Doping Control in the Republic of Moldova: Specific Features

Recently, there has been a strong effort regarding all sports organizations in order to reduce the universality and frequency of doping in sport. However, the efficacy of current strategies to fight against doping might be improved by using anti-doping polices adjusted to the features of doping in each sport. Contemporary sports activity is regarded as a complex phenomenon that involves both physical components, as well as a variety of medical, legal or economic aspects. In recent times, sport worldwide is marked by severe discussions on doping and its effects. In this context, athletes and team members must know the facts that may empower violations of anti-doping legislation and regulations on the doping control procedure. The acquisition of these legal and medical rules will motivate the development of sports, with the effect of preventing risks represented by the doping phenomenon.

Introduction to the symposium on institutional analysis, market processes, and interdisciplinary social science

Heterodox economic approaches such as Austrian economics and market process analysis rely upon a less formalistic approach to rationality than neoclassical frameworks. We argue such looser formalism provides a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary engagement to investigating and understanding social institutions, outcomes and complex phenomenon. This introduction briefly summarizes the contents of this invited issue as effective examples of such interdisciplinarity.

COVID-19 Misinformation in Portuguese-Speaking Countries: Agreement with Content and Associated Factors

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a complex phenomenon called the “infodemic” has emerged, compromising coping with the pandemic. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of agreement with misinformation about COVID-19 and to identify associated factors. A web survey was carried out in Portuguese-speaking countries in two stages: 1. the identification of misinformation circulating in the included countries; 2. a multicentric online survey with residents of the included countries. The outcome of the study was agreement or disagreement with misinformation about COVID-19. Multivariate analyzes were conducted using the Poisson regression model with robust variance, a logarithmic link function, and 95% confidence intervals. The prevalence of agreement with misinformation about COVID-19 was 63.9%. The following factors increased the prevalence of this outcome: having a religious affiliation (aPR: 1454, 95% CI: 1393–1517), having restrictions on leisure (aPR: 1230, 95% CI: 1127–1342), practicing social isolation (aPR: 1073, 95% CI: 1030–1118), not avoiding agglomeration (aPR: 1060, 95% CI: 1005–1117), not seeking/receiving news from scientific sources (aPR: 1153, 95% CI: 1068–1245), seeking/receiving news from three or more non-scientific sources (aPR: 1114, 95% CI: 1049–1182), and giving credibility to news carried by people from social networks (aPR: 1175, 95% CI: 1104–1251). There was a high prevalence of agreement with misinformation about COVID-19. The quality, similarity, uniformity, and acceptance of the contents indicate a concentration of themes that reflect “homemade”, simple, and easy methods to avoid infection by SARS-CoV-2, compromising decision-making and ability to cope with the disease.

Students With Mild Intellectual Disability at the Turn of the 20th Century in Hungary

Initial attempts to conceptually define intellectual disability have played a significant role in the history of education of children with intellectual disabilities. In Hungary, the definition of intellectual disability has undergone many changes, which is related to disciplinary development. Nowadays, in special education, the term “intellectual disability” refers to a complex phenomenon which is reflected, for example, in the significant variability on the level of intellectual functioning. This study focuses on a narrower area of this very complex phenomenon. It makes children with mild intellectual disability – one of the categories of people with intellectual disabilities, the subject of analysis. The research analyzes the contemporary professional terminology and classification of mild intellectual disability on the basis of primary sources. It also examines whom and according to what symptoms professionals classified as a member of this student population, taking into account the scientific conceptions at the turn of the 20th century (for the naming of children with mild intellectual disability, see pp. 19–20). In pedagogical narratives published at that time, the term “weak- talented child” was the most commonly used expression.

A multidimensional model of interaction as a framework for a phenomenon-driven approach to communication

Interaction between people is a cornerstone of being human. Despite huge developments in languages and communicative skills, interaction often fails, which causes problems and costs in everyday life and work. An inability to conduct dialogue also produces conflicts between groups of people, states and religions. Therefore, there are good reasons to claim that miscommunication and failures in interaction are among the most serious problems in the world. Researchers from different fields - linguistics, sociology, anthropology, psychology, brain research, philosophy - have tried to tackle this complex phenomenon. Their method-driven approaches enrich our understanding of the features of interaction in many ways. However, what is lacking is an understanding of the very essence of interaction, which needs a more holistic, phenomenon-driven approach. The aim of this paper is to show that the only way to reach this goal is multidisciplinarity, that is, using the results and methods of different fields of research. This is not an easy goal and task because the way of thinking and doing research varies greatly discipline-wise. A further obstacle is the researchers training, which, as a rule, focuses on the tradition of only one field of research. The Multidimensional Model of Interaction provides a good framework for a more holistic approach to interaction by viewing the complex phenomenon from different angles. The model includes various phases of the process of interaction, beginning with the choice of the topic by the speaker and ending with identification of the reference by the recipient, as well as the mental worlds of the interlocutors (knowledge, attitudes, values, emotional state etc.), recipient design (accommodation of speech) and external circumstances.

