bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Improving English reading for EFL readers with reviewing kit-build concept map
Authors: Andoko Banni Satria , Hayashi Yusuke , Hirashima Tsukasa , Asri Atiqah Nurul
Published: March 2020

Reading comprehension for English as foreign language (EFL) students is crucial. Available information is mostly written in English, which becomes a problem for students from non-English-speaking countries. Such students should master English first in order to understand the information. This research offers a method to improve English reading with the help of the kit-build concept map as a graphical strategy and an additional function called source connection to facilitate EFL readers in reviewing their concept maps as the representation of their understanding. In this study, an English teacher in an Indonesian university practically used this system in the English class of second-year undergraduate students as EFL readers and tested the effectiveness of it. Results confirm that students who use the kit-build concept map with the source connection function show better performance in English reading compared with those who employ the traditional summarization method.
Immunohistochemistry analysis of checkpoint kinase 2 in oral squamous cell carcinoma
Authors: Cardoso Suziene Caroline Silva , Duarte Andressa , de Almeida Luciana Yamamoto , León Jorge Esquiche , Ribeiro-Silva Alfredo
Published: March 2020

Background

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most frequently occurring malignant tumor of the head and neck region. Chk2 (Checkpoint kinase 2) is considered a tumor suppressor gene that acts on the cellular response to DNA damage. However, the role of Chk2 in OSCC prognosis is not yet fully understood. The objective of this study was to evaluate Chk2 immunoexpression in OSCC and to elucidate the association between its expression and clinicopathological parameters of prognostic importance, including overall survival, disease-free survival, and metastasis-free survival.

Methods

Chk2 expression was analyzed in 101 samples from patients with OSCC using immunohistochemistry. We stratified the patients into high expression (> 66% of cells positive for Chk2) and low expression (< 66%) groups.

Results

Chk2 showed high expression in 57.43% of OSCC. In our study, the expression of Chk2 did not correlate with any of the prognostic parameters evaluated. There was no difference between overall survival, metastasis-free survival, and disease-free survival according to Chk2 expression.

Conclusion

Despite the great importance of Chk2 in the development of different types of cancer, our findings do not favor Chk2 as a prognostic marker in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
The Next Step in Your Career: Getting the Right Opportunity and the Right Contract
Authors: Verschraegen Claire F. , Abubakr Yousif , Lee Mark
Published: March 2020

A new job is always a difficult step to take in one’s career. Negotiating the optimal contract is paramount. The contract should be a reasonable agreement that satisfies both parties: the enterprise and the prospective candidate. Some contract clauses are usually non-negotiable because these items are required for the job. Examples include board certification, insurance for liabilities, faculty standing for a specific position, and so forth. Other clauses are negotiable and should be negotiated, including salary, resources to perform the job, work hours, and so on. This article details what to expect in a contract, how to think about it, and how to act on it. Possible careers for an oncologist are reviewed and include academia, private practice, and industry at the largest sense. Recommendations are to be certain that the choice of career feels comfortable, to read and fully understand the contract, to obtain a few contracts from different job offers to draw comparisons, to ask questions until all items are clarified, and to not be shy in asking what is not reflected in the contract but would assuage the unknown of assuming the duties and deliverables of a new job.
Lost in the ACA: Bit Parts in a Landmark Law
Authors: McDonough John E.
Published: March 2020

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a mosaic across a spectrum of health policy domains. The law contains hundreds of smaller and mostly unnoticed reforms aimed at nearly every segment of American health policy. Ten years later, these provisions include successes, failures, and mixed bags, which should be considered in any full assessment of the ACA. This article examines 11 from each of these 3 categories, drawn from 9 of the ACA's 10 titles. These mininarratives deepen recognition that the ACA is our best example of comprehensive health reform and defies simplistic judgments.
The Affordable Care Act in the States: Fragmented Politics, Unstable Policy
Authors: Béland Daniel , Rocco Philip , Waddan Alex
Published: March 2020

Many argue that the frustrated implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) stems from the unprecedented level of political polarization that has surrounded the legislation. This article draws attention to the law's “institutional DNA” as a source of political struggle in the 50 states. As designed, in the context of US federalism, the law fractured authority in ways that has opened up the possibility of contestation and confusion. The successful implementation of the ACA varies not only across state lines but also across the various components of the law. In particular, opponents of the ACA have experienced their greatest successes when they could take advantage of weak preexisting policy legacies, high levels of institutional fragmentation, and negative public sentiments. As argued in this article, the fragmented patterns of health care politics in the 50 states identified in previous research have largely persisted during the Trump administration. Moreover, while Republicans were unsuccessful at repealing the legislation, the administration has taken advantage of its structural deficiencies to further weaken the legislation's capacity to expand access to affordable, quality health insurance.
The Self-Undermining Peril of “Mosaic” Reform Strategies: A Comparative View
Authors: Tuohy Carolyn Hughes
Published: March 2020

The American Democratic leadership in the White House and Congress in 2009–10 and the British Conservative/Liberal-Democrat Coalition government in 2010–12 each pursued a strategy of rapidly assembled multiple adjustments to the prevailing policy framework for health care rather than attempting a “big-bang” strategy of sweeping institutional change. Despite their relative modesty, each set of reforms encountered a highly conflictual and tortuous process of legislative passage. Subsequently, the reforms failed to gain broad public acceptance and were variously hobbled (in the United States) and transformed (in the United Kingdom) in the course of implementation. These two cases thus offer some common lessons about the potential and the pitfalls of such complex “mosaic” reforms.
Killer Fables: Yun Ch’iho, Bourgeois Enlightenment, and the Free Laborer
Authors: Em Henry
Published: March 2020

