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Almost two decades ago, Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 19(2/3): 251–267 Peng (2002) called attention to the promise of institution-based strategy research. The puzzle was to explain differences in strategies around the globe. Building on the work accomplished so far, I ask: Can institution-based strategy succeed when embedded in inappropriate social networks? Institutions and networks are usually studied as separate phenomena, yet each also defines the capabilities of the other. Institutions shape social network contacts and structures because institutions define opportunities for affiliation and the relative value of distinct contacts and network structures. At the same time, social networks shape institutions and organizations’ capabilities for institutional innovation. Thus, the social network in which a manager or organization is embedded can either amplify or counteract success in implementing institution-based strategy. After I review the co-constitutional nature of institutions and networks and discuss a number of sample studies using China as a productive research site, I sketch questions that need to be answered to more tightly integrate network behavior into institutional strategy research, and discuss four emerging areas of research into how network-strategy fit affects performance: (1) network fit to adaptive strategy, (2) network fit to change strategy, (3) institutional dynamics and network-strategy fit, and (4) institutional distance and network-strategy fit.

Super‐resolution fluorescence imaging provides critically improved information about the composition, organization, and dynamics of subcellular structures. Quantum dot triexciton imaging (QDTI) has been introduced as an easy‐to‐use sub‐diffraction imaging method that achieves an almost 2‐fold improvement in resolution when used with conventional confocal microscopes. Here, we report an overall 3‐fold increase in lateral and axial resolution compared to conventional confocal microscopes by combining QDTI with state‐of‐the‐art commercial laser scanning microscope systems., We report an overall 3‐fold increase in lateral and axial image resolution for confocal fluorescence microscopy by combining quantum dot triexciton imaging with state‐of‐the‐art commercial laser scanning microscope systems. Based on quantum dots as fluorescent labels, we present an easy‐to‐use super‐resolution method. A single confocal scan with minimal image post‐processing is sufficient to produce a sub‐diffraction image with an image resolution of approx. 80 nm lateral and 200 nm axial.

Microneedle (MN)-based technologies have been proposed as a means to facilitate minimally invasive sustained delivery of long-acting hormonal contraceptives into the skin. Intradermal administration is a new route of delivery for these contraceptives and therefore no established laboratory methods or experimental models are available to predict dermal drug release and pharmacokinetics from candidate MN formulations. This study evaluates an in vitro release (IVR) medium and a medium supplemented with ex vivo human skin homogenate (SH) as potential laboratory models to investigate the dermal release characteristics of one such hormonal contraceptive that is being tested for MN delivery, levonorgestrel (LNG), and provides details of an accompanying novel two-step liquid–liquid drug extraction procedure and sensitive reversed-phase HPLC–UV assay. The extraction efficiency of LNG was 91.7 ± 3.06% from IVR medium and 84.6 ± 1.6% from the medium supplemented with SH. The HPLC–UV methodology had a limit of quantification of 0.005 µg/mL and linearity between 0.005 and 25 µg/mL. Extraction and detection methods for LNG were exemplified in both models using the well-characterised, commercially available sustained-release implant (Jadelle®). Sustained LNG release from the implant was detected in both media over 28 days. This study reports for the first time the use of biologically relevant release models and a rapid, reliable and sensitive methodology to determine release characteristics of LNG from intradermally administered long-acting drug delivery systems. Graphical abstract Supplementary information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13346-021-01091-5.

A reliable diagnosis of amyloidosis is usually based on a tissue biopsy. With increasing options for specific treatments of the different amyloid diseases, an exact and valid diagnosis including determination of the biochemical fibril nature is imperative. Biopsy sites as well as amyloid typing principles vary and this paper describes methods employed at some laboratories specialised in amyloidosis in Europe, Japan and USA.

We apply a Machine Learning technique known as Convolutional Denoising Autoencoder to denoise synthetic images of state-of-the-art radio telescopes, with the goal of detecting the faint, diffused radio sources predicted to characterise the radio cosmic web. In our application, denoising is intended to address both the reduction of random instrumental noise and the minimisation of additional spurious artefacts like the sidelobes, resulting from the aperture synthesis technique. The effectiveness and the accuracy of the method are analysed for different kinds of corrupted input images, together with its computational performance. Specific attention has been devoted to create realistic mock observations for the training, exploiting the outcomes of cosmological numerical simulations, to generate images corresponding to LOFAR HBA 8 hours observations at 150 MHz. Our autoencoder can effectively denoise complex images identifying and extracting faint objects at the limits of the instrumental sensitivity. The method can efficiently scale on large datasets, exploiting high performance computing solutions, in a fully automated way (i.e. no human supervision is required after training). It can accurately perform image segmentation, identifying low brightness outskirts of diffused sources, proving to be a viable solution for detecting challenging extended objects hidden in noisy radio observations., 21 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication by MNRAS

Whole genome and exome sequencing (WGS/WES) are the most popular next‐generation sequencing (NGS) methodologies and are at present often used to detect rare and common genetic variants of clinical significance. We emphasize that automated sequence data processing, management, and visualization should be an indispensable component of modern WGS and WES data analysis for sequence assembly, variant detection (SNPs, SVs), imputation, and resolution of haplotypes. In this manuscript, we present a newly developed findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) bioinformatics‐genomics pipeline Java based Whole Genome/Exome Sequence Data Processing Pipeline (JWES) for efficient variant discovery and interpretation, and big data modeling and visualization. JWES is a cross‐platform, user‐friendly, product line application, that entails three modules: (a) data processing, (b) storage, and (c) visualization. The data processing module performs a series of different tasks for variant calling, the data storage module efficiently manages high‐volume gene‐variant data, and the data visualization module supports variant data interpretation with Circos graphs. The performance of JWES was tested and validated in‐house with different experiments, using Microsoft Windows, macOS Big Sur, and UNIX operating systems. JWES is an open‐source and freely available pipeline, allowing scientists to take full advantage of all the computing resources available, without requiring much computer science knowledge. We have successfully applied JWES for processing, management, and gene‐variant discovery, annotation, prediction, and genotyping of WGS and WES data to analyze variable complex disorders. In summary, we report the performance of JWES with some reproducible case studies, using open access and in‐house generated, high‐quality datasets., In this manuscript, we present JWES, a newly developed FAIR bioinformatics‐genomics pipeline for gene‐variant discovery, annotation, prediction, and genotyping, and big data modelling and visualization. JWES is an open‐source and freely available application, allowing scientists to take full advantage of all the computing resources available, without requiring much computer science knowledge.

Plant breeding, like other fields in applied quantitative genetics, has embraced large-scale phenotype data as a way to rapidly and accurately create the next generations of crops. High-throughput phenotyping technologies and large-scale multi-environment breeding trials generate an unprecedented scale of data for breeders to use to make selections and crosses in breeding programs. However, the statistical foundation of multi-trait breeding is based on the multivariate linear mixed effect model, a tool notorious for its fragility when applied to more than a handful of traits. We present MegaLMM, a statistical framework and associated software package that facilitates flexible mixed model analyses on a virtually unlimited number of traits. Using three examples with real plant data, we show that MegaLMM can efficiently model the genetic architecture of thousands of traits at once while significantly improving genetic value prediction accuracy.

