bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Variabilidade do teste dicótico de sentenças no teste e reteste de adultos normo-ouvintes
Authors: Ferreira Geise Corrêa , Costa Maristela Julio
Published: June 2020

RESUMO Objetivo: investigar a variabilidade do Teste Dicótico de Sentenças por meio do teste e reteste em indivíduos normo-ouvintes. Método: foram avaliados 36 indivíduos na faixa etária de 19 a 44 anos, destros e com limiares auditivos dentro da normalidade. Realizou-se a avaliação audiológica básica e aplicação dos Testes Dicótico de Dígitos e Dicótico de Sentenças. Teste e reteste foram realizados em duas sessões, com intervalo de 30 a 40 dias, no mesmo turno. Resultados: na tarefa de integração: houve vantagem da orelha direita em ambas as sessões de avaliação; não houve diferença significante entre as medidas obtidas na orelha direita, nas duas sessões de avaliação, enquanto na orelha esquerda foi constatada diferença significante. Na análise das diferenças por orelhas entre teste e reteste, verificou-se que 64% dos indivíduos mantiveram o mesmo resultado na orelha direita; já na esquerda, apenas 36% dos indivíduos mantiveram o mesmo resultado em ambas as etapas e 44% apresentaram diferença de 10% entre as duas avaliações. Observou-se correlação positiva moderada tanto para a orelha direita (r = 0,420) quanto para a esquerda (r = 0,550) com tendência de melhora dos escores no reteste. Na tarefa de separação, houve pequena variabilidade apenas na orelha esquerda, também com melhora dos escores no reteste. Conclusão: foi verificada diferença significante entre as medidas obtidas no teste e reteste apenas na tarefa de integração na orelha esquerda, porém houve correlação positiva moderada entre as medidas obtidas nas duas sessões de avaliação, mostrando tendência de melhora dos escores na segunda sessão de avaliação.
Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade, Incapacidade e Saúde para Crianças e Jovens (CIF-CJ) e Fonoaudiologia: associação com fatores sociodemográficos e clínico-assistenciais
Authors: Borges Marina Garcia de Souza , Medeiros Adriane Mesquita de , Lemos Stela Maris Aguiar
Published: June 2020

RESUMO Objetivo: Identificar fatores relacionados à Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade, Incapacidade e Saúde para Crianças e Jovens (CIF-CJ) representativos de mais de uma categoria e verificar sua associação com aspectos sociodemográficos e clínico-assistenciais em um ambulatório de avaliação fonoaudiológica. Método: Trata-se de estudo observacional, analítico e transversal, com base em análise retrospectiva de dados secundários. Foram incluídos 180 prontuários de pacientes entre 5 e 16 anos, avaliados de 2010 a 2014. Após a leitura desses prontuários, foram identificados os aspectos sociodemográficos e clínico-assistenciais, bem como a presença de categorias dos componentes Funções do Corpo e Atividades e Participação da CIF-CJ. Foram realizadas análises de distribuição de frequência e medidas de tendência central e dispersão das variáveis, além da análise fatorial, visando criar indicadores representativos das categorias da CIF-CJ identificadas. Para análise de associações, foram utilizados os testes Mann-Whitney e Kruskal-Wallis e a correlação de Spearman, adotando o nível de significância de 5%. Resultados: Foram identificados dois fatores para as Funções do Corpo que apresentaram associações de relevância estatística com as variáveis sociodemográficas e clínico-assistenciais. Para as Atividades e Participação, três fatores foram identificados, cujas associações se deram predominantemente com variáveis clínico-assistenciais. Conclusão: Foi possível a identificação de itens representativos e suas respectivas cargas fatoriais das categorias das Funções do Corpo e Atividades e Participação, sendo verificadas associações estatisticamente significativas entre eles e as variáveis sociodemográficas e clínico-assistenciais analisadas.
Temporal trend of drought and aridity indices in semi-arid pernambucano to determine susceptibility to desertification
Authors: Silva Fabianny Joanny Bezerra Cabral da , Azevedo José Roberto Gonçalves de
Published: June 2020

ABSTRACT In semi-arid regions, the use of drought and aridity indices in order to establish diagnoses and prognoses that help in water resources management is crucial, above all, for the evaluation of long-term water availability, and monitoring hydrological extreme events. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the trends of extreme events to determine susceptibility to desertification in the Brígida river basin, by Drought (RAI, SPI and PDSI) and Aridity (MIA, AI and AIASD) Indices. The results of these indices submitted to statistical analysis (Tukey Test) and to the evaluation of the climate trend (TREND software). The Tukey Test indicated that the PDSI and RAI method are the most suitable for drought analysis, while AI is most appropriate for aridity. The results indicated that regardless of the indices employed, the stations presented significant results in the trend analysis, suggesting intensification of these events over time. Therefore, concluded that drought and aridity indices could help water resources management by managing bodies, indicating the evolution of extreme hydrological phenomena, suggesting the adoption of preventive and mitigating actions regarding the use of water priority. In conclusion, these indices can be used as a tool for indicating areas susceptible to the desertification process.
The health care experience of individuals with morbid obesity assisted in public healthcare services
Authors: Conz Claudete Aparecida , Jesus Maria Cristina Pinto de , Kortchmar Estela , Braga Vanessa Augusta Souza , Oliveira Deíse Moura de , Merighi Miriam Aparecida Barbosa
Published: June 2020

