Alternative Versions Research Articles

Model-based comparisons of post-treatment free IgE and FEV1 between omalizumab asthma dosing tables in the United States and European Union.

Omalizumab is an anti-immunoglobulin E (IgE) monoclonal antibody that was first approved by the United States (US) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of allergic asthma in 2003. The pivotal trials supporting the initial approval of omalizumab used dosing determined by patient's baseline IgE and body weight, with the goal of reducing the mean free IgE level to approximately 25 ng/mL or less. While the underlying parameters supporting the dosing table remained the same, subsequent studies and analyses have resulted in approved alternative versions of the dosing table, including the European Union (EU) asthma dosing table, which differs in weight bands and maximum allowable baseline IgE and omalizumab dose. In this study, we leveraged modelling and simulation approaches to predict and compare the free IgE reduction and forced expiratory volume in 1second (FEV1) improvement with omalizumab dosing based on the US and EU asthma dosing tables. Previously established population pharmacokinetic-IgE and IgE-FEV1 models were used to predict and compare post-treatment free IgE and FEV1 based on the US and EU dosing tables. Clinical trial simulations (with virtual asthma populations) and Monte Carlo simulations were performed to provide both breadth and depth in the comparisons. The US and EU asthma dosing tables were predicted to result in generally comparable free IgE suppression and FEV1 improvement. Despite the similar free IgE and FEV1 outcomes from simulations, this has not been clinically validated with respect to the registrational endpoint of reduction in annualized asthma exacerbations.

The last illness of I.S. Turgenev

The article discusses the causes and course of the last illness of I.S. Turgenev. The writer was consulted by many famous French and Russian doctors who made various diagnoses and used various methods of treatment. The primary disease that caused Turgenev's death is myxosarcoma (one of the sarcoma variants), involving soft tissues and thoracic vertebrae. The article presents data and discusses alternative diagnostic versions about the nature of the disease and the causes of death of the great Russian writer.

EVALUATING STOCK SELECTION IN THE SAAS INDUSTRY: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RULE OF 40

The Rule of 40 is a popular financial guideline used by software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry participants to assess the operational health of the companies. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the Rule of 40 as a stock selection criterion. Our study analyses a sample of 1756 SaaS companies worldwide spanning the period 2003-2022. The findings demonstrate that the Rule of 40 adds value and delivers a moderately high Sharpe ratio as a stock selection tool. A modified rule, the SaaS Investing Rule of 65, is proposed and found to outperform the Rule of 40 in identifying relative winners and losers within the SaaS space. The effectiveness of the rules raises practical implications for investors and analysts. Additionally, we explore the effectiveness of alternative versions of the Rule of 40 using different measures of profitability, as well investigate whether the returns are driven by traditional style factors.

PERSONAL QUALITIES AND CAREER LONGEVITY OF ELITE LATVIAN ATHLETES

In recent years, sports psychology researchers have shown a growing interest in exploring various facets of sports careers, career transitions, the personal qualities profile of athletes who achieve peak sports performance, and the existing models and distinctions within career stages. This research aimed to examine the link between the mental qualities and skills and the sports careers of elite Latvian athletes and to seek potential differences dependent on sports career stages, level of qualification, and gender. The research was done among 109 elite athletes from Latvia aged 17 to 40, practicing 19 sports – 71 men and 38 women. For the purposes of the research, the subjects were divided into groups according to two criteria: 1) depending on the different stages of their sports career and 2) depending on the type of development of their sports career. The research methods included: Latvian personality survey (LPA-v3, Perepjolkina et al., 2011); Sports et al. (SMTQ; Sheard et al., 2009), adapted for Latvian conditions by Astaficevs et al. (2020); Psychological Performance Inventory Alternative version (PPI-A; Golby et al., 2007), adapted for Latvian conditions by Astaficevs et al. (2020.); General et al. (GSE; Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995), adapted for Latvian conditions by Astaficevs et al. (2020); Psychological Skills Inventory for Sports (PSIS-R5), adapted for Latvian conditions by Fernāte Andra, 2008. The obtained results revealed some differences in the personal profiles of the Latvian athletes depending on the stages and type of their sports careers, level of qualification, and gender. We found higher results along the factors conscientiousness, honesty and modesty, and the lowest results along the factor neuroticism among the elite athletes. We found significantly higher values of the mental skills: anxiety control, concentration, mental preparation, motivation, self-confidence, and control among the men.

