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This article provides a new conceptualization of regime transformation that allows scholars to address democratization and autocratization as related but obverse processes. We introduce a dataset that captures 680 episodes of regime transformation (ERT) from 1900 to 2019 and offers novel insights into regime change over the past 120 years. The ERT has three main advantages over other approaches. First, it avoids problematic assumptions of unit homogeneity and constant as well as symmetric effects. Second, it integrates key insights from qualitative studies by treating regime change as a gradual and uncertain process. Third, the ERT is based on a unified framework for studying regime transformation in either direction. The dataset differentiates between four broad types of regime transformation: liberalization in autocracies, democratic deepening in democracies, and autocratization in both democracies and autocracies (democratic and autocratic regression). It further distinguishes ten patterns with distinct outcomes, including standard depictions of regime change (i.e. democratic transition or breakdown). A minority (32%) of ERTs produce a regime transition, with the majority of episodes either ending before a transition takes place or not having the potential for such a transition (i.e. further democratization in democratic regimes or further autocratization in autocratic regimes). We also provide comparisons to other datasets, illustrative case studies to demonstrate face validity, and a discussion about how the ERT framework can be applied in peace research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, this study investigates the impact of new technology on organizational work dynamics. By integrating the Job Demands-Resources theory and the Episodic Process Model, we examine the cognitive mechanisms that influence task performance during decision-making episodes. Our research focuses on episodic job demands and resources, emphasizing the mediating role of task absorption in the relationship between these factors and task performance. Our findings reveal that episodic job resources positively affect task absorption and performance, while job demands moderate the relationship between job resources and task absorption. Employing the Beer Distribution Game alongside neuroscience-based eye-tracking techniques, we analyze visual attention dynamics during decision-making episodes, providing novel insights into the interplay between task absorption and task performance. Theoretically, our study highlights the significance of task absorption in understanding how episodic job resources impact decision-making performance. Practically, our results advocate for the implementation of decision-making-focused skills development through physiological measures such as neurofeedback training programs. This research underscores the importance of individual time management in enhancing task performance, contributing to a nuanced understanding of job resources, job demands, and task absorption in the context of technological transformation.

In today's rapidly evolving technological landscape, this study investigates the impact of new technology on organizational work dynamics. By integrating the Job Demands-Resources theory and the Episodic Process Model, we examine the cognitive mechanisms that influence task performance during decision-making episodes. Our research focuses on episodic job demands and resources, emphasizing the mediating role of task absorption in the relationship between these factors and task performance. Our findings reveal that episodic job resources positively affect task absorption and performance, while job demands moderate the relationship between job resources and task absorption. Employing the Beer Distribution Game alongside neuroscience-based eye-tracking techniques, we analyze visual attention dynamics during decision-making episodes, providing novel insights into the interplay between task absorption and task performance. Theoretically, our study highlights the significance of task absorption in understanding how episodic job resources impact decision-making performance. Practically, our results advocate for the implementation of decision-making-focused skills development through physiological measures such as neurofeedback training programs. This research underscores the importance of individual time management in enhancing task performance, contributing to a nuanced understanding of job resources, job demands, and task absorption in the context of technological transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Migraine is characterized by sudden acute episodes of pain, with a global prevalence of 18% among all age groups. It is the second leading cause of years lived with disability worldwide. Prophylactic treatment is important in managing migraine; however, its efficacy and safety are debated. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of desvenlafaxine in female patients with migraine. Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational case study involving 10 women diagnosed with migraine who were treated with desvenlafaxine. We measured the number of migraine days per month, average headache duration in minutes, headache severity using a visual analog scale, use of acute medications, and frequency of acute medication use per week. Results: Desvenlafaxine significantly reduced the number of migraine days from 14.70 ± 3.68 at baseline to 2.50 ± 2.50 at follow-up (p < 0.05). The average headache duration dropped from 131.25 ± 32.81 min to 52.50 ± 44.64 min. Headache severity scores improved from 6.80 ± 1.49 at baseline to 0.80 ± 0.92 at follow up, the frequency of acute medication use per week reduced from 3.30 ± 1.49 at baseline to 0.80 ± 0.92, and the frequency of acute medication use decreased from 3.30 ± 1.49 times per week to 0.80 ± 0.92. Conclusions: Desvenlafaxine shows potential as an effective prophylactic therapy for migraine. Larger-scale studies are necessary to further explore its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four adolescent female athletes across four grades were diagnosed with either psychogenic nonepileptic seizures or conversion disorder. The females underwent thorough evaluations with their primary care providers and episode and symptom tracking by their athletic trainer. Through different applications of cognitive behavioral therapy and one-on-one counseling, the disorders resolved. Teaching athletes the importance of choosing healthy coping mechanisms to stress is vital to quality mental health. It is recommended that more research be done on psychogenic nonepileptic seizures and provide an understanding to those working with the adolescent population on triggers and treatments for psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious chronic disease with a high frequency of suicide attempts (SA) and suicides. There are few long-term studies concerning characteristics of SA in BD, especially what characterizes early from late SA. Methods: A long-term study of 51 BD patients (DSM-IV) with SA were collected from lithium dispensaries in northern Sweden. Patients were divided into early SA (the first five years) after age of onset (AOO) or late SA. Results: Patients with early SA were younger (p = 0.036), met BD earlier (p = 0.005), had less repeated depressions before SA (p = 0.002), often performed SA at first episode (p < 0.001) and before initiating of lithium (p = 0.002). Before first SA they had, fewer but more frequent episodes/year (p < 0.001), fewer depressive (p < 0.001) but more frequent depressive episodes/year (p < 0.001), lower frequency of hypomanic (p = 0.016) or manic episodes (p = 0.006). They had a higher frequency of episodes/year off (p = 0.047) and on (p = 0.042) lithium. Twenty percent of all patients performed SA at first episode, 47 % early SA and 65 % first ten years after AOO.Early SA was associated with a family history of first- and/or second-degree relative of affective disorder (AD) (p = 0.005), first-degree relative of AD (p = 0.031) and first-degree relative of BD (p = 0.049). All patients with early SA had a family history of AD. Conclusions: Patients with early SA have a more severe form of BD. Family history of AD among first- and/or second-degree relatives is significantly associated with especially early SA which implies a special psychiatric treatment and care for this BD group.

