bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Polarization grating based on diffraction phase microscopy for
quantitative phase imaging of paramecia
Authors: Zhang Meiling , Ma Ying , Wang Yu , Wen Kai , Zheng Juanjuan , Liu Lixin , Gao Peng
Published: September 2020

This study presents a polarization grating based diffraction phase microscopy (PG-DPM) and its application in bio-imaging. Compared with traditional diffraction phase microscopy (DPM) of which the fringe contrast is sample-dependent, the fringe contrast of PG-DPM is adjustable by changing the polarization of the illumination beam. Moreover, PG-DPM has been applied to real-time phase imaging of live paramecia for the first time. The study reveals that paramecium has self-helical forward motion characteristics, or more specifically, 77% clockwise and 23% anti-clockwise rotation when moving forward. We can envisage that PG-DPM will be applied to many different fields.
Crises da Europa: enigmas da soberania, aporias e uma extravagante conjetura
Authors: Da Rocha-Cunha Silvério
Published: September 2020

A atual crise europeia deve-se a diversos fatores. Este estudo pretende examinar alguns dos seus fatores mais subterrâneos, propondo a contradição da soberania como explicação para uma tensão durável que provocará sempre conflito e violência primitiva.
Ensaio sobre inovação territorial, soluções tecnológicas e o papel da Europa na opinião dos cidadãos
Authors: Aragão Alexandra
Published: September 2020

O inquérito sobre Inovação territorial e territórios inteligentes permitiu identificar um conjunto de preocupações dos cidadãos sobre o território, as suas visões sobre a forma como a tecnologia pode ajudar a criar melhores condições de vida e o papel de diferentes atores na resolução dos problemas. O ponto de partida é uma reflexão sobre uma sociedade em transição, num tempo em que a tecnologia pode ajudar a resolver muitos problemas, ao mesmo tempo que cria outros. Neste pano de fundo, o relatório Eurobarómetro de 2018 vem reforçar a convicção de que a virtude está na estreita cooperação entre os diferentes níveis de poder: nacional, infranacional e supranacional na prossecução da sustentabilidade social, económica e ambiental.
Medidas agroambientais e climáticas da Política Agrícola Comum enquanto instrumento de valorização, restauração e proteção dos serviços ecossistémicos na União Europeia
Authors: Altmann Alexandre
Published: September 2020

As medidas agroambientais constituem um mecanismo já consolidado na União Europeia enquanto instrumento de confluência das políticas agrícola e ambiental. Desde o início da integração da Europa, nos anos 1950, a agricultura constitui um setor estratégico e prioritário, recebendo um significativo aporte de recursos financeiros. Mais recentemente, a partir de 1993 e, em particular com a entrada em vigor do Tratado de Maastrich, o ambiente passa a integrar as mais diversas políticas públicas da União Europeia. Dentro da Política Agrícola Comum (PAC), o ambiente tem nas medidas agroambientais e climáticas um instrumento de grande alcance, considerando que essa política impacta a maior parte do território da Europa. Nesse contexto, essas medidas têm um grande potencial para a proteção da biodiversidade e restauração dos ecossistemas. Diante das últimas alterações para o período 2014-2020 e das discussões acerca da próxima revisão da PAC pós-2020, o presente artigo analisa o potencial das medidas agroambientais e climáticas enquanto instrumento voltado para a valorização, restauração e preservação dos serviços ecossistémicos no âmbito da União Europeia.
Um novo conceito de “Empresa Sustentável”: Uma análise à problemática do Greenwashing, no contexto europeu
Authors: Barros Inês Pena
Published: September 2020

Num mundo, cada vez mais, preocupado com as questões ambientais, as empresas procuram construir uma imagem que esteja alinhada com estas preocupações do mercado. Neste contexto, mecanismos, na sua maioria opcionais – são criados para legitimar o facto de que as empresas são socialmente responsáveis. Será que esses instrumentos provam efectivamente que as empresas agem? Ou serão apenas meios manipuláveis para que as empresas criam uma imagem socialmente responsável? Existirá uma preocupação efectiva por parte das empresas ou todas as alterações anunciadas não passam de “Grenwashing”? Como é que este problema de “Grenwashing” poderá ser resolvido? Talvez através de um novo conceito jurídico de “Empresa Sustentável seja o caminho.
Didactic use of GIS and Street View for Tourism Degree students: understanding commercial gentrification in large urban destinations
Authors: Martínez-Hernández Carlos , Yubero Claudia , Ferreiro-Calzada Elena , Mendoza-de Miguel Sofía
Published: September 2020

