Extensive Version Research Articles

Internet-based cognitive rehabilitation for working cancer survivors: A process evaluation.

To evaluate the process of an online cognitive rehabilitation program aimed at supporting cancer survivors experiencing cognitive problems at work. Cancer survivors (n = 279) were randomized to one of the intervention groups (i.e., basic and extensive online cognitive rehabilitation) or waitlist control group. Recruitment, reach, dosage, implementation, perceived usefulness and experiences with the program were evaluated using questionnaires and logbooks. Implementation (i.e., reach multiplied by dosage) was acceptable for both versions of the program (range 63% to 76%). Cancer survivors and cognitive therapists perceived the overall program as moderately to highly useful and generally reported positive experiences. Both a basic and extensive version of the online cognitive rehabilitation program were successfully implemented in the context of an RCT, suggesting their feasibility as intervention to support cancer survivors with cognitive problems at work.

79 Brief Subjective Memory Screener Predicts Memory Dysfunction

Objective:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is expected to affect over 7 million older Americans by 2025. Development of fast and inexpensive screening measures for routine screening is critical for identifying those suffering from the earliest stages of AD including Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD). Here we assess the validity and utility of a brief, 5-item SCD screener and its associations with neuropsychological performance as compared to an existing objective cognitive screener, the Mini Mental Status Exam (MMSE).Participants and Methods:Development: A brief, 5-item SCD questionnaire was developed based on a more extensive 20-item version previously validated (Chapman et al. 2021). Participants: 27 cognitively diverse (MCI and cognitively normal) community dwelling older adults were recruited for this study. Mean age: 71.9 ± 7. Inclusion criteria include memory concerns. Exclusion criteria include no previous diagnoses of neurodegenerative diseases and/or major stroke. Administration: Participants completed a brief, 5-item SCD screener along with cognitive testing including the MMSE and a clinically validated list-learning test, the Selective Reminding Test (SRT). Statistical Methods: Spearman 2-tailed correlations were conducted to assess the relationship between the two screening measures, and their relationships to the SRT. Outcome measures on the SRT included total recall (max: 72) and delayed recall (max: 12). All cognitive measures were demographically adjusted with normative data.Results:The mean total for the SCD screener was 2.1 ±1.1, and the mean MMSE score was 29.2 ± 1.2. The SCD screener was associated with MMSE scores (r= -.39, p= .043), SRT Total Recall (r= -.43, p= .024) and Delayed Recall (r=-.42, p=.031) measures. MMSE scores did not associate with either SRT outcome (p>.05).Conclusions:Results support the utility and validity of a brief subjective cognitive decline screener for identifying those who may be experiencing memory dysfunction. The brief SCD screener outperformed the MMSE, an existing and widely used objective screening measure. Associations between the SCD screener and SRT outcomes support the validity and utility of the brief screener and recapitulate previous findings with the more extensive version of the SCD questionnaire (Chapman et al. 2021). Ongoing research is focusing on the utility of the screener in frontline clinical settings and translation of the screener into Spanish.

An Extensible Gradient-Based Optimization Method for Parameter Identification in Power Distribution Network

Accurate parameter identification of power distribution network (PDN) has attracted remarkable attention recently. However, power device parameters usually show an instability attributed to both the operating status and manual entry. Therefore, it is urgent to develop reliable algorithms for identifying PDN parameters with both high accuracy and high efficiency. Most of the existing algorithms are gradient-free and based on the heuristic schemes, resulting in an unstable numerical calculation. Herein, based on our previous work about the adaptive gradient-based optimization (AGBO) method, we propose an extensive version, namely, AGBO-Pro model. In this method, both the numerical and categorical features of experimental observations are utilized and incorporated with each via a weighted average. By comparing the proposed method with several heuristic algorithms, it is found that the errors in RMSE, MAE, and MAPE criteria via AGBO-Pro are all about 2 times lower with a much faster and more stable convergence of the loss function. By further taking a linear transformation of the loss function, the AGBO-Pro model achieves a more robust performance with a much lower variance in repeat numerical calculations. This work shows great potential in possible extension of gradient-based optimization methods for parameter identification in PDN.

