bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Knowledge management system implementation success: A social capital perspective
Authors: Nyame Gabriel , Ampomah Ernest Kwame , Adu-Gyamfi Mavis
Published: August 2021

BACKGROUND:

Organizations develop knowledge management (KM) strategies with the intention to leverage knowledge across all functional areas. A knowledge management system (KMS) is used to facilitate KM processes such as the creation, storage, and application of knowledge. However, mere adoption and deployment of KMS do not warrant its effective use to facilitate knowledge-sharing efforts.

OBJECTIVE:

This study investigates the facilitative role of social capital in the use of KMS by considering three social capital dimensions –cognitive (i.e., shared norms), relational (i.e., trust), and structural (i.e., social connectedness).

METHODS:

A case study strategy was used for this study. A mixed approach of qualitative and quantitative techniques was used to obtain relevant data for analysis. Instruments used to collect the data were semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Documents regarding social policy, shared values, and shared goals were also obtained for triangulation purposes. A total of 15 respondents were interviewed while 73 respondents participated in the survey. A simple random sampling technique was used to select the participants and the survey data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation, factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis.

RESULTS:

The study found that each of the three dimensions of social capital has a positive and significant relationship with the use of KMS. Specifically, shared norms (i.e., cognitive social capital), trust (i.e., relational social capital), and strong connectedness (i.e., structural social capital) were good predictors of employees’ use of KMS while user attitude and perceived usefulness mediate social capital dimensions in terms of KMS usage for knowledge exchange or transfer in the organization.

CONCLUSIONS:

The application of social capital theory to KMS context should be a very important consideration by both researchers and practitioners due to the socio-technical nature of KMS and the need to recognize social capital as a mechanism for inducement and opportunity to promote KMS usage for successful knowledge sharing.
HDinHD: A Rich Data Portal for Huntington’s Disease Research
Authors: Aaronson Jeff , Beaumont Vahri , Blevins Richard A. , Andreeva Viktoria , Murasheva Irina , Shneyderman Anastasia , Armah Kabenla , Gill Rob , Chen Jian , Rosinski Jim , Park Larry C. , Coppola Giovanni , Munoz-Sanjuan Ignacio , Vogt Thomas F.
Published: August 2021

HDinHD (Huntington’s Disease in High Definition; HDinHD.org) is an open online portal for the HD research community that presents a synthesized view of HD-related scientific data. Here, we present a broad overview of HDinHD and highlight the newly launched HDinHD Explorer tool that enables researchers to discover and explore a wide range of diverse yet interconnected HD-related data. We demonstrate the utility of HDinHD Explorer through data mining of a single collection of newly released in vivo therapeutic intervention study reports alongside previously published reports.
Implementation of a predictive energy management strategy for battery and supercapacitor hybrid energy storage systems of pure electric vehicles1
Authors: Zhang Qiao , Cheng Xiaoliang , Liao Shaoyi
Published: August 2021

Hybrid energy storage system supplies a feasible solution to battery peak current reduction by introducing supercapacitor as auxiliary energy source. Energy management control strategy is a key technology for guaranteeing performance. In this paper, we describe a predictive energy management strategy for battery and supercapacitor hybrid energy storage systems of pure electric vehicles. To utilize the supercapacitor reasonably, Markov chain model is proposed to predict the future load power during a driving cycle. The predictive results are subsequently used by power distribution strategy, which is designed using a low-pass filter and a fuzzy logic controller. The strategy model is developed under MATLAB/Simulink software environment. To validate the performance of the proposed control strategy, a comparison test is implemented based on a 72 V rated voltage hybrid energy storage system experimental platform. The results indicate that the battery peak currents by proposed predictive control strategy are reduced by 26.32%, 28.21% and 27.12% under the UDDS, SC03 and NEDC three driving cycles respectively.
A branch & cut/metaheuristic optimization of financial supply chain based on input-output network flows: investigating the Iranian orthopedic footwear
Authors: Liu Peide , Hendalianpour Ayad
Published: August 2021

Financial flows are one of the three majors in a Supply Chain (SC). Ignoring financial flows, regardless of the quality of freight transport and information, could lead the organization to a state of bankruptcy, which is a situation directly resulting from a lack of control over financial inputs/outputs. This study proposes a multi-product mathematical model, which makes it possible to choose among suppliers, manufacturing sites, distribution centres, retailers, and transportation vehicles. The purpose of the model is to integrate physical and material dimensions to maximize net corporate profits through inbound and outbound financial flows; it involves payment mechanisms between the financial and physical flows through maximizing the cash flows of manufacturing sites and suppliers, as two conflicting objectives that must consider the reciprocal effects of their decisions. These objectives are calculated by subtracting costs from the revenue; this process, of course, will ultimately result in an optimization of the organization’s financial flow. To solve the proposed mathematical model, the study relies on two algorithms, namely Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Imperialist Competition Algorithm (ICA). The sample under investigation is solved separately using the three algorithms, and results are then compared. The observations of the study reveal the better performance of PSO.
An efficient non-iterative method for computing the centroid of an interval type-2 fuzzy set
Authors: Moradi Zirkohi Majid , Lin Tsung-Chih
Published: August 2021

