bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Quantifying Mineral Intake and the Role of Minerals on Food Selection in Angola Black and White Colobus Monkeys (Colobus angolensis palliatus)
Authors: Dunham Noah T. , Opere Paul Otieno
Published: December 2020

Minerals are vital for many metabolic processes, and mineral deficiencies can adversely impact health and fitness. Mineral concentrations of food items are commonly reported in primate nutritional ecology studies and have been identified as important factors in primate food selection; however, very few studies have quantified daily mineral intake of free-ranging primates. We examined the concentration of 9 minerals (Ca, P, Mg, K, Na, Fe, Zn, Cu, and Mn) in foods consumed by Colobus angolensis palliatus inhabiting the Diani Forest of Kenya, and test whether individuals preferentially selected leaves in accordance with their mineral concentrations. We also examined the effects of sex, group, and season on daily mineral intake, quantifying both percentage-based and mass-based intakes. We then compared daily mineral intake values to published recommendations. Behavioral data and plant samples were collected from July 2014 to December 2015. We found that individuals preferred leaves with greater P content and lower Ca content. Daily mineral intake differed significantly between sexes and among groups and seasons. These results are interpretable via differences in time spent feeding and total energy intake. Intakes fell below percentage-based recommendations for P, Na, Fe, Cu, and Mn but met or exceeded mass-based recommendations for all minerals except Na. This discrepancy is likely explained by the conservative nature of percentage-based mineral recommendations and the difficulty of comparing and scaling mass-based mineral recommendations among primate species. Studies that quantify daily mineral intake are needed to better understand the role of minerals on dietary selection, more accurately identify potential mineral deficiencies, and provide more informed recommendations for captive primates.
Solidarity as Social Reconstruction
Authors: Voirol Olivier
Published: December 2020

The neoliberal agenda is based on the rejection of social objectivism and social reason, in favor of individual preferences and subjective values. Reforms carried out under this agenda destroy institutions and practices of solidarity. While the 2008 financial crisis has confronted neoliberalism with a legitimation crisis, an alternative agenda has yet to emerge. In the past decades, this “void” gave birth to the implementation of “regressive communities”. Instead of challenging the neoliberal agenda these communities function as mere authoritarian extensions. By rejecting social issues and defending cultural values they display contempt for social objectivity and reason. A path beyond the neoliberal “all market” approach as well as the subsequent triggerering of “regressive communities” is nowadays sought by social reconstruction through solidarity.
Toward the Target and the Goal: Infrastructure Sabotage and Palestinian Liberation in the Pages of al-Hadaf
Authors: Cuyler Zachary Davis
Published: December 2020

This paper examines a 1969 infrastructure-sabotage campaign by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) as reported in the pages of its weekly newspaper, al-Hadaf. While academic and policy discourse conceptualises sabotage in a way that emphasises its disruptive effects and sometimes obscures the positive political ends toward which acts of sabotage are directed, the PFLP conceptualised sabotage as a practice of revealing the political and economic relations that infrastructures sustain by disrupting them and marking progress toward an alternative political-economic order. For the PFLP, sabotage constituted a kind of concrete critique, a communicative act that conveys a theoretical analysis of processes of extraction, exploitation, and dispossession by physically interrupting them.
Über den Hintergrund der Verbreitung des Kybele-Kultes im Westen der Mittelmeerwelt
Authors: Coşkun Altay
Published: December 2020

A broad literary tradition accounts for the transfer of Magna Mater (in the shape of a meteorite) from Pessinus to Rome in 205 BCE. The evidence includes many details regarding the mythical aetiology and institutional organization of the cult. However, our main source, Livy 29.10.4-29.11.8 & 29.14.5-14, is viewed with ever growing suspicion, partly due to contradictions with other witnesses, partly because the scarce archaeological material from Pessinus that predates the 2nd century BC does not support the claim of a Phrygian cult centre. Latest research demonstrates that Livy does not, in fact, require a glorious Phrygian past of the site, but rather provides substantial clues pointing to the agency of Attalos I of Pergamon, as does Strabo (12.5.3). This king was not simply a mediator between Rome and Pessinus, but appears to have played a most active role in diverting the Roman quest to inland Anatolia and in shaping the cult of Kybele and Attis both in the valley of the Gallos and on the banks of the Tiber.
Parthian Imports in Asian Sarmatia (2nd-1st Centuries BC)
Authors: Treister Mikhail
Published: December 2020

The paper dwells on the objects of Parthian origin (silver-gilt phalerae and gold- and silverware, glazed pottery) dated to the 2nd-early 1st centuries BC and found in the nomadic burials of Asian Sarmatia. It is noteworthy that a considerable part of them originate from the later, 1st century AD burials. Also remarkable are signs of deliberate damage on phalerae and one of the silver bowls, which probably testify to the fact that these artefacts were acquired by the nomads as booty. The author suggests that these objects appeared in the graves as results of contacts of the nomads and Parthia in the second half of the 2nd century BC known from the written sources.
The European Commission’s e-Evidence Proposal – Critical Remarks and Proposals for Changes
Authors: Rogalski Maciej
Published: December 2020

