bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A novel paclitaxel coated balloon with increased drug transfer for treatment of complex vascular lesions
Authors: Gemeinhardt Ole , Schnorr Beatrix , Speck Ulrich , Scheller Bruno
Published: October 2021

Background

Drug coated balloons (DCB) with paclitaxel (Ptx) dose of 2–3.5 μg/mm2 balloon surface inhibit restenosis with different effectiveness and duration of success. A clinical dose finding study is not known for any of the currently marketed products. The aim of the present preclinical trial was to investigate a novel DCB coated with 6 μg Ptx/mm2 in a porcine model.

Methods and results

The current study investigated a DCB with a novel, modified iopromide based matrix with 6 μg Ptx/mm2. Drug transfer to the vessel wall of peripheral arteries was compared with a dose of 3 μg Ptx/mm2 and two fully overlapping DCB with 3 μg Ptx/mm2, each.

Ptx concentration in the vessel wall after drug transfer was about twice as high for balloons with 6 μg/mm2 (1957±1472 μg/g) and two overlapping DCB with 3 μg Ptx/mm2, each (1287±619 μg/g) compared to a single balloon with 3 μg Ptx/mm2, (787±738 μg/g), with statistical significant differences for 1x6 μg/mm2 vs. 1x3 μg/mm2 (p = 0.017) but not for 2x3 μg/mm2 vs. 1x3 μg/mm2 (p = 0.184) and 1x6 μg/mm2 vs. 2x3 μg/mm2 (p = 0.178). The proportion of residual Ptx on balloon after treatment was similar for all groups between 6±1% and 10±3% of dose on balloon.

Conclusion

The dose of 6 μg Ptx/mm2 was successfully as well as reproducibly coated on conventional balloon catheters. Increased Ptx on balloons resulted in increased drug concentration in the vessel wall. A single balloon with 6 μg Ptx/mm2 seems to provide double dose compared to 3 μg Ptx/mm2, facilitates the procedure, and may reduce medico-economic cost compared to the use of two standard DCB.
Can volumetric modulated arc radiation therapy reduce organ at risk dose in stage 4 sinonasal tumors in dogs treated with boost irradiation?
Authors: Meier Valeria , Czichon Felicitas , Walsh Linda , Rohrer Bley Carla
Published: October 2021

Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) introduced marked changes to cancer treatment in animals by reducing dose to organs at risk (OAR). As the next technological step, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) has advantages (increased degrees-of-freedom, faster delivery) compared to fixed-field IMRT. Our objective was to investigate a possible advantage of VMAT over IMRT in terms of lower OAR doses in advanced-disease sinonasal tumors in dogs treated with simultaneously-integrated boost radiotherapy. A retrospective, analytical, observational study design was applied using 10 pre-existing computed tomography datasets on dogs with stage 4 sinonasal tumors. Each dataset was planned with both, 5-field IMRT and 2 arc VMAT with 10x4.83 Gy to the gross tumor volume and 10x4.2 Gy to the planning target volume. Adequate target dose coverage and normal tissue complication probability of brain ≤5% was required. Dose constraints aspired to were D60 <15 Gy for eyes, D2 <35.4 Gy for corneae, and Dmean <20 Gy for lacrimal glands. OAR dose was statistically significantly higher in IMRT plans than in VMAT plans. Median eye D60% was 18.5 Gy (interquartile range (IQR) 17.5) versus 16.1 Gy (IQR 7.4) (p = 0.007), median lacrimal gland dose 21.8 Gy (IQR 20.5) versus 18.6 Gy (IQR 7.0) (p = 0.013), and median cornea D2% 45.5 Gy (IQR 6.8) versus 39.9 Gy (IQR 10.0) (p<0.005) for IMRT versus VMAT plans, respectively. Constraints were met in 21/40 eyes, 7/40 corneae, and 24/40 lacrimal glands. Median delivery time was significantly longer for IMRT plans than for VMAT plans (p<0.01). Based on these results, VMAT plans were found to be superior in sparing doses to eyes, lacrimal glands, corneae. However, not all ocular OAR constraints could be met while ensuring adequate dose coverage and restricting brain toxicity risk for both planning techniques.
Is BMI associated with anemia and hemoglobin level of women and children in Bangladesh: A study with multiple statistical approaches
Authors: Kamruzzaman Md
Published: October 2021

Background

The coexistence of undernutrition and obesity is an emerging problem for developing countries like Bangladesh. Anemia is another critical public health threat, prevalent predominantly among women and children. Undernutrition is linked with a higher risk of anemia, and lower dietary iron intake might be the possible reason. However, the risk of anemia among obese/overweight individuals is controversial. The study explores the relation of BMI with anemia and blood hemoglobin level among women and children in Bangladesh.

Methods

Multiple statistical approaches were employed to nationally representative secondary data (BDHS 2011) on women (n = 5680) age 15–49 years and children (n = 2373) age 6–59 months to illuminate the relation between BMI and anemia. BMI was categorized according to the WHO recommended BMI category for Asian people. Descriptive statistics were used to measure mean hemoglobin level. Chi-square test, Pearson correlation, Two-way ANOVA, binary, ordinal, and restricted cubic splines (RCS) regression were used to study the association of BMI with anemia and hemoglobin level.

