Development of Plywood Binder by Partial Replacement of Phenol-Formaldehyde Resins with Birch Outer Bark Components

The apparent shift in climate has resulted in the pursuit of environmentally friendly bio-based products to reduce the carbon footprint. In the scientific literature, there are many attempts to make phenol-formaldehyde resins (PFR) more sustainable by using bio-based phenolics in the synthesis instead of petroleum-based phenol. However, it is also important to reduce the content of formaldehyde in the binder, the vapours of which are toxic and even carcinogenic to the human body. One of the technologically simplest solutions could be the incorporation of another bio-based wood composite binder into the completed industrial PFR. In turn, birch outer bark suberinic acids are an effective, ecological, thermosetting binder to produce mechanically durable and moisture-resistant wood composites. The aim of the study was to adapt the components of birch outer bark (suberinic acids and betulin-based extractives) for their incorporation into industrial PFR and to find the optimal degree of resins replacement in practical experiments. At the same time, to keep a similar level of the bending strength and moisture resistance (shear strength) of the plywood bonded with the modified binder compared to pure industrial PFR. As a result, it was found that it was possible to replace up to 30 wt% (dry basis) of the industrial PFR with birch outer bark components to obtain birch plywood without significant loss of the bending strength and moisture resistance. In this way, it would be possible to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of the synthetic PFR binder in the birch plywood industry by using birch processing residues.

Doing Torah, Imitating Yahweh: A Reconsideration of the Good Samaritan Story

Scholars often puzzle over why the discussion about Torah obedience in Luke 10:25–29 does not appear to fit coherently with the story of the Good Samaritan that follows it (10:30–37). Was this an oversight on Luke’s part, a lack of editorial finesse, or did he have other aims? In this paper, I will argue that the apparent shift in logic, marked by the transformation of the lawyer’s question from ‘Who is my neighbour?’ (10:29) to ‘Who acts as a neighbour?’ (10:36), invites the lawyer to realign his interpretation of Lev 19:18 with the theology of imitatio Dei already present in Leviticus 19: The one who properly fulfills Lev 19:18 does so by imitating Yahweh. Within the context of Luke’s Gospel, moreover, Luke 10:25–37 illustrates how Luke both affirms and expands the terms of Torah obedience such that proper fulfilment of the Mosaic Law requires a disclosure of and participation in the very nature of God.

Ocular foreign bodies: evolution of professional roles and public costs in Quebec

Purpose In 2003, Quebec optometrists were legally enabled to extract superficial ocular foreign bodies, with part of this service covered by the universal health insurance. This study analyses the evolution of roles for professionals managing this condition (optometrists, ophthalmologists, emergency physicians and family physicians) and the related public healthcare costs. Methods Data from the provincial health insurance were combined to demographic and annual healthcare workforce statistics. Across professions and sociosanitary regions, variations in annual rates of conditions treated were calculated, as well as variations in public healthcare costs. Linear regression slopes of these variations were used as indicators of linear trends. Results Between 2010 and 2016, the proportion of cases managed by optometrists increases from 32% to 44%, following a significant trend (p < 0.007). For family physicians, the proportion of cases managed decreases from 49% to 33%, following a significant trend (p < 0.0001). The increase in optometrists managing cases is visible in almost all sociosanitary regions, reaching +19%. A significant trend was observed for increasing healthcare costs for optometrists (p < 0.008) and ophthalmologists (p < 0.004) and for decreasing healthcare costs for family physicians (p < 0.001). In 2016, optometrists managed 44% of cases, representing 13% of related healthcare costs. Conclusion In Quebec, optometrists are now the professionals managing the largest proportion of superficial ocular foreign bodies, across the province. There is an apparent shift from the proportion of cases managed by family physicians, which have similarly decreased.

Closing the chapter: A case study of government communications preceding the 2008 apology to residential school survivors

This research examines the Government of Canada’s changing discourse in relation to the apology to residential school survivors in the two-year period leading to the apology, during which time the Conservative Government of Canada was in power. A combination of critical discourse analysis and grounded theory was used to analyze six key documents or statements related to the apology created from 2006 to 2008. This research seeks to identify themes in the discourse and consistencies throughout the two year time period, despite the vastly changing discourse. Findings reveal that themes present in the discourse leading up to the residential school apology are mostly consistent with those found in apology literature. Findings also reveal that the concept of “closing the issue” was consistent throughout the discourse, despite the Government of Canada’s apparent shift in stance on this issue.

Closing the chapter: A case study of government communications preceding the 2008 apology to residential school survivors

This research examines the Government of Canada’s changing discourse in relation to the apology to residential school survivors in the two-year period leading to the apology, during which time the Conservative Government of Canada was in power. A combination of critical discourse analysis and grounded theory was used to analyze six key documents or statements related to the apology created from 2006 to 2008. This research seeks to identify themes in the discourse and consistencies throughout the two year time period, despite the vastly changing discourse. Findings reveal that themes present in the discourse leading up to the residential school apology are mostly consistent with those found in apology literature. Findings also reveal that the concept of “closing the issue” was consistent throughout the discourse, despite the Government of Canada’s apparent shift in stance on this issue.