Abstract Objective: To understand the health care experience of individuals with morbid obesity assisted in public healthcare services. Method: This was a qualitative study based on Alfred Schütz’s social phenomenology, carried out in the medical-surgical clinic of a public hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Interviews with open questions were conducted between January and April 2017. Results: Seventeen individuals with morbid obesity participated in the study. The findings revealed care(lessness) experiences of obese individuals in the Brazilian Healthcare System in terms of structure/logistics and human resources. Study participants shared care expectations about health care management and staff, and further considered the Primary Health Care service as a scenario of power to have their obesity-related care needs met. Conclusion: The findings need to be carefully (re)examined by the healthcare system’s micro- and macro management, as well as by health teaching and research personnel, in order to integrate, follow up and qualify care actions towards the prevention and control of obesity in public healthcare services.
Serosurvey on rickettsiae of the spotted fever group and Rickettsia bellii among dogs in the state of Goiás, Brazil
Authors: Neves Lucianne Cardoso , Barreto Ana Laura Gonçalves , Souza Mariana Xavier de , Martins Danieli Brolo , Barbieri Amália Regina Mar , Serpa Maria Carolina de Azevedo , Muñoz-Leal Sebastián , Labruna Marcelo Bahia , Krawczak Felipe da Silva
Published: June 2020

Abstract The purpose of this study was to do a serological survey on three rickettsial species: Rickettsia rickettsii and Rickettsia parkeri, two species of the spotted fever group (SFG) that are considered to be great importance for public health; and Rickettsia bellii, a species of unknown pathogenicity that infects a variety of human-biting ticks. Serum samples from 273 dogs were tested using the indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). A total of 52 samples (19.04%) were seropositive for at least one of the three Rickettsia spp. antigens. Thirty-eight (73.07%), twelve (23.07%) and one (1.92%) of these dogs showed homologous reactions to R. bellii, R. rickettsii and R. parkeri, respectively. Our results showed that the seroprevalence of Rickettsia spp. was relatively low. However, the positive serological tests indicated that these dogs had become infected by these agents at some point in their lives. Lastly, our study adds to the previous knowledge on the epidemiology of rickettsiosis in the state of Goiás by doing the first record of detection of anti-R. rickettsii, R. parkeri and R. bellii antibodies by IFA among dogs, thus indicating that these agents may be circulating in the dog population analyzed.
Parasites of the Shiny Cowbird, Molothrus bonariensis, and the Austral Blackbird, Curaeus curaeus, (Passeriformes: Icteridae) in Chile
Authors: Mena Mabel , Valdebenito José Osvaldo , Moreno Lucila , Fuentes-Castillo Danny , Kinsella John Mike , Mironov Sergey , Barrientos Carlos , Cicchino Armando , González-Acuña Daniel
Published: June 2020

Abstract Comparative studies of parasites in sympatric bird species have been generally scarce. Parasitic infection/transmission can be spread in a number of ways that suggests possible direct and indirect, horizontal transmission between avian hosts. In order to determine whether two sympatric icterids from Central and Southern Chile share their parasite fauna (ecto- and endoparasites), we examined parasites of 27 Shiny Cowbirds, Molothrus bonariensis, and 28 Austral Blackbirds, Curaeus curaeus, including individuals captured in the wild and carcasses. We found that Shiny Cowbirds were infected with the chewing lice Brueelia bonariensis, Philopterus sp. 1, the feather mites Amerodectes molothrus, Proctophyllodes spp. (species 1 and 2), and the helminths Mediorhynchus papillosus, Plagiorhynchus sp., Dispharynx nasuta and Tetrameres paucispina, while Austral Blackbirds had the chewing lice Myrsidea sp., Philopterus sp. 2, the feather mites Proctophyllodes sp. 3, Amerodectes sp., and three helminths: Anonchotaenia sp., Capillaria sp. and M. papillosus. The flea Dasypsyllus (Neornipsyllus) cteniopus was found only on the Austral Blackbird. The only parasite species shared by both icterids was the acanthocephalan M. papillosus, possibly due to their feeding on the same intermediate insect hosts. With the exception of B. bonariensis and Philopterus sp. 1 found on the Shiny Cowbird, all species reported in this study represent new parasite-host associations and new records of parasite diversity in Chile.
New species of Trichuris (Nematoda: Trichuridae) parasitizing Heteromys salvini (Rodentia: Heteromyidae) from Costa Rica, with a key to Trichuris species described from Heteromyidae
Authors: Falcón-Ordaz Jorge , Monzalvo-López René Josué , García-Prieto Luis
Published: June 2020

Abstract Trichuris guanacastei n sp., a parasite isolated from the Salvin’ spiny mouse Heteromys salvini, collected from the Guanacaste Conservation Area, Costa Rica, during February 1996 is described. The new species was compared morphologically with the 29 known species that parasitize rodents distributed in 12 families in North and South America; T. guanacastei n. sp. it is characterized by the following set of traits: presence of a spicular tube (measuring 0.72-0.99); thick proximal cloacal tube and a short distal cloacal tube with a total length of 0.72-1.36; eggs 0.03-0.05 long and a semi-protrusible vulva. The new species represents the first one described in the genus in Costa Rica and the fifth one described in the Americas that parasite Heteromyidae.
Rodents as potential reservoirs for Borrelia spp. in northern Chile
Authors: Sánchez Richard Said Thomas , Santodomingo Adriana Milena Santodomingo , Muñoz-Leal Sebastián , Silva-de la Fuente María Carolina , Llanos-Soto Sebastián , Salas Lucila Moreno , González-Acuña Daniel
Published: June 2020

