bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Chekhov’s Death of a Clerk: A Critical Appreciation
Authors: Roy Dr. Hareshwar 
Published: April 2020

The present paper proposes to undertake a deep study of the Death of a Clerk. This beautiful short story has been written by Anton Chekhov, a prominent story teller of Russia. This story has been translated into English from Russian by Ivy Litvinov. This translation of Ivy Litvinov has been made the basis of the present study. The period of 1880-1885 is a very important period in the career of Anton Chekhov. During this period, he wrote hundreds of humorous tales. They show a keen sense of the social scene and of the incongruities of life. These tales reveal a deep feeling for human injustice and suffering. In these stories Anton Chekhov attempted to see things as they were and to deal with them as he saw them. According to him a reasoned life without a clear-cut point of view is not a life, but a burden and a horror. This was a strange idea for that day but it played a significant role in his works. Chekhov’s Death of a Clerk is one of them. It beautifully presents the picture of the life of a society based on tyranny and servility.
Desire as The Harbinger of Good and Evil in Matthew Lewis’s ‘The Monk’
Authors: Mukherjee Dr. Aradhana 
Published: April 2020

Desire is a feeling which gives different shades and hues to a human being’s personality. It transforms him either as good or bad depending upon how much can a person cope up with his or her feelings. Mathew Lewis’s Gothic novel or rather a thriller ‘The Monk’ is a blend of desire with the narrative structure which has been appreciated by both the readers and the critic regarding the skilful handling of the theme by the author. This has been seconded by Theodore, the personal servant of the protagonist, Raymond in the following lines: “Authorship is a mania to conquer which no reasons are sufficiently strong; and you might as easily persuade me not to love, as I persuade you not to write.” [Lewis 204.]
The Delineation of Human Relationship in Shashi Deshpande’s ‘A Matter of Time’
Authors: Sarkar Shilpa 
Published: April 2020

Human relationships are enormously complex in nature. God created human and on the other hand human created complexity. Due to different thought process and mentality conflict and problems arise and how to manage those problems can have an impact on the relationship. This complexities of human relationship is beautifully dealt by Shashi Deshpande in her novel ‘A Matter of Time’. In most of her novels, she deals with problems related to married life. This paper focuses the complexities of human relationship in Shashi Deshpande’s novel A Matter of Time. In the novel, Deshpande beautifully portrayed the traumas, difficulties and sufferings faced by women in the Indian society.
Exploring the Facts and Fantasies in Neal Town Stephenson’s ‘The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer’
Authors: P Jushaini. 
Published: April 2020

Literature enables people to think out of the box and connect with new ideas. At the same time, it takes us back and helps us know more about the life led by our ancestors. As a great foundation of life, literature fosters the overall development of the people and the society through inspiring stories, motivating tales and futuristic writings. We live in a world of technological advancements and Science Fiction stories are the profound ways to introduce extrapolation and speculation in literature. Built on a strong foundation of realistic concepts, sci-fi stories develop a futuristic world of limitless possibilities. Sci-fi stories take us to an exciting world where one witness unimaginable applications of science and technologies.
Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer well-known for writing science fiction, cyberpunk and postcyberpunk stories. He belongs to a prestigious family of scientists and engineers. His father was a biochemistry professor and his paternal grandfather, a physics professor. After completing his studies from Boston University, he started working as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company specialized in developing spacecraft and space launch systems. Currently, he is serving as the chief futurist for Magic Leap. He also cofounded Subutai Corporation, a company dedicated to developing interactive fiction projects.
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Town Stephenson. The novel’s protagonist is named Nell, who is a thete, meaning a person who is not a member of any of the phyles. The entire plot is set in a future nanotech world where three forms of tribes or phyles exist, known as the Han, the Neo-Victorian New Atlantis, and the Nippon. The Diamond Age details some of the applications of nanotechnology such as chevaline, smart paper, etc. This journal is an analysis of extrapolation and speculation used in the sci-fi novel, The Diamond Age, written with an aim to explore different facts and fantasies created by the author.
A Sociolinguistic Study of the Use of Indian Sign Language
Authors: Anand Nisha 
Published: April 2020

