bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Chronic rhinitis and chronic tonsillitis of staphylococcal genesis in rabbits as laboratory animal model for experimental research
Authors: Manee Hans , Korotkykh Olena , Kalinichenko Svetlana , Antushev Tatiana , Dubinina Natalia
Published: October 2018

Current treatment and prevention of chronic rhinitis (CR) and chronic tonsillitis (CT) highlights the need for clinical trials in the respective laboratory model, of better options, including new medicaments. Therefore, to understand CR and CT via the laboratory model, the chronic pro-inflammatory process was simulated in laboratory animals (“Chinchilla” rabbits) using the reference Staphylococcus aureus strain 209P (ATCC 6538-P). Initial sensitizing of the laboratory animals with the inactivated causative agent and subsequently infecting the required area with the reference-strain made it possible to work out a reproducible model of both chronic rhinitis and chronic tonsillitis. Adequacy of CR and CT development was confirmed by the results of microbiological and pathomorphological investigations. The proposed laboratory model can be used to solve theoretical and practical medical current issues, as well as pharmacological topical problems.
Level, motivation and barriers to participate in physical activity among late adolescents in Puducherry
Authors: Divyasree P. , Kumar G. Dinesh , Subitha L. , Ramesh R.S.
Published: October 2018

Background

One in every ten deaths globally is accounted for by physical inactivity-related risks. Adolescents constitute 18% of the world’s total population and are at risk of becoming physically inactive in the future. Thus, this study aims to find the level of physical activity (PA) among late adolescents and factors that motivate and prevent them from being active.

Methodology

Four hundred and fifty adolescents in the age group of 18–19 years were included in the study. Standardized self-administered questionnaires such as the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire and the Behavioral Regulation in Exercise Questionnaire were used to assess the level of PA and level of motivation, respectively. In addition, barriers to participating in PA were also elicited.

Results

This study found that about one third of the subjects (32.4%) were physically inactive. The motivation levels were more pooled towards the self-determined motives and girls are more motivated towards PA than boys. However, PA among males is significantly higher than females. Healthy practices in families was also found to have significant association with increased PA. The major barriers found were the excessive use of electronic gadgets and lethargy.

Conclusion

One third of the adolescents in this study were physically inactive and several barriers that prevent them from taking up PA were elicited. Therefore, efforts should be taken to emphasize the importance of physical activity among individuals, family members and the peers at institutional level and community level so as to lay foundations for healthy lifestyles in the future. Basic prevention in the emergence of risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like PA is vital to curb the growing burden of chronic diseases in our country.
Conversational humor in French and Australian English: What makes an utterance (un)funny?
Authors: Mullan Kerry , Béal Christine
Published: October 2018

In this paper we focus primarily on the second dimension of the model designed for the comparative cross-cultural analysis of conversational humor outlined in (Béal, Christine & Kerry Mullan. 2013. Issues in conversational humour from a cross-cultural perspective: Comparing French and Australian corpora. In Bert Peeters, Kerry Mullan & Christine Béal (eds.),Cross-culturally Speaking, Speaking Cross-culturally. 107–139. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.), namely the linguistic devices and discursive strategies used by speakers to create humor in social interaction. Using a range of illustrative examples we will show that although a number of similar strategies occur in both the French and Australian English data (play on words, personification, implicit references, borrowing words from other languages), there are also marked differences in terms of preferential choices between French and Australian speakers when it comes to the mechanisms that make a particular utterance or exchange a humorous one. In particular, the French speakers in our data displayed a greater tendency to play with the language itself, while the Australians showed a preference for incongruity and absurdity, and collaborative scenarios with escalation.

A number of comparative examples of failed humor are also examined. It will be seen that the responsibility for the failure in all cases lies less with the speaker and more with the hearer; i.e. the problem is not actually with the linguistic device employed, but with the hearer’s non-appreciation of the humor or lack of humor support.
Is smiling during humor so obvious? A cross-cultural comparison of smiling behavior in humorous sequences in American English and French interactions
Authors: Priego-Valverde Béatrice , Bigi Brigitte , Attardo Salvatore , Pickering Lucy , Gironzetti Elisa
Published: October 2018

The present article is part of a larger cross-cultural research project on speaker-hearer smiling behavior in humorous and non-humorous conversations in American English and French. The American corpus consists of eight computer-mediated interactions between English native speakers, and the French one consists of four face-to-face interactions between French native speakers. The goal of the study is twofold: first, we analyze the link between smiling and humor, focusing on the degree of synchronicity of smiling and the intensity of smiling during humorous and non-humorous segments; second, we investigate the various targets mobilized in conversational humor. The results obtained comparing the two data-sets show a correlation between the presence of humor, an increased smiling intensity, and an increase in the synchronized smiling behaviors displayed by participants. However, the two corpora also differ in terms of the displayed smiling behaviors: French participants display more non-synchronic smiling when humor is absent and more synchronic smiling when humor is present. Regarding the various targets of humor (Speaker, Recipient, Other person, Situation, Speaker+Recipient), while their distribution is different – it is more evenly distributed in the French data – the way in which these are mobilized in order to become humorous is quite similar.
Bilateral Biomechanical Asymmetry During 30 Seconds Isokinetic Sprint-Cycling Exercise
Authors: Rannama Indrek , Port Kristjan
Published: October 2018

