bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
BITES study: A qualitative analysis among emergency medicine physicians on snake envenomation management practices
Authors: Tupetz Anna , Barcenas Loren K. , Phillips Ashley J. , Vissoci Joao Ricardo Nickenig , Gerardo Charles J.
Published: January 2022

Introduction

Antivenom is currently considered standard treatment across the full spectrum of severity for snake envenomation in the United States. Although safe and effective antivenoms exist, their use in clinical practice is not universal.

Objective

This study explored physicians’ perceptions of antivenom use and experience with snake envenomation treatment in order to identify factors that influence treatment decisions and willingness to administer.

Methods

We conducted a qualitative study including in-depth interviews via online video conferencing with physicians practicing in emergency departments across the United States. Participants were selected based on purposive sampling methods. Data analysis followed inductive strategies, conducted by two researchers. The codebook and findings were discussed within the research team.

Findings

Sixteen in-depth interviews with physicians from nine states across the US were conducted. The participants’ specialties include emergency medicine (EM), pediatric EM, and toxicology. The experience of treating snakebites ranged from only didactic education to having treated over 100 cases. Emergent themes for this manuscript from the interview data included perceptions of antivenom, willingness to administer antivenom and influencing factors to antivenom usage. Overall, cost-related concerns were a major barrier to antivenom administration, especially in cases where the indications and effectiveness did not clearly outweigh the potential financial burden on the patient in non-life- or limb-threatening cases. The potential to decrease recovery time and long-term functional impairments was not commonly reported by participants as an indication for antivenom. In addition, level of exposure and perceived competence, based on prior education and clinical experience, further impacted the decision to treat. Resources such as Poison Center Call lines were well received and commonly used to guide the treatment plan. The need for better clinical guidelines and updated treatment algorithms with clinical and measurable indicators was stated to help the decision-making process, especially among those with low exposure to snake envenomation patients.

Conclusions

A major barrier to physician use of antivenom is a concern about cost, cost transparency and cost–benefit for the patients. Those concerns, in addition to the varying degrees of awareness of potential long-term benefits, further influence inconsistent clinical treatment practices.
An evaluation of the diagnostic performance characteristics of the Yellow Fever IgM immunochromatographic rapid diagnostic test kit from SD Biosensor in Ghana
Authors: Ofosu-Appiah Lawrence Henry , Amelor Dodzi Kofi , Ayensu Bright , Akyereko Ernest , Rabiwu Nafisah Issah , Opare David , Owusu-Okyere Godfred , Laryea Dennis Odai , Asiedu-Bekoe Franklin , Mingle Julius Abraham Addo
Published: January 2022

Yellow fever is endemic in Ghana and outbreaks occur periodically. The prodromal signs due to Yellow Fever Virus (YFV) infection are non-specific, making clinical signs unreliable as the sole criteria for diagnosis. Accurate laboratory confirmation of suspected yellow fever cases is therefore vital in surveillance programs. Reporting of ELISA IgM testing results by laboratories can delay due to late arrival of samples from the collection sites as well as limited availability of ELISA kits. In this study, the diagnostic performance characteristics of a rapid immunochromatographic Standard Q Yellow Fever IgM test kit (SD Biosensor) was evaluated for the rapid diagnosis of Yellow Fever infection in Ghana. A panel of 275 sera, comprising 81 confirmed YFV positives and 194 negatives were re-tested in this study using the Standard Q Yellow Fever IgM test kit. Using the CDC/WHO Yellow Fever IgM capture ELISA as a benchmark, the sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the Standard Q Yellow Fever test kit were 96.3%, 97.9% and 97.5%, respectively. The false positivity rate was 5.1% and there was no cross-reactivity when the Standard Q Yellow Fever test kit was tested against dengue, malaria and hepatitis B and C positive samples. In addition, inter-reader variability and invalid rate were both zero. The results indicate that the diagnostic performance of the Standard Q Yellow Fever IgM test kit on serum or plasma is comparable to the serum IgM detection by ELISA and can be used as a point of care rapid diagnostic test kit for YFV infection in endemic areas.
Characterization of cassava ORANGE proteins and their capability to increase provitamin A carotenoids accumulation
Authors: Jaramillo Angélica M. , Sierra Santiago , Chavarriaga-Aguirre Paul , Castillo Diana Katherine , Gkanogiannis Anestis , López-Lavalle Luis Augusto Becerra , Arciniegas Juan Pablo , Sun Tianhu , Li Li , Welsch Ralf , Boy Erick , Álvarez Daniel
Published: January 2022

