bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Game-based learning as a pedagogical approach to enhance students’ motivation in learning Russian as a second language
Authors: Miloserdova E. M. , Morozov E. A. 
Published: July 2024

Importance. Active mastery of a foreign language, including Russian as a foreign language, remains the desire of those who study the language. The intensification of the educational process sets the task of maintaining students' motivation for the material being studied. Game mechanics help to stimulate thinking, enhance initiative in learning. The purpose of the study is to determine the effectiveness of using game mechanics to increase students' motivation when learning Russian as a foreign language.Materials and Methods. The material for the research was the educational and methodological complex for studying Russian as a foreign language developed by L.V. Moskovkin and L.V. Silvina “Russian Language. Textbook for foreign students.” The scientific and methodological literature is analyzed, revealing aspects of game mechanics when teaching the Russian language. An experiment is conducted to identify the role of game mechanics in the lesson. When conducting the study, the methods of participant observation, survey, and generalization are used.Results and Discussion. The presented theoretical material makes it clear that game mechanics are neither a game nor a role-playing simulation. They control the motivation and behavior of students in the learning process. This model gradually immerses students in certain activities and develops communication skills. The author’s results of the conducted research are presented, including a description of the game mechanics.Conclusions. It is proved that game-based learning methods contribute to the initiation of the highest levels of engagement and motivation among foreign students when learning the Russian language. The integrated approach to learning has a positive impact on the educational process and is an effective means of teaching Russian as a foreign language, providing a guarantee for the successful future development of the training program.
Trade and economic relations of Eastern Caucasus with Russia (17th–18th centuries)
Authors: Salikhova L. B. 
Published: July 2024

Importance. In the 17th–18th centuries the development and strengthening of trade and economic relations between the peoples of Eastern Caucasus and the Russian state took place, which became systematic since the second half of the 16th century. The urgency of the work is due to the importance of studying these relationships, identifying the ways in which trade and economic relations took place. The aim of the paper is to consider the relations of the peoples of Eastern Caucasus with Russia, to reflect the role of cities, villages acting as trade centers between peoples.Materials and Methods. The object of the study was trade and economic relations of the peoples of Eastern Caucasus with Russia. The main scientific methods used in the paper can be attributed – the method of description, synthesis, analysis, the principle of objectivity, etc.Results and Discussion. It is noted the growing role of cities as trade centers, through which trade routes passed to different countries. Thus, Tersky city is a link in the trade of the peoples of Eastern Caucasus with the Russian state. Local feudal owners are given free trade for loyalty to the Russian state, which testified to the further development of the productive forces of the region and external economic relations. The peoples of Eastern Caucasus traded with the townspeople and merchants of Astrakhan, from Terki to Astrakhan went goods and products of Caucasian production and from Astrakhan to the mountain people are delivered Russian, Western European and Eastern goods. In the 18th century, in Eastern Caucasus there are trading centers, where the exchange of goods is conducted between the plain and the mountainous parts.Conclusion. Initially, the trade of the peoples of Eastern Caucasus with the neighboring peoples is of an exchange nature. Gradually there is a transition to the development of commodity and monetary relations, which is characteristic for foreign trade operations. The local feudal elite are mainly involved in trade, which managed the process through their own people, and later the middle classes became involved.
The possibilities of using historical data on Tambov church monuments of the late 18th – first half of the 19th century in the development of an interactive map
Authors: Vorobeva E. M. 
Published: July 2024

Importance. A number of factors are considered: the possibility of providing relevant historical information to a wide audience, the use of modern technologies for analyzing and distributing historical information, and the significant interest of historians in working within the framework of the methodology used. The purpose of the study is to offer a resource for popularizing the church history of the region. The main sources are used in the work are plans of the city of Tambov and documents from the funds of the Tambov City Duma (16) and the Mezhevaya Chancellery (29) of the State Archive of the Tambov Region, some reference and visual materials, as well as a view of the city of Tambov in 1799.Research Methods. Both classical historical methods and the methodology of historical informatics are used.Results and Discussion. The relevance of modern information technologies use in scientific and educational activities is substantiated. A historiographical analysis of the problem has been carried out, which relates to the theoretical part of the study. The problems associates with the localization of lost objects on modern maps and their solutions are described, which can be attributed to the practical part. Variants of references of the church history objects of Tambov city for an interactive map of the church history objects of Tambov at the end of the 18th – first half of the 19th century are proposed for consideration. The process of collecting and systematizing information for the formation of historical references of ancient religious buildings in Tambov: the Znamenskaya Church, the Church in the name of the Great Martyr Barbara and the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity is described.Conclusion. The main result of the study is the images demonstration of attaching cartographic, visual and descriptive data on the history of specific monuments of church history to maps.
Organizational features of the reform of local self-government in 1870 in the county towns of the Central Chernozem region (on the example of the Tambov province)
Authors: Kuznetsov V. V. 
Published: July 2024