The purpose of present study was to examine the bilateral differences of pedalling kinetics and thigh muscle activity patterns according to leg dominance during the 30 seconds maximal cycling exercise and to analyse the relationships between asymmetries of pedalling kinetics and muscle activity. Methods: The pedalling power (POW), power production smoothness (PS) and EMG of VL, RF and BF of 17 competitive cyclists (19.2±1.6y.; 1.82±0.07m; 74.1±8.2kg) were measured bilaterally during maximal 30s isokinetic (cadence limit 100 rpm) seated cycling exercise. The dynamics of POW, PS and normalized EMG-RMS amplitude and median frequency (MF) of dominant (DO) and non-dominant (ND) side were measured. The directional asymmetry indexes (AI%) between DO and ND side were computed and compared with student t-test for paired samples. Correlation analyse between AI(%) of pedalling kinetics and EMG patterns was made. Results: The DO side POW and PS values were significantly (p<0.05) higher than ND during the all exercise time (except POW between 5-10 sec). No significant bilateral differences were found between normalized EMG amplitude values. The AI(%) of POW and PS were significantly lowered during the exercise. Significant correlations were found between AI (%)-s of PS and VL EMG MFr (r=-0.64) and between AI(%)-s of POW and VL normalized EMG amplitude (r=0.63).Conclusions: Results of the present study indicate that during 30 seconds maximal intensity cycling does exist leg dominance dependent asymmetries in pedalling power patterns, which decreased during the exercise and was related with bilaterally asymmetry of vastus lateralis muscle firing patterns.
Peak Oxygen Uptake and Muscle Power Can Be Simultaneously Improved with Hybrid Training
Authors: Nilsson Johnny , Fredriksson Mårten
Published: October 2018

The purpose was to investigate the effects of simultaneous endurance and strength training repeatedly performed in the same training sessions (hybrid training). Twenty-six habitually active female physical-education students took part in the study. They were assigned to a hybrid training group (HT) or one of two control groups (CON1; only endurance training and CON2; maintained their normal training regimen). In a pre- and post-test training design all the subjects were tested before and after the intervention period concerning peak oxygen uptake while pedalling on a cycle ergometer and power output in a progressive cycle ergometer pedalling power/strength test. The HT intervention group and the CON1 group trained three times per week for five weeks, while the CON2 group did not change their normal training regimen. The HT group used a pre-programmed cycle ergometer to pedal at a mean oxygen uptake of 70-75% VO2peak for 30 minutes, but the training time was divided into 60 intermittent work periods (6 seconds) at a very high relative intensity (approximately 190 % of VO2peak) interspersed with low-intensity work periods (24 seconds) at about 45% of VO2peak. The CON1 group trained at the same mean oxygen uptake level as the HT group but during 30 minutes continuous training. The HT group significantly increased VO2peak and muscle power performance. The CON1 group increased VO2peak significantly but not power/strength. The CON2 group did not change significantly in the parameters studied. Thus, it can be concluded that in-session hybrid training allows simultaneous significant improvements of both VO2peak and muscle power performance during cycle ergometer pedalling.
Health Improvement of the Population by Creating a Cluster in Belarusian Fitness
Authors: Sadovnikova Veronika , Polyakova Tatiana
Published: October 2018

World experience shows that the means of physical culture and sports have a universal ability of a complex approach to solving problems of people’s health improving and formation of a sound psychological climate in labor collectives and in the community as a whole. Physical culture and sports is a preventive tool for health maintaining, promotion and prevention of various noninfectious diseases (cardiovascular, coronary heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, etc.) and bad habits (drinking, smoking, toxicomania, etc.). Moreover, as it is noted by American and European experts, the use of physical activity and sport in order to prevent morbidity requires very slight additional costs from the state. Currently, in Belarus there is an urgent need in drastic measures aimed at improving the quality of public health, formation of new guideline values in the youth, and in fitness culture development. Encompassing various forms of motor activity, fitness meets the needs of different social groups in sports and recreational activities at the expense of fitness programs diversity, their accessibility and emotionality. It promotes not only the motor, but also the general culture of the people involved. Possessing significant adaptation and integrative capabilities, fitness is a phenomenon of modern physical culture with a multifunctional impact on various spheres of public life. This favors its integration into all kinds of physical activities. Because of differences in the approaches of American, European and Belarusian practices in the use of fitness we propose improvement of public health by creating a cluster in fitness of Belarus.
Unsteady Carreau-Casson fluids over a radiated shrinking sheet in a suspension of dust and graphene nanoparticles with non-Fourier heat flux
Authors: Santhosh H.B. , Mahesha  , Raju C.S.K
Published: October 2018