Interval type-2 fuzzy logic systems (IT2FLSs) have better abilities to cope with uncertainties in many applications. One major drawback of IT2FLSs is the high computational cost of the iterative Karnik-Mendel (KM) algorithms in type-reduction (TR). From the practical point of view, this prevents using IT2FLS in real-world applications. To address this issue, a novel non-iterative method called Moradi-Zirkohi-Lin (MZL) TR method is proposed for computing the centroid of an IT2FLS. This makes the practical implementation of the IT2FLSs simpler. Comparative simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the KM TR method in terms of computational burden. Besides, closer results, in terms of accuracy, to the KM TR method among the existing non-iterative TR methods are also achieved by the proposed TR method.
Micro-expression recognition based on facial action learning with muscle movement constraints
Authors: Cen Shixin , Yu Yang , Yan Gang , Yu Ming , Kong Yanlei
Published: August 2021

As a spontaneous facial expression, micro-expression reveals the psychological responses of human beings. However, micro-expression recognition (MER) is highly susceptible to noise interference due to the short existing time and low-intensity of facial actions. Research on facial action coding systems explores the correlation between emotional states and facial actions, which provides more discriminative features. Therefore, based on the exploration of correlation information, the goal of our work is to propose a spatiotemporal network that is robust to low-intensity muscle movements for the MER task. Firstly, a multi-scale weighted module is proposed to encode the spatial global context, which is obtained by merging features of different resolutions preserved from the backbone network. Secondly, we propose a multi-task-based facial action learning module using the constraints of the correlation between muscle movement and micro-expressions to encode local action features. Besides, a clustering constraint term is introduced to restrict the feature distribution of similar actions to improve categories’ separability in feature space. Finally, the global context and local action features are stacked as high-quality spatial descriptions to predict micro-expressions by passing through the Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory (ConvLSTM) network. The proposed method is proved to outperform other mainstream methods through comparative experiments on the SMIC, CASME-I, and CASME-II datasets.
ETKDS: An efficient algorithm of Top-K high utility itemsets mining over data streams under sliding window model
Authors: Cheng Haodong , Han Meng , Zhang Ni , Wang Le , Li Xiaojuan
Published: August 2021

The researcher proposed the concept of Top-K high-utility itemsets mining over data streams. Users directly specify the number K of high-utility itemsets they wish to obtain for mining with no need to set a minimum utility threshold. There exist some problems in current Top-K high-utility itemsets mining algorithms over data streams including the complex construction process of the storage structure, the inefficiency of threshold raising strategies and utility pruning strategies, and large scale of the search space, etc., which still can not meet the requirement of real-time processing over data streams with limited time and memory constraints. To solve this problem, this paper proposes an efficient algorithm based on dataset projection for mining Top-K high-utility itemsets from a data stream. A data structure CIUDataListSW is also proposed, which stores the position of the item in the transaction to effectively obtain the initial projected dataset of the item. In order to improve the projection efficiency, this paper innovates a new reorganization technology for projected transactions in common batches to maintain the sort order of transactions in the process of dataset projection. Dual pruning strategy and transaction merging mechanism are also used to further reduce search space and dataset scanning costs. In addition, based on the proposed CUDHSW structure, an efficient threshold raising strategy CUD is used, and a new threshold raising strategy CUDCB is designed to further shorten the mining time. Experimental results show that the algorithm has great advantages in running time and memory consumption, and it is especially suitable for the mining of high-utility itemsets of dense datasets.
Local quasi-linear embedding based on kronecker product expansion of vectors
Authors: Niu Guo , Ma Zhengming
Published: August 2021

Locally Linear Embedding (LLE) is honored as the first algorithm of manifold learning. Generally speaking, the relation between a data and its nearest neighbors is nonlinear and LLE only extracts its linear part. Therefore, local nonlinear embedding is an important direction of improvement to LLE. However, any attempt in this direction may lead to a significant increase in computational complexity. In this paper, a novel algorithm called local quasi-linear embedding (LQLE) is proposed. In our LQLE, each high-dimensional data vector is first expanded by using Kronecker product. The expanded vector contains not only the components of the original vector, but also the polynomials of its components. Then, each expanded vector of high dimensional data is linearly approximated with the expanded vectors of its nearest neighbors. In this way, the proposed LQLE achieves a certain degree of local nonlinearity and learns the data dimensionality reduction results under the principle of keeping local nonlinearity unchanged. More importantly, LQLE does not increase computation complexity by only replacing the data vectors with their Kronecker product expansions in the original LLE program. Experimental results between our proposed methods and four comparison algorithms on various datasets demonstrate the well performance of the proposed methods.
An effective digit recognition model using enhanced convolutional neural network based chaotic grey wolf optimization
Authors: Preethi P. , Asokan R. , Thillaiarasu N. , Saravanan T.
Published: August 2021