Importance. Cities in Russian history have always been distinguished by their special social, political, economic and cultural status, which was also manifested in internal organizational aspects. For almost two and a half centuries, there has been a domestic city government, which has gone through many modernization stages and has become an important socio-political institution in the field. In this regard, the issues of continuity and traditions in its development remain important. The purpose of the study is to identify and analyze the organizational features of the urban reform of 1870 in the counties of the Central Chernozem region.Materials and Methods. The source basis of the study is the materials of the State Archive of Tambov region and published publications of the Tambov Provincial Statistical Committee. Various legal acts are used to describe the mechanisms of regulatory regulation of urban selfgovernment. The methodological basis of the research is based on the principles of objectivity, historicism and consistency.Results and Discussion. The process of implementing the reform of urban self-government in 1870 in the provinces of the Central Chernozem region lasted for several years and was mostly completed only in 1873. This situation was explained by a number of reasons: firstly, the law did not contain norms aimed at the transition from the old system of urban governance to the new one, secondly, the legislator did not set a strict time frame related to the implementation of the reform, thirdly, urban societies themselves slowed down the process of reorganizing local government, making numerous mistakes in procedural There are internal disagreements among the electors.Conclusion. The formation of a new system of self-government in the county towns of the Central Chernozem region had a number of common legalized and arbitrary features. The “delayed” procedure for the enactment of the law made it possible to organize elections in provincial centers and form the practice of work of supervisory authorities. In some cities, the implementation of the reform was slowed down due to the incompetence of representatives of urban societies involved in the modernization of local governments. Finally, the censorship policy of the state and the unsettled mechanism for nominating candidates served as the basis for serious competition and numerous complaints that delayed the process.
The life path of G.H. Bumagin
Authors: Vorob’ev D. A. 
Published: July 2024

