Abstract Objective Research Articles

Effect of passive jaw opening on the electromyographic activity of the temporalis, masseter, digastric, and infrahyoid muscles in healthy adults

ABSTRACT Objective To investigate the surface electromyography (EMG) activity of the temporalis, masseter, digastric, and infrahyoid muscles during passive jaw opening in healthy adults. Methods The EMG activity of the masseter, temporalis, digastric anterior belly, and infrahyoid muscles on the right side was recorded during the four jaw-opening tasks: active opening to 20 mm (AO20); active opening to 40 mm (AO40); passive opening to 40 mm with a rubber mouth prop on the right posterior teeth (POR40); and passive opening to 40 mm with a mouth prop on the left posterior teeth (POL40). Results The EMG amplitude of the digastric anterior belly and infrahyoid muscles in either POL40 or POR40 was significantly less than that in AO20 or AO40, respectively. Conclusion Passive jaw opening reduces the EMG activity of the digastric and infrahyoid muscles significantly and could help reduce the load on these muscles during prolonged mouth-opening conditions.

I am no abstract object: a novel challenge to mind uploading

I am no abstract object: a novel challenge to mind uploading

Comparative Analysis of Efficacy of Endoscopic versus Open Carpal Tunnel Release

Objectives: To compare the efficacy between endoscopic and open carpal tunnel release procedures for carpal tunnel syndrome patients. Design and setting: Randomised control study in a single neurosurgery department Participants: 30 patients aged 35-69 years with clinically diagnosed carpal tunnel syndrome Main outcome measures: Primarily - operative duration, bleeding, pain score on day one, requirement of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), time spent in hospital and days taken to return to work. Other outcomes include infection, wound status/cosmesis, injury to median nerve, chronic regional pain syndrome and patient satisfaction. Results: 15 patients were allocated to open surgery, and the other 15 for endoscopic. The average operative duration for open surgery was 9.9 minutes compared to 52 minutes spent for the endoscopic procedure. Cauterization had to be performed 4:1 times in endoscopic compared to open. Pain scores rated 3x higher after open surgery and resulted in increased NSAIDs use. Time spent in hospital after open surgery was 0.7 hours compared to 2.2 in endoscopic, however patients were able to return to work an average of 10.6 days earlier after endoscopic surgery. Conclusions: In carpal tunnel syndrome, endoscopic surgery allowed patients to experience less post-operative pain and return to work several days sooner than in open surgery.

Your red isn't my red! Connectionist Structuralism and the puzzle of abstract objects

Your red isn't my red! Connectionist Structuralism and the puzzle of abstract objects

‘Rhetoric’ in the design process: The role of prop-based virtual reality storytelling in user-centred product conceptual design

This paper explores how prop-based virtual reality storytelling (VR&P-ST) can enhance user-centred product conceptual design (UCPCD) by the perspective of ‘computing with things’. The study introduces the concept of ‘rhetoric’ and the framework of ‘epistemic objects’ to explore the value of VR&P-ST. The study provides VR&P-ST experience for designers through VR passive haptics and proposes ten hypotheses. Through data analysis, nine hypotheses were accepted, and one hypothesis was rejected. This study provides a new solution in the field of empathic methods of UCPCD. Additionally, this study verifies that VR&P-ST can improve the fidelity and historical perception of conceptual design objects and neutralize ambiguity as the ‘rhetoric’. These three characteristics make VR&P-ST have a positive impact on the designer’s engagement, which in turn improves the designer’s evaluation and experience of the design process to a certain extent, but it still has limitations.

, virtual reality embodying philosophical and conceptual heritage

ABSTRACT In this paper, we introduce the <Sunghaksipdo VR> project, which is based on Sunghaksipdo (聖學十圖). Known as the Ten Diagrams on Sage Learning, Sunghaksipdo was a heritage created by Toegye, the Korean Confucian scholar of the Joseon Dynasty. While conveying philosophical concepts such as Li (理) and Gyung (敬) and their spiritual values of mindfulness from the heritage to VR, we have focused on reconnecting the original visual diagrams and texts into perceivable VR experiences. We approached this task through the following: (1) by constructing conceptual and philosophical VR space and environments based on the original diagrams, (2) by creating conceptual objects inside VR, and (3) by designing diverse user interactions with such virtual conceptual objects. Particularly the interactions allow the user’s embodied experience and performative engagement, which become a way of understanding the meaning of the philosophical message. While explaining these with diverse exemplary cases, we hope to show how new media and interactive VR technologies can be used to realize philosophical concepts and spiritual value. Through this, we hope to discuss how VR could be imagined as a tangible philosophy discovering the plane of immanence.

