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{
"title": "Robust H2/H∞-state estimation for systems with error variance constraints: the continuous-time case",
"abstract": "The paper is concerned with the state estimator design problem for perturbed linear continuous-time systems with H/sub /spl infin// norm and variance constraints. The perturbation is assumed to be time-invariant and norm-bounded and enters into both the state and measurement matrices. The problem we address is to design a linear state estimator such that, for all admissible measurable perturbations, the variance of the estimation error of each state is not more than the individual prespecified value, and the transfer function from disturbances to error state outputs satisfies the prespecified H/sub /spl infin// norm upper bound constraint, simultaneously. Existence conditions of the desired estimators are derived in terms of Riccati-type matrix inequalities, and the analytical expression of these estimators is also presented. A numerical example is provided to show the directness and effectiveness of the proposed design approach.",
"corpus_id": 3246170
} | {
"title": "On the positive invariance of polyhedral sets for discrete-time systems",
"abstract": "Abstract In this note, necessary and sufficient conditions for a polyhedral set to be a positively invariant set of a linear discrete-time system are established.",
"corpus_id": 119847414
} | {
"title": "Quantifier elimination for the theory of algebraically closed valued fields with analytic structure",
"abstract": "The theory of algebraically closed non‐Archimedean valued fields is proved to eliminate quantifiers in an analytic language similar to the one used by Cluckers, Lipshitz, and Robinson. The proof makes use of a uniform parameterized normalization theorem which is also proved in this paper. This theorem also has other consequences in the geometry of definable sets. The method of proving quantifier elimination in this paper for an analytic language does not require the algebraic quantifier elimination theorem of Weispfenning, unlike the customary method of proof used in similar earlier analytic quantifier elimination theorems. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)",
"corpus_id": 17360234,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Immunogenicity evaluation of DNA vaccines that target guinea pig cytomegalovirus proteins glycoprotein B and UL83.",
"abstract": "Vaccines are needed for control of congenital human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection. Although the species-specificity of cytomegaloviruses precludes preclinical evaluation of HCMV vaccines in animal models, the guinea pig cytomegalovirus (GPCMV), which causes disease in utero, is a relevant model for the study of vaccines against congenital infection. We investigated whether DNA vaccines that target two GPCMV proteins, glycoprotein B (gB) and UL83 (pp65), are capable of eliciting immune responses in vivo. After cloning each gene into an expression vector, DNA was delivered by intramuscular inoculation and by pneumatic epidermal delivery. In Swiss-Webster mice, anti-gB titers were significantly higher after epidermal delivery. After epidermal inoculation in guinea pigs, all gB-immunized animals (n = 6) had antibody responses comparable to those induced by natural infection. Viral neutralization titers ranged from 1:64 to greater than 1:128. A GPCMV UL83 DNA vaccine also elicited an antibody response in all immunized guinea pigs (n = 6) after epidermal administration. Immunoprecipitation and Western blot assays confirmed that immune sera were immunoreactive with virion-associated UL83 and gB proteins. We conclude that DNA vaccines against GPCMV structural proteins are immunogenic, and warrant further investigation in the guinea pig model of congenital CMV infection.",
"corpus_id": 43914
} | {
"title": "Guinea Pig Cytomegalovirus (GPCMV): A Model for the Study of the Prevention and Treatment of Maternal-Fetal Transmission.",
"abstract": "A major public health challenge today is the problem of congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) transmission. Maternal-fetal CMV infections are common, occurring in 0.5-2% of pregnancies, and these infections often lead to long-term injury of the newborn infant. In spite of the well-recognized burden that these infections place on society, there are as yet no clearly established interventions available to prevent transmission of CMV. In order to study potential interventions, such as vaccines or antiviral therapies, an animal model of congenital CMV transmission is required. The best small animal model of CMV transmission is the guinea pig cytomegalovirus (GPCMV) model. This article summarizes the GPCMV model, putting it into the larger context of how studies in this system have relevance to human health. An emphasis is placed on how the vertical transmission of GPCMV recapitulates the pathogenesis of congenital CMV in infants, making this a uniquely well-suited model for the study of potential CMV vaccines.",
"corpus_id": 6901934
} | {
"title": "Induction of Accelerated Aging in a Mouse Model",
"abstract": "With the global increase of the elderly population, the improvement of the treatment for various aging-related diseases and the extension of a healthy lifespan have become some of the most important current medical issues. In order to understand the developmental mechanisms of aging and aging-related disorders, animal models are essential to conduct relevant studies. Among them, mice have become one of the most prevalently used model animals for aging-related studies due to their high similarity to humans in terms of genetic background and physiological structure, as well as their short lifespan and ease of reproduction. This review will discuss some of the common and emerging mouse models of accelerated aging and related chronic diseases in recent years, with the aim of serving as a reference for future application in fundamental and translational research.",
"corpus_id": 248436754,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Trends in online social networking: adolescent use of MySpace over time",
"abstract": "MySpace has received a significant amount of negative attention from the media and many concerned adults, who point to several isolated incidents where predators have contacted, become involved with and even assaulted adolescents whom they met through the popular social networking web site. Furthermore, concerned parents have expressed discontent with the amount and type of personal and private information youth seem to reveal on their profile pages. In 2006, the authors performed an extensive content analysis of approximately 2423 randomly sampled adolescent MySpace profiles, and found that the vast majority of youth were making responsible choices with the information they shared online. In this follow-up study, the authors revisited the profiles one year later to examine the extent to which the content had changed. Though exceptions occur, youth are increasingly exercising discretion in posting personal information on MySpace and more youth are limiting access to their profile. Moreover, a significant ...",
"corpus_id": 30923115
} | {
"title": "Cyberbullying: Youngsters' Experiences and Parental Perception",
"abstract": "ABSTRACT This paper describes a survey on the prevalence and nature of cyberbullying of and by youngsters and the parental perceptions. Two questionnaires, one for youngsters and one for their parents, were sent to 1,211 final-year pupils of primary schools and first-year pupils of all levels of secondary schools and their parents. Pupils completed the questionnaires in their classroom, and parents completed them at home. The results show that about 16% of the youngsters had engaged in bullying via the Internet and text messages, while about 23% of the youngsters had been victims of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying seems to be a rather anonymous, individualistic activity, which primarily takes place at home. The most frequently used nature of harassments were name-calling and gossiping. Youngsters mostly react to cyberbullying by pretending to ignore it, by really ignoring it, or by bullying the bully. Most parents set rules for their children about the way to they should use the Internet but are not really c...",
"corpus_id": 16265289
} | {
"title": "Mr. DLib's Living Lab for Scholarly Recommendations",
"abstract": "We introduce the first ‘living lab’ for scholarly recommender systems. This lab allows recommender-system researchers to conduct online evaluations of their novel algorithms for scholarly recommendations, i.e., recommendations for research papers, citations, conferences, research grants, etc. Recommendations are delivered through the living lab’s API to platforms such as reference management software and digital libraries. The living lab is built on top of the recommender-system as-a-service Mr. DLib. Current partners are the reference management software JabRef and the CORE research team. We present the architecture of Mr. DLib’s living lab as well as usage statistics on the first sixteen months of operating it. During this time, 1,826,643 recommendations were delivered with an average click-through rate of 0.21%.",
"corpus_id": 51701858,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Fight for your breeding right: hierarchy re-establishment predicts aggression in a social queue",
"abstract": "Social aggression is one of the most conspicuous features of animal societies, yet little is known about the causes of individual variation in aggression within social hierarchies. Recent theory suggests that when individuals form queues for breeding, variation in social aggression by non-breeding group members is related to their probability of inheriting breeding status. However, levels of aggression could also vary as a temporary response to changes in the hierarchy, with individuals becoming more aggressive as they ascend in rank, in order to re-establish dominance relationships. Using the group-living fish, Neolamprologus pulcher, we show that subordinates became more aggressive after they ascended in rank. Female ascenders exhibited more rapid increases in aggression than males, and the increased aggression was primarily directed towards group members of adjacent rather than non-adjacent rank, suggesting that social aggression was related to conflict over rank. Elevated aggression by ascenders was not sustained over time, there was no relationship between rank and aggression in stable groups, and aggression given by ascenders was not sex-biased. Together, these results suggest that the need to re-establish dominance relationships following rank ascension is an important determinant of variation in aggression in animal societies.",
"corpus_id": 457674
} | {
"title": "Merging social hierarchies: Effects on dominance rank in male green swordtail fish (Xiphophorus helleri)",
"abstract": "When the same set of individuals are placed in different social contexts, some groups members often experience a change in dominance status. We examined the context-dependence of social status using a group fusion protocol in male green swordtail fish (Xiphophorus helleri). Six individuals were matched for size and separated into two groups of three fish. Each triad established a stable hierarchy after which time the two subgroups were merged into one larger assemblage. The maintenance of within- and between-group rank relationships was examined. Relative rank was preserved within each subgroup across social contexts but we found no evidence that familiarity with dominant animals assists individuals of one subgroup in achieving higher rank (coat-tail effects). Dominant individuals from the pre-fusion groups were significantly likely to obtain high status in the merged group and vice versa for subordinate pre-fusion animals. These results demonstrate that social rank in swordtails is relatively impervious to changes in social context, but we address some deviations from this trend. Small differences in standard length were a significant predictor of the most dominant rank in the post-fusion hierarchy, with the largest animals tending to occupy the alpha position. We discuss our results in terms of the potential factors involved in within- and between-group rank maintenance, including individual recognition, winner and loser effects, or asymmetries in dominance-related characteristics.",
"corpus_id": 16323375
} | {
"title": "Optimal pricing model for electronic products",
"abstract": "Electronic commerce encompasses all electronically conducted business activities, operations, and transaction processing. With the development of electronic commerce via Internet, during the past decade, many companies have changed the way they connect to and deal with their customers and partners. In this paper we introduce a Geometric Programming (GP) based model to analyze the pricing method and the service quality for E-business companies. The proposed method of this paper considers electronic products which are all kinds of products to be sold via web supermarkets. Therefore, they can cover pure digital and also non-digital products. The model proposed in this research work, deals with non-digital goods, which are supplied through web. The resulted non-linear model is directly solved by using Geometric Programming (GP) and a closed form of solution is presented. We assume that the demand is influenced by price, marketing and service expenditures. We also assume that the cost of production is affected by demand. We analyze the solution in different cases, in order to study the behavior of the model and for each case numerical examples are used to demonstrate the implementation of our analysis. The sensitivity analysis is also presented at the end to analyze the behavior of the model.",
"corpus_id": 1345864,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Molecular mechanisms of peripheral nerve regeneration: emerging roles of microRNAs",
"abstract": "MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs that suppress gene expression through target mRNA degradation or translation repression. Recent studies suggest that miRNA plays an important role in multiple physiological and pathological processes in the nervous system. In this review article, we described what is currently known about the mechanisms in peripheral nerve regeneration on cellular and molecular levels. Recently, changes in microRNA expression profiles have been detected in different injury models, and emerging evidence strongly indicates that these changes promote neurons to survive by shifting their physiology from maintaining structure and supporting synaptic transmission towards a regenerative phenotype. We reviewed the putative mechanisms involved in miRNA mediated post-transcriptional regulation and pointed out several areas where future research is necessary to advance our understanding of how targeting miRNA machinery can be used as a therapeutic approach for treating nerve injuries.",
"corpus_id": 830710
} | {
"title": "Knockdown of miR-155 protects microglia against LPS-induced inflammatory injury via targeting RACK1: a novel research for intracranial infection",
"abstract": "BackgroundIntracranial infection, one of the complications of traumatic brain injury, is usually associated with inflammation. Several microRNAs (miRNAs), including miR-155, have been reported to be critical modulators in peripheral and central nervous system inflammation. In this study, we investigated the role of miR-155 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced inflammatory injury in mouse microglia BV2 cells.ResultsThe expression level of miR-155 was significantly up-regulated after LPS stimulation in BV2 cells. LPS administration decreased BV2 cell viability, promoted apoptosis and increased the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines; while miR-155 knockdown rescued BV2 cell from LPS-induced injury. RACK1 was a directly target of miR-155. Interestingly, miR-155 knockdown did not attenuate LPS-induced inflammatory injury when RACK1 was knocked down. The mechanistic study indicated that miR-155 knockdown deactivated MAPK/NF-κB and mTOR signaling pathways under LPS-treated conditions.ConclusionsKnockdown of miR-155 protected mouse microglia BV2 cells from LPS-induced inflammatory injury via targeting RACK1 and deactivating MAPK/NF-κB and mTOR signaling pathways.",
"corpus_id": 4549482
} | {
"title": "13C-NMR Study of propionate metabolism by sludges from bioreactors treating sulfate and sulfide rich wastewater",
"abstract": "Applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to study a variety of physiological and biochemical aspects of bacteria with a role in the sulfur cycle are reviewed. Then, a case-study of high resolution13 C-NMR spectroscopy on sludges from bioreactors used for treating sulfate and sulfide rich wastewaters is presented.13 C-NMR was used to study the effect of sulfate and butyrate on propionate conversion by mesophilic anaerobic (methanogenic and sulfate reducing) granular sludge and microaerobic (sulfide oxidizing) flocculant sludge. In the presence of sulfate, propionate was degraded via the randomising pathway in all sludge types investigated. This was evidenced by scrambling of [3-13C]propionate into [2-13C]propionate and the formation of acetate equally labeled in the C1 and C2 position. In the absence of sulfate, [3-13C]propionate scrambled to a lesser extend without being degraded further. Anaerobic sludges converted [2,3-13C]propionate partly into the higher fatty acid 2-methyl[2,3-13C]butyrate during the simultaneous degradation of [2,3-13C]propionate and butyrate. [4,5-13C]valerate was also formed in the methanogenic sludges. Up to 10% of the propionate present was converted via these alternative degradation routes. Labeled butyrate was not detected in the incubations, suggesting that reductive carboxylation of propionate does not occur in the sludges.",
"corpus_id": 12103504,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Molecular Superbubbles and Outflows from the Starburst Galaxy NGC 2146",
"abstract": "We present results from a deep (1 � = 5.7 mJy beam � 1 per 20.8 km s � 1 velocity channel) 12 CO(1–0) interferometric observation of the central 60 00 region of the nearby edge-on starburst galaxy NGC 2146, observed with the Nobeyama Millimeter Array. Two diffuse expanding molecular superbubbles and one molecular outflow were successfully detected. One molecular superbubble, with a size of � 1 kpc and an expansion velocity of � 50 km s � 1 , is located below the galactic disk; a second molecular superbubble, with a size of � 700 pc and an expansion velocity of � 35 km s � 1 , is also seen in the position–velocity diagram; the molecular outflow is located above the galactic disk with an extent of � 2 kpc, expanding with a velocity of up to � 200 km s � 1 . The molecular outflow has an arc-like structure, and is located at the front edge of the soft X-ray outflow. In addition, the kinetic energy (� 3 � 10 55 erg) and the pressure (� 1 � 10 � 12˙1 dyn cm � 2 ) of the molecular outflow are comparable to, or smaller than, that of the",
"corpus_id": 7168446
} | {
"title": "Starburst-driven galactic winds — I. Energetics and intrinsic X-ray emission",
"abstract": "Starburst-driven galactic winds are responsible for the transport of mass, in particular metal-enriched gas, and energy out of galaxies and into the intergalactic medium. These outflows directly affect the chemical evolution of galaxies, and heat and enrich the intergalactic and intercluster medium. \n \n \n \nCurrently, several basic problems preclude quantitative measurements of the impact of galactic winds: the unknown filling factors of, in particular, the soft X-ray-emitting gas prevent accurate measurements of densities, masses and energy content; multiphase temperature distributions of unknown complexity bias X-ray-determined abundances; unknown amounts of energy and mass may reside in hard to observe T∼105 K and T∼107.5 K phases; and the relative balance of thermal versus kinetic energy in galactic winds is not known. \n \n \n \nIn an effort to address these problems, we perform an extensive hydrodynamical parameter study of starburst-driven galactic winds, motivated by the latest observation data on the best-studied starburst galaxy M82. We study how the wind dynamics, morphology and X-ray emission depend on the ISM distribution of the host galaxy, the starburst star formation history and strength, and the presence and distribution of mass-loading by dense clouds. We also investigate and discuss the influence of finite numerical resolution on the results of these simulations. \n \n \n \nWe find that the soft X-ray emission from galactic winds comes from low filling factor (η≲2 per cent) gas, which contains only a small fraction (≲10 per cent) of the mass and energy of the wind, irrespective of whether the wind models are strongly mass-loaded or not. X-ray observations of galactic winds do not directly probe the gas that contains the majority of the energy, mass or metal-enriched gas in the outflow. \n \n \n \nX-ray emission comes from a complex phase-continuum of gas, covering a wide range of different temperatures and densities. No distinct phases, as are commonly assumed when fitting X-ray spectra, are seen in our models. Estimates of the properties of the hot gas in starburst galaxies based on fitting simple spectral models to existing X-ray spectra should be treated with extreme suspicion. \n \n \n \nThe majority of the thermal and kinetic energy of these winds is in a volume-filling hot, T∼107 K, component which is extremely difficult to probe observationally because of its low density and hence low emissivity. Most of the total energy is in the kinetic energy of this hot gas, a factor that must be taken into account when attempting to constrain wind energetics observationally. We also find that galactic winds are efficient at transporting large amounts of energy out of the host galaxy, in contrast to their inefficiency at transporting mass out of star-forming galaxies.",
"corpus_id": 14820715
} | {
"title": "A flexible method for changing the transition temperature of polyurethane solid–solid phase change materials",
"abstract": "Transition temperature is significant in determining applications of phase change materials. In this paper, PEG2000 and PEG4000 were used as soft segments and MDI and 3,3ʹ-Dichloro-4,4ʹ-diaminodiphenylmethane (MOCA) were used as hard segments. Several polyurethane solid–solid phase change materials (PUSSPCMs) were synthesized by adjusting the mass ratio of PEG4000 and PEG2000. Based on the differential scanning calorimeter test, this paper studied the relationship between the mass ratio of PEG2000 and the phase transition temperature. The influence mechanism of phase change temperature was revealed from molecular structure, crystallization properties, and surface morphology. Furthermore, PUSSPCMs were tested for leakage and the thermal stability. The results showed that the synthesized PUSSPCMs had no liquid leakage during the heating process. There was a good linear relationship between the mass ratio of PEG2000 and phase transition temperature. The thermal decomposition onset temperature was above 230 °C.",
"corpus_id": 247232478,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Coal smoke and cigarette smoke.",
"abstract": "Air pollution from coal smoke brings to mind the grimy cities of the 19th century and the evils accompanying the industrial revolution. It was natural to assume that the polluted air was responsible for many instances of pulmonary disease and that the removal of coal smoke would greatly improve the health of the residents of cities with a heavy burden of air pollution. A remarkable reduction in air pollution from coal smoke has occurred in the past few decades. This improvement was related partly to the substitution of natural gas and oil for coal, and partly to government regulations limiting . . .",
"corpus_id": 2734011
} | {
"title": "Tar and nicotine delivery of cigarettes. What a difference a puff makes.",
"abstract": "WHEN smokers are asked what the tar and nicotine ratings of their cigarettes mean, they usually answer, \"You know, it's what's in the cigarette.\" Even though much epidemiologic research and many health recommendations 1,2 have become dependent on the published tar and nicotine yields (to say nothing of the dependence of cigarette advertising on these figures), many researchers and health professionals appear to have no better understanding of these ratings than does the average smoker. Cigarettes do not deliver measured doses of tar and nicotine the way a capsule delivers a measured dose of a drug. A cigarette that has only a few small puffs taken on it produces small amounts of tar. Tar and nicotine delivery are highly correlated; for the sake of brevity, only tar yields will be discussed. Tar values were analyzed to the first decimal place but are reported here with no decimal places, as they",
"corpus_id": 8510100
} | {
"title": "Using weather forecast data for irrigation scheduling under semi-arid conditions",
"abstract": "A new methodology based on the use of weather forecast data from freely and easily accessible online information for determining irrigation scheduling has been developed. Firstly, reference evapotranspiration (ETo) was determined with a user-friendly procedure that does not require previous local calibration, knowledge of data acquisition or processing, or a nearby weather station. The comparison of ETo based on short-term (same-day) and long-term (6-day-ahead) weather forecast data with measured data for 50 locations in southern Spain during 2013–2014 season indicated that differences in ETo were relatively low with root-mean-square error (RMSE) equal to 0.65 and 0.76 mm d−1, respectively. The procedure was tested for a wide range of weather conditions in the development of irrigation schedules and yield simulations for maize crop during 2013–2014 season. Irrigation water depths provided by irrigation schedules based on ETo obtained from daily and weekly forecasts and from measured data showed differences of around 1.5 and 0.9 %, respectively. Likewise, yield simulation with irrigation scheduling based on forecast and measured data provided equal averaged values, with a relative RMSE of below 5 %. This similarity of irrigation scheduling and yield estimation based on forecast and measured data has proved the optimal performance of the proposed approach.",
"corpus_id": 14163565,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Force health protection: essential element of combat readiness.",
"abstract": "Mosquito surveillance records from the US Army Public Health Command Region-West (APHCR-W) were georeferenced and made available online via the database mapping application MosquitoMap (www.mosquitomap.org). This article briefly reviews the history of the APHCR-W surveillance program and some characteristics of the resulting dataset, which numbers over 100,000 records mainly from US Department of Defense (DoD) facilities in the western United States from 1947 to 2009. The value of past and future DoD mosquito surveillance efforts can be increased by reporting the location of collection data in online spatial databases such as MosquitoMap. *http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/MeasuringVegetation/measuring_vegetation_2.php †http://phc.amedd.army.mil/topics/phcrspecific/west/Pages/default.aspx",