Drawing on Yun Ch’iho’s Diary, and outlining some of the ideological and transnational aspects of a Protestant, bourgeois consciousness that emerged in Korea at the turn of the last century, this article presents a critical reassessment of liberalism, Protestant Christianity, and the type of free laborer that bourgeois Protestants like Yun Ch’iho wanted to create. As a pious liberal, Yun Ch’iho led efforts to establish civic and religious organizations that sought to construct a free conscience that would form and maintain public opinion. This was a militant agenda in the sense that, like the evangelical teachers he met in Shanghai and at Emory College, Yun wanted to build public pressure to dismantle the Confucian political order. As a Protestant entrepreneur of free men, Yun sought to “kill the Korean.” This militant, liberal agenda aimed to discipline and embody new desires, especially among youth, to produce the free laborer, and to render the extraction of profit as a form of exchange.
Visualizing History: Truthfulness in North Korean Art
Authors: Yoon Min-Kyung
Published: March 2020

In North Korean paintings, history is mobilized to legitimate the North Korean system and its leaders. Utilizing the mode of socialist realism, North Korean paintings give visual form to a socialist world, a utopian vision full of unremitting heroism, harvest, and happiness centered on the ruling Kim family. In these paintings, positive heroes such as laborers, workers, farmers, and children are depicted in historically correct scenes that always propel the North Korean revolution forward. After adopting socialist realism from the Soviet Union, North Korea localized this creative method to meet its specific political needs through medium and content. Through this process, socialist realism came to reflect the ideals of juche, the state ideology of North Korea. Informed by North Korean theoretical writings on art and art reviews, this article examines how history is visually mobilized in three paintings created in 1985 and 2000 through the language of juche realism.
Female Intersubjectivity: Violence, Women, and Elegy in Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry
Authors: Choi Jung Ja
Published: March 2020

This article explores the configuration of female intersubjectivity demonstrated in the film Poetry (Si, 2010) by Lee Chang-dong (Yi Ch’angdong), as well as the power of poetry to conjure the dead and provide space and voice for marginalized and silenced women. The focus of the film is Mija, a woman in her mid-sixties who works as a caregiver to a disabled man while raising a grandson on her own. Just as Mija discovers that her grandson has been implicated in a sex crime that led to a girl’s death, she learns that she herself is in the first stage of Alzheimer’s disease. It is through poetry that Mija mourns her own impending death and also that of the young girl, who is otherwise consigned to oblivion under the phallocentric order of South Korean society. Lee Chang-dong’s film, this article argues, shows that despite the impossibility of poetry in the face of tragedy, lyric imagination offers women the power to escape the patriarchal imposition of silence and preserve a story of their own.
Revisiting Language, Ethnicity, and Identity in the Former Yugoslavia
Authors: Greenberg Robert
Published: March 2020

This special edition on the language issues in the former Yugoslav space (AWPEL 2.1) provides some new perspectives and approaches to the study of the interplay of language, ethnicity and identity among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. When I first began focusing on this topic in the early 1990s, the sociolinguistic and ethnographic linguistic literature on the peoples and languages of this multi-ethnic space seemed to be in its infancy. This volume reveals that the case of the former Yugoslavia has proven to be a fruitful field for scholarship in these areas of linguistic inquiry. It is pleasing to see here how younger researchers approach the complex issues arising from the breakup of Yugoslavia and the disintegration of the joint language formerly known as Serbo-Croatian or Croato-Serbian. [...]
Sociology of gender: the women's movement in the responses to the "woman question"
Authors: Ternovaya Lyudmila
Published: March 2020

In the monograph presents the author's analysis of the development of the women's movement in Russia and the world from the struggle for basic rights and freedoms to the requirements of women's participation in political life of society that have become the hallmark of this movement is the beginning of the XXI century. Various aspects of manifestations of women's issues in the national and professional perspectives.
The book is intended for specialists: sociologists, historians, political scientists, and intended for wide circle of readers.
Environmental law: a workshop
Authors: Mayorova Elena , Popov Vladislav
Published: March 2020

The workshop provides a brief theoretical course on the General part of environmental law, as well as tests and tasks based on material developed in accordance with Federal state educational standards. The solution presented in the workshop tasks, under the guidance of a teacher, and independently, designed to consolidate and expand students ' knowledge of the course "Environmental law". The Appendix contains the author's review of Chapter 26 of the criminal code.
Meets the requirements of Federal state educational standards of secondary professional education of the last generation.
For students of educational institutions, implementing educational activity on educational programs of secondary professional education and (or) the program of professional training on "Jurisprudence", as well as for students of educational institutions of higher education.
Case Article—The Fendt VarioTakt: Revolutionizing Mixed-Model Assembly Line Production
Authors: Huchzermeier Arnd , Mönch Tobias , Bebersdorf Peter
Published: March 2020