Sequencing technologies using nucleotide conversion techniques such as cytosine to thymine in bisulfite-seq and thymine to cytosine in SLAM seq are powerful tools to explore the chemical intricacies of cellular processes. To date, no one has developed a unified methodology for aligning converted sequences and consolidating alignment of these technologies in one package. In this paper, we describe hierarchical indexing for spliced alignment of transcripts–3 nucleotides (HISAT-3N), which can rapidly and accurately align sequences consisting of any nucleotide conversion by leveraging the powerful hierarchical index and repeat index algorithms originally developed for the HISAT software. Tests on real and simulated data sets show that HISAT-3N is faster than other modern systems, with greater alignment accuracy, higher scalability, and smaller memory requirements. HISAT-3N therefore becomes an ideal aligner when used with converted sequence technologies.

Les maladies respiratoires chroniques s’accompagnent souvent de nombreuses comorbidités qui contribuent à la diminution de la capacité à l’exercice et d’une altération des capacités fonctionnelles et musculaires qui affectent la qualité de vie des personnes qui en sont atteintes et qui peuvent toutes être améliorées par la réadaptation respiratoire. Dans le contexte de la réadaptation, l’évaluation de ces pertes de capacité et de fonction avec des tests appropriés et sensibles au changement est nécessaire afin de personnaliser les différentes interventions physiques et d’en évaluer l’efficacité à court et à long terme. Le clinicien dispose actuellement d’un large éventail de tests et mesures pour juger de la capacité physique et fonctionnelle des personnes ayant une maladie respiratoire chronique. Cette revue a pour but de faire une synthèse pragmatique des tests de capacité physique, fonctionnelle et musculaire les plus couramment utilisés dans un contexte de réadaptation respiratoire. Ultimement, elle devrait aider le clinicien à cibler les évaluations pertinentes en fonction des objectifs de la personne et de son parcours de soins, mais aussi en fonction des ressources disponibles, du lieu de réalisation et des qualités spécifiques de chacun des tests. [Which physical tests for which objectives in pulmonary rehabilitation?]. Chronic respiratory disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide and an important cause of disability including a reduction of exercise, functional and muscle capacity contributing to a decreased quality of life. In the context of pulmonary rehabilitation, a thorough patient-centered outcome assessment, including not only measures of lung function, but also exercise functional and muscle capacity, is imperative for a comprehensive disease management. Assessment of these impairments and dysfunctions with appropriate and change-sensitive procedures is thus necessary for personalizing the physical interventions and assessing the short- and long-term effectiveness of the intervention. The clinician currently has a wide variety of tests and measurements available to assess the physical and functional capacity of people with chronic respiratory disease. The aim of this review is to provide a pragmatic synthesis of the physical, functional and muscle capacity tests most commonly used in pulmonary rehabilitation. Ultimately, it should help the clinician to identify the relevant evaluations according to the objectives of the patients but also according to the available resources, the setting of pulmonary rehabilitation and the specific qualities of each test.

The paper proposes a method for studying the color rendition of digital cameras. This parameter is conventionally assessed visually by color targets in photography and design. The proposed method compares the chromaticity values of standard test objects with their measured values on a digital camera using special setup features. The setup includes a light source, a collimator for uniform illumination of a reflecting screen with a test object, and a research object, i.e., a digital camera. The camera is positioned at a 45 degree angle to the screen. This setup follows the recommendations of the Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage (CIE) for color measurements. To measure the colorimetric characteristics of the samples, the authors adopted the 0/45 illumination / observation scheme. The test object is illuminated with a light beam, the axis of which makes an angle not exceeding 10° from the normal to the sample surface. The sample is observed at an angle of 45° ± 5° from to the normal. The angle between the axis of the illuminating beam and any of its rays does not exceed 5°. A type A source (color temperature 2856 K) acts as an illuminator. Standardized reference sets of colored optical glasses (light filters) characterized by known chromaticity coordinates were chosen as test objects. To evaluate the results, specialized software has been developed that allows one to select individual pixels, calculate their brightness in order to find the chromaticity coordinates and compare the results with reference values. The method was tested using the Canon EOS 60D digital camera. At the time of measurement, digital filters for correction, anti-aliasing, sharpening, as well as color adjustment were turned off in the camera. The paper presents colorimetric measurements using 58 colored optical glasses. The averaged values fall into seven groups. The selected color space for measurements is sRGB. The measurement results proved the possibility of using the proposed technique for analysing and choosing appropriate digital recording devices for colorimetric measurements in such areas as medicine, chemistry and food industry.

Key requirements of successful animal behavior research in the laboratory are robustness, objectivity, and high throughput, which apply to both the recording and analysis of behavior. Many automatic methods of monitoring animal behavior meet these requirements. However, they usually depend on high-performing hardware and sophisticated software, which may be expensive. Here, we describe an automatic infrared behavior-monitor (AIBM) system based on an infrared touchscreen frame. Using this, animal positions can be recorded and used for further behavioral analysis by any PC supporting touch events. This system detects animal behavior in real time and gives closed-loop feedback using relatively low computing resources and simple algorithms. The AIBM system automatically records and analyzes multiple types of animal behavior in a highly efficient, unbiased, and low-cost manner. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12264-021-00661-4.

The study of chamber music at university is one of the most interesting creative disciplines. The article is devoted to the problems of teaching methodology with a classical wind instruments quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon) in several aspects. The author analyzes the relationship between the teacher and the ensemble members, the formation and role of the leader (concertmaster) of the quintet. One of the essential problems is communication between the teacher and students in the chamber ensemble class as a creative process that enriches both sides. An important section of the proposed text is devoted to some of the most significant, typical problems of performing in a classical wind quintet. Here we consider the specific features of acoustic balance inherent in work with a classical quintet, work with various versions of romantic pieces that form the basis for an ensemble of this type, and the possibility of self-control of musicians during rehearsals. The article also analyzes the principles of independent work of students and features of performances at concerts and exams. This publication is based on more than thirty years of experience at the Moscow Conservatory and observations of colleagues who teach chamber music at higher schools.

Single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (scATAC-seq) identifies regulated chromatin accessibility modules at the single-cell resolution. Robust evaluation is critical to the development of scATAC-seq pipelines, which calls for reproducible datasets for benchmarking. We hereby present the simATAC framework, an R package that generates scATAC-seq count matrices that highly resemble real scATAC-seq datasets in library size, sparsity, and chromatin accessibility signals. simATAC deploys statistical models derived from analyzing 90 real scATAC-seq cell groups. simATAC provides a robust and systematic approach to generate in silico scATAC-seq samples with known cell labels for assessing analytical pipelines. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at (10.1186/s13059-021-02270-w).

The integration of single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets from multiple sources is critical for deciphering cell-to-cell heterogeneities and interactions in complex biological systems. We present a novel unsupervised batch effect removal framework, called iMAP, based on both deep autoencoders and generative adversarial networks. Compared with current methods, iMAP shows superior, robust, and scalable performance in terms of both reliably detecting the batch-specific cells and effectively mixing distributions of the batch-shared cell types. Applying iMAP to tumor microenvironment datasets from two platforms, Smart-seq2 and 10x Genomics, we find that iMAP can leverage the powers of both platforms to discover novel cell-cell interactions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13059-021-02280-8.

