Special Kind Research Articles

Analysis of poisonings in patients up to 18 years old hospitalized in the Clinical Department of Toxicology and Cardiology in Stefan Wyszyński Regional Specialist Hospital in Lublin in 2022

Introduction and purpose: Poisoning in children and adolescents remain a serious medical, psychological and social problem. The aim of the study was to analyse poisonings in patients up to 18 years old admitted to the Clinical Department of Toxicology and Cardiology in Stefan Wyszyński Regional Specialist Hospital in Lublin in 2022. Material and method: The research was retrospective. Medical records of 120 cases of poisoning in patients up to the age of 18 were analysed. Results: In the studied period 120 patients from 13 to 18 years old were hospitalized due to intoxication, 84 (70%) of them were female and 36 (30%) of them were male. Majority of cases came from urban areas (69,2%). The most frequent causes of poisonings were medicaments (55%), drugs (29,2%) and alcohol (28,3%). The intentional intoxications were found in 113 (94,2%) cases, 45 (39,8%) of them were suicide attempt. Mental diseases were found in 71 (59,1%) cases, the most common one was depressive disorder. There were no deaths in the researched group. Conclusions: Because of the relevance of child patients poisoning young people should be provided with psychological care. Female teenagers must get special kind of support. The availability of child psychiatrists and psychologists is still too poor. Prohibition of selling alcohol to minors should be enforced stricly. It seems that acces to OTC drugs is way much too easy for people. There is a necessity of parents’education about children poisoning.

Oxide nodule assisting fatigue crack initiation in hierarchical anisotropic nanostructured Mg-RE alloy

Hierarchical anisotropic nanostructured Mg-RE alloys, containing LPSO lamellae and dense nano-precipitates, exhibit superior mechanical properties. However, their reliability as structural materials for long-term service, especially in terms of fatigue, is still a matter of concern. Here, scattered oxide nodules are detected as a special kind of fatigue damage that assists crack initiation, rather than the typical slip-band structure. The LPSO lamellae and dense β′ nano-precipitates lead to the high localization of fatigue damage. The fatigue-induced oxide nodules form and grow within the soft α-Mg layer, but their growth is limited by the adjacent strong LPSO lamellae, resulting in microcrack nucleation. Finally, clusters of microcracks along the LPSO/oxide interface converge to form the trans-granular crack initiation.

The Work of a Mathematician As a Prefiguring of Mastering Mathematics by Students: The Role of Experiments

This paper considers an approach to mathematical education adequate to the task of developing mathematics and its applications in the 21th century. This approach is based on improving the efficiency of the educational process by maintaining the motivation of students of various categories. The basis for the formation of motivation is, on the one hand, independent design; invention of mathematical objects, methods of action, and models of the world around us; and the discovery of facts of mathematical reality and, on the other hand, solving of new, unexpected, and feasible tasks for the student. The student’s work is similar to the work of a mathematician–researcher and programmer. The possibilities of research work in educational mathematics are significantly expanded due to computer-based intramathematic experiments. Debugging a computer program is a special kind of mathematical experiment.

Rainfall forecasting in the Barak river basin, India using a LSTM network based on various climate indices

The proposed study employs a long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network (NN) to forecast monthly rainfall in the Barak river basin in the northeastern region of India for a prediction horizon up to 4 months in advance. Out of nine significant climate variables, sea surface temperature (SST), sea level pressure (SLP), Nino 3.4 index, the Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) anomalies and dipole mode index (DMI) were identified to be the best-suited predictors and were introduced as the inputs in the NN. The LSTM is a special kind of recurrent neural network (RNN) which specializes in feature extraction and storing memory in its cell state cumulatively. The model results display strong correlations between the potential predictor sets and the rainfall distribution across the basin. The obtained forecast results were scrutinized in terms of various statistical measures and the predictions were found to be at par with the real time observations (correlations greater than 0.90 and hit score greater than 85%). The testing phase of model produced root mean square errors in the range of 12.45% to 15.65% highlighting satisfactory model performance. The proposed method of incorporating different climate indices form a novel approach to forecast rainfall in the region which may lead to timely and effective management of water resources.