On the Choice of Parameters for the Lognormal Model for Response Times: Commentary on Becker et al. (2013)

AbstractIn a recently published article in this journal, Becker et al. claim that, because of a missing slope parameter, the lognormal model for response times on test items almost never holds in practice. However, the authors' critique rests on a misrepresentation of the model, which already does have the equivalent of a slope parameter. More importantly, their extra parameter spoils the interpretation of the parameters for the test‐takers' speed and labor intensity of the items necessary for a response‐time model to be empirically meaningful while their proposed interpretation of the extra parameter seems unwarranted. An analysis of the authors' earlier empirical comparison between the original and their alternative version of the model does not seem to support much of a conclusion about the relative fit of the two models. Also, their simulation study conducted to demonstrate the necessity of the extra slope parameter appears to be based on data simulated in favor of their parameter.

Same Same, But Different: Brain Areas Underlying the Learning from Repetitive Episodic Prediction Errors.

Prediction errors (PEs) function as learning signals. It is yet unclear how varying compared to repetitive PEs affect episodic memory in brain and behavior. The current study investigated cerebral and behavioral effects of experiencing either multiple alternative versions ("varying") or one single alternative version ("repetitive") of a previously encoded episode. Participants encoded a set of episodes ("originals") by watching videos showing toy stories. During scanning, participants either experienced originals, one single, or multiple alternative versions of the previously encoded episodes. Participants' memory performance was tested through recall of original objects. Varying and repetitive PEs revealed typical brain responses to the detection of mismatching information including inferior frontal and posterior parietal regions, as well as hippocampus, which is further linked to memory reactivation, and the amygdala, known for modulating memory consolidation. Furthermore, experiencing varying and repetitive PEs triggered distinct brain areas as revealed by direct contrast. Among others, experiencing varying versions triggered activity in the caudate, a region that has been associated with PEs. In contrast, repetitive PEs activated brain areas that resembled more those for retrieval of originally encoded episodes. Thus, ACC and posterior cingulate cortex activation seemed to serve both reactivating old and integrating new but similar information in episodic memory. Consistent with neural findings, participants recalled original objects less accurately when only presented with the same, but not varying, PE during fMRI. The current findings suggest that repeated PEs interact more strongly with a recalled original episodic memory than varying PEs.

Holy transmedia! - the many faces of Batman in 1960s Finland

ABSTRACT Superheroes exist in multiple narratives and storyworlds at the same time. Some of the stories and iterations are part of the character’s canon, while different adaptations and alternative versions inhabit other timelines and fictional worlds. Using the concept of transmedia universe, this article explores how fan-made and corporate-made adaptations of the character of Batman occupied the same universe and expanded the world inhabited by the character. Approaching the historical phenomenon of the 1960s Batmania from the point of view of adaptation studies, the article sheds light on local adaptations in a transmedia context.

Томас Рикман. Релятивизованное a priori: оценка и критика (перевод В. В. Целищева)

The paper considers M. Friedman's modification of Reichenbach's idea of ‘relativization a priori’. Reichenbach's explication a priori in the form of ‘coordination’ conditions for the correlation of empirical data and mathematical physics is considered by Friedman in the perspective of establishing the nature of the transcendental constitution of scientific objects. In turn, T. Ryckman puts forward an alternative version of relativization a priori, based on the intentionality of a scientific object, in the spirit of Husserl's phenomenology. In general, the paper shows that transcendental constitution is a specifically philosophical, moreover, phenomenological, and not a physical problem.

Association of transketolase polymorphisms with diabetic polyneuropathy in the general population: The KORA F4 study.