The Fight Against Malaria: A New Index for Quantifying and Assessing Policy Implementation Actions to Reduce Malaria Burden in Sub-Saharan Africa

We aggregate information from the World Malaria Reports on 61 different antimalarial policies to develop an extensive synthetic index (MaPI) for 44 SSA countries between 1990 and 2017. We observe an increase of convergence in polices’ implementation in the region, starting in more developed countries and reaching less developed countries from the mid-2000s. Using a difference-in-difference events study design, we find that prevention, diagnosis and treatment are key policies to reduce malaria mortality and prevalence: an increase of about 10 p.p. of these policies generates a mortality cumulative decrease of around 8 p.p. and a prevalence cumulative decrease of 13 p.p. after five years. We also use available data on policy coverage for a reduced subset of policies to construct an intensive margin version of the index. Main results are consistent to the ones derived from the extensive version. Finally, we prove the robustness of our results with a large battery of checks related to model specifications, econometric techniques, data sources and falsification tests.

The Selected Letters of John Berryman ed. by Philip Coleman and Calista McRae

<i>The Selected Letters of John Berryman</i> ed. by Philip Coleman and Calista McRae

The prologue vitae of St. Nicholas the miracleworker in South Slavic medieval literature

The article deals with the prologue (synaxarion) Vitae of St. Nicholas in Slavonic Cyrillic literature from the 13th to the 17th century. These texts function within the hymnographic composition practice and can be found in two types of liturgical books - the Prologue and the Menaion. They are usually extracts from extensive narratives, which is why this paper also looks at texts from two other types of medieval books (the Panegyric and the Reading Menaion) that contain The Acts of St. Nicholas, The Miracles of St. Nicholas and the so-called ?Another? Vita - St. Nicholas of Sion Vita. These texts also functioned as synaxarion vitae. The Vita of St. Nicholas in the Simple Prologue is the shortest and earliest version of a hagiographic narrative about the saint translated in Bulgaria during the First Bulgarian Empire, and it is very rarely found in the hymnographic composition of the Menaion. St. Nicholas? Vita in the Turnovo translation of the Verse Prologue is the most popular and common after the sixth song of the canon in the hymnographic composition practice. That Vita is a more extensive version of the Acts of St. Nicholas, based on the Metaphrastian Vita, preceded by a verse and an added miracle of St. Nicholas. The article mentions two interesting cases in Serbian menaia of the 15th century, which present different traditions to place the synaxarion texts.

Modelling a Novel Scheme of Mining Geothermal Energy from Hot Dry Rocks

On the basis of a conceptual model for an Excavation based Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS-E), which proposed to extract heat from Hot Dry Rock at depth through dominantly adopting shaft, roadways, and caved rock failure techniques but not depending on either wellbore drilling or fracturing stimulation, a novel extensive version of heat extraction is proposed in this paper. Considering its mechanical stability issues, the new scheme contains two fields apart away: the ones are near-field by piping flow to touch the tunnel wall; the others are far-field through filling and driving fluid within the voids of collapsed rock. The former is represented as a tunnel unit being installed hollow linear, which can extract and produce heat precisely according to structural design and accurate operative prediction. The latter is represented as interconnective fissures being induced by stope excavation due to gravitational weight and unloading of a deep-buried squeeze. The EGS-E uses a two-stage heat exchange system of “fluid-rock” and “fluid-fluid.” Then, a 3D transient thermal-hydraulic model is established to demonstrate the heat extraction performance. The temperature field and accumulated heat energy are investigated. The modeling work provides a tentative workflow to simulate an EGS-E system and, most probably for the first time, demonstrated that the deep underground Hot Dry Rock heat mining turns out to be preliminarily studied in a quantitative way.