This paper discusses the “Language Use” pattern of ISL by the deaf community. This paper aims to understand the vitality of sign language within the community and to foresee whether ISL is likely to be maintained in coming future. As proposed by Boehm (1997:67), “The choices people make in regard to language use reflect trend towards either language maintenance and language shift. To some extent, this reveals the vitality of the language. Fase et al. (1992:6) says that, “It has been commonly found that when the mother tongue of the minority language remains dominant in communication within the ethnic group, it can be said that mother tongue has been maintained.” This survey also deals with the major issue faced by the deaf community in this speech dominant society, which is huge “communication gap” with the majority speaking people of our society.
Mastering of Fancy Meeting Reality: A Critical Exploration of Magical Realism with Reference to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” Directed by David Fincher
Authors: PS Anju , Figaredo Andrea 
Published: April 2020

Apart from other art forms, cinema has an unquestionable potential to install new concepts and believes among the society. It has spread around the world, crossed the barriers of languages and communities and has traversed into the depths of social arena. The tool which caused an impact in the ethos, throughout the history is nothing but the new notions portrayed by the filmmakers. Cinema has overpowered the restrictions of the cultural borders and showed its power towards internationalism, which caught the mind of the viewers worldwide. The plot of a cinema often reminds us of things we perhaps already know, but may often forget, that is the beauty of storytelling. The world we see through a lens, is lot clearer than the real one, it takes people to other dimensions of perspective. This approach may be unfathomable to our sceptical minds, which always has an inclination towards disbelieves, but it is still worth the time to question our preconceived dogmas. Magical realism managed to touch the everyday life of the ordinary people through cinema, even though it appears in many fields of art and literature; there is not a single thing that is missing in Magical Realism. When a viewer look at an art work, if they could see beyond the picture of an inanimate object and grasp the depth of the concept which is hidden, through a unique vantage point, then that is the moment you appreciate Magical Realism.
Understanding Identity and Socio-Culture Milieu in Sri Lankan Refugee Camp: A Study of Anuk Arudpragasam’s The Story of a Brief Marriage
Authors: Saji Rincy 
Published: April 2020

“But woe to him who is alone when he falls for he has no one to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:10. Human beings- man defined as the animal rationale, distinct us from other animal species in nothing but the additional attribute to reason. But the modern science proves that “men share all other properties with some species of animal kingdom-expect that the additional gift of ‘reason’, which makes man a more dangerous beast.”(On Violence, 62). But from the moment, humans began living together in communities, some of their members were forcibly expelled from those first towns and villages on ethnic, religious or other grounds. The practice of helping such people absconding became one of the earliest hallmarks of civilization. The world is beating a path to those refugee camps ever since. And in the twentieth century to systematize with these situations the international community took fundamental stride to codify the assistance. Since the Second World War each year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world are forced to move to uncertain places from their safe havens. The United Nations High Commission for Refugee defines them as “A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee from his or her country because of persecution, war or violence.” According to Hannah Arendt, an American-German philosopher, in her seminal essay “We Refugee” published in 1943 defines a refuge as a person driven to seek refugee because of some act committed or some political opinion held. But she also adds these people who had to seek refugee neither committed any acts nor most of them even dreamt of having any political opinion. We are all brought up in the conviction that life is the highest good and death the greatest trepidation but if we take a close look within the refugee camps, the lives hailing there, we come to know that they have lost the horror for death. Instead of fighting or thinking about how to fight back they have got used to wishing death to friends or relatives and if somebody dies, they cheerfully image all the trouble they have been saved from. As per the report of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2019, 70.8 million of people are displaced in our world fleeing war, persecution and conflict, at the end of 2018 2.3 million more were forcibly displaced. This is the highest number UN refugee agency has seen in its 70-year existence. Then there are the Internally Displaced People, who have left their homes but remain inside the country borders which numbers 41.9 million. Then there are children every second refugee is a child. These are not just number but souls in flight.
Study of qualitative and quantitative content of amino acids in pumpkin seeds for further standardization of the herbal drug
Authors: Kotova E.E. , Kotov S.A. , Gontova T.M. , Kotov A.G. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractAim: Literary sources on qualitative composition, quantitative content of biologically active substances, and standardization methods of pumpkin seeds have been studied. It has been established that, along with Δ7-sterols, whose action is associated with treatment of the prostate gland, pumpkin seeds contain amino acids, cucurbitin in particular, which are responsible for their antihelminthic effect. The aim is to study the qualitative and quantitative content of amino acids in domestic samples of pumpkin seeds in order to clarify the possibility of pumpkin seed standardization for this class of biologically active substances.Methods: The investigation of the possibility of amino acids’ identification in the herbal drug by the thin-layer chromatography (TLC) method was carried out on silica gel 60 F254 plates, Merck and Silica gel 60, Merck, on aluminum and glass supports in a mixture of the following solvents: butanol–acetone–acetic acid–water (35:35:10:20). The conclusions have been made based on the presence of characteristic zones of amino acids in the chromatograms after the treatment with ninhydrin solution. Quantitative determination of amino acids in the herbal drug was carried out by absorption spectrometry using HP spectrophotometer HP-8453 UV-VIS, Hewlett Packard (USA).Results: The chromatographic profile of the amino acid fraction of domestic samples of pumpkin seeds was studied using a TLC technique. In the chromatograms of test solutions from all samples, the zones were detected at the level of histidine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, and leucine zones, as well as a zone with color (olive) that differs from the other zones of amino acids and which is possibly a zone of cucurbitin.On the basis of the results of qualitative research, the quantitative content of the sum of amino acids according to a UV method developed has been determined, which including purification from the fatty oil, further extraction with an aqueous alcohol solution, selection of aliquots for the reaction with ninhydrin solution, and subsequent determination of the absorbance of the test solution and the solution of glutamic acid at a wavelength of 400 nm.It has been established that the content of the sum of amino acids expressed as glutamic acid in domestic samples is about 2%.Conclusions: The research of the possibility of pumpkin seed standardization by the content of amino acids was carried out. The chromatographic profile of the amino acid fraction of domestic samples of pumpkin seeds was studied using a TLC method developed. The quantitative content of the amino acids sum by the absorption spectrophotometry method was investigated. The techniques developed will be recommended for inclusion in the draft of national monograph “Pumpkin seeds.”
Concentration-dependent effect of silymarin on concanavalin A-stimulated mouse spleen cells in vitro
Authors: Hrčková G. , Kubašková T. Mačák , Mudroňová D. , Bardelčíková A. 
Published: April 2020