"corpus_id": 565898
} | {
"title": "The point-radius method for georeferencing locality descriptions and calculating associated uncertainty",
"abstract": "Natural history museums store millions of specimens of geological, biological, and cultural entities. Data related to these objects are in increasing demand for investigations of biodiversity and its relationship to the environment and anthropogenic disturbance. A major barrier to the use of these data in GIS is that collecting localities have typically been recorded as textual descriptions, without geographic coordinates. We describe a method for georeferencing locality descriptions that accounts for the idiosyncrasies, sources of uncertainty, and practical maintenance requirements encountered when working with natural history collections. Each locality is described as a circle, with a point to mark the position most closely described by the locality description, and a radius to describe the maximum distance from that point within which the locality is expected to occur. The calculation of the radius takes into account aspects of the precision and specificity of the locality description, as well as the map scale, datum, precision and accuracy of the sources used to determine coordinates. This method minimizes the subjectivity involved in the georeferencing process. The resulting georeferences are consistent, reproducible, and allow for the use of uncertainty in analyses that use these data.",
"corpus_id": 13629426
} | {
"title": "Prophylaxis and management of hamstring muscle injuries in intercollegiate football players",
"abstract": "Hamstring muscle strains were responsible for the loss of playing time of a significant number of football players at the University of Nebraska in the early 1970s. After the acquisition of a Cybex II isokinetic dynamometer, the number of injuries was noted to decrease. A retro spective study was performed over the period 1973 to 1982. Players in Group I, from 1973 to 1977, underwent a training program consisting of a supervised winter run ning program and self-designed year-long stretching, running, and weight lifting. Hamstring injuries were managed with rest, ice, and elevation initially and, by the third day, mild running was instituted. On the av erage, by the 14th day the athlete had demonstrated adequate speed and agility and was allowed to return to action. Group II consisted of players from the 1978 to 1982 period. These players received supervised winter running programs and staff-designed year-long stretching, running, and weight lifting programs. In ad dition, all athletes had baseline testing of hamstrings and quadriceps. Deficits were corrected to a desired ratio of 0.60. Injured players in Group II were treated with rest, ice, and elevation initially. High speed isoki netic workouts were begun on the third day with testing on the fifth day. They were allowed to begin jogging when the peak torque of hamstrings equaled 70% of baseline. Players returned to action when peak-torque reached a level of 95% of the baseline score or a hamstrings:quadriceps ratio of 0.55 or greater. Average time out of action was 2 weeks. Group I consisted of 534 player-years. There were 41 primary hamstring injuries with 13 recurrences. Group II consisted of 564 player-years. There were six primary hamstring injuries with no recurrences. It is concluded that isokinetic testing and rehabilita tion of muscle imbalances can prevent hamstring strains. Also, isokinetic testing of hamstring muscle injuries can prevent recurrences by ensuring the athlete has regained near-normal muscle strength before re turning to action. Isokinetic rehabilitation of injured mus cle can stimulate it to heal with higher tensile strength during the critical healing period resulting in less like lihood of recurrence.",
"corpus_id": 21053023,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "An Analysis of Encoder Representations in Transformer-Based Machine Translation",
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 53596423
} | {
"title": "Tree-to-Sequence Attentional Neural Machine Translation",
"abstract": "Most of the existing Neural Machine Translation (NMT) models focus on the conversion of sequential data and do not directly use syntactic information. We propose a novel end-to-end syntactic NMT model, extending a sequence-to-sequence model with the source-side phrase structure. Our model has an attention mechanism that enables the decoder to generate a translated word while softly aligning it with phrases as well as words of the source sentence. Experimental results on the WAT'15 English-to-Japanese dataset demonstrate that our proposed model considerably outperforms sequence-to-sequence attentional NMT models and compares favorably with the state-of-the-art tree-to-string SMT system.",
"corpus_id": 12851711
} | {
"title": "Teaching UAVs to Race Using UE4Sim",
"abstract": "Automating the navigation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in diverse scenarios has gained much attention in the recent years. However, teaching UAVs to fly in challenging environments remains an unsolved problem, mainly due to the lack of data for training. In this paper, we develop a photo-realistic simulator that can afford the generation of large amounts of training data (both images rendered from the UAV camera and its controls) to teach a UAV to autonomously race through challenging tracks. We train a deep neural network to predict UAV controls from raw image data for the task of autonomous UAV racing. Training is done through imitation learning enabled by data augmentation to allow for the correction of navigation mistakes. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our trained network (when sufficient data augmentation is used) outperforms state-of-the-art methods and flies more consistently than many human pilots.",
"corpus_id": 131773965,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Understanding the usage of mobile payment systems- The impact of personality on the continuance usage",
"abstract": "Payment convenience has benefited from the revolution in mobile technologies. M-payment users, however, seem inconsistent in their payment activity, resisting change from traditional payment methods. Ensuring consumer continuance of m-payment technology usage is critical to ensuring the ubiquity of m-payment solutions. Although research has examined the influence of individual difference on the acceptance of m-payment, most studies fail to consider whether ongoing acceptance is maintained by the user, or whether a change in perception occurs as a result of use. Moreover, current studies consider user demographic profiles to segment mobile users, yet this dismisses the impact of individual difference, e.g. personality or cognitive style. This paper proposes a model that can be used to investigate the impact of individual difference on user perception of m- payment systems. The Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model factors (i.e. effort expectancy, performance expectancy, social influence, facilitating condition, habit, hedonic motivation, price value, trust and perceived risk) allow capture of data relating to two use perceptions; pre- and postusage perception. The proposed model allows capture and comparison of pre-usage expectation and post-usage beliefs, allowing consideration of perception variance as a result of technology use. This model will be applied to gain a deeper insight into how to address users' satisfaction, acceptance, and continuance usage of Near Field Communication m-payment technologies.",
"corpus_id": 49404441
} | {
"title": "Towards Understanding of Factors Influencing User Acceptance of Mobile Payment Systems",
"abstract": "M-payments, which refer to payments over a mobile device, have not taken off as fast as predicted. Their slow adoption rates raise many questions about what drives consumer behaviour. The aim of this study is to find out what influences the user acceptance of a new system. The user is seen here as the key to acceptance of a new m-payment procedure, hence the focus on understanding their motivations and attitudes. To predict acceptance, Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been extensively used in information systems. This study is based on the belief that TAM needs to be expanded and customized to suit specific characteristics of mobile payments. This paper draws from prior studies that used TAM in fields related to mobile payments. Extensions of TAM in related fields are depicted. Analysis of suitability of various acceptance factors for mobile payments follows. The result of the analysis is a set of factors that are believed to influence the user acceptance of mobile payments: perceived ease of use, usefulness, mobility, cost, trust, and expressiveness. To measure each of these factors, multi-item scales using specific criteria are proposed. Further research will involve pilot study and possible improvement of the measuring scales, as well as further empirical validation of the model. The proposed model illustrates the level of fulfilment of each of the six acceptance factors in an m-payment system, and therefore predicts its adoption, as well as indicates areas of improvement.",
"corpus_id": 42906083
} | {
"title": "Combinatorial Energy Learning for Image Segmentation",
"abstract": "We introduce a new machine learning approach for image segmentation that uses a neural network to model the conditional energy of a segmentation given an image. Our approach, combinatorial energy learning for image segmentation (CELIS) places a particular emphasis on modeling the inherent combinatorial nature of dense image segmentation problems. We propose efficient algorithms for learning deep neural networks to model the energy function, and for local optimization of this energy in the space of supervoxel agglomerations. We extensively evaluate our method on a publicly available 3-D microscopy dataset with 25 billion voxels of ground truth data. On an 11 billion voxel test set, we find that our method improves volumetric reconstruction accuracy by more than 20% as compared to two state-of-the-art baseline methods: graph-based segmentation of the output of a 3-D convolutional neural network trained to predict boundaries, as well as a random forest classifier trained to agglomerate supervoxels that were generated by a 3-D convolutional neural network.",
"corpus_id": 6017788,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Does treatment with ARA-C in low dosage cause differentiation of leukemic cells?",
"abstract": "A series of 21 patients (5 refractory anemias with an excess of blasts in transformation and 16 acute leukemias) were treated with small doses of ARA-C (10 mg/sq m/12 hr for 15-21 days). Improvement was noted in 15 cases (71%) and complete remission observed in 12 (57%). Complete remission was obtained after one course of treatment in 8 cases. The fact that these patients entered remission relatively slowly and did not suffer marrow aplasia suggests that low-dose ARA-C may function in vivo as it does in vitro, i.e., by inducing differentiation of leukemic blasts.",
"corpus_id": 1489289
} | {
"title": "Different blocks in the differentiation of myeloid leukemic cells.",
"abstract": "Some clones of mouse myeloid leukemic cells (D(+)) can be induced to undergo cell differentiation to mature macrophages and granulocytes, and other clones (D(-)) could not be induced to differentiate to mature cells. Normal mature macrophages and granulocytes have surface receptors that form rosettes with erythrocytes coated with specific immunoglobulin or immunoglobulin-complement. The D(+) clones were induced to form receptors by prednisolone, cytosine-arabinoside, 5-iododeoxyuridine, actinomycin D, or serum from mice injected with endotoxin. All these compounds thus induced a common change in the cell surface membrane. The induction of receptors required protein synthesis, and receptors were formed before the appearance of mature cells. There were two types of D(-) clones. One type was induced by these compounds to form receptors, although with a lower inducibility than D(+) clones; in the other type there was no induction of receptors. The results indicate that there are different blocks in the differentiation of myeloid leukemic cells. Some leukemic cells (IR(+)D(+)) can be induced to form receptors and to differentiate to mature cells; others (IR(+)D(-)) can form receptors but not mature cells; and a third type (IR(-)D(-)) could not be induced to form receptors or mature cells.",
"corpus_id": 19886594
} | {
"title": "Type C RNA virus production and cell competence for normal differentiation in myeloid leukaemic cells",
"abstract": "STUDIES with various species have shown that type C viral genomes can be integrated and vertically transmitted as chromosomal elements within the cellular genomes (for review see refs 1–6) and that nucleic acid sequences derived from these viruses can be detected in the DNA7–10 of normal cells (for review see ref. 11). It has been suggested that in addition to their role in tumour formation, type C RNA viruses may also have a role in normal cell differentiation2,3. We suggest here that one way in which these viruses may influence differentiation, is by modifying the competence of cells to be induced to differentiate by a normal regulator.",
"corpus_id": 4198370,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Characteristics of Catalysts System of NGOC-LNT-SCR for CNG Buses",
"abstract": "The policy-making and technological development for the supply expansion of eco-friendly automobiles has been continuing, but the internal combustion engines still accounts for about 95%. Also, in order to meet the stricter emission regulations of internal combustion engines based on fossil fuels, the proportion of after-treatments for vehicles and (ocean going) vessels is gradually increasing. This study is a basic study for the post-Euro-VI exhaust response of CNG buses, and it is to investigate the basic characteristics according to Pd substitution transition metal effect, catalyst volume effect and space velocity. A catalysts was prepared and tested using a model gas reactor. The NGOC catalyst with 3Pd exhibited the highest catalytic activity with 22% at 300°C, 48% at 350°C and about 75% at 500°C. 3Co NGOC containing 3wt% of transition metal was excellent in oxidation ability, and it was small in size of 2nm, and the degree of catalyst dispersion was improved and de-NO/CO conversion was high. The volume of the NGOC-LNT-SCR catalyst system was optimal in the combination of 1.5+0.5+0.5 with a total score of 165, considering de-CH4/ NOx performance and catalyst cost. For SV 14,000 h , the CH4 reduction performance was the highest at about 20%, while the SV 56,000 h was the lowest at about 5%. If the space velocity is small, the flow velocity decreases and the time remaining in the catalyst volume become long, so that the harmful gas was reduced.",
"corpus_id": 155732242
} | {
"title": "Effect of alkaline precipitation on Cr species of Cr(III)-bearing complexes typically used in the tannery industry.",
"abstract": "Various organic compounds extensively used in the leather industry could influence the performance of alkaline precipitation with Cr(III). This study focused on two typical Cr(III)-bearing complexes (Cr(III)-collagen and Cr(III)-citrate) ubiquitous in tannery effluent yet with distinct treatment efficiencies, as Cr(III) was much more difficult to remove in the Cr(III)-citrate solution. Comprehensive analytical methods were employed to explore the intrinsic mechanism. It was found that a lower removal efficiency towards Cr(III) was significantly associated with higher oligomers. The molecular size of the Cr(III)-citrate complex continued to increase with rising pH, making it larger overall than Cr(III)-collagen species. The growing oligomer moiety of dissolved Cr(III)-complex species could persist in the stronger basic pH range, leading to the large amount of residual Cr(III) in the Cr(III)-citrate system. Combining this result with potentiometric titration and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy data, it was believed that the polymeric species other than monomers facilitated resisting the attack from hydroxide ions, and the postulated Cr(III)-citrate species towards higher oligomers were discovered. Beyond that, both charge neutralization and sweeping effects were presented among the gradually emerging flocs in the Cr(III)-collagen system together with the electric double layer compression effect derived from salinity, thus resulting in a larger floc size and higher Cr(III) removal efficiency in saline solutions.",
"corpus_id": 206670310
} | {
"title": "Adsorption of naphthalene by HDTMA modified kaolinite and halloysite",
"abstract": "The adsorption of the cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) by kaolinite and halloysite was studied. Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic studies revealed a change of the surfactant arrangement with solution conditions. Naphthalene was partitioned into the organic phase created by the surfactant tails of the HDTMA modified kaolinite and halloysite. The adsorption isotherms for naphthalene were nearly linear, suggesting that adsorption could be described by a distribution process. The distribution coefficients were primarily affected by the amount of surfactant adsorbed. Adsorption of naphthalene, however, was particularly dependent on the arrangement of the surfactant cations. At high surface coverage (e.g., >60% cation exchange capacity, CEC), the bilayer surfactant structure formed on kaolinite adsorbed large amounts of naphthalene. On halloysite, HDTMA formed surfactant clusters, and no prominent increase of naphthalene adsorption even at high HDTMA loadings was observed. Thus, the clay mineral structure and morphology had a considerable influence on the surfactant arrangement responsible for partitioning hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) such as naphthalene.",
"corpus_id": 93693116,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Tryptophan Indole-Lyase from Proteus vulgaris: Kinetic and Spectral Properties",
"abstract": "An efficient method for purification of recombinant tryptophanase from Proteus vulgaris was developed. Catalytic properties of the enzyme in reactions with L-tryptophan and some other substrates as well as competitive inhibition by various amino acids in the reaction with S-o-nitrophenyl-L-cysteine were studied. Absorption and circular dichroism spectra of holotryptophanase and its complexes with characteristic inhibitors modeling the structure of the principal reaction intermediates were examined. Kinetic and spectral properties of two tryptophanases which markedly differ in their primary structures are compared. It was found that although the spectral properties of the holoenzymes and their complexes with amino acid inhibitors are different, the principal kinetic properties of the enzymes from Proteus vulgaris and Escherichia coli are analogous. This indicates structural similarity of their active sites.",
"corpus_id": 1759944
} | {
"title": "Molecular basis of indole production catalyzed by tryptophanase in the genus Prevotella.",
"abstract": "Indole is most commonly known as a diagnostic marker and a malodorous chemorepellent. More recently, it has been recognized that indole also functions as an extracellular signaling molecule that controls bacterial physiology and virulence. The gene (tnaA) for tryptophanase, which produces indole, ammonia, and pyruvate via β-elimination of L-tryptophan, was cloned from Prevotella intermedia ATCC 25611 and recombinant TnaA was purified and enzymatically characterized. Analysis by reverse transcriptase-mediated PCR showed that the gene was not cotranscribed with flanking genes in P. intermedia. The results of gel-filtration chromatography suggested that P. intermedia TnaA forms homodimers, unlike other reported TnaA proteins. Recombinant TnaA exhibited a K(m) of 0.23 ± 0.01 mM and k(cat) of 0.45 ± 0.01 s(-1). Of 22 Prevotella species tested, detectable levels of indole were present in the culture supernatants of six, including P. intermedia. Southern hybridization showed that tnaA-positive signals were present in the genomic DNA from the six indole-producing strains, but not the other 16 strains tested. The indole-producing strains, with the exception of Prevotella micans, formed a phylogenetic cluster based on trees constructed using 16S rRNA gene sequences, which suggested that tnaA in P. micans might have been transferred from other Prevotella species relatively recently.",
"corpus_id": 5156967
} | {
"title": "Judicial Policy Making and Habeas Corpus Reform",
"abstract": "After Chief Justice William Rehnquist failed in his efforts to persuade Congress to reform habeas corpus procedures, a majority of justices on the Rehnquist Court used judicial decisions to reshape habeas procedures in a manner that made it more difficult for convicted offenders to have their cases successfully reviewed by federal judges. A purported justification for habeas corpus reform is to reduce the workload burden imposed by these cases on the federal district courts. A survey of U.S. magistrate judges, who bear primary responsibility for habeas cases in many district courts, reveals that judicially-initiated habeas reforms have not reduced workloads and, in fact, have increased the work required to process prisoners' petitions in many courts. Like judicial policy makers in other contexts, the Rehnquist Court justices failed to anticipate accurately the consequences of their habeas reform decisions, even though they were affecting policies within their own branch of government.",
"corpus_id": 154529758,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Weathercaster Views on Informal Climate Education: Similarities and Differences According to Climate Change Attitudes",
"abstract": "ABSTRACT Surveys have found that weathercaster views on climate change are diverse, with a large majority agreeing that climate change is happening but most remaining unconvinced that human activities are the principal cause. We hypothesized that these differences in climate change views could have implications for weathercasters acting as informal climate change educators, as well as for professional development training for weathercasters attempting to serve such roles. We asked weathercasters at a professional society meeting to provide brief statements on climate change and their roles to educate viewers about climate. We then pooled these statements for an online card-sort activity completed by 29 weathercasters and used network analysis to study the epistemologies of groups according to climate change attitudes. Despite different views on climate change, all weathercasters had a shared ethos for developing their climate change views through consulting observational data and multiple sources of information. Additionally, all weathercasters shared the concern that informal climate education focus on “the science and only the science.” Looking specifically at factual statements on climate change, all weathercasters classified the statement, “Climate is always changing,” as significant for informal climate education. However, there were differences in how weathercasters perceived the importance of changes in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 and how it relates to human activities. The implications of these findings are twofold. First, without interventions to empower all weathercasters as science communicators, the community may split into communicators explaining the contributions of human activities to climate change versus those who question it. Second, professional societies can play important roles to confront this schism through forums that address conflict, the science–policy interface, and scientific discussions around climate. By appealing to values and codes of conduct shared by all weathercasters, professional development activities can help them build confidence in making public statements about climate change as well as to develop appropriate conceptual scaffolding for relationships between human activities, greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and climate change.",
"corpus_id": 154674622
} | {
"title": "The impact of epistemology on learning: A case study from introductory physics",
"abstract": "We discuss a case study of the influence of epistemology on learning for a student in an introductory college physics course. An analysis of videotaped class work, written work, and interviews indicates that many of the student’s difficulties were epistemological in nature. Our primary goals are to show instructors and curriculum developers that a student’s personal epistemological stance—her ideas about knowledge and learning—can have a direct, causal influence on her learning of physics, and to describe a mechanism for this interaction. This influence exists even when research-based curriculum materials provide implicit epistemological support. For this reason, curriculum materials and teaching techniques could become more effective by explicitly attending to students’ epistemologies.",
"corpus_id": 9983058
} | {
"title": "Analysis of Temporal and Spatial Differences in Eco-environmental Carrying Capacity Related to Water in the Haihe River Basins, China",
"abstract": "With overly-rapid socio-economic development and population increases, water abstraction for agricultural, industrial and municipal use increases rapidly, while the water left for ecological maintenance decreases greatly. At the same time, large amounts of polluted water are discharged into rivers because purification plants are inadequate or not built in time, causing serious eco-environmental problems in the Haihe river basins which make regional development unsustainable. Estimating eco-environmental carrying capacity related to water is a key to curbing overuse of water and resolving eco-environmental problems. Because of different trends in water resources development and resultant eco-environmental problems in different sub-basins of the Haihe river, there are different water-related eco-environmental carrying capacities (EECCs) in these sub-basins. Time-series and multi-objective optimization methods are used to determine the EECC in various eco-environmental regions of the Haihe river basins, China. The results show that the entirety of the Haihe river basins will not reach a stable, sustainable state until about 2033, through gradual amelioration of eco-environmental problems. The various eco-regions of the sub-basins will need different lengths of time to reach their own stable states because of different available water resources, eco-environmental problems and social and economic development.",