Objectives The underlying mechanisms behind the therapeutic and side effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) need further investigation. The utilization of transgenic mouse lines is a suitable approach to better understand the cellular and network effects of DBS. However, not many bilateral DBS studies have been conducted in mice. This might be due to a lack of commercially available bilateral DBS constructs.Materials and Methods We developed an approach to perform repetitive long-term DBS in freely moving mice. In this study, we implanted an in-house custom-made DBS construct containing two bipolar concentric electrodes to target the subthalamic nucleus (STN) bilaterally. Subsequently, we stimulated half of the animals with clinically relevant parameters three to five times a week with a duration of 20 min for ten weeks. Several behavioral tests were conducted of which the open field test (OFT) is shown to validate the reliability of this electrode construct and implantation method. Furthermore, we performed fiber photometry measurements to show the acute effect of STN-DBS on serotonin network activity in the dorsal raphe nucleus.Results Repetitive DBS and long-term behavioral testing were performed without complications. STN-DBS resulted in an increase of the distance traveled in the OFT and a reduction of calcium levels in serotonergic neurons of the dorsal raphe nucleus. None of the mice had lost their electrodes and postmortem evaluation of the tissue showed accurate targeting of the STN without excessive gliosis.Conclusion The DBS electrode construct and implantation method described can be used for long-term DBS studies to further investigate the mechanisms underlying DBS.

Even though horizontally linear projects have low complexity schedules, they are still not successful in meeting planned time. The deadlines are mostly based on estimations done in front-end project development when limited data are available. Early time estimation models in literature rely on few variables and, almost in all cases, one of them is the estimated cost. Early cost estimations can significantly deviate from actual costs and thus lead to unreliable time estimation. Time estimation models based on neural network and other alternative methods require databases and software, which complicates the process of time estimation. The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap of scarce time estimation models and unreliable time estimates by developing a new method for time estimation. This research has been done on one large sewer system project. The case study shows how to extract several continuous activities for a pipeline project chosen from a sewer system. Moreover, a new algorithm for the calculation of project duration is devised based on the existing equation related to the linear scheduling method, and this algorithm works with continuous activities. The new method for construction time estimation is based on the extraction of linear continuous activities, usage of the algorithm for identification of minimal buffer between activities, and calculation of the project duration. To verify the algorithm, this method is used on another pipeline project from a sewer system. The limitation is that this method can be used only for base estimation. Further research needs to be done to include uncertainties and risks in the method.

The performance of text classification methods has improved greatly over the last decade for text instances of less than 512 tokens. This limit has been adopted by most state-of-the-research transformer models due to the high computational cost of analyzing longer text instances. To mitigate this problem and to improve classification for longer texts, researchers have sought to resolve the underlying causes of the computational cost and have proposed optimizations for the attention mechanism, which is the key element of every transformer model. In our study, we are not pursuing the ultimate goal of long text classification, i.e., the ability to analyze entire text instances at one time while preserving high performance at a reasonable computational cost. Instead, we propose a text truncation method called Text Guide, in which the original text length is reduced to a predefined limit in a manner that improves performance over naive and semi-naive approaches while preserving low computational costs. Text Guide benefits from the concept of feature importance, a notion from the explainable artificial intelligence domain. We demonstrate that Text Guide can be used to improve the performance of recent language models specifically designed for long text classification, such as Longformer. Moreover, we discovered that parameter optimization is the key to Text Guide performance and must be conducted before the method is deployed. Future experiments may reveal additional benefits provided by this new method., Comment: This is the reviewed and accepted for publication version of the article by the IEEE Access Journal. One of the important modifications is publication of the code along with the paper. The code can be used to apply Text Guide to a data set of ones choice. The code is available at: https://github.com/krzysztoffiok/TextGuide

"Death is a concept studied from ancient times by all major areas, from literature and art, to philosophy and psychology. In this research, we analyze the way Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, negotiates the idea of death, through his own death. We approached this, because the ancient philosopher was put in this situation when he was sentenced to death, unjustly, following a democratic decision. His way of seeing death reveals a formula that does not match the expectation of his contemporaries, nor the classical typology of the imminence of his own death, belonging to psychiatrist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. And the explanation of this non-coincidence is based on the philosophical idea of man and world and the specifics of his philosophical practice. It is precisely this philosophical conception and practice that will make Socrates’ attitude become repeatable and not unrepeatable, as one might expect, since this attitude appears so conditioned by specific elements. In fact, the rational research on the grounds of beliefs and personal knowledge that stands at the basis of his philosophical practice, is deeply rooted in the foundations of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). Therefore, what lays at the basis of Socrates’ view on death goes far beyond the ancient cultural framework. To fill in the phenomenal dimension with the one of organic layer, the analysis will also include an interpretation of Socrates’ behavior, from the dopamine mechanism approach. Keywords: death, Socrates, method, concept, analysis, beliefs. "

Метою статті є висвітлення сучасних тенденцій проведення досліджень у сфері вивчення та викладання іноземних мов. Досягнення цієї мети включало аналіз літератури присвяченої методиці та організації наукових досліджень, а також аналіз сучасних статей обраної сфери. У статті коротко розглянуті основні методи дослідження, питання об’єму та типу вибірки. Був здійснений порівняльний аналіз 20-ти експериментальних статей з українського наукового журналу «Новітня освіта». Це видання включене до міжнародної бази даних Web of Science та регулярно публікує наукові статті у сфері вивчення та викладання іноземної мови. Проведений порівняльний аналіз зазначених статей дозволив визначити змішаний метод дослідження переважно домінуючим. Також було підтверджено, що все більше викладачів-дослідників співпрацюють з українськими колегами з метою співавторства та спільного проведення експерименту. Подібна тенденція прослідковується щодо співпраці фахівців вітчизняних університетів із зарубіжними колегами. The aim of this qualitative study is to analyse literature on basic research methodology concerning methods, design, types of sampling, the sample size and recent scientific articles in the sphere of language teaching and learning to define current research trends. Twenty articles published in the open access Web of Science indexed journal «Advanced Education» were analysed in terms of scientific methods and sample size used. The journal is semi-annual and peer-reviewed. It highlights the results of scientific research on a wide range of topics in the field of higher education including language teaching and learning. The data was collected through content analysis of twenty publications in language education issued in 2020. Frequencies of methods used and percentages, as well as mean sample size, were calculated. A mixed-method approach was defined as a dominant trend in the majority of articles. It was demonstrated that the learning outcomes coefficient of 0.7 created by Bespalko V. is still used as a reliable way to measure learning outcomes in language teaching and learning research. The mean sample size of the experimental group was defined to be approximately 67 participants. A much bigger sample size was used for surveys. A growth of collaborative research in language teaching and learning was identified as one of the new trends in the sphere of language education in Ukraine. An increase in research cooperation with foreign colleagues was another emerging trend. Poland, the United States, Spain, Turkey, China, and Norway were on the list of research partners. In two out of twenty studies, foreign students were involved as research participants. They were Spanish and Polish learners. Popular methods of qualitative research such as observation, interview, survey, document analysis and the main characteristics of quantitative research were briefly described in the main part of this study based on the personal experience of the authors and analysis of literature dedicated to the theoretical background of research study methods.

Effective management of any system is impossible without a clear definition of its elements, hierarchical levels, and desired performance indicators. Considering this problem in the context of food security management, the authors set out to create a system of food security indicators at different hierarchical levels. The purpose of the article is to deepen theoretical and methodological provisions and develop a system of indicators as a component of food security management at different levels, which should meet the criteria and dimensions of the SDGs-2030. The methodological basis of the research is the dialectical method and general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge. The results obtained are of great practical importance in shaping national and regional food security policies (programs) on a sustainable development basis. Proceeding from the results of the research and the scientific and theoretical positions of the epistemological content of the category of the concept “food security”, taking into account the criteria of food security of formation at different hierarchical levels and methodological aspects of its monitoring, it is proposed 54 indicators.