This study gives unsteady radiative magneto hydrodynamic Carreau-Casson fluids in suspension of graphene particle with Cattaneo-Christov model. A simulation is performed by mixing of graphene nanoparticles into the base water. The arising set of governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are transformed into set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) using similarity transformations and then solved numerically using shooting technique with Runge-Kutta (RK) method. The computational results for non-dimensional temperature and velocity profiles are presented through graphs and tables. We also presented the numerical values of physical quantities (friction factor and local numbers) for various physical parameters. We compared the present results with existing literature under some limited case. At the end of this analysis we concluded that, the temperature profiles are higher in Casson fluid when compared to Carreau fluid. Similarly, the friction between the particles is more in Casson fluid compare to Carreau fluid, and heat transfer rate is high in Carreau fluid compared to Casson fluid. This help us to conclude that the cooling treatment by using Casson fluid is useful compared to Carreau fluid over unsteady sheet.
Terahertz pulse imaging: A novel denoising method by combing the ant colony algorithm with the compressive sensing
Authors: Li Tiejun , Sun Yue , Shi Weiren , Shao Guifang , Liu Jianjun
Published: October 2018

Terahertz (THz) pulse imaging exhibits a potential application in biomedicine, nondestructive detection and safety inspection. However, the THz time-domain spectroscopy system will affect the THz image quality. To improve the THz image quality, in this article we proposed a novel method by combining the ant colony algorithm with the compressive sensing method. First, the image edge is detected by using the ant colony algorithm. Subsequently, the compressive sensing method based on signal sparse representation and the reconstruction algorithm from partial Fourier is applied on the non-edge image for noise reduction. Finally, the reconstruction result is obtained by combining the noise reduced non-edge image with the edge image. The experimental results on three kinds of images prove that the proposed method can preserve the edge information during noise reduction.
Synergistic effect of vermiculite clay and ionizing irradiation on the physical and mechanical properties of polybutadiene rubber/ethylene propylene diene monomer nanocomposite
Authors: El-Nemr Khaled F. , Ali Magdy A. M. , Hassan Medhat M. , Hamed Huda E.
Published: October 2018

Blends of rubber-rubber have desired properties intermediated between two rubber matrices. On the other hand, polymer-clay nanocomposites have attracted the attention of many researchers and experimental results are presented in a large number of recent papers and patents because of the outstanding mechanical properties and low gas permeability that are achieved in many cases. Polymer-clay nanocomposites are a new class of mineral-field polymer that contain relatively small amounts (<10%) of nanometer-sized clay particles. In this study, new nanocomposite materials were produced from the blend of polybutadiene rubber (BR) and ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber (EPDM), BR/EPDM (50/50) as matrix and organically modified vermiculite clay (VMT) by quaternary alkylammonium in different contents (3, 6, 9 and 12 phr) as the filler by using rubber mill then, the rubber nanocomposite sheets were irradiated at doses of 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 kGy using γ-radiation technique as a crosslinking tool. The prepared composites can be characterized by using various analytical techniques including X-ray diffractometer (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) as well as mechanical properties measurements.
Some deterministic and random fixed point theorems on a graph
Authors: Nieto Juan J. , Ouahab Abdelghani , Rodríguez-López Rosana
Published: October 2018

We present the random version of the classical Banach contraction principle and some of its generalizations to ordered metric spaces or in metric spaces endowed with a graph.
Focal Myocarditis in Professonal Female Athlete: A Case Report
Authors: Cikiriz Nikola , Zdravkovic Marija , Simovic Stefan , Zivkovic Vladimir , Jakovljevic Biljana , Hinic Sasa , Maksimovic Ruzica , Srejovic Ivan , Jakovljevic Vladimir
Published: October 2018

A 35-year-old female athlete appealed to her sports physician on new onset of frequent palpitations, just before an important competition. Initial electrocardiography revealed unifocal premature ventricular complexes in the form of bigeminy. Echocardiography revealed fine-granulated hyperdensic changes in septum. Global strain rate was within a range normal, as well as pulsed tissue Doppler ultrasound. Patient was referred for cardiac MRI, which revealed interventricular septum with rougher compounds, but with preserved continuity, with thickness of 10 mm, which is in the middle of the LV, in length of 5 mm, thinned to a thickness of 4 mm. ELISA laboratory test demonstrated an increased titer of IgM antibodies for adenovirus. Six months later, the patient was referred for control MRI of the heart, which showed pronounced trabeculation of infero-lateral wall of the left ventricle, but without certain criteria for non-compaction cardiomyopathy. There was T1 oedema component in apical septal segment and apical segment of the left ventricle. There was increase of the signal in late gadolinium enhancement in the medial parts of the same segments but also in the segment of the basomedial septum, with previous focal myocarditis. These findings suggest myocardial fibrosis in the segments that were stricken by myocarditis, now without active ongoing myocarditis, but without consequent myocardial fibrosis.
Can a Taylor rule better explain the Fed’s monetary policy through the 1920s and 1930s? A nonlinear cliometric analysis
Authors: Damette Olivier , Jawadi Fredj , Parent Antoine
Published: October 2018