Oil dependence and business cycles in Algeria: new keynesian DSGE framework analysis

This study aims to investigate the macroeconomic effect of oil price shock in Algeria at different levels of oil dependency. To do this, an extensive version of small open DSGE model developed by Medina and Soto (2005) has been used. This version of DSGE model is attentive to the fact that the Algerian economic structure is characterized by oil dependency. After we calibrate model parameters, this paper presents simulation results for positive oil price shock to illustrate how the structure of the model and its theoretical underpinnings shape the transmission of the shock to real variables of the domestic economy. In particular, the paper shows 3D impulse responses for oil price shock and characterizes their impact on real GDP, CPI inflation, external position and real effective exchange rate. The results show that the effect of the real oil price shock on the main macroeconomic variables varies according to the level of oil dependency. High oil dependence makes the economy more vulnerable to oil price fluctuations compared to low oil dependence. Therefore, structural transformation is unavoidable necessity for Algerian economy.

Assessing the dynamic changes in vitiligo: reliability and validity of the Vitiligo Disease Activity Score (VDAS) and Vitiligo Disease Improvement Score (VDIS).

BackgroundThe assessment of the individual evolution of vitiligo is important for therapeutic decision making in daily practice. A fast, simple and validated physician‐reported score to assess clinical changes in depigmentation over time in separate parts (activity and improvement) is currently missing.ObjectiveThe main objective of the study was to develop and validate the Vitiligo Disease Activity Score (VDAS) and Vitiligo Disease Improvement Score (VDIS).MethodsThe Vitiligo Disease Activity Score (VDAS) and Vitiligo Disease Improvement Score (VDIS) were evaluated based on a photo set of 66 patients with two different time points. In the first (short) version, only the number of changing body regions was counted based on 15 predefined areas (VDAS15 and VDIS15), while in the second (extensive) version the degree of worsening or improvement from +4 to −4 for each body area was added for a more detailed assessment (VDAS60 and VDIS60). Content and construct validity were tested. In addition inter‐, intrarater reliability and feasibility were evaluated by 7 (test) and 5 (retest) physicians.ResultsEvidence for content and construct validity was provided. Overall, VDAS15, VDIS15, VDAS60 and VDIS60 demonstrated good to excellent inter‐rater reliability [intraclass correlation (ICC): VDAS: range = 0.797–0.900; VDIS: range = 0.726–0.798]. The intrarater reliability ICCs were 0.865 and 0.781 for the VDAS15 and VDIS15, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the VDAS60 and VDIS60 (ICC = 0.913 and 0.800, respectively). Completion time was short (median: 122 s/patient (first round); 95 s/patient (second round)].LimitationsSingle tertiary centre mainly of skin phototype 2 to 3.ConclusionThe VDAS and VDIS appear to be valid, reliable and feasible instruments to score the evolution of vitiligo lesions. This accommodates the current urgent need for a simple, standardized and practical assessment of vitiligo activity and improvement over time.

Life of Christopher

Christopher, a native of Baghdad who became patriarch of Antioch in about 349/960, was assassinated by Muslim rebels in 356/967 because of his loyalty to their Muslim ruler. When the Byzantines conquered Antioch two years later, his story was told in a variety of ways by those with different and competing interests. Christopher was mentioned in Byzantine histories and in Antiochian liturgies. However, by far the most extensive and detailed version of the story comes to us in the Life of Christopher, written by Ibrāhīm b. Yūḥannā, a Byzantine bureaucrat and translator who grew up in Antioch and knew Christopher when he, Ibrāhīm, was a young boy. The hagiography was originally composed in Greek and translated by its author into Arabic, but only the Arabic survives. Here I provide, for the first time, both a critical edition of the two known Arabic manuscripts and a full English translation. This text is a valuable testimony to Christian life in Antioch under both the Ḥamdānids and the Byzantines, and to the difficulties of life along the constantly shifting frontier of medieval northern Syria.