The article describes the methodological, methodic and socio-project aspects of the views of the modern sociologist and political scientist M. Castells in the framework of a discursive analysis of the possibilities of their use in the further institutionalization of digital sociology, as a relatively autonomous set of scientific data of sociology. The author considers literary sources related to the scientific work of M. Castells, methodological tools of discursive analysis and databases. The paper describes theoretical approaches to the study of the concept of the power of communication in ontological and socio-cultural contexts, as well as the characteristics of the author’s empirical sociological research in the framework of disclosing the logical and semantic components of the concept under consideration. Based on the discursive analysis, the author reveals structural, functional, procedural, organizational and managerial components of the theoretical views of the scientist, which help to clarify the object-subject sphere and the methodological arsenal of sociological research in the field of information and communication network “Internet”. The article considers the scientific approaches of the scientist to clarify the concept of “power” by explaining the role and place of actors in it, as well as use by them of social networks for their influence. The author highlights separately the scientist`s disclosure of the “network society” concept, which determines the network structure of connections based on the activation of information. The paper describes the features of the scientific method of M. Castells, associated with the postulation of the thesis of the regularity of the continuous replacement of scientific concepts in the knowledge of power relations and communications, the importance of flexibility and changing the angle of view of the scientist to solve specific research problems. The author emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the scientific methodology, method and socio-project approaches of the scientist. The study gives the directions of implementation of scientific developments of M. Castells in digital sociology, substantiates socio-project ways of increasing the positive potential of Internet communications in the context of digital society development.

Background Adequate cytology is limited by insufficient cytologists in a large‐scale cervical cancer screening. We aimed to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)‐assisted cytology system in cervical cancer screening program. Methods We conducted a perspective cohort study within a population‐based cervical cancer screening program for 0.7 million women, using a validated AI‐assisted cytology system. For comparison, cytologists examined all slides classified by AI as abnormal and a randomly selected 10% of normal slides. Each woman with slides classified as abnormal by either AI‐assisted or manual reading was diagnosed by colposcopy and biopsy. The outcomes were histologically confirmed cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 or worse (CIN2+). Results Finally, we recruited 703 103 women, of whom 98 549 were independently screened by AI and manual reading. The overall agreement rate between AI and manual reading was 94.7% (95% confidential interval [CI], 94.5%‐94.8%), and kappa was 0.92 (0.91‐0.92). The detection rates of CIN2+ increased with the severity of cytology abnormality performed by both AI and manual reading (P trend, This study aims to assess the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the detection of early cervical cancer in a low resource setting. Our results showed that AI‐assisted cytology could identify most of negative cytology, and showed higher positive predictive value for CIN2 or worse when compared with cytologists. This study indicates that AI‐assisted cytology could be very useful tool as a primary screening method in a large‐scale cervical cancer screening program to improve its effectiveness.

As an important protein acylation modification, lysine succinylation (Ksucc) is involved in diverse biological processes, and participates in human tumorigenesis. Here, we collected 26,243 non-redundant known Ksucc sites from 13 species as the benchmark data set, combined 10 types of informative features, and implemented a hybrid-learning architecture by integrating deep-learning and conventional machine-learning algorithms into a single framework. We constructed a new tool named HybridSucc, which achieved area under curve (AUC) values of 0.885 and 0.952 for general and human-specific prediction of Ksucc sites, respectively. In comparison, the accuracy of HybridSucc was 17.84%–50.62% better than that of other existing tools. Using HybridSucc, we conducted a proteome-wide prediction and prioritized 370 cancer mutations that change Ksucc states of 218 important proteins, including PKM2, SHMT2, and IDH2. We not only developed a high-profile tool for predicting Ksucc sites, but also generated useful candidates for further experimental consideration. The online service of HybridSucc can be freely accessed for academic research at http://hybridsucc.biocuckoo.org/.

About 100 years have passed since the first classes of percussion instruments appeared. In the early days, when professional training intended for percussion performers dated to, teachers faced a large number of problems, in particular, lack of a full set of percussion instruments in the classroom, the availability of instructive, educational, pedagogical and concert repertoire alongside scientific and methodological literature. As a result, the work of the first educators was based, first of all, on their personal pedagogical experience and many years of performing practice. In this regard, the appearance of the first teaching aids was a milestone in the development of professional training in playing percussion instruments. For a century-long period, not so much educational and methodological literature has appeared, which was conditioned by a number of objective and subjective factors. At the same time, each methodological manual has taken its rightful place in the development of teaching methods for playing the percussion instruments. However, time is relentlessly moving forward and, unfortunately, today, they have become less in demand, as they do not always meet the modern requirements and approaches to teaching how to play the percussion instruments. Today, Ukrainian scientists and teachers have free access to a large amount of information. Therefore, they have an opportunity to familiarise themselves with interesting developments of our foreign colleagues. However, in most cases, they cannot be used in domestic pedagogical practice, as they are not adapted to the current realities of the educational system of Ukraine due to various socio-economic and cultural factors. Thus, the issues related to the need to search for the most effective forms, methods, and approaches to teaching how to play the percussion instruments is of particular importance and relevance. The article is devoted to the methods based on the playing form of instructions which are used in schools of aesthetic education and, in particular, at the classes of percussion instruments. The purpose of the work is to present new promising areas in teaching percussion playing, based on the author’s pedagogical practice. These methods were used in the study: analysis, observation, deduction and induction. The following issues are considered in the article: the influence of learners’ age characteristics on the choice of teaching methods, the essence of the group form of training and its importance for activating the pedagogical process, traditional and non-traditional approaches to teaching / learning, as well as the analysis of the methods that are widely used in the author’s teaching practice at the classes of the percussion instruments playing. As a result of the study, some new ideas were proposed related to the training at the initial stage and the ways of their implementation by introducing the methods of collective listening, imitation, “playing with the ball”, “sweet tooth”, etc. into the pedagogical practice.

Advances in high-throughput sequencing technologies have reduced the cost of genotyping dramatically and led to genomic prediction being widely used in animal and plant breeding, and increasingly in human genetics. Inspired by the efficient computing of linear mixed model and the accurate prediction of Bayesian methods, we propose a machine learning-based method incorporating cross-validation, multiple regression, grid search, and bisection algorithms named KAML that aims to combine the advantages of prediction accuracy with computing efficiency. KAML exhibits higher prediction accuracy than existing methods, and it is available at https://github.com/YinLiLin/KAML.

An expert system for text analysis based on the heuristic knowledge of an expert linguist is proposed. Methods of linguistic analysis of the text through the use of computer technology have been further developed. Data verification was performed on the example of the Germanic language group. The algorithm of the system operation is given. The sequence of actions of the text analysis process is described. Research relates to the subject of computational linguistics and helps to automate text analysis processes. The main purpose of the research is to improve the machine's understanding of the semantic structure of the text by finding current connections between the main members of the sentence, current connections between secondary members of the sentence, the best concept of the current word and the function of the current word in the sentence. Semantic networks are used in the software solution. The Java programming shell, such as NetBeans IDE 8.1, and the CLIPS shell, were used to create the software product. The main logical connections and structure of the program are described in the article. Methods and relations are considered on the example of the Germanic group of languages. All languages of the Germanic group are similar because they have a direct line of words, which makes them even more similar: subject + predicate + subordinate clauses. Thus, to reflect the structure of the Germanic group of languages, it is sufficient to consider one of them. Namely, English, as it is the most common (1.5 billion people), international, has the largest vocabulary among the group (500 thousand words) and, in our opinion, the most complex.

Endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) is a well-established method for the treatment of early-stage gastrointestinal neoplasms. Adequate submucosal exposure is one of the most significant factors related to an effective and safe dissection. The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effcacy and safety of various methods that assist traction during ESD of precancerous and earlystage neoplastic lesions of the gastrointestinal tract. We performed an electronic search of the MEDLINE and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register databases for relevant studies published up to May 2019. Trials exclusively recruiting patients undergoing ESD for superficial gastrointestinal cancer were considered eligible for inclusion. Thirty-three articles including 3,134 patients met the inclusion criteria. The studies evaluated different approaches for widening the endoscopic view, including magnetic anchor-guided ESD (3 studies), use of a second endoscope (5 studies), clip-involving technique (21 studies), and miscellaneous methods (4 studies). Among them, only 6 were randomized controlled trials evaluating different approaches. Overall, the implementation of methods that assist traction during ESD significantly improved the operating time and R0 resection rate and decreased the rate of complications (bleeding and perforation). Interventions that assist traction seem effcacious in improving tissue traction, thus facilitating ESD performance.

Serum (1→3)-β-D-glucan (BDG), is an adjunct test in the diagnosis of invasive fungal disease (IFD). Fungitell STAT™, a facile, rapid, single patient option, executable for one or more patient specimens in approximately an hour, has been developed to address a need for rapid in-house testing. This method presents qualitative information concerning serum BDG levels, using an index value that allows the rapid categorization of patients as positive, negative, or indeterminate relative to serum BDG titer. The categorical and analytical performance of Fungitell STAT was evaluated. The categorical agreement between methods was established by testing patient samples which had been previously categorized with Fungitell. Receiver Operating Characteristic curves were used to identify cut-offs using 93 de-identified patient specimens. Subsequently, using these cutoffs, an independent group of 488 patient specimens was analyzed. Positive percent agreement (PPA) with, and without, indeterminate results was 74% and 99%, respectively. Negative percent agreement (NPA) was 91% and 98% with, and without, indeterminate results, respectively. Additionally, commercially available normal off-the-clot sera were spiked with Saccharomyces cerevisiae-derived (1→3)-β-D-glucan to produce analytical samples. Analytical reproducibility using spiked samples was excellent with 94% of the CV (coefficient of variation) values ≤10% among three independent laboratories. Good correlation with the predicate method was demonstrated with correlation coefficients of 0.90 or better with patient samples and 0.99 with spiked samples. The Fungitell STAT index assay provides a rapid and suitable method for serum BDG testing.

The article notes the risks to the growth of energy potential in connection with the recent adoption by the Government of the Russian Federation of the Paris Climate Agreement. According to the latest UN data, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to increase. Consequently, Russia will be required to bring the reduction of CO2 emissions to 33- 40%, which will entail a decrease in the production, including energy generation, at the base of fossil fuels. At the same time, in the decisions of the Paris Agreement there are no specific tools to control the “low-carbon” production. This can lead to biased decision-making on the problems of “low-carbon” production both at the global and national levels. A rating system is proposed that provides weighted average numerical indicators of the efficiency of generating enterprises in the release of toxic ingredients and greenhouse gases, taking into account energy costs for restoring the air area around the source of emission. The rating assessment methodology was validated for the category of sources “stationary fuel combustion” during power generation. The results of calculations by the proposed method, obtained taking into account the actual load of the facilities, showed the physical adequacy and objectivity of the assessment of energy generation at thermal plants for various purposes for the emission of multidirectional pollutants. The presented rating characteristics can be used on a global and / or national scale, as well as for internal purposes of organizations, for example, when comparing their objects in order to indicate bottlenecks in real production conditions.

The relevance of the development of enterprises of Ukraine is characterized by the presence of a significant number of factors that negatively affect the enterprises themselves and their functioning as part of the state. These factors include: the national economy, the instability of tax and regulatory legislation, inflation, unavailability of credit, increased competition, the decrease in the level of investment activity of enterprises and regions, the slowdown of the national payment turnover, the growing number of unprofitable enterprises. The effect of these factors appears in the movement of material and financial flows and leads to significant losses, which in turn adversely affects the economic security of enterprises. The aim of the research is financial risk qualimetry in the system of economic security of enterprise and the development of proposals to improve economic security by minimizing the financial risks. Methodology. In the scientific study following methods were used – analysis (assessing indicators of financial stability and liquidity of the enterprise), synthesis (in determining the impact of components of financial risk in the overall structure of financial risk), Boolean method (in the justification of the main problems associated with the occurrence of financial risk, and its impact on economic security), generalization (in revealing the essence of economic categories “financial risk”, “economic security”). Results. An important step of this work is to determine advantages, disadvantages, conditions for minimizing financial risks in the system of economic security of the enterprise. Conclusions. In the course of the study, the financial risk assessment of Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and its impact on the economic security of the enterprise were researched. The economic boom of the metallurgical plant, industrial regions and the development of industries that coexist together or depend on the metallurgical business depend on the way the enterprise works today. The scientific importance of the article is the possibility to develop enterprise policy to minimize financial risks and ensure economic security. The value of the research lies in the fact that it is necessary to pay attention to the system of risk management in the enterprise and to provide human resources, which will conduct assessment of financial risks, as well as develop effective measures to minimize financial risks and ensure economic security in the economic environment. JEL Classification: G32; D21.

Purpose: To this thesis is analyzed the impact factor of education to the public sector and tax system, through a procedure of theoretical and mathematical analysis, a quantification method, an econometric method and behavioral scrutiny by a real case scenario. This work compares the cycle of money, to the one case using the impact factor of education and to the other case without it. Then, this work aims to study if the taxes for the education don’t belong to the general approach that taxes make weaker the cycle of money, but have a positive effect on the economy, are a different case as the theory of the cycle of money provides. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis stands on the cycle of money and the impact factor of education. Therefore, the appropriate education to the economy supports the market and in general the economy. The impact factor of education enforces the economic dynamic of any economy. The study of cases when there is the factor of education and when this factor is omitted allows the extraction of the appropriate conclusions. Moreover, this analysis is used for the Q.E. method through R.B.Q. model. The use of simulations before the real application guarantees the significance of the results. To be able to understand the way that taxes for the education system, estimated to the one case how the economy interacts with these taxes and after this examination without these taxes, following the mathematical logic of the "reductio ad absurdum". Finding: The education of the U.S. for the period of 2012-2017 shows that taxes for education return to the economy, enhancing it. The general approach of simulation complies with this real case scenario. Research limitations/implications: This paper shows that according to the theory of the cycle of money the education belongs to the case of factors that the taxes return to the economy, and robust the economic dynamic of a society. Originality/value: The findings of this study contribute to the existing knowledge regarding the concept of the cycle of money to the case of education. The taxes on education belong to the case that the money returns to the economy, on the contrary with most taxes that are not robust the economy and should be reduced.

PurposeThis paper develops a new method to study institutions based on institutional work theory. Institutional disruption is intentionally utilized to explore the taken-for-granted foundations of social institutions. The paper outlines the method and considerations.Design/methodology/approachTaking inspiration from ethnomethodological breaches, the paper outlines the steps in the new method called researcher initiated institutional disruption (RIID). The four steps are identifying the institution, identifying the institutional actors, selecting the disruption type and disrupting the institution to gather data (action and reaction). RIID utilizes three types of institutional disruption: undermining assumptions and beliefs, resistance and issue raising.FindingsThe new method complements traditional field methods, such as observation, by showing how a researcher can deliberately make taken-for-granted institutional features visible. The paper finds that RIID offers the opportunity to gather different data, but it is not appropriate for every study and carries potential consequences in the field.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature by outlining an innovative use of theory as method. The approach has not previously been detailed and offers the potential to access previously inaccessible research questions, data and theoretical insights.