Tourism gentrification, as a complex phenomenon in large urban destinations, is an important topic for future tourism professionals. The aim of this paper is to offer a digital cartography making activity based on the contemporary dynamics of commercial transformation within tourism gentrification contexts in Madrid in order to facilitate its understanding. This innovative teaching activity is in accordance with the sustainable tourism pedagogy approach and follows an active methodology using three different GIS applications: Google Street View, ESRI ArcGIS Desktop and ESRI ArcGIS Online Story Maps application. A 4-phase methodological design is proposed so that the activity is customizable (1- recognition of previous ideas), achievable (2- significant streets’ mapping), collaborative (3- collective idea-sharing) and replicable (4- academic and didactic evaluation). Finally, the results from an initial implementation are brought to light: i) an initial conceptual lack was found, ii) examples that help to see the proposal materialized are shown and iii) expected positive consequences according to the scientific literature are presented. It is concluded that, despite the scarce bibliography, the use of GIS software and Google Street View in tourism higher education is convenient, not only to facilitate the learning of complex territorial phenomena but also to learn digital tools highly valued in the professional field.
Individual and combined anti-trypanosomal effects of arteether and diminazene aceturate in the treatment of experimental Trypanosoma brucei brucei infection in rats
Authors: Egbe-Nwiyi Tobias Nnia , Abalaka Samson Eneojo , Sani Nuhu Abdulazeez , Tenuche Oremeyi Zainab , Idoko Idoko Sunday
Published: September 2020

Aim: Trypanosomosis is a vital protozoan disease of man and animals with devastating consequences in the tropical parts of the world, necessitating the investigation of the effects of diminazene aceturate (DA) and arteether (AR) on Trypanosoma brucei brucei experimental infection in rats.

Materials and Methods: We used a total of 98 rats, which were divided into 14 groups (A-N) of seven rats each over 36 days after acclimatizing them. We administered 1×106 trypanosomes to the infected groups (B-N) with Group A as the unexposed control rats. Groups C-F became the infected and treated rats with 3.5 mg/kg, 7.0 mg/kg, 10.5 mg/kg, and 14.0 mg/kg of DA while Groups G-J became the infected and treated rats with 0.01 ml/kg, 0.02 ml/kg, 0.03 ml/kg, and 0.04 ml/kg of AR. Groups K-N became infected and treated rats with DA and AR combinations at similar doses.

Results: Parasitemia suppression occurred in Groups G-J only but became cleared in Groups C-F and K-N. Survival time varied significantly (p<0.05) between Group B and the other infected groups. We recorded anemia in all the infected rats while significant (p<0.05) splenomegaly and hepatomegaly occurred in Groups G-J only compared to the other groups.

Conclusion: AR did not inhibit or potentiate the anti-trypanosomal efficacy of DA, and therefore, it is comparatively less effective in combating T. brucei infection at the present doses and treatment regimen.
Avaliação da substituição de altos teores de cimento portland por cinza de casca de arroz quando aplicados à pavimentação
Authors: Almeida Jupira , Goldoni Alessandro Graeff , Miguel Gustavo Dias , Azevedo Bruna Soares de
Published: September 2020

O cimento atualmente é um dos produtos mais consumidos mundialmente da mesma forma, é um dos maiores responsáveis pela emissão de dióxido de carbono (CO2) na atmosfera resultado da forma em que é produzido. Com isto, surge a necessidade urgente da substituição deste ou ao menos da redução de seu consumo. A tendência global é que a sociedade parta para um consumo e reaproveitamento de seus próprios resíduos gerados tanto pela necessidade em virtude de escassez de matéria-prima natural quanto pela inevitabilidade de tratamento destes que necessitam de um correto descarte. Desta forma, inúmeros materiais alternativos vêm surgindo suscetíveis a substituição dos até então convencionas, que é o caso da Cinza de Casca de Arroz – CCA proveniente da queima em leito fluidizado do material orgânico remanescente da descasca do arroz. No atual trabalho, é verificada a substituição parcial e total do cimento por cinza de casca de arroz avaliando seu potencial de utilização na pavimentação. As substituições se deram nos teores de 20%, 50% e 100% em relação a massa seca do cimento. Um peso específico aparente seco de 20 kN/m³ foi adotado bem como um teor de umidade de 7% para confecção de corpos de prova seguindo a metodologia Marshall. Estes posteriormente foram avaliados quanto a resistência à tração por meio de compressão diametral. A substituição de 20% se mostrou favorável atendendo as exigências mínimas de utilização estabelecidas pela norma DNIT 167/2013-ES, portanto, podendo representar uma drástica redução no consumo de cimento nestes casos, contribuindo de forma técnica, econômica e ambientalmente.
Estabilização/solidificação: caracterização, classificação e aplicação no tratamento e gerenciamento de resíduos sólidos de laboratórios químicos
Authors: Jovelino Josevânia Rodrigues , Brito André Luiz Fiquene de , Muniz Ana Cristina Silva , Da Silva Poliana Pinheiro
Published: September 2020