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) biofortification with provitamin A carotenoids is an ongoing process that aims to alleviate vitamin A deficiency. The moderate content of provitamin A carotenoids achieved so far limits the contribution to providing adequate dietary vitamin A levels. Strategies to increase carotenoid content focused on genes from the carotenoids biosynthesis pathway. In recent years, special emphasis was given to ORANGE protein (OR), which promotes the accumulation of carotenoids and their stability in several plants. The aim of this work was to identify, characterize and investigate the role of OR in the biosynthesis and stabilization of carotenoids in cassava and its relationship with phytoene synthase (PSY), the rate-limiting enzyme of the carotenoids biosynthesis pathway. Gene and protein characterization of OR, expression levels, protein amounts and carotenoids levels were evaluated in roots of one white (60444) and two yellow cassava cultivars (GM5309-57 and GM3736-37). Four OR variants were found in yellow cassava roots. Although comparable expression was found for three variants, significantly higher OR protein amounts were observed in the yellow varieties. In contrast, cassava PSY1 expression was significantly higher in the yellow cultivars, but PSY protein amount did not vary. Furthermore, we evaluated whether expression of one of the variants, MeOR_X1, affected carotenoid accumulation in cassava Friable Embryogenic Callus (FEC). Overexpression of maize PSY1 alone resulted in carotenoids accumulation and induced crystal formation. Co-expression with MeOR_X1 led to greatly increase of carotenoids although PSY1 expression was high in the co-expressed FEC. Our data suggest that posttranslational mechanisms controlling OR and PSY protein stability contribute to higher carotenoid levels in yellow cassava. Moreover, we showed that cassava FEC can be used to study the efficiency of single and combinatorial gene expression in increasing the carotenoid content prior to its application for the generation of biofortified cassava with enhanced carotenoids levels.
Relatório de Avaliação das Parcerias Erasmus 2014-2019
Authors: Silva João Nuno Calvão da , Moreira Liliana
Published: January 2022

A avaliação da qualidade das parcerias Erasmus da Universidade de Coimbra emergiu como uma necessidade para se avançar para o novo ciclo do programa Erasmus, de modo mais sustentado, baseado em informações fidedignas e quantitativas, para uma internacionalização assente na qualidade. Deste modo, foi constituída como uma ação do plano estratégico da Universidade de Coimbra, correspondendo igualmente a um dos desígnios da European Charter for Higher Education. Este relatório resulta da utilização da plataforma Equatic, projeto financiado pela comissão europeia, “assessing quality of partnerships amongst higher education institutions”, coordenado pela EUF - European universities foundation, que a Universidade de Coimbra integra, desde dezembro de 2019, cujo objetivo é dotar as instituições de ensino superior de suportes que facilitem a avaliação das parcerias de mobilidade com base num conjunto de parâmetros designados por “indicators”, tais como: performance of incoming students; performance of outgoing students; support and facilities; academic quality; rankings; course catalogue information; exchange of mobility documents; mobility rate; involvement; education cooperation. Assim, abrangem-se diferentes dimensões da cooperação académica internacional.
Changes in Public Hospital Employees’ Perceptions Following the Introduction of the New Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRG)-Based Payment System in the Republic of Korea
Authors: Kim Hyun Joo , Lee Jin Yong
Published: January 2022

Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in perception of the New Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG)- based payment system, make overall evaluation after participation, and examine opinions on further policy improvement among employees of a public hospital participating in the pilot project in Korea.Methods: We investigated changes in perception of the New DRG-based payment system before and after participation in the pilot project using a qualitative research method. We conducted individual in-depth interviews with the management and healthcare professionals and Focus Group Interviews (FGIs) with the staff in the nursing and administrative departments.Results: Before implementing the pilot project of the New DRG-based payment system, the management was in favor of participating in the pilot project, whereas the healthcare professionals were strongly opposed to participation in the pilot project, and the staff in the nursing and administrative departments were slightly opposed to participation. After implementing the pilot project, there were remarkable changes in the perception of the New DRG-based payment system among healthcare professionals and the administrative staff. Healthcare professionals’ perception was altered in a positive way, while the administrative staff’s perception of the system became negative.Conclusion: There were no restrictions on clinical practice or deterioration of quality of care observed in association with the participation in the New DRG-based payment system. However, certain unintended consequences of the New DRG-based payment system may arise as well. Therefore, the government needs to examine the problems identified in this study to reflect on and improve the New DRG-based payment system for stable expansion.
Current Status of Repeated Hospitalization in South Korea: Focused on Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions
Authors: Jung Hyemin , Kim Hyun Joo , Lee Jin Yong
Published: January 2022

Purpose: Repeated hospitalization could be a proxy of unnecessary or preventive admission in South Korea where barriers to hospitalization are relatively low. This study aimed to estimate the current status of repeated hospitalization due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) in South Korea.Methods: Using the National Health Information Database, repeated hospitalization databases were constructed in units of episodes for patients who had been admitted more than twice between January 2017 and December 2018. The number of hospitalizations, total in-hospital days, and total medical expenditure were calculated and compared by patient characteristics in both of the entire patient group and the ACSC patient group.Results: Of total hospitalization episodes, 26.6% reported repeated admission, and 6.7% of repeated hospitalization was due to ACSC. A total of 183,110 patients with ACSC had been admitted an average of 2.9 times and spent an average of KRW5,630,118. In other words, KRW1,309 billion had been spent for repeated hospitalization due to ACSC. The scale of medical expenditure was relatively large in the highest and lowest socioeconomic status.Conclusion: Repeated hospitalization for ACSC can be considered a simple and intuitive indicator when assessing unnecessary hospitalizations or evaluating healthcare policy.
Triacetin as Lubricant Additive: Slipping Friction between Metal Pairs under Boundary Lubrication
Authors: Kumwannaboon Wattanapat , Chuepeng Sathaporn , Komintarachat Cholada
Published: January 2022