Results

Chi-square test reveals significant association, though not intense, among BMI and anemia categories of women (15–49 years) (χ2 ≥99, p<2.2e-16 and Cramér’s V = 0.0799–0.1357). From ANOVA analysis, a significant difference in blood hemoglobin level was found among women (total sample and nonpregnant) with different BMI categories (p≤0.05). Binary (Severely Underweight: OR 1.2680, 95% CI 0.755–2.161; Obese: OR 0.4038, 95% CI 0.120–1.177), Ordinal logistic regression (Severely Underweight: OR 1.337, 95% CI 0.842–2.115; Obese: OR 0.504, 95% CI 0.153–1.411) and restricted cubic spline regression (Severely Underweight: OR >1.5; Obese: OR ~0.5) reveal that the risk of anemia was higher among underweight and lower among obese/overweight women compared to normal women. Lower anemia risk among richest women indicates probable higher dietary iron intake among obese/overweight women.

Conclusion

In the current study, women with overweight/obesity from Bangladesh were shown to have lower likelihood of being anemic, while underweight women more likely to be anemic. However, no relation between BMI and anemia was found among children.
Transcriptome analysis and identification of genes associated with floral transition and fruit development in rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium ashei)
Authors: Gao Xuan , Wang Lida , Zhang Hong , Zhu Bo , Lv Guosheng , Xiao Jiaxin
Published: October 2021

Flowering and fruit set are important traits affecting fruit quality and yield in rabbiteye blueberry (Vaccinium ashei). Intense efforts have been made to elucidate the influence of vernalization and phytohormones on flowering, but the molecular mechanisms of flowering and fruit set remain unclear. To unravel these mechanisms, we performed transcriptome analysis to explore blueberry transcripts from flowering to early fruit stage. We divided flowering and fruit set into flower bud (S2), initial flower (S3), bloom flower (S4), pad fruit (S5), and cup fruit (S6) based on phenotype and identified 1,344, 69, 658, and 189 unique differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in comparisons of S3/S2, S4/S3, S5/S4, and S6/S5, respectively. There were obviously more DEGs in S3/S2 and S5/S4 than in S4/S3, and S6/S5, suggesting that S3/S2 and S5/S4 represent major transitions from buds to fruit in blueberry. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis indicated these DEGs were mostly enriched in phytohormone biosynthesis and signaling, transporter proteins, photosynthesis, anthocyanins biosynthesis, disease resistance protein and transcription factor categories, in addition, transcript levels of phytohormones and transporters changed greatly throughout the flowering and fruit set process. Gibberellic acid and jasmonic acid mainly acted on the early stage of flowering development like expression of the florigen gene FT, while the expression of auxin response factor genes increased almost throughout the process from bud to fruit development. Transporter proteins were mainly associated with minerals during the early flowering development stage and sugars during the early fruit stage. At the early fruit stage, anthocyanins started to accumulate, and the fruit was susceptible to diseases such as fungal infection. Expression of the transcription factor MYB86 was up-regulated during initial fruit development, which may promote anthocyanin accumulation. These results will aid future studies exploring the molecular mechanism underlying flowering and fruit set of rabbiteye blueberry.
Long-read sequencing to interrogate strain-level variation among adherent-invasive Escherichia coli isolated from human intestinal tissue
Authors: Wang Jeremy , Bleich Rachel M. , Zarmer Sandra , Zhang Shiying , Dogan Belgin , Simpson Kenneth W. , Arthur Janelle C.
Published: October 2021

Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC) is a pathovar linked to inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), especially Crohn’s disease, and colorectal cancer. AIEC are genetically diverse, and in the absence of a universal molecular signature, are defined by in vitro functional attributes. The relative ability of difference AIEC strains to colonize, persist, and induce inflammation in an IBD-susceptible host is unresolved. To evaluate strain-level variation among tissue-associated E. coli in the intestines, we develop a long-read sequencing approach to identify AIEC by strain that excludes host DNA. We use this approach to distinguish genetically similar strains and assess their fitness in colonizing the intestine. Here we have assembled complete genomes using long-read nanopore sequencing for a model AIEC strain, NC101, and seven strains isolated from the intestinal mucosa of Crohn’s disease and non-Crohn’s tissues. We show these strains can colonize the intestine of IBD susceptible mice and induce inflammatory cytokines from cultured macrophages. We demonstrate that these strains can be quantified and distinguished in the presence of 99.5% mammalian DNA and from within a fecal population. Analysis of global genomic structure and specific sequence variation within the ribosomal RNA operon provides a framework for efficiently tracking strain-level variation of closely-related E. coli and likely other commensal/pathogenic bacteria impacting intestinal inflammation in experimental settings and IBD patients.
Pathway-targeting gene matrix for Drosophila gene set enrichment analysis
Authors: Cheng Jack , Hsu Lee-Fen , Juan Ying-Hsu , Liu Hsin-Ping , Lin Wei-Yong
Published: October 2021

Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) is a powerful algorithm to determine biased pathways between groups based on expression profiling. However, for fruit fly, a popular animal model, gene matrixes for GSEA are unavailable. This study provides the pathway-targeting gene matrixes based on Reactome and KEGG database for fruit fly. An expression profiling containing neurons or glia of fruit fly was used to validate the feasibility of the generated gene matrixes. We validated the gene matrixes and identified characteristic neuronal and glial pathways, including mRNA splicing and endocytosis. In conclusion, we generated and validated the feasibility of Reactome and KEGG gene matrix files, which may benefit future profiling studies using Drosophila.
Estimating human leishmaniasis burden in Spain using the capture-recapture method, 2016–2017
Authors: Humanes-Navarro Ana María , Herrador Zaida , Redondo Lidia , Cruz Israel , Fernández-Martínez Beatriz
Published: October 2021

Leishmaniasis is endemic and a mandatory reporting disease in Spain since 1982. However, between 1996 and 2014, surveillance on public health was decentralized and only some autonomous regions monitored the disease. The aim of this study is to estimate the incidence of leishmaniasis and to evaluate the extent of underreporting in Spain. A capture-recapture (CRC) study was conducted to calculate the incidence of human leishmaniasis using reports from the National Surveillance Network (RENAVE) and the Hospital Discharge Records of the National Health System (CMBD) for 2016 and 2017. During the study period, 802 cases were reported to RENAVE and there were 1,149 incident hospitalizations related to leishmaniasis. The estimated incidence rates through the CRC study were 0.79 per 100,000 inhabitants for visceral leishmaniasis (VL), 0.88 (cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL)) and 0.12 (mucocutaneous leishmaniasis (MCL)) in 2016 and 0.86 (VL), 1.04 (CL) and 0.12 (MCL) in 2017. An underreporting of 14.7–20.2% for VL and 50.4–55.1% for CL was found. The CRC method has helped us to assess the sensitivity and representativeness of leishmaniasis surveillance in Spain, being a useful tool to assess whether the generalization of leishmaniasis surveillance throughout the Spanish territory achieves a reduction in underreporting.
Multivariate genome-wide association study of leaf shape in a Populus deltoides and P. simonii F1 pedigree
Authors: Yang Wenguo , Yao Dan , Wu Hainan , Zhao Wei , Chen Yuhua , Tong Chunfa
Published: October 2021

Leaf morphology exhibits tremendous diversity between and within species, and is likely related to adaptation to environmental factors. Most poplar species are of great economic and ecological values and their leaf morphology can be a good predictor for wood productivity and environment adaptation. It is important to understand the genetic mechanism behind variation in leaf shape. Although some initial efforts have been made to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for poplar leaf traits, more effort needs to be expended to unravel the polygenic architecture of the complex traits of leaf shape. Here, we performed a genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) of poplar leaf shape traits in a randomized complete block design with clones from F1hybrids ofPopulus deltoidesandPopulus simonii. A total of 35 SNPs were identified as significantly associated with the multiple traits of a moderate number of regular polar radii between the leaf centroid and its edge points, which could represent the leaf shape, based on a multivariate linear mixed model. In contrast, the univariate linear mixed model was applied as single leaf traits for GWAS, leading to genomic inflation; thus, no significant SNPs were detected for leaf length, measures of leaf width, leaf area, or the ratio of leaf length to leaf width under genomic control. Investigation of the candidate genes showed that most flanking regions of the significant leaf shape-associated SNPs harbored genes that were related to leaf growth and development and to the regulation of leaf morphology. The combined use of the traditional experimental design and the multivariate linear mixed model could greatly improve the power in GWAS because the multiple trait data from a large number of individuals with replicates of clones were incorporated into the statistical model. The results of this study will enhance the understanding of the genetic mechanism of leaf shape variation inPopulus. In addition, a moderate number of regular leaf polar radii can largely represent the leaf shape and can be used for GWAS of such a complicated trait inPopulus, instead of the higher-dimensional regular radius data that were previously considered to well represent leaf shape.
Age effects in autobiographical memory depend on the measure
Authors: Mair Ali , Poirier Marie , Conway Martin A.
Published: October 2021

Studies examining age effects in autobiographical memory have produced inconsistent results. This study examined whether a set of typical autobiographical memory measures produced equivalent results in a single participant sample. Five memory tests (everyday memory, autobiographical memory from the past year, autobiographical memory from age 11–17, word-cued autobiographical memory, and word-list recall) were administered in a single sample of young and older adults. There was significant variance in the tests’ sensitivity to age: word-cued autobiographical memory produced the largest deficit in older adults, similar in magnitude to word-list recall. In contrast, older adults performed comparatively well on the other measures. The pattern of findings was broadly consistent with the results of previous investigations, suggesting that (1) the results of the different AM tasks are reliable, and (2) variable age effects in the autobiographical memory literature are at least partly due to the use of different tasks, which cannot be considered interchangeable measures of autobiographical memory ability. The results are also consistent with recent work dissociating measures of specificity and detail in autobiographical memory, and suggest that specificity is particularly sensitive to ageing. In contrast, detail is less sensitive to ageing, but is influenced by retention interval and event type. The extent to which retention interval and event type interact with age remains unclear; further research using specially designed autobiographical memory tasks could resolve this issue.
SpeCollate: Deep cross-modal similarity network for mass spectrometry data based peptide deductions
Authors: Tariq Muhammad Usman , Saeed Fahad
Published: October 2021