As instituições de ensino superior representam um problema relacionado ao tratamento e disposição final dos resíduos gerados em seus laboratórios. Dessa forma, o objetivo desse estudo é aplicar a técnica de estabilização/solidificação no tratamento de Resíduos Sólidos de Laboratórios químicos (RSL) visando proporcionar o seu descarte adequado. Os ensaios consistem na caracterização e classificação dos materiais utilizados (RSL, cimento, areia e brita). Foi aplicado o planejamento experimental one-way com três repetições. O fator avaliado foi a porcentagem de resíduos sólidos do laboratório (10, 30 e 45%) e através dos experimentos, foi possível observar as seguintes variáveis de resposta: Resistência à Compressão (RC), Capacidade de Absorção de Água (CAA), Umidificação/Secagem (U/S) e Lixiviação. Por fim, foi realizada a análise estatística dos dados, o balanço de massa e o cálculo da eficiência de retenção dos metais pesados cádmio e níquel na matriz de cimento. Todos os tratamentos foram aprovados nos testes RC, CAA, U/S. O resíduo avaliado permaneceu na Classe I (Perigoso), no entanto, todos os tratamentos realizados apresentaram eficiência de retenção dos metais pesados cádmio e níquel acima de 98%, indicando que a estabilização/solidificação é uma opção viável para atenuar a quantidade de metais pesados presentes em resíduos sólidos de laboratórios químicos.
System Design Estimation of Cost for Laying Chicken Feed Formulation using Web-Based Square Pearson Method
Authors: Honggowibowo Anton Setiawan , Ayuningtyas Astika , Indrianingsih Yuliani
Published: September 2020

Feed is one important element that needs to be considered in the livestock business, one of which is laying hens. The type and amount of feed will affect the nutrients obtained, these nutrients will affect the ability to produce eggs. One way to produce feed that contains optimal nutrition is done by mixing various types of feed ingredients such as corn, bran, cake, soybeans, concentrate and so on into one right composition. Expenditures for the purchase of feed are also among the highest expenses in any livestock business and therefore need to be regulated in such a way as to provide optimal benefits. The square pearson method is a method of determining the formulation of feed which on one hand contains complete nutrients, on the other hand is economically inexpensive and easily obtained so that it can provide benefits. The results of this study produce a system that can estimate the cost of calculating web-based laying hens feed formulations.
Sprawozdanie z Ogólnopolskiej Konferencji Naukowej Prawniczych Zawodów Zaufania Publicznego „Odpowiedzialność dyscyplinarna osób wykonujących prawnicze zawody zaufania publicznego”, Toruń, 12 grudnia 2019 r. (opr. Karolina Rokicka-Murszewska, Tomasz Kuczy
Authors: Rokicka-Murszewska Karolina , Kuczyński Tomasz
Published: September 2020

Sprawozdanie z Ogólnopolskiej Konferencji Naukowej Prawniczych Zawodów Zaufania Publicznego „Odpowiedzialność dyscyplinarna osób wykonujących prawnicze zawody zaufania publicznego”, Toruń, 12 grudnia 2019 r. (opr. Karolina Rokicka-Murszewska, Tomasz Kuczyński).
The Federal Constitutional Court Decisions: „The Right to be Forgotten I” and „The Right to be Forgotten II” – The Expectation of Increased Cooperation with the Concurrent Need to Maintain Independence
Authors: Jaś-Nowopolska Magdalena , Mengeler Daniel
Published: September 2020

The article discusses the decisions “Right to be forgotten I” and “Right to be forgotten II” of 6 November 2019 by the Federal Constitutional Court, which redefine the relationship of cooperation between the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Justice in the area of fundamental rights. The Court has decided for the first time that where EU fundamental rights take precedence over German fundamental rights, the Court itself can directly review, on the basis of EU fundamental rights, the application of EU law by German authorities. In the first part, the article presents the previous system, including the precedence of application of EU law and its exceptions (ultra-vires review; identity review), as well as the controversial question of the interpretation of Article 51 (1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is decisive for the applicability of the fundamental rights under the Charter. The focus is on the constitutional background of the German Basic Law for the protection of fundamental rights in the European multi-level system. Against this background, the second part of the article presents the facts and reasons for the decisions “Right to be forgotten I” and “Right to be forgotten II”. This is followed by an analysis of the consequences of these decisions for the protection of fundamental rights and cooperation between the European Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional Court. In particular, the way in which fundamental EU rights can now be enforced before the Federal Constitutional Court is described in greater detail. The concluding part provides an overview of the open questions, risks and opportunities of this approach. Here the article illustrates the significant impact of the two decisions on dogmatic and procedural matters.
Ocena skutków dla ochrony danych
Authors: Pyka Aleksandra
Published: September 2020

This article deals with the issue of impact assessment for the protection of personal data. This is a new obligation for the controller. The article presents the essence of impact assessment (DPIA), exclusion from the obligation to carry it out, the prerequisite for mandatory DPIA, the role of the data protection officer and the powers of the supervisory authority. The analysis of legal provisions related to the impact assessment presented here does not refer to specific situations, due to the wide scope for interpreting specific phrases contained in the General Regulation. Nevertheless, the article discusses the issue of conducting data protection impact assessments as one of the most problematic obligations incumbent on the controller, who in practice raises many doubts. The DPIA has been imprecisely regulated by the EU legislator, thus leaving controllers plenty of leeway to interpret the terms used in the General Regulation. In addition, carrying out a DPIA in practice (as a new obligation on entities setting the purposes and means of data processing) can be problematic due to the lack of harmonized methods for conducting a data protection impact assessment. However, controllers cannot assign DPIA implementation to other entities involved in data processing, such as an entity processing personal data on behalf of another. Entities setting the purposes and methods of data processing should not only take into account the provisions of the General Regulation but also a list of data processing operations that are obligatorily subject to DPIA. Controllers fulfilling the obligation to carry out a data protection impact assessment will be obliged by the supervisory authority to demonstrate how to carry out a data protection impact assessment.
Model slicing for supporting complex analytics with elastic inference cost and resource constraints
Authors: Cai Shaofeng , Chen Gang , Ooi Beng Chin , Gao Jinyang
Published: September 2020