A system for recognizing surface defects in marble slabs is proposed. The pattern recognition method based on segmentation methods was further developed. The algorithm of the recognition system. The article describes methods for determining damage from digital images on various hard surfaces. Research in this field is relevant for a wide range of industrial enterprises that specialize in the production of various kinds of materials: parts, marble slabs, building materials, etc. To solve this problem, it is proposed to use the k-means clustering method. It has been experimentally established that Gaussian blurring algorithms, the Hough transform, and the Kenny algorithm are best suited for recognizing defects on the surface of a marble slab. The developed complex method based on the theory of pattern recognition allows you to quickly identify defects and damage on the surfaces of marble slabs. On the basis of the method, a system for understanding defects is implemented in software. The main stages of the system are described in the article. The results of the analysis of the image of the surface of the marble slab on a specific example are presented. The developed complex method based on the theory of pattern recognition allows you to quickly identify defects and damage on the surfaces of marble slabs. On the basis of the method, a system for understanding defects is implemented in software. The main stages of the system are described in the article. The results of the analysis of the image of the surface of the marble slab on a specific example are presented.

In the article there have been theoretically grounded the process of organizationof the monitoring of future teachers’ psychological and pedagogical training in establishments of professional and technical education which consists of five stages: 1 stage – goals and planning of the research; 2 stage – tool development; 3 stage – conducting the research; 4 stage – processing of results; 5 stage – analysis and interpretation of the research results. On the basis of the given components of psychological and pedagogical competence there have been defined three criteria: personal, content and procedural, evaluative and regulatory. Every criterion is a complex of some indexes which characterize the most important and necessary manifestations of components of the psychological and pedagogical competence of future teachers in establishments of professional and technical education. There have been taken the diagnostic tools which give an opportunity to evaluate the levels of formation of components of future teachers’ psychological and pedagogical competence in establishments of professional and technical education according to definite criteria. Diagnostic tools of the cognitive component consist of testing methods: J. Raven test, R. Amthauer test (personal criterion: accordance of psychophysiological peculiarities to professional requirements (mental process: fillings, perception, memory, thinking, imagination and attention)); method of test control, analysis of written and oral answers (content and procedural criterion: theoretical knowledge of academic field (flexibility, strength, understanding); questionnaire of meta-cognitive involvement in the activity (evaluative and regulatory criterion: meta-cognitive knowledge (subject’s knowledge about personal learning strategies), meta-cognitive evaluation (judgments about mental abilities and limitations, their need in a particular situations), meta-cognitive regulation (subject’smodification of thinking). There have been revealed the content of experimental implementation of the method of organizing the psychological and pedagogical training of professional and technical educational establishments’ future teachers (on the example of checking the level of formation of cognitive and meta-cognitive skills, abilities, knowledge and understanding, which have a place in mastering the peculiarities of the psychological and pedagogical activity) and there have been proved the validity and adequacy of the research tools and reliability of the results. The study addresses the problem of labor migration at the level of quality vocational education and training, in particular in the context of the acquisition of higher education qualifiers for personal and professional self-realization, career development throughout life

The allele frequency spectrum (AFS), or site frequency spectrum, is commonly used to summarize the genomic polymorphism pattern of a sample, which is informative for inferring population history and detecting natural selection. In 2013, Chen and Chen developed a method for analytically deriving the AFS for populations with temporally varying size through the coalescence time-scaling function. However, their approach is only applicable to population history scenarios in which the analytical form of the time-scaling function is tractable. In this paper, we propose a computational approach to extend the method to populations with arbitrary complex varying size by numerically approximating the time-scaling function. We demonstrate the performance of the approach by constructing the AFS for two population history scenarios: the logistic growth model and the Gompertz growth model, for which the AFS are unavailable with existing approaches. Software for implementing the algorithm can be downloaded at http://chenlab.big.ac.cn/software/.

Data mining technology can search for potentially valuable knowledge from a large amount of data, mainly divided into data preparation and data mining, and expression and analysis of results. It is a mature information processing technology and applies database technology. Database technology is a software science that researches manages, and applies databases. The data in the database are processed and analyzed by studying the underlying theory and implementation methods of the structure, storage, design, management, and application of the database. We have introduced several databases and data mining techniques to help a wide range of clinical researchers better understand and apply database technology.

Object and purpose of research. The paper presents developing principles and tests example for electronic knowledgebase of ship design and the procedures to use and fulfill the knowledgebase. Material and methods. This study is based on the new ways to create methods to use the automation calculations in ship design process. Main results. It is shown a way how to limit to use the heavy foreign software for some ship design calculations. Conclusion. The study could be a guidance to fulfill knowledgebase of ship design.

Deep learning has become a powerful paradigm to analyze the binding sites of regulatory factors including RNA-binding proteins (RBPs), owing to its strength to learn complex features from possibly multiple sources of raw data. However, the interpretability of these models, which is crucial to improve our understanding of RBP binding preferences and functions, has not yet been investigated in significant detail. We have designed a multitask and multimodal deep neural network for characterizing in vivo RBP binding preferences. The model incorporates not only the sequence but also the region type of the binding sites as input, which helps the model to boost the prediction performance. To interpret the model, we quantified the contribution of the input features to the predictive score of each RBP. Learning across multiple RBPs at once, we are able to avoid experimental biases and to identify the RNA sequence motifs and transcript context patterns that are the most important for the predictions of each individual RBP. Our findings are consistent with known motifs and binding behaviors of RBPs and can provide new insights about the regulatory functions of RBPs.

The method of the public finance theory is understood as a set of the following components: initial positions and worldviews; specific research methods; and the ways to verify the results. The initial assumptions and worldviews of the Western public finance theory, modern Ukrainian public finance theory and its Soviet predecessor are compared. The difference of approaches within these theories concerning worldview is revealed, namely: their conceptual and philosophical basis (materialism / idealism); traditions of using the historical method; the role of the base and superstructure in financial science; focus on value / utility in studies dealing with the nature of fiscal phenomena; differences in interpreting the basic unit of analysis (individual, group, or class); the organic / mechanistic concepts of state used; explanation of the nature of the interaction between the basic units of analysis; attitude to the positive / normative approach. The methodological orientation of the Western financial thought on methodological individualism; that of the Soviet state finance theory on methodological holism, and the lack of precision in these issues of Ukraine’s modern financial science are mentioned. The author refers to the negative trend in assessing fiscal phenomena in Ukraine from the standpoint of state-centrism and the interests and needs of the state, which arises precisely on the basis of the holistic methodological attitudes and the predominance of the organic view of the state. It is shown that modern domestic financial science is still in transition. Due to its worldview, it is a theory of state finance (financial resources of the state), while the Western science is a theory of public finance (public funds, belonging to the society as a whole). The paper outlines the guidelines for further transforming the methodological foundations of financial science in Ukraine.