"corpus_id": 154980927,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "A heuristic procedure for determining ordering and price-discount policies for commodities with two-period perishability",
"abstract": "Abstract In this paper, the problem of jointly setting order quantity of fresh items and discount price of one-period old items is modelled as a stochastic dynamic program for commodities that perish in two periods. It is solved using a heuristic procedure that decouples inventory decisions in any two consecutive periods by assuming a salvage value of leftover fresh items that is also the price paid for the entering stock of one-period-old items. For an assumed salvage value, the single period expected profit maximizing ordering - discount policy pair is identified. The m -periods planning problem is then solved by sequentially solving m single period problems. Numerical examples reveal some valuable insights about the inter-dependencies between order quantity and discount price. The percent discount is found to be insensitive to the assumed salvage value.",
"corpus_id": 154041516
} | {
"title": "An inventory model with single price break and convexity of cost function",
"abstract": "The paper considers inventory management of a single commodity for a dynamic risk model when one discount is available during procurement. The discount can be afforded if a known minimum amount of the product is procured. The orders are to be placed at the beginning of periods with instantaneous replenishment and backlogging is allowed. To find the optimal ordering policy a single period setup has been considered with strictly convex cost function in stock height (or order quantity) for fixed procurement price. Under this setup a theorem has been derived subject to the conditions that the cost function is increasing and optimal stock height (or order quantity) is non increasing in procurement cost when other factors are constant.",
"corpus_id": 125719754
} | {
"title": "On the Optimal Inventory Equation",
"abstract": "The purpose of this paper is to discuss a number of functional equations which arise in the \"optimal inventory\" problem. This is a particular case of the general problem of ordering in the face of an uncertain future demand. Actually, an important aspect of the problem is that of determining a suitable criterion of cost, one which is both realistic and analytically malleable.",
"corpus_id": 53867931,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Depletion of reduction potential and key energy generation metabolic enzymes underlies tellurite toxicity in Deinococcus radiodurans",
"abstract": "Oxidative stress resistant Deinococcus radiodurans surprisingly exhibited moderate sensitivity to tellurite induced oxidative stress (LD50 = 40 μM tellurite, 40 min exposure). The organism reduced 70% of 40 μM potassium tellurite within 5 h. Tellurite exposure significantly modulated cellular redox status. The level of ROS and protein carbonyl contents increased while the cellular reduction potential substantially decreased following tellurite exposure. Cellular thiols levels initially increased (within 30 min) of tellurite exposure but decreased at later time points. At proteome level, tellurite resistance proteins (TerB and TerD), tellurite reducing enzymes (pyruvate dehydrogense subunits E1 and E3), ROS detoxification enzymes (superoxide dismutase and thioredoxin reductase), and protein folding chaperones (DnaK, EF‐Ts, and PPIase) displayed increased abundance in tellurite‐stressed cells. However, remarkably decreased levels of key metabolic enzymes (aconitase, transketolase, 3‐hydroxy acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase, acyl‐CoA dehydrogenase, electron transfer flavoprotein alpha, and beta) involved in carbon and energy metabolism were observed upon tellurite stress. The results demonstrate that depletion of reduction potential in intensive tellurite reduction with impaired energy metabolism lead to tellurite toxicity in D. radiodurans.",
"corpus_id": 550461
} | {
"title": "Cyclic AMP Receptor Protein Acts as a Transcription Regulator in Response to Stresses in Deinococcus radiodurans",
"abstract": "The cyclic AMP receptor protein family of transcription factors regulates various metabolic pathways in bacteria, and also play roles in response to environmental changes. Here, we identify four homologs of the CRP family in Deinococcus radiodurans, one of which tolerates extremely high levels of oxidative stress and DNA-damaging reagents. Transcriptional levels of CRP were increased under hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) treatment during the stationary growth phase, indicating that CRPs function in response to oxidative stress. By constructing all CRP single knockout mutants, we found that the dr0997 mutant showed the lowest tolerance toward H2O2, ultraviolet radiation, ionizing radiation, and mitomycin C, while the phenotypes of the dr2362, dr0834, and dr1646 mutants showed slight or no significant differences from those of the wild-type strain. Taking advantage of the conservation of the CRP-binding site in many bacteria, we found that transcription of 18 genes, including genes encoding chromosome-partitioning protein (dr0998), Lon proteases (dr0349 and dr1974), NADH-quinone oxidoreductase (dr1506), thiosulfate sulfurtransferase (dr2531), the DNA repair protein UvsE (dr1819), PprA (dra0346), and RecN (dr1447), are directly regulated by DR0997. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analyses showed that certain genes involved in anti-oxidative responses, DNA repair, and various cellular pathways are transcriptionally attenuated in the dr0997 mutant. Interestingly, DR0997 also regulate the transcriptional levels of all CRP genes in this bacterium. These data suggest that DR0997 contributes to the extreme stress resistance of D. radiodurans via its regulatory role in multiple cellular pathways, such as anti-oxidation and DNA repair pathways.",
"corpus_id": 14771555
} | {
"title": "Reactive blending of thermoplastic starch, epoxidized natural rubber and chitosan",
"abstract": "Abstract Thermoplastic starch (TPS) was prepared by melt blending cassava starch and glycerol (70/30) at 140 °C. Chitosan (CTS) was incorporated during TPS preparation. The TPS/CTS sample was melt blended with epoxidized natural rubber (ENR) at 140 °C. In the TPS/ENR/CTS blend, adding CTS and ENR improved the tensile strength and elongation at break, respectively. Morphology of the TPS/ENR blend showed the dispersion of large-sized ENR particles in the TPS matrix. Adding CTS reduced the size of the ENR particles. Incorporating CTS also enhanced the melt viscosity of the blend, which suggested a reaction between CTS and ENR. FTIR confirmed that the amino groups of CTS reacted with the epoxy groups of ENR. This reaction between the CTS amino groups with the ENR epoxy groups improved the mechanical properties of the TPS/ENR/CTS blend.",
"corpus_id": 102462243,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Supporting phosphorus management in Austria: Potential, priorities and limitations.",
"abstract": "Protecting water bodies from eutrophication, ensuring long-term food security and shifting to a circular economy represent compelling objectives to phosphorus management strategies. This study determines how and to which extent the management of phosphorus in Austria can be optimized. A detailed national model, obtained for the year 2013 through Material Flow Analysis, represents the reference situation. Applicability and limitations are discussed for a range of actions aimed at reducing consumption, increasing recycling, and lowering emissions. The potential contribution of each field of action is quantified and compared using three indicators: Import dependency, Consumption of fossil-P fertilizers and Emissions to water bodies. Further, the uncertainty of this assessment is characterized and priorities for the upgrade of data collection are identified. Moreover, all the potential gains discussed in the article are applied to the reference situation to generate an ideal target model. The results show that in Austria a large scope for phosphorus stewardship exists. Strategies based exclusively either on recycling or on the decline of P consumption hold a similar potential to reduce import dependency by 50% each. An enhanced P recycling from meat and bone meal, sewage sludge and compost could replace the current use of fossil-P fertilizers by 70%. The target model, i.e. the maximum that could be achieved taking into account trade-offs between different actions, is characterized by an extremely low import dependency of 0.23kgPcap(-1)y(-1) (2.2kgPcap(-1)y(-1) in 2013), by a 28% decline of emissions to water bodies and by null consumption of fossil-P fertilizers. This case study shows the added value of using Material Flow Analysis as a basis to design sound management strategies. The systemic approach inherent to it allows performing a proper comparative assessment of different actions, identifying priorities, and visualizing a target model.",
"corpus_id": 4524043
} | {
"title": "Dietary strategies for reduced phosphorus excretion and improved water quality.",
"abstract": "Cost effective feeding strategies are essential to deal with P surpluses associated with intensive animal agriculture and the consequent impact on water quality. Reduction of P overfeeding, use of feed additives to enhance dietary P utilization, and development of high available phosphorus (HAP) grains have all been shown to decrease fecal P excretion without impairing animal performance. Much progress has been made, but more research will be needed to refine these strategies to maximize reductions in P excretion while maintaining animal performance. Recent research has focused on the impact of modifying dietary P on the forms of P excreted and the mobility of P in soils amended with these manures, with strong treatment trends becoming evident in the literature. In general, dietary strategies have been developed that can effectively reduce the total P concentration in manures produced, and combining strategies usually leads to greater reductions than individual practices. However, the impact of different approaches on the solubility of P in manures and amended soils has been more variable. Soluble P remains of particular concern due to links between solubility of P in manure and P losses from manure-amended soils. In this paper, we outline the major strategies for reducing dietary P in different species, review the literature on the impact of these approaches on P forms in manures and amended soils, and discuss the potential beneficial effects on animal agriculture and the environment.",
"corpus_id": 24898315
} | {
"title": "Origin of the Middle Pleistocene Transition by ice sheet erosion of regolith",
"abstract": "The transition in the middle Pleistocene (∼0.9 Ma) seen in δ18O deep-sea-core records from relatively low-amplitude, high-frequency (41 kyr) to high-amplitude, low-frequency (100 kyr) ice volume variations under essentially the same orbital forcing can be attributed to a change from an all soft-bedded to a mixed hard-soft bedded Laurentide ice sheet through glacial erosion of a thick regolith and resulting exposure of unweathered crystalline bedrock. A one-dimensional ice sheet and bedrock model which includes transport of sediment and ice by subglacial sediment deformation demonstrates that a widespread deforming sediment layer maintains thin ice sheets before the transition which respond linearly to the dominant (23 and 41 kyr) orbital forcing. Progressive removal of the sediment layer eventually causes a transition to thicker ice sheets whose dominant timescale of change (100 kyr) reflects nonlinear deglaciation processes. In model simulations over the last 3 Ma initialized with no ice and a uniform 50 m sediment layer the time series of ice volume and extent agree in several important aspects with the observed records.",
"corpus_id": 53572213,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "A cloud computing solution for sharing healthcare information",
"abstract": "In recent years, sharing healthcare information becomes one of essential requirements of e-health development. To cover this gap, different solutions are presented through different technologies. In this paper, we proposed a cloud computing solution for sharing healthcare information based on Google App Engine (GAE). With the experiment test results, we achieve interoperability among different healthcare centers and between healthcare providers and receivers with high stability and availability.",
"corpus_id": 16648999
} | {
"title": "Collaborative and secure sharing of healthcare data in multi-clouds",
"abstract": "In healthcare, inter-organizational sharing and collaborative use of big data become increasingly important. The cloud-computing paradigm is expected to provide an environment perfectly matching the needs of collaborating healthcare workers. However, there are still many security and privacy challenges impeding the wide adoption of cloud computing in this domain. In this paper, we present a novel architecture and its implementation for inter-organizational data sharing, which provides a high level of security and privacy for patient data in semi-trusted cloud computing environments. This architecture features attribute-based encryption for selective access authorization and cryptographic secret sharing in order to disperse data across multiple clouds, reducing the adversarial capabilities of curious cloud providers. An implementation and evaluation by several experiments demonstrate the practical feasibility and good performance of our approach.",
"corpus_id": 1164089
} | {
"title": "Real time traffic management using Internet of Things",
"abstract": "Many metropolitan cities are facing problems related to population explosion. These have leads to increase in vehicular density, resulting into traffic congestion. This variation in traffic Density hampers the speed of vehicles at the time of peak hours as well as regular time. The current infrastructures provides limited resources available to control of traffic congestion. To manage traffic flow real time traffic density management using IOT is used. It helps in optimization of traffic switching; controls traffic flow and prevent congestion's. These aspects are been made available on website to displays the traffic status, so that people will get early update and can avoid traffic jam and have alternative path. At time of Emergency vehicle can get early access to reach their destination.",
"corpus_id": 2312355,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "A feasibility evaluation on the outsourcing of quality testing and inspection",
"abstract": "Abstract This paper evaluates the feasibility of outsourcing testing and inspection activities in construction work, based on a survey of interested parties and an evaluation using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with experts on quality control. For the AHP, five criteria were adopted and a number of pair-wise comparisons were performed in two stages. Finally, the weighting coefficient to approve the outsourcing was calculated at 0.606, suggesting it more reasonable to permit rather than prohibit outsourcing. Outsourcing of testing/inspection is necessary to enhance the objectivity and expert skill, despite the reduction in the sense of responsibility among the testing technicians and inspectors. However, to initiate outsourcing, it is necessary to first separate the ‘quality testing and inspection’ activities from the ‘quality control’ activities at the job site. Furthermore, the project owner should preferably make the decision to outsource testing and inspection activities and select the testing agency.",
"corpus_id": 485415
} | {
"title": "Construction quality management - present and future",
"abstract": "This paper reviews past work in construction quality management by examining its major components in the context of a study framework derived from ISO 9000. Emphasis is placed on determining the state-of-the-art and exploring the roles that information technology already plays as well as could play in improving the quality management function. The authors elaborate on several dimensions of the quality management view of a project in terms of how it would interact with the physical, process, cost, and as-built views of a project, which are essential to the quality management function as well as to other project management functions. This is done in a way that reflects the authors' vision of the kind of support that a computer system could offer for the tasks of identifying, predicting, analyzing, and solving quality problems in a preventive mode.Key words: construction quality management, ISO 9000, problem prevention, problem prediction, computer system.",
"corpus_id": 108761727
} | {
"title": "Hot Mix Asphalt Materials, Mixture Design and Construction",
"abstract": "This book was prepared as a textbook to assist the college professor in providing technical information on Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) to engineering students. It covers most topics important to those who plan to work in the HMA industry and can be used for teaching undergraduate as well as graduate courses. The book is also useful to the practicing engineer who is to some extent involved with HMA. It is organized in nine chapters as follows: (1) Introduction; (2) Asphalt Refining, Uses, and Properties; (3) Aggregates; (4) Hot Mix Asphalt Mixture Design Methodology; (5) Characterization of Asphalt Mixtures; (6) Equipment and Construction; (7) Special Mixtures, Recycling, and Additives; (8) Performance/Distress of HMA; and (9) Maintenance, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction of HMA. An Index is provided.",
"corpus_id": 107359980,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Blue-Phase Liquid Crystals for Reflective Projection Displays",
"abstract": "A reflective projection display based on blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) is proposed. The fast response time of BPLC enables color sequential projection display while suppressing color breakup. Methods for reducing the operation voltage of BPLC are also discussed.",
"corpus_id": 1988444
} | {
"title": "Fast-Response Blue-Phase Liquid Crystal for Color-Sequential Projection Displays",
"abstract": "Color sequential projection display using a vertical field switching (VFS) polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) is proposed. The VFS-BPLC exhibits submillisecond response time which is useful for suppressing color breakup. The proposed projector also has a small throw ratio. With phase compensation, the distortion from oblique LC panel could be corrected.",
"corpus_id": 6409318
} | {
"title": "Alignment layer effects on thin liquid crystal cells",
"abstract": "Factors affecting the thin cell performance of a liquid crystal cell are analyzed. Examples based on vertically aligned thin cells are given to illustrate these effects. When the cell gap is below ∼2μm, the liquid crystal alignment material, layer thickness, and anchoring energy all play important roles. The first two factors affect the threshold and on-state voltage, while the last one affects the operating voltage and response time. Three reflective liquid crystal cells are studied experimentally. Good agreement between experiment and theory is obtained.",
"corpus_id": 122051802,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "벼교광고 효과에 관한 모형의 개발",
"abstract": "요 약〉 국내에서 비교광고가 광고업계의 관심의 대상이 되고 광고학계의 주요 연구주제로 등장 한 것은 최근의 일이다. 즉 비교광고가 실제로 비비교광고보다 더 효과적인지, 만약 효과적 이라면 어떤 상황에서 더 효과적인지를 규명하고자 하는 노력들이 시도되었다. 이런 배경하 에서 연구자들은, 국내외 선행 연구결과와 전문가들의 의견을 기초로 하여, 비교광고 효과에 영향을 미치는 기본적이며, 실질적인 요인들을 파악하고 아울러 비교광고에 대한 청중들의 반응체계를 탐색하고자 하였다. 본 연구의 목적을 요약하면 비교광고의 효과체계 및 영향요 인들을 설명하는 개념적 모형과 이에 따른 연구과제를 설정하는 것이다. 연구자들이 관심을 가진 주요 영향요인들은 광고메시지 특성인 메시지의 비교강도와 제시유형, 제품특성인 제 품관여도, 그리고 청중특성인 성별과 가치관이었다. 비교광고의 효과체계로는 인지적 차원의 메시지 회상도, 신뢰성, 정보성, 반론의 정도, 감정적 차원의 광고 태도, 브랜드 태도, 그리고 행동적 차원의 구매의사와 같은 변수로 구성되었다. 이런 모형의 개발은 비교광고에 대한 이해의 폭을 넓히고, 비교광고 제작에 관련된 실무적 도움이 될 수 있을 것이며, 장래 보다 정교한 이론 및 모형의 개발과 실증연구의 기초자료로 활용될 수 있으리라 기대된다.",
"corpus_id": 155695079
} | {
"title": "The Effects of Comparative Advertising Mediated by Market Position of Sponsoring Brand",
"abstract": "Abstract An experimental test of the relative effectiveness of comparative and non-comparative advertising was performed. Mock print ads for fast food chains were constructed and presented to respondents in a simulated magazine mode. The market position of the sponsoring brand was manipulated in both comparative and non-comparative formats. Multiple criterion variables were operationalized corresponding to all stages of the hierarchy-of-effects paradigm. On balance, for the nine hypotheses tested, results revealed that non-comparative advertising was demonstrably more effective than comparative advertising.",
"corpus_id": 154548444
} | {
"title": "On the correlation functions of the special operators in c = 1 quantum gravity",
"abstract": "Abstract We analyze the special operators that occur for discrete momenta in c = 1 conformal field theory coupled to quantum gravity using matrix model techniques. Recursion relations for the correlation functions of the zero-momentum operators are derived. The recursion relations are shown to represent a Virasoro algebra. Two-point functions for non-zero momentum are calculated. We identify the matrix model operators that excite the special states. The results are compared with Liouville theory.",
"corpus_id": 123143611,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Cross-domain Semantic Parsing via Paraphrasing",
"abstract": "Existing studies on semantic parsing mainly focus on the in-domain setting. We formulate cross-domain semantic parsing as a domain adaptation problem: train a semantic parser on some source domains and then adapt it to the target domain. Due to the diversity of logical forms in different domains, this problem presents unique and intriguing challenges. By converting logical forms into canonical utterances in natural language, we reduce semantic parsing to paraphrasing, and develop an attentive sequence-to-sequence paraphrase model that is general and flexible to adapt to different domains. We discover two problems, small micro variance and large macro variance, of pre-trained word embeddings that hinder their direct use in neural networks, and propose standardization techniques as a remedy. On the popular Overnight dataset, which contains eight domains, we show that both cross-domain training and standardized pre-trained word embeddings can bring significant improvement.",
"corpus_id": 2439226
} | {
"title": "Semantic Parsing Freebase: Towards Open-domain Semantic Parsing",
"abstract": "Existing semantic parsing research has steadily improved accuracy on a few domains and their corresponding databases. This paper introduces FreeParser, a system that trains on one domain and one set of predicate and constant symbols, and then can parse sentences for any new domain, including sentences that refer to symbols never seen during training. FreeParser uses a domain-independent architecture to automatically identify sentences relevant to each new database symbol, which it uses to supplement its manually-annotated training data from the training domain. In cross-domain experiments involving 23 domains, FreeParser can parse sentences for which it has seen comparable unannotated sentences with an F1 of 0.71.",
"corpus_id": 8674440
} | {
"title": "Landmark image classification using 3D point clouds",
"abstract": "Most of the existing approaches for landmark image classification utilize either holistic features or interest of points in the whole image to train the classification model, which may lead to unsatisfactory result due to involvement of much information non-located on the landmark in the training process. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to improve landmark image classification result via a process of 2D to 3D reconstruction and 3D to 2D projection of iconic landmark images. Particularly, we first select iconic images from labeled landmark image collections to reconstruct a 3D landmark represented in point clouds. Then, 3D point clouds are projected back onto the same iconic images to obtain the landmark-region of each iconic image and subsequently extract SIFT features from the landmark-region to construct a k-dimensional tree (kd-tree) for each landmark. This process is able to filter out noise points corresponding to clutter background and non-landmark objects in the iconic images. Finally, the unlabeled images can be classified into predefined landmark categories based on the amount of matched feature points between the image features and the kd-trees. The experimental result and comparison with the state-of-the-art demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.",
"corpus_id": 8058806,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Fast construction of plant architectural models based on substructure decomposition",
"abstract": "Plant structure, representing the physical link among different organs, includes many similar substructures. In this paper, a new method is presented to construct plant architectural models of most plant species. The plant structure is decomposed into a stem, a set of lateral substructures and a terminal substructure, which is called substructure decomposition; then based on substructure decomposition, the plant structures are expressed in an iterative way; and further the derivative formula is employed to compute the number of organs in plant structures to get the geometrical sizes of 3D plant organs by borrowing Hydraulic Model. Using 3D organs, a substructure library is built. Based on the substructures stored in substructure library, one can construct 3D plant structure according to certain topological and geometrical rules. The experiments with different plant species are included in this paper to demonstrate the validity of the new method for constructing plant structures. The experimental results show that the approach follows botanical knowledge with high efficiency in constructing plant structures of most plant species. In addition, this method enables users to check the detail information of plant structure.",
"corpus_id": 8723829
} | {
"title": "AMAPstudio: A software suite for plants architecture modelling",
"abstract": "AMAPstudio is a user-friendly software suite designed for botanists and agronomists to edit, visualize, explore and simulate multi-scale plant architecture. It contains interactive tools to handle the topology (e.g. organs addition or deletion), the geometry (e.g. 3D selection, edition, rotation) and the dynamics (i.e. time line, scenarios) of plants at the individual or scene scale. AMAPstudio is based on the Multi-scale Tree Graph (MTG) data structure, which is commonly used to represent plant topology. Users can explore this data structure to test or to improve hypotheses on plant development. Specific data can be extracted with combinations of criteria and can be visualized in tables and graphs. Simple analysis functions can be launched or data can be exported to external tools, e.g. R, or any other statistical computing environment, for more specific analyses. AMAPstudio is also a framework in which modellers can integrate their own plant simulation models. Different scenarios can be computed for a growth model by interactively modifying model parameters or plant structure (e.g. by pruning) at particular time steps.",