In response to problems that exist in practice pertaining to how law enforcement authorities in European Union Member States can obtain electronic evidence concerning the commission of a crime, on 17 April 2018 a Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on European Production and Preservation Orders for electronic evidence in criminal matters (COM(2018) 225 final, 2018/0108 (cod)) was published. The proposal contains a series of new solutions aimed at speeding up and facilitating cooperation within the EU on obtaining electronic evidence in criminal matters. It is worth examining how the specific solutions accepted and the way they have been formulated may affect the fundamental rights of participants in criminal proceedings, particularly when that impact may be adverse. From this perspective, a detailed analysis is made of what entities will be authorised to issue European Production Orders, in relation to what kinds of electronic evidence, and under what conditions.
Locating European Mission in a Wounded World in Deep Transformation
Authors: Schreiter Robert
Published: December 2020

This article explores the challenges to engaging in Christian mission in Europe in these times. It takes as two defining characteristics of the current moment woundedness and the need for deep transformation. The woundedness of Europe is marked by the consequences of globalization which, on the one hand, give people the sense of losing control over their own world and, on the other, the influx of migrants and refugees escaping political and economic disorder in Asia and Africa. A spirituality of woundedness, based on the wounds of Jesus Christ, is offered as a basis for attending to wounds as a missio ad vulnera. The profound transformation to which Europe is called will require a spirituality based on conversion, kenosis, building community, and prophetic witness.
Salvation in a Wounded World. Towards a Spectral Theology of Mission
Authors: Gruber Judith
Published: December 2020

This article argues that there is a growing discrepancy between theological and critical approaches to mission: while critical mission studies have abandoned teleological frameworks for the narration of mission history, historico-theological teleologies still prove to be influential in theological conceptualizations of mission. As a result, there is a lack of theological language that can respond constructively to the interdisciplinary re-reading of mission history – mission theology is immunized from the interdisciplinary critique of mission history. Based on this diagnosis, this article asks what kind of theological approach can account for the complex entanglements of Christian knowledge production into the deadly politics of modern colonialism. Taking an interdisciplinary approach that intersects theology and postcolonial trauma studies, it investigates the narratives of decolonization that emerged around the recent renovation of the Afrika Museum in Brussels, Belgium, and develops from this analysis building blocks towards a ‘spectral theology.’
Wartime Storytelling and Mythmaking: Interpreting and Remembering the Flying Tigers in the United States, 1941–1945
Authors: Li Rong (Aries)
Published: December 2020

This article investigates the storytelling and mythmaking about the American Volunteer Group (avg), popularly known as the Flying Tigers, in the United States during World War ii. The avg was an aircrew of discharged U.S. military pilots and mechanics that China hired to assist in its war against Japan. Although this group was in combat for only seven months, its exploits became legendary in the United States. Based on examination of newspaper reports, magazine articles, Hollywood movies, popular biographies, and declassified documents, this article shows that Americans interpreted the avg’s service as proof of U.S. benevolence and superiority. It demonstrates that wartime stories about the avg helped many Americans regain confidence and assure their identities as racially and technologically superior people after enduring the shock of Pearl Harbor and Japan’s advance in Asia and Pacific. In this mythmaking process, Americans marginalized both the harmful impact of the avg personnel’s misconduct and the important contributions Chinese made to the avg. This article not only challenges the “Good War” image of World War ii in U.S. popular memories, but also seeks to contribute to the broader scholarly understanding of how popular memories of a nation’s overseas interventions affect its identity.
Antifascist Athletes? A Reappraisal of the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Authors: Rathbone Keith
Published: December 2020

In Olympia, Leni Riefenstahl offered representations of idealized Aryan athletes and their democratic counterparts, including Jesse Owens. Her evocative images shaped historical memory and the historiography of the Berlin Games as either a German propaganda victory or a moment of athletic antifascist resistance. The notion of the Berlin Games populated with ‘democratic’ and ‘fascist’ athletes is largely ahistorical. Riefenstahl’s fascist/antifascist dyad prompted scholars to ask questions about appropriate athletic behaviors, but it also required them to elide contrary histories, including Owens’ own experiences of racial segregation in the United States. A more holistic view of the Games, that encompasses both the antifascist resistance to it and the ultimate decision of most athletes to attend, confounds any analysis that slips sportsmen and women into neat heuristic categories of fascist and antifascist and opens the door to the possibility of personal politics outside of the dyad of fascism/antifascism.
Looking for a Dream, Surviving a Time of Nightmares: Eric Hobsbawm, Marxism Today and the Resignification of Antifascism During Thatcher’s Time
Authors: Ciáurriz Iker Itoiz
Published: December 2020

In 1979 Margaret Thatcher came to power in the United Kingdom inaugurating the rise of neoliberalism. In the pages of Marxism Today an intense debate took place about the strategy of the Labour Party to defeat Thatcher and Thatcherism. The author aims to show how the famous communist historian Eric Hobsbawm appealed to his own memories of the French Popular Front and the antifascist movement to give ideological content to the fight against Thatcherism on two points. First, Thatcherism as a new international threat similar to fascism in the 1930s. Second, by appealing emotionally to his own experiences during the 1930s in order to show readers how antifascism could work to unite the diverse progressive forces ranged against Thatcher. By doing so, Hobsbawm and the contributors to Marxism Today would reshape antifascism based on two ideals: the unity of the majority, in particular, the unity of the working class, against the forces of reaction. Second, the strength of unity to articulate policies for the emancipation of the working class.
When ‘#xmasangels’ Tweet: a Reception Study of Craftivism as Christian Witness
Authors: Taylor Steve , Taylor Shannon
Published: December 2020