Classical Handwriting recognition systems depend on manual feature extraction with a lot of previous domain knowledge. It’s difficult to train an optical character recognition system based on these requirements. Deep learning approaches are at the centre of handwriting recognition research, which has yielded breakthrough results in recent years. However, the rapid growth in the amount of handwritten data combined with the availability of enormous processing power necessitates an increase in recognition accuracy and warrants further investigation. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are extremely good at perceiving the structure of handwritten characters in ways that allow for the automatic extraction of distinct features, making CNN the best method for solving handwriting recognition problems. In this research work, a novel CNN has built to modify the network structure with Orthogonal Learning Chaotic Grey Wolf Optimization (CNN-OLCGWO). This modification is adopted for evolutionarily optimizing the number of hyper-parameters. This proposed optimizer predicts the optimal values from the fitness computation and shows better efficiency when compared to various other conventional approaches. The ultimate target of this work is to endeavour a suitable path towards digitalization by offering superior accuracy and better computation. Here, MATLAB 2018b has been used as the simulation environment to measure metrics like accuracy, recall, precision, and F-measure. The proposed CNN- OLCGWO offers a superior trade-off in contrary to prevailing approaches.
The microecology of identity in the last plays of Lanford Wilson
Authors:   , Munson Derek R.
Published: August 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Critical assessments of Lanford Wilson's dramas are incomplete, with most studies ending about the time of Burn This (1987); furthermore, little is known about his social identity. This study identifies and interrogates the missing information about Wilson's life story and late career dramas: Redwood Curtain, Sympathetic Magic, and Book of Days. The themes that inform my analysis of Wilson's identity and dramaturgy are fathers and family, betrayal, sexuality, and addiction. Wilson was traumatized by his father's abandonment as a child, then traumatized again when his father rejected him for being gay. The works in this study reflect Wilson's trauma and betrayal, his alcoholism, and his homosexuality. By identifying and naming this missing information about Wilson, this study, the first dissertation to use the Lanford Wilson Theatre Collection at the University of Missouri, lays the groundwork for a comprehensive biographical narrative about his life and career.
Multisensory working memory in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Authors:   , Bellesheim Katherine
Published: August 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Working memory impairments are commonly-reported in individuals with ASD, although these reports have been limited to unisensory memory within a single sensory domain. Recent studies have begun to quantify and characterize the development of the domain-general and domain-specific mental faculties that support multisensory working memory. It remains unclear whether ASD-related working memory impairments may be associated with disruptions in domain-general and/or domain-specific resources and whether atypical sensory processing, a prevalent diagnostic criterion of ASD, may impact these cognitive processes. The current study was designed to assess unisensory and multisensory working memory and to elucidate the extent to which domain-general and domain-specific processes may contribute to documented working memory deficits in ASD. A secondary goal was to explore how atypical sensory processing (as reflected by caregiver report) may relate to these findings. A sample of 55 adolescents (32 with ASD and 23 without ASD) ages 11 to 15 were administered working memory tasks consisting of unisensory (visual or auditory) and multisensory (visual and auditory) to-be-remembered stimuli. Results confirmed the presence of unisensory working memory deficits in adolescents with ASD. Regarding multisensory working memory, an atypical pattern of domain-general and domain-specific components was identified in younger adolescents with ASD. Evidence was demonstrated that this difference may normalize later in adolescence. Elevated sensory symptomology (i.e., hyperreactivity and sensation avoidance) was negatively correlated with multisensory, but not unisensory, working memory. Future research should continue to explore the role of modality (unisensory vs multisensory), integration, and sensory functioning in working memory.
Artificial intelligence driven framework for the structurization of free-text diagnostic reports
Authors:   , Giannaris Pericles Stavros
Published: August 2021

