Important Objective Research Articles

Testing reliability and validity of practitioner-rated parental sensitivity: A novel tool for practice.

Improving parental sensitivity is an important objective of interventions to support families. This study examined reliability and validity of parental sensitivity ratings using a novel package of an e-learning tool and an interactive decision tree provided through a mobile application, called the OK! package. Independent raters assessed parental sensitivity using the OK! package (N=11 raters) and the NICHD Parental Sensitivity rating scales (N=22 raters) on the basis of videotaped mother-child interactions at 10- or 12-months-old (N=294) and at 24-months-old (N=204) from the Dutch longitudinal cohort study Generation2 . Mothers reported on children's externalizing and internalizing problems and social competence when children were 4 and 7years old. Results showed excellent single interrater reliability for raters using the OK! package (mean ICC=.79), and strong evidence for convergent validity at 10- or 12-month-old (r=.57) and 24-month-old (r=.65). Prospective associations of neither parental sensitivity rated using the OK! package or the NICHD Parental Sensitivity rating scales with child developmental outcomes were statistically significant (p>.05), with overlapping 95% confidence intervals for both measures. The OK! package provides a promising direction for testing alternatives to current training and instruction modalities.

Methods and algorithms of intellectual support in making managerial decisions in the implementation of security alarm tasks at objects of special importance

Objective. Currently, there is a problem of developing low-cost and functional SOTC controllers with support for algorithms for controlling the totality of elements of life support systems and subsystems of HMB OOV, for example, access control and management systems (ACS), as well as the possibility of integrating the proposed SOTC solutions into existing HMB facilities. This article proposes circuit engineering and software approaches to the organization of promising STS implemented on the basis of programmable microcontrollers. Method. To achieve this goal, a systematic approach has been applied, and obtaining a quantitative assessment of the probabilistic characteristics of detecting an intruder is based on the use of mathematical modeling methods. Result. A completed circuit design for a special-purpose COTS controller has been developed, capable of solving highly specialized tasks in OOV, and also characterized by an obvious balance of functional characteristics and cost indicators. Conclusion. The developed SOTS based on universal microcontrollers makes it possible to ensure ease of implementation of security complexes and, if necessary, change the composition of the modules used to transform the intended purpose of the OTS device while maintaining the parametric indicators of the quality of the information system, helps to optimize control and automation processes at OOV in conditions of minimizing costs.

Mandibular Bone Height Measurements for Tooth Implantation by Using Film and Digital Panoramic Radiograph

An important objective of the preoperative radiographs evaluation of the implant is to determine the height and width of the bone available for implant insertion. The aim of the study is to confirm the ability of film and digital panoramic radiographs by measuring the distance from the crest of alveolar bone to the roof of the mandibular canal, also compare each type of radiographs using with the tracing chart reading which is a standard measure for both implant length and diameter that supply with the implant system.In this study thirty nine patients needing implants in the lower premolars and molars region in both sides were included. Digital panoramic radiograph were examined by using computerized analysis by software of dimax system , by measuring the distance from the crest of alveolar bone to the roof of the mandibular canal , while in film panoramic radiograph, a ruler was used to measure the distance from the crest of the alveolar bone to the roof of the mandibular canal with the utilization of a viewing box. it was found that film panoramic radiograph had higher value than digital panoramic radiograph in all sites of the teeth specially in the molar region.

Phasic alerting in visual search tasks.

Many tasks require one to search for and find important objects in the visual environment. Visual search is strongly supported by cues indicating target objects to mechanisms of selective attention, which enable one to prioritise targets and ignore distractor objects. Besides selective attention, a major influence on performance across cognitive tasks is phasic alertness, a temporary increase of arousal induced by warning stimuli (alerting cues). Alerting cues provide no specific information on whose basis selective attention could be deployed, but have nevertheless been found to speed up perception and simple actions. It is still unclear, however, how alerting affects visual search. Therefore, in the present study, participants performed a visual search task with and without preceding visual alerting cues. Participants had to report the orientation of a target among several distractors. The target saliency was low in Experiment 1 and high in Experiment 2. In both experiments, we found that visual search was faster when a visual alerting cue was presented before the target display. Performance benefits occurred irrespective of how many distractors had been presented along with the target. Taken together, the findings reveal that visual alerting supports visual search independently of the complexity of the search process and the demands for selective attention.