Few-shots learning is a popular transfer learning paradigm and leverages an additional source of side information to compensate for the limited labelled training exemplars in application domains like healthcare, military and space. Most few-shots learners do not capture useful data manifolds and have numerous trainable parameters. This large parameter space makes the inference computationally expensive and energy-draining. Consequently, these models are not robust and cannot be deployed on devices with limited computation (energy) faculties. This work proposes NucNormFSL, a novel nuclear norm-induced lightweight relation network, for the few-shots classification of hyperspectral images. The embedding and relation modules in the proposed network are trained end-to-end by minimizing a dictionary learning-based loss function with only a few trainable parameters. Additionally, the embedding module loss function is regularized using a nuclear norm to give low-ranked solutions that are robust to environmental noise; lastly, a relative reconstruction loss metric is introduced to quantify the embedding's robustness to noise. Experiments are conducted on four benchmark hyperspectral datasets, namely, Indian Pines, Pavia Center, Pavia University and Salinas dataset; the relative reconstruction loss values computed confirm the robustness of the embeddings and hence the proposed network to environmental noise. Additionally, the proposed network's performance is compared with the baseline (without a nuclear norm term in its embedding loss function) model. The proposed approach beats the baseline for most few-shots settings and datasets and remains competitive with the state-of-the-art despite being severely lightweight. In this way, the proposed network is futuristic, lightweight and immune to noise; consequently, it can be deployed in noisy environments on devices with limited computation facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socially shared metacognition is important for effective collaborative problem solving in virtual laboratory settings, A holistic account of socially shared metacognition in virtual laboratory settings is needed to advance our understanding, but previous studies have only focused on the isolated effect of each dimension on problem solving. This study thus applied learning analytics techniques to develop a comprehensive understanding of socially shared metacognition during collaborative problem solving in virtual laboratories. We manually coded 126 collaborative problem-solving scenarios in a virtual physics laboratory and then employed K-Means clustering analysis to identify patterns of socially shared metacognition. Four clusters were discovered. Statistical analysis was performed to investigate how the clusters were associated with the outcome of collaborative problem solving and also how they related to the difficulty level of problems. The findings of this study provided theoretical implications to advance the understanding of socially shared metacognition in virtual laboratory settings and also practical implications to foster effective collaborative problem solving in those settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fire can be especially dangerous when it occurs in hospitals because many patients in any typical hospital are not physically fit enough to quickly respond to emergency measures, especially evacuation calls. The present paper reports an in-depth assessment of the factors which have led to major fire accidents in Indian hospitals. The study reveals that several building safety codes, acts and guidelines are available, not only to prevent accidental fires but also to minimize harm when such fires do take place. However, observance of the stipulations is very lax, and seems to be exercised more in breach than in compliance. The study reveals that hospitals have zones like the intensive care units which are not only more prone to accidents than other zones but can also cause greater loss of lives due to the presence of critically ill patients, or persons who are extremely vulnerable (for instance newborn babies). Special codes and practices need to be framed for such zones. The study has also identified and catalogued a series of measures which must be implemented in future to prevent accidental fires in hospitals. The study is with reference to accidents that have occurred in India from 2010 to the present but is representative of the situation prevailing in most developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a small corpus of marriage proposal stories authored by British citizens, this paper aims to identify and make explicit seven defining parameters of frames (namely, default elements, default scenario, default context, default inference, default form, default argument, and instantiations) and explain and exemplify each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1983 implementation of the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) was successful in controlling Medicare inpatient costs because it was designed as a clinically credible management tool that facilitated real behavior change and performance improvement. The next phase of IPPS should expand the inpatient payment bundle to a hospital episode-of-care performance bundle that explicitly links episode cost and quality. A uniform, comparable, and transparent episode performance bundle that highlights the tradeoffs between episode cost and quality can expand the incentives to control costs and provide hospitals the management information to improve performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the ways to engage EFL students in writing is to assign them to work collaboratively. Collaborative writing requires a verbalization process resulting in episodes related to language, texts, and scaffolds. This study examined the use of episodes in collaborative writing of EFL students set in pairs by the teacher. It identified the most productive type of episodes which include language-related episodes (LREs), text-related episodes (TREs), and scaffolding episodes (SEs). It also scrutinized the categories of episodes within each type of episode. The study involved 20 pairs of Indonesian students from the English Department of a reputable university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The students were given an integrated reading-writing task and asked to work in pairs. The results of the study showed that SEs were the most productive type of episode, followed by LREs in the moderate occurrence, and TREs, which were the least productive type of episode. The results also revealed that among the categories in each type of episode, lexis-focused (LREs), organization-focused (TREs), and repetition (SEs) were more productive than the other categories of episodes. These results imply that the most productive categories of episodes could be catalysts in the teaching of writing, which employs collaborative writing tasks either in pairs or in small groups. This study offers insights into creating activities to encourage writing activities that especially involve types of pairings.