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] Free-text sections of diagnostic reports contain a wealth of data on patients, diseases, and complex diagnostic processes. However, free-text data are a poor starting point for computer-based analytics. The majority of natural language processing (NLP) based approaches lack a capacity to accurately extract complex diagnostic entities and their relationships as well as to provide adequate knowledge representation (KR) for down-stream data mining applications. In order to overcome these limitations, a novel informatics framework is introduced for the analysis of free-text diagnostic reports. The framework is based on artificial intelligence (AI) modeling. Here, AI-based modeling integrates natural language processing information extraction techniques (NLP-IE), ontology-based knowledge representation, n-ary relations according to ontological patterns, and information entropy-based data mining approaches. Diagnostic reports are transformed to knowledge graphs (KGs) of relational triples for further analysis using computers. The goal is to facilitate analysis of diagnostic reports using computers. This informatics framework has potential to broadly impact diagnostic medicine and to be extended to other biomedical domains as well.
The relationship between medication adherence, health literacy and social support network in the hypertensive emergency department patient
Authors:   , Coe Benjamin L.
Published: August 2021

Hypertension (HTN) is a major risk factor for the development of heart disease, which is the number one cause of death in the United States (U.S.). The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) led to a significant increase in emergency department (ED) visits: up to 20 [percent] of visits are considered as avoidable. Many patients present to EDs with uncontrolled chronic health conditions, such as HTN, which can be successfully managed in the outpatient setting. Factors contributing to the large volume of patients that present to the ED with uncontrolled HTN has been understudied. This cross-sectional study examined relationships between selected demographic and health variables, medication adherence, health literacy and social support network among adults (n=50) with HTN that presented to the ED. Participants were predominantly male (56 [percent]), 41-60 years old (46 [percent]), and Caucasian (60 [percent]). Only 36 [percent] of participants were adherent to their HTN medications, 42 [percent] had adequate health literacy, and 38 [percent] perceived high levels of social support. The variable with the strongest correlation to medication adherence was last primary care provider (PCP) visit (-0.473, p [less than] 0.001). However only 54 [percent] of participants had seen a PCP over the last 6 months. Increasing PCP visits and reducing avoidable ED visits has the potential to improve chronic disease health outcomes and reduce health care costs. This study has provided evidence that it is both acceptable and feasible to perform research in the ED setting that addresses chronic health conditions, such as HTN. Findings from this study may be used to inform novel ED interventions that can help adults to better manage their chronic health conditions, such as HTN, outside of the acute care setting.
A survey of brand co-creation and online brand community engagement with U.S. consumers
Authors:   , Jones Robert
Published: August 2021

The focus of the research is on the application of brand co-creation and online brand community (OBC) engagement as increasingly popular concepts in the areas of branding, brand management, and advertising. A theoretical orientation is developed upon reviewing the literature, definitions of key concepts are provided, and hypotheses are formulated to address the context of U.S. consumers who engage with OBCs on social networking sites (SNSs). Specifically, the research extends understanding of brand co-creation and OBC engagement by empirically examining the influence of perceived brand co-creation and OBC engagement on OBC membership, OBC commitment, and brand loyalty. The present study was motivated by disagreements in the literature over definitions, overlap, and lack of delineation between engagement and co-creation. Additionally, the study observes whether race plays a role in the relationships between brand co-creation, OBC engagement, OBC membership, OBC commitment, and brand loyalty. This was motivated by a general lack of advertising research on African American consumers, who offer a unique cultural perspective that, if investigated, will enhance understanding. Using Qualtrics, 420 responses were collected from a panel of African American and White American SNS users. To the researcher's knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate both brand co-creation and OBC engagement within the context of SNSs. The study contributes to branding and advertising research and practice by examining what an OBC is from the perspective of U.S. consumers, how U.S. consumers co-create brand meaning, the relationship between brand cocreation and OBC engagement, and the impact these psychological processes have on consumers' social identities (i.e. OBC membership), OBC commitment, and brand loyalty. The researcher anticipates that results provide theoretical and practical insights about the adoption and usage of OBCs as part of a larger marketing and communication strategy.
Narrating disturbance : risk, power, and Mountain Pine Beetles
Authors:   , Prentice Elizabeth Waterbury
Published: August 2021

Beginning in the mid 1990's, an outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) in northern Colorado affected over 3.4 million acres of primarily lodgepole pine forest. Mountain Pine Beetle are native to these forests, but the outbreak occurred at an unprecedented scope and scale, reflecting the legacy of forest management policies since the early days of European settlement and evoking new experiences and understandings of landscape in the resource-dependent region. Like much of the American West, this region is in the midst of a transition away from traditional extractive economies towards economies rooted in natural amenities and aesthetic landscape consumption. This transition is accompanied by demographic and cultural shifts, and has implications for the way that natural spaces are understood and ideas about what activities should orient people's relationships to the natural world. Across the disturbance affected area, three sites were selected to represent economic ideal types, ranging from high amenity resort destinations to small rural communities with strong roots in extraction. With data drawn from local newspapers, local and regional organizational publications, state and federal forest service documents and 26 interviews with subjects representing actor groups across the region, local narratives of environmental change were explored through the lens of green governmentality to understand how experiences of environmental change were contextualized by ongoing economic restructuring and cultural shifts. The meaning of the changing image of the landscape, the history of the timber industry in the state and competing narratives of industry decline, and the historic implications of forest management policies in disturbance-dependent forests are explored to shed light on the way that perceptions of landscape are anchored in complex social terrain and how nature can evoke new understandings of nature.
Mental health education in New York state schools : the teachers' perspective
Authors:   , Arikupurathu Neethu
Published: August 2021