Deep learning models have been used to support analytics beyond simple aggregation, where deeper and wider models have been shown to yield great results. These models consume a huge amount of memory and computational operations. However, most of the large-scale industrial applications are often computational budget constrained. In practice, the peak workload of inference service could be 10x higher than the average cases, with the presence of unpredictable extreme cases. Lots of computational resources could be wasted during off-peak hours and the system may crash when the workload exceeds system capacity. How to support deep learning services with dynamic workload cost-efficiently remains a challenging problem. In this paper, we address the challenge with a general and novel training scheme called
model slicing
, which enables deep learning models to provide predictions within the prescribed computational resource budget dynamically.
Model slicing
could be viewed as an elastic computation solution without requiring more computational resources. Succinctly, each layer in the model is divided into
groups
of contiguous block of basic components (i.e. neurons in dense layers and channels in convolutional layers), and then partially ordered relation is introduced to these groups by enforcing that groups participated in each forward pass always starts from the
first
group to the
dynamically-determined rightmost
group. Trained by dynamically indexing the rightmost group with a single parameter
slice rate
, the network is engendered to build up group-wise and residual representation. Then during inference, a sub-model with fewer groups can be readily deployed for efficiency whose computation is roughly quadratic to the width controlled by the
slice rate.
Extensive experiments show that models trained with
model slicing
can effectively support on-demand workload with elastic inference cost.
ObliDB
Authors: Eskandarian Saba , Zaharia Matei
Published: September 2020

Hardware enclaves such as Intel SGX are a promising technology for improving the security of databases outsourced to the cloud. These enclaves provide an execution environment isolated from the hyper-visor/OS, and encrypt data in RAM. However, for applications that use large amounts of memory, including most databases, enclaves do not protect against
access pattern
leaks, which let attackers gain a large amount of information about the data. Moreover, the naïve way to address this issue, using Oblivious RAM (ORAM) primitives from the security literature, adds substantial overhead.

A number of recent works explore trusted hardware enclaves as a path toward secure, access-pattern oblivious outsourcing of data storage and analysis. While these works efficiently solve specific subproblems (e.g. building secure indexes or running analytics queries that always scan entire tables), no prior work has supported oblivious query processing for general query workloads on a DBMS engine with multiple access methods. Moreover, applying these techniques individually does not guarantee that an end-to-end workload, such as a complex SQL query over multiple tables, will be oblivious. In this paper, we introduce ObliDB, an oblivious database engine design that is the first system to provide obliviousness for general database read workloads over multiple access methods.

ObliDB introduces a diverse array of new oblivious physical operators to accelerate oblivious SQL queries, giving speedups of up to an order of magnitude over naïve ORAM. It supports a broad range of queries, including aggregation, joins, insertions, deletions and point queries. We implement ObliDB and show that, on analytics workloads, ObliDB ranges from 1.1--19x faster than Opaque, a previous oblivious, enclave-based system designed
only
for analytics, and comes within 2.6 x of Spark SQL, which provides no security guarantees. In addition, ObliDB supports point queries with 3--10ms latency, which is comparable to index-only trusted hardware systems, and runs over 7x faster than HIRB, a previous encryption-based oblivious index system that supports point queries.
On supporting efficient snapshot isolation for hybrid workloads with multi-versioned indexes
Authors: Sun Yihan , Blelloch Guy E. , Lim Wan Shen , Pavlo Andrew
Published: September 2020

Modern data-driven applications require that databases support fast analytical queries while undergoing rapid updates---often referred to as Hybrid Transactional Analytical Processing (HTAP). Achieving fast queries and updates in a database management system (DBMS) is challenging since optimizations to improve analytical queries can cause overhead for updates. One solution is to use snapshot isolation (SI) for multi-version concurrency control (MVCC) to allow readers to make progress regardless of concurrent writers.

In this paper, we propose the Parallel Binary Tree (P-Tree) index structure to achieve SI and MVCC for multicore in-memory HTAP DBMSs. At their core, P-Trees are based on pure (immutable) data structures that use path-copying for updates for fast multi-versioning. They support tree nesting to improve OLAP performance while still allowing for efficient updates. The data structure also enables parallel algorithms for bulk operations on indexes and their underlying tables. We evaluate P-Trees on OLTP and OLAP benchmarks, and compare them with state-of-the-art data structures and DBMSs. Our experiments show that P-Trees outperform many concurrent data structures for the YCSB workload, and is 4--9 x faster than existing DBMSs for analytical queries, while also achieving reasonable throughput for simultaneous transactional updates.
Deep unsupervised cardinality estimation
Authors: Yang Zongheng , Liang Eric , Kamsetty Amog , Wu Chenggang , Duan Yan , Chen Xi , Abbeel Pieter , Hellerstein Joseph M. , Krishnan Sanjay , Stoica Ion
Published: September 2020

Cardinality estimation has long been grounded in statistical tools for density estimation. To capture the rich multivariate distributions of relational tables, we propose the use of a new type of high-capacity statistical model: deep autoregressive models. However, direct application of these models leads to a limited estimator that is prohibitively expensive to evaluate for range or wildcard predicates. To produce a truly usable estimator, we develop a Monte Carlo integration scheme on top of autoregressive models that can efficiently handle range queries with dozens of dimensions or more.