Shapes and frictions of synthetic data

Synthetic data are computer-generated data that mimic and substitute empirical observations without directly corresponding to real-world phenomena. Widely used in privacy protection, machine learning, and simulation, synthetic data is an emerging field only just beginning to be explored in the social sciences and critical data studies. However, recent developments, such as the use of synthetic data in the US Census and American Community Survey, make a reflection on the nature and implications of synthetic data urgent. While earlier work focused mostly on training data for machine-learning models, this paper presents a broad typology of synthetic data and discusses its frictions. The main argument presented is that the traditional representational model of data as symbolic references to corresponding physical or conceptual objects is insufficient for understanding and critically engaging with issues and implications of synthetic data. The paper discusses an alternative relational model, which defines data not through an object of reference but based on “who uses them, how and for which purposes”. The relational model is more productive for capturing the fact that synthetic data are defined through their purpose; their performance in a particular situation (such as training a machine learning model); and a context-dependent operationalization of evidence. The post-representational anything-goes epistemology of synthetic data can be productively challenged through a forensic approach that foregrounds the outliers, artifacts, and gaps in datasets as meaningful information.

Ways of Structuring Abstract Objects in German Engineering Discourse

The article is devoted to the study of the ways of structuring abstract objects in German engineering discourse. We argue the idea, that some non-material substances, described by means of language, are realized by a person as abstract objects which are described by a person using the experience of structuring geometric space. On the material of scientific texts, placed on specialized information portals, are traced the verbal regularities of abstract knowledge in the field of engineering communication through the use of direct and metaphorical spatial nominations. Using the method of conceptual modeling, it is concluded that the main ways of dividing abstract objects of science are segmentation and scaling. Segmentation implies the division of virtual space into parts (steps, phases, stages, segments), which are the stages of production or communication processes; scaling is the result of creating a system of divisions intended for determination of the manifestation level of any feature. The criteria for choosing language means of segmentation and scaling are: horizontal-vertical, static-dynamic, length-localization, part-whole, limited-unlimited.

Problems of teaching logic to law students

The problem of teaching logic to lawyers is, first of all, its abstract and formal nature, detached from legal practice. Therefore, secondly, the tendency to restrict or even remove logic from the curricula is provoked. This, thirdly, is followed by the lack of rationale for the majority of court decisions in Ukraine.&#x0D; The purpose of the article is to clarify the subject of legal logic - the main question from a range of problems, the solution of which will contribute to the improvement of the quality of training of lawyers.&#x0D; The conducted analysis of the research revealed sufficient validity of the subject of legal logic. The sphere of law has a strong-willed and competitive, contradictory character. This determines the need for a special, argumentative reasoning based on natural, not formalized language. It is formed in a practically directed dialogue, taking into account political, moral, etc. factors. At the same time, deductive incorrectness and incompleteness of the premises are possible, provided that the conclusion is rationally substantiated, sufficiently convincing, depending on the context of the legal discourse. Legal considerations suggest doubts about the identity of abstract and concrete objects and deviation from logical rules. This requires additional analytical procedures - interpretation and interpretation based on deductive and inductive models with opposite means and techniques.&#x0D; In conclusion, the author’s position is the expediency of interdisciplinary teaching of logic to lawyers in one course with two content modules: formal logic and legal logic. Another option is two relevant courses. The professional level of teaching should be provided, respectively, by professors-philosophers and professors-lawyers. The best are teachers with two relevant educations.

Digital Twins of Biological Systems: A Narrative Review.