Reviewing Review: Administrative Justice and the Immigration Assessment Authority

The Immigration Assessment Authority (‘IAA’) provides the final merits review mechanism for people seeking asylum by boat in Australia. For fast-track applicants, the outcome of IAA review is incredibly significant, with consequences ranging from resettlement in Australia, removal to an applicant’s country of origin or indefinite immigration detention in harsh conditions. Eight years since its introduction, this article asks whether the IAA has realised the goal of promoting efficient review whilst meeting other important administrative objectives. The article takes a novel approach, applying a pre-formulated theory of administrative justice to analyse whether the IAA has balanced administrative justice properties. In so doing, this article offers a unique lens to critically reflect on the role of the IAA and whether, once its mandate is ended, this new model of review should be abandoned or revived for future merits review of asylum claims.

Cardiovascular diseases: pathophysiological role of gut microbiota and new targets for treatment and prevention

Despite certain success achieved in therapy and prevention, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) continue to be the leading cause of death of the population worldwide. One of the main reasons for this is that the pathophysiological mechanisms of the development of atherosclerosis, a disease that underlies most clinical forms of CVD, have not been fully understood yet, and therapy based on well-known concepts of pathogenesis, including lipid, does not provide the desired results. In this regard, search and identification of new molecular targets and therapeutic approaches is an important objective of modern medical science. In this direction, a completely new metabolic pathway identified by researchers, that links lipid consumption, gut microbiota (GM) and development of atherosclerosis, deserves interest. Thus, for the first time it was shown that GM uses food choline, as well as carnitine (found in red meat) for synthesis of trimethylamine (TMA), which, in turn, is rapidly oxidized by liver flavin monooxidases (FMO) to trimethylamine oxide (TMAO), that causes the development of atherosclerosis. Mechanisms of proatherogenic effect of TMAO, which, taken together, involve stimulation of inflow and suppression of outflow of cholesterol from the cell, have also been established. Another pathway of GM influence on the development or progression of atherosclerosis, that links the presence of bacterial infection and the degree of atherosclerosis development, has also been identified. It is believed that in this case, bacterial liposaccharides (LPS) interact with low-density lipoproteins (LDL), as a result of which LDL turn into atherogenic oxidized LDL. The article discusses possible therapeutic strategies for prevention and treatment of coronary atherosclerosis associated with both decreased production of TMAO and elimination of TMA from the intestines, and regulation of microbial metabolism (inhibition of microbial enzymes that produce TMA), as well as change in the structure of GM towards increase in the proportion of microorganisms beneficial to the human body (unable to produce TMA).

Optimal Energy Configuration of Integrated Energy Community Considering Carbon Emission

An integrated energy community with a distributed utilization of renewable energy and complementary electricity–gas–cold–heat integrated energy will play an important role in energy conservation and emission reduction. In addition, compared with traditional thermoelectric power equipment, solid oxide fuel cells have many advantages, such as a high energy utilization rate, good waste heat quality, and low carbon emissions. Therefore, the SOFC-based multi-energy and energy storage sharing operation model of an integrated energy community with an electricity–gas–cooling–heat integrated energy system is constructed, and a bi-objective optimal configuration model considering the carbon emission index is established. Considering the economic objective of the smallest annual total operating cost as the most important objective in optimizing the planning model, the ε-constraint method is used to transform the environmental objective function with the smallest annual total carbon emission into a constraint condition under the decision making of an economic single objective function, and then the planning model is linearized and solved by using the Big-M method and the McCormick relaxation method. By calculating and analyzing the energy allocation results in five scenarios, the effectiveness and rationality of the model built in this article are verified. At the same time, the calculation example analysis results show that as the ε value decreases, the energy configuration of the integrated energy community will shift from natural gas to clean energy. From this perspective, the energy equipment configuration and operating costs will increase. However, the heat storage system and power storage system sharing can effectively reduce the energy allocation capacity and costs.