AbstractAims: Silymarin (SIL), a mixture of phenolic compounds, has a pleiotropic mode of action on various cell types, including immune cells. In this study, we investigated the concentration-dependent effect of SIL on proliferation of concanavalin A (CoA)-stimulated mouse spleen T lymphocytes, their viability, and secretion of IFN-g and IL-4 cytokinesex vivoin relation to gene expressions of transcription factors nuclear factor kappa B and Foxp3. In addition, metabolic activity of T cells was determined as changes in the mitochondrial membrane potential and apoptosis.Material/Methods: Isolated splenocytes were stimulated with lectin CoA and treated with SIL atthe concentrations of 5, 10, 20, and 40 μg/ml for 70 h and unstimulated cells served as the control. Cultures of splenocytes were evaluated for proliferation index following BrdU incorporation and viability of cells after trypan blue staining. Gene expressions of transcription factors and cytokines were assessed using real-time PCR, whereas ELISA test was applied to measure cytokine secretion. Mitochondrial membrane potential and apoptosis were determined by flow cytometry.Results: We demonstrated that CoA-activated mouse spleen T lymphocytes show different susceptibilities to low (£10 μg/ml) and higher (20 and 40 μg/ml) SIL concentrations. Low concentrations resulted in increased proliferation, cytokine secretion, and mitochondrial membrane potential and reduced transition of cells to apoptosis. High concentration of SIL had the opposite effect without exerting significant cytotoxicity and upregulated genes for cytokines and transcription factors on mRNA level. It is possible that individual subpopulations of T cells induced by CoA were differentially affected by the various SIL concentrations and the dose of 40 μg/ml had the profound suppressive effect. This correlated with the highest expression of Foxp3 factor, indicating that this dose stimulated preferential differentiation to Tregs lymphocytes.Conclusions: Treatment with suitable doses of SIL can provide potential benefits in the modulation of host immune functions in various diseases.
Does Test-Anxiety Experience Impair Student Teachers’ Later Tendency to Perspective-Taking?
Authors: Wolgast Anett , Hille Miriam , Streit Philipp , Grützemann Wolfgang 
Published: April 2020

Abstract

Introduction:
We aimed to examine whether student teachers’ tendency to test anxiety relates to their later perspective-taking tendency and self-efficacy. The purpose of the presented study was to obtain first insights into the relationship between test anxiety, perspective-taking, and self-efficacy tendencies in student teachers. These tendencies may determine student orientation across different situations. We tested the hypothesis that the test anxiety components emotionality and worry relate to later low perspective-taking and self-efficacy.

Methods:
We conducted a longitudinal study with 275 student-teachers and analyzed the obtained data using structural equation modeling.

Results:
The data analysis revealed that only emotionality is related to lower perspective-taking and self-efficacy in later life.

Discussion:
We conclude that lowering student teachers’ test anxiety emotionality (e.g. through interventions) would result to later increased perspective-taking tendency.

