Motor Variability in Complex Gesture Learning: Effects of Movement Sonification and Musical Background

With the increasing interest in movement sonification and expressive gesture-based interaction, it is important to understand which factors contribute to movement learning and how. We explore the effects of movement sonification and users’ musical background on motor variability in complex gesture learning. We contribute an empirical study in which musicians and non-musicians learn two gesture sequences over three days, with and without movement sonification. Results show the interlaced interaction effects of these factors and how they unfold in the three-day learning process. For gesture 1, which is fast and dynamic with a direct “action-sound” sonification, movement sonification induces higher variability for both musicians and non-musicians on day 1. While musicians reduce this variability to a similar level as no auditory feedback condition on day 2 and day 3, non-musicians remain to have significantly higher variability. Across three days, musicians also have significantly lower variability than non-musicians. For gesture 2, which is slow and smooth with an “action-music” metaphor, there are virtually no effects. Based on these findings, we recommend future studies to take into account participants’ musical background, consider longitudinal study to examine these effects on complex gestures, and use awareness when interpreting the results given a specific design of gesture and sound.

Electron-Beam Synthesis of Dielectric Coatings Using Forevacuum Plasma Electron Sources (Review)

This is a review of current developments in the field of ion-plasma and beam methods of synthesis of protective and functional dielectric coatings. We give rationales for attractiveness and prospects of creating such coatings by electron-beam heating and following evaporation of dielectric targets. Forevacuum plasma electron sources, operating at elevated pressure values from units to hundreds of pascals, make it possible to exert the direct action of an electron beam on low-conductive materials. Electron-beam evaporation of aluminum oxide, boron, and silicon carbide targets is used to exemplify the particular features of electron-beam synthesis of such coatings and their parameters and characteristics.

Acetazolamide modulates intracranial pressure directly by its action on the cerebrospinal fluid secretion apparatus

Elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) is observed in many neurological pathologies, e.g. hydrocephalus and stroke. This condition is routinely relieved with neurosurgical approaches, since effective and targeted pharmacological tools are still lacking. The carbonic anhydrase inhibitor, acetazolamide (AZE), may be employed to treat elevated ICP. However, its effectiveness is questioned, its location of action unresolved, and its tolerability low. Here, we employed in vivo and ex vivo approaches to reveal the efficacy and mode of action of AZE in the rat brain. The drug effectively reduced the ICP, irrespective of the mode of drug administration and level of anaesthesia. The effect occurred via a direct action on the choroid plexus and an associated decrease in cerebrospinal fluid secretion, and not indirectly via the systemic action of AZE on renal and vascular processes. Upon a single administration, the reduced ICP endured for approximately 10 h post-AZE delivery with no long-term changes of brain water content or choroidal transporter expression. However, a persistent reduction of ICP was secured with repeated AZE administrations throughout the day. Future specific targeting of choroidal carbonic anhydrases may limit the systemic side effects, and therefore enhance the treatment tolerability and effectiveness in select patient groups experiencing elevated ICP.

Normative acts in the system of national tax security provision

The subject. The article characterizes the role of Russian Constitution, federal laws and bylaws in ensuring tax security.The purpose of the article is to identify legal norms that ensure the tax security of the state, and to confirm the hypothesis that such norms hat such norms are effective in systemic interaction.The methodology. The author uses methods of system analysis of scientific papers devoted to the provision of various types of security. Formal logical and legal interpretation of Russian regulatory legal acts is used also.The main results. Regulatory documents in the field of tax security can be classified into: the Constitution of the Russian Federation at the highest level; program documents (conventions, strategies, charters, concepts, programs, doctrines, standards, directives) as acts of the first level, the legislation of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities is at the second level; departmental regulatory legal acts are at the third level. The law on security should be an act of direct action that determines the content of the management activities of public authorities to ensure security by fixing its goals, principles, the most general forms and means of implementation. The basis of legal provision of tax security at the legislative level should be defined in the federal law on security as well as in the federal law "On Tax Authorities of the Russian Federation" (in intra-governmental relations context because tax authorities are the main subjects of tax administration) and in the Russian Tax Code (concerning relations between public administration bodies and private entities). Any draft legislative acts affecting issues of tax relations and economic management should be examined for compliance with national interests in the field of tax security and the effectiveness of minimizing threats. Each legislative act should take into account the implementation of the goals and principles of ensuring tax security (as well as other types of security) enshrined in the concept document. Such expertise is possible in the process of approving draft laws by the Russian Government as well as when registering relevant bylaws by the Russian Ministry of JusticeConclusions. The Russian Constitution should consolidate a unified approach to the essence of security as a whole. Legislative acts (first of all, the laws on security, on tax authorities, the Tax Code of the Russian Federation) should provide for the main directions of countering threats to tax security arising in the relevant areas of regulation. By-laws and regulations are designed to fix specific managerial ways of dealing with such threats.

