Terms Of Rank Research Articles

An intuitionistic fuzzy-based model for performance evaluation of EcoPorts

The EcoPort performance level serves as a basic indicator to determine the environmental status of a port and its achievement of certification standards. The European Sea Ports Organization has defined ten essential EcoPort criteria that contribute significantly to the assessment of EcoPort performance. The primary motivation for this study is to determine the importance of the criteria from the perspective of academics and chief officers, as well as to evaluate the EcoPort performance of six port authorities that comply with three basic certification standards for environmental management systems. The research methodology and application are conducted in four phases. In the first phase, experts, criteria, and alternative ports are identified. In the second phase, the importance levels of experts are determined using neutrosophic sets, while the criteria are weighted using the intuitionistic fuzzy weighting averaging operator. In the third phase, the alternative ranking order method accounting for two-step normalization (AROMAN) based on the intuitionistic fuzzy sets is introduced to evaluate the EcoPort performance of the ports. In the fourth phase, the results are supported by sensitivity analysis scenarios. The research results identified air pollution as the most critical criterion, while the Valencia Port Authority secured the highest rank in terms of EcoPort performance. Ultimately, this research contributes to the literature by developing and applying the new IF-AROMAN method for EcoPort performance evaluation.

ASSESSMENT OF THE FUNCTIONING OF HEALTH CARE IN THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN IN 2005–2021

The Republic of Tatarstan is located in the Volga Federal District and occupies one of the last places in the ranking in terms of the number of hospital beds per 10,000 people. It should also be noted unfavorable data on the number of medical staff, the number of people per place in the hospital, the number of receptions per shift. At the same time, the region is characterized by good socio-economic indicators in the field of health. Among them, the main ones are not only stable data on morbidity and mortality, but also the conditions for financing health care. The above requires research to assess these trends. The purpose of the study is to assess the factors influencing the health indicators of the Republic of Tatarstan. Materials and methods. In the course of studying theoretical and practical provisions, general scientific methods of cognition were used: comparison, abstraction, synthesis, induction and deduction, as well as methods of statistical analysis. The information base of the study was the data of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation on the use of the consolidated budgets of the Russian Federation and its subjects, as well as indicators of the development of healthcare, transport, etc. published on the Rosstat website. The results of the study. Despite a significant reduction in the number of hospitals, medical personnel, and beds in rural areas, the Republic of Tatarstan manages to maintain morbidity and mortality rates at the same level with a slight increase during the pandemic. This was facilitated by the involvement of the population in sports, as well as alternative ways of providing medical services to rural residents. New health care services are favored by good transport accessibility of district and regional centers, conditions created in them for the provision of medical care to rural residents. New methods of providing curative and preventive care are being actively used, for example, through the use of mobile teams, remote consultations, as well as redirecting patient flows to district and regional centers. Financing of health care has not always been at a sufficient level, but in recent years it has improved, which positively characterizes the state of health care in the republic. Conclusions. The Republic of Tatarstan is characterized by good socio-economic indicators in the field of healthcare. The reduction in the number of medical institutions did not adversely affect the morbidity and mortality rates of the population of the republic. To a certain extent, this is due to the developed transport network, which contributes to the provision of assistance by mobile teams, as well as the redirection of the flow of cases to district and regional centers. Financing of health care has improved in recent years, which has also contributed to the success of the functioning of medical institutions.

Assessment of export potential and state of foreign food and agriculture trade in the world