Like classical synopses, our estimator summarizes the data without supervision. Unlike previous solutions, we approximate the joint data distribution without any independence assumptions. Evaluated on real-world datasets and compared against real systems and dominant families of techniques, our estimator achieves single-digit multiplicative error at tail, an up to 90x accuracy improvement over the second best method, and is space- and runtime-efficient.
Free gap information from the differentially private sparse vector and noisy max mechanisms
Authors: Ding Zeyu , Wang Yuxin , Zhang Danfeng , Kifer Daniel
Published: September 2020

Noisy Max and Sparse Vector are selection algorithms for differential privacy and serve as building blocks for more complex algorithms. In this paper we show that both algorithms can release additional information for free (i.e., at no additional privacy cost). Noisy Max is used to return the approximate maximizer among a set of queries. We show that it can also release for free the noisy gap between the approximate maximizer and runner-up. This free information can improve the accuracy of certain subsequent counting queries by up to 50%. Sparse Vector is used to return a set of queries that are approximately larger than a fixed threshold. We show that it can adaptively control its privacy budget (use less budget for queries that are likely to be much larger than the threshold) in order to increase the amount of queries it can process. These results follow from a careful privacy analysis.
Return of the Lernaean Hydra
Authors: Echihabi Karima , Zoumpatianos Kostas , Palpanas Themis , Benbrahim Houda
Published: September 2020

Data series are a special type of multidimensional data present in numerous domains, where similarity search is a key operation that has been extensively studied in the data series literature. In parallel, the multidimensional community has studied approximate similarity search techniques. We propose a taxonomy of similarity search techniques that reconciles the terminology used in these two domains, we describe modifications to data series indexing techniques enabling them to answer approximate similarity queries with quality guarantees, and we conduct a thorough experimental evaluation to compare approximate similarity search techniques under a unified framework, on synthetic and real datasets in memory and on disk. Although data series differ from generic multidimensional vectors (series usually exhibit correlation between neighboring values), our results show that data series techniques answer approximate queries with strong guarantees and an excellent empirical performance, on data series and vectors alike. These techniques outperform the state-of-the-art approximate techniques for vectors when operating on disk, and remain competitive in memory.
A demonstration of willump
Authors: Kraft Peter , Kang Daniel , Narayanan Deepak , Palkar Shoumik , Bailis Peter , Zaharia Matei
Published: September 2020

Systems for ML inference are widely deployed today, but they typically optimize ML inference workloads using techniques designed for conventional data serving workloads and miss critical opportunities to leverage the statistical nature of ML. In this demo, we present Willump, an optimizer for ML inference that introduces statistically-motivated optimizations targeting ML applications whose performance bottleneck is feature computation. Willump automatically cascades feature computation for classification queries: Willump classifies most data inputs using only high-value, low-cost features selected by a cost model, improving query performance by up to 5 x without statistically significant accuracy loss. In this demo, we use interactive and easily-downloadable Jupyter notebooks to show VLDB attendees which applications Willump can speed up, how to use Willump, and how Willump produces such large performance gains.
Cardiac involvement in children with community-acquired pneumonia and respiratory failure
Authors: Nimdet Kachaporn , Techakehakij Win
Published: September 2020

Background

Pneumonia causes significant incidence in children younger than 5 years. Most fatalities are resulted from complications. High rates of cardiac events were detected in adult studies but usually related to underlying diseases.

Objective

To study the cardiac effects of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) with respiratory failure (RF) in healthy children.

Methods

The prospective cohort study was conducted in children aged 2–59 months with CAP and RF. Cardiac enzyme assessments, chest radiography, electrocardiography, and echocardiography were performed at the admission date and 2 weeks after admission. t-test and chi-square test were used for comparison between first and second investigations, and the statistically significance level was a P <0.05.

Results

Of the 135 patients, pericardial effusion occurred in 80 (59%), valvular regurgitation in 30 (22%), ST/T changes in 66 (49%), cardiac arrhythmia in 7 (5%), and myocardial injury in 83 (62%). Significant improvement of cardiothoracic-ratio, heart rate, ST/T changes, cardiac arrhythmia, troponin T, myocardial performance, and left-ventricular ejection fraction was demonstrated at second investigations. Three mortality cases exhibited evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF).