Craftivism combines craft and activism. This paper contributes to the field of contemporary culture, mission, and creative making by examining the Christmas Angels project, in which local churches yarn-bomb hand-knitted angels, as an ecclesial expression of craftivism. Recipient responses to this fresh expression of Christian witness are analysed by examination of over 1,100 ‘#xmasangel’ tweets. Analysis reveals a found theology, in which angels are received with joy and surprise, understood in the context of love, experienced as a place-based gift and embody a participative making. A missiology of making is developed, reading the yarn-bombed Christmas angels as an ecclesial practice of witness in continuity with a theology of making in the Wisdom literature and ‘craft-egesis’ of mission in Acts. The research has relevance in exploring the potential of digital data in empirical ecclesial research and challenging missiology to be practical in ‘making’ a domestic turn.
Praising Elizabeth I in Latin at Norwich (1578)
Authors: Shenk Linda
Published: December 2020

When Elizabeth I visited the city of Norwich, she was publicly praised as a virgin queen for the first time in her reign. Although this image of Elizabeth becomes important to later historiography, this essay argues that there is a more sustained strand of royal myth-making in this visit that gives her even greater independent and specific political authority: that of an educated queen. At Norwich, Elizabeth was addressed more frequently in Latin than during any other visit during her reign, except for her visits to the universities. This essay analyzes the Latin texts to show how Norwich’s civic officials used this image to praise Elizabeth as a queen so individually powerful that she should commit more firmly to remaining a distinctly unmarried goddess of wisdom, a champion of Norwich, and the Nurse of God’s True (Protestant) Church. What goes unspoken is that she has no need for a foreign Catholic husband in the French Duke of Anjou—the context that underwrites the praise of her as a virgin queen. These Latin texts convey Elizabeth as a queen who has already the specific authority and nurturing care that give her distinctly peaceful nation all it needs to remain strong, prosperous, and religiously unified.
Lodging Dwelling Painting: Dives and Lazarus at Pittleworth Manor
Authors: Honig Elizabeth Alice
Published: December 2020

Taking as its focus a wall painting at Pittleworth Manor, Hampshire, this essay investigates the concepts of place and of dwelling as they were understood and experienced in Renaissance England, particularly by those without a true dwelling-place. The anonymous painting, dated 1580, represents the Biblical story of rich Dives and the beggar Lazarus. It articulates the position of the placeless both in life and after death, and questions what it really takes to “dwell” in this life. The owner of Pittleworth was himself concerned with place-making in a different way, for as the hereditary prison-keeper of Winchester he enabled his co-religionists, recusant Catholics, to turn their prison into a dwelling. The wall-painting declared that he shared with his community values of hospitality and charity when in fact their positions diverged considerably.
“Where the devil should he learn our language?”: Shakespeare’s Territorial Linguistics
Authors: Emmerichs Sharon
Published: December 2020

This article looks at how Spenser’s desire for an English national identity, rooted in a “kingdom of our own language,” is realized in Shakespeare’s works. I track the way early modern systems of power have used language as a colonial weapon and show how Shakespeare demonstrates the problematic effects of imagining language as a scaffold to hold oppressive social structures—such as class, gender, and nationality—in place. Throughout his works—comedies, tragedies, and histories alike—Shakespeare consistently plays with the notion that there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to speak, and I argue he connects these definitions with the colonial notion of a “right” and a “wrong” way to be “English”. The article examines language as space, in which “English” and “England” become synonymous. It explores language as a shared national identity in which language belongs to physical spaces as well as to peoples and a more abstract notion of nation. It explores the colonial imposition of the English language on indigenous populations that map the expansion of the known world in the early modern era, and looks at the tensions between the English and the Welsh—and their respective languages—in Shakespeare’s plays. Ultimately, shows us the inevitable victims of linguistic nationalism and draws attention to England’s long history of using language as a tool of abuse, oppression, and control.
Two new species of Hydnophlebia (Meruliaceae, Polyporales) from China based on morphological and molecular evidence

Authors: LIU DONG-MEI , XU YUN-LIN , LI YUE , LIU WEI-HONG , MA HAI-XIA , HUANG MAN-RONG , HE SHUANG-HUI
Published: December 2020

Two new corticioid species, Hydnophlebia sinensis and H. subchrysorhiza, are described and illustrated from China. Hydnophlebia sinensis was collected from northern China (Beijing, Jilin and Shaanxi Provinces), while H. subchrysorhiza was collected from southern China (Hainan, Hunan and Yunnan Provinces). The two new species belong to the H. chrysorhiza species complex and are similar to each other with few morphological differences. However, they are phylogenetically independent in both the ITS-LSU tree of Meruliaceae and the ITS tree of Hydnophlebia. In the trees, H. sinensis was sister to H. sp., whilst H. subchrysorhiza was closely related to H. chrysorhiza. Our analyses show that we do not have H. chrysorhiza in China but possess two undescribed sibling species
Flora of Nam Kading National Protected Area VII: a new species of Diospyros (Ebenaceae), D. laoensis