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to assess the export potential of countries, to determine the directions of food export development and the place of Ukraine in it, taking into account socio-economic factors by applying the authors’ methodical approach.
 Methodology / approach. The article considers world food and agriculture exports, the export potential of countries is assessed taking into account socio-economic factors. The authors select and apply a combination of methods necessary to achieve the goal of the study, which characterize specificities of individual countries of the world: method of systematic generalization, dynamic series analysis, factor analysis, regression analysis, comparisons, rating evaluation, integral approach. 
 Results. With the help of factor and integral analysis of macroeconomic indicators, we established that the structure of world exports and the share of food and agriculture is depended on the level of development and specialization of countries. In particular, the share of food and agriculture exports of developed countries is smaller compared to developing countries. The Netherlands and Germany are the leaders of the ranking in terms of food and agriculture export potential. According to forecasts, based on current trends, the export of bakery products in Ukraine and Poland should increase in 2023 compared to 2020 by 32.7 and 21.6 %, respectively. Effective socio-economic development, balanced export policy, modernization of production and logistics will contribute to the growth of export of food and agriculture with high added value.
 Originality / scientific novelty. Based on the authors’ methodical approach, the work improved the integral indicator of export development and the ranking of countries by export potential, taking into account socio-economic conditions. Factor models were built and the factors of food and agriculture export development were determined.
 Practical value / implications. The improved methodical approach to evaluating the effectiveness of global food and agriculture exports provides an opportunity to establish competitive advantages in the market and plan exports. Developing countries will have the opportunity to make the right choice of export products, which will provide them with added value and an increase in supply volumes.

On (simple) decision tree rank

In the decision tree computation model for Boolean functions, the depth corresponds to query complexity, and the size corresponds to storage space. The depth measure is the most well-studied one, and is known to be polynomially related to several non-computational complexity measures of functions such as certificate complexity. The size measure is also studied, but to a lesser extent. Another decision tree measure that has received very little attention is the minimal rank of the decision tree, first introduced by Ehrenfeucht and Haussler in 1989. This measure is closely related to the logarithm of the size, but is not polynomially related to depth, and hence it can reveal additional information about the complexity of a function. It is characterised by the value of a Prover-Delayer game first proposed by Pudlák and Impagliazzo in the context of tree-like resolution proofs.In this paper we study this measure further. We obtain an upper bound on depth in terms of rank and Fourier sparsity. We obtain upper and lower bounds on rank in terms of (variants of) certificate complexity. We also obtain upper and lower bounds on the rank for composed functions in terms of the depth of the outer function and the rank of the inner function. This allows us to easily recover known asympotical lower bounds on logarithm of the size for Iterated AND-OR and Iterated 3-bit Majority. We compute the rank exactly for several natural functions and use them to show that all the bounds we have obtained are tight. We also show that rank in the simple decision tree model can be used to bound query complexity, or depth, in the more general conjunctive decision tree model. Finally, we improve upon the known size lower bound for the Tribes function and conclude that in the size-rank relationship for decision trees, obtained by Ehrenfeucht and Haussler, the upper bound for Tribes is asymptotically tight.

Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cell‑derived exosomes improve ovarian function in natural aging by inhibiting apoptosis.

Prolonging the reproductive lifespan is beneficial for preserving the physical and psychological health of women. The transplantation of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)‑derived exosomes (MSC‑Exos) has been reported to be a promising regenerative therapeutic strategy for restoring the function of aging ovaries. The present study thus evaluated the therapeutic efficacy of exosomes derived from human umbilical cord‑MSCs (hUCMSC‑Exos) in a mouse model of natural ovarian aging (NOA), and further investigated the role of exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs/miRs) in the mechanisms of this creative therapy. Specifically, following the administration of hUCMSC‑Exos in mice with NOA, ovarian function was found to improve, as indicated by the restoration of follicle numbers and hormone levels. These exosomes were found to exhibit the ability to inhibit PTEN expression and suppress apoptosis both invivo and invitro. Subsequently, miRNA sequencing of the exosomes was performed, following which bioinformatics analysis was used to identify the highly expressed miRNAs that are capable of targeting PTEN expression. Through high‑throughput sequencing and molecular analyses, miR‑21‑5p was found to be the highest in ranking in terms of expression, suggesting that hUCMSC‑Exos can preserve ovarian function by suppressing PTEN expression to inhibit apoptosis by delivering miR‑21‑5p. On the whole, the results of the present study suggest that the application of exosomes can be used to restore ovarian function in mice with NOA. These positive findings also suggest that the transplantation of exosomes derived from MSCs holds promise as an agent against ovarian aging.