Medicine’s condition is one of the most relevant scientific and socio-economic problems of the mankind. Eclecticism, presence of multiple contradictions and compilations are typical at the modern stage of it as of a knowledge system. First of all, this state of medicine is conditioned by the absence of systematic structural and functional organization of the human body in the medical scientific and practical activity. Formation of the systematic thinking on the basis of the knowledge about human body as a system is necessary for the solution of this problem. The system of special meanings forms scientific knowledge that determines the form and corresponding thinking method. Knowledge is a reflection of objective reality in our consciousness, represented in symbols of the formal language matrix. Clinical thinking – specialized form of the internal speech. Its structural units are corresponding definitions, terms and notions. At the same time they are its tools and methods. Certain group of terms has a conceptual meaning for the formation and development of clinical thinking., Состояние медицины является одной из самых актуальных научных и социально-экономических проблем человечества. На современном этапе её развития для неё как системы знаний характерны эклектизм, наличие множества контрадикций и компиляций. Такое состояние медицины обусловливается прежде всего отсутствием в медицинской научно- практической деятельности реализации представлений системной структурно-функциональной организации организма человека. Для решения этой проблемы необходимо формирование системного способа мышления на основе знания организма человека как системы. Система специальных понятий в конечном итоге формирует научное знание, которое обусловливает и опре деляет форму и соответствующий способ мышления. Знания являются отражением объективной реальности в нашем сознании, выраженным в символах формального аппарата языка. Клиническое мышление – это специализированная форма внутренней речи. Его структурными единицами являются соответствующие дефиниции, термины и понятия. Одновременно с этим они являются и его средствами и способами. Определённая группа понятий имеет концептуальное значение для становления и развития клинического мышления., Стан медицини є однією з найактуальніших наукових і соціально-економічних проблем людства. На сучасному етапі її розвитку для неї як системи знань характерні еклектизм, наявність безлічі контрадикцій і компіляцій. Такий стан медицини обумовлюється насамперед відсутністю в медичній науково-практичній діяльності реалізації уявлень системної структурно- функціональної організації організму людини. Для вирішення цієї проблеми необхідне формування системного способу мислення на основі знання організму людини як системи. Система спеціальних понять в кінцевому підсумку формує наукове знання, яке обумовлює і визначає форму та відповідний спосіб мислення. Знання є відображенням об’єктивної реальності в нашій свідомості, вираженим у символах формального апарату мови. Клінічне мислення – це спеціалізована форма внутрішнього мовлення. Його структурними одиницями є відповідні дефініції, терміни і поняття. Одночасно з цим вони є і його засобами, і способами. Певна група понять має концептуальне значення для становлення і розвитку клінічного мислення.

The article analyzes the role of small and medium-sized businesses in the economic development of the country and assesses the factors affecting to the growth of small business income through the use of the Eviews software package. The study showed that the amount of capital investment plays a significant role in the development of small businesses.

Today many products are designed to be reasonably easy to use so, in addition to usefulness, product usability is of great importance. Usability means simply using or simply learning to use a tool or device. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which certain users can effectively use software to achieve their goals in the context of use. Usability assessment involves measurement methods, such as analyzing consumer needs and examining perceptions of product efficiency and product attractiveness. In human-computer interaction, studying usability means the analysis of attractiveness and clarity of an application which is designed to interact with a computer program or web site. Usability takes into account both user satisfaction as well as the usability and quality of the component under study, while striving to improve the user experience through iterative product design. The basic problem of the research project was the pilot assessment of the suitability of our own method of testing the usability of the Sakai online learning platform in integration with the BigBlueButton conference call program. The article presents the most important results of assessing our own method of testing the usability of the learning platform on groups of students and lecturers participating in the e-learning process and project (CPK) testers. The testing was performed on the basis of the evaluation of the test subjects' introspective insight into their own expression of emotional reactions by means of a questionnaire and analysis of mimics, gestures and proxemics from the videos of the test subjects by the testers. The statistical significance of the differences between the groups was performed by Kullback 2Ȋ test of the independence hypothesis.

Background Chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) is a common disease of the digestive system with pathological characteristics of a decreasing number, or disappearance, of inherent glands of the gastric mucosa. CAG has been defined as a precancerous condition of gastric cancer. Intestinal metaplasia or intraepithelial neoplasia accompanying atrophied glands of the stomach is regarded as one of the most important precancerous lesions of gastric cancer. As a common malignant tumour, gastric cancer remains without a satisfactory therapy and its pathogenesis remains unclear, seriously threatening human life. Therefore, some scholars have proposed to prevent the incidence of gastric cancer by avoiding precancerous lesions. If CAG can be reversed, the incidence of gastric cancer can be substantially reduced. To reverse and prevent CAG and study its pathogenesis and therapy, it is necessary to develop an ideal, safe, stable, animal model. Aim To study a rapid, stable, and safe method of establishing a mouse model of human CAG. Methods Six-week-old Kunming mice were divided into a phosphate buffered solution control group, a Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) group, an N-methyl-N'-nitroguanidine (MNNG) group, an ammonia water group, and a group combining H. pylori, MNNG, and ammonia water (hereinafter referred to as the combined group). The mice were administrated with drinking water containing ammonia or infected with H. pylori through gavage. At the 30th, 60th, 90th, and 120th day after the last H. pylori infection, mice were selected randomly to collect their gastric mucosa for hematoxylin eosin staining, terminal nick-end labelling staining detection, and immunohistochemical staining for Bax and Bcl-2. In addition, H. pylori was isolated, cultured, and identified, and its extent of colonisation calculated. Blood was collected to detect inflammatory factors interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and immune function markers CD4 and CD8 to confirm successful establishment of the CAG model. Results The combined group showed slight CAG at the 90th day and moderate CAG at the 120th day, while other groups did not show CAG at that time. Conclusion The combination of H. pylori, MNNG, and ammonia is an effective method of developing a mouse model of human CAG.

Higher education in Ukraine is focused not only on the formation of specific competencies of future specialists, but also on the development of communicative competence, which in necessary for a modern specialist in any professional activity. Therefore, the improvement of training courses on the culture of communication is an actual pedagogical task. Improvement may consist in expanding the philosophical and axiological context of these courses. Such a context creates conditions not only for learning, but also for educating specialists of new generation. To this end, a methodology was developed and tested to introduce folk proverbs with relevant sentences into the courses on the culture of communication. In addition to the practical feasibility of this pedagogical initiative, it also sees a socio-philosophical content. This content is revealed through the understanding of the functions of proverbs in the communicative space of culture in the discourse of the paradigm of theatricality of being. Studies show that in the “theater” of being, folk proverbs are actualized in two aspects: 1) ontological, as “scenarios” of possible life situations and their consequences, which were interpreted popular wisdom; 2) dramaturgical, as “remarks”, capable of filling the “dialogue”/communication with a certain meaning, as a language artistic gesture. Both of these aspects imply an axiological aspect, since they create conditions for the transmission and consolidation of certain values inherent in the national culture. Combining all these aspects in the practice of introducing Ukrainian proverbs into communication culture courses contributes to the formation of additional competence among students - the ability to actualize cultural heritage in the modern conditions of social activity. Expansion (in perspective) of this practice through familiarizing students with similar proverbs of other nations will create the foundation for more effective inter-ethnic, intercultural communications.

Single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) profiles gene expression of individual cells. Recent scRNA-Seq datasets have incorporated unique molecular identifiers (UMIs). Using negative controls, we show UMI counts follow multinomial sampling with no zero inflation. Current normalization procedures such as log of counts per million and feature selection by highly variable genes produce false variability in dimension reduction. We propose simple multinomial methods, including generalized principal component analysis (GLM-PCA) for non-normal distributions, and feature selection using deviance. These methods outperform the current practice in a downstream clustering assessment using ground truth datasets.