The concept of Digital Twins (DTs), software models that mimic the behavior and interactions of physical or conceptual objects within their environments, has gained traction in recent years, particularly in medicine and healthcare research. DTs technology emerges as a pivotal tool in disease modeling, integrating diverse data sources to computationally model dynamic biological systems. This narrative review explores potential DT applications in medicine, from defining DTs and their history to constructing DTs, modeling biologically relevant systems, as well as discussing the benefits, risks, and challenges in their application. The influence of DTs extends beyond healthcare and can revolutionize healthcare management, drug development, clinical trials, and various biomedical research fields.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AS A FACTOR IN ENSURING ECONOMIC SECURITY OF ENTERPRISES

The subject of the research is the study of digital transformation as one of the factors of ensuring the economic security of enterprises. Methodology. The study uses general scientific methods, in particular theoretical generalisation, analysis and synthesis, statistical analysis and graphical methods for the visual presentation of research results. The aim is to analyse the role of digital transformation in ensuring the economic security of companies. Conclusion. Summing up the results, it is determined that the security of enterprises is a crucial element for their successful functioning and stability in the market. The impact of digitalisation on the economic security of enterprise is manifested through the positive impact of advanced digital technologies. Taking advantage of the digital economy leads to numerous positive aspects in business and contributes to achieving strategic goals and strengthening economic security. A conceptual model of the economic security of enterprises has been developed, in which digital transformation is a key tool, covering various aspects, including the conceptual apparatus, objectives, problem vision, subjects and objects of management. The model is aimed at creating conditions for sustainable development and maintaining the economic security of the enterprise at various stages of its life cycle. The programme for ensuring economic security within the framework of this model includes the stages of defining tasks, developing a scenario, implementing and evaluating efficiency. The mechanism of economic security is considered as a system of resources and interactions, with digital transformation as a central tool. Summarising the model and approach, the key aspects of ensuring the economic security of enterprises are revealed, taking into account the challenges and opportunities of the modern business environment. Digital technologies make it possible to increase the level of economic security, which in turn contributes to increasing the efficiency and competitiveness of individual companies, the economy as a whole and the standard of living of the population.

Study on the Changes of Immune Cells in the Evolution of Myelodysplastic Syndromes

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the differences of peripheral blood immune cells in healthy people, and patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) patients or acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and to investigate their correlations with International Prostate Symptom Score(IPSS), blasts and other factors in MDS patients. Methods: 55 patients with MDS(MDS group), 67 patients with AML(AML group) and 25 heathy people(healthy group) were selected as research objects from Dongzhimen Hospital Affiliated with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine from January, 2012 to April, 2022 for this retrospective analysis. By comparing peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets count and peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets percentage, we studied the expression of T lymphocyte subsets (CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD4+/CD8+, CD3+CD4+CD25+FoxP3+), B cells (CD19+) and NK cells (CD3-CD16+CD56+). The correlations between the different indexes and IPSS and blasts were analyzed. Results: (1) Peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets count: There were differences among the three groups. Through pairwise comparison, MDS group had lower peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets count(P＜0.025), probably owing to the low peripheral blood lymphocyte count. (2)Peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets percentage: The percentages of Treg cells, B cells and T cells varied among the three groups. Compared with the healthy group, the percentages of T cells ( P＜0.025) and Treg cells ( P＞0.025) in MDS group were higher, and the percentage of B cells ( P＜0.025) was lower. Compared with MDS group, the percentage of Treg cells ( P＜0.025) in AML group was higher and the proportion of B cells was lower ( P＜0.025). (3)Correlations with IPSS and blasts: The percentage of Treg cells was positively correlated with IPSS and blasts. Conclusion: Treg cells showed an increasing trend in turn by healthy people group, MDS group and AML group. The high expression of Treg cells may have great significance in prognosis and progression of MDS. Key words: Acute myeloid leukemia; Blasts; Immune cells; Myelodysplastic syndromes.

Possible Worlds as Propositions

Abstract Realists about possible worlds typically identify possible worlds with abstract objects, such as propositions or properties. However, they face a significant objection due to Lewis (1986), to the effect that there is no way to explain how possible worlds-as-abstract objects represent possibilities. In this paper, I describe a response to this objection on behalf of realists. The response is to identify possible worlds with propositions, but to deny that propositions are abstract objects, or indeed objects at all. Instead, I argue that realists should follow Prior (1971) and others in treating higher-order quantification (e.g. quantification into predicate or sentence position) as a genuine form of quantification in its own right, and so in particular, not to be analysed in terms of first-order quantification over abstract objects. I argue that from this ‘higher-orderist’ perspective, there is a relatively straightforward answer to the question of how possible worlds-as-propositions succeed in representing possibilities.

