bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Producing metabolic complexes of probiotic microorganisms with significant antimicrobial properties
Authors: Isaienko O. Yu. , Kotsar O. V. , Ryzhkova T. M. , Diukareva H. I.
Published: April 2021

The aim of the work – to produce metabolic complexes with significant antibacterial properties using a new proprietary method and to substantiate the prospects of their use for designing of antimicrobial polyfunctional drugs.
Materials and methods. Metabolic complexes of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Lactobacillus plantarum, Saccharomyces boulardii, Enterococcus faecium were obtained by culturing the producers in ultrasonic disintegrates of other probiotic microorganisms. Sensitivity of antibiotic-resistant strains of Escherichia coli PR and Staphylococcus haemolyticus PR was determined by qualitative method. The suspension of test-cultures (optical density of 1.0 units on the McFarland scale) after incubation with metabolites (2, 24 and 48 hours at 37 °C) was inoculated into Mueller–Hinton agar. The absence of growth was indicative of the metabolic complexes antibacterial activity against the microorganism.
Results. Cultivation of S. boulardii in the S. boulardii / L. rhamnosus / L. plantarum / E. faecium disintegrates, L. plantarum – in the L. rhamnosus / E. faecium disintegrates and L. rhamnosus – in the L. plantarum disintegrates was accompanied by an increase in the biomass of isolated microorganisms (P ≤ 0.03) and production of metabolites. Along with a similar increase in S. boulardii cells in the S. boulardii / L. rhamnosus / L. plantarum / E. faecium disintegrates, the metabolic products of lactobacterial and enterococcal disintegrates exhibited more active inhibitory effects against E. coli PR and S. haemolyticus PR. The increased antibacterial activity indicates the advantage of the new method. Another improvement is the extended spectrum of metabolic complexes owing to producer cultivation in the other probiotic disintegrates to obtain original biologically active substances with high antibacterial properties against pathogens. Among the strength of the method is that all the stages are unified into a single process avoiding multiphase procedure for the separate preparation of one probiotic microorganism disintegrate and the metabolic products of another.
Conclusions. Disintegrates as a nutrient medium can be used not only for their own producers, but also for other strains/species and various probiotic microorganisms (fungi and bacteria). The increase in antibacterial activity of metabolic complexes has been found using the new method of production. The prospects of antimicrobial polyfunctional drugs designing on this basis have been proved.
Surgical treatment of bone tumors using segmental bone allografts
Authors: Vyrva O. Ye. , Holovina Ya. O. , Malyk R. V. , Danishchuk Z. M. , Ashukina N. O. , Vorontsov P. M.
Published: April 2021

The aim of the study is to improve the method of surgical treatment for patients with tumors of long bones with the use of segmental bone allograft.
Material and method. The authors have improved the method of surgical treatment of patients with tumor bone lesions using segmental allografts. Step-cut osteotomy was performed to achieve the best contact between the allograft and the recipient bone, fixation was performed with intramedullar interlocking nail without the use of bone cement, and primary bone autoplasty was done to achieve better reparation. The method was clinically tested and the results of its application were studied (radiologically, morphologically). A morphological study of the contact zone between the allograft and the recipient's bone was conducted.
Results. The effectiveness of the developed method was proved. As a follow-up result among patients who underwent surgical treatment according to the developed method, the following complications were noted: ischemic necrosis of soft tissues (due to intraoperative ligation of an artery which was surrounded by a tumor) – 1 case; tumor recurrence resulting in a limb amputation – 1 patient. During the macroscopic study of a removed fragment (after amputation), the fusion between allograft and recipient bone was observed. As a result of histological and X-ray examination, bone regeneration was seen in the area of contact between the allograft and the recipient bone. The histological examination also was used to clearly visualize the removed fragment of the affected tibia, in particular the contact zone between the allograft and the recipient bone, and the bone implant material, on the outer surface and internal parts of which, the formation of new bone tissue in the form of layering of the bone trabeculae was seen. Thus, the bone tissue was formed on the surface of allogeneic bone material and sprouted into its internal parts, forming a stiff bone – implant contact.
Conclusions. Using the technique of bioreconstruction of the long bone defects allows the bone tissue of the affected limb to be preserved as much as possible, to restore the surrounding soft tissues and avoid infectious and allergic reactions in comparison with modular endoprosthetics. Fixation of the allograft and the recipient bone using step-cut osteotomy with the additional insertion of an interlocking intramedullar nail allows getting a stable «construction» and maximizing the contact zone of the bone tissue (the allograft and the recipient bone).
Komunikacja interpersonalna kobiet z zaburzeniem osobowości typu borderline w związkach kohabitacyjnych
Authors: Bakiera Lucyna
Published: April 2021