We recently reported that genetic variability in the TKT gene encoding transketolase, a key enzyme in the pentose phosphate pathway, is associated with measures of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSPN) in recent-onset diabetes. Here, we aimed to substantiate these findings in a population-based KORA F4 study. In this cross-sectional study, we assessed seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the transketolase gene in 952 participants from the KORA F4 study with normal glucose tolerance (NGT; n=394), prediabetes (n=411), and type 2 diabetes (n=147). DSPN was defined by the examination partof the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI) using the original MNSI > 2 cut-off and two alternative versions extended by touch/pressure perception (TPP) (MNSI>3) and by TPP plus cold perception (MNSI > 4). After adjustment for sex, age, BMI, and HbA1c, in type 2 diabetes participants, four out of seven transketolase SNPs were associated with DSPN for all three MNSI versions (all p≤0.004). The odds ratios of these associations increased with extending the MNSI score, for example, OR (95% CI) for SNP rs62255988 with MNSI>2: 1.99 (1.16-3.41), MNSI>3: 2.27 (1.26-4.09), and MNSI>4: 4.78 (2.22-10.26); SNP rs9284890 with MNSI>2: 2.43 (1.42-4.16), MNSI>3: 3.46 (1.82-6.59), and MNSI>4: 4.75 (2.15-10.51). In contrast, no associations were found between transketolase SNPs and the three MNSI versions in the NGT and prediabetes groups. The link of genetic variation in transketolase enzyme to diabetic polyneuropathy corroborated at the population level strengthens the concept suggesting an important role of pathways metabolising glycolytic intermediates in the evolution of diabetic polyneuropathy.

Patterns of constitutive and induced herbivore defence are complex, but share a common genetic basis in annual and perennial monkeyflower

Abstract Despite multiple ecological and evolutionary hypotheses that predict patterns of phenotypic relationships between plant growth, reproduction and constitutive and/or induced resistance to herbivores, these hypotheses do not make any predictions about the underlying molecular genetic mechanisms that mediate these relationships. We investigated how divergent plant life‐history strategies in the yellow monkeyflower and a life‐history altering locus, DIV1, influence plasticity of phytochemical herbivory resistance traits in response to attack by two herbivore species with different diet breadth. Life‐history strategy (annual vs. perennial) and the DIV1 locus significantly influenced levels of constitutive herbivory resistance, as well as resistance induction following both generalist and specialist herbivory. Perennial plants had higher total levels of univariate constitutive and induced defence than annuals, regardless of herbivore type. Annuals induced less in response to generalist herbivory than did perennials, while induction response was equivalent across the ecotypes for specialist herbivory. The effects of the DIV1 locus on levels of constitutive and induced defence were dependent on genetic background, the annual versus perennial haplotype of DIV1 and herbivore identity. The patterns of univariate induction due to DIV1 were non‐additive and did not always match expectations based on patterns of divergence for annual/perennial parents. For example, perennial plants had higher levels of constitutive and induced defence than did annuals, but when the annual DIV1 was present in the perennial genetic background induction response to herbivory was higher than for the perennial parent lines. Patterns for multivariate defence arsenals generally echoed those of univariate, with annual and perennial monkeyflowers and those with alternative versions of DIV1 differing significantly in constitutive and induced resistance. Like univariate resistance, induced multivariate defence arsenals were affected by herbivore identity. Our results highlight the complexity of the genetic mechanisms underlying plastic response to herbivory. While a genetic locus underlying substantial phenotypic variation in life‐history strategy and constitutive defence also influences defence plasticity, the induction response also depends on genetic background. This result demonstrates the potential for some degree of evolutionary independence between constitutive and induced defence, or induced defence and life‐history strategy, in monkeyflowers. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHODOLOGY TO IMPROVE LABOR SAFETY MANAGEMENT AT THE ENTERPRISES OF THE MINING AND METALLURGICAL COMPLEX