Authors: TAGANE SHUICHIRO , SOULADETH PHETLASY , YANG CHEN-JUI , YAHARA TETSUKAZU
Published: December 2020

A new species of Diospyros, D. laoensis, from Nam Kading National Protected Area, central Laos, is described and illustrated. It morphologically resembles D. longipilosa of Thailand, D. martabanica of India and Southeast Asia, and D. xishuangbannaensis of China, but is distinguished by its adaxially glabrous midrib, shorter calyx lobes and shorter fruiting pedicel. DNA barcodes of the rbcL and matK regions, a vernacular name and preliminary conservation assessment are also provided. As the species is considered to be endemic to a restricted area which is under threat from deforestation, it is here suggested for assessment under the category of Endangered (EN) within the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
A new method for quantitative assessment of hand muscle volume and fat in magnetic resonance images
Authors: Friedberger Andreas , Figueiredo Camille , Bäuerle Tobias , Schett Georg , Engelke Klaus
Published: December 2020

Background

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is characterized by systemic inflammation and bone and muscle loss. Recent research showed that obesity facilitates inflammation, but it is unknown if obesity also increases the risk or severity of RA. Further research requires an accurate quantification of muscle volume and fat content.

Methods

The aim was to develop a reproducible (semi) automated method for hand muscle segmentation and quantification of hand muscle fat content and to reduce the time consuming efforts of manual segmentation. T1 weighted scans were used for muscle segmentation based on a random forest classifier. Optimal segmentation parameters were determined by cross validation with 30 manually segmented hand datasets (gold standard). An operator reviewed the automatically created segmentation and applied corrections if necessary. For fat quantification, the segmentation masks were automatically transferred to MRI Dixon sequences by rigid registration. In total 76 datasets from RA patients were analyzed. Accuracy was validated against the manual gold standard segmentations.

Results

Average analysis time per dataset was 10 min, more than 10 times faster compared to manual outlining. All 76 datasets could be analyzed and were accurate as judged by a clinical expert. 69 datasets needed minor manual segmentation corrections. Segmentation accuracy compared to the gold standard (Dice ratio 0.98 ± 0.04, average surface distance 0.04 ± 0.10 mm) and reanalysis precision were excellent. Intra- and inter-operator precision errors were below 0.3% (muscle) and 0.7% (fat). Average Hausdorff distances were higher (1.09 mm), but high values originated from a shift of the analysis VOI by one voxel in scan direction.

Conclusions

We presented a novel semi-automated method for quantitative assessment of hand muscles with excellent accuracy and operator precision, which highly reduced a traditional manual segmentation effort. This method may greatly facilitate further MRI image based muscle research of the hands.
Magical Thinking in Chamoiseau’s Chemin-d’école
Authors: Swanson Lucy
Published: December 2020

This essay examines the second installment of Martinican author Patrick Chamoiseau’s trilogy Une enfance créole, using Chemin-d’école to consider how writers from the Caribbean may deploy magic in their texts in alternative ways to the magical realist mode, which critics have argued often reinforces a false dichotomy between a rational “West” and its irrational “others.” Specifically, Chamoiseau’s memoir both portrays creole magical beliefs as a vehicle through which its school-aged protagonists resist the ideology of neocolonial pedagogies, and it consistently refers to aspects of French civilization through the lens of the magical or marvelous. Ultimately, this essay argues, Chemin-d’école looks beyond magical motifs as mere emblems of tradition or authenticity. Using them instead to portray the neocolonial “civilizing mission” as its own form of magical thinking, the narration destabilizes the very ideas of the essential difference of Caribbean cultures and of the purported rationality of the West.
Bigger than the Sound
Authors: Goffe Tao Leigh
Published: December 2020

This essay examines the political economy of Caribbean cultural capital and the formation of reggae in Jamaica in the 1950s. Through study of the Afro-Asian intimacies and tensions embedded in the sound of preindependence Jamaica, the essay traces the birth of the “sound-system” to the networks of local small-retail grocery shops, ubiquitous across Jamaica, that were owned and operated by Jamaican Chinese shopkeepers and examines how they formed material infrastructures. In charting the hardwiring of speakers and how the sociality of the shop housed the production of a new sound, the essay argues that sonic innovation was derived from Afro-Jamaican servicepeople who returned from World War II with military technological expertise, which they applied to sound engineering, and from entrepreneurial guilds of Jamaican merchants and shopkeepers of Chinese, Afro-Chinese, and Indo-Chinese descent, who helped form the conditions of possibility for the production and global distribution of reggae. Thus the networks of Jamaican Chinese diasporic capital and talent, producing and performing, helped to engineer the electrical flows of reggae to rural areas and urban dancehall parties.
Caribbean Literary Historiography and the Jamaican Literary 1950s
Authors: Cummings Ronald
Published: December 2020