Abstract Background Although it is generally accepted that physical activity and flares of low back pain (LBP) are related, evidence for the directionality of this association is mixed. The Flares of Low back pain with Activity Research Study (FLAReS) takes a novel approach to distinguish the short-term effects of specific physical activities on LBP flares from the cumulative effects of such activities, by conducting a longitudinal case-crossover study nested within a cohort study. The first aim is to estimate the short-term effects (≤ 24 h) of specific physical activities on LBP flares among Veterans in primary care in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system. The second aim is to estimate the cumulative effects of specific activities on LBP-related functional limitations at 1-year follow-up. Methods Up to 550 adults of working age (18—65 years) seen for LBP in primary care complete up to 36 “Scheduled” surveys over 1-year follow-up, and also complete unscheduled “Flare Window” surveys after the onset of new flares. Each survey asks about current flares and other factors associated with LBP. Surveys also inquire about activity exposures over the 24 h, and 2 h, prior to the time of survey completion (during non-flare periods) or prior to the time of flare onset (during flares). Other questions evaluate the number, intensity, duration, and/or other characteristics of activity exposures. Other exposures include factors related to mood, lifestyle, exercise, concurrent treatments, and injuries. Some participants wear actigraphy devices for weeks 1–4 of the study. The first aim will examine associations between 10 specific activity categories and participant-reported flares over 1-year follow-up. The second aim will examine associations between the frequency of exposure to 10 activity categories over weeks 1–4 of follow-up and long-term functional limitations at 12 months. All analyses will use a biopsychosocial framework accounting for potential confounders and effect modifiers. Discussion FLAReS will provide empirically derived estimates of both the short-term and cumulative effects of specific physical activities for Veterans with LBP, helping to better understand the role of physical activities in those with LBP. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04828330 , registered April 2, 2021.

Periodic Fever, Aphthous Ulcers, Pharyngitis and Adenitis (PFAPA) Syndrome's etiology is not well understood. The objective of this study is to explore the association between vitamin D level and PFAPA syndrome. A systematic review of all publications addressing the association between vitamin D level and PFAPA syndrome prior to May 2019 was conducted. Data were collected from online medical databases namely, PubMed, Ovid Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and Scopus. The review adhered to the PRISMA statement and was performed in 3 main phases; an initial screening review of abstracts was performed, followed by a detailed review of full articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and lastly a final review to extract data from selected articles. 3 prospective review-based and one case report articles were included with a total of 281 patients, 98 of whom were cases of PFAPA, while 183 were controls. Vitamin D levels were deficient in 27% of PFAPA group as compared with the control. Vitamin D supplementation was given as an initial treatment in 25/98 of the patients. Only 1 patient received it as a second treatment. After vitamin D supplementation, a marked reduction of the number of febrile episodes and modification of the mean duration were recognized. There may be an association between Vitamin D deficiency and a higher frequency of PFAPA episodes. Vitamin D supplementation in children with PFAPA may reduce the frequency of episodes and help manage the condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milena Camaioni,1 Serena Scarpelli,1 Maurizio Gorgoni,1 Valentina Alfonsi,2 Luigi De Gennaro1,2 1Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; 2IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, ItalyCorrespondence: Luigi De GennaroDepartment of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi, 78, Rome, 00185, ItalyTel +39-06-49917647Fax +39-06-49917711Email luigi.degennaro@uniroma1.itIntroduction: Non-rapid eye movement (NREM) parasomnias are defined as abnormal nocturnal behaviors that typically arise from the NREM sleep stage 3 during the first sleep cycle. The polysomnographic studies showed an increase in sleep fragmentation and an atypical slow wave activity (SWA) in participants with NREM parasomnias compared to healthy controls. To date, the pathophysiology of NREM parasomnias is still poorly understood. The recent investigation of the EEG patterns immediately before parasomnia events could shed light on the motor activations’ processes. This systematic review aims to summarize empirical evidence about these studies and provide an overview of the methodological issues.Methods: A systematic literature search was carried out in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The documents obtained were evaluated using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS).Results: Nine studies were included in the qualitative synthesis. The major evidence revealed an increased slow frequency EEG activity immediately before the motor activations in frontal and central areas and increased beta activity in the anterior cingulate cortices.Discussion: The investigation of EEG patterns before parasomniac episodes could provide new insight into the study of NREM parasomnia pathophysiology. The high- and low-frequency EEG increase before the episodes could represent a predictive electrophysiological pattern of the motor activations’ onset. Overall, identifying specific sleep markers before parasomnias might also help differentiate between NREM parasomnias and other motor sleep disorders. Different methodological protocols should be integrated for overcoming the lack of consistent empirical findings. Thus, future studies should focus on the topographical examination of canonical EEG frequency bands to better understand spatial and time dynamics before the episodes and identify the networks underlying the onset of activations.Keywords: NREM parasomnias, episodes, motor activations, sleep EEG, polysomnography, electroencephalography