De la notion de corpus dans les études contrastives en langues : choix, outils et exploitation

The Notion of Corpus in Contrastive Language Studies: Choices, tools and exploitation
 Since past decades, Contrastive Linguistics is in search of ways for its development. Such a situation results from the fact that the scientific context nowadays is overwhelmed with the advent of new disciplines; is highly saturated by needs for interdisciplinarity; and it imposes the search of paths which have to serve as guide for forthcoming studies. As far as Contrastive Linguistics is concerned, the ways leading to its development are methodological, theoretical, and epistemological in nature. Regarding this wide scope, this study mainly focusses on the methodological aspect of the discipline. Clearly, this paper examines the notion of “Corpus” within the field of Linguistics in general and Contrastive Linguistics in particular. As a new field of study, Contrastive Linguistics needs to be grounded on solid methodological foundations as well. First of all, it delves into addressing issues of methodological tools used while contrasting languages; then, it examines the issue of corpus selection for a specific study; and finally, it proposes ways for selecting and treating data which are often overlooked by professionals and students alike. To undertake the study hereof, it resorted to the Taxonomy approach in Natural Sciences elaborated by Carl Von Linné, Candole, Charles Darwin, Willi Hennig. The use of this methodological approach purposes at providing clear definitions of terms surrounding the notion of “Corpus”; at describing the various types of corpora, at underscoring their internal organisation; and at casting light on the useful tools for the constitution of a special kind of corpus relevant for studies in Contrastive Linguistics.The tasks mentioned earlier will provide a good grasp of how the notion of “corpus” is apprehended within the framework of contrastive analysis. This work shall equally equip young scholars looking forward to specialising in this highly technical scientific niche with abilities to better find markers in a methodology of proper and full selection, constitution and exploitation of a corpus in contrastive linguistics.

A Research on Burn Relief Antibacterial Ointment

Burning is a mishap that can occur anytime with anyone. Burns that are superficial or partial-thickness often recover within two weeks, excluding complications such infections or chronic conditions. Topical creams are frequently used to treat superficial and partial thickness burn in order to maintain a moist wound environment, reduce pain, and stop bacterial infection. Severe burns require attention of special kind and may also end up requiring hospitalization. In this research work, we focused on preparing burn relief ointment with the help of neosporin, amoxicillin, lignocaine and petroleum jelly. Neosporin and amoxicillin act as antibacterial agents, lignocaine acts as local anesthetic agent and petroleum jelly has been used as ointment base.

Optimization of growth conditions and biological cementation effect of Sporosarcina pasteurii

Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) has been widely used in soil reinforcement and other fields. Aiming at the problems of accumulation and resource utilization of tailings sand, which is a special kind of sand, we enriched the urease-producing microorganism Sporosarcina pasteurii (S. pasteurii) from soil and applied it to the field of tailings solidification in this study. Based on single-factor experiments and response surface methodology (RSM), the effects of temperature, pH and urea concentration on the growth of S. pasteurii were investigated and the optimum growth conditions of S. pasteurii were determined. CaCl2·2H2O and Ca(CH3COO)2·H2O were used as calcium sources, combined with SEM-EDS, XRD, FTIR and XPS detection, the effect and mechanism of Ca2+ bio-cementation by S. pasteurii was investigated. By comparing the effect of bio-cemented tailings sand by soaking method, stirring method and stratification method, we optimized the method of S. pasteurii bio-cemented tailings. The results indicated that the activity of S. pasteurii mixed bacteria enriched in soil was significantly better than that of single S. pasteurii standard strain. In particular, the S. pasteurii mixed bacteria (1# bacteria) enriched from the soil around the pig manure pile had the strongest activity. The results of RSM showed that the optimum growth conditions of 1# bacteria were: at 31°C culturing temperature, pH = 9.07, which urea concentration was 0.5 mol/L. Compared with temperature and pH value, urea concentration had the most obvious effect on the activity of 1# bacteria. Compared with the soaking method and the stirring method, the layered solidification method using Ca(CH3COO)2·H2O as the bio-cemented calcium source was more suitable for S. pasteurii mixed bacteria (1# bacteria) enriched from soil bio-cementing tailings. This bio-cementing technology provides a theoretical basis for the efficient MICP engineering application of tailings in the field of alternative building materials.

Communication for Blind Individual Using CNN and Text Summarization

Abstract: In order to bridge the communication gap between the deaf and the dumb, sign language is a special kind of communication language. There are several signs in each sign language with differences in palm size, shape, motion, and positioning of the hand, all of which are important components of each sign. Many different researchers have proposed numerous applications. Utilising deep learning principles, several notable advancements have been made in these applications during the last few years. Throughout this survey, we evaluated various hand gesture detection applications utilising recent deep learning theories. Despite significant advancements in hand gesture detection accuracy, there are still a number of issues that need to be handled. In our proposal,

Down-regulation of peptidylarginine deiminase type 1 in reconstructed human epidermis disturbs nucleophagy in the granular layer and affects barrier function

