Distinct Criteria Research Articles

Correlations Between Interleukin-11 Expression and Hypertensive Kidney Injury in a Rat Model of Renovascular Hypertension.

Interleukin-11 (IL-11) is a pleiotropic cytokine of the interleukin-6 family. Recent studies revealed its crucial role in the development of cardiovascular fibrosis. In this study we examined IL-11 expression levels in the heart and the kidney exposed to high blood pressure in renovascular hypertensive rats and their correlations to fibrotic markers and kidney injury. Two-kidney, one-clip renovascular hypertension (2K1C) was induced in rats. IL-11 expression was measured by real-time polymerase chain reaction in the left ventricle and the right kidney. The correlation of cardiac IL-11 expression with biomarkers of renal fibrosis was assessed. We further investigated IL-11 expression in 2K1C rats grouped into rats with malignant vs. nonmalignant hypertension (distinguishing criteria: weight loss, number of fibrinoid necrosis, and onion skin lesions). Thirty-five days after clipping, mean arterial pressure was significantly increased in 2K1C. Renal IL-11 expression was elevated in 2K1C. In the heart there was only a trend toward higher IL-11 expression in 2K1C. IL-11 in the kidney in 2K1C correlated with the expression of transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1/2, collagens, fibronectin, osteopontin, as well as tissue inhibitors of metalloprotease 1/2. There were also correlations of IL-11 with tissue collagen expansion, number of activated fibroblasts and serum creatinine, but no correlation with mean arterial pressure. Renal expression of IL-11 was highest in rats with malignant hypertension. Renal IL-11 expression of renovascular hypertensive rats is markedly increased and correlates with profibrotic markers and loss of function and might therefore serve as a biomarker for the severity of hypertensive nephrosclerosis.

As estratégias de manutenção dos bens materiais e simbólicos no futebol carioca do início do século XX: Bangu Athletic Club e Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama

O objetivo do artigo ora apresentado é o de realizar uma investigação, a partir do arcabouço teórico elaborado por Carlos Hasenbalg, das estratégias de manutenção das desigualdades raciais e sociais no futebol carioca em seus primeiros anos. Para isto, consideraremos como marcos empíricos os casos do Bangu Athletic Club e do Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama, clubes de caráter popular, e as reações dos rivais consolidados da cidade, vinculados às elites socioeconômicas, para impedir a ascensão esportiva destes clubes. A cor e a posição social aparecem como critérios de distinção e obstáculos aos benefícios materiais e simbólicos. A tensão entre amadorismo e profissionalismo, com a ascensão do Vasco da Gama, provocaria consequências irreversíveis ao futebol da cidade.

A Machine Learning-Based Triage Tool for Children With Acute Infection in a Low Resource Setting.

To deploy machine learning tools (random forests) to develop a model that reliably predicts hospital mortality in children with acute infections residing in low- and middle-income countries, using age and other variables collected at hospital admission. Post hoc analysis of a single-center, prospective, before-and-after feasibility trial. Rural district hospital in Rwanda, a low-income country in Sub-Sahara Africa. Infants and children greater than 28 days and less than 18 years of life hospitalized because of an acute infection. None. Age, vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, and temperature) capillary refill time, altered mental state collected at hospital admission, as well as survival status at hospital discharge were extracted from the trial database. This information was collected for 1,579 adult and pediatric patients admitted to a regional referral hospital with an acute infection in rural Rwanda. Nine-hundred forty-nine children were included in this analysis. We predicted survival in study subjects using random forests, a machine learning algorithm. Five prediction models, all including age plus two to five other variables, were tested. Three distinct optimization criteria of the algorithm were then compared. The in-hospital mortality was 1.5% (n = 14). All five models could predict in-hospital mortality with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve ranging between 0.69 and 0.8. The model including age, respiratory rate, capillary refill time, altered mental state exhibited the highest predictive value area under the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.8 (95% CI, 0.78-0.8) with the lowest possible number of variables. A machine learning-based algorithm could reliably predict hospital mortality in a Sub-Sahara African population of 949 children with an acute infection using easily collected information at admission which includes age, respiratory rate, capillary refill time, and altered mental state. Future studies need to evaluate and strengthen this algorithm in larger pediatric populations, both in high- and low-/middle-income countries.