Friction between rubbing pairs plays a key role in operating machines in an efficient approach. In some intended works or occasional circumstances, slipping friction may occur during dry or boundary lubrication. Lubricating mechanical equipment using proper and efficient lubricant agents is tremendously necessary. This work explores the synthesized triacetin as an additive for lubricant under slipping friction between steel rollers and aluminum, brass, copper, and stainless-steel rods under boundary lubrication. The metal surface morphology under the lubricant with 10% triacetin additive covering roughness periphery is investigated by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope imaging. In the dry slipping condition, the friction coefficient is lower for the copper-steel pair compared to the aluminum-steel combination. Compared to the absence of triacetin additive, the steel roller combinations with the rod metal specimens undergoing boundary lubrication with 10% triacetin additive in the lubricant can reduce the slipping friction coefficient by up to 49.2% in the case of steel roller and brass rod pair. The quantitative influences of triacetin additive on metal rubbing pair friction coefficients under boundary lubrication are inversely exponential correlated to triacetin additive, varying in the range of 0 to 10% v/v.
Making Monsters
Authors: Mowatt Rasul
Published: January 2022

Instructors have critically sought ways to embody the theories and ideals espoused in radical texts and work to better force changes in the type of students we produce. What is presented here is an honest reflective dialogue, based on a reflexive critique of 17 years as a professor and the students I have encountered. But more importantly, this is also based on an equal set of years studying the aftereffects of White supremacy, the “candy wrapper” left on the ground at a campsite that informs someone was present, insinuates what may have been done, and eludes a sense of disregard while foreclosing any understanding of what it will go on to do next. Those candy wrappers are the “mild” subjects of the legacy of lynching, colonialism, and state-sanctioned violence. So, in the context of being a faculty member engaged with students, I pose a question to you, for us, from me: What if instead of “transgressing” White supremacy, we are in fact maintaining it? Many of us in higher education have come to an understanding that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is insufficient for college teaching and student learning to positively move forward through the 21st century. If we are to understand White supremacy not as a societal add-on that has corrupted the world around us but instead as the actual world around us, how do we properly contextualize this in a course or class? How do we foster experiences that deepen an understanding of a systemic reality? This essay challenges reductionist understandings of White supremacy as a matter of privilege that are reflected in DEI, culturally responsive teaching, dismantling, antiracist, invisible-knapsack-based approaches. Could it be that through this reduction we are instead producing “monsters”?
Editors' Note
Authors: Werner Marta , Zaccarello Michelangelo
Published: January 2022

This issue of Textual Cultures is dedicated to the memory of David C. Greetham, October 21, 1941–March 24, 2020.
The Accidentals Tourist
Authors: Neville Sarah
Published: January 2022

Since the 1980s, editorial theorists and proponents of ‘unediting’ have chipped away at W. W. Greg’s “Rationale of Copy-Text”, speculating that the accidental/substantive division is deceptively reductive, as even minor variants can have major implications. This essay contextualizes debates over Greg’s “Rationale” by recognizing that his theory of accidentals was a practical affordance designed to ensure that a copy-text (and often a specific document) could be reconstructed by working backwards from a scholarly edition — a vital bibliographic resource in an age before scholars were easily able to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in order to check variant copies. By considering shifting editorial values alongside the rapid development of the technologies of travel, ‘The Accidentals Tourist’ demonstrates that theoretical texts — and the subsequent revisions and corrections of them — are the products of the affordances of their own historical moments.
Tipologie di contaminazione nella tradizione testuale della “Commedia” dantesca
Authors: Tonello Elisabetta
Published: January 2022

This essay examines the phenomenology of contamination in the textual tradition of Dante’s Commedia. After clarifying the definition of contamination, and its relationship with the editio variorum, the essay explores useful strategies to diagnose this phenomenon in the text and the consequences, from a stemmatic point of view, of the diffusion of the particular type of contamination ‘of workshop’.
Attributing Another Song to Maroie de Diergnau de Lille
Authors: Pfeffer Wendy
Published: January 2022

Maroie de Diergnau is a recognized thirteenth-century woman trouvère to whom one song has been attributed. This article argues that another Old French lyric, Jherusalem grant damage (RS 191, L 265–939), found in the Chansonnier du roi (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fr. 844, known as trouvère chansonnier M) should also be attributed to the songstress.
An Evolutionary Textual Environment
Authors: Portela Manuel
Published: January 2022

