such as levulinic acid. The results showed that through the SEP with 2.5 MPa for 10 min, the hemicellulose content reduced by 60.85 %, the specific surface area of bamboo fiber increased to 1.9494 m2g-1 from 0.8061 m2g-1 of raw material. The synergistic SEP-SCOC significantly removed 73.33 % lignin, and yielded 73.9 % cellulose under the optimal condition of SEP with 2.5 MPa for 10 min and followed by SCOC with 30 % total titratable alkali (TTA) at 180 °C for 2 h and 2 MPa oxygen pressure. The results also proved the total lignin removal was improved by 8.07–18.95 % for the steam exploded bamboo fibers than the untreated one, indicating SEP increased the accessibility of cooking reagents to fibre during subsequent SCOC process. Furthermore, the low value of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the final spent liquor indicated the lower pollution level of the process.
Experimental study on filtering papermaking black liquor by dynamic blade crossflow membrane
Authors: Zhao Wenjie , Wu Junfei , Chen Fushan
Published: July 2020

The fundamental reason for the environmental pollution caused by the papermaking industry is the inadequate treatment of the black liquor. How to dispose of the lignin macromolecules, which is the main pollutants in the black liquor, is the key to addressing the environmental pollution. At present, cross-flow membrane filtration is one of the effective ways to retain and recycle lignin macromolecules in black liquor. The paper proposes the adoption of a dynamic blade cross-flow membrane filtration equipment provided by German BOKELA company to treat papermaking black liquor. The experiment shows that when the black liquor is treated with dynamic blade rotation cross-flow, the membrane with a molecular weight cut-off of nanofiltration (NP010) delivers the best retaining effect, with 28 % more lignin in black liquor than that in untreated black liquor. Meanwhile, when the blade rotational speed reaches 300 rpm and the transmembrane pressure is 0.5 or 2 bar, the flux of black liquor through nanofiltration NP010 is relatively desirable.
Distribution and community structure of microphytoplankton in relation to increasing anthropogenic impact along coastal waters of Jeddah, the central Red Sea
Authors: Al-Amri Aisha A. , Qari Huda A. , El-Sherbiny Mohsen M.
Published: July 2020

Seasonal distribution and diversity of surface phytoplankton have been studied in relation to anthropogenic activities at seven locations along the coastal waters of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2017. The concentration of nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, phosphate and silicate varied over wide ranges: 0.04–20.27, 0.05–29.3, 0.22–78.16, 0.02–25.90 and 43–24.50 μmol l−1, respectively. Inorganic nutrients, phytoplankton biomass and density were at eutrophic levels at two lagoon locations (4 and 5), while other coastal locations showed oligotrophic characteristics of the Red Sea. Phytoplankton biomass was positively correlated with all measured inorganic nutrients. The total phytoplankton density varied between 52.4 × 103 and 40800 × 103 cells m−3 (average 6249.9×103 ± 10797×103 cells m−3). A total of 174 species of phytoplankton (95 diatoms, 75 dinoflagellates, 3 cyanophytes and 1 silicoflagellates) were recorded in this study, with the dominance of diatoms (95.1%). Higher densities observed at lagoon locations were mainly due to the proliferation of the diatom species Skeletonema costatum and Chaetoceros decipiens. In terms of diversity, dinoflagellates were more numerous than diatoms in July, otherwise mostly diatoms dominated. On the other hand, cyanophytes were more abundant in November. Based on the present study, anthropogenic activities (especially sewage effluent) in Jeddah coastal waters had a significant impact on the phytoplankton densities and diversity.
Modernity and Morocco: Gender Smoking as a Modernity Sub-youth Culture Aspect, Fez as a Case Study
Authors: Herouach Sofian , el Bahraoui Hanane
Published: July 2020

Humanity continues moving forward in science and technology to pave the way to a series of changes in people’s behaviours, norms and values. Modernity as a process of renovation affects generations’ ways of behaving and living, especially the youth category. This is called “youth culture”. One of the apparent aspects of this culture that the present research tackles is Gender Smoking. The present study is an attempt to investigate the habit of gender smoking as a youth sub-culture in Morocco. Also, the paper aims at investigating society’s perception towards male and female smokers. For this purpose, the paper uses a theoretical and a practical part. The field work was conducted through distributing 100 questionnaires. Added to this quantitative measurement, 54 interviews were conducted as a qualitative measurement. Briefly, the findings proved that 59% of respondent’s agree that modernity influences Moroccans’ daily lives. Moreover, 65% of respondents believe that there is conflict between tradition and modernity. On the other hand, 31% agree that gender smoking is a modernity sub youth culture aspect. Finally, the majority of respondents, 98%, demonstrate that society tolerates male smokers. Oppositely, 72% of respondents show society’s rejection of female smokers.
Persuasive appeals in Jordanian and Algerian telecommunication television commercials
Authors: Rabab’ah Ghaleb , Idir Lydia , Alghazo Sharif
Published: July 2020