The authors discuss in the article interpersonal communication in cohabitation relationships of women with a borderline personality disorder. 91 women aged between 21 and 40 who were in a consensual relationship participated in the research. The classification of the respondents to the criterion group was determined by the result obtained in the Borderline Personality Inventory (BPI) by F. Leichsenring in the Polish adaptation of Lidia Cierpiałkowska. 43 women were included in the criterion group, and the control group consisted of 48 women. The research also used the Marriage and Partnership Communication Questionnaire by Maria Kaźmierczak and Mieczysław Plopa. The analysis of the obtained results showed that women with borderline personality disorder show more depressing and less supportive and engaged communication behaviors compared to women without this disorder, both in self-perception and in the assessment of the partner’s communication behavior.
Komunikacja interpersonalna w interakcjach społecznych
Authors: Frydrychowicz Stefan
Published: April 2021

This article concentrates on the characterization of the transition from social interactions to interpersonal communication. For this purpose analysis of the structure of communication process was conducted on two levels: general and specific. The former focuses on the conditions of the transition from interaction to communication, and further to contact. The latter offers the analysis of the dimensions of interpersonal communication. The conclusion deals with the importance of interlocutors’ intentionality as well as appropriate regulation and coordination of the dimensions of communication for effective communication.
ParaX
Authors: Yin Lujia , Zhang Yiming , Zhang Zhaoning , Peng Yuxing , Zhao Peng
Published: April 2021

Despite the fact that GPUs and accelerators are more efficient in deep learning (DL), commercial clouds like Facebook and Amazon now heavily use CPUs in DL computation because there are large numbers of CPUs which would otherwise sit idle during off-peak periods. Following the trend, CPU vendors have not only released high-performance many-core CPUs but also developed efficient math kernel libraries. However, current DL platforms cannot scale well to a large number of CPU cores, making many-core CPUs inefficient in DL computation. We analyze the memory access patterns of various layers and identify the root cause of the low scalability, i.e., the per-layer barriers that are implicitly imposed by current platforms which assign one single instance (i.e., one batch of input data) to a CPU. The barriers cause severe memory bandwidth contention and CPU starvation in the access-intensive layers (like activation and BN).

This paper presents a novel approach called ParaX, which boosts the performance of DL on many-core CPUs by effectively alleviating bandwidth contention and CPU starvation. Our key idea is to assign one instance to each CPU core instead of to the entire CPU, so as to remove the per-layer barriers on the executions of the many cores. ParaX designs an ultralight scheduling policy which sufficiently overlaps the access-intensive layers with the compute-intensive ones to avoid contention, and proposes a NUMA-aware gradient server mechanism for training which leverages shared memory to substantially reduce the overhead of per-iteration parameter synchronization. We have implemented ParaX on MXNet. Extensive evaluation on a two-NUMA Intel 8280 CPU shows that ParaX significantly improves the training/inference throughput for all tested models (for image recognition and natural language processing) by 1.73X ~ 2.93X.
Materializing knowledge bases via trigger graphs
Authors: Tsamoura Efthymia , Carral David , Malizia Enrico , Urbani Jacopo
Published: April 2021

The
chase
is a well-established family of algorithms used to materialize Knowledge Bases (KBs) for tasks like query answering under dependencies or data cleaning. A general problem of chase algorithms is that they might perform redundant computations. To counter this problem, we introduce the notion of
Trigger Graphs
(TGs), which guide the execution of the rules avoiding redundant computations. We present the results of an extensive theoretical and empirical study that seeks to answer when and how TGs can be computed and what are the benefits of TGs when applied over real-world KBs. Our results include introducing algorithms that compute (minimal) TGs. We implemented our approach in a new engine, called GLog, and our experiments show that it can be significantly more efficient than the chase enabling us to materialize Knowledge Graphs with 17B facts in less than 40 min using a single machine with commodity hardware.
From natural language processing to neural databases
Authors: Thorne James , Yazdani Majid , Saeidi Marzieh , Silvestri Fabrizio , Riedel Sebastian , Halevy Alon
Published: April 2021

In recent years, neural networks have shown impressive performance gains on long-standing AI problems, such as answering queries from text and machine translation. These advances raise the question of whether neural nets can be used at the core of query processing to derive answers from facts, even when the facts are expressed in natural language. If so, it is conceivable that we could relax the fundamental assumption of database management, namely, that our data is represented as fields of a pre-defined schema. Furthermore, such technology would enable combining information from text, images, and structured data seamlessly.

This paper introduces
neural databases
, a class of systems that use NLP transformers as localized answer derivation engines. We ground the vision in NeuralDB, a system for querying facts represented as short natural language sentences. We demonstrate that recent natural language processing models, specifically transformers, can answer select-project-join queries if they are given a set of relevant facts. However, they cannot scale to non-trivial databases nor answer set-based and aggregation queries. Based on these insights, we identify specific research challenges that are needed to build neural databases. Some of the challenges require drawing upon the rich literature in data management, and others pose new research opportunities to the NLP community. Finally, we show that with preliminary solutions, NeuralDB can already answer queries over thousands of sentences with very high accuracy.
Charting the design space of query execution using VOILA
Authors: Gubner Tim , Boncz Peter
Published: April 2021

Database architecture, while having been studied for four decades now, has delivered only a few designs with well-understood properties. These few are followed by most actual systems. Acquiring more knowledge about the design space is a very time-consuming processes that requires
manually
crafting prototypes with a low chance of generating material insight.