This paper investigates whether a variant of a Taylor rule applied to historical monetary data of the interwar period is useful to gain a better understanding of the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy over the period 1920–1940. To this end, we considered a standard Taylor rule (using two drivers: output gap and inflation gap) and proxied them differently for robustness. Further, we extended this Taylor rule to a nonlinear framework while enabling its coefficient to be time-varying and to change with regard to the phases in business cycle, in order to better capture any further asymmetry in the data and the structural break induced by the Great Depression. Accordingly, we showed two important findings. First, the linearity hypothesis was rejected, and we found that an On/Off Taylor Rule is appropriate to reproduce the conduct of monetary policy during the interwar period more effectively (the activation of drivers only occurs per regime). Second, unlike Field [Field, A. 2015. “The Taylor Rule in the 1920s.” Working Paper], we validated the use of a Taylor rule to explain the conduct of monetary policy in history more effectively. Consequently, this nonlinear Taylor rule specification provides interesting results for a better understanding of monetary regimes during the interwar period, and offers useful complements to narrative monetary history.
Post-revisionism: Conflict (Ir)resolution and the Limits of Ambivalence in Kevin McCarthy’s Peeler
Authors: McAteer Michael
Published: October 2018

This essay considers a historical novel of recent times in revisionist terms, Kevin McCarthy’s debut novel of 2010, Peeler. In doing so, I also address the limitations that the novel exposes within Irish revisionism. I propose that McCarthy’s novel should be regarded more properly as a post-revisionist work of literature. A piece of detective fiction that is set during the Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921, Peeler challenges the romantic nationalist understanding of the War as one of heroic struggle by focusing its attention on a Catholic member of the Royal Irish Constabulary. In considering the circumstances in which Sergeant Seán O’Keefe finds himself as a policeman serving a community within which support for the IRA campaign against British rule is strong, the novel sheds sympathetic light on the experience of Catholic men who were members of the Royal Irish Constabulary until the force was eventually disbanded in 1922. At the same time, it demonstrates that the ambivalence in Sergeant O’Keefe’s attitudes ultimately proves unsustainable, thereby challenging the value that Irish revisionism has laid upon the ambivalent nature of political and cultural circumstances in Ireland with regard to Irish-British relations. In the process, I draw attention to important connections that McCarthy’s Peeler carries to Elizabeth Bowen’s celebrated novel of life in Anglo-Irish society in County Cork during the period of the Irish War of Independence: The Last September of 1929.
The Conflicting Traditions of Portraying the Jewish People in the Chester Mystery Cycle
Authors: Matyjaszczyk Joanna
Published: October 2018

The article seeks to analyze the portrayal of the Jews in two plays from the Chester mystery cycle: “Trial and Flagellation” and “The Passion.” The analysis acknowledges that the cycle is a mixture of, and a dialogue between, the universal standpoint emerging from the presentation of the biblical story of humankind and a contemporary perspective, pertaining to the reality of the viewers. Therefore, while pointing to the unique formal and structural uniformity of the cycle, which strengthens the idea of continuity between the Old and the New Covenant and the role of the Israelites in the history of salvation, it also recognizes the potential of the plays to engage in the current stereotypes. The article examines how the Gospel account of Christ’s trial and death is modified through presenting the Jews as torturers, whitewashing the non-Jewish characters, and placing special emphasis on the question of Jewish ignorance. It is demonstrated how different theological and popular stances concerning the Jewish people are merged and reconciled in the Chester representation of the passion of Christ and it is argued that the plays in question retell the biblical story in such a way that the justification for the expulsion of the Jews from England could be derived from it.
Art (and) Criticism: Hart Crane and David Siqueiros
Authors: Piechucka Alicja
Published: October 2018

The article focuses on an analysis of Hart Crane’s essay “Note on the Paintings of David Siqueiros.” One of Crane’s few art-historical texts, the critical piece in question is first of all a tribute to the American poet’s friend, the Mexican painter David Siqueiros. The author of a portrait of Crane, Siqueiros is a major artist, one of the leading figures that marked the history of Mexican painting in the first half of the twentieth century. While it is interesting to delve into the way Crane approaches painting in general and Siqueiros’ oeuvre in particular, an analysis of the essay with which the present article is concerned is also worthwhile for another reason. Like many examples of art criticism—and literary criticism, for that matter—“Note on the Paintings of David Siqueiros” reveals a lot not only about the artist it revolves around, but also about its author, an artist in his own right. In a text written in the last year of his life, Hart Crane therefore voices concerns which have preoccupied him as a poet and which, more importantly, are central to modernist art and literature.
Outside the Magic Circle of White Male Supremacy in the Jim Crow South: Virginia Foster Durr’s Memoirs
Authors: Jiménez-Placer Susana María
Published: October 2018