"corpus_id": 8229472
} | {
"title": "The Pall Ultipor Breathing Circuit Filter—An Efficient Heat and Moisture Exchanger",
"abstract": "The Pall bacterial filter was tested as a potential heat and moisture exchanger on a model patient, placed on a circle absorber system, and clinically. The laboratory study was conducted during mechanical ventilation at a V of 6 L/min with fresh gas inflows of 1,3 and 6 L/min. The model patient introduced carbon dioxide into the circuitry at a rate of 200 ml/min. The resistance of the filter was tested before and after each experiment. With all fresh gas inflows, absolute humidity increased from around 19 mg H2O/L at the start of experimentation to about 27 mg H2O/L within 30 mm. Maximum humidities reached were 28 ± 0.7 mg H2O/L, 27.6 ± 0.5 mg H2O/L, and 27.7 ± 0.5 mg H2O/L within 3 hr, with fresh gas inflows of 1, 3, and 6 L/min, respectively. Variations in inspired humidity were also assessed at minute volumes of 4 and 5 L/min with fresh gas inflows of 6 and 3 L/min. Increases in percent dead space were negligible when the filter was inserted between the model patients (assumed to weigh between 70–40 kg) and the circuit. There was no statistically significant increase in pressure with gas flows of 50 L/min when the instrument was dry (0.02 ± 0.001 cm H2O/L-min−1) or when it was wet (0.02 ± 0.002 cm HzO/L-min−1). The clinical study was conducted on ten adult anesthetized patients breathing through the bacterial filter and ten controls. The loss of body temperature was 0.2°C when the filter was used and 1.5°C when the filter was not used. Arterial blood gas tensions were within normal limits when the bacterial filter was used as a humidifier.",
"corpus_id": 683461,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Relevant baseline characteristics for describing patients with knee osteoarthritis: results from a Delphi survey",
"abstract": "BackgroundInclusion/exclusion criteria and baseline characteristics are essential for assessing the applicability of trial results to a given patient and the comparability of study populations for meta-analyses. This Delphi survey aimed to generate a set of baseline characteristics for describing patients with knee osteoarthritis enrolled in clinical studies.MethodsSurvey participants comprised clinical experts (n = 23; mean age 54 y; from 4 continents) that had authored at least two randomized trials on knee osteoarthritis. First, given a prepared list of baseline patient characteristics, the experts were asked to add characteristics they considered important for assessing comparability of patient populations in different trials that evaluated the efficacy of non-surgical interventions for treating knee osteoarthritis. Next, they were asked to rate the importance of each characteristic, on a scale of 0 (not important) to 10 (highly important), according to three outcome categories: pain, function, and structure.ResultsParticipants identified 121 baseline characteristics. A rating ≥7 points was assigned to 39 characteristics (e.g., age, depression, global knee pain, daily dose of pain killers, Kellgren-Lawrence grading); of these, 20 were related to pain, 15 to function, and 23 to structural outcomes. Global knee pain was the only baseline characteristic that fulfilled among experts the predefined consensus criteria.ConclusionsExperts identified a large number of characteristics for describing patients with knee osteoarthritis. Disagreement and uncertainty prevailed over the relevance of these characteristics. Our findings justified further efforts to define appropriate, broadly acceptable sets of baseline characteristics for describing patients with knee osteoarthritis.",
"corpus_id": 253461
} | {
"title": "El método Delphi en la investigación en reumatología: ¿lo estamos haciendo bien?",
"abstract": "Resumen Introduccion El metodo Delphi es una tecnica que permite llegar al consenso en un grupo de expertos que opinan sobre un asunto especifico. Se ha usado ampliamente en diferentes areas del conocimiento, entre ellas las ciencias de la salud. La reumatologia es una de las especialidades medicas que mas ha empleado esta tecnica de consenso. Objetivos Realizar una revision del proceso ideal que debe cumplir la aplicacion del metodo Delphi. Describir el impacto actual del metodo Delphi en la investigacion en salud y hacer una mirada critica a su aplicacion en la investigacion en reumatologia. Materiales y metodos Se evaluo la frecuencia del uso del metodo Delphi en las publicaciones indexadas en MEDLINE como una aproximacion a la medicion de su empleo en ciencias de la salud. Se realizo una busqueda de los articulos que reportan el uso del metodo Delphi como metodo de investigacion en el area de reumatologia. Resultados Al realizar una busqueda en Medline usando el termino MeSH Delphi Technique se encontraron 4.574 articulos. Se incluyeron 148 articulos que aplicaron el metodo Delphi en investigacion de reumatologia. Se encontro que la aplicacion del metodo no ha seguido los lineamientos definidos originalmente, ya sea tanto por no cumplir sus caracteristicas definitorias u omitir alguna de sus fases, como por la falta de rigurosidad en el desarrollo de las mismas, hasta tal punto que solo una quinta parte de los articulos analizados cumplia las caracteristicas definitorias del metodo, lo que puede poner en riesgo la validez de los resultados reportados por estas investigaciones. Conclusiones El uso del metodo Delphi en investigacion en salud es cada vez mayor, y la reumatologia no es la excepcion. La no estandarizacion y el apego a la metodologia Delphi puede poner en riesgo la validez de los resultados que se obtienen de su uso en investigacion. Los investigadores deben tener en cuenta los aspectos metodologicos basicos que definen el metodo Delphi para incluirlos en sus trabajos.",
"corpus_id": 198539271
} | {
"title": "Polish Adolescents’ Perceptions of English and Their Desire to Learn It",
"abstract": "In the process of foreign language learning the way in which students perceive the language may have a strong facilitative impact on their language acquisition process, especially when this perception is positive (Despagne, 2010). Unfortunately, it has not yet been clearly established whether the relationship between perceptions and foreign language achievement can be explained by the moderating power of the student’s desire to learn the foreign language. For the purpose of this paper it is hypothesized that the learner’s perception of the foreign language is strongly related to the desire to learn it, leading to higher achievement in cases of positive perception. In order to corroborate this hypothesis, 609 secondary grammar school students responded to a questionnaire including Kissau’s scales of Perception of English (2006) and Desire to Learn English. The results of the study show that students who have a negative perception of English do not feel a need to learn it, and vice versa. This finding supports the view that a positive perception of a foreign language induces a greater desire to learn it. In the case of English the reasons for this opinion can be traced back to the overpowering dominance of English as a lingua franca. Moreover, positive perceptions of a language are connected with higher final grades, owing to the social impact of this form of assessment. However, self-perceived levels of foreign language skills appear to be unrelated to perceptions of English. This result can be traced back to the effects of institutionalized learning, as well as the clash between the school reality and mythologized allure of this language.",
"corpus_id": 148237607,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Panoramic stereo representation for immersive projection display system",
"abstract": "In this paper, the panoramic stereo images are produced from the real environment using a digital camera and a panoramic tripod head. And they are applied to the CAVE system as panoramic stereo background to increase user's immersion. The images for left and right eye are taken and stitched separately for stereo imaging. Finally the stereo backgrounds are constructed using the virtual sphere surrounding CAVE.",
"corpus_id": 881348
} | {
"title": "Omnistereo for panoramic virtual environment display systems",
"abstract": "This paper discusses the use of omnidirectional stereo for panoramic virtual environments. It presents two methods for real-time rendering of omnistereo images. Conventional perspective stereo is correct everywhere in the visual field, but only in one view direction. Omnistereo is correct in every view direction, but only in the center of the visual field, degrading in the periphery. Omnistereo images make it possible to use wide field of view virtual environment display systems-like the CAVE/spl trade/-without head tracking, and still show correct stereoscopic depth over the full 360/spl deg/ viewing circle. This allows the use of these systems as true multi-user displays, where viewers can look around and browse a panoramic scene independently. Because there is no need to rerender the image according to view direction, we can also use this technique to present static omnistereo images, generated by offline rendering or real image capture, in panoramic displays. We have implemented omnistereo in a four-sided CAVE/spl trade/ and in a 240/spl deg/ i-Con/spl trade/ curved screen projection system. Informal user evaluation confirms that omnistereo images present a seamless image with correct stereoscopic depth in every view direction without head tracking.",
"corpus_id": 14355645
} | {
"title": "COTS-Based High-Performance Computing for Space Applications",
"abstract": "Commercial-off-the-shelf devices are often advocated as the only solution to the increasing performance requirements in space applications. This paper presents the solutions developed in the frame of the European Space Agency's HiRel program, concluded in December 2014, where a number of techniques proposed in the past 10 years have been used to design a highly reliable system, which has been selected for forthcoming space missions. This paper presents the system architecture, describes performed evaluations, and discusses the results.",
"corpus_id": 359570,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Atresia of the Ascending Colon: A Rarity",
"abstract": "Atresia of the colon is among the rare types of all gastrointestinal atresias. Ascending colon is the rarest site of all the colonic atresias. The authors report a case of a 4-day-old male baby who presented with the features of distal intestinal obstruction. At laparotomy type I atresia of the ascending colon, just distal to cecum, was found. Primary ceco-colic anastomosis along with a covering ileostomy was performed. Ileostomy was reversed 3 weeks later.",
"corpus_id": 758886
} | {
"title": "COLONIC ATRESIA IN A NEWBORN",
"abstract": "Introduction: Colonic atresia is the least common type of intestinal atresia; however, it must be suspected in patients with partial or complete intestinal obstruction, failure to pass meconium, vomit and abdominal distension. Good prognosis has been described in patients with timely treatment. Case report: This paper reports the case of a newborn patient presenting with vomit, abdominal distension, failure to pass meconium and a rapid progressive clinical deterioration. A colonic atresia was found during exploratory laparotomy, which required a temporary colostomy due to the discrepancy of the proximal and distal calibers. Subsequently, colonic anastomosis was performed using a protective colostomy that was finally closed. This patient had a good post-operative recovery. Conclusion: Colonic atresia must be considered as an important cause of distal intestinal obstruction in pediatric patients and, therefore, it should always be suspected. Ruling out other associated abnormalities is also recommended, as well as performing a rectal biopsy for Hirschsprung’s disease to avoid complications.",
"corpus_id": 199605503
} | {
"title": "Isolation of Toxigenic Clostridium difficile from Animal Manure and Composts Being Used as Biological Soil Amendments",
"abstract": "Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in health care facilities in developed countries. Extended hospital stays and recurrences severely increase the cost of treatments and the high mortality rate that is observed among the elderly. Community-associated CDI cases that occur without any recent contact with the hospital environment are increasing. Studies have reported the isolation of virulent C. difficile strains from water, soil, meat, vegetables, pets, livestock animals, and animal manure. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize C. difficile strains from animal manure and commercially available compost products. Our results demonstrate that not only unprocessed animal manure but also finished composts made of different feedstocks can serve as a reservoir for C. difficile as well. Most importantly, our study revealed that properly processed compost is a potential source of toxigenic and clindamycin-resistant C. difficile isolates. ABSTRACT The well-known nosocomial pathogen Clostridium difficile has recently been recognized as a community-associated pathogen. As livestock animals carry and shed C. difficile in their feces, animal manure-based composts may play an important role in disseminating toxigenic C. difficile strains into the agricultural environment. The present study surveyed C. difficile contamination of commercially available composts and animal manure. Presumptive C. difficile isolates were confirmed by testing for the tpi housekeeping gene in addition to Gram staining. The confirmed C. difficile isolates were further tested for toxigenicity, PCR ribotype, and susceptibilities to selected antibiotics. C. difficile was found in 51 out of 142 samples (36%). A total of 58 C. difficile strains were isolated from those 51 positive compost/manure samples. The presence of C. difficile in compost did not significantly correlate (P > 0.05) with the physical and most microbiological parameters, including the presence of fecal coliforms. The majority of C. difficile isolates were toxigenic, with 63.8% positive for the toxin A gene (tcdA) and 67.2% positive for the toxin B gene (tcdB). Only 3 isolates (5.17%) were positive for the binary toxins. There were 38 different PCR ribotypes among the 58 C. difficile isolates, and ribotype 106 was the most prevalent, followed by ribotypes 020 and 412. All C. difficile isolates were susceptible to the selected antibiotics, but >50% of the isolates had reduced susceptibility to clindamycin by the agar dilution method. This study indicates that compost may be a reservoir of toxigenic C. difficile strains. IMPORTANCE Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrhea in health care facilities in developed countries. Extended hospital stays and recurrences severely increase the cost of treatments and the high mortality rate that is observed among the elderly. Community-associated CDI cases that occur without any recent contact with the hospital environment are increasing. Studies have reported the isolation of virulent C. difficile strains from water, soil, meat, vegetables, pets, livestock animals, and animal manure. The objective of this study was to isolate and characterize C. difficile strains from animal manure and commercially available compost products. Our results demonstrate that not only unprocessed animal manure but also finished composts made of different feedstocks can serve as a reservoir for C. difficile as well. Most importantly, our study revealed that properly processed compost is a potential source of toxigenic and clindamycin-resistant C. difficile isolates.",
"corpus_id": 46923631,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Weight Sharing is Crucial to Succesful Optimization",
"abstract": "Exploiting the great expressive power of Deep Neural Network architectures, relies on the ability to train them. While current theoretical work provides, mostly, results showing the hardness of this task, empirical evidence usually differs from this line, with success stories in abundance. A strong position among empirically successful architectures is captured by networks where extensive weight sharing is used, either by Convolutional or Recurrent layers. Additionally, characterizing specific aspects of different tasks, making them \"harder\" or \"easier\", is an interesting direction explored both theoretically and empirically. We consider a family of ConvNet architectures, and prove that weight sharing can be crucial, from an optimization point of view. We explore different notions of the frequency, of the target function, proving necessity of the target function having some low frequency components. This necessity is not sufficient - only with weight sharing can it be exploited, thus theoretically separating architectures using it, from others which do not. Our theoretical results are aligned with empirical experiments in an even more general setting, suggesting viability of examination of the role played by interleaving those aspects in broader families of tasks.",
"corpus_id": 22226660
} | {
"title": "Learning Overparameterized Neural Networks via Stochastic Gradient Descent on Structured Data",
"abstract": "Neural networks have many successful applications, while much less theoretical understanding has been gained. Towards bridging this gap, we study the problem of learning a two-layer overparameterized ReLU neural network for multi-class classification via stochastic gradient descent (SGD) from random initialization. In the overparameterized setting, when the data comes from mixtures of well-separated distributions, we prove that SGD learns a network with a small generalization error, albeit the network has enough capacity to fit arbitrary labels. Furthermore, the analysis provides interesting insights into several aspects of learning neural networks and can be verified based on empirical studies on synthetic data and on the MNIST dataset.",
"corpus_id": 51920936
} | {
"title": "TreeQN and ATreeC: Differentiable Tree-Structured Models for Deep Reinforcement Learning",
"abstract": "Combining deep model-free reinforcement learning with on-line planning is a promising approach to building on the successes of deep RL. On-line planning with look-ahead trees has proven successful in environments where transition models are known a priori. However, in complex environments where transition models need to be learned from data, the deficiencies of learned models have limited their utility for planning. To address these challenges, we propose TreeQN, a differentiable, recursive, tree-structured model that serves as a drop-in replacement for any value function network in deep RL with discrete actions. TreeQN dynamically constructs a tree by recursively applying a transition model in a learned abstract state space and then aggregating predicted rewards and state-values using a tree backup to estimate Q-values. We also propose ATreeC, an actor-critic variant that augments TreeQN with a softmax layer to form a stochastic policy network. Both approaches are trained end-to-end, such that the learned model is optimised for its actual use in the planner. We show that TreeQN and ATreeC outperform n-step DQN and A2C on a box-pushing task, as well as n-step DQN and value prediction networks (Oh et al., 2017) on multiple Atari games, with deeper trees often outperforming shallower ones. We also present a qualitative analysis that sheds light on the trees learned by TreeQN.",
"corpus_id": 3777223,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "The application of urban climatic mapping to the urban planning of high-density cities: The case of Kaohsiung, Taiwan",
"abstract": "Abstract There is a need to create sustainable urban development and quality living environments for the growing urban populations of high-density cities. Sustainable urban planning of high-density cities from the urban climatic point of view is a topical issue for city planners and policy makers. However, the application of urban climatic knowledge has only led to low-impact urban planning decision-making. This is especially true in high-density cities in developing countries. Thus, there is an urgent need to seek ways to quickly collate urban climatic information for planning in a format that is user-friendly for planners. This study has identified ways to promote the use of urban climatic knowledge in planning. By utilizing readily-available data, the paper introduces a method that focuses on urban planning using an urban climatic map (UCMap). A UCMap provides a visual and spatial information platform for the planner-friendly Geographical Information System (GIS). By focusing on Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the study first defines the urban climatic issues in the area. It then introduces the key methodology of urban climatic mapping and elaborates on general urban-climatic-based planning advice for planners using a UCMap. Lastly, it identifies sensitive areas and provides planning recommendations that can be easily tested and applied by city planners. The critical importance of urban greenery and coverage, urban air paths and open spaces, water bodies and rivers, and building morphology and layout have been highlighted visually and spatially for planners.",
"corpus_id": 153908559
} | {
"title": "Effect modification of the association between meteorological variables and mortality by urban climatic conditions in the tropical city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan.",
"abstract": "A deeper understanding of extreme hot weather are needed in cities sensitive to heat effects, an investigation was done in the tropical town of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Its 11 districts were divided into three climatic classes varying from high urban heat, low levels of green space and lack of proximity to water bodies to low urban heat, adequate green space and proximity to water bodies. Daily data on natural mortality, meteorological variables, and pollutants from May-October 1999-2008 were analysed using generalised additive models for the time-series data. Subgroup analyses were conducted, stratifying decedents according to the level of planning activity required in order to mitigate adverse heat effects in their residential areas, classifying districts as \"level 1\" for those requiring a high level of mitigation action; \"level 2\" for those requiring some action; and \"level 3\" for those that need only preserve existing conditions. Stratified analyses showed that mortality increases per 1 °C rise on average, either on the same day or in the previous 4 days (lags 0-4), were associated with 2.8%, 2.3% and -1.3% for level 1, 2 and 3 districts, respectively. The slope describing the association between temperature and mortality was higher above 29.0 °C resulting in corresponding increases of 4.2%, 5.0% and 0.3% per per 1 °C rise in temperature, respectively. Other meteorological variables were not significantly associated with mortality. It is concluded that hot season mortality in Kaohsiung is only sensitive to heat effects in districts classified as having unfavourably climatic conditions and requiring mitigation efforts in city planning. Urban planning measures designed to improve climatic conditions could reduce excess mortality resulting from extreme hot weather.",
"corpus_id": 10962927
} | {
"title": "Impact of the Mekong River Flow Alteration on the Tonle Sap Flood Pulse",
"abstract": "Abstract Rapid development in the upper reaches of the Mekong River, in the form of construction of large hydropower dams and reservoirs, large irrigation schemes, and rapid urban development, is putting water resources under stress. Recent studies have concluded that these developments will lead to flow alterations in the Mekong River. These flow alterations would threaten the sensitive ecosystems downstream, particularly Tonle Sap River, Tonle Sap Lake, its floodplain, and its gallery forest and protected areas, by changing the flood-pulse system of the lake. This article estimates the changes in parameters of the Tonle Sap flood pulse due to the aforementioned flow alterations. The impacts on the flooded area and loss of gallery forest and protected areas were analyzed using geographic information system–based methods. Relatively small rises in the dry-season lake water level would permanently inundate disproportionately large areas of floodplain, rendering it inaccessible to floodplain vegetation and eroding the productivity basis of the ecosystem. It is highly important to maintain the natural hydrological pattern of the Mekong River, particularly the dry-season water levels, to preserve Tonle Sap Lake's ecosystem productivity.",
"corpus_id": 26816782,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Unfolding kinetics of dimeric creatine kinase measured by stopped-flow small angle X-ray scattering.",
"abstract": "The unfolding kinetics of creatine kinase (CK) in various concentrations of urea or guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) was investigated by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) using synchrotron radiation, and compared with the results obtained by stopped-flow circular dichroism and stopped-flow fluorescence. Using the three methods, the unfolding kinetics of CK fits well to a single exponential function with similar apparent rate constants, and the amplitude of the monophasic kinetics covers the entire range of the equilibrium values. The results suggest that the unfolding time-course measured by integrated SAXS intensity corresponds to the intramolecular loss of globular structure. The refolding kinetics of 8 M urea-denatured CK was monitored in a stopped-flow apparatus by following the spectroscopic changes, and the final state of folding was investigated by SAXS. A substantial part of the ellipticity is recovered within a burst phase, indicating that the secondary structure forms at an early stage in refolding. The R(g) value of the final folded state was 33.6 A when the folding buffer contained 20% glycerol, which is characteristic of native-like compactness and globularity.",
"corpus_id": 1121256
} | {
"title": "Rabbit muscle creatine phosphokinase. CDNA cloning, primary structure and detection of human homologues.",