This article introduces the notion of evolutionary textual environment as the outcome of a digital experiment. The experiment consisted of transforming a digital archive of Fernando Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet into a changing textual space sustained by role-playing interactions. As conceptual and technical artifact, this living archive expresses an innovative model not only for the literary acts of reading, editing and writing, but also for reimagining the book as a network of reconfigurable and dynamic texts, structures, and actions. The programmed features of the LdoD Archive can be used in multiple activities, including leisure reading, study, analysis, advanced research, and creative writing. Through the integration of computational tools in a simulation space, this collaborative archive provides an open exploration of the procedurality of the digital medium itself. The “unfinished machine” metaphor suggests the open-endedness both of the evolving textual environment and of the computational modeling of literary performativity that sustains the whole experiment.
CHINES, Loredana. 2021. Filigrane. Nuovi tasselli per Petrarca e Boccaccio.
Authors: Laruccia Rosamaria
Published: January 2022

Review.
Table of Contents
Authors: Werner Marta
Published: January 2022

Contents.
Ethical Theory in Classic German Philosophy Then and Now
Authors: Nowak Ewa , Rockmore Tom , Scaglia Lara , Adolphi Rainer
Published: January 2022

The volume brings together contributions in the spirit embodied by Marek J. Siemek († 2011) and Jakub Kloc-Konkołowicz († 2021), two Warsaw philosophers truly devoted to Classical German Philosophy. They were simultaneously in a relationship between thinker and adept, and thinker and thinker. They both taught philosophy, with a strong emphasis on classic German philosophy, at Warsaw University. Under the theme “Ethical Theory in Classic German Philosophy Then and Now,” students and companions continue their discussions with both of them.
Genesis of Moral Freedom in Kant
Authors: Rivera de Rosales Jacinto
Published: January 2022

In Kant’s writings, we can discover four key moments in the realization of moral freedom: i) The original possibility of being free, ii) The act described by Kant as radical evil, iii) The opposite act, that is, an inner conversion to good, and, finally, iv) The long process of the self-development of virtue extending to immortality. There are further issues such as the double concept of moral evil, and practical temporality. Moral freedom is originally located (and presupposed in Kant’s transcendental deduction) in the individual, her decisions, and the maxims or principles that guide her actions, even though a community (as both a „kingdom of ends” and social reality) provides the scope wherein all this takes place and its socially and historically-situated shapes. This paper tries to systematize these crucial stages of Kant’s moral philosophy with the focus on the concept of virtue.
The Humble Reason. On Education in Kant and Fichte
Authors: Scaglia Lara
Published: January 2022

In this paper I will focus on education as the core function of reason in Kant and Fichte. The notion of reason carries an intrinsic tendency to universality, which is difficult to be reconciled with its local (cultural, historical, anthropological) background and actualisation. I believe that the stress on the importance of learning, which can be seen in the works of both Kant and Fichte, might provide useful clues to approaching the relation between universality and particularity. I will start by focusing on Kant’s narration on the genealogy of human reason in the Conjectural Beginning of Human History, and then move on to the critical writings and selected lectures in order to focus on the role of human dignity and ethical education for the moral appraisal and the practice of virtue. Later, I will consider Fichte’s lectures on the Vocation of the Scholar, the Vocation of Man and The Characteristics of the Present Age, which are crucial to understanding the social, ethical and political role of the scholar. For Fichte, education is the best instrument to eradicate selfishness, regarded as a historical phenomenon which can lead a nation to ruin. I will then provide some conclusions concerning the two accounts and their implications.
Striving for Freedom. Some Notes about Fichte’s Idealism
Authors: Alessiato Elena Paola Carola
Published: January 2022

Moving from Fichte’s assumption that “the essence of the I is its activity”, this paper tries to analyze the meaning and implications of the idea of “activity” [Tathandlung] in order to explicate the peculiarities of Fichte’s critical, transcendental, and moral idealism. Fichte’s idea of activity will be examined with reference to such basic concepts as collision [Anstoss], interaction [Wechselwirkung], inter-determination [Wechselbestimmung], and striving [Streben]. However, it is freedom which frames and connects the core components of Fichte’s thinking and sets up the goal of his philosophy of action. What freedom accounts for, can be identified both at the transcendental level, in the internal dynamic of infinity and finitude constituting the subjectivity of the I, and at the moral and social levels of Fichte’s thought, as the goal of the human action in history and in the society. In assuming the unitary character of Fichte’s philosophical system, concluding remarks are developed concerning the moral meaning of the act of striving for freedom and, conversely, the immorality of attitudes and feelings such as fear, resignation, and fatigue.
Hegel and the Spiritual Evolution of Absolute Subject
Authors: Minkov Ivo
Published: January 2022

The article interprets the methodological potential of Hegel’s speculative dialectics as a possible course of spiritual evolution of the Absolute subject. The intention is towards the method, first through the very construction of the “idea of freedom” from the point of view of Logic; second, through the constitutive function of freedom and the transition of the subjective spirit into the objective spirit; third, through the unfolding of mediation in the realms of the objective spirit. This essentially substantial methodologization dissolves the theoretical space of the idea of the mediating function of freedom as an ontological principle of ethical life. In line with the paradigm of such a course, the text considers a project of speculative ethics, a project within the framework of which the methodological and ontological sublation of spiritual evolution takes place.
ZOOINWEKTYWY W RÓŻNYCH ODMIANACH JĘZYKA POLSKIEGO I UKRAIŃSKIEGO
Authors: SOJKA-MASZTALERZ HELENA
Published: January 2022

