bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Some New ‘Short Games’ Within a Set of Tennis
Authors: Pollard G. , Barnett T. 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
Recently there has been an interest in developing tennis scoring systems that involve playing a fewer number of points on average. In devising such ‘shorter’ tennis scoring systems, it would be ideal for them to also have the following four characteristics: A smaller standard deviation of duration, a similar value for the probability that the better player wins, an increased efficiency, and a greater average excitement per point played. Thus, in total there are five considerations when devising such new scoring systems. Quite often in this type of study a scoring system that is ‘better’ with regard to one of these characteristics is ‘worse’ with regard to another (or others). In this paper we outline some new tennis scoring systems that have improvements in all (or almost all) of these five characteristics. We identify 3 or 4 different game structures that could be useful for tournaments. A common thread in the approach taken is the elimination of unimportant and unexciting points within the game structure. The choice of which is the most appropriate new format for a particular tournament would depend amongst other things on the planned reduction in the expected set duration
Comparison of Different Time-Frequency Analyses Techniques Based on sEMG-Signals in Table Tennis: A Case Study
Authors: Lin B. , Wong S. F. , Baca A. 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
The surface EMG signal in the action of dynamic contraction has more movement interference compared to sustained static contractions. In addition, the recruitment and de-recruitment of motor units causes a faster change in the surface EMG signal’s proprieties. Therefore, more complex techniques are required to extract information from the surface EMG signal. The standardized protocol for surface myoelectric signal measurement in table tennis was a case study in this research area. The Autoregressive method based on the Akaike Information Criterion, the Wavelet method based on intensity analysis, and the Hilbert-Huang transform method were used to estimate the muscle fatigue and non-fatigue condition. The result was that the Hilbert-Huang transform method was shown to be more reliable and accurate for studying the biceps brachii muscle in both conditions. However, the Wavelet method based on intensity analysis is more reliable and accurate for the pectoralis major muscle, deltoideus anterior muscle and deltoideus medialis muscle. The results suggest that different time-frequency analysis techniques influence different muscle analyses based on surface EMG signals in fatigue and non-fatigue conditions
Learning and decision-making in artificial animals
Authors: Strannegård Claes , Svangård Nils , Lindström David , Bach Joscha , Steunebrink Bas 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
A computational model for artificial animals (animats) interacting with real or artificial ecosystems is presented. All animats use the same mechanisms for learning and decisionmaking. Each animat has its own set of needs and its own memory structure that undergoes continuous development and constitutes the basis for decision-making. The decision-making mechanism aims at keeping the needs of the animat as satisfied as possible for as long as possible. Reward and punishment are defined in terms of changes to the level of need satisfaction. The learning mechanisms are driven by prediction error relating to reward and punishment and are of two kinds: multi-objective local Q-learning and structural learning that alter the architecture of the memory structures by adding and removing nodes. The animat model has the following key properties: (1) autonomy: it operates in a fully automatic fashion, without any need for interaction with human engineers. In particular, it does not depend on human engineers to provide goals, tasks, or seed knowledge. Still, it can operate either with or without human interaction; (2) generality: it uses the same learning and decision-making mechanisms in all environments, e.g. desert environments and forest environments and for all animats, e.g. frog animats and bee animats; and (3) adequacy: it is able to learn basic forms of animal skills such as eating, drinking, locomotion, and navigation. Eight experiments are presented. The results obtained indicate that (i) dynamic memory structures are strictly more powerful than static; (ii) it is possible to use a fixed generic design to model basic cognitive processes of a wide range of animals and environments; and (iii) the animat framework enables a uniform and gradual approach to AGI, by successively taking on more challenging problems in the form of broader and more complex classes of environments
Detailed simulation of distance protection for its testing and setting
Authors: Ruban Nikolay Yu. , Andreev Mikhail V. , Ufa Ruslan A. , Suvorov Aleksey A. , Gusev Alexandr S. 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
