Effects of a Nutritional Supplement (DiRelaxTM) On Anxiety in Dogs

This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of DìRelaxTM, a nutraceutical formulated to reduce anxiety in dogs. The CBARQ questionnaire, some clinical investigations, and the impossible task test were performed in dogs before and after the treatment. Results showed an ameliorative effect on the performances of treated dogs during the solvable phases, with a significant decrease of the time needed to solve the task. No behavioral difference was found between treated and untreated anxious dogs during the unsolvable phase. According to the results from the C-BARQ questionnaire, some of the behaviors appear improved. In general, this study suggests that DiRelaxTM can be safely administered with no adverse effects and can exercise a beneficial effect on anxious dogs by enhancing their cognitive abilities.

An Impossible Task? Reconciling Europeanism and National Popular Culture in Caliban (1947–51)

A kind of hybrid between high-profile political and literary periodicals and successful popular book digests targeted at a mass audience, the French magazine Caliban (1947–51) both tried to adjust to a fast-changing global marketplace and to defend a form of cultural legitimacy based on national claims against globalist domination. This article traces the evolution of the magazine’s editorial venture in relation to questions connected to the issues of modernity and mobility. In particular, it aims at examining Caliban’s implacable ‘anti-digest’ stance.

Saxophone Virtuosity: Manifestation and Effect in the Classical Saxophone Repertoire

<p>To ascribe the word ‘virtuosity’ to a single and absolute definition is an impossible task. It is a term that is multifaceted in its meaning and which is understood differently in a variety of contexts. This thesis investigates how the word virtuosity has been used in music discourse, and then considers virtuosity in three aspects of saxophone performance: altissimo, fast finger technique and soloistic roles. The application of these three aspects of virtuosity to the classical saxophone repertoire is then examined. Specifically, I examine the application of altissimo in Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera for Alto Saxophone and Eleven Instruments; fast finger technique in the cadenzas of Pierre Max Dubois’ Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra and Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra; and soloistic roles in classical saxophone orchestral repertoire. I also consider the relevance of the saxophone as a non-standard orchestral instrument to the notion of soloistic virtuosity. With these three aspects of virtuosity established, I explore the relationship between virtuosity and Claude Debussy’s Rapsodie for Orchestra and Alto Saxophone. This exploration first demonstrates how adaptations made to the Rapsodie can be seen to increase the virtuosic nature of the work. Second, it looks at how these adaptations could be contradictory to the composer’s intentions. Last, it considers the motivation and purpose behind these adaptations. The aim of this thesis is to disclose ways in which virtuosity may be understood in the context of the classical saxophone repertoire and how this understanding has affected Debussy’s Rapsodie in particular.</p>

Saxophone Virtuosity: Manifestation and Effect in the Classical Saxophone Repertoire

<p>To ascribe the word ‘virtuosity’ to a single and absolute definition is an impossible task. It is a term that is multifaceted in its meaning and which is understood differently in a variety of contexts. This thesis investigates how the word virtuosity has been used in music discourse, and then considers virtuosity in three aspects of saxophone performance: altissimo, fast finger technique and soloistic roles. The application of these three aspects of virtuosity to the classical saxophone repertoire is then examined. Specifically, I examine the application of altissimo in Jacques Ibert’s Concertino da Camera for Alto Saxophone and Eleven Instruments; fast finger technique in the cadenzas of Pierre Max Dubois’ Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra and Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and String Orchestra; and soloistic roles in classical saxophone orchestral repertoire. I also consider the relevance of the saxophone as a non-standard orchestral instrument to the notion of soloistic virtuosity. With these three aspects of virtuosity established, I explore the relationship between virtuosity and Claude Debussy’s Rapsodie for Orchestra and Alto Saxophone. This exploration first demonstrates how adaptations made to the Rapsodie can be seen to increase the virtuosic nature of the work. Second, it looks at how these adaptations could be contradictory to the composer’s intentions. Last, it considers the motivation and purpose behind these adaptations. The aim of this thesis is to disclose ways in which virtuosity may be understood in the context of the classical saxophone repertoire and how this understanding has affected Debussy’s Rapsodie in particular.</p>