In these short comments, I concentrate mostly on the discussion about belief retention, about Frege's dilemma concerning sentences containing temporal indexical expressions and about the problems of cognitive significance it raises. I argue that Bozickovic's interpretation of Perry's proposals (both of the 70's proposal and of its later developments) is not accurate. I offer an account of these problems that I take to be congenial with Perry's own explanation and which I think might complement Bozickovic's own proposal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although it is generally accepted that physical activity and flares of low back pain (LBP) are related, evidence for the directionality of this association is mixed. The Flares of Low back pain with Activity Research Study (FLAReS) takes a novel approach to distinguish the short-term effects of specific physical activities on LBP flares from the cumulative effects of such activities, by conducting a longitudinal case-crossover study nested within a cohort study. The first aim is to estimate the short-term effects (≤ 24 h) of specific physical activities on LBP flares among Veterans in primary care in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system. The second aim is to estimate the cumulative effects of specific activities on LBP-related functional limitations at 1-year follow-up.Methods: Up to 550 adults of working age (18-65 years) seen for LBP in primary care complete up to 36 "Scheduled" surveys over 1-year follow-up, and also complete unscheduled "Flare Window" surveys after the onset of new flares. Each survey asks about current flares and other factors associated with LBP. Surveys also inquire about activity exposures over the 24 h, and 2 h, prior to the time of survey completion (during non-flare periods) or prior to the time of flare onset (during flares). Other questions evaluate the number, intensity, duration, and/or other characteristics of activity exposures. Other exposures include factors related to mood, lifestyle, exercise, concurrent treatments, and injuries. Some participants wear actigraphy devices for weeks 1-4 of the study. The first aim will examine associations between 10 specific activity categories and participant-reported flares over 1-year follow-up. The second aim will examine associations between the frequency of exposure to 10 activity categories over weeks 1-4 of follow-up and long-term functional limitations at 12 months. All analyses will use a biopsychosocial framework accounting for potential confounders and effect modifiers.Discussion: FLAReS will provide empirically derived estimates of both the short-term and cumulative effects of specific physical activities for Veterans with LBP, helping to better understand the role of physical activities in those with LBP.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04828330 , registered April 2, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of GeoGebra in teaching geometric transformations was investigated in this study. GeoGebra is a math software available in over 100 plus languages, both online and offline. GeoGebra is a useful application to improve and enrich mathematics teaching and learning by allowing students to visualize mathematical concepts, which is extremely useful for mathematical experiments and discoveries at all educational levels, from elementary school to university. The theoretical referents used in this article are cognitive learning theory and Vygotsky's social learning theory. Twenty students (twelve boys and eight girls) in grade IX from a private school in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, were taught mathematics using a variety of specific instances of transformation highlighted in this study, including reflection, rotation, translation, and dilation. This research used a qualitative research method called a teaching experiment to examine the use of GeoGebra in eleven episodes. Students were aided in visualizing abstract concepts of change by using relevant images, photos, and animations of GeoGebra-created objects. The findings of a classroom experiment are GeoGebra is an easy-to-use application, GeoGebra allows for discovery learning, GeoGebra encourages collaborative learning, and GeoGebra to visualize geometric transformations. Likewise, GeoGebra aids in the teaching and comprehension of abstract transformation concepts. These findings show how students can develop into active knowledge builders when GeoGebra is used in mathematics classes. They also communicate with one another, keep track of the change process, and respect their instructors' authority in such classes. It is an important instructional tool that supports the educational system's transition from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered approach by complementing the traditional lecture method of teaching mathematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Neck and low back pain represent dynamic conditions that change over time, often with an initial improvement after the onset of a new episode, followed by flare-ups or variations in intensity. Pain trajectories were previously defined based on longitudinal studies of temporal patterns and pain intensity of individuals with low back pain. In this study, we aimed to 1) investigate if the defined patterns and subgroups for low back pain were applicable to neck pain patients in chiropractic practice, 2) explore the robustness of the defined patterns, and 3) investigate if patients within the various patterns differ concerning characteristics and clinical findings. Methods Prospective cohort study including 1208 neck pain patients from chiropractic practice. Patients responded to weekly SMS-questions about pain intensity and frequency over 43 weeks. We categorized individual responses into four main patterns based on number of days with pain and variations in pain intensity, and subdivided each into four subgroups based on pain intensity, resulting in 16 trajectory subgroups. We compared baseline characteristics and clinical findings between patterns and between Persistent fluctuating and Episodic subgroups. Results All but two patients could be classified into one of the 16 subgroups, with 94% in the Persistent fluctuating or Episodic patterns. In the largest subgroup, “Mild Persistent fluctuating” (25%), mean (SD) pain intensity was 3.4 (0.6) and mean days with pain 130. Patients grouped as “Moderate Episodic” (24%) reported a mean pain intensity of 2.7 (0.6) and 39 days with pain. Eight of the 16 subgroups each contained less than 1% of the cohort. Patients in the Persistent fluctuating pattern scored higher than the other patterns in terms of reduced function and psychosocial factors. Conclusions The same subgroups seem to fit neck and low back pain patients, with pain that typically persists and varies in intensity or is episodic. Patients in a Persistent fluctuating pattern are more bothered by their pain than those in other patterns. The low back pain definitions can be used on patients with neck pain, but with the majority of patients classified into 8 subgroups, there seems to be a redundancy in the original model.

