Special Session Research Articles

Activating Specific Handball’s Defensive Motor Behaviors in Young Female Players: A Non-Linear Approach

Traditional models to train and teach young players in team sports assume that athletes learn as linear systems. However, an actual methodology called Non-Linear Pedagogy (NLP) accounts for the fact that the players and the team are complex dynamic systems. Experiences in handball under this methodology are scarce; due to this, an observational study has been conducted with a follow-up, idiographic and multidimensional design, in which 14 female school handball players belonging to four different local teams in Santiago, Chile (age = 15.55 + 0.51) agreed to participate in three special handball training sessions with the use of the NLP methodology where three different constraints were used. Descriptive analysis with the Chi-squared test showed a total of 252 observations where most of the variables were dependent on the constraints (p ≤ 0.001). Frequency showed that mainly "Defense in Line of progression" and "Proximal contact" were the most activated variables, followed by "Harassment" and "Deterrence" for all constraints. However, only constraint 2 highly activated two collective motor behaviors, while the rest only did it with individual motor behaviors. It is concluded that the constraints used in training seem to be effective in activating a group of defensive handball motor behaviors, specifically those that are basic for female school handball players.

Report on the 11th international workshop on the CCN family of genes, Nice, October 20-24, 2022.

In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the inception of the CCN society, and of the first post-Covid-19 live meeting, the executive board of the ICCNS had chosen Nice as the venue for the 11th International workshop on the CCN family of genes. On this occasion participation in the meeting was extended to colleagues from other cell signaling fields who were invited to present both an overview of their work and the future directions of their laboratory. Also, for the first time, the members of the JCCS Editorial Board were invited to participate in a JCCS special session during which all aspects of the journal « life » were addressed and opened to free critical discussion. The scientific presentations and the discussions that followed showed once more that an expansion of the session topics was beneficial to the quality of the meeting and confirmed that the ARBIOCOM project discussed last April in Nice was now on track to be launched in 2023. The participants unanimously welcomed Professor Attramadal's proposition to organize the 2024, 12th International CCN workshop in Oslo, Norway.

Recent trends of "manels": gender representation among invited panelists at an international oncology conference.

Gender disparities in academic medicine are a long-acknowledged concern, particularly at medical conferences. We investigated gender representation and prevalence of "manels" (all-men panels) among invited speakers at the 2018-2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meetings. Using American Society of Clinical Oncology online programs, 2018-2021 faculty information was obtained, including perceived or self-reported gender, medical specialty, session type, and topic. Primary outcomes were percentage of manels and proportion of women panelists over time; women representation among specialties and topics were evaluated. Cochran-Armitage and Fisher's exact tests were used to analyze trends in proportion of manels and women representation over time and to compare each session type, topic, or specialty with other categories combined, respectively. During 2018-2021, there were 670 sessions, 81 of which (12.1%) were manels. Among 2475 panelists, 1181 (47.7%) were women. Over time, the percentage of manels significantly decreased from 17.4% in 2018 to 9.9% in 2021 (P = .030). The highest proportion of manels was observed for leadership or special sessions (17.1%, P = .419). Women panelists were underrepresented for the topics of genitourinary cancers (38.6%, P = .029) and translational or preclinical sciences (36.7%, P < .001). There was a positive trend toward improved women representation among translational or preclinical sciences (27.4% in 2018 vs 41.8% in 2021, P = .031) but not among genitourinary cancers (41.1% in 2018 vs 40.7% in 2021, P = .969). The number of women panelists increased during the study period, with a corresponding decrease in the proportion of manels, specifically in education and leadership or special sessions. Ongoing underrepresentation of women in genitourinary cancers and translational or preclinical topics underscores the importance of annual meeting organizers continuing to strive for diverse gender representation.

Factors influencing rehabilitation and education in children who have cochlear implants: An integrative review

Background: Several factors might impact the development of auditory, speech, and communication skills as well as academic performance in children with cochlear implants. These factors are important for these children’s transition to mainstream education. A lack of understanding among school staff about cochlear implant technology and these children’s special needs affects their school performance. Therefore, educational services need to include specialized sessions for nurses and teachers to meet the educational and special needs of these children.Aim: To explore the factors influencing the rehabilitation and education of children who have cochlear implants and highlight empirical evidence that will guide the development of educational sessions for school nurses and teachers who encounter these students.Methods: Whittemore and Knafl’s framework for integrative review guided this work. An electronic search was conducted using the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, MEDLINE, and Academic Search Complete databases. Data was extracted and organized into the individual, interpersonal and organizational, and policy and environmental levels of the Socio-Ecological Model.Results: The individual-level factors are age at implantation, abnormal inner ear morphology, presence of additional disabilities, and hours of daily device use. The interpersonal and organizational factors include lower socioeconomic status, support within the family, and lack of experts at mainstream schools. The policy and environmental level factors are a failure in implementing hearing screening programs, lack of community awareness, and lack of clear education policies within the schools.Conclusions: Children face challenges at schools due to a lack of experts who are familiar with the needs of children with cochlear implants. To realize the children’s needs and provide proper educational support by school staff, teaching and training sessions need to be.

Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context

Iron Age Terracotta Figurines from the Southern Levant in Context

Editorial

The Italian Association for Stress Analysis (AIAS) was founded in 1971 by researchers from academia, research centers, and industry. AIAS was intended as a community where to discuss, share, and develop scientific knowledge related to all technical aspects of stress analysis. In the years, from an initial focus on experimental techniques, AIAS contributed considerably to the development of modern numerical methods and computational techniques for mechanical engineering design. In 2015, AIAS turned in the Italian Scientific Society of Mechanical Engineering Design.Today, AIAS is an institutional partner that supports the instances from academia in the subject area of mechanical engineering design. Every year, AIAS organizes a technical conference offering the possibility to present research updates, share new ideas, and foster collaborations. The AIAS conference has become a fundamental event for all those interested in current developments in mechanical engineering design and stress analysis, where to meet researchers, testing equipment, and software developers.The 51st AIAS Conference edition was held in Padova, Italy again in presence after two years of online-only events due to the COVID-19 pandemic.The response of researchers and students has been outstanding: over 200 oral contributions have been presented during the three days of the conference, with four parallel sessions. In addition to the thematic sessions on AIAS traditional subjects, special sessions on additive manufacturing, energy methods for structural analysis, circular design in mechanical engineering, and mechanical behavior under extreme conditions, have been successfully organized with the contribution of the AIAS technical committees.Among all contributions presented at the conference, 48 have been selected to be published after peer review, in this volume. This was made possible thanks to the active participation of all AIAS members, to the work of the AIAS Scientific Committee and Conference Papers Review panel (Profs Giovanni Meneghetti, AIAS Scientific Coordinator, Luciano Afferrante, Francesco Bucchi, Filippo Cianetti, Enrico Armentani, Marco Sasso). Their outstanding contribution is gratefully acknowledged. Disclaimer AIAS2022 Conference was held in presence on Sept. 7-10, 2022. Presentations were arranged in four parallel sessions with a time slot of 15 min assigned to each presenter. Approximately 250 participants attended the conference during the three days event. All sessions have been continuously monitored by the organizers to provide technical support. The conference ran smoothly, and the participants’ feedback was very positive.

Digitalization and hydroinformatics

Digitalization and hydroinformatics

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Online Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics Labs

In recent years, online laboratories have become highly integrated into the educational process due to the development of distance learning tools as well as the pandemic. As part of a master's degree program in bioinformatics and neuroinformatics, in the academic years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022, the mandatory module "Laboratory Education (LE)" included 9 labs and a special session took place online. For the evaluation of the LE a survey was carried out among the participants on issues of satisfaction with each lab, the knowledge they acquired, the educational material given to them, with the facilitator per lab as well as their self-reported learning. 73 postgraduate students participated in the survey. According to the results, the overall satisfaction from each laboratory ranged from 3.94 to 4.49/5.00. Furthermore, there is a variety of values in self-reported learning ranging from 23 to 50/50. Finally, although 7 out of 10 students say they are satisfied with the distance structure of LE, 8 out of 10 say they prefer LE to be carried out with a physical presence in the labs.

Memory, evolutionary operator, and local search based improved Grey Wolf Optimizer with linear population size reduction technique

Optimization of multi-modal functions is challenging even for evolutionary and swarm-based algorithms as it requires an efficient exploration for finding the promising region of the search space, and effective exploitation to precisely find the global optimum. Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) is a recently developed metaheuristic algorithm that is inspired by nature with a relatively small number of parameters for tuning. However, GWO and most of its variants may suffer from the lack of population diversity, premature convergence, and the inability to preserve a good balance between exploratory and exploitative behaviors. To address these limitations, this work proposes a new variant of GWO incorporating memory, evolutionary operators, and a stochastic local search technique. It further integrates Linear Population Size Reduction (LPSR) technique. The proposed algorithm is comprehensively tested on 23 numerical benchmark functions, high dimensional benchmark functions, 13 engineering case studies, four data classifications, and three function approximation problems. The benchmark functions are mostly taken from the CEC 2005 and CEC 2010 special sessions, and they include rotated, shifted functions. The engineering case studies are from the CEC 2020 real-world non-convex constrained optimization problems. The performance of the proposed GWO is compared with popular metaheuristics, namely, particle swarm optimization (PSO), gravitational search algorithm (GSA), slap swarm algorithm (SSA), differential evolution (DE), self-adaptive differential evolution (SADE), basic GWO and its three recently improved variants. Statistical analysis and Friedman tests have been conducted to thoroughly compare their performance. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed GWO outperforms the algorithms compared for the benchmark functions and engineering case studies tested.