Dynamic of H2NG in Distribution Systems

The reduction in GHG emissions has become one of the most important objectives in Europe. One of these clean technologies in the quest for large-scale decarbonisation is the blending of hydrogen and natural gas (H2NG). The significance of this article lies in conducting a technical–economic analysis that relies on simulating annual consumption patterns. This study focuses on the utilization of H2NG at different proportions within a distribution network in Bucharest, Romania’s largest city. The paper is a fallow up of another paper and presents a case study for the injection through all four entry points in the city of different percentages of hydrogen and the dynamic of the mix through the gas distribution network. The study found that the variation in H2 in the network is high and depends on the entry point levels and consumption. An economic analysis was conducted on seasonal real consumption, which confirmed the investment’s profitability.

Application of dynamic accuracy evaluation for press systems based on orthogonal design method

The variation of dynamic accuracy for press systems is the nonlinear phenomenon that results from the consideration of contact and impact on the deformation of transmission mechanism, usually revolute joint and translation joint. The influence is especially obvious in the ultra-precision mechanism, which can cause the vibration and unstabitily of position and machining accuracy would be failure. As usual, the dynamic accuracy is used to evaluate the ability of press systems, which is also the important design object. Due to the stronger nonlinear of dynamic accuracy, especially for the effect of coupling factors, the mathematical analysis method plays an important role in the study of dynamic behavior for press systems. This work proposes the new approach to conduct the simplified dynamic accuracy analysis based on the orthogonal design method, which optimize the reasonability of sample collection. The proposed method is compared with the traditional approach, which illustrates the advantage and efficiency for the dynamic accuracy analysis of press systems.•Developed dynamic accuracy analysis is observed to be effective for the stability evaluation of press systems.•The simplified model of coupling effect analysis is established based on orthogonal design method.•No need to collect a large amount of data for comparison and the reliable nonlinear analysis is conducted with simplified model.

Dynamic Modeling of a Solar-To-Hydrogen Flexible High Temperature Steam Electrolysis Plant

Sustainble hydrogen production for use as a renewable combustible fuel and clean chemical feedstock is an important objective as the world moves towards a renewable energy future. High temperature steam electrolysis is a promising hydrogen production technology due to its reduced electric input that is offset by heat input into steam generation and steam superheating. An option to provide this heat is to use concentrating solar thermal technology that can sustainably provide heat input while renewable electricity is used for the electrolysis reaction. In this work, a solar-to-hydrogen high temperature steam electrolysis plant is designed and dynamically modeled, showing continuous hydrogen production by utilizing supplemental heating and efficient recuperative heating from the electrolysis product streams. Through this design, over 90% of the required heat input for the process can by met by a combination of solar and recuperative heat. Additionally, the plant can flexibility operate by ramping down hydrogen production and through flexible heat integration, which intelligently integrates solar heat based on solar conditions. Smooth operation with flexible hydrogen production is demonstrated which decreases electrical input during on-peak grid times and also decreases the total supplemental heat load over the course of a day from 26.1% to 24.5%. In addition, by using flexible heat integration, the plant can increase its solar heat usage by 4.1% relative to a base case. Both options for flexibility show efficient use of solar thermal energy to sustainably and continuously produce hydrogen.