The increased interest in time use among transport researchers has led to a search for flexible but tractable models of time use, such as Bhat's Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value (MDCEV) model. MDCEV formulations typically model aggregate time allocation into different activity types during a given period, such as the amount of time spent working and shopping in a day. While these applications provide valuable insights into activity participation, they ignore disaggregate activity-episodes, that is the fact that people might split their total time spent working in multiple separate blocks, with breaks or other activities in between. Insights into this splitting into episodes are necessary for predicting trips and understanding time use satiation. We propose a modified MDCEV model where an activity-episode, rather than an activity type, is the basic choice alternative, using a modified utility function to capture the reduced likelihood of individuals performing a very large number of episodes of the same activity. Results from two large revealed preference datasets exhibit equivalent forecast accuracy between the traditional and proposed approach at an aggregate level, but the latter also provides insights on the number and duration of activity-episodes with significant accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Medicina y Cine / Journal of Medicine & Movies is the property of Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca 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.)

Russia–Pakistan first-ever Military Exercises Friendship-2016 (Druzhba-2016) were significant for Pakistan's internal as well as external security. These joint military exercises helped Pakistan's internal security in two ways. First, Pakistani military units benefited from Russian counter-terrorism experiences besides gaining experience exchanges through planning, training, reconnaissance, and handling of military operations against terrorism. Pakistani military units could use these modern tactics, and novel procedures in real combats against the terrorists in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA, merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in 2018), Baluchistan, and other parts of Pakistan. The Russian military personnel also benefited from the experiences of Pakistani counterparts. Second, during the joint drills, the military personnel used the modern equipment of each other which enhanced their knowledge of advanced arms. Thus, Pakistan could acquire new arms from Russia and subsequently use the equipment against militant groups which posed a threat to Pakistan's internal security. Moreover, Friendship 2016 has implications for Pakistan's external security in four ways. First, it helped Pakistan in preparedness to counter the threats of Islamic State from Afghanistan. Second, the exercises contributed towards de-escalation of India–Pakistan tension after the Uri attack besides it foiled the Indian attempts to isolate Pakistan on the pretext of terrorism in Kashmir. Furthermore, Russia seems convinced that some extra-regional powers were involved in disrupting Pakistan–India relations through the acts of terrorism. Third, it served as a counterweight to the US alienation from Pakistan, and finally it enhanced the prospects of Russia–Pakistan military technical cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a response to Luca Tomini's "Don't think of a wave!" and Svend-Erik Skaaning's "Waves of autocratization and democratization". With this rejoinder we make three arguments: First, the question how global waves shape autocratization processes and regime transformations is now more urgent than ever. Since 1994, civil liberties and political rights of one third of the global population have been substantially and increasingly reduced due to autocratization. Second, waves of any concept can only be studied meaningfully if the underlying concepts as well as the waves are clearly defined. We argue that the conceptualization of episodes of regime transformations (ERT) in the ERT dataset provides exactly such a clear state-of-the-art empirical mapping of processes of democratization and autocratization at the national level. In addition, we highlight how our conceptualization of waves builds upon Huntington, 1993. It even improves upon it by allowing for overlap and modelling it closer to its real world counterpart. Third, we view the present debate as a prime example of fruitful scholastic argument. Ultimately, this is what will generate a better understanding of global trends of democratization and autocratization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logopedia e Comunicazione is the property of Edizioni Centro Studi Erickson SpA 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.)