The article substantiates the need to apply the methodology of scientific research to increase the effectiveness of improving the management of occupational safety. It was noted that occupational risk is one of the indicators characterizing the state of occupational safety (at the workplace, in the unit, etc.), and can also be used as an assessment of the effectiveness of specific decisions (or a plan of measures) for occupational safety management. In addition, an important aspect of effective management in modern conditions is the justification of the amount of funds necessary for the implementation of management measures. The results of the analysis of scientific publications show that today approaches are used that ensure the maintenance of the level of professional risk within the defined acceptable values, for the effective practical implementation of which the methodology for the formation of alternative versions of relevant management decisions must be additionally defined, as well as clearly defined criteria for choosing optimal solutions . The considered decision-making situation is characterized by the following circumstances: control and measuring devices are actively used in the workshop during the production process, the possibility of the occurrence of various abnormal situations is considered: from a slight deviation of parameters from permissible values to the complete failure of any of the devices, production losses may occur. Failures in the operation of these devices can lead to emergency situations, accidents, failure of production equipment. Therefore, the solution to the task was to choose a variant of the measure that would ensure the minimization of the expected amount of costs for the maintenance of devices and losses due to failure (or downtime) of these devices. To solve this problem, the Savage criterion was applied, as a result, it was established that the most profitable for the enterprise would be to conduct monthly inspections (alternative a3). It is this alternative that provides for the minimization of the expected amount of costs for the maintenance of devices and losses due to failure (or downtime) of these devices.

Discretizing and validating Keyfitz' entropy for any demographic classification

Abstract Keyfitz's entropy originally is a shape measure of senescence for continuous‐time models. But a later formula of Keyfitz's entropy for discrete time also exists. de Vries et al. (2023) showed that this discrete‐time formula is not a genuine shape measure of senescence and proposed a new discrete‐time formula for entropy that qualifies as a shape measure. However, these authors obtained their new formula by discretizing an alternative version of Keyfitz' continuous‐time formula and not by following his original derivation, that is not by computing the elasticity of life expectancy to an age‐uniform mortality change. Hence, they regarded as a loose end of their work whether discretizing Keyfitz' original derivation would also lead to their new formula. These authors also deemed lack of direct applicability to stage‐classified models a major downside of the new formula they proposed. Here we do two separate things: we discretize Keyfitz' original derivation of entropy and we generalize the new discrete‐time formula for this quantity proposed by de Vries et al. (2023). We show that the discrete‐time formula for entropy that de Vries et al. (2023) propose to supersede, while potentially problematic for studying senescence, is, as Keyfitz' original formula, an elasticity. Generalizing the work of de Vries et al. (2023) leads to a formula for entropy that can be directly applied as a shape measure of senescence to models with any demographic classification. We also prove convergence properties that validate the application of this general formula to models classified by stage. We thus support and generalize the successful approach by de Vries et al. (2023) of obtaining new discrete‐time formulas for Keyfitz' entropy from a shape perspective: merits of shape measures of senescence, which capture the overall age‐pattern of mortality, should be based on their desirable properties and not necessarily on their means of derivation. Moreover, our work gives one more example of how in ecological and evolutionary modelling the passage from continuous to discrete time may be non‐obvious.

Историческая политика Польской Народной Республики в 1980-е гг.: особенности трансформации

The article examines the transformation of the historical politics of the Polish People’s Republic in the 1980s. The author proceeds from the position that the commemorative practices of the Polish socialist government experienced significant external influence from the “mnemonic actors” opposed to the state − the Solidarity trade union and the Polish Catholic Church. The purpose of the study is to analyze the transformations of commemorative practices in the conditions of confrontation between the Polish United Workers’ Party and opposition structures. The works of domestic and foreign authors on the problem of research are noted, in which experts analyzed historical politics through the involvement of didactic literature, paid attention to anniversaries and memorable dates of socialist Poland, and also used a semiotic approach. Relying on a wide array of narrative sources, the author traces the structural changes in the historical policy of V. Jaruzelski: the reform of history textbooks, the actualization of previously suppressed historical events, the institutionalization of the academic community of historians under the auspices of the Polish Historical Society. It is noted that the impulse to modify commemorative practices was the spread of alternative versions of the past by the opposition, which contributed to their actualization in the collective memory of Polish society. The author focuses on the role of the Polish-born Pope John Paul II, whose visit to socialist Poland in 1983 actualized the events related to the Holocaust and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. It is concluded that the anti-communist forces of the Polish People’s Republic influenced the transformation of the course of historical politics due to the popularity of institutions opposed to the state in the conditions of permanent socio-economic and political upheavals in the country in the 1980s.