Background and Purpose: The selection of a “right” project management methodology for a particular project represents a problem of great importance. Its solution affects crucial project parameters like cost, duration, product quality, and the project’s success in general. The purpose of this study is to present a method for the formation of the project management methodology and illustrate its applicability on a software development project’s example. Design/Methodology/Approach: In this study, we describe the method of project management methodology formation that allows the forming of a specialized methodology for any IT project considering the fuzziness of information about the project, its environment, and existing expert’s recommendations. The method involves 1) collecting baseline information using a questionnaire, 2) calculating weighted Hamming and Euclidean distances, 3) solving a three-criterion optimization problem using a minimax approach with fuzzy input data. Results: All six stages of the project management methodology formation’s method (project evaluation, basis selection, alternative methodologies formation, methodology selection, methodology application, and methodology tailoring) were applied to form a specialized project management methodology for an IT project to increase the possibility of its success. The most appropriate alternative based on DSDM was selected and applied to manage the project. Conclusions: The given method allows the forming of a specialized project management methodology based on the components of Generalized Body of Knowledge for any IT project considering specific conditions of the project and its environment.

Intrinsically disordered or unstructured proteins (or regions in proteins) have been found to be important in a wide range of biological functions and implicated in many diseases. Due to the high cost and low efficiency of experimental determination of intrinsic disorder and the exponential increase of unannotated protein sequences, developing complementary computational prediction methods has been an active area of research for several decades. Here, we employed an ensemble of deep Squeeze-and-Excitation residual inception and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks for predicting protein intrinsic disorder with input from evolutionary information and predicted one-dimensional structural properties. The method, called SPOT-Disorder2, offers substantial and consistent improvement not only over our previous technique based on LSTM networks alone, but also over other state-of-the-art techniques in three independent tests with different ratios of disordered to ordered amino acid residues, and for sequences with either rich or limited evolutionary information. More importantly, semi-disordered regions predicted in SPOT-Disorder2 are more accurate in identifying molecular recognition features (MoRFs) than methods directly designed for MoRFs prediction. SPOT-Disorder2 is available as a web server and as a standalone program at https://sparks-lab.org/server/spot-disorder2/.

Introduction.Precision elements of the target equipment and sensitive elements of the stabilization and orientation system of the advanced spacecraft are considered in the framework of this research. A method and software for modeling the dynamic characteristics of these elements are developed and validated. At that, the processing data results from the experimental studies on active and passive oscillators are taken into account.Materials and Methods. It is shown how the method of weightlessness provides simulation of the conditions that as much as possible conform to the real-time use of advanced space vehicles, precision structural elements, target equipment and their drives. Schemes of the corresponding experimental facilities are presented. Mathematical modeling methods, techniques of machine mechanics and dynamics are applied. Basic parameters of the proposed design dynamics, which are governing parameters in terms of the implementation of the target functions of the spacecraft, are calculated. Rational versions of layout and approximate cycle patterns of the operation of advanced space vehicles are formed to reduce microperturbations from driving gear with rotating masses.Research Results. A simulation technique for the dynamic characteristics of the drives of advanced space vehicles considering the regular oscillator operation is developed and validated. A complex of methods is presented for solving the problems of identifying dynamic parameters of a mathematical model of an advanced spacecraft based on the processing data results obtained through the experimental testing of active and passive oscillators. Two types of vibration from flywheel engines are noted. The first type is according to the commands of the position control and stabilization control system. The second type is due to residual imbalance from the solar constant meter. It is shown how these vibrations affect the dynamic characteristics of the gyro mounting seats and of the multispectral scanner for hydrometeorological support of the spacecraft. The data obtained are meant to solve the problems of assurance of the dynamic accuracy of advanced space vehicles.Discussion and Conclusions. A technique for modeling the dynamic characteristics of advanced space vehicles when operating in the precision orientation mode is proposed. The solution is based on the results of theoretical and experimental studies presented in the paper, and it considers the operation of standard oscillators. The implementation of this method is brought to software and algorithmic support for assessing the dynamic characteristics of standard oscillators of an advanced space vehicle. Recommendations to reduce the effect of active oscillators are established. Initial data are selected to determine the dynamics of advanced space vehicles from the point of view of fulfilling their target functions. The layout and approximate cycle patterns of the operation of advanced space vehicles to identify the driving gear with rotating masses as sources of micro-perturbations are proposed.

Biomarkers as biological signposts of cancer have become an essential component of oncology drug development. The importance of biomarkers in oncology has grown substantially due to the advent of targeted anti-cancer therapies, which are directed against a specific biological target that tumor cells rely on for their growth. In clinical cancer trials, biomarkers are used for the selection of patients most likely to benefit from a certain (personalized) treatment. Biomarkers can also facilitate the early detection of treatment outcome, which may provide essential guidance for treatment modification or discontinuation. For these reasons, the interest in the use of biomarkers in cancer trials has grown considerably over the past 60 years. Many challenges are encountered in the development of reliable and robust methods used for the measurement of biomarkers. Firstly, biomarkers need to be detected in patient material such as body fluids and tissue that contain a complex mixture (the matrix) of similar endogenous molecules. Secondly, endogenous compounds may affect the stability of a biomarker, or the biomarker is susceptible to post-translational modification. Thirdly, obtaining biomarker-free matrices for the method development is often impossible. Lastly, sometimes a pure and certified biomarker is not available to serve as reference standard. The level of purification of these reference standards may vary considerably between manufacturers, resulting in high lot-to-lot variation of 76% in a European Bioanalysis Forum case study. In this thesis, we focus on the development and validation of diagnostic and pharmacodynamic biomarker methods for the support of (pre)clinical cancer studies. Diagnostic biomarkers provide essential insight into the patient’s disease condition, for instance whether metastases are present. In contrast, pharmacodynamic biomarkers are used to establish whether a cancer drug is hitting its pharmacological target and thereby help to guide the clinical decision making about drug dose and optimal administration schedule. In regard to the importance of biomarkers, laboratory methods for their measurement need to be extensively validated to ensure that the used methods are specific, accurate, precise, and robust. We found, however, that only 13% of the pharmacodynamic biomarker methods used in clinical cancer trials for the past 7 years were fully validated. The majority of biomarker methods used in clinical trials have only partly been validated, which may explain why these methods not always perform as expected in the clinic. It may also be an important factor in the relatively low approval rate of 27% for new cancer drugs in 2018. This lack of validation for clinical cancer biomarker methods may be explained by the absence of international guidelines for their validation. However, since 2018 recommendations for the validation of biomarker methods have existed from the Food and Drug administration. Here, we demonstrate the development of seven cancer biomarker methods, and show that full validation of these biomarker methods is possible. These biomarker methods were designed for high sensitivity and precision to further enhance their clinical usefulness. We successfully applied these fully validated biomarker methods in (pre) clinical cancer studies. The clinical chemistry laboratory of our hospital, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, has implemented our biomarker method for the detection of epithelial circulating tumor cells as a standard diagnostic tool for the diagnosis of leptomeningeal metastases.

A mechanical belt tension meter refers to a measuring device that obtains the belt tension by measuring the lateral displacement of the belt with longitudinal tension applied at both ends. This article introduces the working principle, calibration method and standard of the mechanical belt tension meter. The error analysis of the friction force and belt influence of the tension meter in the calibration method is carried out, and the uncertainty analysis of the measurement results is carried out. Experimental results show that the calibration method meets the requirement of traceability.