Search

This study is aimed at analyzing, evaluating, and optimizing the pectin hydrolysis process to improve the quality of carbonated beverages made from red dragon fruit combined with mint flavor. Red dragon fruit, rich in nutrients and antioxidants, presents challenges in beverage processing due to its high pectin content, which affects clarity and anthocyanin stability. The research investigates the impact of various parameters, including enzyme concentration, hydrolysis time, and temperature, on juice clarity and anthocyanin content. Using a central composite design model, optimal conditions were determined to maximize juice clarity and anthocyanin content. Sensory evaluation during the blending process was also conducted to assess consumer acceptance, focusing on clarity, color, flavor, taste, and total acceptability. The optimum conditions were found to yield maximum clarity (52.763%) and anthocyanin content (224.414 mg C3G/L). Sensory evaluation indicated that 20% dragon fruit juice concentration with 0.12% citric acid, 13°Bx, and 0.30% mint flavor provided the best consumer acceptance. This research demonstrates the potential for producing high‐quality, appealing, and nutritious carbonated beverages from red dragon fruit, contributing to healthier and more sustainable consumption trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fingermark detection field, background illustrations may negatively impact the visibility of the marks in presence. They can indeed locally reduce the contrast or mask ridge details. When conducting a research project, the choice for plain or illustrated substrates is mostly driven by the research objectives as well as the development level of the investigated technique (e.g., new reagent, comparison between two techniques, semi‐operational test). Also, it is not clear how the human assessors in charge of grading the quality of the detected fingermarks actually cope with fingermarks standing astride background prints. In recent publications, latent quality metrics (LQM) and improved latent fingerprint quality metrics (ILFQM) algorithms have been identified as potential alternatives to traditional human assessment. The authors of the present study were therefore interested in assessing the performance of these algorithms with regards to illustrated backgrounds. To reach that goal, 480 fingermarks were deposited on porous (240) and non‐porous (240) items presenting various kinds of illustrations (e.g., colored areas, writings, geometric shapes, lines). Several detection techniques were then applied in sequence: 1,2‐indanedione/zinc + ninhydrin + physical developer for porous items, and superglue fuming followed by dye‐staining or black magnetic powder for non‐porous items. A total of 884 pictures were obtained and their quality assessed by LQM and ILFQM. The results were then analyzed to determine if background prints may influence the metrics provided both algorithms, and if yes, to which extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay explores Proust's use of Vinteuil as a way to consider the relationship between artistic genius and perceived eccentricity. Vinteuil is presented both a 'foolish old man' and a composer of genius, thus staging a tension between the contingent and absolute nature of art. Proust's metaphorical use of music becomes a model for the creative process, where the 'confused music' of inspiration must be translated into coherent expression. Yet, Proust's treatment of Vinteuil and his musical analogies point to the mysteries and disturbances inherent in art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background With the growing relevance of artificial intelligence (AI)-based patient-facing information, microsurgical-specific online information provided by professional organizations was compared with that of ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) and assessed for accuracy, comprehensiveness, clarity, and readability. Methods Six plastic and reconstructive surgeons blindly assessed responses to 10 microsurgery-related medical questions written either by the American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM) or ChatGPT based on accuracy, comprehensiveness, and clarity. Surgeons were asked to choose which source provided the overall highest-quality microsurgical patient-facing information. Additionally, 30 individuals with no medical background (ages: 18–81, μ = 49.8) were asked to determine a preference when blindly comparing materials. Readability scores were calculated, and all numerical scores were analyzed using the following six reliability formulas: Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level, Flesch–Kincaid Readability Ease, Gunning Fog Index, Simple Measure of Gobbledygook Index, Coleman–Liau Index, Linsear Write Formula, and Automated Readability Index. Statistical analysis of microsurgical-specific online sources was conducted utilizing paired t -tests. Results Statistically significant differences in comprehensiveness and clarity were seen in favor of ChatGPT. Surgeons, 70.7% of the time, blindly choose ChatGPT as the source that overall provided the highest-quality microsurgical patient-facing information. Nonmedical individuals 55.9% of the time selected AI-generated microsurgical materials as well. Neither ChatGPT nor ASRM-generated materials were found to contain inaccuracies. Readability scores for both ChatGPT and ASRM materials were found to exceed recommended levels for patient proficiency across six readability formulas, with AI-based material scored as more complex. Conclusion AI-generated patient-facing materials were preferred by surgeons in terms of comprehensiveness and clarity when blindly compared with online material provided by ASRM. Studied AI-generated material was not found to contain inaccuracies. Additionally, surgeons and nonmedical individuals consistently indicated an overall preference for AI-generated material. A readability analysis suggested that both materials sourced from ChatGPT and ASRM surpassed recommended reading levels across six readability scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the Devil's Advocate lie detection method which is aimed at detecting lying about opinions. In this approach, participants give reasons for why they hold an opinion in the eliciting-opinion question and counter-arguments to their opinion in a devil's advocate question. Truth tellers (n = 55) reported their true opinion about protestor actions, whereas lie tellers (n = 55) reported the opposite of their true opinion. Answers were coded for number of arguments and plausibility, immediacy, clarity and scriptedness. Data were analysed with analyses of variance with veracity being the sole factor. Supporting the hypothesis, truth tellers provided more pro-arguments than lie tellers and to all eliciting-opinion questions their answers sounded more plausible, immediate and clear than lie tellers' answers. The opposite pattern was predicted for the devil's advocate question but not found, likely caused by the simplification of the question. Neither was being scripted a diagnostic veracity indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Patient education materials are frequently used by dietitians to support counselling and reinforce key concepts. No studies have examined the quality of dietetic patient education materials for diabetes and common gastrointestinal conditions. (2) Methods: Materials relating to the dietary management of diabetes and gastrointestinal conditions (IBD, IBS, lactose intolerance, coeliac disease and low-FODMAP diets) were evaluated by three dietitian raters. Readability was assessed, and materials with a reading grade level ≤ 7 were considered readable. The PEMAT was used to assess understandability and actionability. Clarity was determined using the CDCCCI. (3) Results: Overall readability scores were satisfactory with a median grade level of 6 (IQR: 5–8). Readability scores did not differ between material types (p = 0.09). The health literacy demand of materials was suboptimal, with a mean understandability score of 65.9 ± 15.1% and an actionability score 49.6% ± 20.8%. Both scores fell below the benchmark of ≥70%. These did not differ between material types (p = 0.06 and p = 0.15, respectively). Clarity scores were below the benchmark of ≥90% (mean score 64.2 ± 14.8%). Only 6.6% of materials achieved a score of ≥90. (4) Conclusions: Improvements to the health literacy demand and clarity of dietetic patient education materials are required. Areas for future improvement have been identified.