Conclusion

Children with CAP and RF had several cardiac effects even in healthy children. Most cardiac effects were mild and transient. Mortality cases were revealed evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF). Future research should be designed to find out the characteristics and predictors of CHF for early recognition and therapeutic strategy.
A new extension of Srivastava’s triple hypergeometric functions and their associated properties
Authors: Saboor Abdus , Rahman Gauhar , Anjum Zunaira , Nisar Kottakkaran Sooppy , Araci Serkan
Published: September 2020

In this paper, we define a new extension of Srivastava’s triple hypergeometric functions by using a new extension of Pochhammer’s symbol that was recently proposed by Srivastava, Rahman and Nisar [H. M. Srivastava, G. Rahman and K. S. Nisar, Some extensions of the Pochhammer symbol and the associated hypergeometric functions, Iran. J. Sci. Technol. Trans. A Sci. 43 2019, 5, 2601–2606]. We present their certain basic properties such as integral representations, derivative formulas, and recurrence relations. Also, certain new special cases have been identified and some known results are recovered from main results.
Long non-coding RNA NEAT1 mediates MPTP/MPP+-induced apoptosis via regulating the miR-124/KLF4 axis in Parkinson’s disease
Authors: Liu Jiyao , Liu Defang , Zhao Bo , Jia Cunwei , Lv Yunli , Liao Jun , Li Kai
Published: September 2020

Accumulating evidence suggests that dysregulation of long non-coding RNAs is closely associated with various human diseases, including Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, the role of nuclear-enriched abundant transcript 1 (NEAT1) in the PD process remains unclear. The number of TH+ cells was reduced, and the expression levels of NEAT1 and Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) were increased in the midbrain of MPTP-HCl-treated mice. In addition, the expression of cleaved-caspase-3 (cleaved-casp-3) and Bax (apoptosis-related proteins) was increased, while the expression of Bcl-2 (anti-apoptotic protein) was reduced in MPTP-HCl-treated mice. The expression levels of NEAT1 and KLF4 were increased in MPP+-treated SH-SY5Y cells. Knockdown of NEAT1 promoted cell viability and decreased apoptosis in MPP+-treated SH-SY5Y cells, which could be reversed by upregulating KLF4. KLF4 was verified as a direct target of miR-124, and miR-124 could particularly bind to NEAT1. Downregulation of NEAT1 significantly increased cell viability and decreased apoptosis by regulating miR-124 expression in MPP+-treated SH-SY5Y cells. Additionally, interference of NEAT1 increased the number of TH+ cells and miR-124 expression, while reduced apoptosis and expression of KLF4 in vivo. NEAT1 knockdown increased cell viability and suppressed apoptosis in PD via regulating the miR-124/KLF4 axis, providing a promising avenue for the treatment of PD.
Procedural and Judicial Guarantees Against the Punitive Power of Public Bodies
Authors: Martini Giovanni
Published: September 2020

The scope of this analysis is to reconstruct, with a brief look to the Italian case, the ‘frame of reference’ within which the rulings of the ECtHR on the Art. 6 of the ECHR, due to the particular strength that Article 46 of the Convention attributes to them, are made, to understand, at the outcome, how, and to what extent, the sanctioning activity of public bodies can be influenced by the principles of the ECHR as enforced by the Judges of Strasbourg. To this aim the focus will be addressed on the following, and more complex, profiles: (a) independence, impartiality and separation of functions; (b) sanctioning activity and discretionary powers; (c) sufficient judicial review and full jurisdiction, to conclude the investigation trying to verify, in the light of the latest directions taken by the ECtHR; (d) whether, and how, the types of sanctions can affect the conditions of the judicial protection.
Die archaischen Listen aus Uruk und die proto-keilschriftlichefrontier.Überlegungen zu Funktion und Genese des ältesten lexikalischen Corpus’
Authors: Gabriel Gösta Ingvar
Published: September 2020

Although the archaic lists are of the utmost importance, as they mark the beginning of the 3,000-year lexical tradition in ancient Mesopotamia, their function is largely unresolved. This contribution suggests that a key to their understanding can be found in the context of a transforming and expanding writing system that is still rooted in administrative practices. The success of the new bureaucratic notation system leads to an expansion of its administrative use, which in turn leads to a demand for more signs and sign combinations. The lexical corpus is the result of a systematic push of the proto-cuneiformfrontier—i. e. the range of what can be expressed through proto-cuneiform signs. The lists thus offer a range ofexploratory signsthat can be implemented for administrative purposes and also have the potential to go beyond bureaucracy. In addition, they exemplify the rules underlying the systematic exploration of the potential of (proto-)cuneiform, thus contributing to the further transformation of the writing system.
Atorvastatin-linked rhabdomyolysis caused by the simultaneous intake of amoxicillin clavulanic acid
Authors: De Luca Mariarosaria , Iacono Olimpia , Lucci Rosa , Guardasole Vincenzo , Bosso Giorgio , Cittadini Antonio , Oliviero Ugo
Published: September 2020

Objectives

Rhabdomyolysis is a rare syndrome in which a serious muscle damage suddenly appears, with the possible occurrence of severe complications such as kidney failure, electrolyte imbalances and death, and represents the most severe form of statin-induced muscle injury.

Case presentation

Here we present the case of a 55-year-old woman who started therapy with amoxicillin clavulanic acid on a background of atorvastatin therapy, resulting in rhabdomyolysis.