The present study seeks to explore the link between persuasion and advertising by examining the persuasive appeals used by telecommunication companies in Jordanian and Algerian television commercials. To this end, 12 television advertisements (six from Jordan and six from Algeria) were randomly selected from YouTube. The data were analysed based on previous categorisations of persuasive appeals. The findings revealed that both groups of advertisements adopted various appeals to persuade their target audience to purchase products and experience their services, and that the most widely used appeals wereplay on words,brand,celebrityandmusicappeals. These findings provide insights into the value of understanding how persuasion is used in media discourse and in different linguistic and cultural milieus.
Ultrafine metal-polymer catalysts based on polyconjugated systems for Fisher–Tropsch synthesis
Authors: Kulikova Mayya V. , Kulikov Albert B. , Kuz’min Alexey E. , Maximov Anton L.
Published: July 2020

For previously studied Fischer–Tropsch nanosized Fe catalyst slurries, polymer compounds with or without polyconjugating structures are used as precursors to form the catalyst nanomatrix in situ, and several catalytic experiments and X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy measurements are performed. The important and different roles of the paraffin molecules in the slurry medium in the formation and function of composite catalysts with the two types of aforementioned polymer matrices are revealed. In the case of the polyconjugated polymers, the alkanes in the medium are “weakly” coordinated with the metal-polymer composites, which does not affect the effectiveness of the polyconjugated polymers. Otherwise, alkane molecules form a “tight” surface layer around the composite particles, which create transport complications for the reagents and products of Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and, in some cases, can change the course of the in situ catalyst formation.
Effect of cross cold rolling and annealing on microstructure and texture in pure nickel
Authors: Wang Lixia , Chen Xingpin , Luo Tianhong , Ni Haitao , Mei Lin , Ren Ping , Liu Qing , Ding Yongfeng , Zhao Lijun
Published: July 2020

The microstructure and texture in pure nickel were investigated during multi-step cross cold rolling (CCR) and subsequent annealing. It was found that the deformation texture in the CCR nickel was dominated by Brass and rotated Brass about normal direction (ND) (Bs
ND
) texture components, along with marginal cube textures. The resulted deformation textures had a significant effect on the recrystallization behavior. Annealing of the CCR nickel at 550°C for 1 h led to the formation of dominant <012> // ND fiber accompanied by minor rotated cube textures, rather than strong cube texture. Increasing the annealing temperature up to 800°C resulted in further enhancement of <012> // ND fiber textures. The possible reasons for recrystallization behavior in annealed CCR sample were discussed based on in-situ annealing experiments from two aspects of oriented nucleation and oriented growth theories.
The impact of stopping or reducing the level of fluoride in public water supplies on dental fluorosis: a systematic review
Authors: Mohd Nor Nor Azlida , Chadwick Barbara L. , Farnell Damian JJ. , Chestnutt Ivor G.
Published: July 2020

Objective

The increased availability of fluoride and concern over the impact of fluorosis, have led to guidance suggesting a decrease or cease in the optimal concentration of fluoride in water fluoridation schemes. To date there have been no systematic reviews looking at both impact of fluoride reduction and total cessation. This review aimed to examine the impact of stopping or reducing the level of fluoride in public water supplies on dental fluorosis.

Content

Multiple databases were searched (MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and the Web of Science). Two reviewers independently screened sources, extracted data and assessed study quality. Results were synthesised qualitatively and quantitatively. The main outcome measure was the prevalence of dental fluorosis.

Six studies of cross-sectional design were included. Two studies were scored as evidence level B (moderate) and the remaining four publications were evidence level C (poor). Meta-analysis indicated fluorosis prevalence was significantly decreased following either a reduction in the concentration of fluoride or cessation of adding fluoride to the water supply (OR:6.68; 95% CI:2.48 to 18.00).

Outlook

The evidence suggests a significant decrease in the prevalence of fluorosis post cessation or reduction in the concentration of fluoride added to the water supply. However, this work demonstrates that when studies are subject to current expectations of methodological and experimental rigour, there is limited evidence with low methodological quality to determine the effect of stopping or reducing the concentration of fluoride in the water supply on dental fluorosis.
Fibromyalgia 2016 criteria and assessments: comprehensive validation in a Norwegian population
Authors: Fors Egil A. , Wensaas Knut-Arne , Eide Hilde , Jaatun Ellen A. , Clauw Daniel J. , Wolfe Fred , Helvik Anne-Sofie
Published: July 2020

Background and aims

The ACR1990 criteria of fibromyalgia (FM) have been criticized due to poor reliability of tender points counting (TPC), inconsistent definitions of the widespread pain, and by not considering other symptoms than pain in the FM phenotype. Therefore, several newer self-report measures for FM criteria have emerged. The aim of this study was to translate the fibromyalgia survey questionnaire (FSQ) to Norwegian and validate both the 2011 and the 2016 fibromyalgia survey diagnostic criteria (FSDC) against the ACR1990 criteria.