Appelatives having an insulting function have been used since the earliest times. Nowadays, they are present in standard language and in substandard types of language (sociolects). The aim of the article is to show that animal-related invectives are more and more frequently usedin order to express negative emotions towards the receiver. In Polish and Ukrainian, the number of animal-related invectives increases but also semantics of the words broaden as the meaning of those words originally referred to the name of a given animal. The lexemes were analyzed and divided into two groups: names of animals that have several meanings, but some of them overlap (pl. baran – ukr. бapaн, pl. cap – ukr. цaп, pl. krowa – ukr. кopoвa) and names that  have completely different meanings in the two languages (pl. wydra – ukr. видpa, pl. larwa – ukr. ляpвa, pl. szakal – ukr. шaкaл).
ПЕРЕДЧУТТЯ КІНЦЯ: КРИЗА МОДЕРНОГО СВІТОВІДЧУТТЯ В РОМАНІ ВІКТОРА ДОМОНТОВИЧА БЕЗ ҐРУНТУ
Authors: HANOSZENKO JURIJ
Published: January 2022

The article is devoted to the evolution of Victor Domontovych’s creative thinking in his last novel Without Foundation. This work of art became a resume of his writing and an intertext for his philosophical and culturological research in scientific and critical articles from this period. The basic theme of this novel is the end of the epoch; the author addresses the theme of the exhaustion of modernity’s value and aesthetic systems, which formed the basis of his early artistic works. The analysis of Domontovych’s perception of the epoch boundary, his exhaustion of the cultural paradigm of modernism and the embodiment of his conclusions in the works make the research relevant, especially in terms of the changing landmarks of modern global culture. The research is based on the structural-semiotic methodology of literary text interpretations, which allows the different levels of the text organization to be reviewed, thus reaching wider cultural generalizations. This study helps to better understand the author’s concept of the culture crisis and the poetics of the novel Without Foundation.
KONCEPTOSFERA LIRYKI JURIJA KOSACZA
Authors: LIS-MARKIEWICZ PRZEMYSŁAW
Published: January 2022

Złożoność i szczególność drogi życiowej Kosacza znalazły wyraźne odzwierciedlenie w systemie obrazów i motywów jego twórczości poetyckiej. Wyniki analizy umożliwiły ustalenie czterech głównych typów obrazów w pracach wchodzących w skład zbioru wierszy Noce manhattańskie i Lato nad Delaware. Obrazy te rozpatrywane są w ramach czterech dominujących pojęć: ZAGRANICA, UKRAINA, SZTUKA, SPOŁECZEŃSTWO. Stosunek Kosacza do obczyzny można uogólnić za pomocą metafory użytej przez samego autora – ‘zło’. W przeciwieństwie do ‘złej’ obczyzny, ojczyzna jest przedstawiana przez autora jako miejsce piękna i wielkości. Koncepcję SZTUKI Jurij Kosacz przedstawia w portretowaniu znanych artystów, postaci z dzieł sztuki, a także dzieł architektonicznych. Koncepcję SPOŁECZEŃSTWA wyrażają wizerunki przedstawicieli różnych grup etnicznych i społecznych, którym autor współczuje i się z nimi utożsamia. Wspomniane cztery koncepcje można łatwo rozróżnić. Jednak trzy z nich (ZAGRANICA, UKRAINA, SPOŁECZEŃSTWO) odzwierciedlają cierpienie artysty na wygnaniu. Czuł się tam obco i samotnie. Ze względu na status imigranta uważał się także za przedstawiciela niższych warstw społecznych, z którymi z kolei się identyfikował i którym był przychylny.
„ВОГНЕННЕ ОКО” СПОКУСИ В ОДНОЙМЕННОМУ РОМАНІ ОЛЕСЯ УЛЬЯНЕНКА
Authors: SZTEINBUK FELIKS
Published: January 2022

The article is an interpretation of Oles Ulyanenko’s novel Fiery Eye on the principles of corporal-mimetic method for analyzing fiction. Having applied this innovative methodology, the conclusion is reached that the novel is not based on an apocalyptic vision but on a seduction phenomenon. This conclusion disputes traditional critical reflections on Oles Ulyanenko’s literary works. The content of seduction is determined by the correlation between the desire for power, woman, sex and death. They are symbolically echoed by the image of a sky with an enormous eye in the center, blazing with seductive fire. This fire is vivifying warmth and light. According to Oles Ulyanenko, the way there runs through a carnival turning cruelty into mercy, horror into delight, hatred into tenderness, disgust into pleasure, and vice versa.
Generating semantic maps through multidimensional scaling: linguistic applications and theory
Authors: van der Klis Martijn , Tellings Jos
Published: January 2022