Conclusions

This case highlights the importance of evaluating potential drug interactions in patients taking statin and the need of monitoring clinical and laboratory findings suggestive of rhabdomyolysis.
Is COVID-19 spreading and curing silently: an observation of three family clusters in Bangladesh
Authors: Hoq Mohammad Injamul , Hossain Md. Mohotasin , Roshni Umme Sayma , Sayeed Mohammed Aktar , Tohura Saraban , Jakaria Md.
Published: September 2020

Objectives

The number of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases is increasing in Bangladesh. Many people have suffered from symptoms like COVID-19 during this pandemic, and some people have cured without taking any treatment or taking minor pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments. However, they might be spreading their infections among their family members and perhaps in the community. It is unsure that individuals with COVID-19-like symptoms are positive with COVID-19, but our concern is, during this pandemic, any types of symptoms such as flu-like symptoms should have been taken seriously. This study was observed in the cases from three families with COVID-19 like symptoms.

Case presentation

This observational study was done between May 20 and Jun 2, 2020, in Bangladesh. The members of the inspected families shared COVID-19 like symptoms that were lasted for 3-10 days.

Conclusions

COVID-19 might be spread and cured silently in Bangladesh, which recommends that awareness is needed throughout the country to prevent the spreading of the disease.
Local finiteness of the twisted Bruhat orders on affine Weyl groups
Authors: Wang Weijia
Published: September 2020

In this paper, we investigate various properties of strong and weak twisted Bruhat orders on a Coxeter group.
In particular, we prove that any twisted strong Bruhat order on an affine Weyl group is locally finite, strengthening a result of Dyer [Quotients of twisted Bruhat orders,
J. Algebra 163 1994, 3, 861–879].
We also show that, for a non-finite and non-cofinite biclosed set B in the positive system of an affine root system with rank greater than 2, the set of elements having a fixed B-twisted length is infinite.
This implies that the twisted strong and weak Bruhat orders have an infinite antichain in those cases.
Finally, we show that twisted weak Bruhat order can be applied to the study of the tope poset of an infinite oriented matroid arising from an affine root system.
Satirical Novels of the Late Enlightenment and the Practice of Fiction. A Methodological Proposal for Investigations Into the History of Fiction
Authors: Descher Stefan
Published: September 2020

The paper examines German satirical novels of the late Enlightenment period, published roughly between 1760 and 1790, under the following question: Is there any evidence that the historical practice of fiction (concerning this time and these texts) deviates from the modern practice of fiction as described by institutional accounts of fictionality? First, it is explained what, in this essay, is meant by the ›modern practice of fiction‹. Four ›core rules‹ are identified that, according to institutional accounts of fictionality, characterize the practice of reading works of fiction. These core rules are: You should not conclude that what is expressed by fictional utterances is actually true! You should not conclude that the author believes that what is expressed by his fictional utterances is actually true! You should imagine what is expressed by fictional utterances (make-believe, pretence)! You should (or at least can) make your imaginations the object of higher-level attitudes (for example you can evaluate, emotionally respond to, interpret them etc.)! Then, using the example of German satirical novels of the late Enlightenment, seven features of fictional texts are discussed that may provide clues about the historical practice of fiction and that could give an indication of whether the core rules actually do apply. These features are: assurances of truthfulness by the author or fictional authors/editors; direct thematization of the fictional/factual-text-distinction; fictional reading scenarios; comments by fictional narrators and/or characters on the practice of reading; statements of the actual author in the fictional text; ›that cannot be true‹-passages (intentional mistakes, anachronisms, various ways of breaking the reader’s expectations, etc.); various kinds of reference to the actual world (for example satirical allusions to actual persons or states of affairs). It will be argued that, for the corpus of texts under consideration, there is no convincing evidence that the historical practices of reading works of fiction deviates in any significant way from the core rules of the modern practice of fiction. However, the main aim of this paper is not to provide an exhaustive historical case study. First, the investigation is limited to the exemplary discussion of some (although significant) texts and text passages, so the results can only be considered preliminary. Second, while the satirical novel of the late Enlightenment indeed is a particularly interesting and revealing genre for the study of the historical practice of fiction (arguments are given in section 3), the main purpose of this essay is to make amethodologicalproposal. Ageneral procedureis provided for finding out whether the historical practice of fiction differs from our modern practice – a procedure that can be applied to texts of other times and genres as well.
Hybrid buffer‐based optical packet switch with negative acknowledgment for multilevel data centers
Authors: Chandra Sumit , Fatima Shahnaz , Singh Suryavanshi Raghuraj
Published: September 2020