Abstract Small mammals play an essential role in the transmission and maintenance cycles of Borrelia spirochetes. In Chile, recent studies have characterized novel Borrelia genotypes in ticks collected from small mammals, a fact that suggests these vertebrates are hosts for spirochetes from this genus. Considering this evidence, the goal of this study was to determine the presence of Borrelia DNA in small mammals inhabiting northern Chile. In winter of 2018, 58 small mammals were captured in five localities. Blood samples were collected from rodents and DNA was extracted to determine the presence of Borrelia DNA by PCR targeting the flaB gene and rrs–rrlA intergenic spacer (IGS). From three individuals (5%), belonging to two rodent species of Cricetidae family (Phyllotis xanthopygus and Oligoryzomys longicaudatus), we retrieved three flaB and two IGS Borrelia genotypes. Phylogenetic analyses performed with both Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inferences showed that our sequences grouped with homologous genotypes from the relapsing fever and Lyme borreliosis groups. Our findings suggest that P. xanthopygus and O. longicaudatus rodents may play a role as reservoirs for borrelial spirochetes in Chile.
Henneguya sacacaensis n. sp. (Myxozoa: Myxosporea) parasitizing gills of the acará bicudo Satanoperca jurupari (Osteichthyes: Cichlidae) in eastern Amazon
Authors: Ferreira Roger Leomar da Silva , Silva Diehgo Tuloza da , Araújo Priscila Gomes de , Hamoy Igor , Matos Edilson , Videira Marcela Nunes
Published: June 2020

Abstract This study describes Henneguya sacacaensis n. sp. in specimens of the Osteichthyes Satanoperca jurupari (Heckel, 1840), collected in the Rio Curiaú Environmental Protection Area in the city of Macapá, state of Amapá Brazil. Using optical microscopy and molecular analysis, these cyst-shaped parasites were analyzed. The gills of 57.14% of the analyzed S. jurupari contained hundreds of spores. The cysts found on the gill lamellae were oval-shaped and whitish. The Henneguya spores had an average length of 46.5 (41.3-56.92) µm. The fusiform body of the Henneguya measured 16.5 (13.16-20.01) µm long and 5.1 (3.91-6.12) µm in width, the two polar capsules had a taper of 3.83 (3.4-4.32) µm and a width of 1.68 (1.4-1.99) µm, and the tail measured 30 (22.47-41.67) µm in length, containing a polar filament coiled seven to nine times. Morphogical and phylogenetic analysis allowed the preposition of a new species, Henneguya sacacaensis n. sp, that belongs to the family Myxobolidae and the genus Henneguya.
In vitro efficacy of two commercial products of Metarhizium anisopliae s.l. for controlling the cattle tick Rhipicephalus microplus
Authors: Nogueira Michel Ruan dos Santos , Camargo Mariana Guedes , Rodrigues Caio Junior Balduino Coutinho , Marciano Allan Felipe , Quinelato Simone , Freitas Maria Clemente de , Fiorotti Jéssica , Sá Fillipe Araújo de , Perinotto Wendell Marcelo de Souza , Bittencourt Vânia Rita Elias Pinheiro
Published: June 2020

Abstract The effects of two different products - Metarril® SP Organic (dry conidia) and Metarril® SC Organic (emulsifiable concentrated conidia in vegetable oil) - on eggs, larvae and Rhipicephalus microplus engorged females were here explored. Three concentrations (108, 107, and 106 conidia mL-1) for both products were prepared in water + 0.1% Tween® 80 (v/v); afterward, bioassays were carried out for all R. microplus stages by immersion in suspensions (Metarril® SP) or formulations (Metarril® SC). Metarril® SP suspensions showed low efficacy and did not affect biological parameters of treated engorged females; for eggs and larvae, only slight decreases in hatchability and larvae population were observed. Despite a delay in germination, Metarril® SC presented better results; for females, reductions in Egg Mass Weight (EMW) and Egg Production Index (EPI) were reported. On eggs, 108 conidia mL-1 increased Incubation Period (IP), shortened Hatching Period (HP) and decreased hatchability by up to 61%; for larvae, 107 and 108 conidia mL-1 reached 99.6 and 100% larval mortality respectively, 10 days after fungal exposure. Thus, further studies involving the use of oil-based formulations for ticks such as Metarril® SC need to be performed, especially to control the most susceptible stages (eggs and larvae).
Anti-tick effect and cholinesterase inhibition caused by Prosopis juliflora alkaloids: in vitro and in silico studies
Authors: Lima Hélimar Gonçalves de , Santos Francianne Oliveira , Santos Acidália Carine Vieira , Silva Gisele Dias da , Santos Rafaela Jesus dos , Carneiro Kelli de Oliveira , Reis Isabella Mary Alves , Estrela Isabela de Oliveira , Freitas Humberto Fonseca de , Bahiense Thiago Campanharo , Pita Samuel Silva da Rocha , Uzeda Rosângela Soares , Branco Alexsandro , Costa Silvia Lima , Batatinha Maria José Moreira , Botura Mariana Borges
Published: June 2020