We investigated whether the associations that self-concept clarity had with indicators of psychological distress were mediated by the forms of escapism referred to as self-suppression (engaging in activities in an effort to avoid unpleasant mental processes) and self-expansion (engaging in activities in order to experience growth). The indirect associations that self-concept clarity had with psychological distress through self-suppression and self-expansion were examined in college students (Study 1; N = 270), Cosplayers (Study 2; N = 45), and Furries (Study 3; N = 191). Across these three studies, self-concept clarity had very large associations with psychological distress and negative associations with self-suppression that ranged from small to large in magnitude. Further, engaging in activities for the purpose of self-suppression mediated the associations that self-concept clarity had with various indicators of psychological distress with the most consistent associations emerging for depression. In contrast, self-concept clarity did not have consistent associations with the motivation to engage in activities for the purpose of self-expansion nor did self-expansion consistently mediate the associations that self-concept clarity had with the indicators of psychological distress. These findings indicate that engaging in activities for the purpose of self-suppression may play an important role in the link between low self-concept clarity and psychological distress.

Crowdsourcing is a powerful technique for accomplishing tasks that are difficult for machines but easy for humans. However, ensuring the quality of the workers who participate in the task is a major challenge. Most of the existing studies have focused on selecting suitable workers based on their attributes and the task requirements, while neglecting the requesters' characteristics as a key factor in the crowdsourcing process. In this paper, we address this gap by considering the requesters' preferences and behavior in crowdsourcing systems with competition, where the requester chooses only one worker's contribution as the final answer. A model is proposed in which the requesters' characteristics are taken into consideration when finding suitable workers. Also, we propose new definitions for clarity and the fairness of requesters and propose models and formulations to employ them, alongside task and workers' attributes, to find more suitable workers. We have evaluated the efficacy of our proposed model by analyzing a real-world dataset and compared it with two current state-of-the-art approaches. Our results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method in assigning the most suitable workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be effective, a regulatory regime for sustainable development must demonstrate to the regulated entities its resolve to attain regulatory goals while avoiding an arbitrary exercise of authority. Yet many developing countries lack the robust political-administrative institutions to construct and maintain such regimes. The environmental reform in Guangdong, China, shows how, with underdeveloped formal political-administrative institutions, the regulatory regime must demonstrate commitment acts, including transparent enforcement, compliance benchmarking, expectation pacing, and third-party enforcement. These acts help, over time, to maintain enterprises' perceptions of the regulatory regime's resolve, clarity, and reasonableness. By analyzing primary data from extensive fieldwork and survey observations conducted at two separate times, we show that enterprises are more likely to adopt environmental management measures if they perceive higher regulatory resolve, clarity, and reasonableness. Their assurance needs vary at different stages of regime development. Establishing clear expectations matters at an earlier stage when regulatory goals are new and expectations relatively lax. Yet, as expectations become more stringent, maintaining reasonableness becomes essential. In both stages, a perception of resoluteness in enforcement matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to understand students' task value toward a class. Task value is the utility students see in the course material. As expected, good instructional practices (i.e. clarity, nonverbal immediate behaviors) were positive contributors of task value. However, the substantive impact on task value came from information flow, a variable borrowed from the organizational culture literature. The supported model showed instructor clarity and nonverbal immediate behaviors indirectly, positively influenced task value through the mediation of perceived immediacy and information flow. This indicates that a large proportion of whether students have task value in a course hinge upon whether students understand the rationale behind instructors' pedagogical choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly monitoring regional water quality and the changing trend is of great practical and scientific significance, especially for the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region of China where water resources are relatively scarce and inland water bodies are generally small. The remote sensing data of the GF1 satellite launched in 2013 have characteristics of high spatial and temporal resolution, which can be used for the dynamic monitoring of the water environment in small lakes and reservoirs. However, the water quality remote sensing monitoring model based on the GF1 satellite data for lakes and reservoirs in BTH is still lacking because of the considerable differences in the optical characteristics of the lakes and reservoirs. In this paper, the typical reservoirs in BTH-Guanting Reservoir, Yuqiao Reservoir, Panjiakou Reservoir, and Daheiting Reservoir are taken as the study areas. In the atmospheric correction of GF1-WFV, the relative radiation normalized atmospheric correction was adopted after comparing with other methods, such as 6S and FLAASH. In the water clarity retrieval, a water color hue angle based model was proposed and outperformed other available published models, with the R2 of 0.74 and MRE of 31.7%. The clarity products of the four typical reservoirs in the BTH region in 2013–2019 were produced using the GF1-WFV data. Based on the products, temporal and spatial changes in clarity were analyzed, and the main influencing factors for each water body were discussed. It was found that the clarity of Guanting, Daheiting, and Panjiakou reservoirs showed an upward trend during this period, while that of Yuqiao Reservoir showed a downward trend. In the influencing factors, the water level of the water bodies can be an important factor related to the water clarity changes in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of instructor clarity on student learning has been explained using cognitive load theory, which stipulates that students have limited mental resources to devote to activities pertaining to learning. To date, the effect of teacher clarity on students' cognitive burden has been studied in reference to students' extraneous cognitive load as clear teachers design their instruction to be straightforward and free from distraction. However, few instructional communication studies have examined how clarity's impact on extraneous cognitive load interacts with the intrinsic difficulty of students' course lessons to conditionally impact students' learning processes. This study utilized data from 221 students to estimate a latent first-stage conditional process model with teacher clarity predicting students' deep processing of course material through students' receiver apprehension, dependent upon the intrinsic difficulty of the course material (despite teaching). Results indicated that as teachers were generally clearer during instruction, students more deeply processed their course material because they experienced less receiver apprehension. However, this indirect effect was greater when students had more working memory availability (i.e., lower intrinsic cognitive load controlling for clear teaching). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Serotype 3 (T3) strains of mammalian orthoreovirus (reovirus) spread to the central nervous system to infect the brain and cause lethal encephalitis in newborn mice. Although reovirus targets several regions in the brain, susceptibility to infection is not uniformly distributed. The neuronal subtypes and anatomic sites targeted throughout the brain are not precisely known. Reovirus binds several attachment factors and entry receptors, including sialic acid (SA)-containing glycans and paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B (PirB). While these receptors are not required for infection of some types of neurons, reovirus engagement of these receptors can influence neuronal infection in certain contexts. To identify patterns of T3 neurotropism, we used microbial identification after passive tissue clearance and hybridization chain reaction to stain reovirus-infected cells throughout intact, optically transparent brains of newborn mice. Three-dimensional reconstructions revealed in detail the sites targeted by reovirus throughout the brain volume, including dense infection of the midbrain and hindbrain. Using reovirus mutants incapable of binding SA and mice lacking PirB expression, we found that neither SA nor PirB is required for the infection of various brain regions. However, SA may confer minor differences in infection that vary by region. Collectively, these studies indicate that many regions in the brain of newborn mice are susceptible to reovirus and that patterns of reovirus infection are not dependent on reovirus receptors SA and PirB.IMPORTANCENeurotropic viruses invade the central nervous system (CNS) and target various cell types to cause disease manifestations, such as meningitis, myelitis, or encephalitis. Infections of the CNS are often difficult to treat and can lead to lasting sequelae or death. Mammalian orthoreovirus (reovirus) causes age-dependent lethal encephalitis in many young mammals. Reovirus infects neurons in several different regions of the brain. However, the complete pattern of CNS infection is not understood. We found that reovirus targets almost all regions of the brain and that patterns of tropism are not dependent on receptors sialic acid and paired immunoglobulin-like receptor B. These studies confirm that two known reovirus receptors do not completely explain the cell types infected in brain tissue and establish strategies that can be used to understand complete patterns of viral tropism in an intact brain.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is a serious acute cardiovascular syndrome that causes myocardial injury due to blood flow obstruction to a specific myocardial area. Under ischemic–reperfusion settings, a burst of reactive oxygen species is generated, leading to redox imbalance that could be attributed to several molecules, including myoglobin. Myoglobin is dynamic and exhibits various oxidation–reduction states that have been an early subject of attention in the food industry, specifically for meat consumers. However, rarely if ever have the myoglobin optical properties been used to measure the severity of MI. In the current study, we develop a novel imaging pipeline that integrates tissue clearing, confocal and light sheet fluorescence microscopy, combined with imaging analysis, and processing tools to investigate and characterize the oxidation–reduction states of myoglobin in the ischemic area of the cleared myocardium post-MI. Using spectral imaging, we have characterized the endogenous fluorescence of the myocardium and demonstrated that it is partly composed by fluorescence of myoglobin. Under ischemia–reperfusion experimental settings, we report that the infarcted myocardium spectral signature is similar to that of oxidized myoglobin signal that peaks 3 h post-reperfusion and decreases with cardioprotection. The infarct size assessed by oxidation–reduction imaging at 3 h post-reperfusion was correlated to the one estimated with late gadolinium enhancement MRI at 24 h post-reperfusion. In conclusion, this original work suggests that the redox state of myoglobin can be used as a promising imaging biomarker for characterizing and estimating the size of the MI during early phases of reperfusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informing the public is mainly about clear and effective communication. The information provided by public authorities should be simple and easy to understand. This is facilitated by the use of "understandable language." The article analyzes the European Union language policy and ways to implement it in legislation. The need to use understandable language in legal documents and international legal regulation revealed the essence of the concept of "understandable language," regarding the organization of texts (structure, presentation logic), design of materials, and word selection. "Clear language" is highlighted as a condition for a dialogue between authorities and citizens because the vagueness and the incomprehensibility of communication lead to confusion and lawlessness. The methodological basis of scientific research is anthropological, hermeneutics, formal-legal, comparative, dialectical, system-functional, formal-logical methods, and methods of abstraction and generalization. The study purpose is to find out the emergence, the essence of the concept of "clear language" and to determine practical recommendations for the implementation of this concept in public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here is the new template for the Canadian Acoustics articles from the Canadian Acoustical Association. The electronic versions of this template are available in LaTeX and Microsoft Word formats on the journal website, in the "Authors Guidelines" section. The present template is written in Lorem Ipsum and shows the "final" format for publication. Note that for Word, the proposed template corresponds to an article in its final formatting, ready for publication. During the submission of an article to the journal, this template must be edited so that the entire text is double spaced and each line numbered. Please also note, that whatever word processor is used, all the files submitted to Canadian Acoustics journal must be in PDF format. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new outcome measure for hand burn injuries was co-designed within a Participatory Action Research framework with expert clinicians and individuals with hand burn injuries. The outcome measure reviews activities which are commonly interrupted post hand burn injuries and includes 18 activities. The aim of this study was to establish the clinical utility, face, and content validity of the newly developed outcome measure. Three constructs of interest were examined using study specific questionnaires from the perspectives of clinicians and individuals with hand burn injuries. Clinicians working in burns centres around Australia and New Zealand and individuals attending a burn centre within one tertiary hospital trialled the outcome measure. Upon testing the outcome measure each participant completed the questionnaire. Twenty individuals with hand burn injuries and eight clinicians trialled the outcome measure. There was 85% agreement from individuals and 100% agreement from clinicians for face validity. Content validity was tested across the domains of relevance and clarity. Individuals rated all activities and clinicians rated 16 activities as relevant. Clarity of activities was high for both participant groups (>75% agreement). Clinical utility (measured in the domains of appropriateness, accessibility, practicability, and acceptability) was high, 95% of individuals reported agreement for practicability and 100% agreement for acceptability. Clinicians reported agreement of > 87.5% for appropriateness, accessibility, practicability, and acceptability. The results demonstrated agreement for clinical utility, face, and content validity of the co-design outcome measure for hand burn injuries. Further validity and reliability testing is planned, including Rasch analysis. • Testing of a new -co-designed outcome measure for hand burn injuries found high levels of agreement for face validity • Agreement for relevance of activities included in was rated at 88.9% by clinicians and 100% by individuals with hand burn injuries • Clarity of activities included in the outcome measure was high > 75% agreement from both clinicians and individuals • Agreement for clinical utility of the new co-designed outcome measure was high < 87.5% from clinicians and individuals [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of XVIIe Siècle is the property of Presses Universitaires de France and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Translation is one of the fields that have benefited from the significant growth that Natural Language Processing has witnessed. ChatGPT is one of the prominent products of such development promoted for its capability of producing human-like translation, among many other things. The main aim of this article is to explore the ability of ChatGPT to translate separable phrasal verbs, which can pose a real challenge to translators as one or more words separate their parts. Therefore, the significance of this paper stems from the pressing necessity to evaluate the utilization of such a tool to address such specific translation issues as it attempts to answer the question of to what extent ChatGPT can translate separable phrasal verbs clearly and accurately. This research paper has followed the qualitative method to analyze the accuracy and clarity of the translation of the separable phrasal verbs generated by ChatGPT. The findings revealed that ChatGPT can translate such phrases clearly, yet human intervention is needed to ensure an accurate delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The study of the pathophysiology study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been hampered by lack animal models that recapitulate the major AD pathologies, including extracellular -amyloid (A) deposition, intracellular aggregation of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT), inflammation and neurodegeneration. Methods: The humanized APPNL-G-F knock-in mouse line was crossed to the PS19 MAPTP301S, over-expression mouse line to create the dual APPNLG-F/PS19 MAPTP301S line. The resulting pathologies were characterized by immunochemical methods and PCR. Results: We now report on a double transgenic APPNL-G-F/PS19 MAPTP301S mouse that at 6 months of age exhibits robust A plaque accumulation, intense MAPT pathology, strong inflammation and extensive neurodegeneration. The presence of A pathology potentiated the other major pathologies, including MAPT pathology, inflammation and neurodegeneration. MAPT pathology neither changed levels of amyloid precursor protein nor potentiated A accumulation. Interestingly, study of immunofluorescence in cleared brains indicates that microglial inflammation was generally stronger in the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and entorhinal cortex, which are regions with predominant MAPT pathology. The APPNL-G-F/MAPTP301S mouse model also showed strong accumulation of N6-methyladenosine (m6A), which was recently shown to be elevated in the AD brain. m6A primarily accumulated in neuronal soma, but also co-localized with a subset of astrocytes and microglia. The accumulation of m6A corresponded with increases in METTL3 and decreases in ALKBH5, which are enzymes that add or remove m6A from mRNA, respectively. Discussion: Our understanding of the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been hampered by lack animal models that recapitulate the major AD pathologies, including extracellular -amyloid (A) deposition, intracellular aggregation of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT), inflammation and neurodegeneration. The APPNL-G-F/MAPTP301S mouse recapitulates many features of AD pathology beginning at 6 months of aging, and thus represents a useful new mouse model for the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Text-to-speech synthesis plays an essential role in facilitating human-computer interaction. Currently, the predominant approach in Text-to-speech acoustic models selects only the Mel spectrum as an intermediate feature for converting text to speech. However, the Mel spectrograms obtained may exhibit ambiguity in some aspects owing to the limited capability of the Fourier transform to capture mutation signals during the acquisition of the Mel spectrograms. With the aim of improving the clarity of synthesized speech, this study proposes a multi-task learning optimization method and conducts experiments on the Tacotron2 speech synthesis system to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The method in the study introduces an additional task: wavelet spectrograms. The continuous wavelet transform has gained significant popularity in various applications, including speech enhancement and speech recognition, which is primarily attributed to its capability to adaptively vary the time-frequency resolution and its excellent performance in capturing non-stationary signals. This study highlights that the clarity of Tacotron2 synthesized speech can be improved by introducing Wavelet-spectrogram as an auxiliary task through theoretical and experimental analysis: a feature extraction network is added, and Wavelet-spectrogram features are extracted from the Mel spectrum output generated by the decoder. Experimental findings indicate that the Mean Opinion Score achieved for the speech synthesized by the model using multi-task learning is 0.17 higher compared to the baseline model. Furthermore, by analyzing the factors contributing to the success of the continuous wavelet transform-based multi-task learning method in the Tacotron2 model, as well as the effectiveness of multi-task learning, the study conjectures that the proposed method has the potential to enhance the performance of other acoustic models.