This essay utilizes an alternative politics of directionality as a way of reentering the mid-twentieth-century Caribbean literary archive. Rather than focusing on Windrush as the main orienting point, this discussion examines and regrounds what events and institutions in Jamaica might tell us about the literary 1950s. Beginning by rethinking the historiographical gaze toward London, the author then raises key questions about what the narrative of the founding of the English department at the University College of the West Indies and the work of Focus magazine in Jamaica might tell us about the development of literary culture in the Caribbean. The author ends by thinking about how a focus on returns might also help us to rethink the decade. The essay examines instances of migrant returns, through which people recrossed the waters, and explores literary remittances that saw the role and function of the London scene being debated and contested within the region.
Black Power and/as Patriarchy
Authors: Lambert Laurie R.
Published: December 2020

In Moving Against the System: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers and the Making of Global Consciousness, David Austin continues his important work as the leading historian of 1960s black Montreal. Moving Against the System illuminates histories that are critical to an understanding of black radicalism in Canada, the Caribbean, and the African diaspora, more broadly. This work decenters the United States as the nexus of Black Power, allowing readers to think about Canada as an understudied site of black radical organizing. While the congress viewed Black Nationalism as a serious political framework for defeating both racism and colonialism, all the speakers were male. This essay critiques the masculinist politics of Black Power at the congress and analyzes how Austin navigates the absence of women’s voices among the congress’s speakers.
Καινοτόμες δράσεις (2) για τη συγγραφή λογοτεχνικής ιστορίας από φοιτήτριες/τές του Τμήματος για παιδιά μικρής ηλικίας
Authors: Κανατσούλη Μελπομένη
Published: December 2020

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On approximating the distribution of indefinite quadratic expressions in singular normal vectors
Authors: Mohsenipour Akbar , Provost Serge B.
Published: December 2020

General representations of quadratic forms and quadratic expressions in singular normal vectors are given in terms of the difference of two positive definite quadratic forms and an independentlydistributed linear combination of normal random variables. Up to now, only special cases have been treated in the statistical literature. The densities of the quadratic forms are then approximated with gamma and generalized gamma density functions. A moment-based technique whereby the initial approximations are adjusted by means of polynomials is presented. Closed form and integral formulae are provided for the approximate density functions of the quadratic forms and quadratic expressions. A detailed step-by-step algorithm for implementing the proposed density approximation technique is also provided. Two numerical examples illustrate the methodology.
ПОДХОДЫ К ОПРЕДЕЛЕНИЮ И ОЦЕНКЕ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ СИСТЕМЫ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ ПРЕДПРИЯТИЯ НЕФТЕГАЗОВОЙ ПРОМЫШЛЕННОСТИ
Authors: Zhukov Ivan Fedorovich
Published: December 2020

Российская нефтегазовая отрасль в настоящее время находится в противоречивой ситуации. С одной стороны, она играет стратегическую роль как источник валютной выручки и налоговых поступлений для государственного бюджета. С другой стороны, ее устойчивость подрывают санкции и перенос добычи в места с неблагоприятными географическими и геологическими условиями. По этой причине необходимо уделять пристальное внимание обеспечению экономической безопасности российской нефтегазовой отрасли.Цель статьи: разработка методики оценки экономической эффективности системы экономической безопасности предприятия нефтегазовой промышленности.Методы: метод анализа и синтеза.Результаты: Описана система показателей экономической эффективности. Определены сферы применения этих показателей. Предложена шкала оценки уровня экономической безопасности.
MHD waves in the collisional plasma of the solar corona and terrestrial ionosphere
Authors: Nekrasov Anatoliy , Pilipenko Vyacheslav
Published: December 2020

We have studied MHD waves (Alfvén and fast compressional modes) in a homogeneous collisional three-component low-β plasma. The three-component plasma consists of electrons, ions, and neutrals with arbitrary ratio between collision frequencies and wave time scales. We have derived a general dispersion equation and relationships for phase velocity and collisional damping rates for MHD modes for various limiting cases: from weak collisions to a strong collisional coupling, and for longitudinal and oblique propagation. In a weak collision limit, the MHD eigen-modes are reduced to ordinary low-damping Alfvén and fast magnetosonic waves. For a partially ionized plasma with a strong collisional coupling of neutrals and ions, velocities of magnetosonic and Alfvén waves are substantially reduced, as compared to the Alfvén velocity in the ideal MHD theory. At a very low frequency, when neutrals and ions are strongly coupled, a possibility arises of weakly damping MHD modes, called “decelerated” MHD modes. These modes can be observed in the solar corona/chromosphere and in the F layer of the terrestrial ionosphere.
Real-time monitoring of cosmic ray anisotropy parameters and short-term forecasting of geomagnetic disturbances
Authors: Zverev Anton , Grigoryev Vladislav , Gololobov Peter , Starodubtsev Sergei
Published: December 2020