Challenges of an Online Pedagogy as a Method for TVET Practical Skills Training Delivery and Assessment

Natural catastrophes and pandemics have disrupted teaching and learning in unexpected ways, forcing educators to carefully contemplate a future in which the majority of training delivery and assessment may have to be online. However, before committing to this pedagogical shift, there is a need to establish, rank in terms of prevalence and thus address related challenges. This paper aims to establish and rank the challenges of online pedagogy as a method for TVET practical skills training delivery and assessment in the context of trainees, instructors, and assessors. A survey method was used to gather participants’ responses using an open-ended post-test questionnaire from a total of sixty-nine (69) trainees, twenty (20) instructors and eight (8) assessors after they had undergone an online training delivery and assessment of practical skills. The collected responses were first processed into operational data that was then clustered into twelve categories of closely related meanings. The clustered data was then statistically (descriptive) illustrated and then graphically presented in terms of the ranked average percentage of participants mentioning the category of challenges. The findings of the survey showed that lack of ICT equipment; poor or no internet connectivity; lack of feedback and realtime interaction; poor course/training design; and electricity outages ranked as the top challenges of an online pedagogy as a method for TVET practical skills training delivery and assessment. The paper recommends that governments, donor agencies and TVET providers should invest in the infrastructure and enablers of online training and assessment

Tabakat İlminin Önemi ve Mekhûl b. Ebû Müslim’in (öl. 112/730) Râvîlerinin Mertebelendirilmesi Örneği

This paper deals with the importance of the science of tabaqat and examines on the superiority of the narrators who narrated from the same teacher over each other. It also envisages to determine the degrees of the narrators who narrated from Imām Makḥūl in terms of justice and ẓabt and to determine their rank in terms of their narrations from him. In addition, in terms of the science of tabaqat, although the narrator generally has thiqa, ḥāfiẓ, and who has ẓabt, for example, the hadiths he narrated from one of his masters can be seen as weak due to the lack of association with his master. Their advantages over each other may vary. This situation highlights the importance of the problem. This paper aims to reveal the importance and benefits of the science of tabaqat and the importance of the superiority of the narrators who narrated from the same teacher over each other. In addition, it is aimed to classify Imām Makḥūl's narrators from the strongest to the weakest. In this study, the importance and benefits of the science of tabaqat with the inductive method, the translations of Makḥūl's narrators, and the books of, the otobiographies, ʿilm al-rijal, al-jarḥ-al-taʿdil and ʿilal al-ḥadīth hidden defects of hadith, which declare the illegitimate narrations, are examined in detail. The ranks of these narrators were determined by making use of the mentioned literary genres and by comparing the narrators with each other. As a result of this study, the following conclusions were reached about the importance and benefits of the science of tabaqat; Tabaqat science ensures that the regions where the narrators live and carry out their scientific activities can be known and that it is possible to distinguish the narrators with similar names, identifiers, nicknames and lineages. In addition to that, in the light of the information provided by the science of tabaqat, it facilitates the discovery of the disconnections in their attributions (irsal and inqiṭaʿ) and their separation from the musnad narrations, in the light of data such as the relationship of the narrators with each other or whether they lived in the same period and the knowledge of their morals. Especially in disputes regarding the shaykh -student relationship, it allows to determine the occurrence of the narrator's conversation with his shaykh and the duration of his association with him, and the fact that some names are abundant in some tabaqa but less in some tabaqa. In addition, these benefits of the science of tabaqat, which we have mentioned, allow us to use this science to other ḥadīth sciences, shows how much data they provide and the strong connection between them. The point of ranking the narrators of Imam Makḥūl, the most powerful narrators were Sulaymān b. Mūsā, Yazīd b. Yazīd, ʿAlāʾ b. Ḥarith and Zayd b. Waqid, the weakest narrator, whom he is worthy of, are Isḥāq b. Abū Farwa, ʿAbd al-Quddūs b. Ḥabīb, Muʿāwiya b. Yaḥyā and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. Yazīd b. Tamīm were detected.