Virginia Foster Durr was born in 1903 in Birmingham, Alabama in a former planter class family, and in spite of the gradual decline in the family fortune, she was brought up as a traditional southern belle, utterly subjected to the demands of the ideology of white male supremacy that ruled the Jim Crow South. Thus, she soon learnt that in the South a black woman could not be a lady, and that as a young southern woman she was desperately in need of a husband. It was not until she had fulfilled this duty that she began to open her eyes to the reality of poverty, injustice, discrimination, sexism and racism ensuing from the set of rules she had so easily embraced until then. In Outside the Magic Circle, Durr describes the process that made her aware of the gender discrimination implicit in the patriarchal southern ideology, and how this realization eventually led her to abhor racial segregation and the ideology of white male supremacy. As a consequence, in her memoirs she presents herself as a rebel facing the social ostracism resulting from her determination to fight against gender and racial discrimination in the Jim Crow South. This article delves into Durr’s composed textual self as a rebel, and suggests the existence of a crack in it, rooted in her inability to discern the real effects of white male supremacy on the domestic realm and in her subsequent blindness to the reality behind the mammy stereotype.
Cabeza de Vaca, Estebanico, and the Language of Diversity in Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account
Authors: Maszewski Zbigniew
Published: October 2018

Published in 1542, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s La relación is a chronicle of the Pánfilo de Narváez’s 1527 expedition to the New World in which Cabeza de Vaca was one of the four survivors. His account has received considerable attention. It has been appreciated and critically examined as a narrative of conquest and colonization, a work of ethnographic interest, and a text of some literary value. Documenting and fictionalizing for the first time in European history the experience of travelling/trekking in the region which now constitutes the Southwest in the United States, Cabeza de Vaca’s story testifies to the sense of disorientation, as well as to the importance of psychological and cultural mechanisms of responsiveness and adaptability to a different environment. What allows the Moroccan-American contemporary writer Laila Lalami to follow that perspective in her book The Moor’s Account (2017) is an imaginative transfer of the burden and satisfaction of narrating the story of the journey to the black Moroccan slave whose presence in the narratives of conquest and exploration was marginal. In Lalami’s book, Estebanico becomes the central character and his role is ultimately identified with that of a writer celebrating the freedom of diversity, one who survives to use the transcultural experience of the past creatively in ways well suited to the needs of the current moment.
“The Most Photographed Barn in America”: Simulacra of the Sublime in American Art and Photography
Authors: Allen David , Handley Agata
Published: October 2018

In White Noise (1985) by Don DeLillo, two characters visit a famous barn, described as the “most photographed barn in America” alongside hordes of picture-taking tourists. One of them complains the barn has become a simulacrum, so that “no one sees” the actual barn anymore. This implies that there was once a real barn, which has been lost in the “virtual” image. This is in line with Plato’s concept of the simulacrum as a false or “corrupt” copy, which has lost all connection with the “original.” Plotinus, however, offered a different definition: the simulacrum distorts reality in order to reveal the invisible, the Ideal. There is a real building which has been called “the most photographed barn in America”: the Thomas Moulton Barn in the Grand Teton National Park. The location—barn in the foreground, mountain range towering over it—forms a striking visual composition. But the site is not only famous because it is photogenic. Images of the barn in part evoke the heroic struggles of pioneers living on the frontier. They also draw on the tradition of the “American sublime.” Ralph Waldo Emerson defined the sublime as “the influx of the Divine mind into our mind.” He followed Plotinus in valuing art as a means of “revelation”—with the artist as a kind of prophet or “seer.” The photographers who collect at the Moulton Barn are themselves consciously working within this tradition, and turning themselves into do-it-yourself “artist-seers.” They are the creators, not the slaves of the simulacrum.
Timothy Findley, His Biographers, and The Piano Man’s Daughter
Authors: Grace Sherrill
Published: October 2018

In this paper, Sherrill Grace, Findley’s biographer, will examine her biographical practices in the context of Findley’s own memoir, Inside Memory, and his interest in creating fictional auto/biographers and auto/biography in several of his major novels (notably The Wars, Famous Last Words, The Telling of Lies, and The Piano Man’s Daughter). His fictional auto/biographers often use the same categories of document that Findley himself used—journals, diaries, archives—and this reality produces some fascinating challenges for a Findley biographer, not least the difficulty of separating fact from fiction, or, as Mauberley says in Famous Last Words, truth from lies. Like many writers, Findley kept journals all his life, and they are a key source of information for his biographer; however, his way of recording information and his creation of fictional journals means that a biographer (like the readers of his fictional auto/biographers) must tread carefully. While not a theoretical study of auto/biography, in this paper Grace will offer insights into the traps that lie in waiting for a biographer, especially when dealing with a biographee who is as self-conscious an auto/biographer as Findley.
Transvestite M(other) in the Canadian North: Isobel Gunn by Audrey Thomas
Authors: Filipczak Dorota
Published: October 2018

The article focuses on the eponymous protagonist of Isobel Gunn, a Canadian feminist historical novel by Audrey Thomas, published in 1999. Based on a real story, the novel fictionalizes the life of an Orcadian woman who made her transit from the Orkney Islands to the Canadian north in male disguise, and was only identified as a woman when she went into labour. The article juxtaposes the novel against its poetic antecedent The Ballad of Isabel Gunn, published by Stephen Scobie in 1983. In the article Gunn’s fate as a unique transvestite m(other) in the Canadian north is compared to the fate of famous transvestite saint Joan of Arc. Though removed from each another historically and geographically, both women are shown to have suffered similar consequences as a result of violating the biblical taboo on cross-dressing. Isobel’s sudden change of status from a young male colonizer to the defenseless colonized is seen in the context of managing the female resources by colonial authorities. At the same time, the fact that Isobel allows herself to be deprived of her son is analyzed in the light of insights on the maternal by Julia Kristeva and Luce Irigaray. The absence of the mother and the ensuing condition of her offspring’s orphanhood are shown as a consequence of reducing the position of the mother to that of an imperial servant, the fruit of whose body can be freely used and abused by the male imperial authority.
Reviews and Interviews
Authors: Warso Anna , Pietrzak Wit , Ojrzyńska Katarzyna , Jędrzejewski Jan , Uchman Jadwiga
Published: October 2018