Diarrhea following bariatric surgery may be secondary to multiple causes. The aim of the present study is to report a significant reduction in episodes of diarrhea with the stimulation of the lymphatic system in a patient with postbariatric diarrhea using the Godoy method for the treatment for lymphedema. Case Report: A 40-year-old female patient with obesity was submitted to bariatric surgery, type Gastric bypass (roo-en-wy), 13 years ago. Beginning immediately after surgery, the patient began to have around 12 episodes of diarrhea per day for approximately 11 years. The patient also had lower limb lymphedema and was sent to the Clínica Godoy-Brazil for treatment. The patient underwent the Godoy Method® of intensive treatment for lymphedema. However, the most important finding was the immediate reduction in the number of episodes of diarrhea per day, which went from 12-13 to 2-3 after only one day of treatment. This result regarding diarrhea has been maintained for two years, with the maximum number of seven episodes on some days, which subsequently returned to two to three episodes. The Godoy intensive lymphedema treatment method was effective at reducing the number of episodes of post-bariatric diarrhea, offering a novel treatment option for these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Antibodies targeting malaria blood-stage antigens are important targets of naturally acquired immunity, and may act as valuable biomarkers of malaria exposure. Methods Six-hundred and one young Malawian children from a randomized trial of prenatal nutrient supplementation with iron and folic acid or pre- and postnatal multiple micronutrients or lipid-based nutrient supplements were followed up weekly at home and febrile episodes were investigated for malaria from birth to 18 months of age. Antibodies were measured for 601 children against merozoite surface proteins (MSP1 19kD, MSP2), erythrocyte binding antigen 175 (EBA175), reticulocyte binding protein homologue 2 (Rh2A9), schizont extract and variant surface antigens expressed by Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes (IE) at 18 months of age. The antibody measurement data was related to concurrent malaria infection and to documented episodes of clinical malaria. Results At 18 months of age, antibodies were significantly higher among parasitaemic than aparasitaemic children. Antibody levels against MSP1 19kD, MSP2, schizont extract, and IE variant surface antigens were significantly higher in children who had documented episodes of malaria than in children who did not. Antibody levels did not differ between children with single or multiple malaria episodes before 18 months, nor between children who had malaria before 6 months of age or between 6 and 18 months. Conclusions Antibodies to merozoite and IE surface antigens increased following infection in early childhood, but neither age at first infection nor number of malaria episodes substantially affected antibody acquisition. These findings have implications for malaria surveillance during early childhood in the context of elimination. Trials registration Clinical Trials Registration: NCT01239693 (Date of registration: 11-10-2010). URL: http://www.ilins.org

The functions of the simple past and the present perfect appear to be well delimited in English according to prescriptive grammars. However, in actual use their distribution is still a challenging area of English linguistics since there are fuzzy cases in which this distinction is blurred. For example, in some varieties of English the present perfect seems to be taking over the role of the simple past to express definite past in narratives, where the simple past is the default tense. In these cases, the use of the present perfect has been regarded to be functionally motivated by the speaker’s intention to highlight the current relevance of the event expressed by this form (Ritz, 2010, Walker, 2011). The main objective of this research will be to use the results of corpus analysis and of the relevant studies on this topic and to propose an FDG analysis of these data. It will be concluded that the use of the present perfect in narratives has various functions captured at two different levels of the architecture of FDG, namely the Representational Level (RL) and the Interpersonal Level (IL). At the RL, the present perfect functions either as a marker of resultative aspect, or as a signal that a new narrative Episode is introduced. At IL, this form functions as a device for Emphasis, highlighting a salient passage in the narrative.

This study attempts to offer a new perspective on the discursive, semantic and pragmatic analysis of the business letter. This perspective is based on the van Dijk's theory of episodes as units of discourse analysis, Vilar Sánchez's theory about the microfunctional composition of a text and Vergaro's approach to the business letter seen as macrotext and microtext. We conclude that this perspective can be useful both for theoretical studies and the didactics of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Neck and low back pain represent dynamic conditions that change over time, often with an initial improvement after the onset of a new episode, followed by flare-ups or variations in intensity. Pain trajectories were previously defined based on longitudinal studies of temporal patterns and pain intensity of individuals with low back pain. In this study, we aimed to 1) investigate if the defined patterns and subgroups for low back pain were applicable to neck pain patients in chiropractic practice, 2) explore the robustness of the defined patterns, and 3) investigate if patients within the various patterns differ concerning characteristics and clinical findings.Methods: Prospective cohort study including 1208 neck pain patients from chiropractic practice. Patients responded to weekly SMS-questions about pain intensity and frequency over 43 weeks. We categorized individual responses into four main patterns based on number of days with pain and variations in pain intensity, and subdivided each into four subgroups based on pain intensity, resulting in 16 trajectory subgroups. We compared baseline characteristics and clinical findings between patterns and between Persistent fluctuating and Episodic subgroups.Results: All but two patients could be classified into one of the 16 subgroups, with 94% in the Persistent fluctuating or Episodic patterns. In the largest subgroup, "Mild Persistent fluctuating" (25%), mean (SD) pain