Equal Degree Research Articles

Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race by John Frederick Bell (review)

Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race by John Frederick Bell (review)

An explainable machine learning-driven proposal of pulmonary fibrosis biomarkers

Pulmonary fibrosing diseases are in the very epicenter of biomedical research both due to their increasing prevalence and their association with SARS-CoV-2 infections. Research of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, the most lethal among the interstitial lung diseases, is in need for new biomarkers and potential disease targets, a goal that could be accelerated using machine learning techniques. In this study, we have used Shapley values to explain the decisions made by an ensemble learning model trained to classify samples to an either pulmonary fibrosis or steady state based on the expression values of deregulated genes. This process resulted in a full and a laconic set of features capable of separating phenotypes to an at least equal degree as previously published marker sets. Indicatively, a maximum increase of 6% in specificity and 5% in Mathew’s correlation coefficient was achieved. Evaluation with an additional independent dataset showed our feature set having a greater generalization potential than the rest. Ultimately, the proposed gene lists are expected not only to serve as new sets of diagnostic marker elements, but also as a target pool for future research initiatives.

Znanje i demokratija - savremeni izazovi

Science is not tool only, nowdays, but the creator of the world, and the world becomes object of its research and creative work. However, such a position of the science is not easy to afford in concrete social reality. It presumes developed democracy as a social form which affords the highest degree of freedom and equality. The task of the science and theory is to help society to find rational solutions of the concrete social goals, on the causality to social reality basis, without using any force. The freedom of scientific creativity, however, initiates the scientist's obligation of using his knowledge and achievements in accordance to interests of the society and the whole mankind. For such a position of scientific achievements some material and other presumtions are necessary, being the obligation of the whole society, as a way to avoid poverty in the global, technology developed reality, although there is no equality between rich society and developed democracy, necessarily. The developed democracy presumes developed democratic institutions and, among them, as one of the most important, like fundamental rights and freedoms are, legal state institution. In XIX century in german legal theory, the leading ones were theories of state sovereignty as a way to gain stability of legal state in its task to afford the realisation of the most important social values. Such theories had various degradations in history, as a result of their tries to change national sovereinty theory to state sovereignty theory as a leading one, for the reason of national sovereignty instability, as to their opinion. Due to possibility of degradation, theories of state sovereignty face the necessity of their revision, by putting them in the context of humanity and mankind principals, in order to avoid negative consequences in history, like nazyism surely was. In European community the leading concept of governing, which includes all institutions and organs, state ones and civil, as well, in decision making process, refering to the interests of all, is two level governance and multilevel governance.

Стратегическое планирование экономического развития депрессивных регионов России

The article discusses issues of identification and typologization of depressed regions, as well as methodological foundations for planning the strategic development of these territories. It is indicated that the social and economic development of the state largely depends on the degree of equalization of the economic development of individual regions. In this regard, the task of the federal state policy is to adjust the development of individual territories. It is stated that in order to recognize a region as depressed, it is necessary to have two interrelated, but not always correlating groups of indicators in the regions: a consistently low quality of life and a decline in economic development. Based on the ratings formed by the RIA Rating agency on the quality of life of the population and the social and economic development of territories, there were identified groups of depressed regions: truly depressed (11 regions of Russia); depressed regions that periodically demonstrate an improvement in the social and economic situation (2 regions); depressed regions that periodically demonstrating an improvement in the quality of life (1 region); regions with an average level of depression (4 regions). It is stated that in order to bring depressed regions out of the crisis situation, fundamentally different approaches to strategic development planning are needed in comparison with prosperous regions. Thus, the following parameters should be observed in the strategic plans of the regions: goal of overcoming the depressive state and reducing the negative manifestations of the depressive state of the region; taking into account and expanding external support for the development of the region (federal support and investment); a forced development strategy instead of an inertial one; presence of an anti-crisis component; compliance with the priority of the development of the real sector of the economy. The article describes the characteristics of the "successful" strategy of the depressed region (the Strategy of the Republic of Tyva) and the strategy that requires improvement (the Strategy of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic).