In the present scenario, data centers serve many functionalities like storage, transfer of data, supporting web applications, etc. In data centers, various levels of hierarchy different types of switches are required; therefore, multifunctional data centers are desired. This paper discusses a novel design for optical switch which can be placed at various levels of hierarchy. In the proposed design, multifunctionality contention resolution schemes which consider electronic and optical buffering and all-optical negative acknowledgment (AO-NACK) are considered. In buffering technologies, contending packets are stored in either in electronic RAM or in fiber delay lines. In case of the AO-NACK scheme, contending packets are blocked, and a negative acknowledgment is sent back to the transmitting node and blocked packets are retransmitted. For various considered schemes, Monte Carlo simulation have been performed, results in terms of packet loss probability are presented, and it has been found that the performance of optical buffering is much superior to electronic buffering and AO-NACK schemes. It is found that, in the AO-NACK scheme, the numbers of retransmitted packets due to contention blocking are 33,304 which can be reduced to 7, by using a small amount of buffer at each node.
Does the length of second stage of labour or second stage caesarean section in nulliparous women increase the risk of preterm birth in subsequent pregnancies?
Authors: Liu Cathy Z. , Ho Nicole , Tanaka Keisuke , Lehner Christoph , Sekar Renuka , Amoako Akwasi A.
Published: September 2020

Objectives

This study aimed to investigate the role of prolonged second stage of labour and second stage caesarean section on the risk of spontaneous preterm birth (sPTB) in a subsequent pregnancy.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of nulliparous women with two consecutive singleton deliveries between 2014 and 2017 at a tertiary centre. In the vaginal delivery cohort, subsequent pregnancy outcomes for women with a prolonged second stage (>2 h) were compared with those with a normal second stage (≤2 h). In the caesarean delivery cohort, women with a first stage or a second stage were compared with the vaginal delivery cohort. The primary outcome was subsequent sPTB.

Results

A total of 821 women met inclusion criteria, of which 74.8% (614/821) delivered vaginally and 25.2% (207/821) delivered by caesarean section. There was no association between a prolonged second stage in the index pregnancy and subsequent sPTB (aOR 0.70, 95% CI 0.13–3.83, p=0.7). The risk of subsequent sPTB was threefold for those with a second stage caesarean section; however this did not reach statistical significance.

Conclusions

A prolonged second stage of labour in the index pregnancy is not associated with an increased risk of subsequent sPTB. A second stage caesarean section in the index pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of subsequent sPTB, however there was no statistically significant difference. These findings are important for counseling and suggest that the effects of these factors are not clinically significant to justify additional interventions in the subsequent pregnancy.
Foul accumulation in the NBA
Authors: Chu Dani , Swartz Tim B.
Published: September 2020

This paper investigates the fouling time distribution of players in the National Basketball Association. A Bayesian analysis is presented based on the assumption that fouling time distributions follow a gamma distribution. Various insights are obtained including the observation that players accumulate fouls at a rate that increases with the current number of fouls. We demonstrate possible ways to incorporate the fouling time distributions to provide decision support to coaches in the management of playing time.
Ursprünge transzendentaler Ästhetik. Zum Wandel von Kants Raum- und Zeitargumentation von derInauguraldissertation zurKritik
Authors: Martin Christian
Published: September 2020

According to a widespread view, the essentials of Kant’s critical conception of space and time as set forth in the Transcendental Aesthetic can already be found in his 1770 Inaugural Dissertation. Contrary to this assumption, the present article shows that Kant’s later arguments for the a priori intuitive character of our original representations of space and time differ crucially from those contained in the Dissertation. This article highlights profound differences between Kant’s transcendental and his pre-critical conception of pure sensibility by systematically comparing the topic, method and argumentation of the First Critique with that of the Inaugural Dissertation. It thus contributes to a better understanding of the Transcendental Aesthetics itself, which allows one to distinguish its peculiar transcendental mode of argumentation from considerations made by the pre-critical Kant, with which it can easily be conflated.
Changes in the productivity of word-formation patterns: Some methodological remarks
Authors: Berg Kristian
Published: September 2020

Changes in the productivity of word-formation patterns are often investigated using hapax legomena. In this paper, I argue that at least in diachronic investigations of productivity, a measure based on first attestations is a viable alternative to hapax-based measures. I show that such a measure is a more direct proxy to new words than hapax-based measures – it measures what we want to measure, which is not always true for the latter. I present a method that deals with the common problem of varying subcorpus sizes (I suggest we randomly resample the subcorpora up to a predefined size), and to the problem of old words appearing as new at the start of the corpus (I suggest we take an earlier corpus and determine a point in time when almost all old words have registered). Armed with these instruments, we can determine the ratio of new types to existing types for a time span, which can be regarded as the renewal rate of the respective category.
The first report of albinism in a Sundaland endemic rodent
Authors: Nations Jonathan A. , Mursyid Ahmad , Darma Busta Ryski , Adrian Sah Putra , Handika Heru , Apandi  , Achmadi Anang S. , Esselstyn Jacob A.
Published: September 2020

Albinism, a congenital disorder that results in a lack of melanin deposition, is common in domesticated animals but rare in nature. Among the ∼2500 species of rodents worldwide, only 67 have published reports of albinism. Here we report the capture of an albino murid (Muridae: Rodentia) from Mt. Singgalang in West Sumatra, Indonesia. The specimen is an adolescent but sexually mature male Maxomys hylomyoides, a montane Sumatran endemic. To our knowledge, this specimen represents the first reported albino rodent from Indonesia and Sundaland, and only the second from Southeast Asia.