Abstract We investigated the in vitro acaricide activity of the methanolic extract (ME) and alkaloid-rich fraction (AF) of Prosopis juliflora on Rhipicephalus microplus and correlated this effect with acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition. The acaricide activity was evaluated using adult and larval immersion tests. Also, we studied the possible interaction mechanism of the major alkaloids present in this fraction via molecular docking at the active site of R. microplus AChE1 (RmAChE1). Higher reproductive inhibitory activity of the AF was recorded, with effective concentration (EC50) four times lower than that of the ME (31.6 versus 121 mg/mL). The AF caused mortality of tick larvae, with lethal concentration 50% (LC50) of 13.8 mg/mL. Both ME and AF were seen to have anticholinesterase activity on AChE of R. microplus larvae, while AF was more active with half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.041 mg/mL. The LC-MS/MS analyses on the AF led to identification of three alkaloids: prosopine (1), juliprosinine (2) and juliprosopine (3). The molecular docking studies revealed that these alkaloids had interactions at the active site of the RmAChE1, mainly relating to hydrogen bonds and cation-pi interactions. We concluded that the alkaloids of P. juliflora showed acaricide activity on R. microplus and acted through an anticholinesterase mechanism.
Serological prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii infection in cats (Belém, Pará, Brazil)
Authors: Rocha Katarine de Souza , Lima Michele de Souza , Monteiro Thamillys Rayssa Marques , Honorio Betsy Emely Tavares , Pinho Ana Paula Vilhena Beckman , Paz Giselle Souza da , Scofield Alessandra , Cavalcante Gustavo Góes , Magalhães-Matos Paulo Cesar , Sampaio Junior Francisco Dantas , Abel Isis , Langoni Helio , Moraes Carla Cristina Guimarães de
Published: June 2020

Abstract We evaluated the prevalence of anti-Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in the serum samples collected from domestic cats in Belém, Pará, Brazil. We also correlated the presence of T. gondii antibodies with environmental variables and cat-owner habits. Four-hundred and forty-seven serum samples from domestic cats were analyzed. The sera were tested using an indirect immunofluorescence assay. Among the animals analyzed, 21.92% (98/447) were seropositive. A statistically significant association was found in relation to age and serology among the animals over 1 year old (p<0.01): in the group up to 1 year old, 12.82% (20/156) of the animals were positive, and in the group over 1 year old, 26.80% (78/291) were positive. Our results show that the cats in Belém, Pará region have anti-T. gondii antibodies, and their owners are not aware of toxoplasmosis or how to prevent its transmission.
New approaches to studying morphological details of intramolluscan stages of Angiostrongylus vasorum
Authors: Pereira Cíntia Aparecida de Jesus , Coaglio Aytube Lucas , Capettini Luciano Santos , Becattini Raphael , Ferreira Ana Paula Pereira Neves , Costa Andreia , Soares Lanuze Mozzer , Oliveira Laura Lúcia , Lima Walter dos Santos
Published: June 2020

Abstract Angiostrongylus vasorum is a pulmonary artery parasite of domestic and wild canid. On molluscs, intermediate host, first stage larvae (L1) are found after the first day of infection, in the 8th L2 and in the 30 th L3. It was evaluated L1, L2 and L3 recovered by Baermann technique from Achatina fulica infected with 1000 L1. Fifty larvae/stage were incubated with antibodies anti-β-tubulin, anti-α-tubulin, anti- α-actin, anti-β-actin and anti-collagen, and then with Alexa 633. Fifty larvae/stage were observed with picrosirius red and Oil Red O. It was also observed in the anterior region of L1 the beginning of the chitinous stems development, in the initial portion of the intestine and genital primordium. In L2 anterior region, the papillae, chitinous canes juxtaposed to the mouth and intestines bigger than L1. The L3 musculature is well defined, next to the chitinous stems, there are two round distally arranged from each other. It was observed the whole extension of the intestine genital primordium and intense cellularity in the L3 distal portion. With the picrosirius red the L1, L2 and L3 musculature could be observed, as the nerve ganglia on L3. Oil Red O revealed that L1, L2 and L3 store energy on lipid droplets.
Development of Ctenocephalides felis felis (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae) in different substrates for maintenance under laboratory conditions
Authors: Almeida Gabriela Pereira Salça de , Campos Diefrey Ribeiro , Avelar Barbara Rauta de , Silva Thalita Xavier de Araújo da , Lambert Monique Morais , Alves Mariana Silva Revoredo , Correia Thaís Ribeiro
Published: June 2020

Abstract The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of different substrates for larval development of Ctenocephalides felis felis during its biological cycle. Eight hundred eggs of C. felis felis from a flea maintenance colony were used. Different diets were formulated, in which the main substrates were meat flour, powdered milk, sugar, lyophilized bovine blood, tick metabolites and lyophilized egg. The flea eggs were placed in test tubes (10 per tube) and approximately 2 g of the diet to be tested was added to each tube. There were 10 replicates for each substrate. After 28 days, each tube was evaluated individually for the presence of pupae and emerged adults. The following percentages of the larvae completed the cycle to the adult stage: 67% in diets containing tick metabolites; 55%, meat flour; 39%, dehydrated bovine blood; 14%, powdered milk; and less than 1% in diets containing sugar, lyophilized bovine blood, lyophilized egg or wheat bran. It was concluded that among the diets tested, the one constituted by tick metabolites as the substrate was shown to be the most satisfactory for maintaining a laboratory colony of C. felis felis, followed by the one containing meat flour.
Adaptable Reactors for Resource- and Energy-Efficient Methane Valorisation (ADREM)
Authors: Korkakaki Emmanouela , Walspurger Stéphane , Overwater Koos , Nigar Hakan , Julian Ignacio , Stefanidis Georgios D. , Tharakaraman Saashwath Swaminathan , Jurković Damjan Lašič
Published: June 2020