This case study is designed for undergraduate and graduate (EMBA, MBA, or MSc) students in operations management and e-commerce courses that focus on customer-centric manufacturing approaches. Motivated by the real-world application at Fendt, an innovation leader in the global market for agricultural machinery, students learn about a novel assembly line balancing and sequencing approach for mixed-model assembly with a special twist of an unusually high and varying degree of customization for each product. By developing and implementing the “VarioTakt,” Fendt is able to eradicate most labor inefficiencies (namely, idle time and utility work) and to curtail capital investments while raising its responsiveness to customer demand and plant productivity to a level that today serves as a global benchmark within its own industry and across industries such as automotive, machine tools, and electronics.
The air pollution crisis in the UK
Authors: Greener Mark
Published: March 2020

Mark Greener looks at the latest evidence on the harm caused by the invisible killer
Growing older and remaining empowered: the cohousing model
Authors: Brenton Maria , Argent Hedi
Published: March 2020

Remaining autonomous, productive and engaged when growing older is a goal that many would like to achieve. For the residents of the Older Women's Cohousing Community, this dream has become a reality, with the establishment of their own independent, intergenerational cooperative
Keeping staff safe: consent in the care home
Authors: Wiskerke Esther
Published: March 2020

The law is clear when it comes to assault or harrassment in the workplace. However, life is rarely as straightforward as legislation. In dealing with the legal or business ramifications of an assault, the human element can be forgotten. Esther Wiskerke brings the focus back to the person affected and the support they may need from a manager
Heart failure in practice: enhancing knowledge for nursing and residential care
Authors: Hayes Catherine , Cox Christopher , Parkin Lindsay , Scott-Thomas Jeanette , Graham Yitka
Published: March 2020

The high prevalence rates of heart failure in older adults means that those who have been diagnosed require their specific needs to be recognised and addressed effectively by care professionals. Researchers at the University of Sunderland provide guidance on how to implement this in nursing and residential care settings
Validity of Closed Ideals in Algebras of Series of Square Analytic Functions
Authors: Siddig Musa , Hussien Shawgy
Published: March 2020

We show the validity of a complete description of closed ideals of the algebra is the algebra of series of analytic functions satisfying the Lipschitz condition of order αj2 obtained by.15
Estimation of Aquifer Characteristics in Parts of Oru Lga of Imo State Nigeria Using Resistivity Data
Authors: Agbodike I.I.C.
Published: March 2020

This paper estimates aquifer characteristics in parts of Oru Area Imo State of Southeastern Nigeria using data from surface electrical soundings. Eighteen vertical electrical soundings were made in the study Area using a maximum current electrode separation of 1.0km.The Abem terrameter SAS 3000B was used in acquiring data. The Schlumberger electrode configuration was adopted in the survey. The result obtained show that the depth to water table varied from 27m to about 205m. Aquifer thickness varied from 24m to about 140m.The aquiferous zones have resistivity range of between 182Wm to about 3934Wm. Aquifer conductivity varied from 0.000254Siemens at Nempi to 0.01036Siemens at Akuma .Transverse resistance varied from 249809Wm2 at Nempi to 3956.5Wm2 at Akuma. Longitudinal conductance varied from 0.01614mho at Nempi to 0.55656mho at Umuoji
WALTER BENJAMIN: MITO Y ESCRITURA
Authors: Jarauta Francisco
Published: March 2020

Dentro de los enfoques ontológicos le debemos a Walter Benjamin la más reveladora descripción de la tarea del traductor. Para él la traducción es ante todo una “forma” y su traducibilidad es esencial en cuanto las lenguas no son extrañas entre sí, sino que a priori mantienen una semejanza en la forma de decir las cosas. Bajo este enfoque se analiza la relación entre proceso de formalización, lenguaje y vanguardia artística que domina la investigación de Benjamin. La experiencia y el mito se constituyen en el eje articulador de la nueva perspectiva crítica que anima y orienta el proyecto benjaminiano. Contra toda tentación de positivización de los lenguajes artísticos, las formas del arte aparecen gracias a Benjamin inscritas en aquella experiencia previa que las anima y que debe entenderse como la experiencia de un límite, iluminado ahora desde la verdad del mito. Within the ontological approaches we owe Walter Benjamin the most revealing description of the translator’s task. For him, translation is first and foremost a “form” and its translatability is essential because languages are not strangers to each other, but maintain a priori similarity in the way of saying things. Under this approach the relationship between the process of formalization, language and artistic avant-garde that dominates Benjamin’s research is analysed. Experience and myth constitute the articulating axis of the new critical perspective that animates and leads the Benjaminian project. Against any temptation to positivize artistic languages, artistic forms appear thanks to Benjamin inscribed in that previous experience that animates them and that should be understood as the experience of a limit, now illuminated from the truth of the myth.
Low-stray-light concave holographic gratings processed by combining the methods of photoresist hot-melting and oxygen-ion ashing
Authors: Chen Hui-Kang , Ni Zheng-Ji , Huang Yuan-Shen , Xu Bang-Lian , Zhang Da-Wei
Published: March 2020

The principal motivation for this paper is to reduce stray light and line roughness in concave holographic gratings (CHG). Compared with other previously reported line-smoothing grating techniques such as dynamic-exposure near-field holography, we successfully improve the line smoothing of CHG to approximately 10 nm from 2 nm. Our method uses optimization technologies and a combination of photoresist hot-melting (PHM) and oxygen-ion ashing (OIA), thereby improving the degree of stray light before and after optimization by one order of magnitude; the level processed by OIA, PHM, and OIA successively is