Flexurba: An open-source R package to flexibly reconstruct the Degree of Urbanisation classification

This paper describes flexurba, a software library written in R, with the first open reconstruction of the Degree of Urbanisation algorithm to classify cities, towns, and rural areas. The R package offers enhanced flexibility and facilitates constructing alternative versions of the Degree of Urbanisation classification by customising parameters such as the minimum population size required for a city, and more ‘hidden’ implementation details including the contiguity rules and edge smoothing procedures. To illustrate how the package can be employed, we briefly demonstrate the grid classification and spatial units classification for Belgium. In addition, we compare results generated by the flexurba package with the official classification and discuss potential use cases. The package enables a broad range of analyses beyond the Degree of Urbanisation’s original application, including evaluating alternative urban delineations, sensitivity analyses, and comparative research.

The sense of coherence scale: psychometric properties in a representative sample of the Czech adult population

BackgroundSense of coherence (SOC) is a personal resource that reflects the extent to which one perceives the world as comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful. Decades of empirical research consistently show that SOC is an important protective resource for health and well-being. Despite the extensive use of the 13-item measure of SOC, there remains uncertainty regarding its factorial structure. Additionally, a valid and reliable Czech version of the scale is lacking. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the SOC-13 scale in a representative sample of Czech adults.MethodsAn online survey was completed by 498 Czech adults (18–86 years old) between November 2021 and December 2021. We used confirmatory factor analysis to examine the factorial structure of the scale. Further, we examined the variations in SOC based on age and gender, and we tested the criterion validity of the scale using the short form of the Mental Health Continuum (MHC) scale and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) scale as mental health outcomes.ResultsSOC-13 showed an acceptable one- and three-factor fit only with specified residual covariance between items 2 and 3. We tested alternative short versions by systematically removing poorly performing items. The fit significantly improved for all shorter versions with SOC-9 having the best psychometric properties with a clear one-factorialstructure. We found that SOC increases with age and males score higher than females. SOC showed a moderately strong positive correlation with MHC, and a moderately strong negative correlation with GAD. These findings were similar for all tested versions supporting the criterion validity of the SOC scale.ConclusionOur findings suggest that shortened versions of the SOC-13 scale have better psychometric properties than the original 13-item version in the Czech adult population. Particularly, SOC-9 emerges as a viable alternative, showing comparable reliability and validity as the 13-item version and a clear one-factorial structure in our sample.

Review: Multiple Objects Detection and Tracking using Deep Learning Approach

Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) is a crucial tool with diverse applications, such as object detection, object counting, and security systems. Precise identification and monitoring of numerous objects are essential in several computer vision uses, such as monitoring, self-driving cars, and computer-human communication. Very little has been done to address occlusion problems in order to enable the best moving object tracking with detection The tracking of visual objects is one of the most important components of computer vision. The process of tracking an object (or a group of objects) across time is called object tracking. Visual object tracking is used to identify or link target items over successive video frames. In this study, we analyze the tracking-by-detection strategy, which includes YOLO-based detection and SORT-based tracking. This work elucidates a general approach to tracking and recognizing many objects with an emphasis on accuracy improvement. We aim to revolutionize computer vision by applying Non-Maximum Suppression (NMS) and Intersection over Union (IoU) approaches, and by combining the state-of-the-art YOLO NAS algorithm with conventional tracking methods or an alternative version of the YOLO Algorithm for object identification. It is expected that our work will have a major impact on many different applications, enabling more precise and reliable object tracking and detection in difficult real-world scenarios. Keywords—Multiple Object Detection, Kalman Filters Multiple Object Tracking, DeepSORT, YOLO, IoU, NMS.