Ronald Coase: Man and Theorem

The article focuses on the ideas and achievements of Ronald Coase, an outstanding economist. The review of his life and scientific achievements, which was timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Nobel Prize in economics being awarded to R. Coase, shows that they contain many paradoxes. Although Coase is known to be the most outstanding economist of the second half of the 20th century, he considered himself an «accidental» economist. Coase's scientific works are extremely few (in fact, only 2 or 3 articles belong to his «great» works). Although he is regarded the founder of neoinstitutionalism, the famous «Coase's theorem» was formulated by J. Stigler, and a systematic presentation of the neoinstitutional theory based on the transaction costs «discovered» by Coase belongs to O. Williamson. In a sense, with his life Coase managed to solve an impossible task that is to achieve maximum results at minimum cost. At the same time, Coase's attitude to institutionalism was ambiguous; both a critical attitude towards the «old» (coming from Veblen and Commons) institutionalism, and a sharp critical attitude to the «economics of the blackboard» typical for this direction can be easily found in his works. The dissemination of Coase's ideas in Russia also looks paradoxical. They were most relevant from a practical point of view in the early 1990s, but a broad creative discussion of his ideas (including the controversy about Coase's theorem) began only in the early 2000s, when the institutions of post-Soviet Russia have already «frozen» and their transformation through the correct application of Cousian ideas has become difficult.

A Learn-to-Rank Approach for Predicting Road Cycling Race Outcomes

Professional road cycling is a very competitive sport, and many factors influence the outcome of the race. These factors can be internal (e.g., psychological preparedness, physiological profile of the rider, and the preparedness or fitness of the rider) or external (e.g., the weather or strategy of the team) to the rider, or even completely unpredictable (e.g., crashes or mechanical failure). This variety makes perfectly predicting the outcome of a certain race an impossible task and the sport even more interesting. Nonetheless, before each race, journalists, ex-pro cyclists, websites and cycling fans try to predict the possible top 3, 5, or 10 riders. In this article, we use easily accessible data on road cycling from the past 20 years and the Machine Learning technique Learn-to-Rank (LtR) to predict the top 10 contenders for 1-day road cycling races. We accomplish this by mapping a relevancy weight to the finishing place in the first 10 positions. We assess the performance of this approach on 2018, 2019, and 2021 editions of six spring classic 1-day races. In the end, we compare the output of the framework with a mass fan prediction on the Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG) metric and the number of correct top 10 guesses. We found that our model, on average, has slightly higher performance on both metrics than the mass fan prediction. We also analyze which variables of our model have the most influence on the prediction of each race. This approach can give interesting insights to fans before a race but can also be helpful to sports coaches to predict how a rider might perform compared to other riders outside of the team.

Contrastive analysis of the two translations of Shota Rustaveli’s aphorisms into the English Language

Our article is an attempt to represent a contrastive analysis of the two translations of Shota Rustaveli’s aphorisms from his timeless epic poem The Night in the Panther’s Skin into the English language; those of by Marjory Scott Wardrop and Venera Urushadze. Our study revealed that though very conscientiously done, both translations lack the lustre and rhyme and rhythm of the poetry of the great poem and the compensation is often rendered on behalf of other stylistic or lexical devices; namely it is alliteration and consonance, parallel structures, in most cases. We have also come to realize that the second translation, by Ms. V. Urushadze is certainly greatly indebted to the first one for both: choice of wording and structure of a phrase. However, it should be noted that Ms. V. Urushadze took more liberty at rendering the aphorisms into English, making them more extended and stylistically more expressive. We hope our little study will be of interest to those individuals who are fascinated by translation challenges and especially that of almost impossible task– translation of great poetry.

How to choose tools and programs that are worth the investment

Making evidence-based decisions in schools seems like an impossible task when hundreds of activities are available, the evidence base fails to address most of them, and budget deadlines are immovable. In addition, different stakeholders hold different views on what it means for a program, strategy, or intervention to “work.” Fiona Hollands and Anna Kushner describe a 10-step decision-making framework developed in collaboration with practicing education decision makers to tackle these kinds of complex decisions. It is based on cost-utility analysis, which addresses two main questions: What resources are required to implement a program, and how useful or satisfying is each program to stakeholders?