7.85

×

10

−
5

. Combining the two technologies, we achieve lower stray light and straighter groove lines for the concave gratings, which is more effective, easy to implement, and incurs a low cost.
Realization of a time-correlated photon counting technique for fluorescence analysis
Authors: Dai Lei , Liu Jian , Liang Kun , Yang Ru , Han Dejun , Lu Bo
Published: March 2020

An ultralow level light detection module, the time-correlated photon counter, is proposed and evaluated for fluorescence analysis. The time-correlated photon counter employs a silicon photomultiplier as a photon counting sensor in conjunction with a Poisson statistics algorithm and a double time windows technique, and therefore it can accurately count the photon number. The time-correlated photon counter is compatible with the time-correlated single photon counting technique and can record the arrival time of very faint light signals. This low-cost and compact instrument was used to analyze the intensity and lifetime of fluorescein isothiocyanate; a limit of detection of 16 pg/ml with a large linear dynamic range from 2.86 pg/ml to 0.5 µg/ml was obtained, and the lifetime of fluorescein isothiocyanate was measured to be 3.758 ns, which agrees well with the results of a sophisticated commercial fluorescence analysis instrument. The time-correlated photon counter may be useful in applications such as point-of-care testing.
Enhancement of third harmonic yield in fused filaments due to Gouy shift suppression
Authors: Mokrousova D. V. , Shipilo D. E. , Rizaev G. E. , Panov N. A. , Sunchugasheva E. S. , Shalova A. V. , Ionin A. A. , Kosareva O. G. , Seleznev L. V.
Published: March 2020

We have measured the absolute energy of the third harmonic generated by multiple filaments in the focusing geometry of a 744-nm femtosecond pulse in air. The subdivision of the initial 744-nm beam into several beamlets and their fusion in the vicinity of the geometrical focus breaks up the symmetry of the fluence distribution before and after the focus and suppresses the Gouy shift. As a result, the third harmonic yield as the function of 744-nm pump pulse energy undergoes branching. An order of magnitude higher branch corresponds to 248-nm pulse energy obtained after four, three, or two colliding beamlets. The lower branch corresponds to 248-nm pulse energy for a single beamlet of the same initial energy as the energy of several ones added together. The two branches of the third harmonic yield converge back as the peak power after a single opening reaches the critical power for self-focusing in air.
Parallel spectroscopic ellipsometry for ultra-fast thin film characterization
Authors: Nazarov Andrey , Ney Michael , Abdulhalim Ibrahim
Published: March 2020

Spectroscopic ellipsometer (SE) is an essential optical metrology tool commonly used to characterize thin films and monitor fabrication processes. However, it relies on mechanical rotation of a polarizer or a photo-elastic phase modulator which are limited in speed and prone to errors when handling dynamic processes. The constant trend of micro-electronics dimensions shrinkage and increase of the wafer area necessitates faster and more accurate tools. A fast SE design based on parallel snapshot detection of three signals at different polarizations is proposed and demonstrated. Not relying on mechanical rotation nor serial phase modulation, it is more accurate and can reach acquisition rates of hundreds of measurements per second.
Mode-selective few-mode Brillouin fiber lasers based on intramodal and intermodal SBS
Authors: Wang Ning , Alvarado-Zacarias J. C. , Habib Md Selim , Wen He , Antonio-Lopez J. E. , Sillard Pierre , Amezcua-Correa A. , Schülzgen Axel , Amezcua-Correa R. , Li Guifang
Published: March 2020

Mode-selective fiber lasers have advantages in a number of applications. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a transverse mode-selective few-mode Brillouin fiber laser using the mode-selective photonic lantern. We generated the lowest three orders of linearly polarized (LP) modes based on both intramodal and intermodal stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). Their slope efficiencies, optical spectra, mode profiles, and linewidths were measured.
Post-Treatment Ulceration and Bleeding After Cyanoacrylate Injection of Duodenal Varices
Authors: Radlinski Mark , Fie Taylor , Richhart Raymond , Wentworth Brian , Caldwell Stephen , Henry Zachary
Published: March 2020

We report a case of recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding in the setting of diffuse duodenal and colorectal varices. These varices were secondary to either congenital absence of the portal vein or chronic occlusion of the portal vein leading to cavernous transformation of a collateral network of varices. He was acutely managed with injection of N-butyl-2-cyanoacrylate into a large complex of duodenal varices. His hospital course was complicated by a postprocedural gastrointestinal bleed within the first 24 hours after the procedure arising from a new duodenal ulcer at the site of injection, likely secondary to ischemia after obliteration of the varices.
An inclusive model suggestion in audio-visual media design in sampling of public ads: Is accessible media possible?
Authors: Çelen Özer Arzu , Kalkan Başak , Gürses Gülfem
Published: March 2020