The growing concern over health and nutrition have led to the proliferation in the consumption of supplements worldwide. In Europe, the market size has reached 13,300 million euros in 2022. Nevertheless, consumers remain uninformed and deceived by products that presume to be remedies for even the most serious diseases. In the context of an industry, in which legal gaps have allowed profitability to displace ethics, it seems urgent to analyze the degree of (ir)responsibility of companies in managing the transparency of the information they provide to the consumer. This work aims to evaluate the transparency of supplements enterprises' corporate communication, exploring three different dimensions of the information provided: disclosure, clarity, and accuracy. A quantitative approach and descriptive statistics were performed using χ², based on the content analysis of 103 corporate websites. This corpus encompasses the entire universe of companies that invested in digital advertising between the years 2017 and 2021. Results show that 61.2% of enterprises do not declare themselves socially responsible on their websites, and only 13 out of 113 have issued transparency reports; product information is confusing in 45.6% of companies and lacking in 19.4%; ingredients are absent in more than half of the corpus, and empirical evidence is omitted in 83.5% of enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Egyptian novelist Najīb Maḥfūẓ has proved himself to be a genius author at incorporating a variety of academic and intercultural sources in his works. He uses many forms of Islam-related references, such as the Qur'anic and Prophetic ones, to convey his intended meanings. In the present study, we attempt to assess the translation of Qur'anic and prophetic intertextuality in Maḥfūẓ's "Cairo Trilogy" using the criteria proposed by Larson's Model(1984). This study follows a qualitative approach to analysis, i.e., the data is not in the form of numbers but in the form of texts. This study aims to discover the tactics utilized in translating Arabic Qur'anic and prophetic intertextuality into English, as well as to identify the obstacles faced by the subject translators and the reasons behind such challenges. The study concludes that irrespective of what method the translators adopt to translate Qur'anic and prophetic intertextuality, their religious and cultural background seriously influences the output of the translation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study tested the notion that the impact of clarity (i.e., structure) on learning is indirect and occurs, in part, through the reduction of cognitive load and subsequently through students' motivation to process instructional information. Two hundred fifty-two students were randomly assigned to one of two text-based lessons (clear or unclear) on the topic of social cognitive theory. After being exposed to the material, participants were asked to answer a series of questions regarding the extent to which they found the lesson clear. They also answered questions about their perceived cognitive load, expectations for success on a subsequent examination, perceptions of value, perceived costs, degree of motivation to learn the material, and familiarity with the learning content. After responding to these measures, participants took a test of the material covered in the lesson. Results indicated that, compared to the unclear lesson, students exposed to the clear lesson earned higher examination scores because they experienced reduced cognitive load while learning. Additionally, results revealed an indirect association between clarity and student learning through a decrease in cognitive load and subsequently through an increase in students' self-efficacy and motivation, and also through students' emotional interest and motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research analyses the characteristics of a sample of social work reports issued at a social care centre in Spain. The research involved three assumptions: (1) drafting reports is a demanding task; (2) social workers are poorly trained in report writing; and (3) procedures for drafting reports are inadequate. The research involved two phases: (1) social workers (N = 8) were interviewed; (2) the content and writing style of 250 reports were analysed. The results show that the social work reports analysed stand out for their relevance. However, they need to be more systematic, concise and reliable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Food Research & Development is the property of Food Research & Development Editorial Department and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bulletin of Ablai Khan KazUIRandWL: Series 'Philological sciences' is the property of Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations & World Languages and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Given the current organisational changes in a turbulent global economic context, is the appropriate setting of the communication process, with an emphasis on feedback from employees to management for organisations to cope with external changes. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, communication from below is required as it is a primary issue in the context of significant organisational change and can help to shape positive perceptions of change. The main aim is to evaluate the relationships between selected organisational variables regarding the use of different forms of employee-to-management communication. A questionnaire survey of Czech organisations (n1 = 183) was conducted, and the data obtained were evaluated using statistical tests (Wald statistic) to determine whether a demonstrable relationship existed between the traits. The results showed a relationship between the application of most types of bottom-up communication and organisation size in terms of the number of employees, majority ownership, and, for selected types of communication forms, annual turnover. However, none of the communication types examined depended on the sector in which an organisation operated. The results of the qualitative research confirmed that grassroots communication was crucial in all the types of organisations examined and helped to improve organisational climate. This study contributes to theory and practice by confirming that feedback from employees is a tool for their stabilisation. The managerial implications include the finding that effective feedback settings help prevent conflicts in organisations. The study contributes significantly to the deepening of knowledge on the issue of systematic communication leading to the sustainability of organisations, which is also demonstrated by the almost zero overlap with previous studies.