We propose a framework that aims to accelerate this exploration process significantly. Our framework enables synthesizing many different engines from a description in a carefully designed domain-specific language (VOILA). We explain basic concepts and formally define the semantics of VOILA. We demonstrate VOILA's flexibility by presenting translation back-ends that allow the synthesis of state-of-the-art paradigms (data-centric compilation, vectorized execution, AVX-512), mutations and mixes thereof.

We show-case VOILA's flexibility by exploring the query engine design space in an automated fashion. We generated thousands of query engines and report our findings. Queries generated by VOILA achieve similar performance as state-of-the-art hand-optimized implementations and are up to 35.5X faster than well-known systems.
Collective influence maximization for multiple competing products with an awareness-to-influence model
Authors: Tsaras Dimitris , Trimponias George , Ntaflos Lefteris , Papadias Dimitris
Published: April 2021

Influence maximization (IM)
is a fundamental task in social network analysis. Typically, IM aims at selecting a set of seeds for the network that influences the maximum number of individuals. Motivated by practical applications, in this paper we focus on an IM variant, where the
owner
of multiple
competing products
wishes to select seeds for each product so that the
collective influence
across all products is maximized. To capture the competing diffusion processes, we introduce an
Awareness-to-Influence
(AtI) model. In the first phase, awareness about each product propagates in the social graph unhindered by other competing products. In the second phase, a user adopts the most preferred product among those encountered in the awareness phase. To compute the seed sets, we propose GCW, a game-theoretic framework that views the various products as agents, which compete for influence in the social graph and selfishly select their individual strategy. We show that AtI exhibits monotonicity and submodularity; importantly, GCW is a
monotone utility game.
This allows us to develop an efficient best-response algorithm, with quality guarantees on the collective utility. Our experimental results suggest that our methods are effective, efficient, and scale well to large social networks.
Errata for "Unifying consensus and atomic commitment for effective cloud data management"
Authors: Maiyya Sujaya , Nawab Faisal , Agrawal Divyakant , Abbadi Amr El
Published: April 2021

This errata article discusses and corrects a minor error in our work published in VLDB 2019. The discrepancy specifically pertains to Algorithms 3 and 4. The algorithms presented in the paper are biased towards a
commit
decision in a specific failure scenario. We explain the error using an example before correcting the algorithm.
Shortest paths and centrality in uncertain networks
Authors: Saha Arkaprava , Brokkelkamp Ruben , Velaj Yllka , Khan Arijit , Bonchi Francesco
Published: April 2021

Computing the shortest path between a pair of nodes is a fundamental graph primitive, which has critical applications in vehicle routing, finding functional pathways in biological networks, survivable network design, among many others. In this work, we study shortest-path queries over uncertain networks, i.e., graphs where every edge is associated with a probability of existence. We show that, for a given path, it is #
P
-hard to compute the probability of it being the shortest path, and we also derive other interesting properties highlighting the complexity of computing the Most Probable Shortest Paths (MPSPs). We thus devise sampling-based efficient algorithms, with end-to-end accuracy guarantees, to compute the MPSP. As a concrete application, we show how to compute a novel concept of betweenness centrality in an uncertain graph using MPSPs. Our thorough experimental results and rich real-world case studies on sensor networks and brain networks validate the effectiveness, efficiency, scalability, and usefulness of our solution.
Use of levamisole-adulterated cocaine is associated with increased load of white matter lesions
Authors: Conrad Florian , Hirsiger Sarah , Winklhofer Sebastian , Baumgartner Markus R. , Stämpfli Philipp , Seifritz Erich , Wegener Susanne , Quednow Boris B.
Published: April 2021

Background: Cocaine use has been associated with vascular pathologies, including cerebral white matter hyperintensities. Street cocaine is most often adulterated with levamisole, an anthelminthic drug that may also be associated with vascular toxicity. However, whether levamisole exposure from cocaine consumption further accelerates the development of white matter lesions remains unknown. Methods: We investigated the association of cocaine and levamisole exposure with white matter hyperintensities in 35 chronic cocaine users and 34 healthy controls. We measured cocaine and levamisole concentrations in hair samples, which reflected exposure up to 6 months previously. We assessed the number and total surface area of the white matter hyperintensities using structural MRI (FLAIR sequence). Using generalized linear models, we analyzed the contributions of cocaine and levamisole to the number and area of white matter hyperintensities, accounting for several confounding factors. Results: Analysis using generalized linear models revealed that cocaine users had more white matter hyperintensities in terms of total surface area, but not in terms of number. Further generalized linear models that included cocaine and levamisole hair concentrations (instead of group) as predictors indicated that levamisole exposure was strongly associated with more and larger white matter hyperintensities, suggesting that the elevated white matter hyperintensities in cocaine users were driven mainly by levamisole exposure. Finally, white matter hyperintensities in levamisole-exposed cocaine users were located primarily in the periventricular and juxtacortical white matter. Limitations: The sample size was moderate, and blood pressure was not systematically assessed. Conclusion: As an adulterant of cocaine, levamisole appears to increase the risk of white matter injury.
On the set of positive solutions for resonant Robin (p,q)-equations
Authors: Papageorgiou Nikolaos S. , Zhang Youpei
Published: April 2021