A significant part of severe accidents (blackouts) in electric power systems (EPS) is associated with incorrect operation of relay protection and automation (RPA). One of the main reasons for the incorrect actions of the RPA devices is its rough settings, which often does not correspond to the real operating conditions for specific device. An analysis of currently used methods and tools for RPA setting up, shown that they are largely relied on the guidelines of previous decennaries. Respectively modern techniques have the same drawbacks associated with accounting the processes in specific RPA and primary transducers and its errors by approximate coefficients. It is possible to solve the indicated problem with a highly detailed analysis of the operation of key elements of RPA schemes in the specific operating conditions. The obtained results allow to estimate the processes in protected objects, processing errors in instrumental current (ICT) and voltage (IVT) transformers, as well as in RPA itself. Such possibility could be achieved by the detailed RPA mathematical modeling. The combination of an adequate EPS simulator and RPA models allows configuring parameters of the RPA settings ensuring its correct operation in real EPS. The article presents result of this research for distance protection
Emulator of harmonic distortion of bias port of the mach-zehnder intensity modulator
Authors: Svarny Jiri 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
The paper deals with the design of an analog circuit to substitute the role of a real intensity Mach-Zehnder modulator for the preliminary tuning of bias controllers. The proposed circuit has similar harmonic distortion as an electro-optic modulator biased around the quadrature operating point. The designed device utilizes a shaping circuit based on a differential pair of bipolar junction transistors. The harmonic distortion of both the Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator and the differential amplifier are analysed. A method to design the emulating circuit of desired features is described and explained and a the comparison of the measured results to the theory is presented.
Modelling of electrical properties of mn-zn ferrites taking into account the frequency of the occurrence of the dimensional resonance
Authors: Todorova Teodora Plamenova , Valchev Vencislav Cekov , den Bossche Alex Van 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
Besides their magnetic properties, Mn-Zn ferrites are also characterized by appreciable electrical properties. This electro- magnetic nature of Mn-Zn ferrites material properties causes a dimensional resonance to occur in samples. The latter hinders measurements of the frequency dependences of intrinsic permittivity and electrical conductivity. In the paper, we present a sign in measurement results that shows the frequency range in which dimensional resonance has already occurred. Above this range, properties extracted from measurements are not intrinsic any longer. We refer to the sign to determine the last point of the measurement data set that is used as an input for an equivalent circuit modelling of the electrical properties. This “last point” criterion helps to exclude the possibility of modelling apparent properties instead of intrinsic ones. The results obtained show that the frequency dependent electrical properties may be well modeled even if the upper limit of the input frequency range to the curve fitting is below the frequency range in which the dimensional resonance occurs.
Methodology to improve the model of series inductance in cmos integrated inductors
Authors: Gutierrez-Frias Eric F. , García-Lugo Luis A. , Becerra-Alvarez Edwin C. , Raygoza-Panduro Juan J. , de la Rosa José M. , Ortega-Rosales Edgardo B. 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
This paper presents a systematic optimization methodology to achieve an accurate estimation of series inductance of inductors implemented in standard CMOS technologies. Proposed method is based on an optimization procedure which aims to obtain adjustment factors associated to main physical inductor characteristics, allowing to estimate more accurate series inductance values that can be used in design stage. Experimental measurements of diverse square inductor geometries are shown and compared with previous approaches in order to demonstrate and validate presented approach
A Bridge to the Past: Public Memory and Nostalgia for the Communist Times in Modern Georgia
Authors: Kovtiak Elisabeth 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
This paper deals with the politics of memory in contemporary Georgia’s public space. It explores the relations between official and vernacular commemorations of the Soviet past in Tbilisi. In this paper, I have studied the forms of materialization of vernacular memories in the public space and provided a frame in which they exist, including the ideological background of decommunization in Georgia and peculiarities of the Soviet era museumizing in state museums. The official discourse demonizes the previous epoque and neglects all its benefits, whereas the ordinary people are quite nuanced in their memories of their past – this contradiction leads to manifestations of vernacular memories. Therefore, this paper focuses mostly on Tbilisi’s Dry Bridge, a famous flea market where the memory of the recent Soviet past is negotiated. The main argument is that this particular flea market and its artifacts might be regarded as a “vernacular memorial” and “lieu de memoire” where nostalgia for an officially demonized era can be expressed and materialized. This paper explores the items that are on sale, explaining their meaning for the post-Soviet people, and describes the intangible practices that can be observed there. In addition, this paper unpacks that these nostalgic practices should not be considered as “unhealthy” or “retrospective” as it helps people to adapt to modernity and develop by considering more than one hegemonic version of their past.
Utterances as tool-mediated specifications of affordances - ecological pragmatics
Authors: Borchmann Simon 
Published: August 2018