"abstract": "A cDNA library was constructed from rabbit muscle poly(A) RNA. Limited amino acid sequence information was obtained on rabbit muscle creatine phosphokinase and this was the basis for design and synthesis of two oligonucleotide probes complementary to a creatine kinase cDNA sequence which encodes a pentapeptide. Colony hybridizations with the probes and subsequent steps led to isolation of two clones, whose cDNA segments partially overlap and which together encode the entire protein. The primary structure was established from the sequence of two cDNA clones and from independently determined sequences of scattered portions of the polypeptide. The reactive cysteine has been located to position 282 within the 380 amino acid polypeptide. The rabbit cDNA hybridizes to digests of human chromosomal DNA. This reveals a restriction fragment length polymorphism associated with the human homologue(s) which hybridizes to the rabbit cDNA.",
"corpus_id": 38732062
} | {
"title": "A New Punctate Species of Halosphaera",
"abstract": "The new species Halosphaera parkeae (Prasinophyceae) is described from material collected in the western English Channel. The microscopical structure of the outer wall of the non-motile phase is described and two types of punctation are demonstrated. A general account of the cytology of the mature non-motile phase and of the motile cell is given. Electron micrographs of the scales of the motile cell are compared with those of other species of the genus where known. Buoyancy, size and reproduction are discussed and a number of new taxonomic characters emphasized. The occurence in the same areas of a second type very similar but smaller in size is recorded and the authors have named this form Halosphaera parkeae forma minuta.",
"corpus_id": 83545244,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "A world-wide distributed system using Java and the Internet",
"abstract": "This paper describes the design of a distributed system built using Java that supports peer-to-peer communication among processes spread across a network. We identify the requirements of a software layer that supports distributed computing, and we propose a design that meets those requirements. Our primary concerns are (I) the identification, specification, and implementation of software components that can be composed in different ways to develop correct distributed applications; (2) reasoning about the components systematically; and (3) providing services to the components. This paper deals with the last of these concerns. Though our implementation uses Java, the fundamental ideas apply to any object-oriented language that supports messaging and threads. Alternative implementations use such languages coupled with object request brokers or remote procedure invocation mechanisms.",
"corpus_id": 1091336
} | {
"title": "A portable implementation of the distributed systems annex in Java",
"abstract": "This paper describes an implementation of the Distributed Systems Annex of Ada95. The use of Java to build the Partition Communication Subsystem provides portability and Internet compatibility of distributed applications while retaining the advantages of Ada at the application level. The implementation is done partially in Ada and partially in Java: stubs are generated by the GNAT compiler and the processing of the streams (marshalling and unmarshalling) is done in Ada, while the processing of the messages required to implement the PCS is done in Java for maximal portability.",
"corpus_id": 308045
} | {
"title": "Social Value and the Theory of Money",
"abstract": "The theory presented in The Value of Money' bears an interesting and in some respects a unique relation to the general theory of value and to existing monetary theories. The purpose is to establish a functional theory of money by the use of a social value concept and a social psychology. \"Economic social value is an institutional value, specially weighted and controlled by individuals, classes, and institutions\" (p. 484). \"The function of economic values is to guide and control the economic activities of men\" (p. 27). The problem of the value of money, therefore, is to account for the social value of the dollar in terms of the functions which the dollar performs. The chief functions of money are performed during the process of dynamic change, and so a functional theory of money must be a dynamic theory. \"The main work of money and credit is in effecting 'transitions', bringing about readjustments, enabling society, with little shock, to adapt itself to dynamic change \" (p. 392). \"To talk about the laws of money 'after the transition is completed' is to talk about the work money will do after it has finished working. For a functional theory of money and credit we must study the obstacles that exist to prevent the fluid market. We must study friction, transitions, dynamic phenomena\" (p. 266). This formulation of the problem makes the adequacy of the theory rest largely upon the character of treatment accorded the central facts of psychology and change. A functional theory of money can be established by the use of a social value concept provided the concept is adapted to the analysis of the institutional facts which are regarded as fundamental. A judgment on the theory, therefore, necessarily involves a decision upon the concept used in the analysis. The larger questions to be raised in connection with the theory are whether the method of argument employed",
"corpus_id": 154616326,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "A Two-Level Procedure for the Global Optimum Design of Composite Modular Structures—Application to the Design of an Aircraft Wing",
"abstract": "This work concerns a two-level procedure for the global optimum design of composite modular structures. The case-study considered is the least weight design of a stiffened wing-box for an aircraft structure. The method is based on the use of the polar formalism and on a genetic algorithm. In the first level of the procedure, the optimal structure is designed as composed by a single equivalent layer, while a laminate realizing the optimal structure is found in the second level. The method is able to automatically find the optimal number of modules; no simplifying assumptions are used and it can be easily generalized to other problems. The work is divided into two parts: the theoretical formulation in the first part, the genetic procedure and some numerical examples in this second one.",
"corpus_id": 319653
} | {
"title": "A general multi-scale optimisation strategy for the optimisation of variable stiffness composites",
"abstract": "The present paper focuses on the development of a multiscale optimisation strategy for the optimisation of variable angle stiffness laminates. The main goal consists in proving that it is possible to design structures having complex shapes made of variable stiffness composites by taking into account, from the early stages of the design process, the constraints linked to the manufacturing process.",
"corpus_id": 34153222
} | {
"title": "onNote: playing printed music scores as a musical instrument",
"abstract": "This paper presents a novel musical performance system named onNote that directly utilizes printed music scores as a musical instrument. This system can make users believe that sound is indeed embedded on the music notes in the scores. The users can play music simply by placing, moving and touching the scores under a desk lamp equipped with a camera and a small projector. By varying the movement, the users can control the playing sound and the tempo of the music. To develop this system, we propose an image processing based framework for retrieving music from a music database by capturing printed music scores. From a captured image, we identify the scores by matching them with the reference music scores, and compute the position and pose of the scores with respect to the camera. By using this framework, we can develop novel types of musical interactions.",
"corpus_id": 14650290,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Monoamniotic Twins with One Fetal Anencephaly and Cord Entanglement Diagnosed with Three Dimensional Ultrasound at 14 Weeks of Gestation",
"abstract": "A 29-year-old pregnant woman with parity 0-0-0-0 was diagnosed with monoamniotic twin pregnancy discordant for anencephaly at 14 weeks gestation. Umbilical cord entanglement, which is an important cause of fetal death in monoamniotic twins, was confirmed by three-dimensional ultrasound. Cesarean section was performed at 34 weeks of gestation, and the normal newborn infant was discharged without any complications. We report a case of monoamniotic twin pregnancy discordant for anencephaly and diagnosed with cord entanglement by three-dimensional ultrasound at 14 weeks of gestation, and now report it along with a literature review.",
"corpus_id": 2055079
} | {
"title": "Monoamniotic monochorionic twins discordant for noncompaction cardiomyopathy",
"abstract": "Occasionally “identical twins” are phenotypically different, raising the question of zygosity and the issue of genetic versus environmental influences during development. We recently noted monochorionic‐monoamniotic twins, one of which had an isolated cardiac abnormality, noncompaction cardiomyopathy, a condition characterized by cardiac ventricular hypertrabeculation. We examined the prenatal course and subsequent pathologic correlation since ventricular morphogenesis may depend on early muscular contraction and blood flow. The monochorionic‐monoamniotic female twin pair was initially identified since one fetus presented with increased nuchal translucency. Complete heart block was later identified in the fetus with nuchal translucency who did not survive after delivery. In contrast, the unaffected twin had normal cardiac studies both prenatally and postnatally. Pathologic analysis of the affected twin demonstrated noncompaction of the left ventricle with dysplasia of the aortic and pulmonary valves. Dissection of the cardiac conduction system disclosed atrioventricular bundle fibrosis. Maternal lupus studies, amniocentesis with karyotype, and studies for 22q11.2 were normal. To test for zygosity, we performed multiple STR marker analysis and found that all markers were shared even using nonblood tissues from the affected twin. These studies demonstrate that monozygotic twins that are monochorionic monoamniotic can be discordant for cardiac noncompaction. The results suggest further investigation into the potential roles of pathologic fibrosis, contractility, and blood flow in cardiac ventricle development. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.",
"corpus_id": 3431679
} | {
"title": "Effects of media violence on children. A review of the literature.",
"abstract": "The effects of media violence on the behavior of children are controversial. We examined and reviewed studies addressing this issue and identified many mediating variables. A small but genuine association appears to exist between media violence and aggression. However, many unanswered questions persist, and no interventions are clearly indicated.",
"corpus_id": 28148075,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and artificial sweeteners (ASs) in surface and ground waters and their application as indication of wastewater contamination.",
"abstract": "We systematically investigated the occurrence and distribution of 93 pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) and 5 artificial sweeteners (ASs) in surface water and groundwater of Dongjiang River basin in south China. In surface water, 52 compounds were detected with median concentrations ranging from 0.06ng/L to 504ng/L, while in groundwater, 33 compounds were detected with concentrations up to 4580ng/L for acesulfame. PPCPs and ASs were widely detected in the surface water and groundwater samples, which indicated contamination by domestic wastewater in the surface water and groundwater of Dongjiang River basin. Temporal and spatial variations of the detected chemicals were observed in surface water. Acesulfame, sucralose and cyclamate can be used as wastewater indicators to imply contamination in groundwater caused by domestic wastewater due to their hydrophilicity, anthropogenic sources and ubiquity in groundwater. Moreover, the detection of the readily degradable ASs, cyclamate, was a strong indication of untreated wastewater in groundwater. Sucralose was found to be a suitable wastewater indicator to reflect domestic wastewater contamination in surface water and groundwater qualitatively and quantitatively, and it can be used to evaluate wastewater burden in surface water and groundwater of Dongjiang River basin. The wastewater burden data from this survey implied serious contamination in surface water and groundwater by domestic wastewater at Shima River, a tributary of the Dongjiang River. The findings from this study suggest that the selected labile and conservative chemicals can be used as indication of wastewater contamination for aquatic environments qualitatively and quantitatively.",
"corpus_id": 5005225
} | {
"title": "Dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes in representative broiler feedlots environments: identification of indicator ARGs and correlations with environmental variables.",
"abstract": "Livestock operations are known to harbor elevated levels of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) that may pose a threat to public health. Broiler feedlots may represent an important source of ARGs in the environment. However, the prevalence and dissemination mechanisms of various types of ARGs in the environment of broiler feedlots have not previously been identified. We examined the occurrence, abundance and variation of ARGs conferring resistance to chloramphenicols, sulfonamides and tetracyclines in the environments of two representative types of broiler feedlots (free range and indoor) by quantitative PCR, and assessed their dissemination mechanisms. The results showed the prevalence of various types of ARGs in the environmental samples of the broiler feedlots including manure/litter, soil, sediment, and water samples, with the first report of five chloramphenicol resistance genes (cmlA, floR, fexA, cfr, and fexB) in broiler feedlots. Overall, chloramphenicol resistance genes and sulfonamides sul genes were more abundant than tetracyclines tet genes. The ARG abundances in the samples from indoor boiler feedlots were generally different to the free range feedlots, suggesting the importance of feeding operations in ARG dissemination. Pearson correlation analysis showed significant correlations between ARGs and mobile genetic element genes (int1 and int2), and between the different classes of ARGs themselves, revealing the roles of horizontal gene transfer and coselection for ARG dissemination in the environment. Further regression analysis revealed that fexA, sul1 and tetW could be reliable indicator genes to surrogate anthropogenic sources of ARGs in boiler feedlots (correlations of fexA, sul1 and tetW to all ARGs: R = 0.95, 0.96 and 0.86, p < 0.01). Meanwhile, significant correlations were also identified between indicator ARGs and their corresponding antibiotics. In addition, some ARGs were significantly correlated with typical metals (e.g., Cu, Zn, and As with fexA, fexB, cfr, sul1, tetW, tetO, tetS: R = 0.52-0.71) and some environmental parameters (e.g., TOC, TN, TP, NH3-N with fexA, fexB, cfr, sul1, tetW, tetO, tetQ, tetS: R = 0.53-0.87) (p < 0.01). Further redundancy analysis demonstrated that the distribution and transportation of ARGs from the boiler feedlots to the receiving environments were correlated with environmental variables. The findings highlight the contribution of some chemicals such as antibiotics and metals to the development of ARGs in broiler feedlots environments; and the observed ARG dissemination mechanism in the broiler feedlots facilitates the development of effective mitigation measures.",
"corpus_id": 22276594
} | {
"title": "Technical advance: near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses as a novel non-invasive means for dye-permeation and 3D imaging of localised dye-coupling in the Arabidopsis root meristem.",
"abstract": "We have used near-infrared femtosecond Titanium: Sapphire laser pulses as novel non-invasive means for dye loading into various cell types of the Arabidopsis root meristem, and by 3D imaging have assessed the extent of dye coupling between the meristematic cells. The post-embryonic primary root of Arabidopsis thaliana has an invariant ontogeny and fixed cellular organisation which makes it an attractive model system to study developmental events involving cell fate determination, cellular differentiation and pattern formation. Local intercellular communication and local transmission of positional signals are likely to play a pivotal role in cell proliferation and regulation of differentiation. We have therefore examined the extent to which the constituent cells in the root meristem are symplastically coupled. Following laser-assisted loading of membrane impermeate fluorescent dye propidium iodide (PI) in single cells, we show by time-lapse and 3D imaging that in the root tip all undifferentiated cells are dye-coupled. When PI is permeated into the central cells, it rapidly moved into the adjacent initials of the columella, cortex, pericycle and stele. Interestingly, when only either of the initials were loaded with the dye, it never moved into any of the central cells. Amongst the epidermal cells, the differentiated hair cells are symplastically isolated. Our data provide evidence (1) for differential dye-coupling behaviour between quiescent centre cells and the neighbouring initials; (2) that cells in the root are coupled during stages at which the cell-lineage pattern is formed and that it becomes progressively secluded as they differentiate and the pattern is fixed. Taken together, our NIR-laser mediated approach is highly efficient and has numerous potential applications for non-invasive permeation of dyes in different cell types.",
"corpus_id": 45023667,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Design of Optimal Comb FIR Filters-Speed and Robustness",
"abstract": "An extension to the analytical design of digital equiripple comb FIR filters is presented here. The filters are optimal in Chebyshev sense. The design runs from the filter specification through the degree formula to the impulse response coefficients, which are evaluated by an extremely efficient recursive algorithm. The proposed design method outperforms the standard procedures in terms of speed and robustness.",
"corpus_id": 2164344
} | {
"title": "Equiripple Approximation of Low-Pass FIR Filters",
"abstract": "For the first time, the existence and the nature of a generating polynomial of an equiripple low-pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter is presented. In terms of approximation theory, this achievement represents a polynomial approximation of two constants in two disjoint intervals in the equiripple sense which was missing in the approximation theory. In opposite to numerical solutions, the novel generating polynomial provides an insight into the nature of the approximation problem. Two demonstrations of approximating polynomials of equiripple low-pass FIR filters are included.",
"corpus_id": 4568310
} | {
"title": "Modeling of plane Couette flow. I. Large scale flow around turbulent spots",
"abstract": "Numerical simulations of a model of plane Couette flow focusing on its in-plane spatio-temporal properties are used to study the dynamics of turbulent spots. While the core of a spot is filled with small-scale velocity fluctuations, a large-scale flow extending far away and occupying the full gap between the driving plates is revealed upon filtering out small scales. It is characterized by streamwise inflow towards the spot and spanwise outflow from the spot, giving it a quadrupolar shape. A correction to the base flow is present within the spot in the form of a spanwise vortex with vorticity opposite in sign to that of the base flow. The Reynolds stresses are shown to be at the origin of this recirculation, whereas the quadrupolar shape of the in-plane flow results from the transport of this recirculation by the base flow that pumps it towards the spot in the streamwise direction and flushes it in the spanwise direction to insure mass conservation. These results shed light on earlier observations in plan...",
"corpus_id": 1722261,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Right or left radial access: To each their own",
"abstract": "Roads to the heart are many. Both the right and left radial arteries provide access to the heart and each has zealous supporters, although most operators worldwide tend to be right radial operators with the left radial reserved as an alternative [1]. The driver of this approach is the historical room set up and familiarity of most cardiologist with working from the right side of the patient. Several different studies have tried to look at the issue of which side is better, but unfortunately each is flawed or fails to convince intransigents to change their approach. Studies comparing the right or left approach are typically single centered, many times not randomized, often using operators with pre-existing bias and of various degrees of experience. In addition, the populations under study may not be generalizable to broader populations found around the world. For instance, the widely referenced study by Sciahbasi et al. from Italy [2] suggested some advantage to the left approach. It was randomized, but on the other hand these patients were physically different than US patients and I suspect several other obese countries. The patients had a mean BMI of 28 6 4 kg/m whereas in many US cath labs, such as my own, average BMIs are on the order of 30 kg/m. In some patients it is physical impossible to reach over the top and use the left arm from the right side of the table as I found out doing a procedure on a 270 kg woman via the left wrist; I had to stand on the left side of the table. In this issue of the Journal, Freixa et al. [3] have presented their data in an octogenarian population looking at the right verses left argument. As in prior studies, the ability to find a true difference was probably underpowered, but by taking an extreme of the population (elderly) with a propensity for complications and difficult access combined with a uniform group of experienced operators, this group has managed to show some proof-in-principle. First a caveat that these were once again relatively light weight patients (mean BMI 26 kg/m) from Spain and perhaps not representative of larger in mass patient populations. Second, similar to observations of other experienced operators, there appeared to be less subclavian tortuosity from the left than the right. Third, despite less challenging anatomy, both right or left radial approaches could be successfully used by these operators who experience combined with present technology could overcome relative differences in vasculature. The final decision of right versus left will not be dictated by guidelines but rather operator and patient characteristics as in the end all arteries lead to the heart and many can be successfully used for procedures. Each approach presents challenges but also complement each other. Radial and subclavian arteries are not mirror replicas of each other, and operators can rationally switch sides if loops or tortuosity prevent passage up one arm rather than default to a femoral approach. On the other hand, the tendency for more tortuosity in the right subclavian appears to be overcome by experience and equipment refinements such that a mandate for default right or left radial is difficult to legislate. I am happy to know that both options can give equal results. While I predominantly work from the right radial, it is nice to know that the left radial is always available be it for an arteria lusoria or just a tightly looping artery in the right arm.",
"corpus_id": 268648
} | {
"title": "Transradial catheterization, a critical review with comparison between right and left access: insight into the clinical applicability of each approach.",
"abstract": "T ransradial catheterization (TRC) for coronary angiography (CA) or coronary intervention (CI) is becoming increasingly popular and its use has been expanding worldwide. TRC has proven to be safe, efficient, and more comfortable compared to transfemoral catheterization (TFC).1 TFC is associated with a significant risk of access site complications, which represents a special concern in patients who require full anticoagulation and/or antiplatelet therapy, especially the elderly and severely obese patients who are at higher risk.2 In addition, hospitals expect procedures to be performed with lower cost, and with efficient patient turnover. Whether for CA or CI, TRC yields a high success rate along with early ambulation and significantly lower access site complications.3 Recent data4,5 show that many countries and institutions are still reluctant to use this technique. This reluctance may be due to obstacles in the operator’s mind, or to questions of skill or institutional policy, or other factors. The objective of this study is to review TRC for CA/CI from the perspective of more awareness and sensitization, since we believe that this “elegant” technique should become the preferred access route for most interventionalists. In addition, we compare right and left radial access (RRA, LRA) in order to provide an insight into the clinical applicability of either side.",
"corpus_id": 8631960
} | {
"title": "Angular Deformities of the Lower Limb in Children",
"abstract": "Angular deformities of the lower limbs are common during childhood. In most cases this represents a variation in the normal growth pattern and is an entirely benign condition. Presence of symmetrical deformities and absence of symptoms, joint stiffness, systemic disorders or syndromes indicates a benign condition with excellent long-term outcome. In contrast, deformities which are asymmetrical and associated with pain, joint stiffness, systemic disorders or syndromes may indicate a serious underlying cause and require treatment. Little is known about the relationship between sport participation and body adaptations during growth. Intense soccer participation increases the degree of genu varum in males from the age of 16. Since, according to some investigations, genu varum predisposes individuals to more injuries, efforts to reduce the development of genu varum in soccer players are warranted. In this article major topics of angular deformities of the knees in pediatric population are practically reviewed.",
"corpus_id": 5145598,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Use of mobile devices in the emergency department: A scoping review",