Methodology for assessing information disclosure on stakeholder risks in non-financial reporting of oil and gas companies

The subject of the study was the public non-financial reporting of oil and gas companies in Vietnam and Russia. The research methodology is based on the analysis of theories, methods for assessing and rating the best practices of public non-financial reporting from the standpoint of disclosing stakeholder risks when making economic, including investment decisions. The analysis revealed the limitations of the studied methods within the framework of openness and the absence of an important component of quantifying the satisfaction of stakeholders with the disclosure of information that is of high importance to them from in terms of key risks associated with the company’s activities. In this regard, the purpose of the study was to develop a methodology and analytical tools to assess the degree of disclosure of information about stakeholder risks in the non-financial reporting of oil and gas sector companies (the degree of satisfaction of the most significant stakeholders). The methodology is based on the identification and correlation of companies’ key risks with the interests of the most significant stakeholders, which is the theoretical significance of the study, and also includes a compliance approach, mathematical and statistical assessment of the degree of satisfaction of stakeholders’ interests. The empirical base of the study was the 20 leading companies in Russia according to the RUIE 2022 ranking and the 23 largest companies in Vietnam according to the VN 500 2022 ranking in terms of revenue. The practical significance of the methodology lies in the fact that its results make it possible to increase the effectiveness of the company’s communications with the most significant stakeholders in order to achieve the goals set in the field of sustainable development.

Standing up to Hollywood: the Netflix glocal strategy for popularising non-English-language series worldwide

Netflix non-English-language TV shows finding audiences beyond their country of origin is a significant change driven by the company, affecting both the production and distribution sectors as well as the audiovisual culture of Western viewers, who increasingly appreciate diverse audiovisual traditions. This investigation confirms a notable share of foreign product viewership by service users. Between June 2021 and December 2022, non-English TV shows accounted for 38% of the most popular Netflix TV rank in terms of accumulated viewing hours, reaching an average of more than 53 countries worldwide. This outcome results from two primary factors. The first is the company’s business logic based on big data, content indexing, and user monitoring. The second is the global popularity of local non-English speaking content, which is also the consequence of diverse actions taken by the company in project development, audience prototyping, distribution, language, marketing, recommendation algorithms, and social conversation, both locally and globally. This research focuses on Netflix’s glocal strategy as a case study and draws on direct interviews with company employees, audience data from its Netflix Top 10 website, specialized publications, and academic literature.

Dataset Analysis of the Risks for Russian IT Companies Amid the COVID-19 Crisis

The motivation for this research was to strive towards specifying the risks for businesses under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis in the IT sector in Russia. This paper is aimed at performing a dataset analysis of the risks for Russian IT companies amid the COVID-19 crisis. The sample contains the top 100 largest IT companies in Russia in 2020 and covers the data on these companies for 2019–2020. The influence of the COVID-19 crisis pandemic on the risks for IT companies in Russia is assessed with the help of the authors’ methodological approach to the dataset analytics of companies’ risks with the use of the method of trend analysis, analysis of variance and the hierarchical synthesis concept by T. Saaty. A specific feature of the authors’ methodological approach is its taking into account of the pre-crisis level of risks for companies. Due to this, the authors’ methodological approach allows for the most precise and correct determination of the scale and character of the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis on the risks for companies. The role of human resources in the management of risks for IT companies under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis in Russia is determined with the help of regression analysis; the regularity of the change in revenue, and the position of the company in the ranking (its competitiveness) in terms of the growth of the number of employees, are described mathematically. The key conclusions are that the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis on the risks for IT companies in Russia in 2020 was weak, and human resources played an important role in risk management. The theoretical significance of the paper lies in its rethinking of human resources management of Russian IT companies from the position of risk amid the COVID-19 crisis. The practical significance of the authors’ conclusions lies in the discovery of the high risk resilience of Russian IT companies to the pandemic and the formation of their risk profile amid the COVID-19 crisis, in which the main, though low, risk is the risk of reduction in competitiveness, whilst the risk of reduction in revenue is minimal.