We consider a nonlinear Robin problem driven by the (p,q)-Laplacian and a parametric reaction exhibiting the competition of a concave term and of a resonant perturbation. We prove a bifurcation-type theorem describing the changes in the set of positive solutions as the parameterλmoves on ℝ̊+= (0, +∞). Also, we determine the continuity properties of the solution multifunction.
On the (un)successful deployment of renewable energies: territorial context matters. A conceptual framework and an empirical analysis of biogas projects
Authors: BOURDIN Sebastien , RAULIN François , JOSSET Clement
Published: April 2021

Given the goal set by the French government to open 1000 biogas plants by 2020, we believe it is important to investigate the factors linked to the success or failure of anaerobic digestion projects, especially as the inherent challenges mean that there are barely 300 in operation today. We thus developed a conceptual framework to help us to study territorial energy transition projects which we applied to an empirical analysis of the biogas production process. We conducted a quantitative study (logit model with 91 anaerobic digestion projects) and a qualitative study (49 semi-structured interviews and 455 articles from the regional daily press) to identify and understand the processes that anaerobic digestion projects go through for a successful outcome or, conversely, to ultimately fail. Our findings indicate that projects may be abandoned or interrupted due to the presence of a group of objectors who are often wary of such projects and do not trust the project leaders. Lack of anticipation and early dialogue tend to inhibit success. Furthermore, social acceptance appears to be correlated with proximity to the biogas plants but not to the size of the digester. Finally, operating and/or investment subsidies are seen to have a positive and significant effect on a project’s success. In this study, we highlight the need to implement place-based policies rather than one-size-fits-all policies to develop renewable energy in specific regions.
Mitigation strategies to enhance the ambition of the nationally determined contributions : an analysis of 4 European countries with the decarbonization wedges methodology
Authors: Mathy Sandrine , Menanteau Philippe
Published: April 2021

Greater efforts are needed to bridge the emission gap between Nationally Determined Contributions and the objective to limit climate change below 2°C. This paper focuses on four European-Union countries: Germany, France, Poland and UK that represent on aggregate 55% of current EU emissions. It analyses national mitigation strategies produced by national research teams in the framework of the COP21_RIPPLES project and compatible with a long-term objective leading to a well below 2°C target either as part of an ambition in 2030 limited to that of the NDCs, or as part of more ambitious early action. We use the decarbonization wedges methodology, an advanced index decomposition analysis methodology for quantifying the contribution of different mitigation strategies. This makes it possible to assess the priorities for action to strengthen the NDCs. The article also highlights the impact sectoral growth dynamics have on the emission trajectories and the resulting necessary mitigation efforts.
Educación performativa musical: herramientas para la investigación
Authors: Botella Nicolás Ana María , Escorihuela Carbonell Guillem
Published: April 2021

Este artículo pretende dotar de herramientas al docente para que aborde la realidad de la clase práctica instrumental. A través de la metodología de complementación cuantitativa y cualitativa, se observa como ésta resulta la solución más indicada para este tipo de investigaciones. A partir de una reflexión sobre la clase musical instrumental y la investigación en didáctica de los instrumentos, el cuestionario se revela como la herramienta más completa para conocer la actitud del profesorado acerca de la praxis docente. Repasando algunas investigaciones sobre educación performativa se aportan ejemplos que permitan a los profesores enfrentarse a los retos que supone la educación musical en el siglo XXI. Por tanto, la metodología se basa en una revisión bibliográfica de fuentes primarias y secundarias sobre lo que han escrito los autores más influyentes en el campo de la educación performativa. Esta publicación quiere enfatizar en la importancia de la investigación a nivel educativo en el ámbito de la música, especialmente en la enseñanza instrumental, que tan falta de reflexión está en la actualidad. Por tanto, lo original del texto se encuentra en los ejemplos que se presentan como modelos para el profesorado que quiera implementar una búsqueda en su propia docencia.
Mensajes publicitarios en productos de alimentación. Análisis comparativo de Colacao y Nesquik
Authors: Presol Herrero África , Melendo Rodríguez-Carmona Laura
Published: April 2021

Esta investigación analiza la transformación de la comunicación del mensaje publicitario destinado jóvenes. Se establece una metodología cualitativa basada en la observación del fenómeno publicitario en la que se ha utilizado comoherramienta de examen un modelo de análisis de contenido que ha permitido la valoración del uso de códigos, el tratamiento de la estrategia y la propuesta compositiva de los mensajes en los medios. El objeto de estudio han sido las marcas Colacao y Nesquik. En el análisis han sido seleccionadas piezas creativas destinadas a preadolescentes, de edades comprendidas entre siete y doce años. Se trata de un target de nativos digitales con habilidades válidas para discriminar el mensaje de los contenidos publicitarios. Los resultados muestran como las marcas realizan cambios significativos referidos principalmente al contenido y a la forma de transmitir la información, y adaptando la estructura, los objetivos y los conceptos creativos a los intereses del receptor con el propósito de incrementar la identificación del beneficio con los intereses de su público.
Uso de redes sociales en microempresas ante efectos COVID-19
Authors: Demuner Flores María del Rosario
Published: April 2021