"abstract": "Electronic health records are increasingly used in regional health authorities, healthcare systems, hospitals, and clinics throughout North America. The emergency department provides care for urgent and critically ill patients. Over the past several years, emergency departments have become more computerized. Tablet computers and Smartphones are increasingly common in daily use. As part of the computerization trend, we have seen the introduction of handheld computers, tablets, and Smartphones into practice as a way of providing health professionals (e.g. physicians, nurses) with access to patient information and decision support in the emergency department. In this article, we present a scoping review and outline the current state of the research using mobile devices in the emergency departments. Our findings suggest that there is very little research evidence that supports the use of these mobile devices, and more research is needed to better understand and optimize the use of mobile devices. Given the prevalence of handheld devices, it is inevitable that more decision support, charting, and other activities will be performed on these devices. These developments have the potential to improve the quality and timeliness of care but should be thoroughly evaluated.",
"corpus_id": 828500
} | {
"title": "The impact of home care nurses’ numeracy and graph literacy on comprehension of visual display information: implications for dashboard design",
"abstract": "Objective\nTo explore home care nurses' numeracy and graph literacy and their relationship to comprehension of visualized data.\n\n\nMaterials and Methods\nA multifactorial experimental design using online survey software. Nurses were recruited from 2 Medicare-certified home health agencies. Numeracy and graph literacy were measured using validated scales. Nurses were randomized to 1 of 4 experimental conditions. Each condition displayed data for 1 of 4 quality indicators, in 1 of 4 different visualized formats (bar graph, line graph, spider graph, table). A mixed linear model measured the impact of numeracy, graph literacy, and display format on data understanding.\n\n\nResults\nIn all, 195 nurses took part in the study. They were slightly more numerate and graph literate than the general population. Overall, nurses understood information presented in bar graphs most easily (88% correct), followed by tables (81% correct), line graphs (77% correct), and spider graphs (41% correct). Individuals with low numeracy and low graph literacy had poorer comprehension of information displayed across all formats. High graph literacy appeared to enhance comprehension of data regardless of numeracy capabilities.\n\n\nDiscussion and Conclusion\nClinical dashboards are increasingly used to provide information to clinicians in visualized format, under the assumption that visual display reduces cognitive workload. Results of this study suggest that nurses' comprehension of visualized information is influenced by their numeracy, graph literacy, and the display format of the data. Individual differences in numeracy and graph literacy skills need to be taken into account when designing dashboard technology.",
"corpus_id": 3577804
} | {
"title": "Verifying the Consistency of Remote Untrusted Services with Commutative Operations",
"abstract": "A group of mutually trusting clients outsources a computation service to a remote server, which they do not fully trust and that may be subject to attacks. The clients do not communicate with each other and would like to verify the correctness of the remote computation and the consistency of the server’s responses. This paper first presents the Commutative-Operation verification Protocol (COP) that ensures linearizability when the server is correct and preserves fork-linearizability in any other case. All clients that observe each other’s operations are consistent, in the sense that their own operations and those operations of other clients that they see are linearizable. Second, this work extends COP through authenticated data structures to Authenticated COP , which allows consistency verification of outsourced services whose state is kept only remotely, by the server. This yields the first fork-linearizable consistency verification protocol for generic outsourced services that (1) relieves clients from storing the state, (2) supports wait-free client operations, and (3) handles sequences of arbitrary commutative operations.",
"corpus_id": 4324303,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Antral-ethmoidal decompression in Graves' disease. Five-year experience.",
"abstract": "The orbital manifestations of Graves' disease frequently constitute the major and distressing portion of the morbidity in this poorly understood process. Patients with optic neuropathy, exposure keratopathy or disfiguring proptosis may be aided considerably by decompression to permit swollen orbital contents to move into the maxillary and ethmoid sinus cavities. Experience with 38 patients treated over a five-year period indicates that antral-ethmoidal decompression is a logical, successful form of therapy and generally free of serious complications. it may provide benefit earlier in the course of Graves' exophthalmopathy than has been accepted in the past.",
"corpus_id": 1535609
} | {
"title": "Orbital decompression for thyroid eye disease.",
"abstract": "The literature regarding orbital decompression for thyroid eye disease is vast, spanning multiple specialty areas including neurosurgery, head and neck, maxillofacial, and ophthalmic plastic surgery. Although techniques have advanced considerably over the more than 100 years during which this procedure has been performed, the 4 major approaches remain: transorbital, transcranial, transantral, and transnasal. The explosion in literature related to orbital decompression has mostly involved minor technical variations on broader surgical themes. The purpose of this review is to organize the major approaches in terms of bony anatomy and to contextualize variation in transdisciplinary techniques within a common conceptualization.",
"corpus_id": 3958714
} | {
"title": "Vitrectomy for Idiopathic Epiretinal Membrane in Elderly Patients: Surgical Outcomes and Visual Prognosis",
"abstract": "Purpose: To evaluate the clinical course and visual prognosis of elderly patients over 75 years of age who underwent PPV and peeling of idiopathic ERM. Design: Retrospective case series. Methods: A retrospective chart review of patients that underwent vitrectomy for idiopathic ERM in two public hospitals. Twenty nine eyes of 29 patients 75 years and older who underwent PPV and ERM peeling were included in the study series. Patients with additional ocular vision-limiting conditions other than cataract were excluded. Main outcome measures included VA improvement, OCT changes and complications. Results: Mean patient age was 79.6 years, the highest in published literature. Mean change in VA was 0.23 logMAR units, and 65.5% patients gained 2 or more lines of vision. Eight of the 10 patients aged 80 years or older gained 2 lines or more. Fourteen patients (48.3%) achieved final VA of 20/40 or better, and only 2 (6.9%) had final VA of 20/200 or worse. Concurrent cataract extraction was performed in 73% of the phakic eyes, and at the end of the follow up 93% were pseudophakic. Complication rates were similar to those reported in the literature. Conclusions: Pars plana vitrectomy with ERM peeling is safe and effective in restoring VA in elderly patients, and the results are comparable to those previously reported for younger patients with idiopathic ERM. Old age should not hinder surgery in patients with idiopathic ERM who seek to improve their vision and quality of life.",
"corpus_id": 23890073,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Performance of new equity issuers, venture capital and auditors' reputation",
"abstract": "This paper studies the importance of audit firms' reputation during the IPOs of venture capital funded firms. The literature review reveals that venture capital firms must achieve a successful IPO in order to increase their returns, rather than sell their shares to a private firm. However, the financial market penalises these IPOs systematically through a depreciation of price, which is linked to an important information asymmetry. Thus, venture capital investors try to strengthen their reputation through calling in other investors (i.e. syndication) or very reputed auditors. In order to better evaluate the correlation between audit firms' reputation and returns of venture capital funded firms, we have focused in our study on the IPOs.",
"corpus_id": 154219294
} | {
"title": "The Long-Run Performance of Initial Public Offerings",
"abstract": "The underpricing of initial public offerings that has been widely documented appears to be a short-run phenomenon. Issuing firms during 1975-84 substantially underperformed a sample of matching firms from the closing price on the first day of public trading to their three-year anniversaries. There is substantial variation in the under performance year-to-year and across industries, with companies that went public in high-volume years fairing the worst. The patterns are consistent with an initial public offering market in which (1) investors are periodically overoptimistic about the earnings potential of young growth companies, and (2) firms take advantage of these \"windows of opportunity.\" Copyright 1991 by American Finance Association.",
"corpus_id": 154811196
} | {
"title": "Greedy heuristic algorithm for solving series of eee components classification problems*",
"abstract": "Algorithms based on using the agglomerative greedy heuristics demonstrate precise and stable results for clustering problems based on k- means and p-median models. Such algorithms are successfully implemented in the processes of production of specialized EEE components for using in space systems which include testing each EEE device and detection of homogeneous production batches of the EEE components based on results of the tests using p-median models. In this paper, authors propose a new version of the genetic algorithm with the greedy agglomerative heuristic which allows solving series of problems. Such algorithm is useful for solving the k-means and p-median clustering problems when the number of clusters is unknown. Computational experiments on real data show that the preciseness of the result decreases insignificantly in comparison with the initial genetic algorithm for solving a single problem.",
"corpus_id": 843543,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Branched projective structures with Fuchsian holonomy",
"abstract": "We prove that if S is a closed compact surface of genus g 2, and if W 1.S/! PSL.2;C/ is a quasi-Fuchsian representation, then the space Mk; of branched projective structures on S with total branching order k and holonomy is connected, for k > 0. Equivalently, two branched projective structures with the same quasiFuchsian holonomy and the same number of branch points are related by a movement of branch points. In particular grafting annuli are obtained by moving branch points. In the appendix we give an explicit atlas for Mk; for non-elementary representations . It is shown to be a smooth complex manifold modeled on Hurwitz spaces. 30F35, 57M20; 53A30, 14H15",
"corpus_id": 441337
} | {
"title": "Problems on billiards, flat surfaces and translation surfaces",
"abstract": "Pascal HubertInstitut de Math´ematiques de Luminy163 Av. de Luminy, Case 907,13288 Marseille Cedex 09 Franceemail:hubert@iml.univ-mrs.frHoward MasurUniversity of Illinois at ChicagoChicago, Illinois 60607email:masur@math.uic.eduThomas SchmidtOregon State UniversityCorvallis, Oregon 97331email:toms@math.orst.eduAnton ZorichIRMAR, Universit´e Rennes-1, Campus de Beaulieu35402 Rennes, Cedex Franceemail:zorich@math.univ-rennes1.frMarch 5, 2006",
"corpus_id": 110918260
} | {
"title": "A hybrid-systems approach to potential field navigation for a multi-robot team",
"abstract": "We consider potential field-based cooperative motion planning for a distributed team of semi-autonomous robots. We present a changing navigation function to allow the robots to incorporate new sensor data into their maps of the environment. We choose a Gaussian function to model attractors and a higher-order Gaussian-like function to model obstacles in order to avoid undesired local minima. Using arguments from hybrid systems theory, we show that this changing navigation function can be viewed as a mode-specific team Lyapunov function that stabilizes the system at all times. We. have verified our approach in simulations of a robot team mapping and foraging in an initially unknown environment. The team is able to map the environment, noting the location of all obstacles and attractive objects, then retrieve the attractors and return them to a goal position. Potential field navigation succeeds in this task while avoiding collisions between robots and obstacles as well as collisions among team members.",
"corpus_id": 706069,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Prognostic indicators of adverse renal outcome and death in acute kidney injury hospital survivors",
"abstract": "Introduction: Data regarding prognostic factors of post-discharge mortality and adverse renal function outcome in acute kidney injury (AKI) hospital survivors are scarce and controversial. Objectives: We aimed to identify predictors of post-discharge mortality and adverse renal function outcome in AKI hospital survivors. Patients and Methods: The study group consisted of 84 AKI hospital survivors admitted to the tertiary medical center during 2-year period. Baseline clinical parameters, with renal outcome 3 months after discharge and 6-month mortality were evaluated. According survival and renal function outcome, patients were divided into two groups. Results: Patients who did not recover renal function were statistically significantly older (P < 0.007) with higher Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score (P < 0.000) and more likely to have anuria and oliguria (P = 0.008) compared to those with recovery. Deceased AKI patients were statistically significantly older (P < 0.000), with higher CCI score (P < 0.000), greater prevalence of sepsis (P =0.004), higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) (P < 0.017) and ferritin (P < 0.051) and lower concentrations of albumin (P<0.01) compared to survivors. By multivariate analysis, independent predictors of adverse renal outcome were female gender (P =0.033), increasing CCI (P =0.000), presence of pre-existing chronic kidney disease (P =0.000) and diabetes mellitus (P =0.019) as well as acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) (P =0.032), while protective factor for renal function outcome was higher urine output (P =0.009). Independent predictors of post-discharge mortality were female gender (P =0.04), higher CCI score (P =0.001) and sepsis (P =0.034). Conclusion: Female AKI hospital survivors with increasing burden of comorbidities, diagnosis of sepsis and ADHF seem to be at high-risk for poor post-discharge outcome.",
"corpus_id": 3084214
} | {
"title": "Factores predictores de fracaso renal agudo en ancianos con enfermedad renal crónica",
"abstract": "Introduccion y objetivos: El fracaso renal agudo (FRA) es\nun problema muy comun en los ancianos y conlleva una\nelevada morbimortalidad. En este estudio se analizan los\nfactores predictores de FRA en una cohorte de ancianos y\nsu impacto en la evolucion de la funcion renal. Pacientes\ny metodos: Sobre un grupo de 80 ancianos reclutados entre\nenero-abril de 2006, se estudian de forma retrospectiva,\nen 56 pacientes que continuan con vida a los 36 meses,\nlos episodios de FRA, sus causas y la necesidad de\ndialisis. Resultados: 12 pacientes (21,4 %) presentaron\nFRA: 4 (33,3 %) con relacion a insuficiencia cardiaca, 4\n(33,3 %) por infeccion/sepsis, 2 (16,7 %) por deplecion de\nvolumen y otros 2 multifactorial (16,7 %). Ningun paciente\npreciso terapia con dialisis. Los pacientes con FRA eran\nmas anosos (p = 0,017), tenian basalmente peor funcion renal\n(p = 0,031), mayores niveles de acido urico (p = 0,002)\ny menores de hematocrito (p = 0,003). Los pacientes con\nFRA tenian una creatinina serica basal de 1,57 ± 0,59 mg/dl\ny el pico maximo de creatinina durante el FRA fue de 4,25\n± 4,26 mg/dl (p = 0,035). La funcion renal a los 36 meses en\npacientes con FRA habia disminuido (p = 0,024). En el analisis\nde regresion logistica (variables independientes: edad,\ngenero, indice de Charlson, creatinina serica, urea, acido\nurico, MDRD basales), la edad (riesgo relativo [RR]: 1,20;\n1,01-1,43; p = 0,039), el acido urico (RR: 2,65; 1,11-6,30; p\n= 0,027) y el hematocrito (RR: 0,64; 0,43-0,96; p = 0,031) se\nasociaban independientemente con el desarrollo posterior\nde un FRA. Conclusion: el nivel basal de acido urico y de\nhematocrito son factores de riesgo independiente para el\ndesarrollo de FRA en ancianos, que, aun siendo de caracter\nfuncional y sin necesidad de dialisis, producen un deterioro\nde la funcion renal en el tiempo.",
"corpus_id": 196337517
} | {
"title": "Stimulant and non-stimulant drug therapy for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and epilepsy.",
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nAttention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) can co-occur in up to 40% of people with epilepsy. There is debate about the efficacy and tolerability of stimulant and non-stimulant drugs used to treat people with ADHD and co-occurring epilepsy.\n\n\nOBJECTIVES\nTo assess the effect of stimulant and non-stimulant drugs on children and adults with ADHD and co-occurring epilepsy in terms of seizure frequency and drug withdrawal rates (primary objectives), as well as seizure severity, ADHD symptoms, cognitive state, general behaviour, quality of life, and adverse effects profile (secondary objectives).\n\n\nSEARCH METHODS\nWe searched the following databases on 12 October 2020: Cochrane Register of Studies (CRS Web), MEDLINE (Ovid, 1946 to 9 October 2020), CINAHL Plus (EBSCOhost, 1937 onwards). There were no language restrictions. CRS Web includes randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials from PubMed, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP), the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), and the Specialised Registers of Cochrane Review Groups including Epilepsy. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials of stimulant and non-stimulant drugs for people of any age, gender or ethnicity with ADHD and co-occurring epilepsy.\n\n\nDATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS\nWe selected articles and extracted data according to predefined criteria. We conducted primary analysis on an intention-to-treat basis. We presented outcomes as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs), except for individual adverse effects where we quoted 99% CIs. We conducted best- and worst-case sensitivity analyses to deal with missing data. We carried out a risk of bias assessment for each included study using the Cochrane risk of bias tool and assessed the overall certainty of evidence using the GRADE approach.\n\n\nMAIN RESULTS\nWe identified two studies that matched our inclusion criteria: a USA study compared different doses of the stimulant drug osmotic-release oral system methylphenidate (OROS-MPH) with a placebo in 33 children (mean age 10.5 ± 3.0 years), and an Iranian study compared the non-stimulant drug omega-3 taken in conjunction with risperidone and usual anti-seizure medication (ASM) with risperidone and ASM only in 61 children (mean age 9.24 ± 0.15 years). All children were diagnosed with epilepsy and ADHD according to International League Against Epilepsy and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, criteria, respectively. We assessed both studies to be at low risk of detection and reporting biases, but assessments varied from low to high risk of bias for all other domains. OROS-MPH No participant taking OROS-MPH experienced significant worsening of epilepsy, defined as: 1. a doubling of the highest 14-day or highest two-day seizure rate observed during the 12 months before the trial; 2. a generalised tonic-clonic seizure if none had been experienced in the previous two years; or 3. a clinically meaningful intensification in seizure duration or severity (33 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence). However, higher doses of OROS-MPH predicted an increased daily risk of a seizure (P < 0.001; 33 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence). OROS-MPH had a larger proportion of participants receiving 'much improved' or 'very much improved' scores for ADHD symptoms on the Clinical Global Impressions for ADHD-Improvement tool (33 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence). OROS-MPH also had a larger proportion of people withdrawing from treatment (RR 2.80; 95% CI 1.14 to 6.89; 33 participants, 1 study; moderate-certainty evidence). Omega-3 Omega-3 with risperidone and ASM were associated with a reduction in mean seizure frequency by 6.6 seizures per month (95% CI 4.24 to 8.96; 56 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence) and an increase in the proportion of people achieving 50% or greater reduction in monthly seizure frequency (RR 2.79, 95% CI 0.84 to 9.24; 56 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence) compared to people on risperidone and ASM alone. Omega-3 with risperidone and ASM also had a smaller proportion of people withdrawing from treatment (RR 0.65, 95% CI 0.12 to 3.59; 61 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence) but a larger proportion of people experiencing adverse drug events (RR 1.40, 95% CI 0.44 to 4.42; 56 participants, 1 study; low-certainty evidence) compared to people on risperidone and ASM alone.\n\n\nAUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS\nIn children with a dual-diagnosis of epilepsy and ADHD, there is some evidence that use of the stimulant drug OROS-MPH is not associated with significant worsening of epilepsy, but higher doses of it may be associated with increased daily risk of seizures; the evidence is of low-certainty. OROS-MPH is also associated with improvement in ADHD symptoms. However, this treatment was also associated with a large proportion of treatment withdrawal compared to placebo. In relation to the non-stimulant drug omega-3, there is some evidence for reduction in seizure frequency in children who are also on risperidone and ASM, compared to children who are on risperidone and ASM alone. Evidence is inconclusive whether omega-3 increases or decreases the risk of adverse drug events. We identified only two studies - one each for OROS-MPH and omega-3 - with low to high risk of bias. We assessed the overall certainty of evidence for the outcomes of both OROS-MPH and omega-3 as low to moderate. More studies are needed. Future studies should include: 1. adult participants; 2. a wider variety of stimulant and non-stimulant drugs, such as amphetamines and atomoxetine, respectively; and 3. additional important outcomes, such as seizure-related hospitalisations and quality of life. Clusters of studies which assess the same drug - and those that build upon the evidence base presented in this review on OROS-MPH and omega-3 - are needed to allow for meta-analysis of outcomes.",
"corpus_id": 80895731,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "MULTIPLICITY REACTIVATION OF NEWCASTLE DISEASE VIRUS",
"abstract": "Drake, John W. (University of Illinois, Urbana). Multiplicity reactivation of Newcastle disease virus. J. Bacteriol. 84:352–356. 1962.—A very weak multiplicity reactivation occurs among Newcastle disease virus particles inactivated by ultraviolet irradiation. The preliminary steps in the infection of embryonic chicken fibroblasts are complex, and their relation to multiplicity reactivation is discussed.",
"corpus_id": 2327496
} | {
"title": "Efficiency of the synergistic infection of L cells by groups of damaged vaccinia virus particles, MR.",
"abstract": "Abstract Suspensions of high passage vaccinia virus have been partially inactivated by methyl methanesulfonate, ultraviolet rays, and heat at 56°. Groups of virus particles, whether present before treatment or formed subsequently, are shown to be 10 to several thousand times more likely to make plaques than single particles. This synergistic effect of MMS and UV is stronger than after heating. It closely resembles the multiplicity reactivation previously shown with X-rays, 137 Cs γ-rays, nitrogen mustard, and formaldehyde. It is demonstrated also in terms of more rapid growth of virus in cultures inoculated with aggregated preparations of virus treated with several of these agents. The probability of plaque formation has been computed for single particles and groups of 2, 3, 4 … from aggregation analyses by electron microscopy. The values, at equivalent dosages, are remarkably similar for all agents except heat.",
"corpus_id": 2743630
} | {
"title": "STUDIES ON HOST-VIRUS INTERACTIONS IN THE CHICK EMBRYO-INFLUENZA VIRUS SYSTEM",
"abstract": "The role of inhibitors of hemagglutination in the evaluation of host-virus interactions in the chick embryo-influenza virus system has been analyzed. Comparisons were made between materials (allantoic fluids and membrane suspensions) derived from in vivo (growth curve) experiments at hourly intervals after inoculation, and from in vitro tests in which normal allantoic fluids and membrane suspensions were incubated with virus at 37°C. for various periods of time. In both instances large amounts of virus were added to the systems, resulting in comparable concentrations of the agent. The seeds employed were either fully active or irradiated by ultraviolet light to the extent that the virus lost its capacity to increase but kept its interfering and hemagglutinating properties. The various materials were assayed for (a) the hemagglutinating titers of the virus present in the systems before and after heating to 56°C.; (b) the concentration of inhibitor in the materials at various stages of incubation after heating to 70°C. for 30 minutes as measured by the hemagglutination-inhibition reaction with native or heated test virus (30 minutes 56°C.); and (c) the degree of adsorption of the hemagglutinins present in the materials onto chicken red cells at 0°C. and their subsequent elution at 37°C. The effects of receptor-destroying enzyme (RDE), treatment with sodium periodate, or high speed centrifugation on the inhibitory activities were studied in some of the tests. The essential results which indicate certain sources of error in the evaluation of host-virus interactions as well as means for studying virus activity at the early stages of the infectious process, were as follows: 1. Though some inhibitory effects on hemagglutination were noticeable in the allantoic fluid during the 1st hour after inoculation they were, as a rule, no longer apparent after this interval, and treatment with RDE did not increase the hemagglutinin titers. Thus, the interpretation of growth curve data concerning allantoic fluids hardly seems to be affected by inhibitor. On the other hand, striking effects were noted with the membrane suspensions of growth curve experiments in that RDE shortened the latent period to 2 hours and the titers in the first few positive samples (4 to 5 hours) increased) whereas in later harvests no such effect was noted. Under these conditions complement-fixation antigens and hemagglutinins made their appearance in the tissues simultaneously and not as previously reported the former prior to the latter. However, the infectivity showed increments only several hours after these two activities had become measurable. Thus the hypothesis of the stagewise development of influenza virus is still supported by these data. 2. Using the inhibition of hemagglutination technic it was found that the inhibitor in allantoic fluid rapidly decreased as a result of the action of active and irradiated virus, but destruction was never complete. In the membranes of the in vivo series only active seed led to loss of inhibitor, again without complete destruction, beginning at the time complement-fixing antigen and hemagglutinins became measurable. Irradiated seed was without effect in vivo whereas, in the in vitro tests it equalled the activity of the active virus. The implications of this difference in the effectiveness of active and irradiated seed in vivo with regard to the understanding of the mode of viral multiplication are discussed. 3. Although many factors may influence the shape of adsorption-elution curves it is felt that at 0°C. the extent of adsorption is directly related to the amount of inhibitor present in the systems. In the early hours after inoculation the degree of adsorption was relatively small but it increased gradually with the time of incubation. The inhibitor of adsorption was destroyed by RDE and NaIO4 and was only partially sedimentable by high speed centrifugation. In every respect studied its properties corresponded with the findings obtained with inhibitors in the hemagglutination-inhibition technic. Although the difference in the rapidity of inhibitor destruction as measured by the various technics might suggest a multiplicity of inhibitors it is felt that it rather denotes a greater sensitivity of the adsorption technic as compared to the others.",