Differences Between High and Low Performing Police Agencies in Clearing Robberies, Aggravated Assaults, and Burglaries: Findings From an Eight-Agency Case Study

This eight-agency case study analyzes the characteristics of four high-and four low-performing police agencies, as measured by their long-term crime clearance rates. High and low performers were identified through a systematic assessment of 30 years of clearance rates of robberies, aggravated assaults, burglaries, and homicides for the largest 100 police departments in the United States. Researchers then conducted in-depth case studies of eight of these agencies—four of the highest and four of the lowest ranking in terms of their investigative practices. Comparisons of high-and low-performing agencies reveal differences in organizational structure; leadership and resources; selection, training, and performance review for investigators; case assignment and investigative processes; and community interactions. These findings provide direct guidance to agencies seeking to strengthen their investigative organization and practices.

Have you heard? A review of urology‐based podcasts

Podcasts are a popular medium for continuing education. The authors look at what podcasts are available for urologists and how they rank in terms of popularity compared with other podcasts.

Upskilling of the School Heads in the New Normal

This study aimed to upskill the leadership competencies of school heads in Magallanes, Sorsogon, Philippines for the school year 2021–2022. This study employed the mixed-methods sequential explanatory design which outlined the quantitative and qualitative methods using the descriptive-survey method and interview to the purpose of this study. The results of a survey revealed the three highest ranks in terms of upskilling needs of school heads were mentoring and coaching, curriculum development, and management of educational projects. However, the interview transcript reveals that the upskilling for school heads significantly impacted all aspects of leadership development. The leadership training conducted using the upskilling design effectively improves the leadership competencies of school heads.

ADAPTIVE POTENTIAL OF SPRING WHEAT ACCESSIONS FOR THE CONTENT OF ANTIOXIDANTS IN GRAIN IN THE CONDITIONS OF EASTERN SIBERIA

The aim of the study is to determine the adaptive potential of wheat accessions grown in Eastern Siberia in terms of the total content of antioxidants (TAC) in the grain and 1000 grain weight, as well as to analyze the relationship between the adaptability indicators of accessions for these traits. The object of the study were 7 accessions of spring wheat, which were grown in three ecological points: Krasnoturansky GSU (Krasnoyarsk Territory), Beisky GSU (Republic of Khakassia) and Piy-Khemsky GSU (Republic of Tyva). The HTC values for these items were respectively: 1.50, 1.25, 0.93. For wheat accessions, 1000 grain weight and the TAC value were determined. Grain extraction was carried out using hot bidistilled water, the TAC level was measured on a Tsvet Yauza-01-AA device, gallic acid was used as a reference sample. For each of these traits, 5 adaptability parameters of wheat accessions were calculated: coefficient of ecological variation Cv, stress resistance index d, homeostatic parameter Hom, index of level and stability of the variety PUSS, stability factor SF. It is shown that the conditions for growing wheat (point) did not significantly affect the value of TAC in the grain. It was found that the variability of this trait is mainly due to the wheat genotype. It has been established that the optimal values of adaptability parameters and the smallest sum of ranks both in terms of TAC in the grain and in 1000 grain weight were characteristic of the same Omskaya Krassa wheat accession. A positive relationship was found between each indicator of adaptability in terms of the level of TAC in the grain and that in terms of 1000 grain weight, while the correlation was significant for the stability indicators Hom and PUSS. The recorded results suggest a high probability of obtaining wheat accessions with increased stability in terms of TAC in grain when selecting forms for high stability in terms of grain size and vice versa. The discovered effect is the basis of a new method for screening wheat genotypes for an increased level of adaptability in terms of the content of functional substances in the grain – antioxidants, using data on 1000 grain weight instead of the laborious method of their direct measurement for the corresponding calculations.

The Smart Governance Framework and Enterprise System’s Capability for Improving Bio-Business Licensing Services

One way to improve Indonesia’s ranking in terms of ease of conducting business is by taking a closer look at the business licensing process. This study aims to carry out an assessment using a smart governance framework and recommendation capabilities from the Enterprise System (ES). As a result, the recommendations for improvement with the expected priority are generated. The stages of this research are observing the process of making bio-business permits, followed by interviews related to several Enterprise Architecture (EA) capabilities, and providing recommendations based on the results of the maturity level of IT governance. These recommendations are then mapped into an impact—effort matrix for program prioritization. The recommendations for bio-business licenses can also be used to improve the process for other business licenses. Implementation of the EA framework has been proven to align technology, organization, and processes so that it can support continuous improvement processes.