Historically, the database search algorithms have been the de facto standard for inferring peptides from mass spectrometry (MS) data. Database search algorithms deduce peptides by transforming theoretical peptides into theoretical spectra and matching them to the experimental spectra. Heuristic similarity-scoring functions are used to match an experimental spectrum to a theoretical spectrum. However, the heuristic nature of the scoring functions and the simple transformation of the peptides into theoretical spectra, along with noisy mass spectra for the less abundant peptides, can introduce a cascade of inaccuracies. In this paper, we design and implement a Deep Cross-Modal Similarity Network called SpeCollate, which overcomes these inaccuracies by learning the similarity function between experimental spectra and peptides directly from the labeled MS data. SpeCollate transforms spectra and peptides into a shared Euclidean subspace by learning fixed size embeddings for both. Our proposed deep-learning network trains on sextuplets of positive and negative examples coupled with our custom-designed SNAP-loss function. Online hardest negative mining is used to select the appropriate negative examples for optimal training performance. We use 4.8 million sextuplets obtained from the NIST and MassIVE peptide libraries to train the network and demonstrate that for closed search, SpeCollate is able to perform better than Crux and MSFragger in terms of the number of peptide-spectrum matches (PSMs) and unique peptides identified under 1% FDR for real-world data. SpeCollate also identifies a large number of peptides not reported by either Crux or MSFragger. To the best of our knowledge, our proposed SpeCollate is the first deep-learning network that can determine the cross-modal similarity between peptides and mass-spectra for MS-based proteomics. We believe SpeCollate is significant progress towards developing machine-learning solutions for MS-based omics data analysis. SpeCollate is available at https://deepspecs.github.io/.
Godzilla and Rodin’s The Gates of Hell
Authors: Lofgren Erik R.
Published: October 2021

Shin Gojira released five years after the devastating triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of March 2011, is an unabashed metaphorical censuring of the Japanese government response to that disaster under Prime Minister Kan Naoto, as well as a warning of the dangers of continued reliance on nuclear power. In this respect, it diverges from the message of nuclear disarmament effected by its 1954 progenitor, Gojira, but it still hews true to Godzilla’s roots as the concretized fear of a particular historical moment with the atom at its heart. This new iteration of Japan’s favourite kaijū, however, offers a trenchant condemnation of Japan’s pursuit of energy autonomy by relying on nuclear power generation. An oblique evocation of Auguste Rodin’s The Gates of Hell at the end of the film and the tip of Godzilla’s tail drive this point home. Through the metaphor of the gate, Godzilla becomes a liminal marker of an alternative possibility. Ultimately, however, although Godzilla is positioned as both a destructive force and a source of hope – as was the atom – the current reality in Japan suggests that the safe path forward has already been closed to the Japanese population.
Special cases of critical linear difference equations
Authors: Jekl Jan
Published: October 2021

In this paper, we investigate even-order linear difference equations and their criticality. However, we restrict our attention only to several special cases of the general Sturm–Liouville equation. We wish to investigate on such cases a possible converse of a known theorem. This theorem holds for second-order equations as an equivalence; however, only one implication is known for even-order equations. First, we show the converse in a sense for one term equations. Later, we show an upper bound on criticality for equations with nonnegative coefficients as well. Finally, we extend the criticality of the second-order linear self-adjoint equation for the class of equations with interlacing indices. In this way, we can obtain concrete examples aiding us with our investigation.
Antioxidant Activity of Pod Coat Extracts of Pigeon Pea (Cajanus Cajan L.) and Their Efficacy in Stabilization of Soybean Oil
Authors: Nehra Sukriti , Singh Sushila , Sangwan Seema , Rani Savita
Published: October 2021

When lipids are exposed to heat, light and oxygen, it leads to oxidation. The addition of antioxidants is required to preserve colour, flavour and vitamin destruction. Present study was, therefore, planned to investigate pod coat of pigeon pea as possible sources of natural antioxidants and to assess their efficacy in stabilization of crude soybean oil during normal storage (28 days at 50°C). Study revealed that acetone pod coat extract of pigeon pea showed richness in total phenolics (17.72 mg/g), flavonoids (9.00 mg/g) and tannins (2.21 mg/g) while the extract of ethyl acetate was found enriched in tocopherols content (9.56 mg/g). The IC50 value of acetone extract was found to be lowest, exhibited potent antioxidant activity in the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and ferric thiocyanate (FTC) methods. After adding synthetic and natural antioxidants in oil, Peroxide, p-Anisidine, Thiobarbituric acid value, Conjugated dienes, trienes and free fatty acids content were measured every 4 days. Acetone pod coat extract (2000ppm) of pigeon pea gave strong antioxidant efficacy in stabilization of crude soybean oil and hence could be recommended as natural antioxidants for food applications.The research explored the possibility of using pod coat of pigeon pea as imminent sources of green antioxidants and to evaluate their efficacy in stabilization of crude soybean oil.
Was there voter fraud in the 2021 Peru Presidential Elections?
Authors: Isea Raúl , Isea Jesús
Published: October 2021