Type Realism Reconsidered

Abstract Realism about types is the view that types are abstract and repeatable objects. Although type realists seem to agree that types, unlike properties, are objects in their own right, they argue that there is a metaphysically intimate tie between the existence conditions of types and properties. In particular, most type realists believe that types are, in a certain sense, determined by the properties that underlie them. I argue that this is a mistake, especially for those type realists who believe that social and cultural types such as works of music and fiction or words are artifacts. I offer an alternative version of type realism where social and cultural types are dependent objects that should be understood in analogy with concrete artifacts.

LDS-CNN: a deep learning framework for drug-target interactions prediction based on large-scale drug screening.

Drug-target interaction (DTI) is a vital drug design strategy that plays a significant role in many processes of complex diseases and cellular events. In the face of challenges such as extensive protein data and experimental costs, it is suggested to apply bioinformatics approaches to exploit potential interactions to design new targeted medications. Different data and interaction types bring difficulties to study involving incompatible and heterology formats. The analysis of drug-target interactions in a comprehensive and unified model is a significant challenge. Here, we propose a general method for predicting interactions between small-molecule drugs and protein targets, Large-scale Drug target Screening Convolutional Neural Network (LDS-CNN), which used unified encoding to achieve the calculation of the different data formats in an integrated model to realize feature abstraction and potential object prediction. On 898,412 interaction data involving 1683 small-molecule compounds and 14,350 human proteins from 8.8 billion records, the proposed method achieved an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.96, an area under the precision-recall curve (AUPRC) of 0.95, and an accuracy of 90.13%. The experimental results illustrated that the proposed method attained high accuracy on the test set, indicating its high predictive ability in drug-target interaction prediction. LDS-CNN is effective for the prediction of large-scale datasets and datasets composed of data with different formats. In this study, we propose a DTI prediction method to solve the problems of unified encoding of large-scale data in multiple formats. It provides a feasible way to efficiently abstract the features among different types of drug-related data, thus reducing experimental costs and time consumption. The proposed method can be used to identify potential drug targets and candidates for the treatment of complex diseases. This work provides a reference for DTI to process large-scale data and different formats with deep learning methods and provides certain suggestions for future research.

Evolution of Business Models of Mining and Energy Sector Companies according to Current Market Trends

A business model is a “formula” for generating value in a company, and is considered a conceptual object that is part of a company’s intangible resources. It is a company’s unique recipe for sales, cost-effectiveness in operational terms as well as investment, and the financing of operations, both in the short and long term. Due to new challenges, such as sustainable development, faced by enterprises, as well as the new ways of creating and delivering value, such as the closed-loop economy, new concepts of business models are emerging. Presently, there are many different forms of decomposition of a company’s assets that will contribute to the process of creating more sustainable business models to ensure the achievement of cohesion in the financial, environmental and social areas. The purpose of this paper is to present the theoretical assumptions and practical solutions in the field of creating sustainable business models for enterprises by decomposing assets and changing their way of functioning to increase efficiency for stakeholders. The applied research method is based on statistical analysis, with the main focus on the analysis of the correlation between the prices of shares of a parent company and the prices of shares of a company separated from the existing structures.

Feasibility study on utilisation of discarded waste material as a partial replacement for coarse aggregate in concrete

Electronic waste, or Discarded waste. The electronic goods that have become unwanted, non-functional, or out-of-date, and have meritoriously grasped the end of their worthwhile lives are known as Discarded waste. Aluminium, bronze, gold, silver, resins, and ferrous metals are just a few of the valuable, reusable materials that can be found in waste that has been discarded. All across the world, discarded waste disposal is a routine occurrence. The usage of Discarded waste materials is only a piece of the puzzle when it comes to environmental and ecological challenges. Concrete is the most significant engineering material, and changing the concrete philosophy may be more achievable by adding or replacing some of the ingredients. The research of concrete employing E trash as a limited replacement for coarse clusters is presented in this work. For various substitutions of coarse aggregate with Discarded waste on M30 grade concrete, the compressive strength, split tensile strength, and flexural strength of concrete were investigated. The concrete gains higher compressive strength after 15 percent partial replacement of coarse aggregate with E trash at 7 and 28 days. The greatest optimum content of the discarded waste-replaced concrete occurs at 15% partial replacement of coarse aggregate accordingly as part of this project.