intensity was 3.4 (0.6) and mean days with pain 130. Patients grouped as "Moderate Episodic" (24%) reported a mean pain intensity of 2.7 (0.6) and 39 days with pain. Eight of the 16 subgroups each contained less than 1% of the cohort. Patients in the Persistent fluctuating pattern scored higher than the other patterns in terms of reduced function and psychosocial factors.Conclusions: The same subgroups seem to fit neck and low back pain patients, with pain that typically persists and varies in intensity or is episodic. Patients in a Persistent fluctuating pattern are more bothered by their pain than those in other patterns. The low back pain definitions can be used on patients with neck pain, but with the majority of patients classified into 8 subgroups, there seems to be a redundancy in the original model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, of descriptive and qualitative nature, studies the operations and sub-processes of textual planning performed by primary students as well as the techniques they use when writing their drafts. To this end, we analyze the episodes found in the oral interactions of 11 pairs of 5th graders and the drafts they produced in the context of a joint expository-argumentative writing task. Results show that, in general, students focus on the sub-process of the generation of ideas, and, to a lesser extent, on metalinguistic, esthetic and task management aspects. Regarding the techniques, we observe that only six pairs use them and that they represent different levels of complexity. These results, together with the high variability found, evidence the need to practice this process specifically and systematically at this stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The procedure in this study of autobiographical memory after forty years had three phases: uncued recall of experiences of 1978 to 1980, recall cued by descriptions made in 1979 of selected events, and recall cued by a diary written between 1978 and 1980. The schema theory of autobiographical memory describes memory of individual experiences as embedded in longer extended events. In uncued recall in 2019 all bar one of the extended events later found in the diary were remembered, with approximate dates and extents. Few specific episodes that occurred outside an extended event were recalled. In cued recall, characteristics of episodes associated with recall were rarity, vividness, and emotional intensity, and to a lesser extent importance to self. There was no difference between recall of pleasant and unpleasant episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study economic growth and its volatility from an episodic perspective. We first demonstrate the ability of the genetic algorithm to detect shifts in the volatility and levels of a given time series. Having shown that it works well, we then use it to detect structural breaks that segment the GDP per capita time series into episodes characterized by different means and volatility of growth rates. We further investigate whether a volatile economy is likely to grow more slowly and analyze the determinants of high/low growth with high/low volatility patterns. The main results indicate a negative relationship between volatility and growth. Moreover, the results suggest that international trade simultaneously promotes growth and increases volatility, human capital promotes growth and stability, and financial development reduces volatility and negatively correlates with growth.

This study attempts to offer a new perspective on the discursive, semantic and pragmatic analysis of the business letter. This perspective is based on the van Dijk's theory of episodes as units of discourse analysis, Vilar Sánchez's theory about the microfunctional composition of a text and Vergaro's approach to the business letter seen as macrotext and microtext. We conclude that this perspective can be useful both for theoretical studies and the didactics of this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients using levodopa commonly develop dyskinesia and OFF episodes that reduce quality of life. Objective: Evaluate prevalence of troublesome dyskinesia and OFF through the day, assessed by 30-minute intervals, as well as the mean number and duration of troublesome dyskinesia and OFF episodes, transitions between PD states, and effects of Gocovri® (amantadine) extended release capsules on these episodes. Methods: Evaluate diary data from pooled Gocovri phase 3, placebo-controlled trials—analyzed for 17 hours following wake-up—at baseline and week 12. Results: Diaries were evaluable for 162 patients. At baseline, 67% of patients woke up OFF, with prevalence decreasing to 13% at 2 hours and then remaining relatively steady at ∼12% (range, 6–17%) across half-hour intervals thereafter. Troublesome dyskinesia prevalence rose steadily from 5% to 24% over the first 2 hours, then fluctuated between 20% and 44% through the rest of the waking day. At baseline, patients experienced a mean of 3.0 daily episodes of troublesome dyskinesia (average duration 2.0 hours each), and 2.2 daily episodes of OFF (average duration 1.1 hour each). At week 12, Gocovri-treated patients showed greater reductions than placebo in troublesome dyskinesia and OFF episodes per day (treatment difference: –1.0 episodes and –0.4 episodes, respectively) and average episode duration (treatment difference: –0.6 hours and –0.3 hours, respectively). Mean duration of individual episodes of ON without troublesome dyskinesia (Good ON) increased by 5.0 hours for Gocovri, compared with 2.0 hours for placebo. Patients taking Gocovri experienced 2.2 fewer transitions between states than patients taking placebo. Conclusions: Troublesome dyskinesia and OFF occurred in the morning and throughout the waking day. Gocovri-treated patients experienced fewer, shorter episodes of both troublesome dyskinesia and OFF, thereby increasing the duration of continuous Good ON episodes and reducing the frequency of transitions between motor states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discovering patterns in long event sequences is an important data mining task. Traditionally, research focused on frequency-based quality measures that allow algorithms to use the anti-monotonicity property to prune the search space and efficiently discover the most frequent patterns. In this work, we step away from such measures, and evaluate patterns using cohesion — a measure of how close to each other the items making up the pattern