This paper performs a forensic study of the Peru’s presidential election on June 6th, 2021 between Pedro Castillo and Keiko Fujimori, where ex-candidate Keiko Fujimori claimed there had been irregularities. We calculate three p-values that help us determine if there was fraud. The consensus of the results indicates that there was no manipulation of the results.
Frauen - Krieg - Literatur
Authors: Richter Julia
Published: October 2021

Julia Richter widmet sich in diesem Beitrag dem Zusammenhang von Erstem Weltkrieg und Frauenemanzipation. Es wird untersucht, ob die Sinnstiftungsmaßnahmen, die durch die literarische und mediale Kriegspropaganda im Deutschen Reich verbreitet wurden, eine innovative und dauerhafte Neukonzeption der gesellschaftlichen Rolle deutscher bürgerlicher Frauen hervorbrachten.
»War Service for Everybody!«
Authors: Günther Jana
Published: October 2021

Jana Günther widmet sich in dem Beitrag der besonderen Beziehung zwischen Frauenbewegungsorganisationen und Staat in Zeiten der Kriegsmobilmachung. Am Beispiel der britischen Stimmrechtsbewegung zeigt sie, die Strategien und unterschiedlichen Motive von Frauenbewegungsorganisationen vor und während des Ersten Weltkriegs sowie deren spezifische Interpretation von Staatsbürger*innenschaft, Militarismus und Krieg.
Besatzung und Geschlecht
Authors: Laba Agnes
Published: October 2021

Agnes Laba widmet sich in diesem Beitrag der Frage, welche Auswirkungen die deutsche Besatzung während des Zweiten Weltkrieges auf die Geschlechterordnungen und Männlichkeitskonzepte der besetzten Gesellschaften hatte. Dabei wird die These diskutiert, dass die Auswirkungen der Besatzung theoretisch-methodisch von denjenigen von Kriegssituationen unterschieden werden müssen. Die Besatzung forderte demnach zentrale Momente männlicher Identitätsbildungsprozesse im zivilen Bereich heraus. Diese Herausforderungen können dabei nicht losgelöst von den Auswirkungen der Besatzung auf geschlechterspezifische Alltagspraktiken von Frauen betrachtet werden. Erst in der Betrachtung beider Geschlechter lässt sich die Frage beantworten, welche Auswirkung die Besatzung auf europäische Gesellschaften auch über ihr Ende hinaus hatte.
Compression of medical images by quaternionic wavelet transform
Authors: Ledoux Ebassa Eloundou Bertrand , Joseph Oyobe  Okassa AimÃ© , Ndongo Abena HervÃ© , ELE Pierre
Published: October 2021

Technological developments for several years have resulted in the handling (storing, exchanging or processing) of increasingly important data in various fields and particularly in medical field. In this works we present a new image compression / decompression algorithm based on the quaternion wavelet transform (QWT). This algorithm is simple, fast and efficient. It has been applied to medical images. The results obtained after decompression are appreciated through the compression parameter values of CR, PSNR, and MSE and by visual observation. By the values of these parameters, the results of the algorithm are considered encouraging.Â Â
Diagnosis of Medical Images Using Cloud-Deep Learning System
Authors: Jacobs Michael , Arfan Ali , Sheta Alaa
Published: October 2021

Diagnosis of brain tumors is one of the most severe medical problems that affect thousands of people each year in the United States. Manual classification of cancerous tumors through examination of MRI images is a difficult task even for trained professionals. It is an error-prone procedure that is dependent on the experience of the radiologist. Brain tumors, in particular, have a high level of complexity.Â  Therefore, computer-aided diagnosis systems designed to assist with this task are of specific interest for physicians. Accurate detection and classification of brain tumors via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination is a famous approach to analyze MRI images. This paper proposes a method to classify different brain tumors using a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). We explore the performance of several CNN architectures and examine if decreasing the input image resolution affects the model's accuracy. The dataset used to train the model has initially been 3064 MRI scans. We augmented the data set to 8544 MRI scans to balance the available classes of images. The results show that the design of a suitable CNN architecture can significantly better diagnose medical images. The developed model classification performance was up to 97\% accuracy.
Método e individuo en Hobbes
Authors: Villaverde López Guillermo
Published: October 2021

El presente artículo trata de reconstruir la peculiar concepción del individuo y la individualidad que opera en la scientia civilis de Hobbes, y pretende mostrar que dicha concepción forma parte esencial de ese proyecto teórico. En primer lugar se reconstruye la noción hobbesiana de método y, desde ella, se accede a la concepción de la individualidad que surge como aplicación de dicho método al fenómeno de lo civil. En segundo lugar se señalan algunos tramos argumentativos de la obra de Hobbes (especialmente en De Cive y Leviatán) en los que la concepción del individuo ejerce una labor imprescindible de sostenimiento y que, por tanto, serían impensables sin ella. A lo largo de todo el trabajo se pretende también delimitar la relación de Hobbes y su teoría de la individualidad con la filosofía política moderna y con la filosofía moderna en general.
Umbilical trocar port site keloid management using a transposition flap after laparoscopic surgery
Authors: Kwon Hyo Jeong , Kim Jung Hyeou , Lee Chae Rim , Choi Jangyoun , Moon Suk-Ho , Jun Young Joon , Oh Deuk Young
Published: October 2021