Muslim Holy Sites in the Southern Urals: geoinformation mapping and spatial analysis

In the last decade, there has been a tendency in the Southern Urals to reconstruct old and to form new holy places revered by Muslims. To date, more than 115 such objects have been recorded. Most of them are revered only by the residents of small villages, but some have acquired great importance for Muslims throughout the region. The purpose of this work is to identify the most popular places of worship of Muslims in the Southern Urals. Considering that some of the objects of regional importance have been revered by Muslims since the XIV century, and others, having appeared relatively recently, quickly became one of the most visited places, it is necessary to determine the factors influencing the growth of this popularity. The study supposed the Geoinformation methods to be used. Thus, using free Quantum GIS software, and on the basis of archival materials, archaeologists’, ethnographers’, religious scholars’, culturologists’ groundwork, as well as referring to the materials of Internet communities and other open sources, we have created the following layers: 1) Mausoleums, 2) Places of worship according to the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, 3) Places of worship according to the Internet community Sufi RB, 4) Religious tourist routes. Using a comparative method, it was determined that the most popular among Muslims in the region are the mausoleum of Hussein-Bey and Mount Narystau (Ilchigulovo IV, kurgan burial ground). The results of the study indicate that the popularity of objects is influenced by a number of factors: they can be identified as the presence of a monumental structure, the representation of the object in the media space and in the Internet, as well as the availability of objective scientific data about it.

A Critical Review of the FIFA’s Release of the Football Players from Ukraine under Annex 7 to Regulations on Status and Transfer of Players

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, FIFA has issued several regulations addressing the new reality for Ukrainian football. One of those regulations, known as Annex 7 to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players (RSTP) 2022, suspended the contracts of foreign players and coaches with Ukrainian clubs. A measure to protect the players, Annex 7 nevertheless was created and delivered without prior consulting with the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) or its clubs. This paper takes a socio-legal approach to critically review Annex 7 through the lens of the existing regulations and applicable laws while also considering such important sports objectives as fairness, competitiveness, and contractual stability. The paper concludes that with Annex 7, FIFA failed to recognize the needs of UAF-affiliated clubs, increased uncertainty, and could have created an undesirable precedent for future conflicts with European football clubs. Several recommendations concerning Annex 7 specifically and the regulatory procedures for FIFA, in general, are made to address these issues.

A multi-objective optimization method for enclosed-space lighting design based on MOPSO

With the rapid development of underground spaces and manned cabins, the design of enclose-space has received attention. Humans working in enclosed-space for a long period of time are prone to fatigue, which in serious cases can lead to human errors and major accidents. Therefore, the optimized design of enclosed-space is of great research significance to enhance the efficiency and comfort of workers. The lighting environment is one of the important objectives of the optimized design of enclosed-space, and the current research on lighting design often focuses on single-objective reduction of energy consumption or improvement of visual effects, and lacks attention to non-visual effects. We propose multi-objective optimal control strategy for enclosed-space lighting systems, taking the visual effects, non-visual effects, and energy efficiency of lighting as the optimization objectives and constraints, combined with multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm. Firstly, we obtain a set of optimal Pareto front solution for the dimming level by improving the algorithm. Secondly, to select appropriate lighting strategies according to different working scenarios, we introduce the fuzzy integrated evaluation method of experts to find the best compromise. Finally, we used a manned simulated enclosed cabin based on DIALux evo for a case study to compare the optimization results with baseline solutions. The results show that when we employed the improved dimming strategy, the energy efficiency and visual comfort were significantly improved compared with the baseline lighting design. The proposed method can satisfy human non-visual effects requirements, providing a research reference for future enclosed-space lighting optimization.

