Chemistry and Functionality of Cold-Pressed Macadamia Nut Oil

The rising trend in the consumption of healthy, safe, and functional foods has motivated studies on cold-pressed specialty oils, including macadamia nut oil. Cold-pressed macadamia nut oil (CPMO) is given preference by consumers over solvent extracted and refined oil because of its exceptional quality attributes and safety. This review contains a detailed presentation of the chemical properties, health benefits, and applications of CPMO. The monounsaturated fatty acids (oleic acid and palmitoleic acid) rich oil also contains a significant concentration of bioactive phytochemicals including, β-sitosterol, α-tocopherol, α-tocotrienols, ρ-hydroxybenzoic acid, and caffeic acid. Moreover, the oil has good oxidative stability. The highlighted properties offer CPMO health benefits related to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, and neurodegenerative diseases. The fatty acid composition of CPMO allows for its diverse application in the food, cosmetic, nutraceutical, and pharmaceutical industries.

An effective simulation- and measurement-based workflow for enhanced diagnostics in rhinology

Physics-based analyses have the potential to consolidate and substantiate medical diagnoses in rhinology. Such methods are frequently subject to intense investigations in research. However, they are not used in clinical applications, yet. One issue preventing their direct integration is that these methods are commonly developed as isolated solutions which do not consider the whole chain of data processing from initial medical to higher valued data. This manuscript presents a workflow that incorporates the whole data processing pipeline based on a environment. Therefore, medical image data are fully automatically pre-processed by machine learning algorithms. The resulting geometries employed for the simulations on high-performance computing systems reach an accuracy of up to 99.5% compared to manually segmented geometries. Additionally, the user is enabled to upload and visualize 4-phase rhinomanometry data. Subsequent analysis and visualization of the simulation outcome extend the results of standardized diagnostic methods by a physically sound interpretation. Along with a detailed presentation of the methodologies, the capabilities of the workflow are demonstrated by evaluating an exemplary medical case. The pipeline output is compared to 4-phase rhinomanometry data. The comparison underlines the functionality of the pipeline. However, it also illustrates the influence of mucosa swelling on the simulation.

Toyin Falola and Akintunde Akinyemi (Eds). Encyclopedia of the Yoruba. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2016. 371pp.

Encyclopedia of the Yoruba is a single-volume encyclopedia that is comprised of 285 entries of short essays written by 188 authors who are predominantly scholars and academic researchers from Africa, Europe and North America. The different word-ranges of the essays vary from 1000 words (for 78 entries) to 750 words (for 88 entries) and 500 words (for 119 entries). Across these entries, the encyclopedia gives a complex, yet detailed, presentation of the Yorùbá, a dominant ethnic group in West Africa and the most prominent African cultural population, identity and presence in the African diaspora including North America, the Caribbean and South America. It presents the Yorùbá with respect to their involvements in, and interactions with, different sociocultural experiences, practices and expressions by “emphasizing the peculiarities, features, and commonalities of the people” (xi). Following an alphabetical ordering, each entry in the encyclopedia is complete on its own as it examines and discusses a subject, subject matter, concept or topic that shares an affiliation with the Yorùbá world in time (the traditional past in all its distant and intricate temporal dimensions and the modern present in all its complex interrelations) and/or space (Yoruba homes across West Africa and the African diaspora. Such concentrations of the entry include persons/personalities, demographics, worldviews and cosmological values and elements, and several material and non-material aspects of the Yorùbá culture and folklore, and their corresponding affiliates. It is important to add that the completeness of the entries is considerably informed by the suitability of the word-ranges used. It is commendable that 358 Ibrahim A. Odugbemi the editors are able to determine the word-range that fits the discourse of every entry and the authors are also able to conform. By writing across the various word-limits, the authors have been able to give adequate information about their subjects of discussion. Each word-limit is moderate enough to convey the basic information on the subject or topic of every entry.

Weakly-Interacting Bose-Bose Mixtures from the Functional Renormalisation Group

We provide a detailed presentation of the functional renormalisation group (FRG) approach to weakly-interacting Bose-Bose mixtures, including a complete discussion on the RG equations. To test this approach, we examine thermodynamic properties of balanced three-dimensional Bose-Bose gases at zero and finite temperatures and find a good agreement with related works. We also study ground-state energies of repulsive Bose polarons by examining mixtures in the limit of infinite population imbalance. Finally, we discuss future applications of the FRG to novel problems in Bose-Bose mixtures and related systems.

Cultural Diversity and Peaceful Coexistence: A Reflection on Some Selective School Textbooks

Bangladesh adheres to the principles and values of respecting cultural, religious, and ethnic diversities and has enriched school textbooks for meeting demands of the society and preparing young generations as much as possible for future with adequate facts, well-known perspectives and diverse worldviews. School textbooks are one of the critical instruments of preparing young generations for future—with the values of respect, tolerance, mutual understanding, cooperation, unity, prosperity, partnership and humanity. However, sometimes textbooks could produce counter-productive outcomes if contents were not developed with well-thoughts and prudence. They also constitute a compulsion for a country to realise how the young children could be prepared with the values of maintaining and ensuring peace, accepting cultural diversity, and respecting the ethos of peaceful coexistence of multi-ethnic and multi-religious communities living in a society. As an elementary level effort, this paper has focused on some selective secondary level textbooks in Bangladesh to understand how the issues of cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence have been represented. There has been a plenty of textbook contents described and touched on the aspects of cultural diversity in various ways to enlighten students about pluralism and values of social cohesion. However, a more delicate and detailed presentation of some issues could help students socialisation process and of learning about respecting and accepting the diversity of all kinds better. Some more visual representations of diverse cultures and practices, and more practical tasks on valuing rights, dignity, tolerance, and empathy could benefit them further. Nonetheless, there is an essence of having skilled and qualified teachers who could play sincere roles in teaching such values in appropriate educational environments. Social Science Review, Vol. 37(2), Dec 2020 Page 59-86