Experience and Problems of Environmental Education, Education and Upbringing. Ecological Culture

The article talks about the relationship of the Chechen people with nature, which from time immemorial were built on the fundamental principles of human community, and the worldview proceeded from the integrity of living and inanimate nature, as they are interconnected and mutually conditioned, therefore have an equal degree of importance for the harmonious functioning of the universe. Flora and fauna, micro- and macrocosm, living and inanimate, rational and irrational are part of a single system of the universe. In the natural environment, as well as in society, there is and cannot be anything that could be ignored. The problem of ecology in its relevance and significance has come to the fore, because today there is an unprecedented ecological crisis in the entire history of mankind. But despite this, people continue to blindly exploit natural resources, pollute the environment and the entire atmosphere. In these conditions, it is important to show that a distinctive feature of Chechen culture is a careful attitude to nature.

Обеспечение экономичности ГТУ сложного цикла с разным подогревом в ступенях и отбором воздуха на охлаждение межтурбинной камеры сгорания

The choice of the parameters of a gas turbine plant of a complex cycle with two-stage heating and compressor air bleed for the cooling of the second combustion chamber is considered using as an efficiency criterion the equality of the effectiveefficiencies of a simple and complex cycle with the dependence of the efficiency of a simple cycle on the degree of heating in the second stage. The decrease in the efficiency of a complex cycle as a result of the compressor cooling-air bleed with the depend-ence of the efficiency of a simple cycle on the degree of heating in the second stage is compensated due to an increase in the degree of heating in this stage compared to the first stage, at which the efficiency of a simple and complex cycle without cooling-air bleed increases. As a result, the efficiency of a complex cycle with the bleed of a sufficient amount of cooling air also increases until it is equal to the efficiency of a complex cycle without cooling-air bleed with the decreased equal degree of heating in stages corresponding to the first stage and the economic degree of pressure increase dependent thereon

As we coach, so shall we consult: A perspective on coaching research in education

In taking stock of educational coaching research, I consider the extant literature and content of four articles comprising a special issue of the Journal of School Psychology (viz., Glover et al., 2022; Pas et al., 2022; Pianta et al., 2022; Reddy et al., 2022). Before reviewing these specific articles, the thesis offered for the broader field is that without the solid foundation afforded by the school consultation literature, the science of educational coaching would not be as advanced as it is today. Following a description of each study and comparisons between/among them, I consider unique and shared aspects of consultation and educational coaching. The article concludes with four proposed directions for future coaching research based on prior consultation research: (a) documenting coaching procedural integrity and intervention fidelity/integrity to an equal degree, (b) changing teacher behavior utilizing social influence/behavior change frameworks, (c) incorporating greater use of technology (i.e., telecoaching), and (d) moving toward the concept of prescriptive coaching.

PROBLEMS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

PROBLEMS OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

The impact of exposure to cigarette advertising and promotion on youth smoking behavior in Malang Regency (Indonesia) during the COVID- 19 Pandemic.

The prevalence of teen smokers has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. Smoking behavior occurs due to exposure to advertising and the promotion of cigarettes. This quantitative research was conducted using cross-sectional approach. The purpose of the study was to analyze the relationship between advertising exposure and cigarette promotion on adolescent smoking behavior in Malang Regency during the pandemic using the chi-square test. Random sampling on students from several high schools or equal degree in the Kepanjen District was done with a total of 145 respondents. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between age, types of cigarette advertising media at the point of sale, outdoor media, social media, internet, and newspapers or magazines by adolescent smoking behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic (p-value > 0.05). Exposure to cigarette advertisements on television, total exposure to cigarette advertisements, cigarette promotion, and gender had a significant relationship with adolescent smoking behavior during the pandemic (p value < 0.05). Adolescents are quite highly exposed to the various types of advertisements and promotions of cigarettes that can influence increased smoking behavior during the pandemic.

Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race by John Frederick Bell

Degrees of Equality: Abolitionist Colleges and the Politics of Race by John Frederick Bell

Factors promoting alliance quality: Differentiation of therapeutic alliance according to the formal aspects of the psychotherapeutic process and demographic variables

Background and ObjectivesThe study's main aim was to determine which formal aspects of psychotherapy (therapist's work experience, number of sessions held, frequency of meetings, length of sessions) contributed to the quality of the therapeutic (working) alliance. The alliance was also analyzed for demographic variables. MethodsThe sample consisted of 428 participants, and the working alliance was evaluated in 262 psychotherapist–patient dyads. To assess its quality, the author used the full version of the Working Alliance Inventory (WAI). ResultsThe analyzes led to several conclusions. Their results indicate that the quality of working alliance increases if psychotherapy is conducted by an experienced specialist, if the frequency of sessions is high, and if the sessions are longer. They do not, however, pinpoint the demographic markers of therapeutic alliance quality. ConclusionThe formal aspects of the psychotherapeutic process influence the quality of the working alliance. Alliance develops to an equal degree in people of different ages and with diverse levels of education, regardless of the presence or absence of close interpersonal relationships in their lives.