Background Keloids can occur anywhere in the human body. They are difficult to remove and can cause distress in patients. Although many options are available to treat keloids, no single method is considered the optimal treatment of choice. The authors encountered cases where an umbilical keloid developed at the trocar site after laparoscopic surgery and managed the keloid using a transposition flap.Methods A total of 10 umbilical keloid patients treated from 2013 to 2020 were included in this study. All patients developed a keloid due to the placement of a laparoscopic trocar incision port, and their major complaints varied from an asymptomatic nodule to pruritus or pain. All excisions were performed under local anesthesia, and transposition flaps were planned afterward. The surrounding tissue was rearranged so that the shape of the umbilicus was deformed to the minimum extent possible. The keloid scars were examined both preoperatively and 6 months postoperatively using the Patient and Observer Scar Assessment Scale (POSAS).Results All surgical wounds healed well without complications. The average time interval from laparoscopic surgery to keloid scar revision was 4.3 years. The mean postoperative follow-up period was 10.9 months, and no patient underwent reoperation. Four patients were treated with triamcinolone after surgery due to mild hypertrophy or pruritus. The POSAS observer scale showed significantly decreasing scores over time in all patients (P=0.002).Conclusions Cosmetically unfavorable keloids that form in the umbilicus following laparoscopic surgery can be improved with a simple procedure using excision and transposition flaps.
Breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma: a case report with a history of spontaneously resolved late seroma
Authors: Kim Do Yeon , Hur Joon , Han Woo Yeon , Min Kyunghyun , Lee Jong Won , Eom Jin Sup , Han Hyun Ho , Kim Eun Key
Published: October 2021

We report a case of breast implant-associated anaplastic large cell lymphoma (BIA-ALCL), which had a history of spontaneous resorption of late seroma before diagnosis. A 47-year-old woman with a history of augmentation mammoplasty with round textured implants in January 2013 presented with a swelling on her right breast 6 years later, which was diagnosed as late seroma with suspected intracapsular rupture using ultrasonography (USG). Although aspiration was not done at the time of the initial USG, the seroma resolved spontaneously within weeks. A further workup proceeded with USG-guided aspiration followed by magnetic resonance imaging. Cytology of the aspirated fluid showed atypical cells. Cell block cytology and immunohistochemical staining confirmed the diagnosis of BIA-ALCL. En bloc resection with total capsulectomy and explantation was performed as curative surgery. Pathologic stage pT2N0M0 was confirmed and the patient was followed up without further treatment. Although the classic presentation of BIA-ALCL is known as late persistent seroma, an atypical manifestation such as spontaneous resorption may occur, as in the current case. A high level of suspicion and a thorough investigation with appropriate modalities will make it possible to detect this rare and potentially devastating disease.
The reverse lip design: a design for safe and effective abdominoplasty
Authors: Go Ju Young , Kim Ryuck Seong , Ock Jae Jin , Jeong Bohrham , Bae Seong Hwan
Published: October 2021

Conventional abdominoplasty includes the removal of an ellipse-shaped section of abdominal tissue between the umbilicus and mons pubis. However, this method can result in tension of the undermined flap, especially in the midline. To address this problem, we present reverse lip design as a modified method that also has aesthetic advantages. The reverse lip design entails a longer lower flap edge while preserving the triangular tissue in the vascularly stable pubis area. These markings create an image of a reverse lip shape with a cleft at the bottom of the lower markings. After typical lipoabdominoplasty is performed, redundant waist tissues can easily be pulled inward and downward. The reverse lip design abdominoplasty demonstrated no complications and required no further revisions after the procedure. Patients were generally satisfied with the aesthetic improvements in their body shape. They were also able to return to their routine activities approximately 1 week after the operation while wearing a supporting undergarment. This modified abdominoplasty using the reverse lip design reduces low midline tension of the undermined abdominal flap while enhancing body aesthetics with a slimmer waistline, leading to higher patient satisfaction.
Psychological factors in organizations evaluation
Authors: Deciu Valeriu
Published: October 2021

When major corporate breaches have occurred, the blame and the punishment always has been on the so-called “bad apples” in an organization. The trouble with such an approach ignores the cultural and psychological context about which the “bad apple” flourishes. Usually, corporate breaches seem to occur in two areas; they will either involve ethical or legal violations. An understanding of ethical and compliance issues in an organization is thus of utmost importance. These issues herein inspired research. The concern of the study will be the psychological factors within an organization that need understanding from an ethical or compliance point of view.
Sound of databases
Authors: Groppe Sven , Klinckenberg Rico , Warnke Benjamin
Published: October 2021

Sonifications map data to auditory dimensions and offer a new audible experience to their listeners. We propose a sonification of query processing paired with a corresponding visualization both integrated in a web application. In this demonstration we show that the sonification of different types of relational operators generates different sound patterns, which can be recognized and identified by listeners increasing their understanding of the operators' functionality and supports easy remembering of requirements like merge joins work on sorted input. Furthermore, new ways of analyzing query processing are possible with the sonification approach.
PostCENN
Authors: Woltmann Lucas , Olwig Dominik , Hartmann Claudio , Habich Dirk , Lehner Wolfgang
Published: October 2021