Deimination is a post-translational modification catalyzed by a family of enzymes named peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs). PADs transform arginine residues of protein substrates into citrulline. Deimination has been associated with numerous physiological and pathological processes. In human skin, three PADs are expressed (PAD1-3). While PAD3 is important for hair shape formation, the role of PAD1 is less clear. To decipher the main role(s) of PAD1 in epidermal differentiation, its expression was down-regulated using lentivirus-mediated shRNA interference in primary keratinocytes and in three-dimensional reconstructed human epidermis (RHE). Compared to normal RHEs, down-regulation of PAD1 caused a drastic reduction in deiminated proteins. Whereas proliferation of keratinocytes was not affected, their differentiation was disturbed at molecular, cellular and functional levels. The number of corneocyte layers was significantly reduced, expression of filaggrin and cornified cell envelope components, such as loricrin and transglutaminases, was down-regulated, epidermal permeability increased and trans-epidermal-electric resistance diminished drastically. Keratohyalin granule density decreased and nucleophagy in the granular layer was disturbed. These results demonstrate that PAD1 is the main regulator of protein deimination in RHE. Its deficiency alters epidermal homeostasis, affecting the differentiation of keratinocytes, especially the cornification process, a special kind of programmed cell death.

SMOTE-CD: SMOTE for compositional data.

Compositional data are a special kind of data, represented as a proportion carrying relative information. Although this type of data is widely spread, no solution exists to deal with the cases where the classes are not well balanced. After describing compositional data imbalance, this paper proposes an adaptation of the original Synthetic Minority Oversampling TEchnique (SMOTE) to deal with compositional data imbalance. The new approach, called SMOTE for Compositional Data (SMOTE-CD), generates synthetic examples by computing a linear combination of selected existing data points, using compositional data operations. The performance of the SMOTE-CD is tested with three different regressors (Gradient Boosting tree, Neural Networks, Dirichlet regressor) applied to two real datasets and to synthetic generated data, and the performance is evaluated using accuracy, cross-entropy, F1-score, R2 score and RMSE. The results show improvements across all metrics, but the impact of oversampling on performance varies depending on the model and the data. In some cases, oversampling may lead to a decrease in performance for the majority class. However, for the real data, the best performance across all models is achieved when oversampling is used. Notably, the F1-score is consistently increased with oversampling. Unlike the original technique, the performance is not improved when combining oversampling of the minority classes and undersampling of the majority class. The Python package smote-cd implements the method and is available online.

Leveraging similarity analysis to understand variability in movement behavior

AbstractThe increasingly large volume of trajectories of moving entities obtained through GPS and cellphone tracking, telemetry, and other location‐aware technologies motivates researchers to understand the implicit patterns hidden in movement trajectories and understand how movement is influenced by the environmental context. Trajectory similarity serves as an important tool in computational movement analysis and as the foundation of revealing those patterns. However, there are various trajectory similarity measures, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we present a hierarchical clustering framework that integrates five commonly used similarity measures, including Fréchet distance, dynamic time warping, Hausdorff distance, longest common subsequence, and normalized weighted edit distance, a special kind of edit distance for movement analysis. The framework aims at clustering similar patterns and identifying variability in movement. The optimal number of clusters are first obtained. Then, the clusters are characterized by environmental variables to explore the associations between variability in movement and the environmental conditions. We evaluate the proposed framework using 15 years of tracking data of turkey vultures, tracked at 1‐ to 3‐h sampling intervals, during their fall and spring migration seasons. The results suggest that, at 5% significance level, turkey vultures select their movement paths intentionally and those selections appear to be related to certain environmental context variables, including thermal uplift, vegetation state (observed indirectly through Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), temperature, precipitation, tailwind, and crosswind. And interestingly, there exist preferential differences among individuals. Although the preference of the same turkey vulture is not strictly consistent over different years, each individual tends to preserve a more similar preference over different years, compared with the preferences of other turkey vultures.

Motion of localized disturbances in scalar harmonic lattices.

We present analytical and numerical investigations of energy propagation in systems of massive particles that interact via harmonic (linear) forces. The particle motion is described by a scalar displacement, and the particles are arranged in a simple crystal lattice. For the systems under consideration we prove the conservation of the total energy flux analytically. Then, using a sample case of a square lattice, we confirm the analytical results numerically. We create disturbances of a special kind which can move with a predefined velocity with a minor change in their shape. We show that a clot of energy, associated with each disturbance, moves similarly to a free body of matter in classical mechanics. We also numerically study a simultaneous propagation of a number of energy clots as an analogy to the motion of point masses in the conventional mechanics of particles. The obtained results demonstrate that an energy flow in lattices can be described in terms of numerous separated energy bodies, making a step towards a linkage between lattice dynamics and the kinetic theory of heat transfer in solids.