In response to the rise in mental health issues among youth, New York State (NYS) now requires all schools' curriculums to include mental health education. The purpose of this study was to understand the perspectives of high school teachers in NYS -- on school-based mental health education, its implementation, its effectiveness, and its impact on student and teacher mental health outcomes. The Theory of Organizational Readiness for Change can be used in an organization, such as a school system, to determine if the necessary factors are present for the successful implementation of new policies as incorporating a mental health educational program into the existing curriculum. Participants (N=20) with a minimum of 3 years of classroom experience were recruited through Facebook and snowball sampling. Using a qualitative descriptive approach, a semi-structured, open-ended interview guide was developed and used to interview participants. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze interviews and derive common themes. The main themes that emerged included the following: (a) a broken system, (b) mental health issues impact teachers and the classroom environment, (c) student mental health challenges in schools are complex and multifaceted, and (d) effective school mental health education needs a multi-faceted approach. Teachers play a pivotal role in the academic, social, and emotional development of students. This study highlights a need for policy changes that will support teachers in dealing with mental health issues in the classroom.
A STUDY ON ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS IN PATIENTS ON ANTIRETROVIRAL THERAPY IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL AT JAIPUR, RAJASTHAN
Authors: Gupta Vishnu , Agarwal Abhishek
Published: August 2021

Background: The present study was conducted to know the status of ADRs caused due to the first line ART in the ART center of SMS Hospital Jaipur, Rajasthan. This study would be beneficial to the HIV infected patients, with the ultimate goal of improving the tolerability and effectiveness of HIV treatment by promoting the early recognition of potentially serious adverse effects.

Methods: Hospital based Prospective, Observational study conducted after approval by research review board and ethics committee SMS Medical College Jaipur (Rajasthan). WHO definition of ADR was used (any response to a medicine which is noxious and unintended and which occurs at doses normally used in man). The detail of ADRs collected including suspected drug involved, treatment given for ADRs and outcome.

Results: Majority of ADRs were related to central and peripheral nervous system related 55 (47%) followed by gastro intestinal 28 (23.9%), dermatological 15 (12.8%), musculoskeletal 9 (7.7%) and metabolic 5 (4.3%).

Conclusion: Majority of ADRs were related to central and peripheral nervous system related followed by gastro intestinal.

Keywords: ADRs, HIV, WHO.
KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES ABOUT CONTRACEPTIVE AMONG REPRODUCTIVE AGE GROUP FEMALES
Authors: Mahla Neeti , Choudhary Mukesh
Published: August 2021

Background: Aim of current study was to assess the knowledge, attitude & practices of contraceptives among married women of reproductive age group.

Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted on females between 15-45 years was included while unmarried females were excluded. The participation was on voluntary basis. Questions regarding factors responsible for non use of contraception were also asked. All data were analyzed by Epi-info software.

Results: Out of 1000 women, 634(63.40%) had knowledge about family planning. 62.00% knew about condom, followed by OCPs & other methods.  Only 8.00% Women were aware of emergency contraceptive.

Conclusions: Our study highlights that knowledge and awareness doesn’t always lead to the use of contraceptives. One needs to understand the level of awareness and practices in the community before implementing the family planning program

Keyword: Attitude, Practice, Contraception, Reproductive age group
THYROID DISORDERS AND POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME
Authors: Mahla Neeti , Choudhary Mukesh
Published: August 2021

Background: Thyroid disorders and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are two of the most common endocrine disorders in the general population. To study the thyroid profile in polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Methods: 50 cases of women with PCOS based on Rotterdam’s criteria and an equal number of age-matched controls (women without PCOS) were included in the study.

Results: In our study T4 level was significantly lower in PCOS group (0.69± 0.56 ng/ml ) as compare to control  (1.87± 0.86 ng/ml ). T3 level was significantly higher in PCOS group (2.38± 1.09 ng/ml) as compare to control  (2.11± 1.06 ng/ml ). TSH level was significantly higher in PCOS group (8.12± 6.32 ng/ml ) as compare to control  (3.36± 1.06 ng/ml ).