Examining the learning effects of concrete and abstract materials among university students using a two-dimensional approach.

The debate on using concrete versus abstract materials in learning mathematics has been longstanding. For decades, research has focused on the physical characteristics of materials when defining them as concrete or abstract. This study extends the field by proposing a two-dimensional classification, which defines materials as concrete or abstract based on the two dimensions of representation, namely object (i.e., appearance) and language (i.e., label). A total of 120 university students participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to learn the concept of modular arithmetic with one of four types of learning materials: concrete object labelled with concrete language, concrete object labelled with abstract language, abstract object labelled with concrete language and abstract object labelled with abstract language. They were also divided into high and low maths anxiety groups. Results showed that the students who learnt with abstract objects, regardless of the level of maths anxiety, outperformed their peers who learnt with concrete objects. However, for students with low maths anxiety only, those who learnt with materials labelled with abstract language showed better far-transfer performance compared with those who learnt with materials labelled with concrete language. The findings offer a new direction in the conceptualization of concrete and abstract learning materials by specifying the dimensions of representation.

ДИЗАЙН КООРДИНАТНЫХ УСТРОЙСТВ ДЛЯ КИБЕРСПОРТА НА ОСНОВЕ ВИЗУАЛЬНОГО ЯЗЫКА ПРИРОДНЫХ И ИНДУСТРИАЛЬНЫХ ЭЛЕМЕНТОВ УДМУРТИИ

Rethinking and styling the object of inspiration is one of the components of design to create new images and products. The visual language of an object is important for its uniqueness, recognizability and communication. A creative search for concepts can lead to original combinations, as in computer games. Currently, computer games and eSports are gaining quite active development. Imagery and conceptuality also did not leave this sphere. In the field of developing technology for convenient use of a computer, especially coordinate devices, there are many opportunities for creating conceptual object design. The object of the study is the features of the visual transformation of the natural and industrial elements of the environment of Udmurtia, which will subsequently become the basis for the design modeling of the artistic image of coordinate devices.&#x0D; The methodological basis of research and development is: semiotic modeling, graphical analysis, additive technologies, digital modeling, media technologies, photographic fixation. The formation of a visual language of creative sources for an object is one of the fundamentals in design engineering, since the adaptation of a visual image to an object forms the recognition of a product brand in the market.

Munchʼs “Scream” as a sense-giving object for the conceptual entity

A conceptual entity is a phenomenon that only exists in our thoughts as knowledge, linguistic, cultural, iconic, etc. All objects falling under this category are those that were created only by human intellect (power of eason or emotions). The article focuses on how a conceptual idea about the object chosen or given for in-depth discussion or study in an academic setting might be constructed and how the sense-giving potential of this object forms the conceptual entity. In this context, the object acts as a symbol for the idea and transforms into a sense-making tool that affects how linguistic or visual patterns manifest in the human mind. The articleʼs goal is to illustrate the problem of the expansion of every field of knowledge through the development of new concepts. This goal involves visual art as a reference point, notably Edvard Munchʼs Scream series becoming an object for idea generation. Practically, conceptualization strategies can make teaching a foreign language easier. The use of visual art images as nonverbal communication tools gives teachers a chance to improve studentsʼ discourse skills. The cognitive approach to understanding the scream image in the artwork enables us to connect it to symbolic qualities that heighten its emotional resonance and give it fundamentally indivisible characteristics. This article takes a cognitive approach to communication. Hence, teaching it involves developing mental representations of the conversational subject and its linguistic realizations. As the result, considering the object (image) as a conceptual phenomenon of visual culture gives the following sequence of causal modes of its cognition: stimulation – intentional stances and cognitive attitude – mentalization / presence of mental content – ideation / reasoning / presence of substantial content – conceptualization. All of these are either postures or processes in which a kind of object appears, depending on the psychodynamic or psychoemotional state of its meditator, more specifically: stimulus object – intentional object – mental object – ideative object – substantial object / semantic object – conceptual object. So, Munchʼs conception of the scream has not assumed a stable character, we are not inclined to consider the scream as a concept and leave it to us to designate it as a conceptual sense-given object. Future studies might focus on creating conceptual frameworks for the language learning process.