Enhancement of the Yersinia pestis EV NIIEG Vaccine Srain Immunogenic and Protective Activity under Cultivation with Azoxymer Bromide (Polyoxidonium)

Background. The live-attenuated vaccine based on the Yersinia pestis strain EV line NIIEG is still used in Russia, providing protective efficacy against plague. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need for developing new ways to increase the immunogenicity of the Y. pestis EV NIIEG vaccine strain. In this study, the ability of direct action of immunoadjuvant azoximer bromide (polyoxidonium, PO) on the immunobiological properties of vaccine strain Y. pestis EV NIIEG during cultivation on a dense nutrient medium was evaluated. Materials & Methods. Y.pestis EV NIIEG, cultivated at 28 °С for 48 h on LB agar, Miller pH 7.2 ± 0.1 (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) with the addition of PO and without. MALDI-TOF mass-spectrometry was deployed for the obtainment of mass-spectra of ribosomal proteins from Y. pestis EV NIIEG cells on the MicroflexTM LT mass spectrometer (Bruker Daltonics, Germany). Protective efficacy was evaluated under subcutaneously challenge guinea pigs and mice BALB's with 400 LD50 doses of the Y. pestis 231, Y. pestis P-13268 Vietnam (MLD=5 CFU). Antibody titers to F1 in serum were determined using an ELISA. Results. The addition of the therapeutic concentration of PO in the cultivation medium induced a significant increase in the immunogenicity of Y. pestis EV NIIEG that resulted in enhancement of serum antibody levels against Y. pestis F1 antigen and several times the growth of protective efficacy in the bubonic plague model on two types of experimental animals. ImD50 of the vaccine strain Y. pestis EV NIIEG, cultivated with PO, was significantly (p < 0,05) lower in comparison to ImD50 for Y. pestis EV NIIEG in standard cultivation conditions. One year of storage at a temperature of 4 °С did not alter the protective properties of the vaccine strain Y. pestis EV NIIEG, cultivated with PO. Conclusions. Morphological studies confirmed the absence of influence PO introduction into the cultivation environment on the safety of the vaccine strain. MALDI-TOF MS profile of the Y. pestis EV NIIEG, cultivated with PO, had peaks characteristic features. The mass peak at m/z 3,061 was significantly down-regulated and new mass peaks at m/z 2,759, m/z 3,533 were determined. These changes are accompanied by the increase of Y. pestis EV NIIEG immunogenicity.

A minor theory of direct action politics and performance in New Orleans’ economic justice movement

In this paper, I develop a minor theory that blurs boundaries between prefigurative direct action and symbolic performance to reconsider strategies for resistance and world-building. Drawing on participant observation and interviews of economic justice organizers and activists in New Orleans in 2015, I examine two events through this minor theory: an immigration reform protest and a collaboratively written skit about income inequality. By emphasizing the performance of protest and the potential for protest through performance, I consider how these events empowered activists to make claims on spaces of the city, develop long-term embodied solidarities, disrupt dominant narratives, and en act more just alternatives. These events took place against the backdrop of intensifying racial and economic inequalities in post-Katrina New Orleans, following a long history of both repression and resistance in the city. Through performance-based direct actions, New Orleans’s economic justice movement moves beyond a reactive politics rooted in outrage and anguish toward a direct action politics constructive of a more just world.

Economic Analysis of Law and Protection of Economic and Social Rights

The article reveals the mechanism of ensuring human rights through the prism ofeconomic analysis of law and weighing of constitutional values. The relationship between the economicanalysis of law and the principle of proportionality as criteria for the protection of economic andsocial rights is to ensure a balance of private and public interests. The principle of proportionalityis important in defining the non-discrimination and guaranteeing equal access to social assistance.The first part reveals the role of constitutional justice in protecting economic and social rights.The Constitutional Court of Ukraine protects economic and social rights in accordance with theconstitutionally conforming interpretation of laws pursuant to doctrines of direct action and thehorizontal effect of human rights. The second part of the paper focuses on the role of administrativejustice in the protection of social rights, in particular in the light of the legal construction of humanrights. Finally, differentia specifica protection of the social rights on the example of the right tofreedom of choice of occupation and profession and the right to medical care are highlighted. Thedoctrine of the duty to protect orients the government first of all to provide the infrastructure forthe realization of human rights while respecting human dignity and to take negative and positiveactions to ensure human rights.

What is the Role of Vitamin D in the Severity and Control of Asthma in Children and Adolescents: a Protocol for a Systematic Review

Background: Vitamin D plays an important role in the immune system and consequently in the inflammatory process of asthma. It acts directly on the regulation of Th1 and Th2 cells and regulatory T lymphocytes. Evidence shows that vitamin D can act on dendritic cells, raising inflammatory mediators and increasing the imbalance between Th1, Th2, and Th17. Understanding the link between vitamin D and inflammatory processes in the control and severity of asthma is important for the existence of specific therapies. Objective: We aim to synthesize the scientific evidence about the role of Vitamin D in the control and severity of asthma in pediatric patients by a systematic review. Methods: A systematic and comprehensive search will be performed using MEDLINE PubMed, BIREME, EBSCOhost, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest. From the data obtained, all the articles found will be transferred to the Rayyan platform. Study selection will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses checklist (PRISMA-2020). Additionally, if sufficient data are available, a meta-analysis will be conducted.Discussion: The ability of vitamin D to act in the immune system with a direct action on the inflammatory asthma cascade, allows for a better understanding of the disease. This will lead to better asthma management, and, consequently, to help in controlling the disease. The conduction of a systematic review will bring better knowledge about vitamin D and its role in the pathophysiology of asthma Systematic review registration:This protocol has been registered in the PROSPERO and the registration number is CRD42021221638.

CASE STUDY OF A BAKER COMPANY: WHEAT STOCK MANAGEMENT EVALUATION

The goal problem of this work is to propose improvement of wheat inventory management of a bakery, applying the inventory management method “P” and opportunity cost analysis. The study makes historical analysis of the company and proposes the adequacy of the model in order to reduce waste and production inefficiency. The adopted methodology is the case study, because the author does not have direct action during the elaboration of the work. The study shows through the basic calculations of the management model literature “P”, in order to propose the adequacy. The improvement proposal involves new quantities and periodicities of purchase, showing the feasibility of the opportunity cost study, seeking to insert the company's management model to the proposed one.