In this demo, we present
PostCENN
, an enhanced PostgreSQL database system with an end-to-end integration of machine learning (ML) models for cardinality estimation. In general, cardinality estimation is a topic with a long history in the database community. While traditional models like histograms are extensively used, recent works mainly focus on developing new approaches using ML models. However, traditional as well as ML models have their own advantages and disadvantages. With
PostCENN
, we aim to combine both to maximize their potentials for cardinality estimation by introducing ML models as a novel means to increase the accuracy of the cardinality estimation for certain parts of the database schema. To achieve this, we integrate ML models as first class citizen in PostgreSQL with a well-defined end-to-end life cycle. This life cycle consists of creating ML models for different sub-parts of the database schema, triggering the training, using ML models within the query optimizer in a transparent way, and deleting ML models.
ATLANTIC
Authors: Cao Lei , Xiao Dongqing , Yan Yizhou , Madden Samuel , Li Guoliang
Published: October 2021

Differential privacy promises to enable data sharing and general data analytics while protecting individual privacy. Because the private data is often stored in the form of relational database that supports SQL queries, making SQL-based analytics differentially private is thus critical. However, the existing SQL-based differentially private systems either only focus on specific type of SQL queries such as COUNT or substantially modify the database engine, thus obstructing adoption in practice. Worse yet, these systems often do not guarantee the desired accuracy by the applications. In this demonstration, using the driving trace workload from Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT), we show that our ATLANTIC system, as a database middleware, enforces differential privacy for real-world SQL queries with provable accuracy guarantees and is compatible with existing databases. Moreover, using a sampling-based technique, ATLANTIC significantly speeds up the query execution, yet effectively amplifying the privacy guarantee.
A demonstration of RELIC
Authors: Rehman Mohammed Suhail , Huang Silu , Elmore Aaron J.
Published: October 2021

The ad-hoc, heterogeneous process of modern data science typically involves loading, cleaning, and mutating dataset(s) into multiple versions recorded as artifacts by various tools within a single data science workflow. Lineage information, including the source datasets, data transformation programs or scripts, or manual annotations, is rarely captured, making it difficult to infer the relationships between artifacts in a given workflow retrospectively. We demonstrate Relic, a tool to retrospectively infer the lineage of data artifacts generated as a result of typical data science workflows, with an interactive demonstration that allows users to input artifact files and visualize the inferred lineage in a web-based setting.
SChain
Authors: Chen Zhihao , Zhuo Haizhen , Xu Quanqing , Qi Xiaodong , Zhu Chengyu , Zhang Zhao , Jin Cheqing , Zhou Aoying , Yan Ying , Zhang Hui
Published: October 2021

We demonstrate SChain, a consortium blockchain that scales transaction processing to support large-scale enterprise applications. The unique advantage of SChain stems from the exploitation of both intra- and inter-block concurrency. The intra-block concurrency not only takes advantage of the multi-core processor on a single peer but also leverages the capacity of multiple peers. The interblock concurrency enables simultaneous processing across multiple blocks to increase the utilization of various peers. In our demonstration, we use real-time dashboards containing visualization based on the output of SChain to give the attendees interactive explorations of how SChain achieves intra- and inter-block concurrency.
A demonstration of the exathlon benchmarking platform for explainable anomaly detection
Authors: Jacob Vincent , Song Fei , Stiegler Arnaud , Rad Bijan , Diao Yanlei , Tatbul Nesime
Published: October 2021

In this demo, we introduce Exathlon - a new benchmarking platform for explainable anomaly detection over high-dimensional time series. We designed Exathlon to support data scientists and researchers in developing and evaluating learned models and algorithms for detecting anomalous patterns as well as discovering their explanations. This demo will showcase Exathlon's curated anomaly dataset, novel benchmarking methodology, and end-to-end data science pipeline in action via example usage scenarios.
Big metadata
Authors: Edara Pavan , Pasumansky Mosha
Published: October 2021

The rapid emergence of cloud data warehouses like Google BigQuery has redefined the landscape of data analytics. With the growth of data volumes, such systems need to scale to hundreds of EiB of data in the near future. This growth is accompanied by an increase in the number of objects stored and the amount of metadata such systems must manage. Traditionally, Big Data systems have tried to reduce the amount of metadata in order to scale the system, often compromising query performance. In Google BigQuery, we built a metadata management system that demonstrates that massive scale can be achieved without such tradeoffs. We recognized the benefits that fine grained metadata provides for query processing and we built a metadata system to manage it effectively. We use the same distributed query processing and data management techniques that we use for managing data to handle Big metadata. Today, BigQuery uses these techniques to support queries over billions of objects and their metadata.
Extending the lifetime of NVM
Authors: Kargar Saeed , Nawab Faisal
Published: October 2021