Hutchesonian Inspired Agent‐Based Virtue Ethics

AbstractFrancis Hutcheson's moral sense theory is the inspiration for both act utilitarianism and a contemporary virtue ethics approach that Michael Slote calls agent‐based virtue ethics. In this essay, I look at other possibilities for ethical theory that spring from Hutcheson's writings and conclude that the landscape of sentimentalist inspired ethics is richer than many realize. I begin this article with a short explanation of Hutcheson's moral sense theory. I explain that Hutcheson proposes and embraces three distinct criteria of moral evaluation, one of which is concerned with the evaluation of motives and two of which are concerned with the evaluation of acts. Act utilitarianism adopts one of the criteria of act evaluation, and Slote's agent‐based virtue ethics adopts the remaining criterion of act evaluation and the criterion of motive evaluation. Then, after pointing out what I believe are shortcomings of Slote's agent‐based virtue ethics, I propose two Hutchesonian inspired theories, each of which is a compromise between act utilitarianism and agent‐based virtue ethics. The first, which I call hypothetical agent‐based virtue ethics, adopts two of Hutcheson's three criteria and is similar structurally to a virtue ethics theory articulated by Rosalind Hursthouse and Linda Zabzebski. The second, which, for lack of a better name, I call Hutchesonian hybridism, adopts all three of Hutcheson's criteria and is a hybrid combination of Slote's actualist agent‐based virtue ethics and hypothetical agent‐based virtue ethics. I argue that both hypothetical agent‐based virtue ethics and Hutchesonian hybridism overcome the shortcomings (pointed out earlier in this essay) of Slote's actualist agent‐based virtue ethics, and that both of these theories are, therefore, worthy of further consideration.

Enhanced Underwater Balanced Co-operative Routing Protocol

Underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) is an developing area for research in the wireless sensor networks (WSN) area. The normal method is to adapt for underwater use presently accessible terrestrial architectures and well-proven architectures. Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have drawn a lot of concentration to help multiple applications such as tracking pollution, tsunami warnings, offshore exploration, tactical tracking, etc. For many applications, the efficiency and reliability of the network in terms of high performance, energy conservation, low bit error rate (BER) and reduced delay are prerequisites. However, UWSN's unique characteristics such as low bandwidth available, big delay in propagation, extremely vibrant network topology, and high probability of error pose many difficulties in the development of effective and reliable communication protocols. Therefore, in this proposed work, along with its mathematical model, we suggest a protocol that focuses on improving network reliability and effectiveness through cooperative routing and sink mobility. For reliable data transmission, cooperative transmission is well known. Based on their residual energy data and depth , prospective relay and target nodes for cooperative routing are chosen in this algorithm. Data from the source node is transferred in a cooperative way to the target node via the relay node. Mobile Sinks collect information straight from the nodes of the location. We consider as selection parameters the depth threshold of the source node, the residual energy of the destination nodes/ potential relay and the SNR of the relating source node to the potential relay / destination node. In this work, two distinct selection criteria for partner nodes are also introduced and contrasted. Partner node selection (relay / destination node) for cooperative routing should be carried out on the grounds of a certain criterion in order to achieve efficient outcomes. Based on the extensive simulations carried out in MATLAB, we note that our suggested method increases performance in terms of energy efficiency, network life and decreases BER relative to the existing depth-based routing protocols.

Exploring the determinants of information adoption

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the effects of review group’s content-related and environment-associated attributes on information adoption intention of information readers. In addition, this study further investigates the effects of these determinants in different websites with different commercial attributes (i.e. online stores and third party forums).Design/methodology/approachThis study used a structured online survey to collect data from an online store and a third party forum in China; totally 302 responses were collected.FindingsThe empirical results confirm that all of the five determinants significantly affect the information adoption intention of information readers. Furthermore, the authors found that four of the determinants have distinct effects in different websites.Originality/valueThe findings of this study validate the significant moderating role of website attributes in readers’ information processing. Information readers use distinct criteria to evaluate the received review information; electronic word-of-mouth determinants have varying effects on different websites with different commercial attributes.