Conclusion: High prevalence of thyroid disorders in PCOS patients thus points towards the importance of early correction of hypothyroidism in the management of infertility associated with PCOS.

Keywords: T4, T3, TSH, PCOS
A STUDY TO ASSESS PREDICTIVE ROLE OF C-REACTIVE PROTEIN IN EARLY PREGNANCY AMONG WOMEN
Authors: Mahla Neeti , Choudhary Mukesh
Published: August 2021

Background: To Assess Predictive Role of C-Reactive Protein In Early Pregnancy among Women

Methods: Hospital based comparative analysis was conducted on Women with early pregnancy upto 14 weeks with either abdominal pain or vaginal bleeding or suspected extrauterine pregnancy. C-reactive protein (CRP) quantitative estimation is done by turbi-diametric method. Collected samples were sent to a designated lab of our hospital.

Results: The mean c-reactive protein level in cases 2.31 with min-max value ranging from 0.80-3.91mg/dl while in controls mean c-reactive protein value came to be 9.12 with min-max range from 3.21-24.16 mg/dl. The difference between the two groups is significant as p value is less than 0.001.

Conclusion: Our results of significantly increased CRP levels in normal pregnancy and a clear association between CRP and normal pregnancy, support the clinical application of this diagnostic tool in early pregnancy, especially as a predictor of abnormal first trimester pregnancies.

Keywords: CRP, Pregnancy, Women
Factors of Developing Interest in Subjects from the Perspective of Students
Authors: Kravarušić Vesna B.
Published: August 2021

Using a descriptive method, through an essay test, students' interests in subjects were explored, with the aim of improving the educational process. The results show that students develop situational and individual interest in subjects, predominantly due to the personality of the teacher who competently processes teaching contents, directly and indirectly encourages students to participate, achieves a positive relationship with students, contributes to a pleasant atmosphere. The development of interests is also influenced by the profit that students perceive for their own development, everyday life and further education; content of a specific subject; achieved a positive achievement. Possibilities for influencing the more intensive and wider development of students' interest in subjects are: introduction of continuous formative evaluation of teaching and learning, systematic instructive-pedagogical work; compulsory public lessons; regular control and instructional-pedagogical tour of classes; inclusion of training of pedagogical and methodological education in the portfolio of continuous professional development of teachers; choice of forms and methods of work that encourage active participation of students, with the inclusion of interesting, current examples of importance for everyday life and creating an opportunity for positive achievement of students.
Književno delo i korelacija u nastavi u osnovnoj školi
Authors: Kocevska Danica N. , Kovačević Vanja N.
Published: August 2021

he starting point of the paper is a literary work as a bearer of correlation, and the ultimate goal are methodological recommendations for modelling activities which would enable achieving goals and outcomes, achieving active participation of students in interpreting a literary work and its correlative contents, as an expression of challenge, independence and creativity which are intended to be shared with a student. A literary work in learning situations and with a motivational work strategy becomes the initiator of research as well as a space for expressing personal but also emotions towards the work, attitudes towards the immediate environment, the peer group and a wider social context. Correlation levels set a condition for determining the type and contents of research tasks in achieving the goals and outcomes of correlation. Depending on the choice for the first or the second level of correlation, we determine whether the stated content, goals and outcomes will be realized within one class, two classes, as a theme day or an educational project on a specific topic related to the literary text.
Metodički pristup u radu sa darovitom decom
Authors: Grujić Bojan , Stepanović Momčilo
Published: August 2021

The needs imposed by modern teaching practice are that teachers must have sufficient knowledge and competence about the characteristics and needs of gifted children in the process of identification and adequate teaching. In order for the teaching to be evolving for a gifted student, the teacher must understand and accept the existence of individual differences among students and to adapt the process of teaching and learning to different abilities, needs, preferences, past experiences and knowledge, interests and learning styles of gifted students. On the other hand, teachers in the preparation and realization of educational and educational activities must take into account the specificity of the development of gifted pupils, without neglecting support at their socio - emotional level of functioning. Students are progressing according to their abilities, with the engagement of all their potentials and the development of divergent thinking. Such teaching meets psychological needs and aspirations and positively influences the self-esteem and development of creativity. Taking into consideration the fact that the effective fulfillment of the educational needs of gifted students imposes the creation of different methodical approaches and strategies in the work, in which the forms of active teaching dominate, whose primary goals are constructions, not knowledge transmissions. An active attitude towards learning and a critical attitude towards what is being taught should be developed. The emphasis is on the mental development of students and the practical application of the learned. These are forms of teaching that have a research character, whose emphasis is on independent research, problem solving and finding new solutions. Didactic solutions that satisfy these tendencies are individualized classes with elements of problematic and exemplary teaching. We could conclude from these attitudes that the outcomes of education and upbringing of all students are approaching the outcomes of education and upbringing of the gifted.
Regeneración en la desembocadura del río Doce. Experiencias y colaboraciones en el contexto del desastre en la costa norte de Espírito Santo, Brasil
Authors: Silva Bianca de Jesús
Published: August 2021