Debate around clear legal language has become very prolific in recent years. This especially applies to multilingual contexts, where clarity is crucial to ensuring the equivalence of equally binding language versions. Clarity is a multifaceted concept that can be analysed through different lenses. While several studies have tackled clarity from the lexical and terminological perspective, textuality remains a largely under-investigated area. This paper sets out to illustrate that different concepts of text linguistics can be extremely useful for investigating multilingual legislation and its level of comprehensibility. To this aim, a qualitative pilot study was designed. It examines a sample of Swiss federal legislative acts in their Italian, French and German versions and tries to reveal recurrent micro-textual aspects that help illustrate how translation can influence text comprehensibility. It was found that the three language versions often formulate the same legal provision using different linguistic structures. Slight changes, for instance in thematic structure, position of adverbials or use of punctuation, can create a canonical and more comprehensible formulation in the translated texts, without hampering equivalence at the content level. In this respect, it is key that drafters of legislation and translators are aware of the relevance and potential of textuality to ensuring a high level of clarity in multilingual legislation.

Abstract Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) and characterized by perivascular accumulations of hyperphosphorylated tau protein (p-tau) at the depths of the cortical sulci. Studies of living athletes exposed to RHI, including concussive and nonconcussive impacts, have shown increased blood–brain barrier permeability, reduced cerebral blood flow, and alterations in vasoreactivity. Blood–brain barrier abnormalities have also been reported in individuals neuropathologically diagnosed with CTE. To further investigate the three-dimensional microvascular changes in individuals diagnosed with CTE and controls, we used SHIELD tissue processing and passive delipidation to optically clear and label blocks of postmortem human dorsolateral frontal cortex. We used fluorescent confocal microscopy to quantitate vascular branch density and fraction volume. We compared the findings in 41 male brain donors, age at death 31–89 years, mean age 64 years, including 12 donors with low CTE (McKee stage I–II), 13 with high CTE (McKee stage III–IV) to 16 age- and sex-matched non-CTE controls (7 with RHI exposure and 9 with no RHI exposure). The density of vessel branches in the gray matter sulcus was significantly greater in CTE cases than in controls. The ratios of sulcus versus gyrus vessel branch density and fraction volume were also greater in CTE than in controls and significantly above one for the CTE group. Hyperphosphorylated tau pathology density correlated with gray matter sulcus fraction volume. These findings point towards increased vascular coverage and branching in the dorsolateral frontal cortex (DLF) sulci in CTE, that correlates with p-tau pathology.

Aim: We examined the ability to detect lying about opinions with the Devil’s Advocate Approach and Verifiability Approach. Method: Interviewees were first asked an opinion eliciting question to argue in favour of their alleged personal view. This was followed by a devil’s advocate question to argue against their alleged personal view. Since reasons that support rather than oppose an opinion are more readily available in people’s minds, we expected truth tellers’ responses to the opinion eliciting question to include more information and to sound more plausible, immediate, direct, and clear than their responses to the devil’s advocate question. In lie tellers these patterns were expected to be less pronounced. Interviewees were also asked to report sources that could be checked to verify their opinion. We expected truth tellers to report more verifiable sources than lie tellers. A total of 150 participants expressed their true or false opinions about a societal issue. Results: Supporting the hypothesis, the differences in plausibility, immediacy, directness, and clarity were more pronounced in truth tellers than in lie tellers (answers to eliciting opinion question sounded more plausible, immediate, direct, and clear than answers to the devil’s advocate question). Verifiable sources yielded no effect. Conclusions: The Devil’s Advocate Approach is a useful tool to detect lies about opinions.