"corpus_id": 37668619,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Chronic disease multimorbidity transitions across healthcare interfaces and associated costs: a clinical-linkage database study",
"abstract": "Objective To investigate multimorbidity transitions from general practice populations across healthcare interfaces and the associated healthcare costs. Design Clinical-linkage database study. Setting Population (N=60 660) aged 40 years and over registered with 53 general practices in Stoke-on-Trent. Participants Population with six specified multimorbidity pairs were identified based on hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), coronary heart disease (CHD), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). Main outcomes measures Chronic disease registers were linked to accident and emergency (A&E) and hospital admissions for a 3-year time period (2007–2009), and associated costs measured by Healthcare Resource Groups. Associations between multimorbid groups and direct healthcare costs were compared with their respective single disease groups using linear regression methods, adjusting for age, gender and deprivation. Results In the study population, there were 9735 patients with hypertension and diabetes (16%), 3574 with diabetes and CHD (6%), 2894 with diabetes and CKD (5%), 1855 with COPD and CHD (3%), 754 with CHF and COPD (1%) and 1425 with CHF and CKD (2%). Transition, defined as at least one episode in each of the 3-year time periods, was as follows: patients with hypertension and DM had the fewest transitions in the 3-year time period (37% A&E episode and 51% hospital admission), but those with CHF and CKD had the most transitions (67% A&E episode and 79% hospital admission). The average 3-year total costs per multimorbid patient for A&E episodes ranged from £69 to £166 and for hospital admissions ranged from between £2289 and £5344. The adjusted costs were significantly higher for all six multimorbid groups compared with their respective single disease groups. Conclusions Specific common multimorbid pairs are associated with higher healthcare transitions and differential costs. Identification of multimorbidity type and linkage of information across interfaces provides opportunities for targeted intervention and delivery of integrated care.",
"corpus_id": 211904
} | {
"title": "Studies using English administrative data (Hospital Episode Statistics) to assess health-care outcomes--systematic review and recommendations for reporting.",
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nStudies using English administrative data from the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) are increasingly used for the assessment of health-care quality. This study aims to catalogue the published body of studies using HES data to assess health-care outcomes, to assess their methodological qualities and to determine if reporting recommendations can be formulated.\n\n\nMETHODS\nSystematic searches of the EMBASE, Medline and Cochrane databases were performed using defined search terms. Included studies were those that described the use of HES data extracts to assess health-care outcomes.\n\n\nRESULTS\nA total of 148 studies were included. The majority of published studies were on surgical specialties (60.8%), and the most common analytic theme was of inequalities and variations in treatment or outcome (27%). The volume of published studies has increased with time (r = 0.82, P < 0.0001), as has the length of study period (r = 0.76, P < 0.001) and the number of outcomes assessed per study (r = 0.72, P = 0.0023). Age (80%) and gender (57.4%) were the most commonly used factors in risk adjustment, and regression modelling was used most commonly (65.2%) to adjust for confounders. Generic methodologic data were better reported than those specific to HES data extraction. For the majority of parameters, there were no improvements with time.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nStudies published using HES data to report health-care outcomes have increased in volume, scope and complexity with time. However, persisting deficiencies related to both generic and context-specific reporting have been identified. Recommendations have been made to improve these aspects as it is likely that the role of these studies in assessing health care, benchmarking practice and planning service delivery will continue to increase.",
"corpus_id": 20418744
} | {
"title": "Information Technology for postgraduate education: survey of facilities and skills in the South West Deanery",
"abstract": "Objective To determine the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure available to, and IT skills of, obstetric specialiast registrars across the South West Denery.",
"corpus_id": 32234533,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Detecting Faulty Nodes with Data Errors for Wireless Sensor Networks",
"abstract": "Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) promise researchers a powerful instrument for observing sizable phenomena with fine granularity over long periods. Since the accuracy of data is important to the whole system's performance, detecting nodes with faulty readings is an essential issue in network management. As a complementary solution to detecting nodes with functional faults, this article, proposes FIND, a novel method to detect nodes with data faults that neither assumes a particular sensing model nor requires costly event injections. After the nodes in a network detect a natural event, FIND ranks the nodes based on their sensing readings as well as their physical distances from the event. FIND works for systems where the measured signal attenuates with distance. A node is considered faulty if there is a significant mismatch between the sensor data rank and the distance rank. Theoretically, we show that average ranking difference is a provable indicator of possible data faults. FIND is extensively evaluated in simulations and two test bed experiments with up to 25 MicaZ nodes. Evaluation shows that FIND has a less than 5p miss detection rate and false alarm rate in most noisy environments.",
"corpus_id": 14104714
} | {
"title": "Anomaly Detection in Medical Wireless Sensor Networks",
"abstract": "In this paper, we propose a new framework for anomaly detection in medical wireless sensor networks, which are used for remote monitoring of patient vital signs. The proposed framework performs sequential data analysis on a mini gateway used as a base station to detect abnormal changes and to cope with unreliable measurements in collected data without prior knowledge of anomalous events or normal data patterns. The proposed approach is based on the Mahalanobis distance for spatial analysis, and a kernel density estimator for the identification of abnormal temporal patterns. Our main objective is to distinguish between faulty measurements and clinical emergencies in order to reduce false alarms triggered by faulty measurements or ill-behaved sensors. Our experimental results on both real and synthetic medical datasets show that the proposed approach can achieve good detection accuracy with a low false alarm rate (less than 5.5%). Category: Embedded computing",
"corpus_id": 15388320
} | {
"title": "mydNews: Ranked news based on sentiment analysis and recursive cosine similarity",
"abstract": "News articles provide a large data set which can be used to classify information such as author's point of view, affiliation and biasedness. Classification on the basis of positive and negative content can help readers to understand the author's sentiments. mydNews application is a proposed a solution to achieve this objective of presenting author's opinion in an article. We performed sentiment analysis using CoreNLP API presented by Stanford and through experimentation we have reached to a conclusion that using 60% sentiment value of text and 40% of headline produces results nearest to human evaluation. We have proposed a new algorithm Recursive Cosine for similarity matching of news. Our algorithm uses classical cosine in a different way. We compared latest news articles with the one's published in same day by different authors and we have achieved 5% better results than classical cosine measure by using the newly constructed algorithm.",
"corpus_id": 9937598,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Modulation of a photoswitchable dual-color quantum dot containing a photochromic FRET acceptor and an internal standard.",
"abstract": "Photoswitchable semiconductor nanoparticles, quantum dots (QDs), couple the advantages of conventional QDs with the ability to reversibly modulate the QD emission, thereby improving signal detection by rejection of background signals. Using a simple coating methodology with polymers incorporating a diheteroarylethene photochromic FRET acceptor as well as a spectrally distinct organic fluorophore, photoswitchable QDs were prepared that are small, biocompatible, and feature ratiometric dual emission. With programmed irradiation, the fluorescence intensity ratio can be modified by up to ∼100%.",
"corpus_id": 402038
} | {
"title": "Reversible photoswitching conjugated polymer nanoparticles for cell and ex vivo tumor imaging.",
"abstract": "Fluorescent photoswitchable conjugated polymer nanoparticles (PCPNPs) bearing poly(9,9-dihexylfluorene-alt-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole) (PFBD) as the fluorescent host polymer and the photochromic diarylethene as toggle are synthesized via a modified nano-precipitation method using 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[amino(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DSPE-PEG-NH₂) as the encapsulation matrix. The PCPNPs are spherical in shape with diameters around 34 nm. The fluorescence switching processes upon UV and white light illumination are successfully demonstrated with high contrast up to 90-fold, recovery efficiency of 95%, and excellent repeatability in solution. The cationic PCPNPs can be easily internalized into cancer cells, and accumulate in tumor tissues, where the fluorescence photoswitching processes can be used to self-validate the imaging results.",
"corpus_id": 5466498
} | {
"title": "Alignment of the tryptic fragments and location of sulfhydryl groups of the polypeptide chain elongation factor Tu.",
"abstract": "Summary A limited hydrolysis with trypsin of the polypeptide chain elongation factor Tu (EF-Tu) in the native state has been investigated in detail. The reaction proceeded in two stages. In the first stage, the protein was cleaved into two polypeptides, with molecular weights of 39,000 and 8,000, which were designated as Fragments A and D, respectively. In the second stage, the Fragment A was transformed to Fragments B (M.W. 23,000) and C (M.W. 12,000) which still existed as a complex molecule containing Fragment D. Analyses of N- and C-terminal sequences of the intact EF-Tu as well as these 4 fragments have revealed that Fragments D and C were derived from N- and C-termini of EF-Tu, respectively. Further, the amino acid sequence of Fragment B containing all of the three sulfhydryls of EF-Tu has been investigated. On cleavage of Fragment B with cyanogen bromide, three sulfhydryl-containing polypeptides were obtained, i.e. a 3000-dalton peptide containing the sulfhydryl essential for the binding of guanine nucleotides (SH1), a 5000-dalton peptide containing the sulfhydryl essential for aminoacyl-tRNA binding (SH2), and a 10,000-dalton peptide containing the non-reactive sulfhydryl (SH3). From the partial sequence determination of these three peptides, the location of the sulfhydryls was determined as in the order of SH2, SH1, and SH3 from the N- to C-termini of EF-Tu.",
"corpus_id": 21811360,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Patient satisfaction with anaesthesia services and associated factors at the University of Gondar Hospital, 2013: a cross-sectional study",
"abstract": "BackgroundPatient satisfaction is the degree of fulfilling patients’ anticipation which is an important component and quality indicator in anaesthesia service. It can be affected by anaesthetist patient interaction, perioperative anaesthetic management and postoperative follow up. No previous study conducted in our setup. The aim was to assess patient satisfaction with anaesthesia services and associated factors.MethodsInstitutional based cross sectional study was conducted from April 15–30, 2013 at the University of Gondar referral and teaching hospital. All patients who were operated upon both under general and regional anaesthesia during the study period were included. Standardized questionnaire used for postoperative patient interview. Data was entered and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) window version 20. Chi Square test used to assess the association between each factor and the overall satisfaction of patients. The proportion of patients who said they were satisfied with anaesthesia services was presented in percentage.ResultsA total of 200 patients were operated upon under anaesthesia during the study period. Of these, a total of 156 patients were included in this study with a response rate of 78 %. The overall proportion of patients who said they were satisfied with anaesthesia services was 90.4 %. Factors that affected patient satisfaction negatively (dissatisfaction level and p value) were general anaesthesia (12.6 %, P = 0.046), intraoperative awareness (50 %, P = <0.001), pain during operation (61.1 %, P = <0.001), and pain immediately after operation (25 %, P = <0.001) respectively.Conclusion and recommendationPatient satisfaction with anaesthesia services was low in our setup compared with many previous studies. Factors that affected patient satisfaction negatively may be preventable or better treated. Awareness creation about the current problem and training need to be given for anaesthetists.",
"corpus_id": 2428038
} | {
"title": "Quality of Anesthesia Care in a University Hospital in Thailand.",
"abstract": "BACKGROUND\nService quality is an important factor, which value differs between the patient's satisfaction and expectation. The patient's expectations are important factors for development. This service quality is a key part for improvement of our anesthesia service. In general, an improvement in service design and delivery helps to achieve higher levels of the service quality.\n\n\nOBJECTIVE\nTo evaluate the level of patient's expectation, patient's satisfaction and the quality of anesthesia care in a university hospital in Thailand\n\n\nMATERIAL AND METHOD\nThe patient satisfaction questionnaire, developed from service quality criteria and patient satisfaction questionnaire (PSQ-18), was applied to evaluate 467 in patients 24-72 hours after anesthesia care. The patients'expectation was also assessed A proportional stratified randomized allocation was done. The questionnaire consisted of three dimensions; 1) structure: reliability & empathy, 2) process: assurance & tangible and 3) result: responsiveness. Data expectation and satisfaction were analyzed with mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and normalized gain for the quality of anesthesia care.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe patient's satisfaction in our anesthesia care is relatively high. The mean patient's satisfaction score is significantly higher than the mean patient's expectation in all dimensions. This study indicated that an anesthesia service in our hospital was a high quality service in the inpatient aspects.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nPatient's expectation and satisfaction with anesthesia services in our setting was relatively high. Although most patients never had been any expectation regarding anesthesia service, the information and the involvement in decision- making were the most requirements of the adult inpatients.",
"corpus_id": 22030331
} | {
"title": "Graduate nurse perceptions of the work experience.",
"abstract": "Findings from a longitudinal study on the perceptions of the work environment and job satisfaction for new graduate nurses in the first 18 months of employment at a Magnet Midwestern urban academic pediatric medical center are described. The findings indicated that orientation assisted the new graduate to become confident in his/her clinical competence and work management. By 18 months, the new graduate felt satisfied with access to resources and the ability to participate in professional development opportunities. The results suggest that the new graduate nurse's career adjustment extends beyond mastering clinical skills and includes a lifestyle adjustment to a profession that requires service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.",
"corpus_id": 40099642,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Adversarial Example Generation with Syntactically Controlled Paraphrase Networks",
"abstract": "We propose syntactically controlled paraphrase networks (SCPNs) and use them to generate adversarial examples. Given a sentence and a target syntactic form (e.g., a constituency parse), SCPNs are trained to produce a paraphrase of the sentence with the desired syntax. We show it is possible to create training data for this task by first doing backtranslation at a very large scale, and then using a parser to label the syntactic transformations that naturally occur during this process. Such data allows us to train a neural encoder-decoder model with extra inputs to specify the target syntax. A combination of automated and human evaluations show that SCPNs generate paraphrases that follow their target specifications without decreasing paraphrase quality when compared to baseline (uncontrolled) paraphrase systems. Furthermore, they are more capable of generating syntactically adversarial examples that both (1) \"fool\" pretrained models and (2) improve the robustness of these models to syntactic variation when used to augment their training data.",
"corpus_id": 4956100
} | {
"title": "Neural Paraphrase Generation with Stacked Residual LSTM Networks",
"abstract": "In this paper, we propose a novel neural approach for paraphrase generation. Conventional para- phrase generation methods either leverage hand-written rules and thesauri-based alignments, or use statistical machine learning principles. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first to explore deep learning models for paraphrase generation. Our primary contribution is a stacked residual LSTM network, where we add residual connections between LSTM layers. This allows for efficient training of deep LSTMs. We evaluate our model and other state-of-the-art deep learning models on three different datasets: PPDB, WikiAnswers and MSCOCO. Evaluation results demonstrate that our model outperforms sequence to sequence, attention-based and bi- directional LSTM models on BLEU, METEOR, TER and an embedding-based sentence similarity metric.",
"corpus_id": 9385494
} | {
"title": "Automatic Text Summarization: Past, Present and Future",
"abstract": "Automatic text summarization, the computer-based production of condensed versions of documents, is an important technology for the information society. Without summaries it would be practically impossible for human beings to get access to the ever growing mass of information available online. Although research in text summarization is over 50 years old, some efforts are still needed given the insufficient quality of automatic summaries and the number of interesting summarization topics being proposed in different contexts by end users (“domain-specific summaries”, “opinion-oriented summaries”, “update summaries”, etc.). This paper gives a short overview of summarization methods and evaluation.",
"corpus_id": 36733653,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Protective Effect of IL-18 on Kainate- and IL-1β-Induced Cerebellar Ataxia in Mice1",
"abstract": "The pathogenesis of sporadic cerebellar ataxia remains unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that proinflammatory cytokines, IL-18 and IL-1β, reciprocally regulate kainate-induced cerebellar ataxia in mice. We show that systemic administration of kainate activated IL-1β and IL-18 predominantly in the cerebellum of mice, which was accompanied with ataxia. Mice deficient in caspase-1, IL-1R type I, or MyD88 were resistant to kainate-induced ataxia, while IL-18- or IL-18R α-deficient mice displayed significant delay of recovery from ataxia. A direct intracerebellar injection of IL-1β-induced ataxia and intracerebellar coinjection of IL-18 counteracted the effect of IL-1β. Our data firstly show that IL-18 and IL-1β display differential direct regulation in kainate-induced ataxia in mice. Our results might contribute toward the development of a new therapeutic strategy for cerebellar ataxia in humans.",
"corpus_id": 253526
} | {
"title": "Subclinical Inflammation and Diabetic Polyneuropathy",
"abstract": "OBJECTIVE Subclinical inflammation represents a risk factor of type 2 diabetes and several diabetes complications, but data on diabetic neuropathies are scarce. Therefore, we investigated whether circulating concentrations of acute-phase proteins, cytokines, and chemokines differ among diabetic patients with or without diabetic polyneuropathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We measured 10 markers of subclinical inflammation in 227 type 2 diabetic patients with diabetic polyneuropathy who participated in the population-based MONICA/KORA Survey F3 (2004–2005; Augsburg, Germany). Diabetic polyneuropathy was diagnosed using the Michigan Neuropathy Screening Instrument (MNSI). RESULTS After adjustment for multiple confounders, high levels of C-reactive protein and interleukin (IL)-6 were most consistently associated with diabetic polyneuropathy, high MNSI score, and specific neuropathic deficits, whereas some inverse associations were seen for IL-18. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that subclinical inflammation is associated with diabetic polyneuropathy and neuropathic impairments. This association appears rather specific because only certain immune mediators and impairments are involved.",
"corpus_id": 124310
} | {
"title": "Interferon-gamma inhibits central nervous system remyelination through a process modulated by endoplasmic reticulum stress.",
"abstract": "Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is believed to play a deleterious role in the immune-mediated demyelinating disorder multiple sclerosis. Here we have exploited transgenic mice that ectopically express IFN-gamma in a temporally controlled manner in the CNS to specifically study its effects on remyelination in the cuprizone-induced demyelination model and in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis. CNS delivery of IFN-gamma severely suppressed remyelination in both models and impaired the clinical recovery of the mice experiencing EAE. These observations correlated with a dramatic reduction of oligodendroglial repopulation in the demyelinated lesions. Moreover, we found that in cuprizone-treated mice the detrimental actions of IFN-gamma were associated with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in remyelinating oligodendrocytes. Compared with a wild-type genetic background, the presence of IFN-gamma in mice heterozygous for a loss of function mutation in the pancreatic ER kinase (PERK), a kinase that responds specifically to ER stress, further reduced the percentage of remyelinated axons and oligodendrocyte numbers in cuprizone-induced demyelinated lesions. Thus, these data suggest that IFN-gamma is capable of inhibiting remyelination in demyelinated lesions and that ER stress modulates the response of remyelinating oligodendrocytes to this cytokine.",
"corpus_id": 31863863,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Gene expression meta-analysis identifies chromosomal regions and candidate genes involved in breast cancer metastasis",
"abstract": "Breast cancer cells exhibit complex karyotypic alterations causing deregulation of numerous genes. Some of these genes are probably causal for cancer formation and local growth whereas others are causal for the various steps of metastasis. In a fraction of tumors deregulation of the same genes might be caused by epigenetic modulations, point mutations or the influence of other genes. We have investigated the relation of gene expression and chromosomal position, using eight datasets including more than 1200 breast tumors, to identify chromosomal regions and candidate genes possibly causal for breast cancer metastasis. By use of “Gene Set Enrichment Analysis” we have ranked chromosomal regions according to their relation to metastasis. Overrepresentation analysis identified regions with increased expression for chromosome 1q41–42, 8q24, 12q14, 16q22, 16q24, 17q12–21.2, 17q21–23, 17q25, 20q11, and 20q13 among metastasizing tumors and reduced gene expression at 1p31–21, 8p22–21, and 14q24. By analysis of genes with extremely imbalanced expression in these regions we identified DIRAS3 at 1p31, PSD3, LPL, EPHX2 at 8p21–22, and FOS at 14q24 as candidate metastasis suppressor genes. Potential metastasis promoting genes includes RECQL4 at 8q24, PRMT7 at 16q22, GINS2 at 16q24, and AURKA at 20q13.",
"corpus_id": 1334669
} | {
"title": "High-level amplification at 17q23 leads to coordinated overexpression of multiple adjacent genes in breast cancer",