Instructive and informative contents of the Public Service Announcements (PSAs) need to reach to all segments of the society.  Within this framework, the purpose of the research is to explain the importance of the narrative structure in the sight-disabled persons' access to the PSAs in terms of the up-to-date audio description criteria. In the study, the characters and the functions thereof in the narration have been reviewed within the frame of Labov & Riesmann's narrative analysis constituents, and answer has been sought to the question, "Are the spatio-temporal  constituents, motions, and the visual materials that depict the actions in connection with character definitions put into words for the sight-disabled persons?", by way of narrative analysis. While the 6 "Be Prepared for the Disasters!" PSAs are analyzed in terms of their narrative structures, the questions, "Who are the persons in the narrative? What are their functions in the narrative? What do these persons do in the narrative? Why do they do these things? What are the outcomes of them?" are required to be responded by six different experts serving in the fields of visual communication, audio-visual translation, and narrative communication, other than the researchers. As a result of the research, it has been determined that, the PSAs are not designed as being suitable for the access of the sight-disabled persons, and two model proposals have been introduced at the end of the research by way of taking inclusive design criteria other than the conventional audio description criteria into consideration. ​Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file.   Özet Kamu spotlarının, eğitici, bilgilendirici içerikleri ile toplumun tüm kesimlerine ulaşması gerekmektedir.  Bu çerçevede araştırmanın amacı, görme engelli bireylerin kamu spotlarına erişiminde anlatı yapısının önemini güncel sesli betimleme kriterleri çerçevesinde belirtmektir. Anlatıdaki karakterlerin ve işlevlerinin ne olduğu, Labov ve Riesmann’ın anlatı analizi bileşenleri çerçevesinde incelenmiş ve “Kamu spotunda anlatı oluşturulurken mekânsal-zamansal bileşenler, hareketler, karakter tanımlarıyla bağlantılı fiilleri betimleyen görsel materyaller, görme engelli bireyler için kelimelere aktarılmakta mıdır?” sorusuna anlatı analizi ile yanıt aranmıştır. İncelenen altı “Afetlere Hazırlıklı Ol!” kamu spotu, anlatı yapısı çözümlenirken “anlatıdaki kişiler kimler, bu kişilerin, anlatıdaki işlevi nedir, bu kişiler, anlatıda ne yapıyorlar, niçin yapıyorlar ve sonuçlar ne?” sorularına araştırmacılar dışında görsel iletişim, görsel- işitsel çeviri ve yazınsal iletişim alanında çalışan altı farklı uzmandan cevaplaması istenmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda, kamu spotlarının görme engelli bireylerin erişimine uygun olarak tasarlanmadığı tespit edilmiş, geleneksel sesli betimleme kriterlerinin dışında kapsayıcı tasarım kriterleri dikkate alınarak iki model önerisi araştırma sonunda sunulmuştur.
Exploratory Bivariate and Multivariate Geovisualizations of a Social Vulnerability Index
Authors: Strode Georgianna , Mesev Victor , Bleisch Susanne , Ziewitz Kathryn , Reed Fennis , Morgan John Derek
Published: March 2020

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national agency that conducts and supports public health research and practice. Among the CDC’s many achievements is the development of a social vulnerability index (SVI) to aid planners and emergency responders when identifying vulnerable segments of the population, especially during natural hazard events. The index includes an overall social vulnerability ranking as well as four individual themes: socioeconomic, household composition & disability, ethnicity & language, and housing & transportation. This makes the SVI dataset multivariate, but it is typically viewed via maps that show one theme at a time. This paper explores a suite of cartographic techniques that can represent the SVI beyond the univariate view. Specifically, we recommend three techniques: (1) bivariate mapping to illustrate overall vulnerability and population density, (2) multivariate mapping using cartographic glyphs to disaggregate levels of the four vulnerability themes, and (3) visual analytics using Euler diagrams to depict overlap between the vulnerability themes. The CDC’s SVI, and by extension, vulnerability indices in other countries, can be viewed in a variety of cartographic forms that illustrate the location of vulnerable groups of society. Viewing data from various perspectives can facilitate the understanding and analysis of the growing amount and complexity of data.
Clinical utility of liquid biopsy for the diagnosis and monitoring of EML4-ALK NSCLC patients
Authors: Sánchez-Herrero Estela , Provencio Mariano , Romero Atocha
Published: March 2020

Background

Genomic rearrangement in anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene occurs in 3−7% of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The detection of this alteration is crucial as ALK positive NSCLC patients benefit from ALK inhibitors, which improve both the patient's quality of life and overall survival (OS) compared to traditional chemotherapy.

Content

In routine clinical practice, ALK rearrangements are detected using tissue biopsy. Nevertheless, the availability of tumor tissue is compromised in NSCLC patients due to surgical complications or difficult access to the cancer lesion. In addition, DNA quality and heterogeneity may impair tumor biopsies testing. These limitations can be overcome by liquid biopsy, which refers to non-invasive approaches for tumor molecular profiling. In this paper we review currently available technology for non-invasive ALK testing, in NSCLC patients, based on the analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor RNA (ctRNA), circulating tumor cells (CTCs), tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) such as exosomes.