Following the global trend towards increased energy demand together with requirements for low greenhouse gas emissions, Adaptable Reactors for Resource- and Energy-Efficient Methane Valorisation (ADREM) focused on the development of modular reactors that can upgrade methane‐rich sources to chemicals. Herein we summarise the main findings of the project, excluding in‐depth technical analysis. The ADREM reactors include microwave technology for conversion of methane to benzene, toluene and xylenes (BTX) and ethylene; plasma for methane to ethylene; plasma dry methane reforming to syngas; and the gas solid vortex reactor (GSVR) for methane to ethylene. Two of the reactors (microwave to BTX and plasma to ethylene) have been tested at technology readiness level 5 (TRL 5). Compared to flaring, all the concepts have a clear environmental benefit, reducing significantly the direct carbon dioxide emissions. Their energy efficiency is still relatively low compared to conventional processes, and the costly and energy-demanding downstream processing should be replaced by scalable energy efficient alternatives. However, considering the changing market conditions with electrification becoming more relevant and the growing need to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, the ADREM technologies, utilising mostly electricity to achieve methane conversion, are promising candidates in the field of gas monetisation.
FET-GAN: Font and Effect Transfer via K-shot Adaptive Instance Normalization
Authors: Li Wei , He Yongxing , Qi Yanwei , Li Zejian , Tang Yongchuan
Published: June 2020

Text effect transfer aims at learning the mapping between text visual effects while maintaining the text content. While remarkably successful, existing methods have limited robustness in font transfer and weak generalization ability to unseen effects. To address these problems, we propose FET-GAN, a novel end-to-end framework to implement visual effects transfer with font variation among multiple text effects domains. Our model achieves remarkable results both on arbitrary effect transfer between texts and effect translation from text to graphic objects. By a few-shot fine-tuning strategy, FET-GAN can generalize the transfer of the pre-trained model to the new effect. Through extensive experimental validation and comparison, our model advances the state-of-the-art in the text effect transfer task. Besides, we have collected a font dataset including 100 fonts of more than 800 Chinese and English characters. Based on this dataset, we demonstrated the generalization ability of our model by the application that complements the font library automatically by few-shot samples. This application is significant in reducing the labor cost for the font designer.
Toward A Thousand Lights: Decentralized Deep Reinforcement Learning for Large-Scale Traffic Signal Control
Authors: Chen Chacha , Wei Hua , Xu Nan , Zheng Guanjie , Yang Ming , Xiong Yuanhao , Xu Kai , Li Zhenhui
Published: June 2020

Traffic congestion plagues cities around the world. Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented trend in applying reinforcement learning for traffic signal control. However, the primary challenge is to control and coordinate traffic lights in large-scale urban networks. No one has ever tested RL models on a network of more than a thousand traffic lights. In this paper, we tackle the problem of multi-intersection traffic signal control, especially for large-scale networks, based on RL techniques and transportation theories. This problem is quite difficult because there are challenges such as scalability, signal coordination, data feasibility, etc. To address these challenges, we (1) design our RL agents utilizing ‘pressure’ concept to achieve signal coordination in region-level; (2) show that implicit coordination could be achieved by individual control agents with well-crafted reward design thus reducing the dimensionality; and (3) conduct extensive experiments on multiple scenarios, including a real-world scenario with 2510 traffic lights in Manhattan, New York City 1 2.
Dynamic Instance Normalization for Arbitrary Style Transfer
Authors: Jing Yongcheng , Liu Xiao , Ding Yukang , Wang Xinchao , Ding Errui , Song Mingli , Wen Shilei
Published: June 2020

Prior normalization methods rely on affine transformations to produce arbitrary image style transfers, of which the parameters are computed in a pre-defined way. Such manually-defined nature eventually results in the high-cost and shared encoders for both style and content encoding, making style transfer systems cumbersome to be deployed in resource-constrained environments like on the mobile-terminal side. In this paper, we propose a new and generalized normalization module, termed as Dynamic Instance Normalization (DIN), that allows for flexible and more efficient arbitrary style transfers. Comprising an instance normalization and a dynamic convolution, DIN encodes a style image into learnable convolution parameters, upon which the content image is stylized. Unlike conventional methods that use shared complex encoders to encode content and style, the proposed DIN introduces a sophisticated style encoder, yet comes with a compact and lightweight content encoder for fast inference. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach yields very encouraging results on challenging style patterns and, to our best knowledge, for the first time enables an arbitrary style transfer using MobileNet-based lightweight architecture, leading to a reduction factor of more than twenty in computational cost as compared to existing approaches. Furthermore, the proposed DIN provides flexible support for state-of-the-art convolutional operations, and thus triggers novel functionalities, such as uniform-stroke placement for non-natural images and automatic spatial-stroke control.
Spatio-Temporal Deformable Convolution for Compressed Video Quality Enhancement
Authors: Deng Jianing , Wang Li , Pu Shiliang , Zhuo Cheng
Published: June 2020

Recent years have witnessed remarkable success of deep learning methods in quality enhancement for compressed video. To better explore temporal information, existing methods usually estimate optical flow for temporal motion compensation. However, since compressed video could be seriously distorted by various compression artifacts, the estimated optical flow tends to be inaccurate and unreliable, thereby resulting in ineffective quality enhancement. In addition, optical flow estimation for consecutive frames is generally conducted in a pairwise manner, which is computational expensive and inefficient. In this paper, we propose a fast yet effective method for compressed video quality enhancement by incorporating a novel Spatio-Temporal Deformable Fusion (STDF) scheme to aggregate temporal information. Specifically, the proposed STDF takes a target frame along with its neighboring reference frames as input to jointly predict an offset field to deform the spatio-temporal sampling positions of convolution. As a result, complementary information from both target and reference frames can be fused within a single Spatio-Temporal Deformable Convolution (STDC) operation. Extensive experiments show that our method achieves the state-of-the-art performance of compressed video quality enhancement in terms of both accuracy and efficiency.
Weakly-Supervised Video Moment Retrieval via Semantic Completion Network
Authors: Lin Zhijie , Zhao Zhou , Zhang Zhu , Wang Qi , Liu Huasheng
Published: June 2020