Anna Warso: Songs of America: A Review of John Berryman’s Public Vision by Philip Coleman (Dublin: UCD P, 2014)
Wit Pietrzak: Yeats, Incorrigibly Plural. A Review of Barry Shiels’s W. B. Yeats and World Literature: The Subject of Poetry (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015)
Katarzyna Ojrzyńska: “Disability demands a story”: A Review of Stewart Parker’s Hopdance (ed. Marilynn Richtarik, Dublin: Lilliput, 2017)
Building Bridges: From Łódź to Ulster and Back. Jadwiga Uchman Interviews Jan Jędrzejewski
Arabic stress in strict CV, with no moras, no syllables, no feet and no extrametricality
Authors: Faust Noam , Ulfsbjorninn Shanti
Published: October 2018

This paper continues the effort that began in (Scheer, Tobias & Peter Szigetvari. 2005. Unified representations for stress and the syllable.Phonology22(1). 37–75.) to present a compelling alternative to moraic accounts of stress systems, framed in the theory of Strict CV (Lowenstamm, Jean. 1996. CV as the only syllable type. In Jacques Durand & Bernard Laks (eds.),Current trends in phonology models and methods, 419–442. European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford.). We have chosen stress in Palestinian Arabic, a stronghold of moraic theory, to be the empirical basis of the paper. It is a complex system, involving syllable structure and stress assignment, quantity sensitivity and syllabically-determined stress shift. Moreover, its analysis requires the deployment of a great deal of the theoretical machinery that has been (independently) developed in moraic stress theory. These phenomena, although recurrent cross-linguistically, remained outside the scope of Scheer and Szigetvari’s work. The present paper provides an account of these patterns using the innovative grid-based notion of weight incorporation (Ulfsbjorninn, Shanti. 2014.A Field Theory of Stress: the role of empty nuclei in stress systems. SOAS – University of London, PhD Dissertation.). The analysis is also brought to bear on Cairene Arabic, which is shown to differ from Palestinian in a single parameter setting. Significant independent support is provided by the extension of the analysis to the phenomenon of vowel shortening (both metrical and final), whose distribution and motivation are shown to follow in a straightforward manner from the general account. The paper also improves on previous analyses of meter in Strict CV, as for the first time in Strict CV metrics, a computational component is explicitly formalized. We conclude with a comparison to a moraic analysis of the phenomena discussed, and argue on principled grounds that the Strict CV account is a worthy competitor to such an analysis. Like its predecessor from 2005, the present account recognizes only one unit relevant for meter: the nucleus. No appeal is made to moras, syllables, feet or extrametricality.
A perícia criminal: evidências, profissional perito e nulidade pericial – uma revisão literária
Authors: Sala Davi
Published: October 2018

Este artigo de revisão tem como objetivo buscar estudos que exemplificassem ou descrevessem métodos de avaliação de locais de delito, com a finalidade de preservação de evidências quanto à métodos e técnicas de investigação, profissionais peritos e suas competências, acreditação de laboratórios e a nulidade pericial como agravante por falta de investimento das organizações governamentais e por capacitação técnica dentro da ciência forense.
Perfil de drogas de abuso apreendidas e admitidas no Instituto de Polícia Científica entre os meses de janeiro a novembro de 2017
Authors: Silva G. R. , Costa R. A. R. , Lopes P. Q. , Ferreira J. R. O. , Santos Júnior A. F. , Magalhães Hemerson Iury F.
Published: October 2018

O uso de drogas de abuso vem tomando proporções cada vez maiores na sociedade. A cada ano é notável o surgimento de novas substâncias com capacidade de provocar dependência física ou psicológica. O Instituto de Polícia Científica da Paraíba é um órgão pertencente à Polícia Civil do Estado que possui um setor responsável pela análise de drogas apreendidas. Neste contexto, o presente estudo teve como objetivo criar um perfil de drogas de abuso admitidas no IPC-JP entre os meses de janeiro a novembro de 2017. A coleta de dados se deu através da análise de 1851 laudos referentes às admissões de drogas de abuso, onde foram extraídas as informações necessárias à pesquisa. Foi possível traçar um panorama contendo informações a respeito da incidência de drogas, dos seus métodos de análises, do trabalho da polícia e da ação do Instituto, demonstrando através dos dados a situação atual e as perspectivas de avanço nas políticas de prevenção ao uso de drogas. Os resultados apontam a maconha como à droga mais apreendida, seguida pela cocaína. As apreensões de cocaína em forma de pedra representam quase que o dobro do número de apreensões da forma em pó. Em 87% das análises o esquema analítico seguia as recomendações do SWGDRUG.  Os resultados apresentados se destinam a coadjuvar com programas e ações destinados a prevenção e combate a utilização e tráfico de drogas.
Compact, Field-Portable Lens-free Microscope using Superresolution Spatio-Spectral Light-field Fusion
Authors: Kazemzadeh Farnoud , Kuang Emily , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