Quality of service (QoS) parameters prediction for web services using hybrid neural network and ensemble methods

Web services are an essential part of the everyday operation for a number of organizations. Applications within organizations frequently depend on web services to fulfill customers needs. Failed and slow online application depending on web services can cost a lot to organizations in terms of customer dissatisfaction. Estimation and improvement of the quality of service (QoS) parameters of web service serve as the primary objective of service providers. We hypothesize that analyzing the source code behind the web services helps in computing the QoS parameters. In this paper, we analyze the source code using thirty-seven different source code metrics (SCMs) to measure the internal structure of the software system. In order to develop a model, these SCMs are treated as input for predicting QoS parameters using nine different prediction techniques and three different ensemble methods. Since SCM act as an important parameter for assessing the performance of prediction techniques, hence for dimensionality reduction and removing irrelevant features, four distinct feature reduction techniques are considered in the study during implementation. Two distinct evaluation criteria such as MMRE and RMSE, are considered for evaluating and comparing the performance of the developed QoS parameters prediction models. The experimental results reveal that the weighted-based ensemble method produces better results. The results also depict that the ME, Ca, IC, DAM, and MFA metrics are commonly found relevant metrics for QoS parameters prediction. Furthermore, we also observe that the selected set of metrics achieves better results compared to all metrics.

Effect of 3 Euthanasia Methods on Serum Yield and Serum Cortisol Concentration in Zebrafish (Danio rerio).

Zebrafish are an important model in neuroscience and developmental biology and are also an emerging model in hematology and immunology. Little information is available for zebrafish regarding the physiologic impact of different euthanasia methods and whether a chosen method of euthanasia can impact serum yield. These parameters could impact the choice of euthanasia method for a study. To that end, the current study compared 3 methods of adult zebrafish euthanasia and their effects on 3 distinct criteria; time to loss of opercular movement, volume of serum obtained, and serum cortisol concentration. Blood was collected using a postmortem tail amputation and centrifugation blood collection technique. Time to loss of opercular movement differed significantly among euthanasia methods, with animals undergoing rapid chilling displaying the shortest time (mean Rapid Chilling: 40 s; Benzocaine: 86 s; MS222: 96 s). All methods of euthanasia resulted in a comparable average serum yield (Rapid Chilling = 7.5 μL; Benzocaine = 8.5 μL; MS222 = 7.5 μL per fish). None of the euthanasia methods tested resulted in average cortisol concentrations above the reported physiologic range. Although no significant differences were observed in serum yield or serum cortisol concentration, rapid chilling remains the preferred method for painless, humane euthanasia.

Advancing impact assessments of non-native species: strategies for strengthening the evidence-base

The numbers and impacts of non-native species (NNS) continue to grow. Multiple ranking protocols have been developed to identify and manage the most damaging species. However, existing protocols differ considerably in the type of impact they consider, the way evidence of impacts is included and scored, and in the way the precautionary principle is applied. These differences may lead to inconsistent impact assessments. Since these protocols are considered a main policy tool to promote mitigation efforts, such inconsistencies are undesirable, as they can affect our ability to reliably identify the most damaging NNS, and can erode public support for NNS management. Here we propose a broadly applicable framework for building a transparent NNS impact evidence base. First, we advise to separate the collection of evidence of impacts from the act of scoring the severity of these impacts. Second, we propose to map the collected evidence along a set of distinguishing criteria: where it is published, which methodological approach was used to obtain it, the relevance of the geographical area from which it originates, and the direction of the impact. This procedure produces a transparent and reproducible evidence base which can subsequently be used for different scoring protocols, and which should be made public. Finally, we argue that the precautionary principle should only be used at the risk management stage. Conditional upon the evidence presented in an impact assessment, decision-makers may use the precautionary principle for NNS management under scientific uncertainty regarding the likelihood and magnitude of NNS impacts. Our framework paves the way for an improved application of impact assessments protocols, reducing inconsistencies and ultimately enabling more effective NNS management.