La economíamundial sufre una crisis sanitaria y económica donde la vulnerabilidad de la MIPYME es evidente. El objetivo fue analizar el uso de las redes sociales que eligieron las microempresas en respuesta a los efectos causados por la pandemia COVID-19 en una localidad mexicana. El estudiotransversal con técnica narrativa describe los resultados de una encuesta a empresarios. El confinamiento social y el cierre obligatorio afectaron la actividad de las microempresas (48%), provocaron disminución de sus ingresos (31%), incrementaron las necesidades de financiamiento (24%) y obligaron al despido de empleados (16%). En respuesta a los efectos causados, la estrategia fue incrementar 30% el uso de redes sociales. Principalmente Facebook y WhatsApp se usaron para promoción, seguimiento de clientes, posicionar productos y explorar mercados. La principal aportación de esta investigación es evidenciar empíricamente los efectos de la pandemia y el uso de redes sociales como alternativa de las microempresas para lograr su subsistencia.
La estrategia de comunicación de RSC de Iberdrola en Facebook y Twitter: Un análisis lingüístico y de contenido basado en corpus
Authors: Moyaert Helena , Vangehuchten Lieve , Fernández Vallejo Ana María
Published: April 2021

En nuestra civilización digitalizada, en la que el compartir información e interactuar sobre ella está cada vez más a disposición de todos, se necesitan estudios sobre las prácticas de comunicación empresarial de la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSC) en los medios sociales. El presente estudio de corpus contribuye a llenar este vacío mediante un análisis de contenido y lingüístico multimodal de la forma en que una empresa energética del IBEX 35, Iberdrola, comunica sobre su política de RSC en los medios sociales. El corpus consta de 438 posts en Twitter y 126 posts en Facebook. Los resultados permiten sacar las siguientes conclusiones: 1) la estrategia informativa de Iberdrola varía según el canal: en Twitter el enfoque está en medio ambiente, sostenibilidad, inversión social, grupos de interés y artes, mientras que en Facebook se dirige principalmente a los grupos de interés, motivándolos a comprometerse con la RSC; 2) existe indudablemente una estrategia interactiva que caracteriza el discurso digital, como las estructuras que suscitan emociones (positivas), el uso de lenguaje informal (los emoticones y el uso de la primera y segunda persona) y otros elementos multimodales como los hashtagsy tags, que todos sirven para aumentar la confianza y el compromiso por la marca; 3) hay patrones subyacentes en la estrategia informativa e interactiva, en el sentido de que Iberdrola quiere comunicar su política de RSC a través de un lenguaje informal y emocional (positivo), con la excepción del lenguaje emocional negativo cuando se discuten temas ambientales, muy probablemente para evitar acusaciones de ecoblanqueo.
La resistencia al cambio en los medios audiovisuales ante la implantación de las nuevas Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación Social
Authors: Díaz Cuesta José Francisco
Published: April 2021

Objetivo: Es responsabilidad de los medios, como servicio público, adaptarse a la realidad tecnológica multimedia, para seguir desempeñando con eficacia su labor informativa. Sin embargo, cualquier proceso de cambio en una organización, implica una resistencia inicial y un proceso de adaptación de los profesionales. Analizamos el proceso de resistencia al cambio, sus causas, consecuencias y posibles estrategias de prevención, a través de situaciones reales en un medio audiovisual (RTVE).Metodología:Revisión bibliográfica sistemática de la literatura sobre la resistencia al cambio en los medios ante la introducción de nuevas tecnologías y de la experiencia publicada sobre tres escenarios: digitalización de Informativos, Redacción Digital Centralizada en los centros territoriales y efectos de la pandemia COVID-19. Discusión-Resultados:Se exponen mecanismos implicados en la resistencia al cambio, como ciertas características de los profesionales (trayectoria profesional, experiencia con nuevas tecnologías) y del proceso (cambios de rol que implican salir de la zona de confort del profesional). Se presentan los mecanismos de oposición al cambio (huelgas, rechazo encubierto) y las estrategias preventivas que resultaron eficaces (implicación de los profesionales en el diseño del proceso, eficacia de los dinamizadores o refuerzos positivos en la forma de incentivos). Conclusiones:La profesionalidad y veteranía de la plantilla pudo haber contribuido al rechazo al cambio, aunque ha garantizado el implantarlo con escasa conflictividad. Como estrategias eficaces para superar la resistencia se presentan los refuerzos positivos, la implicación en el diseño de los profesionales y el aumento de la comunicación bidireccional fundamentada en las propias tecnologías (redes sociales).
CAPS2 Deficiency Impairs the Release of the Social Peptide Oxytocin, as Well as Oxytocin-Associated Social Behavior
Authors: Fujima Shuhei , Yamaga Ryosuke , Minami Haruka , Mizuno Shota , Shinoda Yo , Sadakata Tetsushi , Abe Manabu , Sakimura Kenji , Sano Yoshitake , Furuichi Teiichi
Published: April 2021