In recent research on transparency in organizational settings, a multidimensional understanding of supervisor transparency has gained acceptance. Following recent operationalizations, the construct can be measured by the five dimensions of Disclosure, Clarity, Accuracy, Timeliness, and Relevance of shared information. Initial applications of the scale already show its usefulness in that theoretically well-founded relationships, e.g., to trust, could be empirically supported using the instrument. As the instrument consists of twenty items, it can be too long for specific application fields. A shorter, more economical instrument is of value, especially in surveys that include many different constructs. In this article, we report on our testing of the suitability of a German shorter version consisting of only ten items. The results show that this instrument respects the dimensionality of the construct and leads to similar effects concerning its relationship to trust (-worthiness) and job satisfaction compared to the long scale. The findings also support the notion that individual transparency dimensions have different and distinct effects. Thus, the importance of a multidimensional understanding of transparency in organizational settings is also underlined by the short scale.

The compositional skills are analyzed to determine whether college students have improved their writing ability after the two years additional in the senior high school curriculum. This study examines the errors committed by first-year engineering students. There were 90 student respondents written outputs collected and subjected to Grammarly software. The researchers analyzed the data using the Scheffe test, comparing the difference between clarity, engagement, and delivery. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to test whether there is a significant difference among other variables. Findings revealed that clarity is the most common error committed by the student-respondents. The errors committed between male and female respondents do not show a difference. The K-12 graduates’ compositional errors do not differ significantly from that in the Alternative Learning System (ALS) passers or the old basic education curriculum graduates. It is in delivery that students vary. This finding implies that college students’ compositional skills still need strengthening. Instructors are encouraged to provide comprehensive activities and writing exercises to both genders, regardless of their curriculum. It is recommended that university language instructors identify specific interventions to help students struggling with writing. Therefore, providing enough written opportunities and practices is vital to make college students enhance their compositional skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contract of employment provides the employee with the terms and conditions of the employment relationship, the duties associated with the job, the salary, hours of work, benefits and any other key information. The contract is an agreement between you and the employer.A contract includes a number of key elements that are legally biding on both sides. This article provides readers with a discussion of important issues related to contracts of employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective collaboration within and between organizations requires efficient adaptation to unforeseen change. We study how parties build relational contracts that achieve this goal. We focus on the "clarity problem"—whether parties have a shared understanding of the promises they make to each other. Specifically, (a) a buyer and seller play a trading game in several periods; (b) they know their environment will change but do not know how; and (c) before any trading occurs, they can reach a nonbinding agreement about how to play the entire game. We hypothesize that pairs whose initial agreement defines a broad principle rather than a narrow rule are more successful in solving the clarity problem and in achieving efficient adaptation after unforeseen change. In our baseline condition, we indeed observe that pairs who articulate principles achieve significantly higher performance after change occurred. Underlying this correlation, we also find that pairs with principle-based agreements were more likely to both expect and take actions that were consistent with what their agreement prescribed. To investigate a causal link between principle-based agreements and performance, we implement a "nudge" intervention that induces more pairs to articulate principles. The intervention succeeds in coordinating more pairs on efficient quality immediately after the unforeseen change, but it fails to coordinate expectations on price, ultimately leading to conflicts and preventing an increase in long-run performance after the shock. Our results suggest that (1) principle-based agreements may improve organizational performance but (2) high-performing relational contracts may be difficult to build. History: This paper has been accepted for the Organization Science Special Issue on Experiments in Organizational Theory. Funding: We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School's Program on Innovation in Markets and Organizations. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1503. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophy is beginning to pay problems of linguistic justice the attention they deserve in today's heavily interconnected and migrant world. Contemporary philosophy itself, however, has a particular problem of linguistic justice that deserves metaphilosophical attention. At least in the philosophical tradition that is mainstream in much of the world today, viz., analytic philosophy, methodological and sociological mechanisms make it the case that the voices of non‐(native) Anglophone philosophers are substantially less heard. Among the mechanisms responsible for this situation, argues this paper, is the emphasis given by influential philosophical institutions to linguistic style and appearances as signs of clarity, precision, and rigour in the treatment of philosophical problems. Such an emphasis is not justifiable, in part because it deprives philosophy of a wider variety of perspectives. The paper concludes by presenting and motivating a recent initiative that aims to foster greater linguistic and cultural diversity within the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrophoretic tissue clearing has been a commonly used laboratory method since the early twentieth century. Infrastructure for standard procedures has yet to be formed. In particular, control of the heat produced by electrophoresis, the voltage applied to the electrodes, the resistance, and the speed of liquid circulation create difficulty for researchers. We aimed to develop a compact organ electrophoresis system that enables the researcher to have easy, rapid, and inexpensive working opportunities. The system includes an electronic control unit, a liquid tank, a temperature control unit, and an electrophoresis chamber. The control unit software can keep the system stable by using information on temperature and circulation rate received through the sensors using the feedback principle. Corrosion and particle collection are reduced to a minimum as platinum wires are used for electrophoresis electrodes. A temperature control unit can heat and cool via a liquid tank base. The