Summary and outlook

Non-invasive tumor molecular profiling is crucial to improve outcomes and quality of life of NSCLC patients whose tumors harbor a translocation involving ALK locus.
On the existence and multiplicity of solutions to fractional Lane-Emden elliptic systems involving measures
Authors: Bhakta Mousomi , Nguyen Phuoc-Tai
Published: March 2020

We study positive solutions to the fractional Lane-Emden system

$$\begin{array}{} \displaystyle \left\{ \begin{aligned} (-{\it\Delta})^s u &= v^p+\mu \quad &\text{in } {\it\Omega} \\(-{\it\Delta})^s v &= u^q+\nu \quad &\text{in } {\it\Omega}\\u = v &= 0 \quad &&\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\text{in } {\it\Omega}^c={\mathbb R}^N \setminus {\it\Omega}, \end{aligned} \right. \end{array}$$(S)

whereΩis aC2bounded domains in ℝN,s∈ (0, 1),N> 2s,p> 0,q> 0 andμ,νare positive measures inΩ. We prove the existence of the minimal positive solution of (S) under a smallness condition on the total mass ofμandν. Furthermore, ifp,q∈$\begin{array}{} (1,\frac{N+s}{N-s}) \end{array}$and 0 ≤μ,ν∈Lr(Ω), for somer>$\begin{array}{} \frac{N}{2s}, \end{array}$we show the existence of at least two positive solutions of (S). The novelty lies at the construction of the second solution, which is based on a highly nontrivial adaptation of Linking theorem. We also discuss the regularity of the solutions.
The Effect of 12 Weeks of Different Exercise Training Modalities or Nutritional Guidance on Cardiometabolic Risk Factors, Vascular Parameters, and Physical Fitness in Overweight Adults: Cardiometabolic High-Intensity Interval Training-Resistance Training Randomized Controlled Study
Authors: Ramírez-Vélez Robinson , Castro-Astudillo Karem , Correa-Bautista Jorge Enrique , González-Ruíz Katherine , Izquierdo Mikel , García-Hermoso Antonio , Álvarez Cristian , Ramírez-Campillo Rodrigo , Correa-Rodríguez María
Published: March 2020

Ramírez-Vélez, R, Castro-Astudillo, K, Correa-Bautista, JE, González-Ruíz, K, Izquierdo, M, García-Hermoso, A, Álvarez, C, Ramírez-Campillo, R, and Correa-Rodríguez, M. The effect of 12 weeks of different exercise training modalities or nutritional guidance on cardiometabolic risk factors, vascular parameters and physical fitness in overweight adults: cardiometabolic high-intensity interval training-resistance training randomized controlled study. J Strength Cond Res 34(8): 2178–2188, 2020—Evidence suggests that exercise training improves cardiometabolic risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate whether 12 weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), resistance training (RT), concurrent training (CT = HIIT + RT), or nutritional guidance (NG) induced improvements in cardiometabolic risk factors, vascular parameters, and physical fitness in overweight adults, and to compare the responses between the 4 intervention groups. This is a twelve-weeks factorial randomized design examining the effects of different exercise regimes and/or NG on anthropometric and body composition (fat and lean mass at whole body, trunk fat, fat mass index, appendicular muscle mass, and waist circumference); cardiometabolic risk factors and vascular parameters (blood lipids, fasting glucose, blood pressure, flow-mediated dilation [FMD%], aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and augmentation index); and physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness and handgrip strength). Adjusted mixed linear models revealed a significant improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness (mL·kg−1·min−1): HIIT +8.3, RT +4.1, and CT +6.3 (all p < 0.001). The improvement difference between the groups was statistically significant between the HIIT and NG group (p = 0.014), (time × group interaction F
(23.564); p < 0.001; η2 partial = 0.365). In addition, the RT and CT groups have a significant positive impact on PWV (m·s−1) (d = 0.391 and 0.229 respectively; p < 0.001, (time × group interaction F(5.457); p = 0.003; η2 partial = 0.280). Hereafter, the RT group has a significant positive impact on the FMD (%) in comparison to HIIT, CT, or NG group (time × group interaction F
(2.942); p = 0.044; η2 partial = 0.174). The main findings of this study are that 12 weeks of HIIT leads to significant improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, whereas RT resulted in improvements in the vascular profile, supporting the positive effect of both training programs for cardiometabolic risk factors in sedentary and overweight adults.
Effect of Stimulus-Dependent Spike Timing on Population Coding of Sound Location in the Owl’s Auditory Midbrain
Authors: Beckert M. V. , Fischer B. J. , Pena J. L.
Published: March 2020

In the auditory system, the spectrotemporal structure of acoustic signals determines the temporal pattern of spikes. Here, we investigated this effect in neurons of the barn owl’s auditory midbrain (Tyto furcata) that are selective for auditory space and whether it can influence the coding of sound direction. We found that in the nucleus where neurons first become selective to combinations of sound localization cues, reproducibility of spike trains across repeated trials of identical sounds, a metric of across-trial temporal fidelity of spiking patterns evoked by a stimulus, was maximal at the sound direction that elicited the highest firing rate. We then tested the hypothesis that this stimulus-dependent patterning resulted in rate co-modulation of cells with similar frequency and spatial selectivity, driving stimulus-dependent synchrony of population responses. Tetrodes were used to simultaneously record multiple nearby units in the optic tectum (OT), where auditory space is topographically represented. While spiking of neurons in OT showed lower reproducibility across trials compared with upstream nuclei, spike-time synchrony between nearby OT neurons was highest for sounds at their preferred direction. A model of the midbrain circuit explained the relationship between stimulus-dependent reproducibility and synchrony, and demonstrated that this effect can improve the decoding of sound location from the OT output. Thus, stimulus-dependent spiking patterns in the auditory midbrain can have an effect on spatial coding. This study reports a functional connection between spike patterning elicited by spectrotemporal features of a sound and the coding of its location.
Conhecimento sobre as medidas preventivas para o desenvolvimento do pé diabético
Authors: Sousa Valdenia Maria de , Sousa Isadora Almeida de , Moura Karine Rafaela de , Lacerda Lucas Sallatiel Alencar , Ramos Maria da Glória Sobreira , Silva Ana Roberta Vilarouca da
Published: March 2020