Conceptualizing throughput legitimacy: Procedural mechanisms of accountability, transparency, inclusiveness and openness in EU governance

AbstractThis symposium demonstrates the potential for throughput legitimacy as a concept for shedding empirical light on the strengths and weaknesses of multi‐level governance, as well as challenging the concept theoretically. This article introduces the symposium by conceptualizing throughput legitimacy as an ‘umbrella concept’, encompassing a constellation of normative criteria not necessarily empirically interrelated. It argues that in order to interrogate multi‐level governance processes in all their complexity, it makes sense for us to develop normative standards that are not naïve about the empirical realities of how power is exercised within multi‐level governance, or how it may interact with legitimacy. We argue that while throughput legitimacy has its normative limits, it can be substantively useful for these purposes. While being no replacement for input and output legitimacy, throughput legitimacy offers distinctive normative criteria—accountability, transparency, inclusiveness and openness—and points towards substantive institutional reforms.

A word to Heidegger? The limits of tolerance in the oral history of philosophy

The beginning of the new realm in philosophical research, which is the oral history of phiosophy, is followed by the consequential set of serious ethical issues. The purpose of this article is to identify moral orientations a historian of philosophy can rely on in oral communication with respondents. The starting point of the analysis is the ethical standards of interviews developed by the Oral History Society. An example to test these standards based on the principle of maximum tolerance is the case of Martin Heidegger. Considering the ambiguity of some outstanding philosophical figures, the main task of the article is to find the line between propagation of the dangerous views of the philosopher and objective philosophical analysis. As a guide to the ethics of interviewing philosophers, I propose the approach suggested by Alain Badieu and Barbara Cassin regarding Heidegger. They claim that a great philosopher can simultaneously be a Nazi and an anti-Semite. I outlined the general feature of interaction with ambiguous personalities in a philosophical interview: (1) the interviewer should not make extreme judgments in advance; (2) We have no right to remove some ambiguous philosophers from discourse, and communication with them is a personal matter of the interviewer. But philosophical community should produce the criteria for exact distinction between the sphere of ethically unacceptable and realm of uncertain.

The Notion of Regulation in Internacional Law

Regulation – a notion first borrowed from the natural sciences by economists and then from economists by lawyers – has become increasingly common in international law. Within this article, we attempt to define the main features of international regulation. To do so, we will retrace, although not exhaustively, the path of the successive applications of this notion through its implementation in two major legal models. This will be a necessary step in defining its distinctive criteria. Thereafter, we will analyze the feasibility of employing these criteria into international regulation to determine whether the phenomenon observed within domestic legal systems is actually the same phenomenon or a completely different one.

Integrated management systems as a basis for sustainable development of the organization

The definition of integrated management systems is considered in the paper from the point of view of various authors. The purpose of the paper is to develop a method for determining the possibility of hiring a candidate based on knowledge of the likelihood of selection signs. To determine the possibility of hiring a candidate, a system of independent informative features was developed and the frequencies of their occurrence in the workers’ questionnaires with positive or negative assessments of their work activity by the head were established. A distinguishing criterion is proposed and its threshold values are selected. A program that helps a personnel officer to make a decision on hiring a candidate is developed. Confidence probabilities for decisions are established.

Why psychological accounts of personal identity can accept a brain death criterion and biological definition of death.

Psychological accounts of personal identity claim that the human person is not identical to the human animal. Advocates of such accounts maintain that the definition and criterion of death for a human person should differ from the definition and criterion of death for a human animal. My contention is instead that psychological accounts of personal identity should have human persons dying deaths that are defined biologically, just like the deaths of human animals. Moreover, if brain death is the correct criterion for the death of a human animal, then it is also the correct criterion for the death of a human person. What the nonidentity of persons and animals requires is only that they have distinct criteria for ceasing to exist.