Critical transitions in degree mixed networks: A discovery of forbidden tipping regions in networked spin systems.

Critical transitions can be conceptualized as abrupt shifts in the state of a system typically induced by changes in the system's critical parameter. They have been observed in a variety of systems across many scientific disciplines including physics, ecology, and social science. Because critical transitions are important to such a diverse set of systems it is crucial to understand what parts of a system drive and shape the transition. The underlying network structure plays an important role in this regard. In this paper, we investigate how changes in a network's degree sequence impact the resilience of a networked system. We find that critical transitions in degree mixed networks occur in general sooner than in their degree homogeneous counterparts of equal average degree. This relationship can be expressed with parabolic curves that describe how the tipping point changes when the nodes of an initially homogeneous degree network composed only of nodes with degree k1 are replaced by nodes of a different degree k2. These curves mark clear tipping boundaries for a given degree mixed network and thus allow the identification of possible tipping intersections and forbidden tipping regions when comparing networks with different degree sequences.

Whole-brain comparison of rodent and human brains using spatial transcriptomics.

The ever-increasing use of mouse models in preclinical neuroscience research calls for an improvement in the methods used to translate findings between mouse and human brains. Previously, we showed that the brains of primates can be compared in a direct quantitative manner using a common reference space built from white matter tractography data (Mars et al., 2018b). Here, we extend the common space approach to evaluate the similarity of mouse and human brain regions using openly accessible brain-wide transcriptomic data sets. We show that mouse-human homologous genes capture broad patterns of neuroanatomical organization, but the resolution of cross-species correspondences can be improved using a novel supervised machine learning approach. Using this method, we demonstrate that sensorimotor subdivisions of the neocortex exhibit greater similarity between species, compared with supramodal subdivisions, and mouse isocortical regions separate into sensorimotor and supramodal clusters based on their similarity to human cortical regions. We also find that mouse and human striatal regions are strongly conserved, with the mouse caudoputamen exhibiting an equal degree of similarity to both the human caudate and putamen.

Comparative investigation of PFAS adsorption onto activated carbon and anion exchange resins during long-term operation of a pilot treatment plant

Widespread contamination of groundwater with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has required drinking water producers to quickly adopt practical and efficacious treatments to limit human exposure and deleterious health outcomes. This pilot-scale study comparatively investigated PFAS adsorption behaviors in granular activated carbon (GAC) and two strong-base gel anion exchange resin (AER) columns operated in parallel over a 441-day period to treat contaminated groundwater dominated by short-chain perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCA). Highly-resolved breakthrough profiles of homologous series of 2–8 CF2 PFCA and perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSA), including ultrashort-chain compounds and branched isomers, were measured to elucidate adsorption trends. Sample ports at intermediate bed depths could predict 50% breakthrough of compounds on an accelerated basis, but lower empty bed contact times led to conservative estimates of initial breakthrough. Homologous PFAS series displayed linear (GAC) and log-linear (AER) relationships between chain-length and breakthrough, independent of initial concentration. AERs generally outperformed GAC on a normalized bed volume basis, and this advantage widened with increasing PFAS chain-length. As designed, all treatments would have short full-scale service times (≤142 days for GAC; ≤61 days for AERs) before initial breakthrough of short-chain (2–4 CF2) PFCA. However, AER displayed far longer breakthrough times for PFSA compared to GAC (>3× treatment time), and breakthrough was not observed for PFSA with >4 CF2 in AERs. GAC had a finite molar adsorption capacity for total PFAS, leading to a stoichiometric replacement of short-chain PFCA by PFSA and longer-chain PFCA over time. AERs quickly reached a finite adsorption capacity for PFCA, but they showed substantially greater selectivity for PFSA whose capacity was not reached within the duration of the pilot. Breakthrough characteristics of keto- and unsaturated-PFSA, identified in the groundwater by suspect screening, were also evaluated in absence of reference standards. Modified PFAS structures (branched, keto-, unsaturated-) broke through faster than linear and unmodified perfluorinated structures with equal degrees of fluorination, and the effects were more pronounced in GAC compared to AERs. The results highlight that the design of robust PFAS treatment systems should consider facets beyond current PFAS targets including operational complexities and impacts of unregulated and unmonitored co-contaminants.