Objetivo: analisar o conhecimento de pessoas com diabetes mellitus acerca das medidas preventivas para o desenvolvimento do pé diabético. Métodos: estudo transversal, realizado com 171 pessoas diabéticas atendidas na Estratégia Saúde da Família. Aplicou-se formulário para obtenção das variáveis sociodemográficas e clínicas e escala para avaliar o nível de conhecimento. Para análise, utilizou-se das estatísticas descritiva e inferencial. Resultados: 65,5% apresentaram pouco nível de conhecimento. A questão que obteve maior índice de acertos foi o não uso de bolsa de água quente nos pés (92,3%), todavia, a questão com maior índice de erros foi: utilizar calçado aberto em casa e para sair, (66,8%). O escore da pontuação total do instrumento foi influenciado pelo sexo (p≤0,001). Conclusão: os participantes apresentaram baixo nível de conhecimento acerca das medidas preventivas e desconheciam hábitos importantes de autocuidado, como uso de calçado adequado e não hidratação entre os dedos dos pés.
Qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem: contribuições de enfermeiros especialistas em enfermagem médico-cirúrgica
Authors: Ribeiro Olga Maria Pimenta Lopes , Martins Maria Manuela Ferreira Pereira da Silva , Sousa Paulino Artur Ferreira de , Trindade Letícia de Lima , Forte Elaine Cristina Novatzki , Silva João Miguel Almeida Ventura da
Published: March 2020

Objetivo: identificar a realização de atividades congruentes com os padrões de qualidade dos cuidados de enfermagem por enfermeiros especialistas em enfermagem médico-cirúrgica, no contexto hospitalar. Métodos: estudo descritivo, concretizado em 36 hospitais, no qual participaram 259 enfermeiros especialistas em enfermagem médico-cirúrgica. Para coleta de dados, usou-se de questionário, posteriormente analisado por meio de estatística descritiva. Resultados: os enfermeiros participantes avaliaram com melhores escores as atividades relativas às dimensões responsabilidade e rigor, satisfação do cliente e prevenção de complicações; e com menores escores, as atividades integradas nas dimensões promoção da saúde, readaptação funcional e bem-estar e autocuidado. Conclusão: embora os achados evidenciem atuação dos enfermeiros especialistas na área de enfermagem médico-cirúrgica que tende a ser coerente com os padrões de qualidade, sinalizaram-se lacunas no exercício profissional e potencialidades que podem subsidiar o processo de qualificação desses profissionais, alertar os gestores e qualificar a assistência de enfermagem.
Gnosis and metacognition
Authors: Murashkin Michail
Published: March 2020

The article deals with gnosis and features of metacognition. Initially, the Gnostics considered whether the term "gnosis" was used, what knowledge did they gain from certain experiences. The subject matter of the study reveals important features of the human psyche. For example, the property of separating one’s self from the external environment is like seeing oneself from the side. This property empowers a person in communicating with other people. This expanded opportunity purifies the human being, because it leads to self-control. During vegetable growing, conditions of a special nature can be experienced by themselves. The Gnostics also spoke about it.The article states that the philosophy of gnosis operates through belief in the special inner world of man, the higher world. But this higher can only be felt when a person is in a state of enstasis as a compensatory trance.The article compares the gnosis of the ancient world with modern philosophical trends. Here, in the descriptions of the inner world of man, the divine transcendence is demonstrated. In this regard, the Gnostics sought knowledge of the true state of mind. This search is engaged in metacognition.The author of the article considers it necessary to clarify what metacognition is. A person has the ability to understand what he or she is thinking. Scientists call it metacognition. Metacognition is when a person feels the world not through the prism of his thoughts, but directly. We can also see this in Gnostics with deep compensatory enstasis, or compensatory trance. Then the person stands apart, because it breaks all the wrong connections. Gnosis tries to capture the knowledge of all these processes. Metacognition helps to establish certain characteristics of compensatory trance, to establish characteristics of compensatory illumination. Compensatory illumination may occur in a state of a particular type of trance. Therefore, the article tries to look at the relationship of compensatory trance and compensatory illumination.
A human being in meta-anthropology and transhumanism: the sense of human exsistance
Authors: Terletska Natalia
Published: March 2020