This paper reports on the state-of-the-art in application of multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques to create semantic maps in linguistic research. MDS refers to a statistical technique that represents objects (lexical items, linguistic contexts, languages, etc.) as points in a space so that close similarity between the objects corresponds to close distances between the corresponding points in the representation. We focus on the use of MDS in combination with parallel corpus data as used in research on cross-linguistic variation. We first introduce the mathematical foundations of MDS and then give an exhaustive overview of past research that employs MDS techniques in combination with parallel corpus data. We propose a set of terminology to succinctly describe the key parameters of a particular MDS application. We then show that this computational methodology is theory-neutral, i.e. it can be employed to answer research questions in a variety of linguistic theoretical frameworks. Finally, we show how this leads to two lines of future developments for MDS research in linguistics.
A comprehensive review on green synthesis of titanium dioxide nanoparticles and their diverse biomedical applications
Authors: Sagadevan Suresh , Imteyaz Shahla , Murugan Baranya , Anita Lett Jayasingh , Sridewi Nanthini , Weldegebrieal Getu Kassegn , Fatimah Is , Oh Won-Chun
Published: January 2022

Metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) have found a variety of applications in numerous industrial, medical, and environmental fields s, attributable to recent advances in the nanotechnology field. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs) have gained importance as metal oxide NPs due to their potential in various fields, particularly nanomedicine and other biomedicine fields. Several studies have confirmed that NPs produced via the biosynthesis route using natural resources have significant advantages such as fewer toxic contaminants, less subsequent complex chemical synthesis, environmental friendliness, cost-effectiveness, and stability when compared to NPs produced by conventional methods, and its production with controlled shapes and sizes. Therefore, considerable effort is being expended to implement biological synthesis methods with these proven advantages. TiO2-NPs can be made using a variety of biological, chemical, and physical methods. Physicochemical methods are costly, emit high levels of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere, and consume a lot of energy. On the other hand, the biological approach is an environmentally safe, cost-effective, dependable, convenient, and easy way to synthesize TiO2-NPs. In this review, the bio-mediated synthesis, as well as various biomedical applications of TiO2-NPs, were discussed.
Stability analysis of nonlinear impulsive switched positive systems
Authors: Lin Yanzi , Zhao Ping
Published: January 2022

In this paper, the global asymptotic stability (GAS) of continuous-time and discrete-time nonlinear impulsive switched positive systems (NISPS) are studied. For continuous-time and discrete-time NISPS, switching signals and impulse signals coexist. For both of these systems, using the multiple max-separable Lyapunov function method and average dwell-time (ADT) method, some sufficient conditions on GAS are given. Based on these, the GAS criteria are also given for continuous-time and discrete-time linear impulsive switched positive systems (LISPS). From our criteria, the stability of the systems can be judged directly from the characteristics of the system functions, switching signals and impulse signals of the systems. Finally, simulation examples verify the validity of the results.
Need for transition medicine in pediatric surgery – health related quality of life in adolescents and young adults with congenital malformations
Authors: Uecker Marie , Ure Benno , Quitmann Julia Hannah , Dingemann Jens
Published: January 2022

Survival rates of patients with visceral congenital malformations have increased considerably. However, long-term morbidity in these patients is high. In the last decades, these circumstances have led to a shift in goals of caretakers and researchers with a new focus on patients’ perspectives and long-term morbidity. Health-related quality of life (HrQoL) is the most commonly used patient-reported outcome measure to assess the impact of chronic symptoms on patients’ everyday lives. Most pediatric surgical conditions can cause a significantly decreased HrQoL in affected patients compared to the healthy population. In order to guarantee life-long care and to minimize the impact on HrQoL a regular interdisciplinary follow-up is obligatory. The period of transition from child-centered to adult-oriented medicine represents a critical phase in the long-term care of these complex patients. This scoping review aims to summarize relevant pediatric surgical conditions focusing on long-term-morbidity and HrQoL assessment in order to demonstrate the necessity for a well-structured and standardized transition for pediatric surgical patients.
Hydroxychloroquine pre-exposure prophylaxis provides no protection against COVID-19 among health care workers: a cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital in North India
Authors: Juneja Shivani , Rana Proteesh , Chawla Parvinder , Katoch Rekha , Singh Kulvir , Rana Shobha , Mittal Tamanna , Kaur Bhavnish , kaur Simranjot
Published: January 2022

Objectives

The use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) prophylaxis has been recommended by the National task force constituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the prevention of corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) among healthcare workers (HCWs). However, this recommendation was based essentially on the preclinical data and limited clinical experience. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of HCQ as a pre-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 infection among Indian HCWs.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among HCWs of a tertiary care hospital in north India. The HCQ prophylaxis was initiated among 996 HCWs and they were followed up to 8 weeks for conversion to COVID-19 positive status and any adverse drug reaction (ADR).

Results

About 10.3% of the study participants were tested positive for COVID-19 which was comparable to the positivity rate among HCWs not taking HCQ prophylaxis (9.7%).