Importance. In 2024, G.H. Bumagin, secretary of the Leningrad and Novgorod regional Committees of the CPSU(b), who played a very important role in many events of the Battle for Leningrad, as well as in the restoration of the Novgorod region in the first post-war years and actively studying the activities of the partisans and underground workers of the Leningrad region in the last years of his life, will turn 120 years old. Now, there are no biographical fundamental works about him, and in books and articles, researchers most often described his work during the Great Patriotic War and in the first post-war years. The purpose of the study is to examine in detail his life path. Its tasks are to establish life periods and their chronological framework, to determine the criteria for choosing chronological frameworks, to describe each life period and its features, to establish the results and contribution of G.H. Bumagin to the events that he participated in.Materials and Methods. The research is based on archival materials from the Central State Archive of Historical and Political Documents of St. Petersburg and the Novgorod Museum-Reserve. A descriptive-narrative, biographical methods, analysis and periodization are used for it.Results and Discussion. Based on archival materials, it is possible to describe the formation of G.H. Bumagin as the party leader of the Leningrad region before the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War and the development of his career path. In addition, his work on the formation of the resistance movement in the first months of the Battle for Leningrad, the leadership of the Commission of the eastern districts of the Leningrad region and the leadership of the Novgorod region in the first post-war years is described.Conclusion. G.H. Bumagin had a difficult fate. A guy from a poor family who lived almost halfstarved, made every effort to get out into the world. He decided to do this by serving in the Red Army. Thanks to her, he was able to develop a political career in Leningrad and became secretary of the Leningrad and then Novgorod Regional Party Committee. They tried to blacken his name during the Leningrad case. Even though he was imprisoned without any evidence, he endured adversity with his family and, after rehabilitation, adjusted his life. When he retired, he had another front of work – studying the Resistance movement, which he led in the first months of the war. His accumulated material and work experience were subsequently useful for compiling memoirs and reports on the history of the partisan and underground movements of the Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions. He left valuable materials after his death, which formed the basis not only for this article, but also for other historical works.
European and African-specific plasma protein-QTL and metabolite-QTL analyses identify ancestry-specific T2D effector proteins and metabolites
Authors: Cruchaga Carlos , Yang Chengran , Gorijala Priyanka , Timsina Jigyasha , Wang Lihua , Liu Menghan , Wang Ciyang , Brock William , Wang Yueyao , Sung Yun Ju 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Initially focused on the European population, multiple genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of complex diseases, such as type-2 diabetes (T2D), have now extended to other populations. However, to date, few ancestry-matched omics datasets have been generated or further integrated with the disease GWAS to nominate the key genes and/or molecular traits underlying the disease risk loci. In this study, we generated and integrated plasma proteomics and metabolomics with array-based genotype datasets of European (EUR) and African (AFR) ancestries to identify ancestry-specific muti-omics quantitative trait loci (QTLs). We further applied these QTLs to ancestry-stratified T2D risk to pinpoint key proteins and metabolites underlying the disease-associated genetic loci. We nominated five proteins and four metabolites in the European group and one protein and one metabolite in the African group to be part of the molecular pathways of T2D risk in an ancestry-stratified manner. Our study demonstrates the integration of genetic and omic studies of different ancestries can be used to identify distinct effector molecular traits underlying the same disease across diverse populations. Specifically, in the AFR proteomic findings on T2D, we prioritized the protein QSOX2; while in the AFR metabolomic findings, we pinpointed the metabolite GlcNAc sulfate conjugate of C21H34O2 steroid. Neither of these findings overlapped with the corresponding EUR results.
Proteo: A Framework for the Generation and Evaluation of Malleable MPI Applications
Authors: Martín-Álvarez Iker , Aliaga José I. , Castillo Maribel , Iserte Sergio 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Applying malleability to HPC systems can increase their productivity without degrading or even improving the performance of running applications.This paper presents Proteo, a configurable framework that allows to design benchmarks to study the effect of malleability on a system, and also incorporates malleability into a real application. Proteo consists of two modules: SAM allows to emulate the computational behavior of iterative scientific MPI applications; and MaM is able to reconfigure a job during execution, adjusting the number of processes, redistributing data and resuming execution. An in-depth study of all the possibilities shows that Proteo is able to behave like a real malleable or non-malleable application in the range [0.85, 1.15]. Furthermore, the different methods defined in MaM for process management and data redistribution are analyzed, concluding that asynchronous malleability, where reconfiguration and application execution overlap, results in a 1.15x speedup.
Study on the Correlation between Shear Wave Elastography and MRI Grading of Meniscal Degeneration
Authors: Ye Ran , Xiong Hua-Hua , Liu Xiao , Yang Jun-Xing , Guo Jian-Dong , Qiu Jian-Wen 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Background Shear Wave Elastography (SWE) offers quantitative insights into the hardness and elasticity characteristics of tissues. The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between SWE of the menisci and MRI-assessed degenerative changes in the menisci, with the aim of providing novel reference source for improving non-invasive evaluation of meniscal degenerative alterations.
Methods The participants in this study were selected from patients who underwent knee joint MRI scans at Shenzhen Hospital (Futian) of Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, from February 2023 to February 2024. The anterior horn of the medial and lateral meniscus was evaluated using SWE technique. The differences in elastic values of meniscus among different MRI grades were compared. The correlation between elastic values and MRI grades, as well as various parameters, was analyzed. Using MRI Grade 3 as the gold standard, the optimal cutoff value for meniscal tear was determined. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was employed to evaluate the reliability of repeated measurements performed by the same observer.
Results A total of 104 female participants were enrolled in this study, with 152 lateral menisci (LM) and 144 medial menisci (MM) assessed. For the male group, 83 individuals were included, with 147 LM and 145 MM evaluated. The results demonstrated statistically significant differences in the elasticity values of the menisci at the same anatomical sites across different MRI grades (P < 0.001). Within the same grade, the MM had higher elasticity values than the LM, showing a statistically significant difference (P<0.001). The elasticity values of the menisci were higher in males compared to females. There were statistically significant positive correlations between the elasticity values of the menisci and age, BMI, and MRI grade. The ICC for repeated measurements within the observer demonstrated good reliability (>0.79).
Conclusions A significant positive correlation was observed between the SWE values of the menisci and the degeneration levels determined by MRI.
Does Terminology Matter When Measuring Stigmatizing Attitudes About Weight? Validation of a Brief, Modified Attitudes Toward Obese Persons Scale
Authors: Martin-Wagar Caitlin A , Melcher Katelyn A , Attaway Sarah E , Bennett Brooke L , Thompson Connor J , Kronenberger Oscar , Penwell Taylor E 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Objective Commonly used terms like “obese person” have been identified as stigmatizing by those with lived experience. Thus, this study sought to revise a commonly used measure of weight stigmatizing attitudes, the Attitudes Toward Obese Persons (ATOP) scale.Methods The original terminology in the 20-item ATOP (e.g., “obese”) was compared to a modified version using neutral terms (e.g., “higher weight”). Participants (N = 832) were randomized to either receive the original or modified ATOP.Results There was a statistically significant difference, with a low effect size (d=-0.26), between the scores of participants who received the original ATOP (M = 69.25) and the modified ATOP (M = 72.85), t(414) = -2.27, p = .024. Through principal component analysis, the modified ATOP was found to be best used as a brief, 8-item unidimensional measure. In a second sample, confirmatory factor analysis verified the fit of the brief, 8-item factor structure.Conclusions Findings suggest a modified, brief version of the ATOP (ATOP-Heigher Weight; ATOP-HW) with neutral language is suitable for assessing negative attitudes about higher-weight people. The ATOP-HW may slightly underestimate weight stigma compared to the original ATOP. Further examination of the terminology used in weight stigma measures is needed to determine how to best assess weight stigma without reinforcing stigmatizing attitudes. The findings of the present study suggest that the use of neutral terms in measures of anti-fat bias is a promising solution that warrants further investigation.
Healthcare Outcomes in Hospitals: Development of a conceptual framework
Authors: KC RAJA SHREE , A Bhooma Devi , S Nithya Priya , P Praveen Kumar 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Healthcare organisations are progressively confronted with progress and improvements with respect to service provisions they provide to their patients. They are always expected to develop strategies in order to provide better services at patients’ convenience. Flexibility is always given utmost priority when it comes to service sector. It is always considered as an important aspect for obtaining competitive advantage. This can satisfy the fluctuating patient demands. In this paper, the association between service convenience flexibility for patients and health care outcomes are examined. Several dimensions of service convenience flexibility with respect to healthcare setting are investigated and fundamentally inspected. The relationship between service convenience flexibility for patients and the healthcare outcomes is an crucial area of study in healthcare research. Service convenience flexibility will directly influence patient satisfaction with respect to healthcare services. Patients always find it very easy to fix appointments, access care whenever needed, and obtain higher levels of satisfaction. This will positively impact the patient health outcomes. Because happy and satisfied patients will be engaged in the care and recover at a faster rate. They will positively adhere to treatments. The convenience as well as flexibility in hospitals can always empower patients in order to take an important role in management of patients’ health. For example, patients will be more convenient with online appointments, online portals, appointments, etc. This helps in enhancement and betterment healthcare delivery which can contribute towards improved patient satisfaction.
Indicators for Risk of Hip Fracture in Elderly Women Without Osteoporosis
Authors: Bian Yuquan , Zhao Jinhui , He Shizan , Cao Jiaqing , Jiang Dajun , Jia Weitao 
Published: July 2024