Research on packing density response characteristics of boron-based powder fuel under axial overload condition of powder ramjet

Boron-based powder fuel has excellent properties such as high energy characteristics and low loss of two-phase flow, and is one of the ideal fuels for powder fuel ramjets. In order to reveal the packing density response characteristics of boron-based powder fuel under the condition of axial overload, a powder compression experimental system that can simulate the axial overload effect was built in this study. The system was used to study the influence of powder fuel compressibility and stratified filling method on the compression characteristics of powder fuel. The existing powder compaction equations was compared and analyzed. The powder compaction equation considering the powder compressibility and the powder mass flow rate model considering the dynamic change of powder fuel packing density were proposed. Under the same pressure condition, the higher the compression degree of the powder fuel, the higher the volume compression rate. Based on the principle of equal compression degree, the powder fuel compression characteristic curves of other compression degrees can be obtained from the powder fuel characteristic curves of two known compression degrees. Under the stratified packing method, the compression characteristics of the powder fuel system have almost nothing to do with the packing order of each component. And according to the filling depth ratio, the compression characteristic curve of the multi-component powder fuel system can be obtained through the compression characteristic curve of each component powder fuel. The prediction accuracy of the powder compaction equation proposed based on the compressibility of powdered fuel is higher than that of existing models.

Cilia-related gene signature in the nasal mucosa correlates with disease severity and outcomes in critical respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis.

BackgroundRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause life-threatening respiratory failure in infants. We sought to characterize the local host response to RSV infection in the nasal mucosa of infants with critical bronchiolitis and to identify early admission gene signatures associated with clinical outcomes.MethodsNasal scrape biopsies were obtained from 33 infants admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) with critical RSV bronchiolitis requiring non-invasive respiratory support (NIS) or invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV), and RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was performed. Gene expression in participants who required shortened NIS (</= 3 days), prolonged NIS (> 3 days), and IMV was compared.FindingsIncreased expression of ciliated cell genes and estimated ciliated cell abundance, but not immune cell abundance, positively correlated with duration of hospitalization in infants with critical bronchiolitis. A ciliated cell signature characterized infants who required NIS for > 3 days while a basal cell signature was present in infants who required NIS for </= 3 days, despite both groups requiring an equal degree of respiratory support at the time of sampling. Infants who required invasive mechanical ventilation had increased expression of genes involved in neutrophil activation and cell death.InterpretationIncreased expression of cilia-related genes in clinically indistinguishable infants with critical RSV may differentiate between infants who will require prolonged hospitalization and infants who will recover quickly. Validation of these findings in a larger cohort is needed to determine whether a cilia-related gene signature can predict duration of illness in infants with critical bronchiolitis. The ability to identify which infants with critical RSV bronchiolitis may require prolonged hospitalization using non-invasive nasal samples would provide invaluable prognostic information to parents and medical providers.

Spatiotemporal Differences and Spatial Spillovers of China's Green Manufacturing under Environmental Regulation.

Faced with the real demand of manufacturing industry to achieve the goal of green and high-quality development, exploring spatiotemporal heterogeneity and the spatial spillover effect of green manufacturing efficiency under environmental regulation can help reveal the path and mechanism of green development in the manufacturing industry. By using the SBM-DEM model to measure green manufacturing efficiency at the urban scale in China, exploratory spatial analysis is used to characterize the spatiotemporal differentiation of urban green manufacturing efficiency from 2003 to 2018. With the help of the spatial Durbin model, the impact of environmental regulation on green manufacturing efficiency and the spatial spillover effect are demonstrated. The results show that: (1) The green manufacturing efficiency of cities has developed in a gradual and balanced manner in time series, and the degree of equalization is stronger in the eastern coast than in the western inland; (2) Urban green manufacturing efficiency patterns are misaligned with economic scale patterns, indicating that green manufacturing is not traditionally dominated by economic factor inputs; (3) The practice of Chinese cities has proved that environmental regulation can significantly inhibit the development of green manufacturing efficiency in local cities. The crowding-out effect and optimization effect of environmental regulation on other external factors indirectly affect green development. By comparing different spatial weight matrices, it is shown that the economic relationship between cities can offset the inhibition of environmental regulation; (4) Although environmental regulation under spatial interaction would have significantly contributed to the green manufacturing efficiency of neighboring cities, this contribution effect is insignificant and weak due to the economic interactions between cities. Empirical research provides a theoretical foundation for the development of green manufacturing from the standpoint of environmental regulation, allowing green development research in manufacturing to move further.

