bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Hepatitis B Virus Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing Assay in Detecting Window Period and Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infections in Blood Donors
Authors: Georgieva-Sredkova Mariya P. , Doseva Neli S. , Nankov Vladislav M. , Tonchev Pencho T. , Surdzhyska Aneta A. 
Published: April 2021

SummaryTo reduce the residual risk of transfusion-transmitted infections, nucleic acid amplification testing (NAT) of donated blood with higher sensitivity for HBV, HCV, and HIV 1/2 was implemented in Bulgaria at the end of 2019. This study aimed to assess the clinical sensitivity of HBsAg testing and NAT testing of donated blood to detect all forms of HBV infection. A total of 9498 consecutive blood donations collected for six months, from February 10 to July 17, 2020, from first-time and repeat donors at the Regional Center of Transfusion Hematology Pleven, Bulgaria, were screened for HBsAg and HBV DNA. The detection of HBsAg was performed by enzyme-linked immunoassay and chemiluminescent immunoassay. Detection of HBV DNA was performed using the HIV1/2 /HCV / HBV multiplex Procleix Ultrio Elite assay in a fully automated and integrated Procleix Panther System. The overall HBsAg prevalence was 0.05%. HBV DNA was detected in 25 blood units (0.26%), but only 12 (0.13%) were found positive after repeat testing and were confirmed by a discriminatory test. The other 13 units were false positive, with the initial reactive result and negative results after repeat testing. HBV DNA’s overall incidence was significantly higher in HBsAg-positive donors than the HBsAg- negative (Fisher exact p=0.0063). In our study, blood donations were not tested for anti-HBc and anti-HBs, so it is difficult to determine whether HBV DNA-positive/HBsAg-negative results were associated with the early phase of infection or persistent occult infection. There was no statistical difference in the incidence of HBV DNA between repeat-donors (0.16%) and first-time donors (0.06%) (Fisher exact test p=0.239 NS), and also between the incidence in female donors (0.12%) and male donors (0.13%) (Fisher exact test p=1.0 NS). The results of this study showed a low rate of detection of the hepatitis B virus in donated blood. NAT testing demonstrates higher sensitivity for the detection of HBV, as compare to HBsAg screening.
TOWARD A NEW COMPARATIVE PUBLIC LAW OF CENTRAL BANK LEGISLATION: Designing Legislative Mandates for Central Bank Private Securities Assets Purchases and Nominal GDP Targeting
Authors: Michael Bryane , Osaulenko Svitlana 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
What role could unconventional monetary policy – and particularly unconventional policies like private asset purchases under a quantitative easing or lender of last resort scheme – play in influencing economic growth directly? A wide literature in economics explores the pros and cons of using these policies. However, most studies also point to the uncertain and antagonistic legal basis for such purchases. In this paper, we show how the statutory mandate for nominal GDP targeting could best put in place the legal foundations for such asset purchases. We review the legislative and regulatory bases for private securities purchases made by central banks in a sample of countries. We discuss – if legislators and policymakers wanted to – how they might introduce clearer mandates to make such purchases into their public law. We finally show how legal authorizations for GDP targeting might (and probably should) provide for such authorisations. Our discussion sheds light on the fascinating and almost completely ignored area of public law, namely central bank law.
Average temperature of oil-filled transformer windings with partial cooling ducts
Authors: Bokes Peter 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
An effective one-dimensional model is presented that describes the temperature profile of a winding of an oil-filled distribution transformer with an arbitrary number of partial cooling ducts. An analytical solution of the model is applied to a specific example — a low voltage winding of a 400 kVA distribution transformer with one or two partial cooling ducts. Starting from the exact solution, a simple and practical formula for the temperature rise of similar windings has been derived that is suitable for transformer designers.
A single-layer metallo-dielectric superstructure for enhancing the performances of EBG cavity antenna
Authors: Chaabane Abdelhalim , Attia Hussein , Djahli Farid , Denidni Tayeb A. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
A novel single-layer metallo-dielectric superstructure is proposed in this paper. It is constructed by two asymmetric unit- cells optimally arranged on the same layer to construct a partially reflective surface to be placed over a multilayer microstrip slot antenna named feed antenna for enhancing its performances. The radiation is expected to be maximum at the center of the formed layer. Thus, to maintain a high-gain performance, the unit-cells placed at the center are designed to provide a quasi-optimal reflection phase with high reflectivity at the frequency band of interest. A prototype of the proposed antenna operating at 10 GHz with overall size of 2.133λ0 ×2.133λ0 ×0.56λ0 is successfully designed and fabricated. The calculated and measured antenna gain results indicate that the proposed antenna exhibits a wider radiation bandwidth performance of about 41.15% and 36.15%, respectively.
Preferences of Accommodation: a Descriptive Study in the South of the State of Sonora, Mexico
Authors: Parra María Elvira López , Arvizu Elba Myriam Navarro , Navarro Nora Edith González , López Jesús Nereida Aceves , Kulykovets Olena , Dębski Maciej 
Published: April 2021