Supercuspidal representations of GLn(F) distinguished by a Galois involution

Let $F/F_0$ be a quadratic extension of non-Archimedean locally compact fields of residual characteristic $p\neq2$, and let $\sigma$ denote its non-trivial automorphism. Let $R$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic different from $p$. To any cuspidal representation $\pi$ of ${\rm GL}_n(F)$, with coefficients in $R$, such that $\pi^{\sigma}\simeq\pi^{\vee}$ (such a representation is said to be $\sigma$-selfdual) we associate a quadratic extension $D/D_0$, where $D$ is a tamely ramified extension of $F$ and $D_0$ is a tamely ramified extension of $F_0$, together with a quadratic character of $D_0^{\times}$. When $\pi$ is supercuspidal, we give a necessary and sufficient condition, in terms of these data, for $\pi$ to be ${\rm GL}_n(F_0)$-distinguished. When the characteristic $\ell$ of $R$ is not $2$, denoting by $\omega$ the non-trivial $R$-character of $F_0^{\times}$ trivial on $F/F_0$-norms, we prove that any $\sigma$-selfdual supercuspidal $R$-representation is either distinguished or $\omega$-distinguished, but not both. In the modular case, that is when $\ell>0$, we give examples of $\sigma$-selfdual cuspidal non-supercuspidal representations which are not distinguished nor $\omega$-distinguished. In the particular case where $R$ is the field of complex numbers, in which case all cuspidal representations are supercuspidal, this gives a complete distinction criterion for arbitrary complex cuspidal representations, as well as a purely local proof, for cuspidal representations, of the dichotomy and disjunction theorem due to Kable and Anandavardhanan-Kable-Tandon.

Prevalencia de sobrepeso, obesidad y obesidad abdominal en población española entre 3 y 24 años. Estudio ENPE

Introduction and objectivesThe aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of excess weight and abdominal obesity (AO), based on individual anthropometric measurements, according to various criteria in the Spanish population aged 3 to 24 years and to analyze their distribution by age and sex. MethodsWe analyzed data from the ENPE study. This analysis included the population aged 3 to 24 years (n=1601). Anthropometric measurements were taken in participants’ homes by trained observers following standardized international protocols. We defined overweight and obesity according to the International Obesity Task Force, World Health Organization, and Orbegozo 2011 criteria, and AO according to a waist-to-height index ≥ 0.5, Taylor criteria, and the 90th percentile of Orbegozo 2011. ResultsThe prevalence of excess weight (overweight+obesity) exceeded 30% with all the criteria used. The prevalence of overweight (International Obesity Task Force) was estimated at 34.1% (95%CI, 31.8-36.4) and obesity at 10.3% (95%CI, 8.9-11.9). The estimated prevalence of AO (waist-to-height index ≥ 0.5) was 31.2% (95%CI, 29.0-33.5), and 20.9% (95%CI, 18.1-22.1) satisfied all 3 criteria. A total of 16% (95%CI, 13.8-17.8) had excess weight and concomitant AO. ConclusionsThe prevalence of overweight, obesity and AO in the Spanish population aged 3 to 24 years old is high and is higher in men than in women. When distinct criteria were used, the prevalence of AO was approximately 30%. Among persons classified as obese by the 3 criteria, 71.6% were also classified as having AO according to distinct cutoffs.

The practice and perceptions of RRI—A gender perspective

Little is known to date about the practice and perceptions of RRI among researchers in Europe as well as the integration of the gender dimension into everyday RRI practices. This lack was addressed by two large-scale surveys that were launched in the course of the EU-funded MoRRI project (Monitoring the evolution and benefits of RRI, Contract number RTD-B6-PP-00964-2013, Duration 09/2013–03/2018). The analysis shows that the institutional environment positively influences the degree of RRI activities and the general attitudes towards more responsible research and innovation: researchers working in an institutional environment that systematically supports the practice of RRI are more active in RRI practices than researchers who do not rely on such structures. For the gender equality dimension, this means that institutions with a gender equality plan (GEP) in place are more inclined to support female researchers than institutions without such institutional incentives. Furthermore, researchers with experiences in EU-funded projects are more likely to be engaged in RRI activities. Even if female researchers have a stronger inclination to engage with society than their male counterparts, gender competence proves to be the relevant distinguishing criterion. Gender competent researchers are more often involved in other RRI activities.

COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT CRITERIA IN THE PREVALENCE OF METABOLIC SYNDROME IN STUDENTS FROM PARANAVAÍ, PARANÁ

ABSTRACTObjective: To investigate the difference in the proportion of students with metabolic syndrome, diagnosed according to different criteria.Methods: The sample consisted of 241 students (136 boys and 105 girls) aged 10 to 14 years, from public and private schools in Paranavaí, Paraná. We used three distinct diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome, considering the presence of at least three of the following risk factors: increased waist circumference, hypertension, fasting hyperglycemia, low HDL-C, and elevated triglycerides.Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome found was 1.7% (confidence interval of 95% - 95%CI 0-3.3) for the IDF criterion; 3.3% (95%CI 1.0-5.6) for Cook; and 17.4% (95%CI 12.6-22.3) for Ferranti. Analyzing the criteria in pairs, the agreement between IDF and Cook was 97.5% (k=0.95); between IDF and Ferranti, 83.4% (k=0.67); and between Cook and Ferranti, 85.9% (k=0.72). Onlyone student (0.4%) was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome solely by the IDF criterion, while 34 (14.1%) were diagnosed exclusively by Ferranti. The comparison of the three criteria showed that Ferranti presented the highest proportion of metabolic syndrome (p<0.001), and Cook had a greater proportion than IDF (p<0.001).Conclusions: We found a significant difference in the proportion of metabolic syndrome in the three criteria. The choice of which criterion to use can compromise not only the percentage of metabolic syndrome prevalence but also interfere in strategies of intervention and prevention in children and adolescents with and without metabolic syndrome, respectively.

Dynamic evolution algorithm designing and control parameters quantitatively grading for the cascading failures based reliability model of an interdependent public transit network

To promote the engineering application of the cascading failures (CFs) based reliability study framework for interdependent public transit network (PTN), the dynamic evolution algorithm for activating different components of CFs model should be designed, thereby providing the prerequisite for mastering different control capabilities of multiple CFs control parameters. First, through analyzing the internal cohesion and cooperative evolution mechanism of the different components of CFs model, the dynamic evolution algorithm with high operability is designed to realize the efficient simulation of CFs dynamics evolution. Second, taking Jinan’s interdependent PTN as simulation case, the dynamics evolutions under multiple CFs control parameters are analyzed based on the multi-perspective CFs measurement indicator system. Thereby, the obtained dynamics analysis sample is large enough for measuring the reliability of multiple CFs measurement indicators, and provides the general demonstration analysis framework for being widely used in other cities. Third, we propose the classification distinguishing criteria for evaluating the simulation experiment results, thus getting the basic classification results table. Then, through providing experts with this suggested classification results table as well as all corresponding simulation figures and their dynamics simulation analyses, we qualitatively grade the reliability of CFs measurement indicators by combining the expert comments with our observations. Finally, through analyzing relation mechanism between the CFs control parameters and the multi-perspective CFs measurement indicator system, the quantitatively grading method of CFs control parameters considering analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is proposed. The designed dynamic evolution algorithm provides the basic simulation platform for future extended study, and the designed quantitatively grading method of CFs control parameters helps the city traffic manager to clearly know the priority control sequence of CFs control parameters, making the CFs based reliability be able to be optimized from multiple measures.

New Cenomanian "nummoloculinas" of the Natih Formation of Oman

Two new genera and species of "nummoloculinas", Planinummoloculina gnosi gen. et sp. nov. and Nummoloculinodonta akhdarensis gen. et sp. nov., are described from the lower – middle Cenomanian of Oman. They are compared with other "nummoloculinas" known from the Albian to Maastrichtian of the Tethys. The mode of coiling, the number of chamber per whorl and the type of the aperture are the main distinctive criteria to separate them. Planinummoloculina gnosi gen. et sp. nov. seem to be stratigraphically and geographically very restricted, and shows very low intraspecific morphologic variability. Nummoloculinodonta akhdarensis gen. et sp. nov. is more widespread both vertically and horizontally, and shows a higher intraspecific morphologic variability.