El desastre en la cuenca del río Doce, debido al colapso de la presa Fundão, tuvo lugar en 2015. Consecuencia de ello se liberaron 50 millones de metros cúbicos de relaves mineros. El material fluyó por el curso del río Doce hasta su desembocadura, ubicada en Regência Augusta, municipio de Linhares, estado de Espírito Santo. Dicho evento provocó incertidumbres y la aplicación de prohibiciones a la comunidad, especialmente con la pesca y el consumo de agua. De este modo se manifestaron diferentes formas de existir y hacer frente al contexto impuesto por el desastre. Este trabajo etnográfico se ha realizado entre los años 2015 y 2018, en Vila de Regência Augusta. Se estudian los cambios desarrollados en el contexto de desastre, teniendo como enfoque o hilo conductor a uno de los actores vinculados a la regeneración y sus alianzas con humanos y no-humanos. Los principales hallazgos arrojan que a partir del rescate ancestral, instancia en la cual se desarrollan nuevos vínculos con la tierra, como la alimentación y la curación con uso de plantas, se logra la promoción del cultivo, nuevas nociones del tiempo y nuevas formas de organización.
Reboot Camp
Authors: Blizek William L.
Published: August 2021

This is a film review of Reboot Camp (2020), directed by Ivo Raza.
Sundance 2021 Introduction
Authors: Lyden John C.
Published: August 2021

Introduction to the Sundance Film Festival 2021
CODA
Authors: Lyden John C.
Published: August 2021

This is a film review of CODA (2021), directed by Siân Heder.
Strawberry Mansion
Authors: Lyden John C.
Published: August 2021

This is a film review of Strawberry Mansion (2021), directed by Albert Birney and Kentucker Audley.
Flee
Authors: Lyden John C.
Published: August 2021

This is a film review of Flee (2021), directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen.
Incorporation of post-consumer pizza boxes in the recovered fiber stream: Impacts of grease on finished product quality
Authors: GHOSH ASHOK , HART PETER W. , PANEK ADELE , NGUYEN TRAN , DOOLEY MEREDITH
Published: August 2021

Grease and cheese contamination of used pizza boxes has led to misunderstanding and controversy about the recyclability of pizza boxes. Some collection facilities accept pizza boxes while others do not.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether typical grease or cheese contamination levels associated with pizza boxes impact finished product quality. Grease (from vegetable oil) and cheese are essentially hydrophobic and in sufficiently high concentration could interfere with interfiber bonding, resulting in paper strength loss.
Findings from this study will be used to determine the viability of recycling pizza boxes at current and future concentrations in old corrugated containers (OCC) recovered fiber streams. These findings will also be used to inform the acceptability of pizza boxes in the recycle stream and educate consumers about acceptable levels of grease or cheese residue found on these recycled boxes.
Boiler retrofit improves efficiency and increases biomass firing rates
Authors: PETHE SAMIT J. , CLONINGER PAUL W. , SHORTREED RYAN R. , HARDISON KEN M.
Published: August 2021

Domtar’s fluff pulp mill in Plymouth, NC, USA, operates two biomass/hog fuel fired boilers (HFBs). For energy consolidation and reliability improvement, Domtar wanted to decommission the No. 1 HFB and refurbish/retrofit the No. 2 HFB.
The No. 2 HFB was designed to burn pulverized coal and/or biomass on a traveling grate. The steaming capacity was 500,000 lb/h from coal and 400,000 lb/h from biomass. However, it had never sustained this design biomass steaming rate. As the sole power boiler, the No. 2 HFB would need to sustain 400,000 lb/h of biomass steam during peak loads.
An extensive evaluation by a combustion and boiler technologies supplier was undertaken. The evaluation involved field testing, analysis, and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling, and it identified several bottle-necks and deficiencies to achieving the No. 2 HFB’s biomass steam goal. These bottlenecks included an inadequate combustion system; insufficient heat capture; excessive combustion air temperature; inadequate sweetwater con-denser (SWC) capacity; and limited induced draft fan capacity.
To address the identified deficiencies, various upgrades were engineered and implemented. These upgrades included modern pneumatic fuel distributors; a modern sidewall, interlaced overfire air (OFA) system; a new, larger economizer; modified feedwater piping to increase SWC capacity; replacement of the scrubber with a dry electro-static precipitator; and upgraded boiler controls.
With the deployment of these upgrades, the No. 2 HFB achieved the targeted biomass steaming rate of 400,000 lb/h, along with lowered stack gas and combustion air temperatures. All mandated emissions limit tests at 500,000 lb/h of steam with 400,000 lb/h of biomass steam were passed, and Domtar reports a 10% reduction in fuel firing rates, which represents significant fuel savings. In addition, the mill was able to decommission the No. 1 HFB, which has substantially lowered operating and maintenance costs.
Extension of a steady-state chlorine dioxide brightening model for Z-ECF bleaching of softwood kraft pulps
Authors: BROGDON BRIAN N. , LUCIAN LUCIAN A.
Published: August 2021