The Perils of Navigating Activity-Dependent Alternative Splicing of Neurexins

Neurexins are presynaptic cell-adhesion molecules essential for synaptic function that are expressed in thousands of alternatively spliced isoforms. Recent studies suggested that alternative splicing at splice site 4 (SS4) of Nrxn1 is tightly regulated by an activity-dependent mechanism. Given that Nrxn1 alternative splicing at SS4 controls NMDA-receptor-mediated synaptic responses, activity-dependent SS4 alternative splicing would suggest a new synaptic plasticity mechanism. However, conflicting results confound the assessment of neurexin alternative splicing, prompting us to re-evaluate this issue. We find that in cortical cultures, membrane depolarization by elevated extracellular K+-concentrations produced an apparent shift in Nrxn1-SS4 alternative splicing by inducing neuronal but not astroglial cell death, resulting in persistent astroglial Nrxn1-SS4+ expression and decreased neuronal Nrxn1-SS4– expression. in vivo, systemic kainate-induced activation of neurons in the hippocampus produced no changes in Nrxn1-SS4 alternative splicing. Moreover, focal kainate injections into the mouse cerebellum induced small changes in Nrxn1-SS4 alternative splicing that, however, were associated with large decreases in Nrxn1 expression and widespread DNA damage. Our results suggest that although Nrxn1-SS4 alternative splicing may represent a mechanism of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity, common procedures for testing this hypothesis are prone to artifacts, and more sophisticated approaches will be necessary to test this important question.

Queuing Analysis of Cloud Load Balancing Algorithms

The emergence of cloud-computing and the apparent shift to this new paradigm has led to the creation of data centres that consist of hundreds of thousands of servers. The Cloud is a distributed system that helps share data and provides resources to the users. The data and the distributed resources are stored in the open environment. This paper presents a model of cloud load balancing using queuing and probability theory. A queuing cloud model is discussed with load balancing perspective. We present analysis for two servers and then extended it to n server. In addition, an optimal strategy is modelled for cloud load balancing. The analytical results are verified through numeric simulation.

Changing Low Flow and Streamflow Drought Seasonality in Central European Headwaters

In the context of the ongoing climate warming in Europe, the seasonality and magnitudes of low flows and streamflow droughts are expected to change in the future. Increasing temperature and evaporation rates, stagnating precipitation amounts and decreasing snow cover will probably further intensify the summer streamflow deficits. This study analyzed the long-term variability and seasonality of low flows and streamflow droughts in fifteen headwater catchments of three regions within Central Europe. To quantify the changes in the low flow regime of selected catchments during the 1968–2019 period, we applied the R package lfstat for computing the seasonality ratio (SR), the seasonality index (SI), mean annual minima, as well as for the detection of streamflow drought events along with deficit volumes. Trend analysis of summer minimum discharges was performed using the Mann–Kendall test. Our results showed a substantial increase in the proportion of summer low flows during the analyzed period, accompanied with an apparent shift in the average date of low flow occurrence towards the start of the year. The most pronounced seasonality shifts were found predominantly in catchments with the mean altitude 800–1000 m.a.s.l. in all study regions. In contrast, the regime of low flows in catchments with terrain above 1000 m.a.s.l. remained nearly stable throughout the 1968–2019 period. Moreover, the analysis of mean summer minimum discharges indicated a much-diversified pattern in behavior of long-term trends than it might have been expected. The findings of this study may help identify the potentially most vulnerable near-natural headwater catchments facing worsening summer water scarcity.

Technical Aspects of Developing Chatbots for Medical Applications: Scoping Review

Background Chatbots are applications that can conduct natural language conversations with users. In the medical field, chatbots have been developed and used to serve different purposes. They provide patients with timely information that can be critical in some scenarios, such as access to mental health resources. Since the development of the first chatbot, ELIZA, in the late 1960s, much effort has followed to produce chatbots for various health purposes developed in different ways. Objective This study aimed to explore the technical aspects and development methodologies associated with chatbots used in the medical field to explain the best methods of development and support chatbot development researchers on their future work. Methods We searched for relevant articles in 8 literature databases (IEEE, ACM, Springer, ScienceDirect, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar). We also performed forward and backward reference checking of the selected articles. Study selection was performed by one reviewer, and 50% of the selected studies were randomly checked by a second reviewer. A narrative approach was used for result synthesis. Chatbots were classified based on the different technical aspects of their development. The main chatbot components were identified in addition to the different techniques for implementing each module. Results The original search returned 2481 publications, of which we identified 45 studies that matched our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The most common language of communication between users and chatbots was English (n=23). We identified 4 main modules: text understanding module, dialog management module, database layer, and text generation module. The most common technique for developing text understanding and dialogue management is the pattern matching method (n=18 and n=25, respectively). The most common text generation is fixed output (n=36). Very few studies relied on generating original output. Most studies kept a medical knowledge base to be used by the chatbot for different purposes throughout the conversations. A few studies kept conversation scripts and collected user data and previous conversations. Conclusions Many chatbots have been developed for medical use, at an increasing rate. There is a recent, apparent shift in adopting machine learning–based approaches for developing chatbot systems. Further research can be conducted to link clinical outcomes to different chatbot development techniques and technical characteristics.