From the point of view of metaanthropology, the article analyzes the values of human being: the value of security, power, freedom, love, unity of freedom and love, as well as the value of such existentials as the sense & meaningfullness of human being & exsistance.The value of the sense of human being & exsistance is analized in a research from such points of view as: life not only for the sake of self-preservation and minimization of suffering, but also for the development, holistic harmonious realization by a humanity of such qualities that make a person capable not only for the consumering of the benefits of civilization, but also becoming a creator of culture, seeking the harmony of spiritual, soul and physical needs, the ability to express empathy and to overcome the existential problems of despair and fear of death, remaining a human creator, maintaining traditional human values and existentials, such as love and freedom.The value of the meaning of human life is analyzed in the realm of such existential concepts as free will and human right to have traditional values.The study focuses on the important theme of the loss of meaningful existentials, which, as a rule, is proposed by transhumanism, having a basis for this in the philosophy of the postmodern era, as well as the search for ways out of the existential, spiritual, soul and moral-ethical crisis in order to preserve the human values. The theoretical basis of the study was the work of philosophers of different periods, studies of psychologists and psychoanalysts, including contemporary, recent work of domestic researchers in meta-anthropology, as well as recent work of foreign representatives of transhumanism.There is made a conclusion that the unification of the values of freedom and love in a person’s life is impossible without preserving the traditional existentials of culture, in particular, such as spirituality, empathy, the capacity for compassion and feelings, which make sense of a human existence & being.
RP-HPLC-DAD determination of free amino acids in cocoa samples during fermentation and roasting
Authors: Brunetto Maria Del Rosario , Gallignani de Bernardi Máximo Aurelio , Orozco Contreras Wendy Josefina , Clavijo Roa Sabrina Del Sol , Delgado Cayama Yelitza Josefina , Ayala Montilla Carlos Daniel , Zambrano García Alexis
Published: March 2020

Amino acids (AA) composition in cocoa beans can predict the synthesis of compounds which affect cocoa flavor. Thus, their determination is of great interest for the community implied in the commercialization and production of cocoa. In consequence, in this work, the analysis of AA produced during cocoa beans fermentation and roasting was carried out. A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with DAD detection at 254 nm was optimized and validated for their selective determination in six varieties of cocoa beans with different genotypes, all of them grown in Venezuela. AA were extracted by defatted milled cocoa powder ultrasonication using purified water at 70 ºC. Then, they were derivatized with phenyl isothiocyanate, and their derivatives were separated, using a reversed-phase column with gradient elution, achieving a satisfactory resolution among the peaks (greater than 1.0) in less than 29 min. 110 cocoa samples were analyzed. Results showed a significant content of free AA, ranging from 3.87 to 5.97 g/kg in absence of fermentation with a predominance of acidic AA. Moreover, there is a progressive increase in the AA content while fermentation process occurs, with a predominance of hydrophobic AA such as alanine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. On the other hand, all cocoa types showed a partial degradation of free AA during the roasting step, especially the hydrophobic ones.
Determination of nutritional value of turmeric flour and the antioxidant activity of Curcuma longa rhizome extracts from agroecological and conventional crops of Valle del Cauca-Colombia
Authors: Nobile Correa Diana Paola , Restrepo Osorio Jaime , Zúñiga Orlando , Sánchez Andica Ruben Albeiro
Published: March 2020

This research presents the results of the proximal analysis of turmeric rhizome flour (Curcuma longa) from different areas of Valle del Cauca (Colombia) and the quantitative estimation of the uptake of the radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-Picrylhydrazyl (DDPH) of the methanolic extracts of the flour. The results of the proximal analysis evidence that some parameters do not show evident differences. However, others, such as total fat, show differences between the turmeric crops with conventional and agroecological fertilization. The values obtained from the different samples for proteins and carbohydrates are in an average normal range (9.3% and 70.5%, respectively), which fulfills the requirement to be a nutritional supplement. The free radical uptake (FRS) test of the extracts showed an antioxidant activity of the different samples tested for FRS50 (%) of 2.11 ± 0.06 µg / mL (Yumbillo, Y), 1.34 ± 0.26 µg / mL (Guacas, G), 4.22 ± 0.06 µg / mL (Magdalena, M), 9.16 ± 0.32 µg / mL (Commercial, C), 1.29 ± 0.26 µg / mL (Santa Rosa de Tapias, SR), and 1.33 ± 0.05 µg / mL (Limonar, L), which were contrasted with the values of quercetin (Q) 1.01 ± 0.51 µg / mL, vitamin C (V) 2.07 ± 0.45 µg / mL, and piperine (P ) (0,0) µg / mL. The proximal nutritional value plus the oxidizing activity, due to the concentration of phenolic compounds, make turmeric flour a functional food.
CHEMical KINetics SimuLATOR (Chemkinlator): A friendly user interface for chemical kinetics simulations
Authors: Cruz Camacho Elkin Alejandro , Montoya Arguello Juan Andrés , Ágreda Bastidas Jesús Alberto
Published: March 2020

CHEMical KINetics SimuLATOR is a Graphical User Interface for the simulation of reaction mechanisms. The interface allows the user to see and change the parameters of a reaction network within a single window. Chemkinlator comes with built-in support for three types of kinetic simulations: Time Series, which computes the concentration of all species in an interval of time in a defined model; Bifurcation diagrams, which are the result of running several Time Series simulations over gradually different kinetic rate constants; and Flow/Temperature time series, which takes into account the effect of flow in the Continuous-flow well-Stirred Tank Reactor, and the effect of temperature on the rates constants according to the Arrhenius equation. In our research group, Chemkinlator has been the primary tool used to test the predictions made by algorithms that analyze homochirality phenomena. Chemkinlator is written in C++14 and Qt, and it uses the Fortran subroutine DLSODE to solve the differential equations associated with the reaction networks. Chemkinlator is open source software under the Apache 2.0 license and can be downloaded freely from https://gitlab.com/homochirality/chemkinlator.