Circumbinary Accretion: From Binary Stars to Massive Binary Black Holes

We review recent works on the dynamics of circumbinary accretion, including time variability, angular momentum transfer between the disk and the binary, and the secular evolution of accreting binaries. These dynamics impact stellar binary formation/evolution, circumbinary planet formation/migration, and the evolution of (super)massive black hole binaries. We discuss the dynamics and evolution of inclined/warped circumbinary disks and connect with observations of protoplanetary disks. A special kind of circumbinary accretion involves binaries embedded in big disks, which may contribute to the mergers of stellar-mass black holes in AGN disks. Highlights include the following: ▪Circumbinary accretion is highly variable, being modulated at P b (the binary period) or ∼5P b, depending on the binary eccentricity e b and mass ratio q b.▪The inner region of the circumbinary disk can develop coherent eccentric structure, which may modulate the accretion and affect the physical processes (e.g., planet migration) taking place in the disk.▪Over long timescales, circumbinary accretion steers binaries toward equal masses, and it does not always lead to binary orbital decay. The secular orbital evolution depends on the binary parameters (e b and q b) and on the thermodynamic properties of the accreting gas.▪A misaligned disk around a low-eccentricity binary tends to evolve toward coplanarity due to viscous dissipation. But when e b is significant, the disk can evolve toward “polar alignment,” with the disk plane perpendicular to the binary plane.

Dual symmetry-protected bound states in the continuum enabled by toroidal dipoles in dielectric metamaterials

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are a special kind of resonant states that remain localized even though they coexist with a continuous spectrum of radiating waves. They have already emerged as an important design principle for creating systems with high-quality ([Formula: see text] factor states to enhance light–matter interaction. Many approaches have been proposed to achieve BICs, but it is still of great challenge to design multiple BICs simultaneously, and especially working at terahertz (THz) frequencies. In this paper, we propose an all-dielectric metamaterial, consisting of four hollow cylinders in each unit cell. We show dual BICs exist in such a simple structure, and as breaking the symmetry via varying the inner radius of two diagonal cylinders, they will turn to quasi-BICs with high yet finite Q-factor. These quasi-BICs are manifested themselves as two new dips in the transmission spectrum, of which the resonance shapes can be well described by the Fano formula with a few fitting parameters. We find the evolution of their Q-factors still follows the simple linear relationship with respect to the inverse square of the asymmetry parameter. Based on the multipole decomposition method, two BICs are further investigated to show different multipole components for them. Interestingly, the higher frequency BIC is closely related to the excitation of toroidal dipole (TD), which will split into two TDs as breaking the symmetry. The proposed metamaterial provides an alternative platform to merge the physics of BICs, Fano, and TD, and to pave the way for potential device applications (since the states of extremely high-Q factor).

Spatial or Random Cross-Validation? The Effect of Resampling Methods in Predicting Groundwater Salinity with Machine Learning in Mediterranean Region

Machine learning (ML) algorithms are extensively used with outstanding prediction accuracy. However, in some cases, their overfitting capabilities, along with inadvertent biases, might produce overly optimistic results. Spatial data are a special kind of data that could introduce biases to ML due to their intrinsic spatial autocorrelation. To address this issue, a special resampling method has emerged called spatial cross-validation (SCV). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of SCV compared with conventional random cross-validation (CCV) used in most ML studies. Multiple ML models were created with CCV and SCV to predict groundwater electrical conductivity (EC) with data (A) from Rhodope, Greece, in the summer of 2020; (B) from the same area but at a different time (summer 2019); and (C) from a new area (the Salento peninsula, Italy). The results showed that the SCV provides ML models with superior generalization capabilities and, hence, better prediction results in new unknown data. The SCV seems to be able to capture the spatial patterns in the data while also reducing the over-optimism bias that is often associated with CCV methods. Based on the results, SCV could be applied with ML in studies that use spatial data.

New Results on the Unimodular Equivalence of Multivariate Polynomial Matrices

The equivalence of systems is a crucial concept in multidimensional systems. The Smith normal forms of multivariate polynomial matrices play important roles in the theory of polynomial matrices. In this paper, we mainly study the unimodular equivalence of some special kinds of multivariate polynomial matrices and obtain some tractable criteria under which such matrices are unimodular equivalent to their Smith normal forms. We propose an algorithm for reducing such nD polynomial matrices to their Smith normal forms and present an example to illustrate the availability of the algorithm. Furthermore, we extend the results to the non-square case.