AbstractThe established descriptions of information structure assume that the basic cognitive unit is a categorization, and that the basic semantic structure is a predication. Descriptions based on these assumptions, however, cannot provide an adequate analysis of certain types of utterances that form a part of activities. The article presents a solution to this problem based on Wittgenstein’s private language argument and the concept of information in Gibson's theory of affordances. The basic cognitive assumption is that performers of activities attend to variations in the environment, for example visibility, and perceive the states of variations (e.g., 3000 feet). A state is defined as a local, temporary occurrence of a stimulus configuration that specifies an affordance. The basic pragmatic assumption, then, is that performers of activities share the states of variations by means of utterances. This ecological-pragmatic assumption allows for a rethinking of the usefulness of the reference-predicate distinction and bring forward different dimensions of informational analysis of utterances. It is claimed that an informative and accurate analysis of utterances that form a part of activities relies two distinctions: a distinction between a convention based regulation of attention and a convention based specification of an affordance, and a distinction between sharing information and nesting information
Dialogue and language as factors contributing to transformative learning in academic tutoring
Authors: Grzegorczyk Grzegorz 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
Among a number of teaching practices, personalized education is gaining in popularity owing to its enticing appeal of a novel, humanistic attitude with unparalleled pedagogical results unlike those observed in traditional standardized mass education models. As part of the fourth moment in the history of education (according to the timeline in Davis, Sumara and Kapler, 2015), personalized education under the guise of tutoring or educational coaching is boldly re-entering schools and the academic world. Observing the daily practices of tutors and educational coaches on various levels of schooling, we can note a number of features which contribute to the emergence of a model where learning becomes an autonomous, lived experience. In this model communication is understood as a collaborative dialogical practice, which leads us to see learning as a result of interactivity in the learner-tutor dyad afforded by geo-spatial conditions, physio-psychological elements and language. All these contribute to the occurrence of transformative results as evidenced in student post-tutoring narratives. In this paper we present learning in the dialogical tutor-tutee paradigm as a distributed, embodied, and enacted meaning-making process rather than mere ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ of substantive information (e.g., De Jaegher and DiPaolo, 2007; Neuman and Cowley, 2013). Described as such, the method fits in the paradigm of self-regulated learning. We therefore postulate the claim that personalised education as exemplified by tutoring is co-agential and prompts learning on multiple timescales. Consequently, cognition and learning in tutoring is enactment of knowledge, while coordinating speech rather than knowledge transmission
Playing cards: spatial arrangements for observational learning
Authors: Maare Åsa Harvard 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
This paper looks at how players of a card game create spatial arrangements of playing cards, and the cognitive and communicative effects of such arrangements. The data is an episode of two 8-year old children and a teacher playing the combinatorial card game Set, in the setting of the leisure-time center. The paper explores and explains how the visual resources of the game are used for externalizing information in terms of distributed cognition and epistemic actions. The paper also examines how other participants attend to the visual arrangements and self-directed talk of the active player. The argument is that externalizing information may be a strategy for reducing cognitive load for the individual problem-solver, but it is also a communicative behaviour affecting other participants and causing them to engage with the problem and the problem-solver. Seeing and hearing players who have succeeded in finding a set provide observers with rich learning opportunities, and increases their motivation to play the game. From the point of view of learning design, the consequence of this is that bystanders merit to be considered as the potential learners of a pedagogical game as much as the players themselves
Higher Speed of Yeast Adherence in Comparison with Speed of Bacteria Adherence to Silica Microparticles
Authors: Ozoliņš Dzintars , Žileviča Aija 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
The current study explored the possibility to attach bacteria and yeasts to micro-silica particles. The aim of the study was to determine possible differences in the speed of rates of turbidity (or speed of adherence) between suspensions of bacteria and yeasts with and without silica micro-particles. Some important findings were demonstrated, which might be promising for developing of a new diagnostic approach to distinguish bacteria from yeasts. Addition of SiO2 beads to bacterial suspensions resulted in a significantly faster decrease of turbidity rates in comparison with corresponding suspensions without SiO2 beads. However, yeasts adhered to silica micro particles quicker in comparison with the speed of adherence of bacteria to silica.
National Cyber Security as the Cornerstone of National Security
Authors: Kovács László 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
The more advanced digital economy and society a country has the more exposed it is to cyber threats. Consequently, countries with advanced digital economy and digital infrastructure naturally need to pay more attention to protecting cyber space. Today it is a national security issue and it can no longer be argued that cyber security is its indispensable part. Accordingly, a national cyber security strategy has to be built on national security strategy. That is the main reason for using the word “cornerstone” in the title of this study. The relation between national security and national cyber security means a specific context, which is one of the subjects of our examination in this study. Today, most countries have a cyber security strategy. However, these strategies are mostly static documents that do not or only partially can handle the dynamism that characterizes cyberspace. This paper focuses on the key issues that are needed for developing a usable cyber security strategy.
Pancreas divisum: a reemerging risk factor for pancreatic diseases
Authors: Covantev Serghei 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
Pancreas divisum (PD) is the most common developmental anatomic variant of pancreatic duct. The attention towards the PD has grown significantly since there are reports that this condition may cause acute relapsing pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis and chronic abdominal pain syndrome. Furthermore, over the years, there have been multiple reports of PD associated with different types of tumors. There is evidence that PD can be associated with pancreatic tumors (up to 12.5% of cases). The golden standard for diagnosing PD is endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, but since it is an invasive procedure magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography with secretin is a good alternative. In case the patient is symptomatic, endoscopic or surgical treatment should be performed. This review describes the key points of the pathophysiology, diagnostic modalities, risks of pancreatitis and tumors, as well as treatment options of PD.
Site Characterization for Construction Purposes at FUNAAB using Geophysical and Geotechnical Methods
Authors: Alabi A.A. , Adewale A.O. , Coker J.O. , Ogunkoya O.A. 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
Geophysical and geotechnical techniques were used to investigate the sub-surface information of a proposed site for a hostel construction at Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. Ten vertical electrical sounding (VES) stations were adopted. Typical sounding curves obtained include the HA, KH, AKH and KQH types, of which the AKH-type consists of 40% of the survey points, and a maximum of five geo-electric sub-surface layers were delineated. Laboratory analyses were performed to investigate particle size distribution, Atterberg limit, compaction limit, California bearing ratio (CBR) and specific gravity. The CBR revealed that all soil samples, except L4, are mechanically stable and have high load-bearing capacity. The Atterberg limit test and the geo-electric section showed that the second layer of VES 4 is composed of sandy clay with high plastic index and low liquid limit, which may pose a threat to the foundation of any engineering structure. VES locations 5, 6 and 8 were identified as high groundwater potential zones suitable for optimum groundwater abstraction. The study area is suitable for both shallow and deep foundations, however VES 4 and VES 5 require reinforcement.
Postoperative interleukin-8 levels are related to the duration of coronary artery bypass grafting surgery and predict in-hospital postsurgical complications
Authors: Mathe Zsombor , Serban Razvan Constantin , Pintilie Irina , Somkereki Cristina , Hutanu Adina , Scridon Alina 
Published: August 2018