Посланцы папы римского в Монгольской империи

The letter by the emissary of Pope Innocent IV in the Mongol Empire, Franciscan votary, John of Plano Carpini, Ystoria Mongalorum — “History of the Mongols” is one of the most renowned written records of the European writing of the 13th century. The letter is a report of the mission between 1245 and 1247, when John of Plano Carpini et al visited Batu Khan bases on the Volga and bases of Güyük Khan (supreme khan) in Mongolia. The project provides for publishing an extensive version of the “History of the Mongols” based on two best list of works: Wolfenbüttel and Cambridge. Unlike the Italian edition of 1989, where the text is reconstructed based on both lists, this publication is prepared according to the Russian tradition of archeography: one of the lists serves as the basis, while the other one is used in versions.&#x0D; The book by John of Plano Carpini includes unique information on the Mongol Empire, its structure, mechanism of control, army, and law. The book offers extensive information on customs and lifestyle of the Mongols and the many Eurasian peoples they conquered. Ystoria Mongalorum is a precious source on the history of Rus’ in the first years following Batu Khan invasion. Unlike the previous editions of the paper, the new one will include detailed commentaries explaining the realia, figures, toponyms, ethnonyms, etc. that appear in the text.

Duality of motivation and the guise of the good in Kant’s practical philosophy

ABSTRACT Although Kant is clearly committed to some version of the Guise of the Good thesis (GG), he only explicitly endorses a very weak version of it; namely, that under the direction of reason, we only pursue what we conceive to be good. This version of thesis seems to allow that human beings might act in defiance of reason’s directives, and that if they did so, they would not necessarily be engaging in actions that they conceive to be good in any way. In fact, Kant’s discussions of pathological motivation and his understanding of imperatives seem to preclude any stronger reading. Despite this evidence, many interpreters, relying on Kant’s discussion of self-conceit and the ‘incorporation thesis’, assume that Kant’s commitment to GG extends to all actions; on this interpretation, even immoral actions are pursued under the guise of the good. I argue that the reasoning typically provided in favor of this interpretation is neither compatible with Kant’s hedonism regarding non-moral motives nor with his commitment to the epistemic priority of our awareness of moral law over our awareness of freedom. However, the textual evidence that Kant accepted a more extensive version of GG is indeed compelling. I propose that Kant holds the stronger version of GG on distinctively moral grounds; the nature of our awareness of the moral law implies that evil is pursued under the guise of the good.

Fast growth and fixed points of solutions of higher-order linear differential equations in the unit disc

&lt;abstract&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this paper, we investigate the fast growing solutions of higher-order linear differential equations where $ A_0 $, the coefficient of $ f $, dominates other coefficients near a point on the boundary of the unit disc. We improve the previous results of solutions of the equations where the modulus of $ A_{0} $ is dominant near a point on the boundary of the unit disc, and obtain extensive version of iterated order of solutions of the equations where the characteristic function of $ A_{0} $ is dominant near the point. We also obtain a general result of the iterated exponent of convergence of the fixed points of the solutions of higher-order linear differential equations in the unit disc. This work is an extension and an improvement of recent results of Hamouda and Cao.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/abstract&gt;

Новый фрагмент санскритской Саддхармапундарика-сутры из Хотана

Introduction. The collection of Sanskrit manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra is a richest one in the Serindian Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (RAS, 27 call numbers). Most of the fragments of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra from the Serindian Collection belong to the Central Asian edition, including the famous Kashgar manuscript by N. F. Petrovsky that is the most extensive version of the Sutra (about 400 folios) and the core of the Sanskrit manuscripts containing the text of ‘Saddharmapuṇḍarīka’. Most of the Sanskrit manuscripts of the Lotus Sutra in the Serindian Collection were compiled in the southern oases of the Tarim Basin and made in poṭhī format. The texts of these manuscripts were written in Southern Turkestan Brāhmī in black ink on paper. According to paleographic data, these manuscripts can be dated to the 8th–9th centuries AD. Goals. The article seeks to introduce into academic circulation a new fragment of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra from the Serindian Collection of the IOM (RAS). The new unpublished fragment of the Lotus Sutra stored under call number SI 6584 has been identified relatively recently. It is an excerpt from Chapter XVIII of the Lotus Sutra (‘The Chapter Describing the Religious Merit [Obtained through] Joyful Participation [in Dharma]’, ‘Anumodanāpuṇyanirdeśaparivartaḥ’). According to paleographic and codicological characteristics, the new fragment is very close to another previously published manuscript of the Lotus Sutra stored in the Serindian Collection under call number SI 1934. The article describes the external features of both manuscripts (SI 1934 and SI 6584), transliterates, translates and compares fragment SI 6584 to the other well-known texts of the Lotus Sutra. The paper also contains a facsimile reproduction of fragment SI 6584. Conclusions. As compared to other texts of the Lotus Sutra, fragment SI 6584 belongs to the Central Asian edition of ‘Saddharmapuṇḍarīka’, and its text is almost identical to that of the Kashgar manuscript by N. F. Petrovsky (fol. 335b–337a).