Ca2+-dependent activator protein for secretion 2 (CAPS2) regulates dense-core vesicle (DCV) exocytosis to facilitate peptidergic and catecholaminergic transmitter release. CAPS2 deficiency in mice has mild neuronal effects but markedly impairs social behavior. Rarede novo Caps2alterations also occur in autism spectrum disorder, although whether CAPS2-mediated release influences social behavior remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that CAPS2 is associated with DCV exocytosis-mediated release of the social interaction modulatory peptide oxytocin (OXT). CAPS2 is expressed in hypothalamic OXT neurons and localizes to OXT nerve projection and OXT release sites, such as the pituitary.Caps2KO mice exhibited reduced plasma albeit increased hypothalamic and pituitary OXT levels, indicating insufficient release. OXT neuron-specificCaps2conditional KO supported CAPS2 function in pituitary OXT release, also affording impaired social interaction and recognition behavior that could be ameliorated by exogenous OXT administered intranasally. Thus, CAPS2 appears critical for OXT release, thereby being associated with social behavior.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThe role of the neuropeptide oxytocin in enhancing social interaction and social bonding behavior has attracted considerable public and neuroscientific attention. A central issue in oxytocin biology concerns how oxytocin release is regulated. Our study provides an important insight into the understanding of oxytocin-dependent social behavior from the perspective of the CAPS2-regulated release mechanism.
An undiagnosed TSH-secreting pituitary macroadenoma found during pregnancy
Authors: Ng Chi-Hong , Chow Wing-Sun , Lam Karen Siu-Ling , Lee Chi-Ho
Published: April 2021

Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH)-secreting pituitary adenoma (TSHoma) is an uncommon cause of thyrotoxicosis, and is even rarer when found during pregnancy. Our patient presented with thyrotoxicosis accompanied by an inappropriately normal TSH level at 10 weeks of gestation during work-up of surgical termination of pregnancy (STOP). Subsequent investigations performed after STOP confirmed the presence of a TSH-secreting pituitary macroadenoma. She was initially treated with anti-thyroid drugs for biochemical control, followed by trans-sphenoidal surgery after STOP had been performed. Her thyroid function completely normalized after the trans-sphenoidal surgery. Our case illustrated the importance of recognizing the syndrome of inappropriate TSH secretion and highlighted several pregnancy-related aspects in the diagnosis and management of TSHoma during pregnancy.

Learning points:

This case report illustrates the need to raise awareness in recognizing the syndrome of inappropriate TSH secretion.

Illustrate the different hormone tests available for reaching the diagnosis of TSH-secreting pituitary adenoma.

Highlight the physiological changes in the thyroid status during pregnancy and the importance of using trimester-specific reference ranges for assessment of thyroid function during pregnancy.

Describe the challenges in the management of TSH-secreting pituitary adenoma during pregnancy.
Preparing Future Handicraft Teachers for Inclusive Education in Ukrainian Schools
Authors: Androshchuk Iryna , Androshchuk Ihor , Krasylnykova Hanna
Published: April 2021

The paper highlights the results of empirical research regarding the issues undermining the implementation of inclusive education in the context of training handicraft teachers and, consequently, discovers effective ways to eliminate them. It shows that future handicraft teachers are mostly not ready to implement inclusive education. This is due to the lack of adequate knowledge and skills required to work with children with special needs. Besides, the paper indicates students’ unawareness of categories of children with special needs and characteristics of correctional and developmental work in handicraft lessons, including relevant exercises, motor activity. This fact negatively affects future teachers’ emotional readiness to work under such conditions. Working with various tools while processing structural materials requires adherence to safety rules in lessons and appropriate organization of design and technological activities. The paper specifies that teacher placement supervisors do not have the necessary experience of working with children with special needs and thus cannot prepare their students for that. Also, it justifies the need to develop students’ emotional readiness to work with children with special needs, update the content of professional training for future handicraft teachers, taking into account the specifics of inclusive education, develop their ability to employ teaching methods appropriate for inclusive classes in handicraft lessons. Finally, the paper isolates the main areas that can help to increase the effectiveness of professional training of future handicraft teachers in higher education institutions so that they can work with children with special needs.
Text as a Game: Modern Strategies for Working with Texts in Future Teachers’ Training (on L. Frank Baum’s tales “American tales”)
Authors: Derkachova Olga , Tytun Oksana
Published: April 2021