Abstract

Purpose: Fracture prediction in non-osteoporotic elderly women is often neglected due to their relatively normal bone mineral density (BMD). This study aimed to identify key risk factors and develop a predictive model for hip fracture risk in this particular population.
Methods: The study included 125 patients in the experimental group and 109 in the control group. Data of BMD, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), C-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX), N-terminal mid-fragment of osteocalcin (N-MID), and demographic characteristics were collected for analysis. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify independent risk factors, and prediction models were developed and assessed using the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve and DeLong test.
Results: After adjusting all covariates and confounders, β-CTX (adjusted-OR 1.004 [1.002-1.006], P<0.01), N-MID (adjusted-OR=0.816 [0.743-0.897], P<0.01), 25(OH)D (adjusted-OR=0.884 [0.841-0.928], P<0.01) and height (adjusted-OR=1.245 [1.058-1.487], P<0.01) persisted as risk factors in the multivariate regression model. Among these, 25(OH)D exhibited the highest predict value (AUC=0.85), with an optimal cutoff value established at 24.07 ng/ml. The AUC value of predictive model including height, β-CTX, N-MID and 25(OH)D was significantly greater (AUC=0.902, P<0.05) than that of other combinations.
Conclusion: In non-osteoporotic elderly women, 25(OH)D demonstrates a higher predictive capability than BMD, with levels below 24.07 ng/mL significantly increasing hip fracture risk. The proposed predictive model, composed of height, β-CTX, N-MID, and 25(OH)D, offers excellent predictive value, evidenced by an AUC of 0.902.
Trial registration: The study protocol was reviewed by the Ethics Committee of Shanghai Sixth People’s Hospital (Shanghai, China; approval number, 2017-152), and successfully registered with the China Clinical Trial Center, clinical trial registration number ChiCTR-ONC-17013389 (registered in November 15, 2017).