Abstract

Objective: To identify the lodging preferences of users (to define the comfort level preferences of tourists/consumers) of southern Sonora, considering their perceptions, which allows to improve strategies to satisfy the user’s needs in the future.

Methodology: The research was descriptive and quantitative. The participants were between 18 and 60 years old, of every socioeconomic level, gender, occupation, and level of education. The sample comprised 300 from the region of Sonora in Mexico.

Findings: Regarding the methodological contribution, this research presents an instrument to collect the opinions of the accommodation users, which is expected to be replicated in other studies on a larger population scale. This research is empirical and collects the opinion of a group of people, showing their preferences regarding the factors and characteristics they consider when choosing a type of accommodation. In addition, companies operating in this field could define their competitive advantages considering the results of this research.

Value Added: The article points to a practical solution of the knowledge of preferences of users of different accommodation modalities and identifies which were most frequently selected by the respondents.

Recommendations: Research shows the existence of significant differences between family and other companies. Therefore, it is advisable to look for the specifics and, as a consequence, potential sources of competitiveness in specific markets, of which the tourist market is important.
Optimal Reconciliation of Seasonally Adjusted Disaggregates Taking Into Account the Difference Between Direct and Indirect Adjustment of the Aggregate
Authors: Corona Francisco , Guerrero Victor M. , López-Peréz Jesús 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis article presents a new method to reconcile direct and indirect deseasonalized economic time series. The proposed technique uses a Combining Rule to merge, in an optimal manner, the directly deseasonalized aggregated series with its indirectly deseasonalized counterpart. The lastmentioned series is obtained by aggregating the seasonally adjusted disaggregates that compose the aggregated series. This procedure leads to adjusted disaggregates that verify Denton’s movement preservation principle relative to the originally deseasonalized disaggregates. First, we use as preliminary estimates the directly deseasonalized economic time series obtained with the X-13ARIMA-SEATS program applied to all the disaggregation levels. Second, we contemporaneously reconcile the aforementioned seasonally adjusted disaggregates with its seasonally adjusted aggregate, using Vector Autoregressive models. Then, we evaluate the finite sample performance of our solution via a Monte Carlo experiment that considers six Data Generating Processes that may occur in practice, when users apply seasonal adjustment techniques. Finally, we present an empirical application to the Mexican Global Economic Indicator and its components. The results allow us to conclude that the suggested technique is appropriate to indirectly deseasonalize economic time series, mainly because we impose the movement preservation condition to the preliminary estimates produced by a reliable seasonal adjustment procedure.
Panel Conditioning in the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey
Authors: Eckman Stephanie , Bach Ruben 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThe U.S. Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey asks many filter questions to identify the items that households purchase. Each reported purchase triggers follow-up questions about the amount spent and other details. We test the hypothesis that respondents learn how the questionnaire is structured and underreport purchases in later waves to reduce the length of the interview. We analyze data from 10,416 four-wave respondents over two years of data collection. We find no evidence of decreasing data quality over time; instead, panel respondents tend to give higher quality responses in later waves. The results also hold for a larger set of two-wave respondents.
Personal Sustainability and Sustainable Employability: Perspective of Vocational Education Students
Authors: Briede Liene , Drelinga Elga 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