SHICRA SB RAS, using data from the NMDB database, has implemented continuous monitoring of the dynamics of cosmic ray (CR) distribution parameters and the automatic forecasting of geomagnetic disturbance. Monitoring is based on the global survey method, which considers the world-wide network of neutron monitors as a single device oriented in different directions at each measured time. This method provides real-time parameters of nine components of the first two angular moments of the CR distribution function for each hour of observation. This paper discusses methodological aspects related to the use of the global survey method and some results of the forecasting of geomagnetic disturbances for 2017–2018.
Analytical model of the planetary bow shock for various magnetic field directions based on MHD calculations
Authors: Kotova Galina , Verigin Mikhail , Gombosi Tamas , Kabin Konstantin
Published: December 2020

Study of physical processes in plasma near planets often requires knowledge of the position and shape of the planetary bow shock. Empirical models are usually used since theoretical MHD and kinetic models consume too much computer time and cannot be used to track fast processes. M.I. Verigin proposed a semi-empirical approach based on the use of exact theoretical expressions with a small number of parameters, which have a clear physical meaning. These parameters are estimated by fitting experimental data or detailed MHD calculations. A model of the bow shock near an arbitrary-shaped obstacle has previously been developed for a gas-dynamic flow. This model can be applied to any sonic Mach numbers and large values of the Alfven Mach number. In addition, the asymptotic Mach cone — the angle of inclination of the shock wave at an infinite distance from the planet — has been calculated analytically in the MHD approximation. In this paper, we propose a model of the bow shock for any direction of the magnetic field with respect to the upcoming flow and for any Mach numbers. Parameters of the model are the distance of the nose point from the obstacle, radius of curvature and bluntness of the bow shock at the nose point, a parameter related to the transition to the asymptotic downstream slope of the shock, and a skewing angle appearing when the interplanetary magnetic field is directed at an angle to the solar wind velocity.
Impact of meteorological storms on the E-region of the ionosphere in 2017–2018
Authors: Borchevkina Olga , Karpov Ivan , Karpov Mikhail , Korenkova Nina , Vlasov Valery , Leshchenko Vladimir
Published: December 2020

The paper presents the results of observations of the sporadic Es layer during the period of meteorological disturbances in Kaliningrad in October 2017 and 2018 under quiet geomagnetic conditions. During the meteorological storms (October 29–30, 2017 and October 23–24, 2018), significant changes occurred in the dynamics of the Es-layer critical frequency. Observations of atmospheric and ionospheric disturbances in the Kaliningrad region show that the delay between the ionospheric response and the moment of maximum disturbances in atmospheric parameters is about 3 hours. These phenomena at the heights of the E-region might have been caused by propagation of acoustic-gravity waves generated by convective processes in the lower atmosphere during periods of a meteorological storm. Intensification of turbulent processes in the lower thermosphere leads to an increase in the atmospheric density and, accordingly, to higher recombination rates. This leads to a rapid decrease in the concentration of ions and, consequently, to a decrease in the critical frequency of the sporadic layer below the sensitivity threshold of ionosondes.
MOHAMED CHOUKRI: DE LA TRANSGRESSION DES FRONTIÈRES À L’ÉCRITURE AMALGAMÉE
Authors: Sánchez Diosdado Manuel
Published: December 2020

Le noyau de cet article tourne sur l’idée de la transgression des frontières et son influence dans la littérature marocaine d’expression française. Pour Michel Foucault (1963), la transgression est vouée à éprouver la limite, à la traverser et à la dévoiler. Une révélation liée à la violence et aux impulsions primitives poussant l’être à la déviance et à la désintégration des lois, des normes qui régissent une communauté déterminée. Cette révélation insère l’ouvrage de Choukri dans la ligne de la transgression des frontières et du dévoilement des règles qui régissent une communauté. Un type de transgression qui symbolise une rencontre entre la limite et l’illimité, entre les normes et leur dépassement. Une révolte qui laisse entrevoir le côté le plus primitif de l’être humain passant par la violence jusqu’à atteindre la sexualité effrénée. Un récit transgressif doté d’une écriture amalgamée capable de dévoiler le contexte étouffant t du Maroc colonial et postcolonial.
MANUEL PINILLOS, POETA DE LA O.P.I.-NIKÉ
Authors: del Pino Perales Julio
Published: December 2020

Manuel Pinillos es, junto a Ildefonso Manuel Gil y Miguel Labordeta, uno de los grandes poetas aragoneses del siglo xx. A lo largo de los años 50 y 60 formó parte de la tertulia cultural reunida en el desaparecido café Niké, e integró el grupo de poetas que conformó la Oficina Poética Internacional (O.P.I.), una entelequia de Miguel Labordeta que impulsó a la generación de autores más importantes de la historia literaria de Aragón. En este artículo trataré de exponer la vida del autor, comentando a lo largo del mismo su producción poética.
The content posting practices of young people on social networks
Authors: Rodríguez-Illera José Luis , Martínez-Olmo Francesc , Rubio-Hurtado Maria José , Galván-Fernández Cristina
Published: December 2020