We present a compact, field-portable lens-free microscope basedon the principle of spatio-spectral light-field fusion. This is the firsttime a device of this kind has been introduced whereby both superresolutionand signal-to-noise ratio are enhanced via the marriageof synthetic aperture imaging and spectral light-field fusionholography, culminating in a system that is self-contained and fieldportablewhile achieving high resolution, contrast, strong signal fidelity,and ultra-wide field-of-view. The active spatio-spectral illuminationis accomplished in the presented microscope by arranginga series of pulsing LEDs emitting at different spectral wavelengthsin a specific spatial formation. To demonstrate the performance ofthe presented microscope, the system was used to observe twohistology samples: a bovine lung, and corn stem. The imaging resultsdemonstrate the ultra-wide field-of-view advantage of the presentedmicroscope over any other system of its kind, thus enablingfor acquisition of the entire sample without the need for scanning,while producing high-resolution, high-contrast microscopy images(168 megapixels in the current system) that makes it well-suited forscientific and clinical examinations.
StochasticNet in StochasticNet
Authors: Shafiee Mohammad Javad , Fieguth Paul , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

Deep neural networks have been shown to outperform conventionalstate-of-the-art approaches in several structured predictionapplications. While high-performance computing devices such asGPUs has made developing very powerful deep neural networkspossible, it is not feasible to run these networks on low-cost, lowpowercomputing devices such as embedded CPUs or even embeddedGPUs. As such, there has been a lot of recent interestto produce efficient deep neural network architectures that can berun on small computing devices. Motivated by this, the idea ofStochasticNets was introduced, where deep neural networks areformed by leveraging random graph theory. It has been shownthat StochasticNet can form new networks with 2X or 3X architecturalefficiency while maintaining modeling accuracy. Motivated bythese promising results, here we investigate the idea of Stochastic-Net in StochasticNet (SiS), where highly-efficient deep neural networkswith Network in Network (NiN) architectures are formed ina stochastic manner. Such networks have an intertwining structurecomposed of convolutional layers and micro neural networksto boost the modeling accuracy. The experimental results showthat SiS can form deep neural networks with NiN architectures thathave 4X greater architectural efficiency with only a 2% dropin accuracy for the CIFAR10 dataset. The results are even morepromising for the SVHN dataset, where SiS formed deep neuralnetworks with NiN architectures that have 11.5X greater architecturalefficiency with only a 1% decrease in modeling accuracy.
Sparse Correlated Diffusion Imaging: A New Computational Diffusion MRI Modality for Prostate Cancer Detection
Authors: Khalvati Farzad , Zhang Junjie , Baig Sameer , Haider Masoom A. , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) is a promising magnetic resonanceimaging (MRI) modality with wide applications in diagnosisof different types of diseases such as prostate cancer. DWI providesa large amount of imaging data which often makes it difficultto interpret accurately, mainly due to the fact that much of informationin diffusion imaging cannot be deciphered by human expertsalone. Computational diffusion MRI (CD-MRI) aims to leveragecomputational means to generate imagery from diffusion signalswhich are easier to interpret by human experts. Recently, anew CD-MRI modality called correlated diffusion imaging (CDI) hasbeen proposed which takes advantage of the joint correlation of diffusionsignal attenuation across multiple gradient pulse strengthsand timings to improve the separability of cancerous and healthytissues. In this paper, we propose a new CD-MRI modality calledSparse CDI (sCDI) where an optimally sparse subset of diffusionsignals contributes to the formation of the final diffusion signal leadingto further separation of cancerous and healthy tissue in prostategland compared to CDI and conventional DWI.
Bayesian Compensated Microscopy
Authors: Boroomand Ameneh , Deglint Jason , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

We present a novel Bayesian compensated microscopy (BCM) techniquedesigned for enhancing microscopy image quality. The proposedBCM technique provides a computational approach to jointlycompensate for microscopy image degradations due to (1) opticalaberrations, (2) illumination non-uniformities, and (3) imaging noisewithin a probabilistic framework. Experimental results based on astained pathology sample of spleen tissue with leukemia demonstratethe effectiveness of the proposed BCM technique for thequality enhancement in microscopy imaging. The proposed BCMtechnique can lead to improved visualization of fine tissue structuresas well as a more consistent visualization across the entiresample, which can be beneficial for accurate analysis and betterinterpretation of microscopy samples.
Co-integrating thermal and hemodynamic imaging for physiological monitoring
Authors: Wilson Mackenzie , Amelard Robert , Clausi David , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