Extended Single-Iteration Fuzzy C-Means, and Gustafson-Kessel Algorithms for Medium-Sized (106) Multisource Weber Problem

An uncapacitated multisource Weber problem involves finding facility locations for known customers. When this problem is restated as finding locations for additional new facilities, while keeping the current facilities, a new solution approach is needed. In this study, two new and cooperative fuzzy clustering algorithms are developed to solve a variant of the uncapacitated version of a multisource Weber problem (MWP). The first algorithm proposed is the extensive version of the single iteration fuzzy c-means (SIFCM) algorithm. The SIFCM algorithm assigns customers to existing facilities. The new extended SIFCM (ESIFCM), which is first proposed in this study, allocates discrete locations (coordinates) with the SIFCM and locates and allocates continuous locations (coordinates) with the original FCM simultaneously. If the SIFCM and the FCM, show differences between the successive cluster center values are still decreasing, share customer points among facilities. It is simply explained as single-iteration fuzzy c-means with fuzzy c-means. The second algorithm, also proposed here, runs like the ESIFCM. Instead of the FCM, a Gustafson-Kessel (GK) fuzzy clustering algorithm is used under the same framework. This algorithm is based on single-iteration (SIGK) and the GK algorithms. Numerical results are reported using two MWP problems in a class of a medium-size-data (106 bytes). Using clustering algorithms to locate and allocate the new facilities while keeping current facilities is a novel approach. When applied to the big problems, the speed of the proposed algorithms enable to find a solution while mathematical programming solution is not doable due to the great computational costs.

The Interpretation of Plurilingual Tax Treaties: Routine Interpretation — A Refutation

Based on an analysis of 3,844 tax treaties, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties and its Commentaries (VCLT), and case law of various domestic and international courts. The current orthodoxy maintains that courts are not required to compare all language texts of a plurilingual treaty but may rely on a single one for cases of routine interpretation. This view is erroneous, in violation of the VCLT, and the source of treaty misapplication; taxpayers are ill-advised to pay attention only to the text in their own language. In daily practice, the issue is of great relevance: almost three-quarters of the well over 3,000 concluded tax treaties are plurilingual. The BEPS MLI escalates complexity because it modifies a large number of treaties having texts in various languages. This study aims to (1) increase awareness about the pitfalls of the current orthodoxy and, in consequence, help diminish misapplication of plurilingual tax treaties through its abandonment, (2) show that sole reliance on prevailing texts is available as a pragmatic alternative in line with the VCLT, and (3) provide policy recommendations how residual cases may be eliminated. To support these goals, this study seeks to provide conclusive arguments and useful data to policy makers, treaty negotiators, judges, practitioners, and other scholars. Its analysis of all tax treaty final clauses is intended to help both taxpayers and courts interpreting tax treaties in practice. The general arguments presented in this book are however not limited to tax treaties, since similar issues play a role in the interpretation of other treaties, for example, in the field of foreign investment regulation. Note: Excerpt of my Thesis, consisting in TOC, Introduction, and Chapter 3 (Routine Interpretation: A Refutation), the latter being an updated and more extensive version of my previous paper 'Not in Good Faith — A Critique of the Vienna Convention Rule of Interpretation Concerning its Application to Plurilingual (Tax) Treaties'.

Improved Polynomial Rooting of Capon's Algorithm to Estimate the Direction-of-Arrival in Smart Array Antenna

 Direction of arrival algorithms are used, in general, to estimate a number of incident plane waves on the antenna array and their angles of incidence. In this paper, firstly, a new approach representing a more extensive version of the conventional Capon method is proposed. The study employs the root-Capon approach based on cross-correlation matrix in extracting the estimated direction-of-arrival of some number of signals to a given uniform linear array (ULA) antenna system. Secondly, a simple modification on the antenna element's number is employed for the Capon and the proposed approach to obtain more performances. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified through numerical simulation examples, and it is shown that the root version of Capon method can provide more accurate angle estimation with less computational complexity than conventional Capon algorithm. Similarly, it is found also that the used modification plays a significant role in the performance's improvement of Capon and its variant approaches.