We aim to rethink personal digital storytelling in light of new forms of communication that have emerged on social networks, as well as to analyse the core value of image in all of them. Three specific objectives are proposed: i) to know the habits and practices of young people in relation to the publication of digital (and other) narratives in social networks, ii) to identify profiles and types of young publishers, iii) to characterize the differentiating elements between the types of young publishers. For this purpose, we have designed a questionnaire on young people’s social network posting practices. The sample corresponds to 835 young people between 12 and 22 years old from Ibero-American countries (Spain, Chile and Colombia). Our analysis of the results of the questionnaire shows certain differences according to age, country and gender, along with several significant similarities. The respondents have been classified according to posting frequency and type of posts. Last of all, we make some considerations on how to incorporate the results of the questionnaire in the training methodology of personal digital storytelling.
Digital health strategies in the war against COVID-19 and beyond
Authors: Byravan Swetha , Fardanesh Armin , Tahir Hasan , Moorthy Arumugam
Published: December 2020

This editorial explores how technology has helped clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic, from patient care to education, the changes that have been made and the numerous exciting possibilities of where technology can amalgamate with health care.
Couples’ time management systems: your time, my time or our time?
Authors: Tammelin Mia
Published: December 2020

Time should be understood in relation to others, not as a private matter. Therefore time, including its use and experience, is subject to negotiations, power relations and inequality. This article utilises the concept of the household economy and the household money management systems model to explore couples’ practices in relation to time. The research questions are: what time management systems can be identified, and how are couples differentiated? The study uses interview data from 22 heterosexual couples (44 individuals) interviewed in 2016 in different parts of Finland. The analysis identifies four types of time management system: (a) a female-managed system, (b) a male-managed system, (c) a pooling system, and (d) an independent management system. The study contributes to existing research on time and the family by identifying couples’ time management systems and social aspects of time.
Mild manifestations of COVID-19 in healthcare workers
Authors: Li Jingwen , Long Xi , Zhang Qing , Fang Xi , Li Na , Lin Zhicheng , Li Jinghong , Xiong Nian
Published: December 2020

Medical staff treating Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients are at high risk for exposure to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and many have been infected, which may cause panic among medical workers, their relatives, health professionals, and government leaders. We report the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of healthcare workers and that the majority of infected medical staff had milder symptoms/conditions with a better prognosis than admitted patients. Timely improvement to medical staff’s working conditions such as allowing adequate rest and providing sufficient medical protection is extremely important.
Consumption of alcohol and binge drinking among pregnant women in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Prevalence and determinant factors
Authors: Bitew Mezinew Sintayehu , Zewde Maereg Fekade , Wubetu Muluken , Alemu Addisu Alehegn
Published: December 2020

Introduction

People in Ethiopia, including pregnant women, highly consume both home-made and manufactured alcohol beverages due to lack of awareness about the harmful effect of risky alcohol use, and cultural acceptance of alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption and other hazardous patterns of use like binge drinking have tremendous adverse effects on fetus and mothers. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of alcohol consumption, binge drinking and its determinants among pregnant women residing in Kolfe sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Methods

Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted among a total of 367 pregnant women. The participants were selected using a systematic random sampling method. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. A binary logistic regression was conducted using SPSS version 20 software to identify determinants of alcohol consumption and binge drinking. A p-value < 0.05 was used to declare a statistical significance in multiple logistic regression. The results were described using adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval.

Results

This study revealed that the prevalence of alcohol consumption, binge drinking, and weekly alcohol consumption of four or more units among pregnant women was 39.78%, 3.54% and 4.9%, respectively. Not having formal education [AOR 95% CI = 8.47 (2.42, 29.62), having primary education [AOR 95% CI = 4.26 (1.23, 14.74), being a housewife [AOR 95% CI = 4.18 (2.13, 8.22), having an unplanned pregnancy [AOR 95% CI = 2.47(1.33, 4.60), having a history of abortion [AOR 95% CI = 3.33 (1.33, 6.05)], not having awareness about the harmful effect of alcohol consumption [AOR 95% CI = 4.66 (2.53, 8.61)], and not having family social support [AOR 95% CI = 2(1.14,3.53) were determinants of alcohol consumption among pregnant women.

Conclusions

This study found a high level of alcohol consumption among pregnant women. Interventions to create awareness on the harmful effects of alcohol are needed. Moreover, strengthening social support during pregnancy and family planning services to reduce unplanned pregnancy and abortion should be considered.
Investigation of anxiety levels of 1637 healthcare workers during the epidemic of COVID-19
Authors: Shen Meiping , Xu Hongzhen , Fu Junfen , Wang Tianlin , Fu Zangzang , Zhao Xiaomei , Zhou Gendi , Jin Qi , Tong Guixiu
Published: December 2020

Objective

This study aimed to investigate the anxiety levels of healthcare workers and to provide guidance on potential accurate social and psychological interventions for healthcare workers during the epidemic of COVID-19 in Zhejiang Province, China.

Methods

Healthcare workers from five hospitals in Zhejiang Province were randomly selected into this study. Zung Self-Assessment Scale for Anxiety (SAS) was used to evaluate the anxiety status of the included 1637 healthcare workers.

Results

The total anxiety score of healthcare workers in Zhejiang Province was 30.85 ± 6.89. The univariate analysis showed that the anxiety level of healthcare workers was related to gender, education, occupation, physical condition, job risk coefficient, and with family members on the first-line combating COVID-19 (P <0.05). The multivariate analysis showed that physical condition and job risk coefficient were predictors of anxiety levels of healthcare workers.