Comparative Transcriptome Analysis of Female and Male Fine-Patterned Puffer: Identification of Candidate Genes Associated with Growth and Sex Differentiation

Sexual growth dimorphism is a common phenomenon in teleost fish. However, the mechanism of this complex phenomenon remains unclear. The fine-patterned puffer (Takifugu poecilonotus; Temminck and Schlegel, 1850) exhibits female-biased sexual size dimorphism similar to other pufferfish. In this study, the transcriptomes of female and male T. poecilonotus were sequenced, 285.95 million raw read pairs were generated from sequence libraries. After identification and assembly, a total of 149,814 nonredundant unigenes were obtained with an N50 length of 3538 bp. Of these candidates, 122,719 unigenes (81.91% of the total) were successfully annotated with multiple public databases. The comparison analysis revealed 10,385 unigenes (2034 in females and 8351 in males) were differentially expressed between different sexes of T. poecilonotus. Then, we identified many candidate growth- and sex-related genes, including Dmrt1, Sox3, Spatas, Prl/Prlr, fabps, Ghr, and Igf1r. In addition to these well-known genes, Fabp4 was identified for the first time in fish. Furthermore, 68,281 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) loci were screened and identified in the transcriptome sequence of T. poecilonotus. The results of our study could provide valuable information on growth- and sex-associated genes and facilitate further exploration of the molecular mechanism of sexual growth dimorphism.

THE CONTRIBUTION OF TEMPORARY ASSEMBLAGE TOWARDS SENSE OF PLACE: A STUDY IN ALUTH NUWARA SACRED AREA, SRI LANKA

‘Sense of place’ is a complex phenomenon emerging from the associations of the inhabitants, the values they attribute on the built environment, and the manner in which they behave in that place. Every built environment gets its form and character out of a composite of both the permanent structures and temporary assemblage. This is mostly evident in living sacred built environments where impermanent and ‘supposed to be non-lasting’ structures assembled for temporal benefits, amidst formally arranged permanent spaces, play a significant role in making them functional places. However, the existence of temporary physical assemblage has throughout been considered as ‘problematic’ in formal institutional planning, in spite of the utility, character and the sense of place that they add to day-to-day lived-in environments. In a context, where the available studies are limited, this paper discusses on these temporary interventions and their impact in experiencing of places, in-order to widen the awareness and in-depth understanding of planners, urban designers and the authorities, who are responsible for the making of sustainable built environments. The paper first presents a review of the existing literature in order to identify a suitable theoretical framework to study the impacts of temporal assemblage on sense of place. Second, employing the conceptual framework profound in ‘Bennett’s six triads’, it presents the study on the mutual transactive relationships between the activity spaces and the behavior patterns of the inhabitants, as observed by the authors, in Aluth Nuwara Devala sacred area in Sri Lanka. It emphasizes the manner in which the temporary assemblage, within the formal built environment, impacts the settings, values and the behaviors of the inhabitants and thereby form the sense of place. The study highlights that temporary assemblage adds sense to places not only by their presence but also by changing people’s behaviors.

A multicity investigation on Fear of Crime

Fear of crime is a complex phenomenon, often not connected to the crime itself. It is sometimes influenced by other environmental factors, thus creating fear in the population. We examined fears of crime and their causes in seven different cities and municipalities in the present study. The primary data collection was an online questionnaire, which were then processed with various GIS software (ArcGIS, GeoDa). We then processed police statistics related to registered crimes committed. Finally, we compared questionnaires and police data using basic statistical methods.

Estimation of Shutdown Schedule to Remove Fouling Layers of Heat Exchangers Using Risk-Based Inspection (RBI)

Oil and Gas plants consist of a set of heat exchangers, which are used in recovering the waste heat from product streams to preheat the oil. The heat transfer coefficient of exchangers declines considerably during the operation period due to fouling. Fouling in heat exchangers is a complex phenomenon due to the acceleration of many layers of chemical substances across tubes of heat exchangers resulting from chemical reactions and surface roughness. In this paper, the fouling process was determined as a critical failure in the heat exchanger. Failure is an accelerated fouling layer across the heat exchanger tubes, which can be the reason for the clogging of tubes. Hence, a risk assessment was conducted using the Risk-Based Inspection (RBI) approach to estimate the probability of fouling in heat exchangers. The results showed that the RBI approach can be used successfully to predict the suitable time to shut down the plant and conduct the fouling cleaning process.