The article deals with modern strategies for working with literature in the future teachers’ training process, especially in work with tales. Suggested technologies make it possible to move away from traditional text analysis, to offer interesting interpretations as well as to focus on details. A text comes to life as it receives new interpretations, and visual ones complement the verbal content. This strategy helps make the reading more stimulating. It helps unleash and develop students’ analytical and creative potential: interpret scientific texts, create a lapbook and scrapbook. The examples are discussed on the material of Baum’s tales, “American Tales”, which is a fascinating and original phenomenon of American literature for children, and it provides a considerable space for interpretation. These tales are bright, interesting, and funny and allows to suggest to play with text, details, characters. Such game is impossible without attentive reading and understanding the main ideas of the text. The authors of the given manuscript recommend the following methods of working with texts as calligrams, hero pyramid, mind mapping, six thinking hats by E. Bono, etc. As a result, students begin to read literature more carefully, pay attention to details and better memorize certain episodes. The success of applying holographic technologies in dealing with literature is proved. Thus, the following skills like reading, creative thinking, critical thinking, the ability to express thoughts have been developed as well as the fear of misinterpretation of texts has disappeared.
Audicinės skatinamųjų intonacijų ypatybės
Authors: Bikulčienė Petronėlė
Published: April 2021

Ankstesnio audicinio eksperimento rezultatai parodė, kad skatinimo porūšius, nesiskiriančius kitomis kalbinėmis priemonėmis, auditoriai suvokė iš intonacijos. Vadinasi, audicinės daugelio skatinamųjų intonacijų ypatybės turi būti skirtingos.Šiame darbe mėginama glaustai aprašyti svarbiausius audicinius skatinamųjų intonacijų požymius, remiantis eksperimentų rezultatais ir statistiniu jų įvertinimu.
NATURAL FOOD PRESERVATION SYSTEM AS ALLYL ISOTHIOCYANATE AND EDIBLE BROWN SEAWEED LAMINARIA JAPONICA AGAINST SELECTED ANAEROBIC FOODBORNE BACTERIA: CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS AND CAMPYLOBACTER JEJUNI
Authors: Elfayoumy Reham Ahmed
Published: April 2021

Allyl isothiocyanate (AITC) is basic compound in mustard essential oil and found in some other species of Brassicaceae. It has antimicrobial properties against wide range of foodborne pathogens. Its food industry use as a natural preservative is limited by its quick evaporation, taste pungency, and weak water solubility. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for AITC was determined by Microdilution assay, respectively. According to the results of the same assay, bactericidal effect was recorded against both tested bacteria. By using vapor and solution deposition ways into Laminaria japonica de-oiled powder, the antimicrobial effect of AITC vapor was demonstrated against the selected bacteria; up to 91% of colony deactivation occurred within 72 h for C. perfringens, while 97% for C. jejuni, the decay behavior of both solution and vapor -deposited were parallel. At 72 h, the de-oiled L. japonica powder was adsorbed AITC twice that of the raw powder approaching 99% theoretical maximum amount. The continued antimicrobial activity of AITC after contact proves that AITC + de oiled L. japonica powder would be used as natural system for preserve food.
VALIDATION OF THE ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY FOR EMIQUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF IgM ANTIBODIES AGAINST CHLAMYDIA TRACHOMATIS
Authors: Besarab Alexander , Motronenko Valentyna , Bespalova Elena , Nastenko Ievgen
Published: April 2021

The object of the following study is representation of the scientific and methodical foundation of the procedure of validation of means of serum in vitro diagnosis basing on the sample of ELISA for semiquantification of specific Chlamydia trachomatis IgM-antibodies. Validation characteristics (precision, diagnostic and analytic specificity, diagnostic sensitivity, relative linearity) were defined both at the beginning of the release of diagnostic set and the expiration date (as the element of stability study). The values of diagnostic sensitivity and specificity, defined via the in-process set of serums (20 positive and 50 negative) comprised 100%. The presence of other classes of Chlamydia antibodies in samples didn’t influence the results of ELISA for specific IgM antibodies. Linearity of the method was sufficient. The intra-assay variation of results is between 3.1% to 6.4%, and intra-assay precision was from 1.5% to 8.4%, staying acceptable (≤ 10%) both at the moment of release and during expiration date. The ELISA method is validated, and the diagnostic kit is regarded as stable during 1 year.
DRYING KINETICS, FOURIER-TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY ANALYSIS AND SENSORY EVALUATION OF SUN, HOT-AIR, MICROWAVE AND FREEZE DRIED MANGO LEATHER
Authors: Sarkar Tanmay , Saha Suman Kumar , Salauddin Molla , Chakraborty Runu
Published: April 2021

Mango leather produced from dried mango pulp is a traditional fruit product in India. Traditionally it is processed through natural convective drying or sun drying of ripe mango pulp. Mango leather was produced through sun, convective (hot air), freeze, and microwave drying. Drying kinetics was studied with the help of nine empirical models used extensively in food industries. Root mean square error (RMSE), correlation coefficient (R2), and the sum of square errors (SSE) these four statistical measures were examined for nine different models to learn the best-fitted model. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy study was conducted for compositional analysis of differently dried samples in the wavelength range of 400-4000 cm-1 at ambient temperature. For sensory analysis, the test panel was constructed as per ISO 8586-1. ISO 4120:2004, ISO 5496:2005, ISO 10399:2004 standards were maintained for selecting panel members. Quantitative descriptive analysis of different mango leather was estimated as per the protocols defined in ISO 11035:1994.
MORPHOLOGICAL AND GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS IN CALENDULA (CALENDULA OFFICINALIS L.) INFLUENCED BY MUTAGENIC EFFECT OF COLCHICINE
Authors: Yassein Ahmed , Hassan Abdallah , Abdel-Alah Ebtsam , Salim Shokri
Published: April 2021