Gender Disparities Among Academic Vitreoretinal Specialists in the United States With Regard to Scholarly Impact and Academic Rank.

Background and objective While men outnumber women in the specialty of ophthalmology in general, the subspecialty of vitreoretinal surgery in particularhas the highest percentage of men across all ophthalmic subspecialties. This study aimed to analyze the gender disparities regarding the publication productivity and academic rank of academic vitreoretinal specialists in the United States (US). Methods This cross-sectional study evaluated 116 ophthalmology residency programs in the US participating in the 2022 San Francisco Match. The academic vitreoretinal faculty from each ophthalmology residency program was included. The information on gender, academic rank, and publication activity in terms of the h-index were collected from institutional websites, the Scopus database, and the National Library of Medicine PubMed website. Results A total of 467 academic vitreoretinal specialists were identified. Among them, 345 (73.9%) were men, and 122 (26.1%) were women (p<0.001). When the academic ranks were analyzed, a higher number of men (43.8%) were found to hold the rank of full professor as compared to women. Furthermore, a higher number of women (47.5%) were found to hold the rank of assistant professor as compared to their male colleagues. Regarding the number of publications, in all academic rankcategories, women had a significantly lower number of publications compared to men (p<0.001). Men also had a higher publication productivity or scholarly impact [h-index=15.2 ± 0.82 standard error of the mean (SEM)] compared to women (h-index=12.8 ± 0.99 SEM) (p=0.0004). Higher h-index correlated with higher academic rank, from assistant professor through full professor (p<0.001). Conclusion The field of vitreoretinal surgery has significantly fewer women compared to men, with women producing fewer publications and having less scholarly impact. H-index and total number of publications are also associated with a higher academic rank. Furthermore, full professors are more likely to be men, while assistant professors are more likely to be women. Future efforts should be aimed at reducing the gender disparity in vitreoretinal surgery.

Assessment of national circular economy performance using super-efficiency dual data envelopment analysis and Malmquist productivity index: Case study of 27 European countries

The global commitment toward carbon neutrality and net zero emissions has substantially pressed the needs for all countries to accelerate the adoption of the circular economy paradigm. Tracking the national progress in terms of circular economy performance would provide valuable insights that could aid the effective design of improvement strategies toward sustainability. The current research proposes the combination of super-efficiency dual Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist productivity index to provide a full ranking and measure productivity changes in terms of circular economy of 27 European countries. The assessment involved six circular economy indicators encompassing waste generation per capita, waste intensity of the economy, recycling rate of waste in both overall and specific types of waste, i.e., packaging waste and biowaste, and circular material use rate. Our study indicates about one-half of the European countries were efficient in terms of circularity in 2018, where Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Belgium were the front runner. The proposed approach suggests the European countries enhance their overall circular economy performance by prioritizing improvements strategies through promoting the recycling of biowaste and the circular material use rate. The MPI results over 2012–2018 indicate that Luxembourg exhibited the highest circularity advancement by 6%. Overall, the European countries have slightly enhanced their progression towards circular economy around 0.2% improvement. This suggests the European countries strengthen their policy and regulatory frameworks in support of the transition towards circular economy and encourage progressive movements in such a collaborative manner with the relevant stakeholders to build the momentum for change.

AppIndels.com server: a web-based tool for the identification of known taxon-specific conserved signature indels in genome sequences. Validation of its usefulness by predicting the taxonomic affiliation of >700 unclassified strains of Bacillus species.