Recently, Non-Volalile Memory (NVM) technology has revolutionized the landscape or memory systems. With many advantages, such as non volatility and near zero standby power consumption, these byte-addressable memory technologies are taking the place of DRAMs. Nonetheless, they also present some limitations, such as limited write endurance, which hinders their widespread use in today's systems. Furthermore, adjusting current data management systems to embrace these new memory technologies and all their potential is proving to be a nontrivial task. Because of this, a substantial amount of research has been done, from both the database community and the storage systems community, that tries to improve various aspects of NVMs to integrate these technologies into the memory hierarchy. In this tutorial we survey state-of-the-art work on deploying NVMs in database and storage systems communities and the ways their limitations are being handled within these communities. In particular, we focus on the challenges that are related to low write endurance and extending the lifetime of NVM devices.
Modularis
Authors: Koutsoukos Dimitrios , Müller Ingo , Marroquín Renato , Klimovic Ana , Alonso Gustavo
Published: October 2021

The enormous quantity of data produced every day together with advances in data analytics has led to a proliferation of data management and analysis systems. Typically, these systems are built around highly specialized monolithic operators optimized for the underlying hardware. While effective in the short term, such an approach makes the operators cumbersome to port and adapt, which is increasingly required due to the speed at which algorithms and hardware evolve. To address this limitation, we present
Modularis
, an execution layer for data analytics based on
sub-operators
, i.e., composable building blocks resembling traditional database operators but at a finer granularity. To demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of our approach, we use Modularis to build a distributed query processing system supporting relational queries running on an RDMA cluster, a serverless cloud platform, and a smart storage engine. Modularis requires minimal code changes to execute queries across these three diverse hardware platforms, showing that the sub-operator approach reduces the amount and complexity of the code to maintain. In fact, changes in the platform affect only those sub-operators that depend on the underlying hardware (in our use cases, mainly the sub-operators related to network communication). We show the end-to-end performance of Modularis by comparing it with a framework for SQL processing (Presto), a commercial cluster database (SingleStore), as well as Query-as-a-Service systems (Athena, BigQuery). Modularis outperforms all these systems, proving that the design and architectural advantages of a modular design can be achieved without degrading performance. We also compare Modularis with a hand-optimized implementation of a join for RDMA clusters. We show that Modularis has the advantage of being easily extensible to a wider range of join variants and
group by
queries, all of which are not supported in the hand-tuned join.
Development and validation of the questionnaire on EFL students’ perceptions of authorial stance in academic writing
Authors: Zhang Lu , Zhang Lawrence Jun
Published: October 2021

Studies on academic writing of EFL students have found that they have been less successful in presenting an effective stance. It has been assumed that how they perceive authorial stance may influence their stance deployment. Yet few studies have been conducted to assess student writers’ perceptions of stance. To fill the gap, this research intends to develop and validate an instrument, thePerceptions of Authorial Stance Questionnaire(PASQ), for assessing EFL students’ perceptions of authorial stance and further exploring their relationships with stance deployment and the overall quality of English academic writing. Taking a dialogic perspective, we designed the research with two studies in it. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis with 197 respondents and subsequent confirmatory factor analysis with another sample of 191 respondents produced results of a 17 item scale with two-factors: dialogic contraction and dialogic expansion. In Study 2, scores for the two subscales of the PASQ were examined in relation to the frequencies of various stance types and writing scores. Results show that scores for the two subscales of perceptions were positively correlated with the frequencies of different stance types. However, no significant relationship was detected between students’ perceptions and their writing scores. Possible reasons of the findings and their pedagogical implications are discussed.
On the torsion values for sections of an elliptic scheme
Authors: Corvaja Pietro , Demeio Julian , Masser David , Zannier Umberto
Published: October 2021

We shall consider sections of a complex elliptic scheme

ℰ

{{{\mathcal{E}}}}

over an affine base curve B, and study the points of B where the section takes a torsion value. In particular, we shall relate the distribution in B of these points with the canonical height of the section, proving an integral formula involving a measure on B coming from the so-called Betti map of the section. We shall show that this measure is the same one which appears in dynamical issues related to the section.

This analysis will also involve the multiplicity with which a torsion value is attained, which is an independent problem. We shall prove finiteness theorems for the points where the multiplicity is higher than expected. Such multiplicity has also a relation with Diophantine Approximation and quasi-integral points on

ℰ

{{{\mathcal{E}}}}

(over the affine ring of B), and in Sections 5 and 6 of the paper we shall exploit this viewpoint, proving an effective result in the spirit of Siegel’s theorem on integral points.
Solution of a production process with the application of simulation: A case study
Authors: Mikušová Nikoleta , Petrović Milenko , Mitrik Vladimír , Šarišský Richard
Published: October 2021

Simulation programs are increasingly being used to solve material flow problems. These programs are primarily used for the simulation of production or transport processes. Testing of a new type of control in-process would mean stopping production and testing experiments with uncertain results. To avoid this lengthy and above all expensive way of any change, simulation programs have been used. Simulations of production processes in these programs enable better production planning and examination of bottlenecks in the production process by proposing changes, such as robots, conveyors, or also various logistics controls. The advantage is not only the fact that the production does not have to be interrupted, but also that it is possible to try many different experiments in a simulation process. The article is focused on the analysis of the production process in a selected production enterprise. After the analysis, the Tecnomatix Plant Simulation program was used for the creation of production process simulation. Results and improvements to the production process were proposed from the initial simulation with a focus on practical use.