Summary of the Soil Reinforcement Technical Committee Special Session (IGS TC-R)

This document provides a summary of the different topics presented at the Special Session organized by the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) Technical Committee on Soil Reinforcement (TC-R). This Special Session brings together very interesting studies regarding soil reinforcement in the field of geosynthetics. Studies presented include topics both from theoretical and practical points of view of reinforcement geosynthetics including general products and applications, cases studies on road embankments under challenging site boundary conditions, research on deterministic and probabilistic design of reinforced fills over voids, numerical analysis of reinforced soil wall structures, encased granular column technique, and geosynthetic-reinforced bridge abutment behavior.

PECULIARITIES OF FORMATION OF CADETS' PSYCHOLOGICAL RESILIENCE AND PHYSICAL READINESS FOR COMBAT STRESS.

The aim: To investigate the impact of special physical training sessions on the formation of cadets' psychological resilience and physical readiness for the stress factors of future professional and combat activities. Materials and methods: The research involved 96 cadets (men) in the 2nd training year of S. P. Koroliov Zhytomyr Military Institute (Ukraine) aged 18-20 years, who were divided into two groups: the experimental (E, n = 47) and the control (C, n = 49). The cadets of the E group studied according to the authors' program, and the C group cadets - according to the existing program. Cadets' psychological resilience was studied using psycho-diagnostic methods aimed at assessing their volitional qualities. Cadets' physical fitness was assessed by the tests of general and special physical training. Results: It was found that the level of general physical training of the E and the C group cadets was significantly the same (p > 0.05) at the end of the research but in terms of special physical training and psychological readiness, the E group cadets had all indicators significantly (p < 0.05-0.001) better than those of the C group. Conclusions: It has been proved that the special physical training sessions conducted according to the authors' program were more effective than the existing program in forming cadets' physical readiness and psychological resilience for stress factors of future professional and combat activities.

Placing Capitalism at the Service of Socialism: Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko's Unpublished "Notes on America"

Placing Capitalism at the Service of SocialismKonstantin Ustinovich Chernenko's Unpublished "Notes on America" Donald J. Raleigh (bio) On 8 April 1974, the New York Times reported that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping of China "arrived in New York yesterday for the United Nations General Assembly's special session on raw materials and development."1 The Times made no mention that 62-year-old Konstantin Chernenko (1911–85), head of the all-important yet understudied Obshchii otdel (General Department) of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), had traveled with Gromyko. General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev had charged "Kostia"—his close associate, comrade-in-arms, and friend—with making his first transatlantic flight and only trip to America to familiarize himself with automated data processing systems utilized by the US government, American banks and corporations, and the United Nations (UN) and to consider whether the Soviet Union might adopt some of these technological practices to facilitate the management of paperwork in the party and state apparatuses of the USSR. "And on Sunday, 7 April, at 10 AM we departed on an IL-62 for the U.S.A.," wrote Chernenko. "I flew to America for the first time and, needless to say, this left its mark on all of my later impressions [emphasis mine]. [End Page 93] Click for larger view View full resolution Little did Chernenko know in boarding his Aeroflot flight to America that he would find what he was looking for as well as many surprises. Source: "Proekt 'Chernenko,' chast´ 26: Poezdka v Ameriku," LiveJournal, 13 May 2021, https://yapet.livejournal.com/559412.html. The slightest new experience while in transit and while there was intense and unforgettable."2 The General Department could certainly benefit from employing state-of-the-art technologies. Responsible for managing and documenting the activities of the CC apparatus, the department had undergone various name changes since its founding in 1920. Called the "secret" department for much of the prewar period and the "special sector" afterward, it was renamed the General Department following Stalin's death but continued to serve as the linchpin of the link between political power and the control of secret information in the USSR. As Larissa Zakharova observed, Kremlin leaders historically "sought to strengthen systemic trust in bureaucracy and in technology through the enforcement of rules and the search for new technologies."3 Toward that goal, in late 1953, the department revised its instructions for handling classified materials. Central Committee staff members [End Page 94] now could receive documents only after they passed through the department, which oversaw the CC's paperwork, including all KGB materials.4 The department maintained party personnel files. It prepared materials for Politburo meetings, organized party congresses and plenums, and circulated proposals to CC members. It processed citizen complaints to the government. The head of the department and his deputy attended Politburo and Secretariat meetings. When Brezhnev died in 1982, the department was the largest of the CC departments, employing 232 specialists.5 The trip itself went publicly unnoticed, and none of the published works on Chernenko mention it.6 While researching a biography of L. I. Brezhnev, however, in the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv noveishei istorii) I came across partially declassified fond 83 comprising Chernenko's personal papers, including "The Notes of K. U. Chernenko on His Trip to the USA to Familiarize Himself with the Application of Organizational Technology in Government Institutions of the USA."7 The only other person to have examined Chernenko's notes [End Page 95] as of June 2019, the historian L. V. Maksimenkov, published a short essay about them in the popular journal Ogonek.8 The piece culls some vivid quotes from the materials but makes little effort to contextualize or to analyze the notes and their silences. They need both. Examining them from the perspective of the Soviet Union's obsession over the control of information and within the changing dynamic of détente, I seek in this article to answer several questions. How did Chernenko react to the America he saw and why? What practical impact did the trip...