Conclusions

HCQ was well tolerated at a weekly dose of 400 mg for 8 weeks but provided no additional benefit in prevention of COVID-19 among HCWs.
Tracking the Rise of Robots: The IFR Database
Authors: Jurkat Anne , Klump Rainer , Schneider Florian
Published: January 2022

We present and analyze the dataset on the international distribution of industrial robots by country, industry, and application provided by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) since 1993. After describing the IFR we point out specificities and limitations of its dataset. We explain the process of data collection, develop a correspondence table between the IFR industry classification and the ISIC rev. 4 industry classification, and clarify the applied compliance rules. We further compute average implicit depreciation rates inherent to the robot stocks in the IFR dataset in the range of 4–7% per year between 1993 and 2019. We also find that the share of industrial robots that are not classified to any industry or application has sharply declined since 2005.
MAKE: A matrix action key exchange
Authors: Rahman Nael , Shpilrain Vladimir
Published: January 2022

We offer a public key exchange protocol based on a semidirect product of two cyclic (semi)groups of matrices overZp{{\mathbb{Z}}}_{p}. One of the (semi)groups is additive, and the other one is multiplicative. This allows us to take advantage of both operations on matrices to diffuse information. We note that in our protocol, no power of any matrix or of any element ofZp{{\mathbb{Z}}}_{p}is ever exposed, so standard classical attacks on Diffie–Hellman-like protocols are not applicable.
Wittgenstein, Ordinary Language, and Poeticity
Authors: Hommen David
Published: January 2022

The later Wittgenstein famously holds that an understanding which tries to run up against the limits of language bumps itself and results in nothing but plain nonsense. Therefore, the task of philosophy cannot be to create an ‘ideal’ language so as to produce a ‘real’ understanding for the first time; its aim must be to remove particular misunderstandings by clarifying the use of our ordinary language. Accordingly, Wittgenstein opposes both the sublime terms of traditional philosophy and the formal frameworks of modern logics—and adheres to a pointedly casual, colloquial style in his own philosophizing. However, there seems to lurk a certain inconsistency in Wittgenstein’s ordinary language approach: his philosophical remarks frequently remain enigmatic, and many of the terms Wittgenstein coins seem to be highly technical. Thus, one might wonder whether his verdicts on the limits of language and on philosophical jargons might not be turned against his own practice. The present essay probes the extent to which the contravening tendencies in Wittgenstein’s mature philosophy might be reconciled. Section 2 sketches Wittgenstein’s general approach to philosophy and tracks the special rôle that the language of everyday life occupies therein. Section 3 reconstructs Wittgenstein’s preferred method for philosophy, which he calls perspicuous representation, and argues that this method implements an aesthetic conception of philosophy and a poetic approach to philosophical language, in which philosophical insights are not explicitly stated, but mediated through well-worded and creatively composed descriptions. Section 4 discusses how Wittgenstein’s philosophical poetics relates to artificial terminologies and grammars in philosophy and science.
Reflections on Popular Culture and Philosophy
Authors: Christian Alexander
Published: January 2022

Contributions to the philosophical genre of popular culture and philosophy aim to popularize philosophical ideas with the help of references to the products of popular (mass) culture with TV series like The Simpsons, Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix and Jurassic Park, or popular music groups like Metallica. While being commercially successful, books in this comparatively new genre are often criticized for lacking scientific rigor, providing a shallow cultural commentary, and having little didactic value to foster philosophical understanding. This paper discusses some of these methodological and didactic objections and seeks to encourage a constructive discussion of concerns with the genre. It shows how the genre similar to previous attempts to foster public understanding of philosophy and that it is a methodologically viable approach to reach a broad range of readers with diverse informational preferences and educational backgrounds. Considering what makes this approach to the popularization of philosophical thinking successful will shed light on some of the criteria for popularization of philosophy in general.
Crystal structure of (E)-N′-(1-(2-hydroxy-4-methoxyphenyl)ethylidene) isonicotinohydrazide, C15H15N3O3
Authors: Mossine Valeri V. , Kelley Steven P. , Mawhinney Thomas P.
Published: January 2022

C15H15N3O3, triclinic, P

1
‾

$\overline{1}$

(no. 2), a = 9.0752(2) Å, b = 9.1969(2) Å, c = 9.9519(2) Å, α = 112.7059(8)°, β = 92.4309(8)°, γ = 115.2776(7)°, V = 671.16(3) Å3, Z = 2, R

gt
(F) = 0.0347, wR

ref
(F
2) = 0.1113, T = 100 K.
Impacts of Improved Seed Maize Technology Adoption on Productivity and Technical Efficiency in Northern Ghana
Authors: Dokyi Emmanuel , Anang Benjamin Tetteh , Owusu Victor
Published: January 2022

Improved seed is one of the crucial ingredients for promoting agricultural productivity, farmers’ livelihood, and global food security. The present study uses an endogenous treatment regression model (ETRM) to evaluate the impacts of improved seed maize technology (ISMT) adoption on technical efficiency and productivity using data from maize farmers in northern Ghana. The findings show that ISMT adoption impacts positively on technical efficiency. Adoption of ISMT enhanced technical efficiency by 16.1% and increased maize productivity by 33.8%. The study recommends dissemination of improved maize seeds to farmers and other interventions such as provision of fertilizer to enhance farmers’ technical efficiency and productivity.
Statistical methods for in silico tools used for risk assessment and toxicology
Authors: Osman Nermin A.
Published: January 2022