Sustainability is related to diverse relationships that exist in the world as well as to the attitudes evolving in a person’s diverse life activities, including education and work. In the sustainable employability model, there is a pedagogical idea of experience and self-identity and individual values revealing the level of personal sustainability. The present study explores vocational education students’ personal sustainability as a predictor to sustainable employability in the future. The study involved 151 vocational education students’ self-assessment of valuable (sustainable) personal characteristics, their attitude to being honest, helpful and responsible. The results have shown that the most valuable self-characteristics are being good tempered, helpful and kind. Students’ attitudes to being responsible and honest change during school years – 1st and 2nd year students do not consider them important values but senior students acknowledge them. It means that their lived experiences have promoted personal sustainability development ensuring more sustainable employability in the future.
Spaced E-learning for Sustainable Education
Authors: Kapenieks Janis , Kapenieks Janis 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
The objective of the research is to determine e-learning solutions for the implementation of the spaced learning in university students’ sustainable education. In the spaced e-learning method, the course content includes few-minute pauses between repetitions, during which students let their brain “rest” with different content and then return to the course. Information technology solutions are based on the identification of students’ individual and situational interests and the following promotion of students’ interests for personal development by the content of spaces. Current research is oriented to the search for benefits from synergy of the technological and pedagogical e-learning developments.
The study includes three cycles of education action research. The first and second cycles aim at finding the most effective method to include content for sustainable personality development in the course. At Riga Technical University, a prototype of two blended learning Master level courses was created and approbated with Master level students. Outcomes of the research were evaluated by reflection on students’ opinions and analysis of user behavior data in the e-learning environment OpenEdX.
The results obtained in the first and second cycles of the action research and reflection are the basis for the conceptual development of the Living Lab solution in the MOODLE environment with personalized content. Technological solutions for the implementation of personalized content of spaces for personality development are based on the student’s self-assessment of his/her individual interests. The research shows the potential of the spaced e-learning for instructional learning and personality development, thus leading to learning for sustainability in the broadest sense as a perspective of pedagogy with inherently sustainable nature, that we denote as “fostering” in the study.
The spaced e-learning method was seriously influenced by the COVID-19 crisis due to the replacement of blended learning with fully online learning.
Promyelocytic leukemia antigen expression: A histological marker for primary biliary cholangitis diagnosis?
Authors: Papamichalis Panagiotis A. , Zachou Kalliopi , Papamichali Roidoula A. , Ioannou Maria , Gatselis Nikolaos K. , Dalekos George N. , Koukoulis George K. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract

Background and Objectives
Distinguishing primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) from other cholestatic diseases at the histological level could be assisted by new methods, such as immunohistochemical staining of specific antigens.

Methods
We evaluated whether the detection of promyelocytic leukemia protein (PML) can serve as a specific and sensitive marker for PBC diagnosis. Liver biopsies from 26 PBC patients, 20 primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), 37 viral hepatitis, 11 non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and 5 normal patients were investigated after immunostaining with the anti-PML monoclonal PG-M3, IgG1 antibody.

Results
Immunoreactivity in bile ducts was expressed by the PML-score (quotient of positive ducts to the total number of portal tracts multiplied by 2). PML-score was higher in PBC as compared to controls (P < 0.001). Using a cutoff of 0.18, PML-score proved highly sensitive (84.6%) and specific (89.7%) for confirming PBC as compared to only 5% of PSC, 9.1% of NASH and 13.5% of viral hepatitis patients (P < 0.001). Irrespective of the underlying disease, patients with PML-score > 0.18 were older (P = 0.007), more often females (P < 0.001) with higher ALP (P < 0.001), γ-GT (P = 0.001) and IgM (P < 0.001) compared to the patients with PML-score < 0.18.