Orientation of solid-state physics and materials science at SPMS2023

The SPMS2023 conference, which focused on Solid State Physics and Materials Science, took place at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from November 5 to 7, 2023. The event received a substantial turnout, with more than 397 abstracts submitted by prominent experts and emerging researchers in the field. These submissions covered the latest advancements in fundamental aspects across four specialized sessions: (A) physics and magnetic materials, (B) semiconductor and dielectric physics, (C) semiconductor and dielectric materials and devices, and (D) biomedical materials, along with materials for agriculture, energy, and the environment. The conference featured a diverse program that included 36 invited presentations, 52 contributed oral reports, and 198 scientific posters, all of which were organized into the four principal themes above. Additionally, the Organizing Committee oversaw a rigorous review process for 180 full-text reports, which were subsequently submitted to the Journal of Science and Technology (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology).

Multiple Elite Individual Guided Piecewise Search-Based Differential Evolution

The differential evolution (DE) algorithm relies mainly on mutation strategy and control parameters' selection. To take full advantage of top elite individuals in terms of fitness and success rates, a new mutation operator is proposed. The control parameters such as scale factor and crossover rate are tuned based on their success rates recorded over past evolutionary stages. The proposed DE variant, MIDE, performs the evolution in a piecewise manner, i.e., after every predefined evolutionary stages, MIDE adjusts its settings to enrich its diversity skills. The performance of the MIDE is validated on two different sets of benchmarks: CEC 2014 and CEC 2017 (special sessions & competitions on real-parameter single objective optimization) using different performance measures. In the end, MIDE is also applied to solve constrained engineering problems. The efficiency and effectiveness of the MIDE are further confirmed by a set of experiments.

Determination of the Enablers and Challenges in the Implementation of Pharmacy-based Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Program in a Level 3 Hospital in Manila.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health threat that results from misuse and overuse of antimicrobials. The Department of Health (DOH) institutionalized the Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) Program in hospitals, based on the core elements (1) Leadership, (2) Policies, Guidelines, and Pathways, (3) Surveillance Antimicrobial Use (AMU) & AMR, (4) Action, (5) Education, and (6) Performance Evaluation to ensure rational use of antimicrobials and improve patient outcomes. The program implementation will require the involvement of the AMS clinical pharmacist to positively influence the success of the program's implementation. This study aims to identify the enablers and challenges as perceived by AMS clinical pharmacists in the implementation of an AMS program in a level 3 hospital in Manila. A quantitative descriptive study design was employed by administering an online 50-item survey questionnaire to AMS pharmacists, who have at least six (6) months of experience as an AMS pharmacist in the hospital. The survey questionnaire was validated by an expert consultant and underwent pre-testing (Cronbach α = 0.983) for acceptable internal consistency. Responses were collated, coded, and analyzed using median values and frequency distributions for each questionnaire item per Department of Health (DOH) Core Element. Items garnering a median of >3.50 up to 5 were considered as perceived enablers, while those ≤3.50 were identified as perceived challenges. Some perceived enablers by the AMS pharmacists include presence of a leader and/or clinician in the AMS team, Information Technology (IT) resource availability, clear roles of AMS pharmacists, readily available hospital AMS guidelines, engagement in AMR and AMU surveillance activities, regular performance of AMS interventions (e.g., IV-to-PO conversion, dose optimization, de-escalation of broad spectrum), regular monitoring and evaluating of prescriptions and prescribing behavior, and continuous education on infection, prevention, and control (IPC) and hygiene. On the other hand, some perceived challenges include insufficient funding, inadequate knowledge in interpreting antibiograms, lack of adequate and specialized training sessions, lack of coordination with medical and nursing staff to ensure timely drug administration and automatic stop order, prescribing of non-Philippine National Formulary (PNF) antimicrobials, lack of time to perform AMS activities, lack of qualified personnel, and lack of hospital management and information technology (IT) support. Empowering AMS clinical pharmacists is vital to addressing the perceived challenges and maximizing the perceived enablers to ensure the successful implementation of the AMS program in the hospital.