In silico toxicology is one type of toxicity assessment that uses computational methods to visualize, analyze, simulate, and predict the toxicity of chemicals. It is also one of the main steps in drug design. Animal models have been used for a long time for toxicity testing. Animal studies for the type of toxicological information needed are both expensive and time-consuming, and to that, ethical consideration is added. Many different types of in silico methods have been developed to characterize the toxicity of chemical materials and predict their catastrophic consequences to humans and the environment. In light of European legislation such as Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) and the Cosmetics Regulation, in silico methods for predicting chemical toxicity have become increasingly important and used extensively worldwide e.g., in the USA, Canada, Japan, and Australia. A popular problem, concerning these methods, is the deficiency of the necessary data for assessing the hazards. REACH has called for increased use of in silico tools for non-testing data as structure-activity relationships, quantitative structure-activity relationships, and read-across. The main objective of the review is to refine the use of in silico tools in a risk assessment context of industrial chemicals.
Decision making at unsignalized inner city intersections using discrete events systems
Authors: Weinreuter Hannes , Szigeti Balázs , Strelau Nadine-Rebecca , Deml Barbara , Heizmann Michael
Published: January 2022

Autonomous driving is a promising technology to, among many aspects, improve road safety. There are however several scenarios that are challenging for autonomous vehicles. One of these are unsignalized junctions. There exist scenarios in which there is no clear regulation as to is allowed to drive first. Instead, communication and cooperation are necessary to solve such scenarios. This is especially challenging when interacting with human drivers. In this work we focus on unsignalized T-intersections. For that scenario we propose a discrete event system (DES) that is able to solve the cooperation with human drivers at a T-intersection with limited visibility and no direct communication. The algorithm is validated in a simulation environment, and the parameters for the algorithm are based on an analysis of typical human behavior at intersections using real-world data.
Lost in Translation– Typographic variation in loanword surrounded punctuation positions
Authors: Rössler Paul
Published: January 2022

In German printings of the early 18th century, the shift from the hitherto dominant sentence-dividing punctuation mark, the virgule, to the comma, takes place astonishingly rapidly. It is also astonishing that until recently, research has barely devoted itself to this phenomenon, even though it is at least a turning point in the history of the highest-frequency punctuation mark in German writing.

The paper examines to what extent the transition from the use of the virgule to the comma is carried out in a phase-specific manner. Previous samples have indicated the influence of the font choice on the choice of punctuation: Printers or typesetters in the early 18th century set the comma especially in the environment of the Antiqua script, which is used to graphically label non-native words or syntagms. Is this a kind of “gateway” to the comma?

By means of a corpus analysis in micro-diachronic sections, the status of the virgule/comma variation will be associated with the typographic variation in terms of the use of Latin Antiqua type and the German type.
Towards a broad-coverage graphemic analysis of large historical corpora
Authors: Waldenberger Sandra , Dipper Stefanie , Lemke Ilka
Published: January 2022

This paper presents a method which we are developing to explore graphemic variation in large historical corpora of German. Historical corpora provide an amount of data at the level of graphemics which cannot be handled exhaustively using common methods of manual evaluation. To deal with this challenge, we apply methods from computational linguistics to pave the way for a broad-coverage graph(em)ic analysis of large historical corpora. In this paper, we show how our approach can be applied to the Reference Corpus of Middle High German. Illustrating our method and linguistic analysis, we present findings from our investigations into diatopic and/or diachronic variation as documented in 13th and 14th century charters (Urkunden) from the corpus.
Quantifying graphemic variation via large text corpora
Authors: Lüschow Hanna
Published: January 2022

The use of some basic computer science concepts could expand the possibilities of (manual) graphematic text corpus analysis. With these it can be shown that graphematic variation decreases constantly in printed German texts from 1600 to 1900. While the variability is continuously lesser on a text-internal level, it decreases faster for the whole available writing system of individual decades. But which changes took place exactly? Which types of variation went away more quickly, which ones persisted? How do we deal with large amounts of data which cannot be processed manually anymore? Which aspects are of special importance or go missing while working with a large textual base?

The use of a measurement called entropy quantifies the variability of the spellings of a given word form, lemma, text or subcorpus, with few restrictions but also less details in the results. The difference between two spellings can be measured via Damerau-Levenshtein distance. To a certain degree, automated data handling can also determine the exact changes that took place. Afterwards, these differences can be counted and ranked.

As data source the German Text Archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities is used. It offers for example orthographic normalization – which is extremely useful –, preprocessing of parts of speech and lemmatization. As opposed to many other approaches the establishment of today’s normed spellings is not seen as the aim of the developments and is therefore not the focus of the research. Instead, the differences between individual spellings are of interest. Afterwards intra- and extralinguistic factors which caused these developments should be determined.

These methodological findings could subsequently be used for improving research methods in other graphematic fields of interest, e. g. computer-mediated communication.