Methods

One hundred and twenty chronic pain patients formerly diagnosed with fibromyalgia according to the ACR1990 criteria, and 62 controls not diagnosed or where fibromyalgia was not suspected, were enrolled in this study. All responded to a Norwegian version of the FSQ. Also, they had a clinical examination according to ACR1990 fibromyalgia criteria including a counting of significant tender points with an algometer (TPC). The FSQ with the Widespread Pain Index (WPI) and Symptom Severity scale (SSS) subscales, Fibromyalgia Severity (FS) sum score, was examined for correlations with the fibromyalgia impact questionnaire (FIQ) and TPCs. Face-validity, internal consistence, test-retest reliability and construct validity with convergent and divergent approaches were examined and a Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) analysis was performed.

Results

The internal consistency of FS measured by Cronbach’s alfa was good (=0.904). The test-retest reliability measures using intra class correlation were respectable for the FS, including WPI and SSS subscales (0.86, 0.84 and 0.87). FS, WPI and SSS correlated significantly with FIQ (0.74, 0.59 and 0.85) and TPC indicating an adequate construct, convergent validity. The medians of FS, WPI and SSS in the fibromyalgia-group were significantly different from the non-fibromyalgia-group indicating good construct, divergent validity. Using the 2011 and 2016 FSDC vs. ACR 1990 as a reference, sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR +) and negative likelihood ratio (LR−) were identified. The accuracy rate for both 2011 and 2016 FSDC were respectable (84%). ROC analysis using FS revealed a very good Area Under the Curve (AUC) = 0.860.

Conclusion

The current study revealed that the Norwegian versions of FSQ is a valid tool for assessment of fibromyalgia according to the 2011 and 2016 (FSDC).
Directive Speech Acts in English and Spanish Filmspeak
Authors: de Pablos-Ortega Carlos
Published: July 2020

The main aim of the study is to ascertain contrastively, in English and Spanish, how directive speech acts are represented in film discourse. For the purpose of the investigation, the directive speech acts of 24 films, 12 in English and 12 in Spanish, were extracted and analysed. A classification taxonomy, inspired by previous research, was created in order to categorize the different types of directive speech acts and determine their level of (in)directness. The results show that indirectness is more widely represented in the English than in the Spanish film scripts, thus confirming the assertion that being indirect is a distinctive feature of English native speakers (Grundy, 2008). This research makes a valuable contribution to the exploration of speech acts in filmspeak and informs the existing local grammar descriptions of the linguistic patterns of directive speech acts.
Religious belief as a resilience factor in a long-term refugee setting at the Thai-Myanmar Border, Southeast Asia
Authors: Kaiser Peter , Benner Marie T. , Pohlmann Kai
Published: July 2020

Religion has always had an influence on the causal attribution of people, i.e. how is your own destiny, happiness and misfortune interpreted? Since religious belief is not static, it is strongly influenced by the experiences that sufferers have gained in their past. It therefore plays an important role in dealing with trauma and stress in humanitarian crises – especially in vulnerable populations (such as refugees) and can be a source of power in difficult times. There are systematic studies on psychological implications of trauma in the context of war and forced migration on affected populations, especially regarding the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, but the effects of religious beliefs are not well understood yet. This study examines the role of religion in the daily lives of Karen refugees in long-term refugee settings along the Thai-Myanmar border and the possible influence that religion can have on dealing with crisis situations and one's own destiny. Resilience is a factor that is easily overlooked by mental health services, especially in situations where people are dependent on third party help. Psychosocial health care should take into account the role of religious beliefs in terms of expectations and causal attribution.
Homer and Traditional Poetics
Authors: Finkelberg Margalit
Published: July 2020

Although Homer refers to the art of poetry in terms closely similar to those used by oral traditional poets interviewed by Parry and Lord, his own poems do not follow the poetics of a point-by-point narrative succession that they themselves proclaim. This is not yet to say that in ancient Greece there were no epic poems for which such traditional poetics would effectively account. The poems of the Epic Cycle, whose incompatibility with the narrative strategies of the Homeric epics was highlighted as early as Aristotle, are one such example. The fact that, although he repeatedly refers to the practice of traditional poetry, Homer is silent on the matter of his own poetic practice which differs markedly from it, raises the question of whether the Iliad and the Odyssey can be considered traditional poems in the proper sense of the word.
MHC Class I related chain A (MICA), Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-DRB1, HLA-DQB1 genotypes in Turkish patients with ulcerative colitis
Authors: Kekik Cinar Cigdem , Demir Kadir , Temurhan Sonay , Akyuz Filiz , Pinarbasi Binnur , Savran Oguz Fatma
Published: July 2020

Objectives

We aimed to determine Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA)-DRB1, DQB1, and MHC Class I related chain A (MICA) genotypes in patients with ulcerative colitis.