Conclusions
We postulate that a simple PML immunohistochemical test could be sufficient for histopathological discrimination of PBC in problematic cases of undefined cholestatic disorders, including small-duct PSC and AMA-negative PBC cases.
Sociosemiotics and Metalanguage: The Case of Translanguaging
Authors: Randviir Anti 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
The age of transdiscipinarity has brought along the fading of boundaries between disciplines. This has engaged both the fusion of metalanguages that are used for the description of cultures and sign-processes, and the launch of novel proposals for metalinguistic vocabularies. In the case of the study of culture, communication and sign-processes, it is natural that all such developments are connected with the paradigm of semiotics. At times the relevant metalinguistic and methodological proposals challenge traditional semiotic vocabulary, methods and methodological truths. This has brought along the need to recall the semiotic roots of the study of semiosis and communication, and to review transdisciplinary metalanguage in order to avoid possible misinterpretations or unnecessary repetitions of the established agreements in the paradigm of semiotics as a possible ground for transdisciplinary study of human interaction and cultural processes. However, besides occasional theoretical confusion, the spread of the semiotic methodology and vocabulary across applied scholarship has enriched semiotics in its faculties of field studies.
The influence of emphatic /dˁ/ on Modern Standard Arabic vowels: An acoustic analysis
Authors: Kalaldeh Raya , Al-Shdaifat Abd Allah 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis study is part of a larger project on the influence of Arabic emphatics /tˁ, dˁ, δˁ, sˁ/ on adjacent Arabic vowels by considering three factors: vowel quality, vowel duration and directionality of emphasis spread. This paper investigates the influence of the voiced alveolar emphatic /dˁ/ on the six Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) monophthongs /ɐ – ɪ – ʊ – a: – i: – u:/ as produced by ten Jordanian speakers. The monophthongs in the adjacency of /dˁ/ are compared to those adjacent to the non-emphatic alveolar voiced stop /d/. Results indicate that in the emphatic context, the vowels are clearly retracted in the vowel space and that the extent of the emphatic influence in ‘preceding’ or ‘following’ contexts is not significantly different.
Sorption of oil products on the synthetic zeolite granules
Authors: Król Magdalena , Rożek Piotr 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In this work, lightweight granules of zeolite Na-P1 based on expanded glass aggregates were synthesized for the application in oil products’ sorption. The sorption of gasoline, diesel and silicone oil tests were also conducted for raw expanded glass, zeolite A, clinoptilolite and mineral sorbent available at a fuel station. All sorbents were also characterized in terms of the phase composition (X-ray diffraction) and structure (infrared spectroscopy). The zeolite Na-P1 granules achieved the highest values of sorption capacities (1.8, 2.1 and 2.6 g/g, respectively), which makes them promising materials for oils’ removal.
The effect of porosity on the reactivity of calcium sorbents
Authors: Wichliński Michał , Kobyłecki Rafał 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
The current work presents the results of seven sorbent samples investigated with respect to SO2 capture. The sorbents’ reactivity and capacity indexes were determined, and the tests were carried out in accordance with the ‘classical’ procedure for limestone sorbents. The reactivity indexes (RIs) of the tested samples were in the range of 2.57 and 3.55 (mol Ca)/(mol S), while the absolute sorption coefficients as determined by the capacity index (CI) varied between 87.9 and 120.6 (g S)/(kg of sorbent). Porosimetric analysis was also carried out and the specific surface area of the samples was found to be between 0.2 and 1.7 m2/g. The number of micro-, meso- and macro-pores in individual samples was determined from the corresponding pore size distribution histograms, and the values of sorbent RIs and CIs were correlated with the samples’ total porosity and specific surface.
Theoretical studies on the structural, electronic and optical properties of BeZnO alloys
Authors: Xiong D.P. , Zhou S.L. , He M. , Wang Q. , Zhang W. , Feng Z.Y. 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
The structural, electronic and optical properties of BexZn1−xO alloys were studied using the density functional theory and Hubbard-U method. Uo;p = 10.2 eV for O 2p and UZn;d = 1.4 eV for Zn 3d were adopted as the Hubbard U values. For BexZn1−xO alloys, the lattice constants a and c decrease linearly as Be concentration increases, the bandgap increases with a large bowing parameter of 6.95 eV, the formation enthalpies have the maximum value with Be concentration at 0.625, corresponding to the possible Be concentration to form phase separation. These calculations comply well with the experimental and other theoretical results. Furthermore, optical properties, such as dielectric function ∈(ω), reflectivity R(ω), absorption coefficient α(ω), were calculated and discussed for BexZn1−xO alloys with the incident photon energy ranging from 0 eV to 30 eV.
Riding the Wave of Intensity
Authors: Bonde Lene 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
“Riding the wave of intensity” is a paper about flow and dance. It is based on a written assignment about my teaching practice at the Ingrid Jespersen School in Copenhagen, where I taught a group of 20 youngsters from 12–13 years of age. In my work as a dancer and teacher I have always been interested in a state of being in which you are completely focused and concentrated. The liberating, self-forgetful feeling fills your body and this activity is all that matters. I became aware of this state particularly during this teaching practice. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes this state as flow in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience from 1990. My motivation for writing this paper is to share my experience about flow and dance and furthermore to give concrete inspiration on how to achieve flow in dance classes.
Embodied Timing − Passing Time
Authors: Roos Cecilia 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In this article1 I am discussing how traditions are reenacted by dance revival and reconstruction. My starting point is the experience I have of restaging choreographic works by the Swedish choreographer Per Jonsson (1956-1998), of whose artistic production I am in charge. Through examples from working with repertoire, I will develop my thoughts around how new interpretations of a movement material reformulate the tradition and inform the present. I will also discuss how dancers of today are researching and developing new methods for processing a movement material. This in turn leads to new ways of dealing with quality, dynamics and timing in reconstruction of a written material.
Perfect (im)Perfections–the choreographer’s reflections on the creative process
Authors: Channells Philip 
Published: April 2021