Video moment retrieval is to search the moment that is most relevant to the given natural language query. Existing methods are mostly trained in a fully-supervised setting, which requires the full annotations of temporal boundary for each query. However, manually labeling the annotations is actually time-consuming and expensive. In this paper, we propose a novel weakly-supervised moment retrieval framework requiring only coarse video-level annotations for training. Specifically, we devise a proposal generation module that aggregates the context information to generate and score all candidate proposals in one single pass. We then devise an algorithm that considers both exploitation and exploration to select top-K proposals. Next, we build a semantic completion module to measure the semantic similarity between the selected proposals and query, compute reward and provide feedbacks to the proposal generation module for scoring refinement. Experiments on the ActivityCaptions and Charades-STA demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Crowd Counting with Decomposed Uncertainty
Authors: Oh Min-hwan , Olsen Peder , Ramamurthy Karthikeyan Natesan
Published: June 2020

Research in neural networks in the field of computer vision has achieved remarkable accuracy for point estimation. However, the uncertainty in the estimation is rarely addressed. Uncertainty quantification accompanied by point estimation can lead to a more informed decision, and even improve the prediction quality. In this work, we focus on uncertainty estimation in the domain of crowd counting. With increasing occurrences of heavily crowded events such as political rallies, protests, concerts, etc., automated crowd analysis is becoming an increasingly crucial task. The stakes can be very high in many of these real-world applications. We propose a scalable neural network framework with quantification of decomposed uncertainty using a bootstrap ensemble. We demonstrate that the proposed uncertainty quantification method provides additional insight to the crowd counting problem and is simple to implement. We also show that our proposed method exhibits state-of-the-art performances in many benchmark crowd counting datasets.
Cascading Convolutional Color Constancy
Authors: Yu Huanglin , Chen Ke , Wang Kaiqi , Qian Yanlin , Zhang Zhaoxiang , Jia Kui
Published: June 2020

Regressing the illumination of a scene from the representations of object appearances is popularly adopted in computational color constancy. However, it's still challenging due to intrinsic appearance and label ambiguities caused by unknown illuminants, diverse reflection properties of materials and extrinsic imaging factors (such as different camera sensors). In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm – Cascading Convolutional Color Constancy (in short, C4) to improve robustness of regression learning and achieve stable generalization capability across datasets (different cameras and scenes) in a unique framework. The proposed C4 method ensembles a series of dependent illumination hypotheses from each cascade stage via introducing a weighted multiply-accumulate loss function, which can inherently capture different modes of illuminations and explicitly enforce coarse-to-fine network optimization. Experimental results on the public Color Checker and NUS 8-Camera benchmarks demonstrate superior performance of the proposed algorithm in comparison with the state-of-the-art methods, especially for more difficult scenes.
Rception: Wide and Deep Interaction Networks for Machine Reading Comprehension (Student Abstract)
Authors: Zhang Xuanyu , Wang Zhichun
Published: June 2020

Most of models for machine reading comprehension (MRC) usually focus on recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and attention mechanism, though convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are also involved for time efficiency. However, little attention has been paid to leverage CNNs and RNNs in MRC. For a deeper understanding, humans sometimes need local information for short phrases, sometimes need global context for long passages. In this paper, we propose a novel architecture, i.e., Rception, to capture and leverage both local deep information and global wide context. It fuses different kinds of networks and hyper-parameters horizontally rather than simply stacking them layer by layer vertically. Experiments on the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD) show that our proposed architecture achieves good performance.
Clearing Kidney Exchanges via Graph Neural Network Guided Tree Search (Student Abstract)
Authors: Zhao Zeyu , Dickerson John P.
Published: June 2020

Kidney exchange is an organized barter market that allows patients with end-stage renal disease to trade willing donors—and thus kidneys—with other patient-donor pairs. The central clearing problem is to find an arrangement of swaps that maximizes the number of transplants. It is known to be NP-hard in almost all cases. Most existing approaches have modeled this problem as a mixed integer program (MIP), using classical branch-and-price-based tree search techniques to optimize. In this paper, we frame the clearing problem as a Maximum Weighted Independent Set (MWIS) problem, and use a Graph Neural Network guided Monte Carlo Tree Search to find a solution. Our initial results show that this approach outperforms baseline (non-optimal but scalable) algorithms. We believe that a learning-based optimization algorithm can improve upon existing approaches to the kidney exchange clearing problem.
Systemic Steroid Treatment for Imatinib-Associated Severe Skin Rash in Patients with Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor: A Phase II Study
Authors: Kim Eo Jin , Ryu Min-Hee , Park Sook Ryun , Beck Mo Youl , Lee Woo Jin , Lee Mi Woo , Kang Yoon-Koo
Published: June 2020

Background

To achieve optimal clinical outcomes in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), it is crucial to maintain sufficient dosing of imatinib. Skin rash is a common imatinib-associated adverse event and may affect compliance. This phase II study was conducted to evaluate whether imatinib-associated severe skin rash can be managed with systemic steroids without dose reduction or interruption of imatinib. This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT03440515.

Patients and Methods

Between 2014 and 2016, 29 patients with imatinib-associated severe skin rash were enrolled. Skin rash of grade 2 with grade ≥2 pruritus or of grade 3 was considered severe. Oral prednisolone was administered 30 mg/day for 3 weeks, then tapered off over 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was treatment success rate (TSR). Treatment success was defined as maintaining imatinib for more than 15 weeks after completion of the steroid administration schedule without skin rash that led to additional steroid treatment or dose reduction or interruption of imatinib.