Methods

HLA-DRB1, HLA-DQB1, MICA genotyping of patient (n:85) and controls (n:100) were performed by PCR-SSO Luminex (One Lambda genotyping kit).

Results

We found significantly higher DRB1*01 (p:0.022, OR:0.23, CI:0.06–0.8) and MICA*0002/20/55 (p:0.03, OR:0.53, CI:0.29–0.93) alleles in control group whereas DRB1*14 (p:0.04, OR:2.25, CI:1–5.08), DRB1*15 (p:<0.0001, OR:4.54, CI:2.09–9.88) and MICA*0004 (p:0.01, OR:2.84, CI:1.2–6.7) alleles were higher in patient group.

Conclusions

The present study will inform the MICA and HLA genotypes about the protective (DRB1*01, MICA*0002/20/55) or susceptible (DRB1*14, DRB1*15, MICA*0004) alleles of the disease and helps the literature on Turkish patients with ulcerative colitis.
Association of maternal serum trace elements with newborn screening-thyroid stimulating hormone
Authors: Ucal Yasemin , Serdar Muhittin , Akın-Levi Cansu , Yıldırım-Keles Zeynep Zulfiye , Turam Cem , Kumru Pinar , Muhcu Murat , Eroglu Mustafa , Aksungar Fehime , Ozpinar Aysel
Published: July 2020

Objectives

Trace elements are essential in thyroid functioning as they incorporate into biologically important enzymes as cofactors. The placenta can either activate or inhibit the transfer of maternal trace elements to the unborn. An imbalance of maternal trace elements in pregnancy may affect both maternal and newborn thyroid function.

Methods

Blood samples from 315 lactating mothers were collected in the first 48 h after delivery and evaluated for selenium (Se), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), and zinc (Zn) using flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) and quadrupole inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). Thyroid hormones and auto-antibodies (thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free T3 (fT3), free T3 (fT4), anti–thyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO), and antithyroglobulin (anti-TG)) were analyzed in maternal blood using an electro-chemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA). Between 48 and 72 postpartum hours, spot blood samples were used for newborn screening-TSH measurement. Correlation and multivariate analyses were performed to evaluate the effect of maternal trace element levels on newborn screening-TSH levels.

Results

The medians (min-max) of maternal Se (45.16 µg/L (21.28–79.04)), Cu (210.10 µg/dL (117.04–390.64)), Mn (2.11 µg/L (0.20–3.46)), and Zn (0.43 mg/L (0.24–0.66)) were determined. A positive correlation was detected between Zn and maternal TSH levels (r=0.12, p < 0.05). Newborn screening-TSH was significantly correlated with maternal Cu (r=0.14, p < 0.01). Similarly, Cu exhibited weak associations in clustering analysis while others shared common clusters with newborn-screening TSH.

Conclusions

There was no significant association between most of the maternal serum trace elements and maternal thyroid hormone parameters, with an only exception between maternal Zn and maternal serum TSH. Finally, the association between maternal serum Cu levels and newborn screening-TSH levels may highlight the importance of maternal Cu levels on the newborn thyroid health.
Modal Analysis of the Axial Compressor Blade: Advanced Time-Dependent Electronic Interferometry and Finite Element Method
Authors: Tkach Mykhaylo , Morhun Serhii , Zolotoy Yuri , Zhuk Irina
Published: July 2020

Natural frequencies and vibration modes of axial compressor blades are investigated. A refined mathematical model based on the usage of an eight-nodal curvilinear isoparametric finite element was applied. The verification of the model is carried out by finding the frequencies and vibration modes of a smooth cylindrical shell and comparing them with experimental data. A high-precision experimental setup based on an advanced method of time-dependent electronic interferometry was developed for this aim. Thus, the objective of the study is to verify the adequacy of the refined mathematical model by means of the advanced time-dependent electronic interferometry experimental method. The divergence of the results of frequency measurements between numerical calculations and experimental data does not exceed 5 % that indicates the adequacy and high reliability of the developed mathematical model. The developed mathematical model and experimental setup can be used later in the study of blades with more complex geometric and strength characteristics or in cases when the real boundary conditions or mechanical characteristics of material are uncertain.