Limitations:
Participants attended the study voluntarily, so it was a self-selected sample. We employed a correlational design over two measurement times instead of experimental methods.

Conclusions:
The obtained results give an explanation of why student teachers focused rather on themselves than on school students in classes. The perspective-taking tendency is important for teachers’ student orientation. The role of perspective-taking in different teaching situations might be investigated in further research.
Investigating the Empathic Skills of Physical Education Teachers
Authors: Şinoforoğlu Tolga , Balçıkanlı Gülfem Sezen 
Published: April 2020

Abstract

Introduction:
As one of the most important requirements for healthy communication, empathy is vital in a great many occupations. Various studies have investigated the importance and level of empathy in various occupation groups. One of the leading occupations requiring strong empathic skills is teaching. Teachers need empathy to create an effective learning environment, develop good communication with their students, and understand them well. The current study investigates the empathic skills of physical education teachers to evaluate various variables.

Methods:
The research participants comprised 152 physical education teachers in Turkey, 39 women (25.7%) and 113 men (74.3%), who completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Descriptive statistical methods and the Kolmogorov Smirnov test were used to determine whether the data were normally distributed. The data were analysed using ranking t-test and correlation methods as well as descriptive statistical models (α=0.05). The total internal consistency coefficient of the scales, measured by Cronbach’s Alpha, was.56.

Results:
Regarding the IRI scores for the physical education teachers, the highest mean score was for emphatic concern, followed by perspective taking and fantasy. Teaching duration was associated with higher empathic skill scores. Empathic skills were also positively correlated with higher educational level. Finally, the mean fantasy scores were statistically higher for participants who were not training a school team.

Discussion:
Physical education courses contribute to the physiological, sociological, psychological, and moral development of students. For this reason, physical education and sports is a compulsory component of the education system from an early age all around the globe. This makes it essential that physical education teachers have appropriate characteristics that they exhibit in their teaching. In the first place, it is necessary to have healthy communication between the physical education teacher and students.

Limitations:
The current study gathered data from one specific region in Turkey, from physical education teachers in the city of Kütahya. Consequently, the demographic data were evaluated only for statistically significant variables. Other variables that were not numerically equal, were not investigated.

Conclusions:
Physical education teachers should adopt an empathic approach to teacher-student relationships. Educational institutions should organise activities to develop these empathic skills in teachers.
Quality of Life and Value Orientation of University Students in Middle-Adulthood
Authors: Čepelová Slávka , Barnová Silvia 
Published: April 2020

Abstract

Introduction:
Every person needs to define their own parameters of values and quality of life as there is a range of life circumstances and objective or subjective factors which force individuals to make decisions and select from available solutions depending on their personalities and other determinants. Currently, these notions have been broadly discussed and the authors of the presented study believe, that in the context of value orientation and life quality, there are new interactions, correlations and new truth to be revealed.

Methods:
The presented research aimed to find out about the respondents’ perception of their quality of life and value orientation using WHOQOLBREF 1996 questionnaire and Vonkomer’s HO-PO-MO questionnaire and unrevealing the relations between them. The research sample consisted of 300 in their middle-adulthood involved in external university study programs.

Results:
The results presented in this study indicate that from the aspect of the subjective perception of the quality of life by individuals, external factors such as age or place of residence are not decisive. The most important finding of the research is that, as well as value orientation focusing on the values of knowledge, education and economic aspects leads to a better quality of life; a better quality of life is determined by a value orientation focused on the fields of knowledge, education and economic values.

Discussion:
The attention of professionals from various fields of science and their research activities is given mostly to the relatively small population of young generation, the process of the creation of their value orientation and thus, their subjective quality of life. The presented study is focused on productive generation of middle-aged adults involved in tertiary education, which has experienced several massive changes in the society and received primary and secondary education in an educational context different from the present situation.

Limitations:
The conducted research into the respondents’ quality of life is limited by the applied methods as it focuses on four basic areas of quality of life and quantitative methods are used. The advantages of this approach lie in exactly defined fields and quantitative data which enable comparison. One of its shortcomings is that it does not find out anything about the qualitative, dynamic aspects of the respondents’ reflections about their own quality of life.

Conclusion:
The findings show that quality of mental life correlates with educational value orientation as well as quality of social relationships with social value orientation. It can be stated that, as well as value orientation focusing on the values of knowledge, education and economic aspects leads to a better quality of life; a better quality of life is determined by a value orientation focused on the fields of knowledge, education and economic values.