Results

Of the 29 patients enrolled, 22 patients with skin rash were treated successfully (TSR, 75.8%), 2 (6.9%) were evaluated as treatment failures, and 5 (17.2%) were not evaluable. The 2-year rash-free and imatinib reduction-free interval rate was 67.2% with median follow-up of 22.0 months (range, 0.4–30.3). Recurrence of severe skin rash occurred in seven patients (24.1%). Systemic steroids were well tolerated except in one patient who experienced pneumocystis pneumonia.

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that imatinib-associated severe skin rash can be effectively controlled by systemic steroid treatment without interruption or dose reduction of imatinib in patients with GIST.

Implications for Practice

Imatinib has been the standard treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumor in both adjuvant and palliative settings. It is crucial to maintain sufficient dosing of imatinib to achieve optimal clinical outcomes. Imatinib commonly causes imatinib-associated skin rash, which may worsen drug compliance. This phase II study demonstrated that systemic steroids could help maintaining the efficacy of imatinib by preventing interruption or dose reduction of imatinib. The present study provides a new administration strategy of systemic steroids and its efficacy and safety data. Thus, this study can be a cornerstone to establish treatment guidelines for imatinib-associated skin rash.
The effectiveness of blended learning model based on inquiry collaborative tutorial toward students’ problem-solving skills in physics
Authors: HERAYANTI Lovy , WİDODO Wahono , SUSANTİNİ Endang , GUNAWAN Gunawan
Published: June 2020

In this study, a collaborative inquiry-based blended learning model was developed. The model was supported by model books, learning instruments, and test instruments for problem-solving skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the model to practice problem-solving skills for physics students. This research included research and development. The development model used uses the 4-D model (define, design, develop, and disseminate). The model and instruments were validated by the expert. The testing phase using the effectiveness test was carried out in one shot case study pre-post test design on three classes. The model implementation test was carried out on pre-service physics teachers at a private university in Mataram. Data collection was performed using observation sheets, problem-solving tests, and student response questionnaires. The data analysis technique used was descriptive, quantitative, and qualitative. The results showed that the inquiry collaborative tutorial-based blended learning model is effective in improving problem-solving skills. Students' problem-solving skills at the visualization step and describing the problem is high, while the next stage is still in the medium category. Students also gave positive responses to learning physics using this model.
Analysing trends in infant mortality and stillbirth rates in Scotland over time by measure of socio-economic deprivation v2
Authors: Harpur A , Minton J , Ramsay J , McCartney (Public Health Scotland) G , Fenton (Public Health Scotland) L , Campbell (University of Edinburgh) H , Wood (Public Health Scotland) R
Published: June 2020

In recent years, concerns have been raised about widening health inequalities amidst the UK’s current austerity policies, which have seen significant cuts to public spending since 2010. (Marmot et al., 2020) In England, infant mortality rates rose between 2014-2017, with evidence suggesting that children in poorer areas were disproportionately affected. (Taylor-Robinson et al., 2019) In Scotland, years of austerity have been accompanied by a rise in child poverty, with 2015-2018 estimates reporting that 24% of Scottish children were living in relative poverty. (Scottish.Government, 2019) Observing publicly available IMR trends from the National Records of Scotland (NRS), the downward trends in IMR appear to have stalled in recent years with rates fluctuating between 3.2-3.3 infant deaths per 1000 live births between 2015-2018. (NRS, 2019) As Scottish Government’s 6thpublic health priority is ‘A Scotland where we flourish in our early years’, it is important to monitor trends in Scottish infant health and ensure that policies provide children with equal opportunities to thrive.(Scottish.Government, 2019) In response to rising child poverty in Scotland and concerning observations of widening inequalities in infant mortality in England, this study will provide a description of trends in infant mortality in Scotland over the past 20 years by socio-economic deprivation and will extend the study to explore stillbirth data too.
anemia, iron defficency anemia and amaranth trial in Ethiopia v1
Authors: Orsango Alemselam
Published: June 2020

Summary Introduction: Malnutrition is a public health problem in Ethiopia. Malnutrition can affect children’s cognitive, behavioral, and motor development. Further, healthy development and educational achievement can be compromised due to micronutrient deficiencies including iron deficiency. Different studies show that amaranth grain has better levels of macro and micronutrients especially iron to address the widespread malnutrition problem than other frequently used crops. This useful plant is widely grown in the research area but is considered as a weed rather than a food crop by the community. Furthermore, adequate research has not been conducted in Ethiopia on amaranth’s potential to contribute to reducing the malnutrition problem. This research is initiated to look at amaranth and its potential in reducing iron deficiency anemia among children. The research will inform the public at large, policymakers, and academicians as it deals with an underutilized nutritious crop that has the potential to contribute to reducing the malnutrition problem in the country. Objective: To assess the iron deficiency status of children and to evaluate the effect of amaranth containing bread consumption on the anthropometry and iron deficiency status of children in the age of 24.0-59.9 months. Methodology: A cross-sectional study and a randomized controlled trial will be done. For the survey, random sampling will be used to select 340 children. Hemoglobin, serum ferritin, C- reactive protein, and anthropometric measurements will be taken and used as the baseline data for the experimental study. In the randomized controlled trial, 100 children with a hemoglobin level of less than 11 mg /dl and above 7 mg/dl (mild and moderate anemia) will be recruited into the trial after informed consent. Severely ill individuals will be referred to as Hawassa Referal Hospital. Kebele-stratified simple random sampling will ensure 1:1 allocation to each group. Sequentially numbered, opaque, sealed envelopes will be used to assure concealment of allocation. The study subjects and parents (other caregivers in the absence of parents) will be kept uniformed about the trial allocation. Statistical analysis will be done using the latest SPSS version and ENA for SMART software. The survey will present descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, ranges and demographic characteristics of the population. The trial will be analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principles using logistic crude and site adjusted regression models with a mean difference in Hemoglobin as the primary outcome measure. Conclusion: This research project has the potential to be hypothesis generating and will inform policy makers and scientists about amaranth’s potential to combat malnutrition specifically iron deficiency in the area. Keyword: Amaranth, iron deficiency anemia
Öğretim Sürecinde Endişenin Azaltılması için Mikro-Öğretimin Yeniden Düzenlenmesi: Öğretmen Adaylarının Görüşleri
Authors: KARATAŞ Faik Özgür , CENGİZ Canan , ULUDÜZ Şule Merve
Published: June 2020