Abstract
In 2014 Australian director/choreographer Philip Channells (Dance Integrated Australia) was commissioned by DansiT–Senter for Dansekunst i Sør-Trøndelag to collaborate with 20 members of the Danselaboratoriet and Danseteateret 55+ companies. The end result was a full-length intergenerational, disability-inclusive work that merged poetry, dance, theatre and music. Perfect (im)Perfections–stories untold was created with an international cast of artists with diverse backgrounds and life experience. The work premiered at the Multiplié Dansefestival in Trondheim on 3 April 2014. In his article, Channells shares his personal history and dance background before focusing on the collaboration. He discusses the inspiration behind the work, the creative processes and the successes and challenges in working across cultural boundaries.
Dance Technique–Meanings and Applications
Authors: Rothmund Irene Velten 
Published: April 2021

AbstractThis article explores nuances in the meanings and applications of the term ‘dance technique’, by looking at how students in modern and contemporary dance articulate their understanding of the term, and by discussing this in relation to dance research articles on the theme. The article draws on a section of my on-going PhD project on the experiences in modern and contemporary dance of students at the Norwegian College of Dance. The project is informed by hermeneutic phenomenology (van Manen 1997), based on students’ logbooks and interviews. In one set of interviews, the students were asked to define the term ‘dance technique’. I have analysed the answers and discerned five approaches to the term: Asa system, asknowledge or practical skills, assomething set, asgoal-oriented workand as ‘only technique’. The conjoining of students’ experiences with dance research articles shows both similarities and differences in comprehension of the term. I suggest that there is an ambiguity in the understanding of the term, touching upon different dichotomies existing in dance, and with parallels to a change between a modern dance tradition and a contemporary dance tradition. Clarifying taken-for-granted concepts can be of value for both dance education and dance research.