Taxon-specific conserved signature indels (CSIs) in genes/proteins provide reliable molecular markers (synapomorphies) for unambiguous demarcation of taxa of different ranks in molecular terms and for genetic, biochemical and diagnostic studies. Because of their predictive abilities, the shared presence of known taxon-specific CSIs in genome sequences has proven useful for taxonomic purposes. However, the lack of a convenient method for identifying the presence of known CSIs in genome sequences has limited their utility for taxonomic and other studies. We describe here a web-based tool/server (AppIndels.com) that identifies the presence of known and validated CSIs in genome sequences and uses this information for predicting taxonomic affiliation. The utility of this server was tested by using a database of 585 validated CSIs, which included 350 CSIs specific for ≈45 Bacillales genera, with the remaining CSIs being specific for members of the orders Neisseriales, Legionellales and Chlorobiales, family Borreliaceae, and some Pseudomonadaceae species/genera. Using this server, genome sequences were analysed for 721 Bacillus strains of unknown taxonomic affiliation. Results obtained showed that 651 of these genomes contained significant numbers of CSIs specific for the following Bacillales genera/families: Alkalicoccus, 'Alkalihalobacillaceae', Alteribacter, Bacillus Cereus clade, Bacillus Subtilis clade, Caldalkalibacillus, Caldibacillus, Cytobacillus, Ferdinandcohnia, Gottfriedia, Heyndrickxia, Lederbergia, Litchfieldia, Margalitia, Mesobacillus, Metabacillus, Neobacillus, Niallia, Peribacillus, Priestia, Pseudalkalibacillus, Robertmurraya, Rossellomorea, Schinkia, Siminovitchia, Sporosarcina, Sutcliffiella, Weizmannia and Caryophanaceae. Validity of the taxon assignment made by the server was examined by reconstructing phylogenomic trees. In these trees, all Bacillus strains for which taxonomic predictions were made correctly branched with the indicated taxa. The unassigned strains likely correspond to taxa for which CSIs are lacking in our database. Results presented here show that the AppIndels server provides a useful new tool for predicting taxonomic affiliation based on shared presence of the taxon-specific CSIs. Some caveats in using this server are discussed.

Who can verify this? Finding authorities for rumor verification in Twitter

A large body of research work has proposed verification techniques for rumors spreading in social media that mainly relied on subjective evidence, e.g., propagation networks or user interactions. Alternatively, in this work, we introduce the task of authority finding in social media, in which we aim to find authorities, for given rumors spreading specifically in Twitter, who can help verify them by providing exclusive/convincing evidence that supports or denies those rumors. We release the first test collection for Authority FINding in Arabic Twitter (AuFIN). The collection comprises 150 rumors (expressed in tweets) associated with a total of 1,044 authority accounts and a user collection of 395,231 Twitter accounts (members of 1,192,284 unique Twitter lists). Moreover, we propose a hybrid model that employs pre-trained language models and combines lexical, semantic, and network signals to find authorities. Our experiments show that the textual representation of users is insufficient, and incorporating the Twitter network features improved the recall of authorities by 34%. Moreover, semantic ranking is inferior to the lexical and network-based ranking in terms of precision, but superior in terms of recall. Therefore, combining both the semantic and network-based ranking achieved the best overall performance achieving a precision of 0.413 and 0.213 at depth 1 and 5 respectively. We show that rumor expansion by exploiting Knowledge Bases improves the recall of authorities by up to 15%. Furthermore, we find that SOTA models for topic expert finding perform poorly on finding authorities. Finally, drawing upon our experiments, we discuss failure factors and make recommendations for future research directions in addressing this task.

Comparison of light olefins production routes in China: Combining techno-economics and security analysis

Light olefins including ethylene and propylene are important chemical materials, and a diversity of production technologies have been applied in industrial processes. An index called Olefins Production Security Index (OPSI) is proposed for quantifying the performance of techno-economics and security for different olefins production routes. The results show that Coal via Methanol to Olefins (CMTO) and Coal via Methanol to Propylene (CMTP) routes have the higher security rank in terms of raw materials supply and reasonably good economic performance compared with the Nature Gas via Fischer–Tropsch Synthesis to Olefins (NFTO) and Deep Catalytic Cracking (DCC) routes. Carbon Dioxide via Methanol to Olefins (CDMTO) and Carbon Dioxide via Methanol to Propylene (CDMTP) routes have lower carbon dioxide emissions but higher direct production costs. Basically, CMTO, CMTP, and Nature Gas via Methanol to Olefins (NMTO) routes have the top OPSI grades, which means they are more competitive than other routes in terms of security. We also identify the shortcomings of each olefins production route with regard to the security through sensitivity analysis. It is expected the proposed framework plays a role in searching the most suitable production route for light olefins from the viewpoint of security.