CORES is an all-in-one, easy-to-use solution for electrophoretic tissue clearing. It assures efficient, rapid, and consistent tissue clearing. The system was stable with 72 h of continuous operation. Patent applications and trial version studies for introducing the system to researchers are still in progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to compare the differences between narrowband imaging (NBI) and Lugo's iodine staining endoscopy (LCE) for detecting and elucidating the site, clarity, and diagnostic accuracy of early esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions. Methods: We included patients with a high risk of developing esophageal cancer who visited the Zhongjiang County People's Hospital between October 2020 and October 2022. Endoscopic examination was performed on each study participant. White-light endoscopy was used to observe and locate the diseased mucosa, after which NBI mode and LCE staining were used to observe the boundary between the diseased and normal mucosa. Abnormal lesions were found, and biopsies were performed on the identifiable diseased parts for pathological examination. Inflammation, LGIN, HGIN, and early esophageal cancer were diagnosed, and the differences between them were compared in terms of the two enhanced-image endoscopy techniques. A semantic segmentation model based on deep learning was adopted to assist in the diagnosis of early esophageal cancer and accurately locate cancerous areas. In order to improve its accurate diagnostic rate, we also built a semantic segmentation network model to assist in the computer-aided diagnosis of early esophageal cancer. Results: A total of 69 cases of early esophageal cancer were included in this study. The patients were aged 40–75 years, with an average age of 6 2 ± 2. 0 years. Most early esophageal cancer lesions were located in the middle of the esophagus in 45/69 (65.2%) cases. LCE obtained higher clarity of lesion boundaries than NBI (59.4% versus 45.0% and 27.7% versus 15.9%, respectively), and the proportion of unclear lesions was lower (8.6% versus 21.7% and 4.3% versus 17.4%, respectively; p < 0. 0 5). For early esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions, the missed-diagnosis rate of white-light endoscopy was 20%, that of NBI was 3.15%, and that of LCE was 0%, with statistical significance (p < 0. 0 5). The rate of missed diagnosis of LGIN (three cases) by NBI was 3.15%, which was not significantly different from that of LCE (p > 0. 0 5). We found that the lesion area could be more accurately determined using deep learning models to segment NBI images. By constructing a deep learning model for the diagnosis and classification of esophageal cancer, its diagnostic rate rose to 99.5%. Conclusion: The age range of patients with early esophageal cancer in Zhongjiang County, Sichuan Province, was 40–75 years, and tumors mostly occurred in the middle of the esophagus. The boundary clarity of early esophageal carcinomas was higher on LCE than that on NBI. The diagnostic accuracies of NBI and LCE are much higher than those of conventional white-light endoscopy. Therefore, both LCE and NBI are helpful for detecting early esophageal cancer and precancerous lesions. Moreover, the diagnostic rate of clinical esophageal cancer can be effectively improved using a dedicated deep learning network model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the writing skills of Romanian students of Business English, with the aim of identifying the problems encountered and of determining the extent to which these problems coincide with those described in the English literature on the topic. The study is based on a corpus of business emails written by first-year students at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, its focus being exclusively on stylistic aspects of communication such as concision, clarity, simplicity, and tone. The selected emails are analysed both quantitatively, with respect to the tendency they show towards wordiness, vagueness and complexity, and qualitatively, with respect to the effect this tendency has on communication and the way in which it could be eliminated. The results of the analysis show that some problematic aspects of business documents such as wordiness and vagueness are much more common with Romanian students writing in English than other problems discussed in the literature, for example the employment of unusual or abstract words and the use of the passive voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

“Gemo” is an AI-powered smartphone application that aims to improve the gem industry by replacing human-based approaches with computer-based ones. A mix of well-trained machine learning models that are capable of color identification, cut projection, recommendation, and pricing prediction is competent in offering experience and information to the industry. Traditional gem industry predictions are often subjective and inaccurate due to reliance on human labor. Erroneous output caused financial loss. Gemo is developed to overcome these problems by applying Artificial intelligence-based feature identification of gemstones and leads to expect more accurate and real-time results. Integration of Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Natural Language Processing based technology, boosted the realism of the gem analysis process. “Gemo” is applied via advanced machine learning-based algorithms that capture the features of color, clarity shape, and intrinsic attributes of gemstones. Color detection model extraction of the Hue, Saturation, and Value (HSV) colors from gemstone pictures, delivering a cutting-edge and accurate approach to color recognition. The cut prediction approach lowers subjectivity and inaccuracy during the prediction of the cut by employing 3D image processing methods. The recommendation model gathers human preferences and forecasts the optimum solution using Natural Language Processing (NLP). Lastly, the valuation model utilizes the 4Cs features to provide a pricing range for the gemstones, resulting in a complete and advanced gemstone analysis system. The "Gemo" model, which integrates multiple ML-based models, increases the criteria for the gemstone sector. This will help gem experts excel and increase industry competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers frequently engage in activities with others, such as visiting an art gallery with a friend or going to a sports match with a family member, and they tend to assume that sharing experiences with another person will make these activities more enjoyable. However, navigating a shared experience—making decisions about pacing, sequencing, and interacting with another person as the experience unfolds—can take consumers' attention away from the activity, potentially reducing their enjoyment. In a series of studies in which consumers engage in real consumption experiences, the authors show that lack of clarity about a partner's interests can distract consumers, making it difficult for them to focus on the shared activity and reducing their enjoyment of shared experiences relative to solo experiences. Notably, simple interventions can increase clarity of a partner's interests and consumers' enjoyment of shared activities, providing tools for service providers who want to retain customers and benefit from positive word of mouth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]