Photoplethysmographic imaging (PPGI) has gained popularity fornon-intrusive cardiovascular monitoring. However, certain symptoms(e.g., fever) may not be easily detectable using cardiovascularbiomarkers. Here, we investigate the co-integration of PPGIand thermal imaging to create a non-contact, widefield, multimodalphysiological monitoring system. To achieve strong PPGI performance,high-power infrared LED stability was investigated by evaluatingtwo LED driver boards. Results show that the multimodalimaging system was able to acquire spatially consistent hemodynamicpulsatility and heat distributions in a case study. This multimodalsystem may lead to improved systemic disease detectionand monitoring.
Automated enumeration and size distribution analysis of Microcystis aeruginosa via fluorescence imaging
Authors: Jin Chao , Mesquita Maria , Emelko Monica , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

Due to climate change, toxic cyanobacteria and algae blooms and the associated exposure risk to humans has become a global issue. As a result, routine monitoring to evaluate cell concentrations is increasingly required to ensure safe water supplies. Current methods for cyanobacteria and algae cells enumeration are time consuming and cost-intensive due to the need for manual labor, which prevents their widespread adoption for routine water monitoring.. Automated enumeration with computer-assisted image analysis has strong potential to become a viable solution for continuous routine monitoring; however, the design of such automated systems is challenging due to: a) poor contrast between the target cells and the background, b) presence of confounding cells and abiotic particles and b) image quality variability depending on factors such as the underlying microscopy system in use and the sample condition. In this study, we introduce a novel integrated imaging-based method for automated enumeration and size distribution of Microcystis aeruginosa, a species of freshwater cyanobacteria that can originate harmful blooms. The target cells were excited using a 546nm light source and the resulting fluorescent imaging signal was acquired. A probabilistic unsupervised classification approach was taken to detect Microcystis cells from the surrounding background based on the fluorescent signal. A Gaussian mixture model was learned from the fluorescent imaging signal. The detected Microcystis cells were then enumerated and statistics regarding their size distribution automatically computed. When compared to the manual enumeration data using an hemacytometer, the developed method achieved higher accuracy using much less time and resources, without cell staining. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential of the proposed method as a powerful and robust tool for water quality monitoring and safe water quality control when used alongside gold standard methods.
A Compact Field-portable Computational Multispectral Microscope using Integrated Raspberry Pi
Authors: Deglint Jason L. , Schoneveld Kuil , Kazemzadeh Farnoud , Wong Alexander
Published: October 2018

In this paper, we present a compact field-portable computationalmultispectral microscopy system powered by an integrated RaspberryPi computer. The optical components of the low-cost, compactmicroscopy system consists of a cemented achromatic doubletlens place on top of a Raspberry Pi camera module, used tocapture magnified broadband microscopy imaging acquisitions atthree broadband channels in the visible spectrum based on theBayer pattern color filter array. The captured broadband microscopyacquisitions are then processed by a numerical spectral demultiplexer,which demultiplexes the magnified broadband acquisitionsto generate a set of narrowband microscopy images. A Helianthusstem was imaged using the proposed computational multispectralmicroscopy system, and demonstrated to be able to produce narrowbandmicroscopy images at 16 different wavelengths with a singleacquisition without the need for wavelength scanning, whichmakes it well-suited for fast microscopy imaging applications suchas the study of transient phenomenona.
Design space exploration of Convolutional Neural Networks based on Evolutionary Algorithms
Authors: Al-Hyari Abeer , Areibi Shawki
Published: October 2018

This paper proposes a framework for design space exploration ofConvolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) using Genetic Algorithms(GAs). CNNs have many hyperparameters that need to be tunedcarefully in order to achieve favorable results when used for imageclassification tasks or similar vision applications. Genetic Algorithmsare adopted to efficiently traverse the huge search spaceof CNNs hyperparameters, and generate the best architecture thatfits the given task. Some of the hyperparameters that were testedinclude the number of convolutional and fully connected layers, thenumber of filters for each convolutional layer, and the number ofnodes in the fully connected layers. The proposed approach wastested using MNIST dataset for handwritten digit classification andresults obtained indicate that the proposed approach is able to generatea CNN architecture with validation accuracy up to 96.66% onaverage.
Automated Screening for Diabetic Retinopathy Using Compact Deep Networks
Authors: Lunscher Nolan , Chen Mei Lin , Jiang Ning , Zelek John
Published: October 2018

Diabetes is a chronic condition affecting millions of people worldwide.One of its major complications is diabetic retinopathy (DR),which is the most common cause of legal blindness in the developedworld. Early screening and treatment of DR prevents visiondeterioration, however the recommendation of yearly screening isoften not being met. Mobile screening centres can increasing DRscreening, however they are time and resource intensive becausea clinician is required to process the images. This process can beimproved through computer aided diagnosis, such as by integratingautomated screening on smartphones. Here we explore the useof a SqueezeNet-based deep network trained on a fundus imagedataset composed of over 88,000 retinal images for the purpose ofcomputer aided screening for diabetic retinopathy. The results ofthis neural network validated the viability of conducting automatedmobile screening of diabetic retinopathy, such as on a smartphoneplatform.