Earlier studies developed a steady-state model to predict the brightness and/or bleach consumption during the chlorine dioxide brightening (D1) of softwood pulps produced by conventional elemental-chlorine-free (ECF) sequences. This model relates the chlorine dioxide consumed to the brightness gains predicated upon an asymptotic D1 brightness limit, an incoming D1 pulp brightness, and an equation parameter (β11). The current investigation examines the application of this model to ECF sequences that use ozone delignification (Z-ECF). Literature D1 data from various Z-ECF bleaching studies, which investigated OZ, OD0/Z, and OZ/D0 delignification, were fitted to the model. The β11 parameter was found to be linearly correlated to the entering kappa number. Interestingly, this linear relationship was found to be identical to the relationships observed when modeling the D1 stage for conventional ECF and chlorine-based bleach sequences. Subtle differences in D1 brightening response in the model among the various bleach sequences are reflected by incoming pulp brightness (at the same kappa number). The current model is used to illustrate how alterations to Z-ECF delignification affect D1 brightening and chlorine dioxide consumption.
Rethinking the paper cup — beginning with extrusion process optimization for compostability and recyclability
Authors: WHITEMAN NICOLE , AUCHTER ANDREA , CHRISTIE ANDREW , PRUE MICHAEL
Published: August 2021

More than 50 billion disposable paper cups used for cold and hot beverages are sold within the United States each year. Most of the cups are coated with a thin layer of plastic — low density polyethylene (LDPE) — to prevent leaking and staining. While the paper in these cups is both recyclable and compostable, the LDPE coating is neither. In recycling a paper cup, the paper is separated from the plastic lining. The paper is sent to be recycled and the plastic lining is typically sent to landfill. In an industrial composting environment, the paper and lining can be composted together if the lining is made from compostable materials. Coating paper cups with a compostable performance material uniquely allows for used cups to be processed by either recycling or composting, thus creating multiple pathways for these products to flow through a circular economy.
A segment of the paper converting industry frequently uses an extrusion grade of polylactic acid (PLA) for zero-waste venues and for municipalities with ordinances for local composting and food service items. The results among these early adopters reveal process inefficiencies that elevate manufacturing costs while increasing scrap and generally lowering output when using PLA for extrusion coating.
NatureWorks and Sung An Machinery (SAM) North America researched the extrusion coating process utilizing the incumbent polymer (LDPE) and PLA. The trademarked Ingeo 1102 is a new, compostable, and bio-based PLA grade that is specifically designed for the extrusion coating process. The research team identified the optimum process parameters for new, dedicated PLA extrusion coating lines. The team also identified changes to existing LDPE extrusion lines that processors can make today to improve output.
The key finding is that LDPE and PLA are significantly different polymers and that processing them on the same equipment without modification of systems and/or setpoints can be the root cause of inefficiencies. These polymers each have unique processing requirements with inverse responses. Fine tuning existing systems may improve over-all output for the biopolymer without capital investment, and this study showed an increase in line speed of 130% by making these adjustments. However, the researchers found that highest productivity can be achieved by specifying new systems for PLA. A line speed increase to more than 180% and a reduction in coat weight to 8.6 µm
(10.6 g/m2 or 6.5 lb/3000 ft2) was achieved in this study. These results show that Ingeo 1102 could be used as a paper coating beyond cups.
New learnings and strategies for meeting future recovery boiler particulate emission limits with existing electrostatic precipitators
Authors: SRETENOVIC IVAN
Published: August 2021

It is foreseeable that recovery boiler particulate emission limits in the United States and Canada will continue to get more stringent with time. Because of this, continued improvement of emission control equipment, as well as a better understanding of how operating parameters affect performance, are necessary.
Although electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are often viewed as a mature technology, many improvements in ESP technology continue to be developed. In recent years, academic efforts have improved the understanding of recovery boiler operating conditions on ESP performance. Additionally, advancements in materials, power supplies, and design continue to improve the efficiency and reliability of ESPs.
This paper discusses how recovery boiler and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) operating factors affect ESP performance based on process simulations and practical experience, and how these learnings can be implemented to improve future operation of existing ESPs.