Calendula officinalis L. (pot marigold) is one of the main aromatic and medicinal plants with many uses in food and medicines. This study was carried out to demonstrate the efficiency of six colchicine concentrations (0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 per cent, w/v) for Calendula improvement and induction of genetic variation. Colchicine treatments had a positive effect on the number of branches/plant, number of inflorescences, fresh and dry weight of inflorescences, inflorescence diameter, total soluble carbohydrates and β-carotene except for plant height, while seed germination and plant height were reduced. Estimation of heritability, genetic advance, genetic variability and selection of superior genotypes will be an important object in crop breeding and genetic improvement programs, and selection of genotypes with higher desirable characters. Heritability was high and ranged from 48.64 to 90.81, respectively (inflorescence diameter and plant height, respectively). Molecular markers based on a RAPD-PCR study elucidate the classification of induced Calendula mutants into two clusters. The coefficient of genetic diversity was estimated at 30%.  A combination of morphological and physiological responses with molecular data contained in the various colchicine treatments illustrated the utility of RAPD-PCR as a method for identifying useful mutants and could be used to detect the colchicine effect significantly. Findings recommend the 0.05 per cent colchicine for efficient breeding calendula mutation and genetic improvement.
STUDYING THE EFFECT OF CHITOSAN ON BACILLUS CEREUS PRODUCING CEREULIDE TOXIN IN MILK AND SOME DAIRY DESSERTS
Authors: Elnisr Neveen A. , ElSherif Walaa M. , Hendy Abeer H. M. El , Wahba Nahed M.
Published: April 2021

A total of 150 samples of raw milk and two types of refrigerated processed dairy desserts dishes (cooked rice with milk and Mehalabia dishes) (50 for each) were collected from dairy shops and local restaurants in Assuit City, Egypt. ISO7932 method was used for enumeration of B. cereus, afterwards a PCR was performed to confirm the presence of cereulide toxin (ces) gene. In addition, the effect of different concentrations of chitosan and chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) (0.05, 1%) on B. cereus was studied in pasteurized milk.The shelf life was evaluated by clot on boiling test and Ph value. Their pathological effect was detected by orally administration to experimental rats to investigate their adverse effect on rats liver and intestine using histopathological examination. The most prominent potent bactericidal effect was observed inCNPs 1%, B. cereus count reached to undetectable level at 5th day of refrigerated storage. The pasteurized milk inoculated with B. cereus, chitosan and CNPs showed some pathological lesions in rats treated with B. cereus,while the chitosan 0.5% had antibacterial activities without cytotoxic effect on rat tissues, alternatively to CNPs 1%, which exist edematous tips of intestinal villi and mild kupffer cells activation in liver.Therefore, our results contribute data that are primary to indicate the risk of food poisoning due to B. cereus and trials to control that in food by careful using of nanotechnology. However, the additional researches are needed to safe using of this technology even on natural nano-materials as it at nano-size gain new qualities.
CHARACTERIZATION OF ENDOPHYTIC BACTERIA OF THE GENUS BACILLUS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON THE GROWTH OF MAIZE (ZEA MAYS) IN VIVO
Authors: Lipková Nikola , Cinkocki Renata , Maková Jana , Medo Juraj , Javoreková Soňa
Published: April 2021

Bacteria with positive properties on plant vitality are also called PGPB (Plant Growth Promoting Bacteria). Their presence can be observed not only in the root area but also in the above-ground parts of plants like endophytic bacteria. The aim of our study was to characterize promoting features of bacteria from Bacillus genus and compare them with Pseudomonas simiae WCS417 (plant growth promoting strain). The work was carried out in locality Kolíňany near Nitra (40°26´46´´N, 79°58´56´´W) and root samples were taken from 6 randomly selected plants of maize (Zea mays L.) in vegetative plant growth stage BBCH 14-15. Bacteria isolated from plant roots were identified and tested to biochemical parameters. From the biochemical features, we observed the detection of siderophores, determination of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), monitoring the ability to dissolve phosphates and antifungal activity. Bacterial suspensions were applied to maize seeds and tested in vivo controlled conditions. Tested isolates were identified as Bacillus flexus, Bacillus megaterium and Bacillus subtilis. All 3 strains achieved the middle – class of phosphate solubilization index (2.00 ≤ SI ˂ 4.00), produced phytohormone IAA and showed positive production of siderophores and inhibited growth of Fusarium culmorum to more than 50%. All differences between tested strains and control strain P. simiae WCS417 were also statistically confirmed. All strains showed positive results in monitoring plant growth promoting properties. The effect of three Bacillus strains on maize seeds in vivo conditions showed significant differences in root length (P<0.0001) and weight of the young plant (P<0.001) compared to control.