Synergistic regulation of charge state and electron-donating ability via heterojunctions design for fixation of electronegative greenhouse F-gases

The net-zero greenhouse gas emission has now become a global strategy. In this context, electronegative fluorinated-gases such as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) and hydrofluorocarbon, have become important emission reduction objects due to their strong global warming potential. In this work, the MnOx@Mn/SiC heterojunction was rationally designed and prepared. Because of the high electron coupling, the positively charged active-site MnOx@Mn (δ+) not only promotes the adsorption of SF6 but also acts as a donor to transport electrons to SF6, so that the adsorption and activation of SF6 are unified in one active site. Therefore, MnOx@Mn/SiC can effectively degrade SF6 above 450°C, and the degradation amount for 12 vol% SF6 can reach 523.8 mL g−1 at 600°C. Furthermore, it also has good degradation performance on hydrofluorocarbons (R-22 and R-410A) even at 100°C. Given the cheap and easy scale-up synthesis, MnOx@Mn/SiC has the potential to reduce the emission of multiple fluorinated-gases in practical applications.

Genomic basis of environmental adaptation in the widespread poly-extremophilic Exiguobacterium group.

Delineating cohesive ecological units and determining the genetic basis for their environmental adaptation are among the most important objectives in microbiology. In the last decade, many studies have been devoted to characterizing the genetic diversity in microbial populations to address these issues. However, the impact of extreme environmental conditions, such as temperature and salinity, on microbial ecology and evolution remains unclear so far. In order to better understand the mechanisms of adaptation, we studied the (pan)genome of Exiguobacterium, a poly-extremophile bacterium able to grow in a wide range of environments, from permafrost to hot springs. To have the genome for all known Exiguobacterium type strains, we first sequenced those that were not yet available. Using a reverse-ecology approach, we showed how the integration of phylogenomic information, genomic features, gene and pathway enrichment data, regulatory element analyses, protein amino acid composition, and protein structure analyses of the entire Exiguobacterium pangenome allows to sharply delineate ecological units consisting of mesophilic, psychrophilic, halophilic-mesophilic, and halophilic-thermophilic ecotypes. This in-depth study clarified the genetic basis of the defined ecotypes and identified some key mechanisms driving the environmental adaptation to extreme environments. Our study points the way to organizing the vast microbial diversity into meaningful ecologically units, which, in turn, provides insight into how microbial communities adapt and respond to different environmental conditions in a changing world.

Volatile-compound fingerprinting and discrimination of positional isomers in stamp-pad ink tracing using HS-GC-IMS combined with multivariate statistical analysis.

The rising crime rate associated with document forgery has a significant impact on public safety and social stability. In document fraud cases, determining the origin of a particular stamp-pad ink is the most important objective. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of the volatile compounds in quick-drying stamp-pad inks from six commonly used brands were performed for the first time, utilizing a combination of headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS) and multivariate statistical analysis methods. Visual and comparative analysis of the differential volatile components among different stamp-pad ink samples was conducted using fingerprints and volcano plots. A total of 127 volatile compounds were accurately identified, with ketones, esters, alcohols, and aldehydes being the most abundant compounds in the stamp-pad inks. Hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA), including dendrograms and clustering heatmaps, was utilized to explore the correlations between these compounds and the samples. Additionally, the precise identification of positional isomers and functional group isomers of aliphatic compounds was achieved. To achieve accurate discrimination of various stamp-pad ink samples, a multivariate statistical analysis method was utilized to establish a classification model for them. Based on the results obtained from HS-GC-IMS, effective discrimination among different brands of stamp-pad ink samples was achieved through principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). The model exhibited excellent performance, with the fit index of dependent variables (R2Y) and the predictive index of the model (Q2) values of 0.99 and 0.984, respectively. These results provided significant theoretical evidence for the application of HS-GC-IMS as an efficient technique in the analysis of volatile compounds, identification of positional isomers and functional group isomers, as well as tracing the origin of stamp-pad ink and analyzing the formation time of documents.