appear in the sequence on average. We tackle the fact that cohesion is not an anti-monotonic measure by developing an upper bound on cohesion in order to prune the search space. By doing so, we are able to efficiently unearth rare, but strongly cohesive, patterns that existing methods often fail to discover. Furthermore, having found the occurrences of cohesive itemsets in the input sequence, we use them to discover the representative sequential patterns and the dominant partially ordered episodes, without going through the computationally expensive candidate generation procedures typically associated with sequential pattern and episode mining. Experiments show that our method efficiently discovers important patterns that existing state-of-the-art methods fail to discover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) is among the most polluted areas in the world. We tracked ambient PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) build-up in Delhi NCR during the dry season (October–June) by analysing 15 years (2001-02 to 2015-16) of high-resolution (1 km) satellite data that has been bias corrected using coincident in-situ data. Ambient PM 2.5 concentrations are 1.25 times lower in the upwind regions compared to the downwind areas of Delhi NCR, with the difference being attributed to outflow from the Delhi National Capital Territory (NCT). We identify two major peak pollution episodes – the first occurs from the end of October to early November, while the second occurs toward the end of December through early January. Mean ambient PM 2.5 concentrations remain >300 μg/m3 (five times the Indian 24-h national standard) for several weeks around the two peak pollution episodes. The first peak is attributed to pollution transport from upwind areas affected by open biomass burning, coupled with stable atmospheric conditions, while the second is attributed to enhanced local emissions and perhaps secondary aerosol formation under favorable meteorological conditions. The implementation of the "Sub-soil Water Preservation Act" in 2009 in Punjab (a state upwind of Delhi NCT) reduced the time between paddy and wheat cultivation seasons; as a result, open biomass burning increased, resulting in a 9% increase in weekly PM 2.5 concentration over Delhi NCT since 2009 during the first pollution episode. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time MODIS MAIAC 1 km satellite data are used to generate pollution statistics over India. Our results demonstrate the potential of high-resolution satellite data in tracking pollution build-up at an urban scale and may help in air quality management. Graphical abstract Image 1 Highlights • First use of 1 km satellite AOD in pollution monitoring in India. • PM 2.5 build-up in Delhi during the dry season (Oct–May) of 16 years is examined. • Two episodic peaks are identified; one in late Oct-early Nov and the other in late Dec-early Jan. • PM 2.5 in downwind of Delhi city is 1.25 times larger than that in upwind areas. • No significant difference in PM 2.5 in urban and rural areas in Delhi NCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to utilize a Recurrent Neural Network with long short-term memory (LSTM) units to forecast PM 2.5 levels in Delhi. Four monitoring stations in Delhi were used to gather the PM 2.5 data required for training and evaluating the models. The models used in the study included four different combinations of variables: (i) PM 2.5 data only, (ii) PM 2.5 data combined with meteorology, (iii) PM 2.5 data combined with gaseous pollutants, and (iv) PM 2.5 data combined with gaseous pollutants and meteorology. The results revealed that the models incorporating PM 2.5 data with gaseous pollutants and PM 2.5 data with gaseous pollutants and meteorology provided more accurate forecasts of daily and hourly PM 2.5 levels compared to the other models. To further enhance the prediction of PM 2.5 during critical episodes, outlier identification methods were employed to examine the models. The episodes analyzed in the study included dust storms, stubble burning, unfavorable meteorological conditions, and Diwali. The analysis showed that events at one monitoring station occurred before similar events in other regions due to wind direction and non-local PM 2.5 sources. During these episodes, the models incorporating gaseous pollutants performed better due to the dominance of secondary components in PM 2.5 for which the gaseous pollutants act as precursor components. The study provides confidence in the accuracy and effectiveness of the models in aiding regulators to implement prompt interventions in cities facing severe pollution issues. [Display omitted] • Developed LSTM models with four feature combinations for PM 2.5 forecasts in Delhi. • Identified air pollution episodes by outlier detection with MAD and IQR. • Evaluated the models using identified episodic events. • Models with pollutant concentrations outperformed the other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental scientists frequently rely on time series of explanatory variables to explain their impact on an important response variable. However, sometimes, researchers are less interested in raw observations of an explanatory variable than in derived indices induced by episodes embedded in its time series. Often these episodes are intermittent, occur within a specific limited memory, persist for varying durations, at varying levels of intensity, and overlap important periods with respect to the response variable. We develop a generic, parametrised, family of weighted indices extracted from an environmental signal called IMPIT indices. To facilitate their construction and calibration, we develop a user-friendly app in Shiny R referred to as IMPIT − a. We construct examples of IMPIT indices extracted from the Southern Oscillation Index and sea surface temperature signals. We illustrate their applications to two fished species in Queensland waters (i.e., snapper and saucer scallop) and wheat yield in New South Wales. • We developed indices from an environmental signal containing intermittent episodes. • The indices carry episode intensity, memory, persistence, intermittence and timing. • We illustrated indices' effectiveness and applications in fisheries and agriculture. • We developed IMPIT − a , an app to expedite index construction and calibration. • We expect IMPIT indices to be a useful addition to exploratory data analysis toolbox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]