Guest Editorial

This Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques&’ Mini-Special Issue includes eight papers from the 2022 IEEE Radio and Wireless Week (RWW 2022) held in Las Vegas, NV, USA, January 16–19, 2022. The Radio and Wireless Week consists of five related conferences that focus on the intersection between wireless communication theory, systems, circuits, and device technologies: the Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS), the Topical Conference on RF/Microwave Power Amplifiers for Radio and Wireless Applications (PAWR), the Topical Meetings on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems (SiRF), the Topical Conference on Wireless Sensors and Sensor Networks (WiSNet), and the Space Hardware and Radio Conference (SHaRC). Radio and Wireless Week is thus a multidisciplinary event bringing together innovations that are happening across the broad wireless spectrum. A total of 185 papers were submitted to the RWW 2022 Technical Program Committee, of which 135 papers were accepted for presentation and publication online on the IEEE Xplore website. Together with the technical sessions, RWW 2022 successfully held seven workshops, a special focus session on massive MIMO beamforming technologies for 5G and beyond, a plenary presentation on topics related to artificial intelligence in circuit design and 6G, a dedicated track for the IEEE Distinguished Microwave Lecturers, and a demo track session to show the latest innovative wireless experimental achievements. For the second time, RWW had a live session on Distinguished Women in Microwaves bringing together a panel of women who have contributed to the microwave society for the last few years including high-quality talks in radio and wireless applications.

Overview of Open Dataset Sessions and Benchmarking Competitions in 2022 - Part 1 (QoMEX 2022, ODS at MMSys '22)

In this Dataset Column, we present a review of some of the notable events related to open datasets and benchmarking competitions in the field of multimedia. This year's selection highlights the wide range of topics and datasets currently of interest to the community. Some of the events covered in this review include special sessions on open datasets and competitions featuring multimedia data. While this list is not exhaustive and contains an overview of about 40 datasets, it is meant to showcase the diversity of subjects and datasets explored in the field. This year's review follows similar efforts from the previous year (https://records.sigmm.org/2022/01/12/overview-of-open-dataset-sessions-and-benchmarking-competitions-in-2021/), highlighting the ongoing importance of open datasets and benchmarking competitions in advancing research and development in multimedia. The column is divided into three parts, in this one we focus on QoMEX 2022 and ODS at MMSys '22.

Viper on the Hearth's Unfinished Business: Anti-Mormonism and Mormon Studies

<i>Viper on the Hearth</i>'s Unfinished Business: Anti-Mormonism and Mormon Studies

Overview of Open Dataset Sessions and Benchmarking Competitions in 2022 - Part 2 (MDRE at MMM 2022, ACM MM 2022)

In this Dataset Column, we present a review of some of the notable events related to open datasets and benchmarking competitions in the field of multimedia. This year's selection highlights the wide range of topics and datasets currently of interest to the community. Some of the events covered in this review include special sessions on open datasets and competitions featuring multimedia data. While this list is not exhaustive and contains an overview of about 40 datasets, it is meant to showcase the diversity of subjects and datasets explored in the field. This year's review follows similar efforts from the previous year (https://records.sigmm.org/2022/01/12/overview-of-open-dataset-sessions-and-benchmarking-competitions-in-2021/), highlighting the ongoing importance of open datasets and benchmarking competitions in advancing research and development in multimedia. The column is divided into three parts, in this one we focus on MDRE at MMM 2022 and ACM MM 2022.

2022 IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium Special Session: Young Professionals [Young Professionals

The Young Professionals special session at the 2022 IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) International Wireless Symposium (IWS) was supported by the Young Professionals Committee of the MTT-S AdCom. IEEE Young Professionals are a group of IEEE Members and volunteers who have graduated with their first professional degree within the past 15 years. The group constitutes an international community whose members are interested in elevating their professional image, expanding their global network, connecting with peers locally, and giving back to their community. Since it encompasses all members, from recent university graduates to experienced professionals and entrepreneurs, the group is highly diverse in what it has to offer.