Objectives in modern preschool programmes (curricula) in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia with the purpose of moral development of preschool children

In this paper, we analyze and compare the content of current preschool programmes (curricula) in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia through a detailed presentation of the goals of moral development and upbringing of preschool children in them. The research was performed using a descriptive method, and the content analysis procedure was applied in the paper. The results of the research, presented textually and tabulary, indicate that in the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Croatia in all three preschool programmes (curricula), there are goals related to moral development and upbringing of the child, but there are no specific goals of moral development, yet we recognize them within areas/aspects of child development, common educational goals, general goals, child welfare support goals or individual goals.

Management of patients with acquired valvular heart disease in noncardiac surgery

Valvular heart disease is widespread among general population, mainly in older age groups, who often require noncardiac surgery. As the population ages, the significance of this problem will only increase. The basic principles of perioperative managing such patients by a multidisciplinary team, necessarily including a cardiologist, are systematized and set out in international clinical guidelines, which are regularly updated. Currently, the Russian Society of Cardiology guidelines on management of valvular heart diseases are being prepared for publication. However, specifics of assessment and management of patients when planning noncardiac surgery require more detailed presentation for a cardiology practitioner.

A Review of Recent Advances in Fractional-Order Sensing and Filtering Techniques

The present manuscript aims at raising awareness of the endless possibilities of fractional calculus applied not only to system identification and control engineering, but also into sensing and filtering domains. The creation of the fractance device has enabled the physical realization of a new array of sensors capable of gathering more information. The same fractional-order electronic component has led to the possibility of exploring analog filtering techniques from a practical perspective, enlarging the horizon to a wider frequency range, with increased robustness to component variation, stability and noise reduction. Furthermore, fractional-order digital filters have developed to provide an alternative solution to higher-order integer-order filters, with increased design flexibility and better performance. The present study is a comprehensive review of the latest advances in fractional-order sensors and filters, with a focus on design methodologies and their real-life applicability reported in the last decade. The potential enhancements brought by the use of fractional calculus have been exploited as well in sensing and filtering techniques. Several extensions of the classical sensing and filtering methods have been proposed to date. The basics of fractional-order filters are reviewed, with a focus on the popular fractional-order Kalman filter, as well as those related to sensing. A detailed presentation of fractional-order filters is included in applications such as data transmission and networking, electrical and chemical engineering, biomedicine and various industrial fields.

What Can the EU's Response to the COVID Crisis Tell us About our Values?

Overall, the EU's response to the COVID crisis can be said to have been one of the most ineffective in the world, overshadowed only by the catastrophic response of the US and Brazil (at least on a per capita basis). Although, one can argue more about the effectiveness or morality of the measures, I would nevertheless, like to take a step back from these discussions and consider what the non-pharmacological interventions the EU has imposed reveal about our values. The main question is: What was the axiological framework on which the EU interventions were based? To provide an answer, I will compare the EU approach with South Korea’s approach in dealing with the pandemic. The former’s approach is a traditional approach, which mostly avoids the use of advanced data analysis and predictive analysis, focusing mainly on restricting free movement through social distancing and quarantine. This is complemented by tests, which are primarily diagnostic. The latter makes full use of the most modern methods, attempting to parallel the minimisation of the use of traditional methods of restricting movement with the minimisation of deaths caused by the virus. After a more detailed presentation of the methodologies of the two sides, I will consider what these modern methods entail and what would have to be sacrificed to use them. This will reveal that giving up confidentiality is the main cost that the European community should have offered in exchange for following the South Korean path. The analysis of the data will show how privacy and other values, such as economic prosperity, education, equality, freedom, mental health and ultimately life itself, were affected by the two strategies. Based on the evidence from the analysis I will conclude that privacy is more important to the average European than any of the other proposed values, including life itself.

On empowering the central bank with goals to stimulate economic growth

The specifics of the inflation targeting policy pursued by the Bank of Russia lead to the emergence of proposals to empower it with aims, goals or targets to promote economic growth. In the study, the feasibility of such proposals is considered from the point of view of targeting policy properties, arguments in favor of using growth indicators, the possibility of planning with multiple goal-setting conditions, and the impact on expectations. It has been established that the direct empowerment of growth targeting will only lead to the Bank’s claim that there is no opportunity to increase the growth rate. The imposition of the target value can be seen as the erosion of the independence of the Bank. The failure to coordinate goals (if they are set autonomously by the fiscal and monetary policy authorities) will lead to inefficiency. Planning in the context of multiple goals will return the Bank to a situation of dynamic inefficiency, evaporating the low inflationary expectations. The position of the Bank of Russia regarding assessments of potential economic growth and the ability to influence it needs much more detailed presentation than is currently declared in official documents.