Mikro-öğretim yöntemi,
öğretmen adaylarının gerek pedagojik ve gerekse pedagojik alan bilgilerini
uygulamalarına ve böylece eksikliklerini görüp geliştirmelerine olanak
sağlamaktadır. Etkili ve verimli bir mikro-öğretim uygulaması, adayların
öğrencilerin karşısına daha hazır bir halde çıkması için kritik öneme sahiptir.
Bu çalışmanın amacı, Kimya Öğretmenliği Programı Özel Öğretim Yöntemleri (ÖÖY)
dersinde gerçekleştirilen mikro-öğretim uygulamalarının etkililiğinin, kimya
öğretmen adaylarının görüşleri doğrultusunda belirlenmesidir. Mevcut
mikro-öğretim uygulamasının benzerlerinden en önemli iki farkı, öğretmen
adaylarının yeterliklerini geliştirmek ve mikro-öğretim sürecini daha nitelikli
hale getirmek için bir ön-mikro-öğretim uygulamasının gerçekleştirilmesi ve
katılımcı grubun yapısıdır. Çalışma, bir eğitim fakültesinin pedagojik
formasyon kimya öğretmenliği programına kayıtlı olan ve ÖÖY dersini alan 25
öğretmen adayı ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Daha sonra öğretmen adayları, 12
açık-uçlu sorudan oluşan bir çevrim-içi anket formunda yer alan soruları
cevaplamışlardır. Öğretmen adaylarının ankette yer alan sorulara verdikleri
cevaplar içerik analizine tabi tutulmuştur. Elde edilen veriler
gerçekleştirilen uygulama ile öğretmen adaylarının, performanslarının etkili
yönlerini keşfettiklerini göstermiştir.
Ortaokul Öğrencilerinin Zihin Haritalarının Belirlenmesi: “Dünya Ve Evren” Öğrenme Alanı
Authors: BOLAT Ahmet , DEĞİRMENCİ Salih
Published: June 2020

8. sınıf ortaokul öğrencilerinin “Dünya ve Evren” öğrenme alanında yer tüm ortaokul temel kavramlarına yönelik zihin haritalarının belirlendiği bu çalışma , nitel kökenli özel durum çalışması yöntemi kullanılarak gerçekleştirilmiştir. Çalışma grubunu 2013-2014 eğitim öğretim yılında Çorum İli’ndeki bir ortaokuldaki rasgele seçilen 40 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Veri toplama aracı olarak  kelime ilişkilendirme testi formu kullanılmıştır. Kelime ilişkilendirme testi kesme noktası yoluyla analiz edilmiştir. Analizlerin sonucunda öğrencilerin, Dünya ve Evren öğrenme alanındaki öğrenme düzeylerinin düşük olduğu, üst düzey zihinsel düzeye sahip olmadıkları anlaşılmıştır.  Araştırmanın sonucunda Dünya ve Evren öğrenme alanı konularının öğretiminde öğrencilerin etkin katılımının sağlandığı uygulamalı eğitimlerin yapılması, yeni kavramların da yer aldığı araştırmaların artırılması, eğitim kurumlarında astronomi sınıflarının oluşturulması  konusunda öneriler sunulmuştur.
Ders Kitaplarında Fonksiyon Kavramına Nasıl Giriş Yapılıyor?: Matematik Öğretmen Adaylarının Değerlendirmeleri
Authors: YILMAZ Zuhal , GÜLBAĞCI DEDE Hande , AKKOÇ Hatice
Published: June 2020

Özet – Ders kitapları öğretmenlerin en çok kullandıkları ders materyalleri
arasında yer almaktadır. Ders kitaplarının değerlendirilmeden derslerde bire
bir kullanılması
öğretimi doğrudan etkilemektedir. Bu sebeple göreve başlayacak olan öğretmen
adaylarının ders kitaplarını nasıl değerlendiklerinin incelenmesi önemlidir. Bu
çalışmanın amacı matematik öğretmen adaylarının fonksiyona ait üç farklı fikri
benimseyen üç farklı ders kitabını nasıl değerlendirdiklerini belirlemektir.
Çalışmada adayların ders kitaplarının fonksiyona giriş bölümleri için
yazdıkları değerlendirme raporları incelenmiştir. Çalışma sonucunda adayların
ders kitaplarındaki farklı fonksiyon girişlerine matematiksel ve pedagojik
gerekçeler göstererek eleştirel bir gözle bakabildikleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Buna
rağmen adayların sundukları matematiksel gerekçeleri yeterli düzeyde
açıklayamadığı görülmüştür. Ayrıca adayların giriş bölümlerinde var olan günlük
hayat örneklerine çok fazla önem verdikleri fakat bu örneklerin fonksiyonu
matematiksel olarak temsil edip etmediğini yeterince irdelemedikleri
görülmektedir.