Conclusions

During the epidemic of COVID-19, 1637 healthcare workers generally had an increased tendency to have anxiety. Individualized assessment of the anxiety level of healthcare workers should be provided, and different interventions should be given based on the evaluation results.
Poly(alizarin red S) modified glassy carbon electrode for square wave adsorptive stripping voltammetric determination of metronidazole in tablet formulation
Authors: Dawit Mulugeta , Turbale Mahilet , Moges Amsalu , Amare Meareg
Published: December 2020

Potentiodynamically fabricated poly(alizarin red s) modified GCE was characterized using CV and EIS techniques. In contrast to the cyclic voltammetric response of the unmodified GCE for metronidazole, an irreversible reduction peak with three-folds of current enhancement and reduced overpotential at the poly(alizarin red s) modified GCE showed the catalytic effect of the modifier towards reduction of metronidazole. While observed peak potential shift with increasing pH (4.0–10.0) indicated the involvement of protons during the reduction of metronidazole, peak potential shift with scan rate (20–300 mV s-1) confirmed the irreversibility of the reduction reaction of metronidazole at the modified GCE. A better correlation for the dependence of peak current on scan rate (r2 = 0.9883) than on square root of scan rate (r2 = 0.9740) supplemented by slope value of 0.38 for plot of log(current) versus log(scan rate) indicated the reduction reaction of metronidazole at the surface of the modified electrode was predominantly adsorption controlled. Under the optimized method and solution parameters, reductive current response of tablet sample showed linear dependence on spiked standard concentration in a wide range (0–125 μM) with excellent determination coefficient r2, LoD and LoQ of 0.9991, 0.38, and 1.25 μM, respectively. Spike recovery of 97.9% and interference recovery of 96.2–97.5% in the presence of 21.28 and 31.92 μM of uric acid and ascorbic acid validated the applicability of the present method for determination of metronidazole in tablet formulation. The metronidazole content of the tested tablet formulation using standard addition method was found to be 97.6% of what is claimed by the tablet manufacturer making the developed method an excellent potential candidate for its applicability to determine metronidazole in real samples with complex matrix.
Association between prostate cancer characteristics and BRCA1/2-associated family cancer history in a Japanese cohort
Authors: Ishiyama Yudai , Shimbo Masaki , Iizuka Junpei , Deshpande Gautam , Tanabe Kazunari , Hattori Kazunori
Published: December 2020

In addition to breast, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, BRCA1/2 genes have been associated with prostate cancer (PC). However, the role of BRCA1/2-associated family cancer history (FCH) has remained unexplored in treating these four cancer types as a homogenous pathophysiological group. We aimed to clarify the relationship between BRCA1/2-associated FCH and PC, and to assess its relationship with cancer aggressiveness. Patient characteristics, positive family history of BRCA1/2-associated cancer, and cancer characteristics (Gleason score, prostate specific antigen level at diagnosis, and clinical tumor stage) were analyzed. Among the 1,985 eligible candidates, 473 (23.83%) patients had adequately detailed FCH, obtained via questionnaire, and were thus included in the study. BRCA1/2-associated FCH was observed in 135 (28.54%) patients with PC (68, 14.38%), breast (44, 9.30%), pancreatic (31, 6.55%), or ovarian (8, 1.69%) cancers. BRCA1/2-associated FCH was not significantly associated with high Gleason score (≥ 8). Patients with BRCA-associated FCH were less likely to present with high clinical tumor stage, and no difference was observed in prostate-specific antigen level, presence of metastatic lesions at diagnosis, or likelihood of high-risk classification between patients with and without BRCA-associated FCH. This is the first report of BRCA1/2-associated FCH in Japanese men, indicating that family history did not affect the severity or aggressiveness of PC.
Public policy and economic dynamics of COVID-19 spread: A mathematical modeling study
Authors: Goldsztejn Uri , Schwartzman David , Nehorai Arye
Published: December 2020

With the COVID-19 pandemic infecting millions of people, large-scale isolation policies have been enacted across the globe. To assess the impact of isolation measures on deaths, hospitalizations, and economic output, we create a mathematical model to simulate the spread of COVID-19, incorporating effects of restrictive measures and segmenting the population based on health risk and economic vulnerability. Policymakers make isolation policy decisions based on current levels of disease spread and economic damage. For 76 weeks in a population of 330 million, we simulate a baseline scenario leaving strong isolation restrictions in place, rapidly reducing isolation restrictions for non-seniors shortly after outbreak containment, and gradually relaxing isolation restrictions for non-seniors. We use 76 weeks as an approximation of the time at which a vaccine will be available. In the baseline scenario, there are 235,724 deaths and the economy shrinks by 34.0%. With a rapid relaxation, a second outbreak takes place, with 525,558 deaths, and the economy shrinks by 32.3%. With a gradual relaxation, there are 262,917 deaths, and the economy shrinks by 29.8%. We also show that hospitalizations, deaths, and economic output are quite sensitive to disease spread by asymptomatic people. Strict restrictions on seniors with very gradual lifting of isolation for non-seniors results in a limited number of deaths and lesser economic damage. Therefore, we recommend this strategy and measures that reduce non-isolated disease spread to control the pandemic while making isolation economically viable.