Abstract

Introduction: The magnitude of the very early coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG)-related inflammatory response has been shown to influence post-CABG outcomes. However, the dynamics of the systemic inflammatory response to CABG beyond the very early postoperative phase and its relevance to clinical outcomes are not fully understood.

Methods: Circulating levels of several inflammatory markers were determined in 30 consecutive patients undergoing elective isolated on-pump CABG one day prior (D0-1), and 2 (D2) and 5 days post-CABG.

Results: CABG was associated with a significant increase in all studied inflammatory marker levels (all p<0.05 for D2 versus D0-1). D2 post-CABG IL-6 and IL-8 levels were both significantly positively correlated with extracorporeal circulation (ECC) and aortic clamping (AC) times (all p<0.05), whereas a weaker correlation was observed between D2 post-CABG IL-8 levels and total surgery time (r=0.42, p=0.02). In multiple regression analysis, D2 IL-8 levels independently predicted post-CABG kidney (p= 0.02) and liver (p = 0.04) dysfunction, as well as a sum of post-CABG major complications ≥2 (p = 0.04).

Conclusions: In this prospective study, longer duration of cardiopulmonary bypass caused a larger post-CABG inflammatory surge, whereas the duration of total CABG surgery had a less significant effect. IL-8 hyperresponders had greater risk of developing kidney and liver dysfunction and presented more major post-CABG complications. These data suggest that targeting the IL-8 pathway using antiinflammatory agents, or simply by shortening the duration of cardiopulmonary bypass could improve the in-hospital post-CABG outcomes in this population.
Association between MDR1 gene polymorphism and clinical course of pediatric pulmonary arterial hypertension
Authors: Muntean Iolanda , Şuteu Carmen , Togănel Rodica , Bănescu Claudia 
Published: August 2018

Abstract
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease with a complex pathogenesis. The polymorphism of the gene of multidrug resistance-1 (MDR1) has been associated with many diseases including PAH.

Objective. In this study we aimed to investigate the relevance of the MDR1 polymorphism to pediatric PAH clinical course.

Methods. A total of 40 pediatric patients with PAH (secondary to congenital heart defects or idiopathic) and 40 control subjects were enrolled. Patients with PAH were divided into 2 groups, according to their evolution: 28 patients who remained clinically stable at 12-months (non-worsening group) and 12 patients who presented clinical worsening at 12-months (worsening group). Genomic DNA was genotyped for MDR1 gene polymorphisms as follows: C1236T, G2677T and C3435T.

Results. There were no significant differences between PAH children groups (clinical worsening and non-worsening) nor between PAH children and controls in terms of frequency distribution of the three studied genotypes or alleles.

Conclusions. The MDR1 polymorphism could not be correlated with the clinical evolution of pediatric PAH patients in our study.