When pesticide reduction objectives meet business as usual: Possible impacts on the crop sector in Latvia

The European Union (EU) has set forth ambitious political objectives aimed at mitigating the adverse impacts of agriculture on climate, environment, and human health. Among the measures which are expected to help reach the goals, an important objective is significant reduction of pesticide usage, as outlined in the EU’s ”From Farm to Fork” strategy. This study seeks to assess the potential financial implications of the reduction of pesticide use, focusing on the major crops cultivated in Latvia. Scenario simulations have been conducted to examine the consequences of pesticide usage intensity on profitability, yields, and consumption of fertilisers. The evaluation encompasses winter and spring wheat, along with winter rapeseed, which account for 80% of the total pesticide usage in Latvia. It is assumed that farmers continue to produce the same crops, using their current level of knowledge and adjusting production technology to the reduced pesticides application rates. The analysis leads to the conclusion that in order to attain a reduction in pesticide use by 61% from the 2021 level (or 53% from the 2015–2017 level), the application rate of pesticides needs to be limited to 0.78 kg ha −1 of active substance for conventionally produced winter and spring wheat as well as winter rapeseed, and in addition to that the area used for these crops should be reduced by 33% (replaced with organic production). However, if the market prices of crops, the amount of public support and production costs do not change, the financial implications for the agricultural sector could be severe — yearly farm profit in the analysed sector could decrease by 41% or by EUR 130 mln.

Investigating the process of refining rapeseed oil

The alkaline refining method for rapeseed oil is considered rational; however, it faces certain challenges in terms of meeting the required physical and chemical indicators, as well as the quality standards for the refined oil. Therefore, enhancing the efficiency of rapeseed oil refining has become an important objective. In addition to rapeseed oil, there is a growing need for the development of an effective technology for refining sunflower oil. This technology aims to significantly increase the yield of refined oil and improve its overall quality. The development of such an efficient refining process holds great significance. It involves optimizing various stages of the refining process, including degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization. By implementing advanced techniques and precise control over process parameters, it becomes possible to achieve higher yields of refined oil while ensuring the desired quality characteristics. Efforts are being directed towards improving the physical and chemical indicators of the refined oil, such as reducing the acid value, peroxide value, and color, as well as minimizing impurities and undesirable flavors. Furthermore, innovative strategies are being explored to enhance the overall nutritional value and oxidative stability of the refined oil.

Unactuated and Actuated States Simultaneously Constrained Optimal Trajectory Planning-Based Path-Following Control for Underactuated Robots.

For underactuated robots working in complex environments, an important objective is to drive all variables (particularly for unactuated end-effectors) to move along the specific path and restrict positions/velocities to avoid obstacles, rather than using only point-to-point control. Unfortunately, most path planning methods are only suitable to fully actuated systems or depend on linearized models. The main motivations of our work are to directly fulfill motion constraints and achieve path following for both actuated and unactuated states (e.g., payload swing of cranes) when lacking effective control inputs. To this end, this article presents a new time-optimal trajectory planning-based motion control method for general underactuated robots. By constructing auxiliary signals (in Cartesian space) to express all actuated/unactuated variables (in joint space), their position/velocity constraints are converted into some convex/nonconvex inequalities related to a to-be-optimized path parameter and its derivatives. Then, an optimization algorithm is constructed to solve the available path parameter and derive a group of time-optimal trajectories for actuated states. As we know, this is the first study to ensure path following and necessary full-state constraints for actuated/unactuated states. Then, a tradeoff among path-constrained motions, time optimization, and state constraints is achieved together. This article takes the rotary crane as an example and provides detailed analysis of calculating desired trajectories based on the proposed planning frame, whose effectiveness is also verified through hardware experiments.

Development of a software module for collecting applications for an information system «Assistant mayor»

Solving problems in modern cities is a major challenge in today›s world. Many companies develop their software solutions to integrate various objects of public importance that require constant monitoring. The relevance of this work is determined by the fact that most analogues, although they exist, do not contain all the infrastructures of cities, and many do not have a feedback relationship with citizens, and many services take into account the specifics of only their cities. The purpose of this work is to develop a software module in the form of a web application that will be integrated into the “Assistant Mayor” information system. This software module will allow city residents to interact with various services and receive timely information about solving problems.