Agreement with disjoined subjects in German

This paper presents results from an empirical study on number and person agreement with disjoined subjects in Standard German. We show that disjunctive agreement resolves to plural if one or both of the disjuncts are plural. The main empirical finding of the paper is that if both disjuncts are singular, verbal agreement is either singular or plural, irrespective of the relative order of subject and verb. We account for this observation in an Optimality Theoretic approach by assuming that the verb has to agree with each disjunct as well as with the disjunction itself, which bears a special kind of plural feature. The number feature of the verb has to match the number feature of both the disjunction and the disjuncts. This can lead to potential conflicts which as we show is the source of agreement optionality in case of singular disjunctions. Further, we discuss the effects of mismatching person in disjunctions, the effects of syncretic verb forms, as well as word order effects. Importantly, we observe that closest conjunct agreement is not consistently available in German. Finally, we present a brief excursus to agreement with disjoined subjects in other languages and discuss how data from Somali, Slovenian, and Hebrew fit into our analysis.

Частно-публичный уголовно-процессуальный механизм применения уголовного закона в сфере экономической деятельности: генезис, идеология, политико-правовая сущность

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to clarify the unique legal nature, structure, as well as the genesis of the criminal procedure mechanism for the application of criminal law in the field of economic activity. The research methodology includes dialectical, formal-logical, systematic, other general scientific methods of cognition of criminal procedural phenomena, as well as private scientific methods: the modeling method, comparative legal and other methods. Conclusions. The creation of a special kind of private-public criminal prosecution and prosecution should be understood as an attempt to solve the institutional problem of criminal legal protection of business interests by means provided by the criminal procedural form. Private-public prosecution, being a product of the investigative-Soviet criminal procedure system, is the engine of the criminal procedure mechanism for applying criminal legislation in the field of economic activity. The difference between the analyzed criminal procedural mechanism and other criminal procedural proceedings consists in a qualitatively new saturation of some elements of the criminal procedural matter with a private (dispositive) beginning. At the same time, the investigative form is a limiter for the introduction of a subsidiary accusation of the victim, as well as for changing the investigative technology of evidence to an adversarial one. Scientific and practical significance. The scientific significance of the study lies in the contribution that it makes to the development of the adversarial theory of criminal procedure. Its practical significance consists in proposals for the modernization of legislation regulating criminal procedural activities on the application of criminal law norms in the field of economic activity.

Large omnidirectional mid-infrared photonic bandgap in a one-dimensional ternary photonic crystal consisting of isotropic dielectric, elliptical metamaterial and plasma

Photonic bandgaps (PBGs) in traditional one-dimensional (1-D) binary photonic crystals (PhCs) consisting of two kinds of isotropic dielectrics strongly shift towards shorter wavelengths as incident angle increases. Such blueshift property of PBGs intensively limits the widths of omnidirectional photonic bandgaps (OPBGs). Very recently, researchers achieved a special kind of PBGs called angle-insensitive PBGs in novel 1-D binary PhCs consisting of isotropic dielectric and elliptical metamaterial (EMM). The emergence of such angle-insensitive PBGs provides us an opportunity to achieve large OPBGs. Herein, we periodically introduce plasma layers into a 1-D binary PhC consisting of isotropic dielectric and EMM with an angle-insensitive PBG to achieve a large OPBG at mid-infrared wavelengths. The EMM is mimicked by an all-dielectric subwavelength multilayer. The broaden effect of the OPBG originates from the plasmonic property of plasma and the angle-insensitive property of the PBG. The width of the OPBG reaches 4.19 μm. Our work provides a feasible route to achieving large OPBGs in 1-D PhCs and would promote the development of OPBG-based devices, such as omnidirectional broadband reflectors and omnidirectional filters.

Various results on some asymmetric types of density

The structures of symmetric connectedness and dually, antisymmetric connectedness were described and studied before, especially in terms of graph theory as the corresponding counterparts of the connectedness of a graph and the connectedness of its complementary graph. By taking into consideration the deficiencies of topological density in the context of symmetric and antisymmetric connectedness, two special kinds of density in the theory of non-metric $T_0$-quasi-metrics were introduced in the previous studies under the names symmetric density and antisymmetric density. In this paper, some crucial and useful properties of these two types of density are investigated with the help of the major results and (counter)examples peculiar to the asymmetric environment. Besides these, many further observations about the structures of symmetric and antisymmetric-density are dealt with, especially in the sense of their combinations such as products and unions through various theorems in the context of $T_0$-quasi-metrics. Also, we examine the question of under what kind of quasi-metric mapping these structures will be preserved.