Counterfactual thinking induces different neural patterns of memory modification in anxious individuals

Episodic counterfactual thinking (eCFT) is the process of mentally simulating alternate versions of experiences, which confers new phenomenological properties to the original memory and may be a useful therapeutic target for trait anxiety. However, it remains unclear how the neural representations of a memory change during eCFT. We hypothesized that eCFT-induced memory modification is associated with changes to the neural pattern of a memory primarily within the default mode network, moderated by dispositional anxiety levels. We tested this proposal by examining the representational dynamics of eCFT for 39 participants varying in trait anxiety. During eCFT, lateral parietal regions showed progressively more distinct activity patterns, whereas medial frontal neural activity patterns became more similar to those of the original memory. Neural pattern similarity in many default mode network regions was moderated by trait anxiety, where highly anxious individuals exhibited more generalized representations for upward eCFT (better counterfactual outcomes), but more distinct representations for downward eCFT (worse counterfactual outcomes). Our findings illustrate the efficacy of examining eCFT-based memory modification via neural pattern similarity, as well as the intricate interplay between trait anxiety and eCFT generation.

Meaningful cognitive change for the Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Function in Multiple Sclerosis

Background: There is limited information on interpretation of cognitive changes over time in multiple sclerosis (MS). Objective: This study aimed to provide normative data for the assessment of statistically meaningful change in all tests of the Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Function in MS (MACFIMS). Methods: We applied the reliable change methodology to a healthy Italian cohort, assessed with two alternate versions of the MACFIMS 1 year apart. We calculated confidence intervals of retest score variance using the reliable change index (RCI). Moreover, multivariable linear regression models adjusted for age, sex, education, and baseline score were built to calculate the regression-based change index (RB-CI). Results: Overall, 200 healthy individuals were enrolled. Thresholds for interpreting change in each test were calculated. In the multivariable models, baseline score was associated with retest score in all tests (B from 0.439 to 0.760; p < 0.001). RB-CI can be calculated with data of the multivariable models. Conclusion: We provide normative data for reliable cognitive change evaluation for all the tests of the MACFIMS, which includes the Symbol Digit Modalities Test and Brief International Cognitive Assessment in MS, two widely used tools for screening and monitoring cognition in MS. Our findings can significantly improve the interpretation of cognitive changes in MS.

Design and Development Chairless Chair

Abstract: It is very difficult to stand and work for overall shift in the company by a worker. This will reduce the efficiency of the worker. The solution to this problem is to have a portable device which has an ergonomic design, low cost exoskeletons. In this work a mechanical ergonomics device that is designed around the shape and function of the human body, with segments and joints corresponding to those of the person it is externally coupled with. It functions as a chair whenever it is needed and is coined as Chair less Chair. Worker in industrial can wear it on legs like an exoskeleton. It locks into place and you can sit down on it. The device never touches the ground, which makes it easier to wear: a belt secures it to the hips and it has straps that wrap around the thighs. These are specially designed and part of the mechanism, but an alternate version works with any footwear and touches the ground only when in a stationary position. The user just moves into the desired pose. It will fit closely to lower part of the body as an external body part on which maximum body forces act upon. It is a cost effective product and any error in design may fail the structure which creates loss. So, these forces should be carefully analyzed during the design of structure. The best way to predict these forces during pre-manufacturing stage is to make an analysis on the structure with the help of software. This helps in estimating the stresses induced on the structure which is one of the most important criteria for evaluation of the model.

Dual Response Surface Optimization based on Skill Scores

The popular formulations of dual-response optimization are constructed on minimizing a function of bias and system variability. This study provides an opportunity to evaluate the dual response surface (DRS) problem from a different perspective by adapting two new terms such that internal and external quality forecasts. The background of the proposed approach focuses on the relationship between internal and external quality forecasts and discusses the DRS problem in regards of skill scores by defining a model quality criterion. Skill is the relative accuracy of the forecast and defines a correspondence between forecast of interest and reference forecasts. The reference forecast does not require any knowledge or modelling; thus, it is an unskilled forecast. In this context, skill score is a measure of this relative improvement and widely used in evaluating the performance of operational and experimental forecasts. An alternative version of mean square error (MSE) which is reconstructed by skill scores and model quality criterion is proposed as an objective function for the DRS problem. Integrating the relationship between internal and external quality forecasts into such a response function can improve the effectiveness and cooperation of the applied technique. The proposed approach has a flexible structure and provides decision makers alternative solutions for different values of the model quality criterion. The proposed procedure is discussed by conducted a simulation study and demonstrated in an engineering process.