The 1-2-3 Conjecture Holds for Graphs with Large Enough Minimum Degree

Is there a universal constant K, say K = 3, such that one may dispose of all pairs of adjacent vertices with equal degrees from any given connected graph of order at least three by blowing its selected edges into at most K parallel edges? This question was first posed in 2004 by Karoński, Łuczak and Thomason, who equivalently asked if one may assign weights 1,2,3 to the edges of every such graph so that adjacent vertices receive distinct weighted degrees — the sums of their incident weights. This basic problem is commonly referred to as the 1-2-3 Conjecture nowadays, and has been addressed in multiple papers. Thus far it is known that weights 1, 2, 3, 4,5 are sufficient [30]. We show that this conjecture holds if the minimum degree δ of a graph is large enough compared to its maximum degree Δ, i.e., when δ = Ω(log Δ).

Impact of secondary mitral valve chordal cutting on valve geometry in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with marked septal hypertrophy.

In patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and mild septal thickness undergoing myectomy, resecting fibrotic anterior mitral leaflet (AML) secondary chordae moves the mitral valve (MV) away from the outflow tract and ejection flow, reducing the need for a deep septal excision. Aim of the present study was to assess whether chordal resection has similarly favourable effects in patients with important hypertrophy, who represent the majority of patients with obstructive HCM. The MV position in the ventricular cavity, assessed from echocardiography as AML-annulus ratio, was compared before and after chordal resection in 150 consecutive HCM patients with important (≥20 mm) and 62 with mild (≤19 mm) septal thickness undergoing myectomy. Preoperatively, MV position was displaced towards the septum to a similar extent in both groups. Postoperatively, AML-annulus ratio increased of an equal degree in both groups, from 0.43 ± 0.05 to 0.55 ± 0.06 (P < 0.001) a 28% increase, and from 0.43 ± 0.06 to 0.55 ± 0.06 (P < 0.001) a 26% increase, respectively, indicating a similar MV shift away from the outflow tract. When AML-annulus ratio was compared in the study cohort and 124 normal subjects, MV position was within normal range in <4% of patients preoperatively and normalized in >50% postoperatively. In obstructive HCM, displacement of the MV apparatus into the outflow tract interferes with the ejection flow. Resection of fibrotic secondary chordae moves the MV apparatus away from the outflow tract and enlarges the outflow area independently of septal thickness, facilitating septal myectomy by reducing the need for a deep muscular excision.

Stylistic Deviation in Devkota's “The Lunatic”

This article explores the linguistic deviations especially on two levels: semantic and syntactic levels. Out of few Devkota's intricate poetic compositions, "The Lunatic" is considered to be the daunting poems to the average readers, students, and even teachers. Not only its English version "The Lunatic", but its Nepali version "Paagala" also can pose an equal degree of toughness to the Nepali readers. The article seeks the answers to the questions as: what sorts of semantic and syntactic deviations are there in the poem "The Lunatic"? How do these deviations occur in the poem, and why have these deviations been used there? The article focuses on the main words which have distorted the meaning system in terms of the ordinary norms of grammar. Similarly, it also points out the syntactic patterns which have overtly flouted the grammatical norms. Furthermore, it aims to discuss the motives behind the deliberate break of the rules. This article is mainly based on stylistic approach to literary theory with qualitative design. For the theoretical insights, certain related books by Shklovsky (1987), Leech (1988), and Lazar (1993) were duly consulted. After the analysis of the obtained data, it was found out that there were a considerable number of deviations on the levels of word-meaning and the word-order in the pattern of poetic expression. The sole motive of deviant text is the stylistic purpose and enhancement of the expressive range.