Does including the full CVLT-II and BVMT-R improve BICAMS? Evidence from a Belgian (Dutch) validation study

BackgroundThe Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) is a fast, easy-to-administer and already widely validated neuropsychological battery for cognition in multiple sclerosis. ObjectiveThe goals of our study were to validate the BICAMS in a Belgian Dutch-speaking population and to investigate to what extent including extensive versions of two of the three BICAMS subtests improved its psychometric qualities. MethodsNinety-seven persons with MS and ninety-seven healthy controls were included and group-matched on age, education level and gender. All participants performed the BICAMS with an extensive version of the CVLT-II and BVMT-R. ResultsThe SDMT and BVMT-R were able to dissociate between the MS and healthy control group, while the CVLT-II was not. Distributions of CVLT-II scores suggest learning effects in the MS group, indicating the need for alternative word lists or the construction of an adapted version fitted for repeated administration. Including the full CVLT-II and BVMT-R did not markedly improve the psychometric qualities of the BICAMS. ConclusionThis study validates the BICAMS in a Belgian Dutch-speaking population and facilitates the use of it in clinical practice, while providing evidence that including full versions of the CVLT-II and BVMT-R does not increase its psychometric qualities markedly.

Dynamic safety capability and organizational management systems: An assessment tool to evaluate the "fitness-to-operate" in high-risk industrial environments

Aim: The paper outlines a systemic approach to understanding and assessing safety capability in high-risk industries, like off-shore oil, gas industry, chemical operators. The Fitness to Operate framework (acronym: FTO) (Griffin et al., 2014) has been recently defined by three enabling capitals that create safety capability: organizational capital, social capital, and human capital. Furthermore, each type of capital is identified by more specific dimensions based on current theories of safety, management, and organizational processes. In this paper, we will present a multidimensional assessment tool that offers a comprehensive picture of safety capability by real industrial operators in order to understand and evaluate their (FTO). Method: This current paper aims to describe the multi-phase development process of a FTO assessment tool in the format of a multidimensional survey questionnaire. A) The first research phase consists of the item generation of a large prototype pool with about 200 contents-items covering the 27 dimensions of the conceptual representation of the FTO framework. This initial pool was developed by a team of academic researchers, through a deductive process, and in the light of the original FTO conceptualization, as defined by Griffin and colleagues (2014) B) In a second research phase, the initial pools of items were re-examined by a new pool of academic researchers, assessing the quality of the contents, and in order to refine the extensive version of the prototype, eliminating potential redundancies and inadequate items. C) In a third phase with structured interviews to a pool of industrial experts (senior safety managers; senior executives), the authors assessed the quality of the prototype tool developed by the academic researchers, in order to evaluate and ranks the items of the prototype in term of quality, in order to define and identify a shorter version of the prototype. All the items were assessed by the experts considering criteria such as: i) relevance ii) clearness iii) verifiability iv) specificity v) ease of answer. Implications: Overall, the FTO assessment tool enables a comprehensive coverage of factors that influence short-term and long-term safety outcomes. The tool may serve to help safety regulators and industrial operators to understand, assess, and eventually implement and improve the safety capability and fitness-to-operate in complex industrial and organizational contexts

Neutral-delay-range-dependent absolute stability criteria for neutral-type Lur׳e systems with time-varying delays

In this paper, the problem of absolute stability analysis of neutral-type Lur׳e systems with interval time-varying delays and sector-bounded nonlinearity is concerned. By using the reciprocally convex technique, convex technique and Wirtinger-type integral inequality simultaneously, neutral-delay-range-dependent absolute stability criteria are presented. The obtained criteria can be regarded as an extensive version of all existing results, since the latter is independent from the lower or upper bound of the neutral delay. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.