"abstract": "Increased copy numbers of 17q23 chromosomal region have been shown to occur in different tumour types and to be associated with tumour progression and with poor prognosis. Several genes have earlier been proposed as potential oncogenes at this region largely on the grounds of cell lines studies. In this study, we performed a systematic gene expression survey on 26 primary breast tumours with known 17q23 amplification status by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The 17q23 amplicon is restricted to an ∼5 MB region in breast cancer and contains 29 known genes. Our survey revealed a statistically significant (P<0.01) difference between the high level and no amplification groups in a set of eleven genes whereas no difference between the moderate and the non-amplified tumour groups were observed. Interestingly, these 11 genes were located adjacent to one another within a 1.56 Mb core region in which all except one of the genes were overexpressed. These data suggest that only high-level amplification at the 17q23 amplicon core leads to elevated gene expression in breast cancer. Moreover, our results highlight the fact that 17q23 amplicon carries multiple candidate genes and that this may be a more common event in gene amplification than previously thought.",
"corpus_id": 419500
} | {
"title": "Separating vascular and neuronal effects of age on fMRI BOLD signals",
"abstract": "Accurate identification of brain function is necessary to understand the neurobiology of cognitive ageing, and thereby promote well-being across the lifespan. A common tool used to investigate neurocognitive ageing is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, although fMRI data are often interpreted in terms of neuronal activity, the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal measured by fMRI includes contributions of both vascular and neuronal factors, which change differentially with age. While some studies investigate vascular ageing factors, the results of these studies are not well known within the field of neurocognitive ageing and therefore vascular confounds in neurocognitive fMRI studies are common. Despite over 10 000 BOLD-fMRI papers on ageing, fewer than 20 have applied techniques to correct for vascular effects. However, neurovascular ageing is not only a confound in fMRI, but an important feature in its own right, to be assessed alongside measures of neuronal ageing. We review current approaches to dissociate neuronal and vascular components of BOLD-fMRI of regional activity and functional connectivity. We highlight emerging evidence that vascular mechanisms in the brain do not simply control blood flow to support the metabolic needs of neurons, but form complex neurovascular interactions that influence neuronal function in health and disease. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Key relationships between non-invasive functional neuroimaging and the underlying neuronal activity’.",
"corpus_id": 208857617,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Constrained analogues of tocainide as potent skeletal muscle sodium channel blockers towards the development of antimyotonic agents.",
"abstract": "1-Benzyl-N-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)piperidine-3-carboxamide and 4-benzyl-N-(2,6-dimethylphenyl)piperazine-2-carboxamide, two conformationally restricted analogues of tocainide, were designed and synthesized as voltage-gated skeletal muscle sodium channel blockers. They showed, with respect to tocainide, a marked increase in both potency and use-dependent block.",
"corpus_id": 867432
} | {
"title": "Increased rigidity of the chiral centre of tocainide favours stereoselectivity and use‐dependent block of skeletal muscle Na+ channels enhancing the antimyotonic activity in vivo",
"abstract": "Searching for the structural requirements improving the potency and the stereoselectivity of Na+ channel blockers as antimyotonic agents, new derivatives of tocainide, in which the chiral carbon atom is constrained in a rigid α‐proline or pyrrolo‐imidazolic cycle, were synthesized as pure enantiomers. Their ability to block Na+ currents, elicited from −100 to −20 mV at 0.3 Hz (tonic block) and 2 – 10 Hz (use‐dependent block) frequencies, was investigated in vitro on single fibres of frog semitendinosus muscle using the vaseline‐gap voltage‐clamp method. The α‐proline derivative, To5, was 5 and 21 fold more potent than tocainide in producing tonic and 10 Hz‐use‐dependent block, respectively. Compared to To5, the presence of one methyl group on the aminic (To6) or amidic (To7) nitrogen atom decreased use‐dependence by 2‐ and 6‐times, respectively. When methylene moieties were present on both nitrogen atoms (To8), both tonic and use‐dependent block were reduced. Contrarily to tocainide, all proline derivatives were stereoselective in relation to an increased rigidity. A further increase in the molecular rigidity as in pyrrolo‐imidazolic derivatives markedly decreased the drug potency with respect to tocainide. Antimyotonic activity, evaluated as the shortening of the time of righting reflexes of myotonic adr/adr mice upon acute drug in vivo administration was 3 fold more effective for R‐To5 than for R‐Tocainide. Thus, constraining the chiral centre of tocainide in α‐proline cycle leads to more potent and stereoselective use‐dependent Na+ channel blockers with improved therapeutic potential.",
"corpus_id": 25019704
} | {
"title": "Aluminium speciation in natural water by sorption on a complexing resin.",
"abstract": "Very stable aluminium complexes may be present in natural waters, which can be detected only using appropriate methods. One of them is the resin titration based on the sorption of aluminium on a strongly sorbing resin, Chelex 100. It was here used to detect strong aluminium complexes, and to characterize them by determining their concentration, and the corresponding stability constant. High and low salinity waters were sampled in different sites in the North of Italy. In all the samples aluminium complexes with high stability constant, up to 10(17.4) M(-1) in the less acidic solution, were detected. The stability constant depends mainly on the solution acidity, increasing with increasing pH up to 7. The concentration of the ligands responsible for the strong complexation is similar to that of aluminium (from 0.5 to 1.5 microM), or somewhat lower in the case of estuarine and sea waters. A small fraction of aluminium (from 0% to 2%) in freshwaters, higher in estuarine and sea waters (14% and 10%, respectively), is present in weakly bound forms which could also be the hydrolysis products. The conditional constants of the strong complexes were determined for the different samples examined. They were found to be slightly lower in the case of the high salinity waters, in which a value of 10(16.1) M(-1) at pH 7.5 was obtained. This is probably due to the higher ionic strength in marine water, which strongly influences the complexation of trivalent metal ions, as seen for example also in the hydrolysis. It could be deduced that similar substances, but at different concentration, would be responsible for the aluminium complexation in the sea and freshwaters here examined. They could be natural organics like fulvic substances, or better some particular complexing sites in this substances with very high affinity for aluminium.",
"corpus_id": 23252975,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Active Recharging of Bipolar Phototransistors in the Charge Storage Mode",
"abstract": "Up to now phototransistors operated in the charge storage mode are read out and recharged in a passive way with the help of a load resistance [1] [2]. See Figs« 1 and 2; the integration time is T¿ and the read-out time Tr. As this recharging process is fundamentally non-linear, the phototransistor cannot be reproducibly recharged in a fixed read-out-time, which results in a memory effect» This memory effect increases dramatically for low light levels, because then the differential base-emitter resistance becomes dominant and the transient response becomes very sluggish C1] ; see Fig. 2.",
"corpus_id": 1463938
} | {
"title": "Transfer functions of imaging mosaics utilizing the charge storage phenomena of transistor structures",
"abstract": "Silicon phototransistors operating in the integration mode have been used in light detection and imaging systems. A solid-state imaging system employing a monolithic mosaic of 12 800 n-p-n phototransistors has been developed. An analysis of the integration mode of operation of a silicon phototransistor is presented. The analysis employs a simplified equivalent circuit of a phototransistor. Three different cases are analyzed; each case differs in that the length of the readout cycle is changed. The solution to all three cases gives an output voltage directly proportional to the ratio of light plus leakage generated charge to the base-collector junction depletion layer capacitance. Analysis of phototransistor operation in a mosaic where interactions with the other phototransistors in the array are accounted for is presented. Discussion concerning the parasitic capacitances due to readout switches is given for the particular mosaic design employed.",
"corpus_id": 109847421
} | {
"title": "Finite-element modeling for the design optimization of microwave filters",
"abstract": "This paper outlines an electromagnetic optimization technique dedicated to the design of microwave bandpass filters. The purpose is to determine the optimal dimensions of the electromagnetic model. Applying this technique, the geometrical dimensions of the distributed structure are accurately determined, and no experimental readjustment is necessary. The optimization procedure combines an electromagnetic analysis and a parameter extraction. The analysis method is a finite-element modeling coupled with a frequency parameterization technique for improving the computation time. The parameter extraction method is based on the approximation of the simulated scattering matrix and on the synthesis of the equivalent electrical network. The comparison between extracted and ideal networks enables to converge the optimal dimensions. The procedure is applied to design a dual-mode waveguide filter. In this case, within the electromagnetic model, the screws are taken into account using lumped elements which may be adjusted independently.",
"corpus_id": 30035096,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "A spectrophotometric assay for adenine phosphoribosyltransferase.",
"abstract": "Abstract The present paper describes a new spectrophotometric assay for adenine phosphoribosyltransferase activity which is highly reproducible, rapid, sensitive, and simpler than the isotopic assays for this enzyme. This assay is based on the quantitative measurement of the product AMP by a NADH-coupled enzyme method.",
"corpus_id": 1439791
} | {
"title": "Partial deficiency of hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase: intermediate enzyme deficiency in heterozygote red cells.",
"abstract": "Abstract Heterozygotes for hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRTase) deficiency, although they demonstrate HGPRTase positive and negative cells on fibroblast culture, generally have...",
"corpus_id": 30034989
} | {
"title": "Sphingolipids and the Balancing of Immune Cell Function: Lessons from the Mast Cell",
"abstract": "Recent studies reveal that metabolites of sphingomyelin are critically important for initiation and maintenance of diverse aspects of immune cell activation and function. The conversion of sphingomyelin to ceramide, sphingosine, or sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) provides interconvertible metabolites with distinct biological activities. Whereas ceramide and sphingosine function to induce apoptosis and to dampen mast cell responsiveness, S1P functions as a chemoattractant and can up-regulate some effector responses. Many of the S1P effects are mediated through S1P receptor family members (S1P1–5). S1P1, which is required for thymocyte emigration and lymphocyte recirculation, is also essential for Ag-induced mast cell chemotaxis, whereas S1P2 is important for mast cell degranulation. S1P is released to the extracellular milieu by Ag-stimulated mast cells, enhancing inflammatory cell functions. Modulation of S1P receptor expression profiles, and of enzymes involved in sphingolipid metabolism, particularly sphingosine kinases, are key in balancing mast cell and immune cell responses. Current efforts are unraveling the complex underlying mechanisms regulating the sphingolipid pathway. Pharmacological intervention of these key processes may hold promise for controlling unwanted immune responses.",
"corpus_id": 3244206,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Molecular basis of differential nitrogen use efficiencies and nitrogen source preferences in contrasting Arabidopsis accessions",
"abstract": "Natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana differ in their growth and development, but also vary dramatically in their nitrogen use efficiencies (NUE). The molecular basis for these differences has not been addressed yet. Experiments with five contrasting accessions grown in hydroponics at different levels of inorganic nitrogen confirmed low NUE of Col-0 and higher NUE in Tsu-0. At constant external nitrogen supply, higher NUE was based on nitrogen capture, rather than utilization of nitrogen for shoot biomass. This changed when a limited nitrogen amount was supplied. Nevertheless, the total NUE sequence remained similar. Interestingly, the two most contrasting accessions, Col-0 and Tsu-0, differed in the capture of single inorganic nitrogen sources, reflected by the differential consumption of 15N label from ammonium or nitrate, when supplied together. Tsu-0 acquired more nitrate than Col-0, both in roots and shoots. This preference was directly correlated with the expression of certain nitrogen uptake and assimilation systems in the root. However, early transcriptional responses of the root to nitrate deprivation were similar in both accessions, suggesting that the sensing of the external lack of nitrate was not different in the more nitrogen use efficient accession. Thus, a robust rapid nitrate-deprivation signaling exists in both genotypes.",
"corpus_id": 3438352
} | {
"title": "Genetic analysis of nitrogen use efficiency in Arabidopsis thaliana",
"abstract": "Nitrogen (N) is an abundant element on earth. It is a crucial macro-element for plant growth and development. The lack of N causes reduced shoot growth and photosynthesis, early flowering, increased lateral/primary root ratio, and anthocyanin accumulation. Farmers apply N fertilizers to deal with N shortage, however, it causes adverse effects on the environment. Plants are adapted to live under low N supply and can still sustain growth and reproduction. N use efficiency (NUE), shoot dry matter per shoot N content, is used to measure the adaptation to the N depletion. This research investigates the candidate genes, which are responsible for sub-optimal N supply adaptation by using Arabidopsis thaliana, as a model organism. 354 diverse accessions of a natural population, called as HapMap population, are screened under sub-optimal (1 mM) and optimal (5 mM) N (in the form of ammonium/nitrate) conditions. NUE, related agronomic traits (NRATs), and phenotypic plasticity are used to map quantitative trait loci (QTLs). Genome-wide association study (GWAS) is used as a mapping technique and identifies 28 QTLs. 20 accessions from HapMap population are reassessed to confirm extreme accessions in the population. Besides, positive correlation is observed between NUE and relative growth rate and between shoot N concentration and water content. Br-0 and Col-0, two distinct accessions on NUE, are selected as parental accessions for further QTL investigation using bi-parental linkage mapping. QTL mapping reveals seven loci in Br-0 and Col-0 RIL population. One locus, associated with the phenotypic plasticity of water content in GWAS and the shoot fresh weight in the bi-parental linkage mapping, is found to be co-located in both mapping results. This research indicates that the natural genetic variation in Arabidopsis thaliana has a great potential for investigation of NUE improvement in plants. Both GWAS and bi-parental linkage mapping use the natural genetic variation to identify QTLs associated with NUE, NRATs, and phenotypic plasticity.",
"corpus_id": 196689183
} | {
"title": "Modeling the effects of pollutant emissions from large industrial complexes on benzene, toluene, and xylene concentrations in urban areas",
"abstract": "This study utilized the Community Multiscale Air Quality model to simulate the spatial distribution of benzene, toluene, and xylene (BTX) concentrations from large national industrial complexes (IC) located in the Ulsan metropolitan region (UMR). Through controlling pollutant emissions from major IC, this study performed a quantitative analysis of the influence of pollutant emissions on BTX concentrations in surrounding urban areas. The results showed that approximately 40% of the annual average BTX concentrations in nearby urban grids were directly influenced by pollutant emissions from the IC. Seasonal modeling results indicated that average BTX concentrations were high around petrochemical complexes, with higher concentrations in the surrounding urban areas during the summer (July). All three of the BTX pollutants showed similar seasonal differences. Daily contributions differed significantly throughout the modeling period, with some values reaching a maximum of 80% during July. Overall, when urban areas were located downwind of the IC, contributions rose. Moreover, this study compared the differences in BTX contributions at each measurement point within the IC and urban areas, which showed that the influence of the IC emissions decreased significantly with distance. The spatial distribution and direct influence of the IC on BTX concentrations in the UMR identified through this study could be used to provide input data in environmental epidemiological studies.",
"corpus_id": 3718357,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "INTRODUCING A PEDAGOGY OF EMPATHIC ACTION AS INFORMED BY SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS",
"abstract": "p. vii",
"corpus_id": 154390619
} | {
"title": "Conceptualizing Empathy Competence: A Professional Communication Perspective",
"abstract": "Empathy competence is considered a key aspect of excellent performance in communication professions. But we lack an overview of the specific knowledge, attitudes, and skills required to develop such competence in professional communication. Through interviews with 35 seasoned communication professionals, this article explores the role and nature of empathy competence in professional interactions. The analysis resulted in a framework that details the skills, knowledge, and attitudinal aspects of empathy; distinguishes five actions through which empathy manifests itself; and sketches relationships of empathy with several auxiliary factors. The framework can be used for professional development, recruitment, and the design of communication education programs.",
"corpus_id": 233633452
} | {
"title": "Modulation of spinal excitability during observation of bipedal locomotion",
"abstract": "This study investigated whether a mirror mechanism exists for bipedal locomotion. We employed the soleus (plantar flexor) Hoffman reflex to investigate corticospinal excitability at the spinal level during observation of bipedal locomotion. The differential amplitude modulation of the left soleus Hoffman reflex during observation of bipedal heel-stepping (plantar dorsiflexion) (324±53 μV), standing still (383±60 μV), and bipedal toe-stepping (plantar flexion) (419±53 μV) reached significance (P<0.05). The observation of bipedal toe-stepping produced a greater increase in spinal excitability than the observation of bipedal heel-stepping. These findings support the suggestion that there is a mirror mechanism for bipedal locomotion and they demonstrate that spinal excitability for observation of bipedal locomotion mirrors that for execution of bipedal locomotion.",
"corpus_id": 16444115,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Temporal Network Analysis of Literary Texts",
"abstract": "We study temporal networks of characters in literature focussing on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll and the anonymous La Chanson de Roland (around 1100). The former, one of the most influential pieces of nonsense literature ever written, describes the adventures of Alice in a fantasy world with logic plays interspersed along the narrative. The latter, a song of heroic deeds, depicts the Battle of Roncevaux in 778 A.D. during Charlemagne’s campaign on the Iberian Peninsula. We apply methods recently developed by Taylor et al. [Taylor, D., Myers, S. A., Clauset, A., Porter, M. A. and Mucha, P. J., Eigenvector-based centrality measures for temporal networks, CoRR (2015).] to find time-averaged eigenvector centralities, Freeman indices and vitalities of characters. We show that temporal networks are more appropriate than static ones for studying stories, as they capture features that the time-independent approaches fail to yield.",
"corpus_id": 2175242
} | {
"title": "Extracting Social Network and Character Categorization From Bengali Literature",
"abstract": "Literature network analysis is an emerging area in the computational research domain. Literature network is a type of social network with various distinct features. The analysis explores significance of human behavior and complex social relationships. The story consists of some characters and creates an interconnected social system. Each character of the literature represents a node and the edge between any two nodes offered the interaction between them. An annotation and a novel character categorization method are developed to extract interactive social network from the Bengali drama. We analyze Raktakarabi and Muktodhara , two renowned Bengali dramas of Rabindranath Tagore. Weighted degree, closeness, and betweenness centrality analyze the correlation among the characters. We propose an edge contribution-based centrality and diversity metric of a node to determine the influence of one character over others. High diverse nodes show low clustering coefficient and vice versa. We propose a novel idea to analyze the characteristics of protagonist and antagonist from the influential nodes based on the complex graph. We also present a game theory-based community detection method that clusters the actors with a high degree of relationship. Evaluation on real-world networks demonstrates the superiority of the proposed method over the other existing algorithms. Interrelationship of the actors within the drama is also shown from the detected communities, as underlying theme of the narrations is identical. The analytical results show that our method efficiently finds the protagonist and antagonist from the literature network. The method is unique, and the analytical results are more accurate and unbiased than the human perspective. Our approach establishes similar results compared with the benchmark analysis available in Tagore’s Bengali literature.",
"corpus_id": 44093242
} | {
"title": "A highly accurate and computationally efficient approach for unconstrained iris segmentation",
"abstract": "Biometric research has experienced significant advances in recent years given the need for more stringent security requirements. More important is the need to overcome the rigid constraints necessitated by the practical implementation of sensible but effective security methods such as iris recognition. An inventive iris acquisition method with less constrained image taking conditions can impose minimal to no constraints on the iris verification and identification process as well as on the subject. Consequently, to provide acceptable measures of accuracy, it is critical for such an iris recognition system to be complemented by a robust iris segmentation approach to overcome various noise effects introduced through image capture under different recording environments and scenarios. This research introduces a robust and fast segmentation approach towards less constrained iris recognition using noisy images contained in the UBIRIS.v2 database (the second version of the UBIRIS noisy iris database). The proposed algorithm consists of five steps, which include: (1) detecting the approximate localization of the eye area of the noisy image captured at the visible wavelength using the extracted sclera area, (2) defining the outer iris boundary which is the boundary between iris and sclera, (3) detecting the upper and lower eyelids, (4) conducting the verification and correction for outer iris boundary detection and (5) detecting the pupil area and eyelashes and providing means for verification of the reliability of the segmentation results. The results demonstrate that the accuracy is estimated as 98% when using 500 randomly selected images from the UBIRIS.v2 partial database, and estimated at >=97% in a ''Noisy Iris Challenge Evaluation (NICE.I)'' in an international competition that involved 97 participants worldwide, ranking this research group in sixth position. This accuracy is achieved with a processing speed nearing real time.",
"corpus_id": 2315714,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Experimental visualization of the diffusion pathway of sodium ions in the Na3[Ti2P2O10F] anode for sodium-ion battery",
"abstract": "Sodium-ion batteries have attracted considerable interest as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries for electric storage applications because of the low cost and natural abundance of sodium resources. The materials with an open framework are highly desired for Na-ion insertion/extraction. Here we report on the first visualization of the sodium-ion diffusion path in Na3[Ti2P2O10F] through high-temperature neutron powder diffraction experiments. The evolution of the Na-ion displacements of Na3[Ti2P2O10F] was investigated with high-temperature neutron diffraction (HTND) from room temperature to 600°C; difference Fourier maps were utilized to estimate the Na nuclear-density distribution. Temperature-driven Na displacements indicates that sodium-ion diffusion paths are established within the ab plane. As an anode for sodium-ion batteries, Na3[Ti2P2O10F] exhibits a reversible capacity of ~100 mAh g−1 with lower intercalation voltage. It also shows good cycling stability and rate capability, making it promising applications in sodium-ion batteries.",
"corpus_id": 11779044
} | {
"title": "Bayesian-Driven First-Principles Calculations for Accelerating Exploration of Fast Ion Conductors for Rechargeable Battery Application",
"abstract": "Safe and robust batteries are urgently requested today for power sources of electric vehicles. Thus, a growing interest has been noted for fabricating those with solid electrolytes. Materials search by density functional theory (DFT) methods offers great promise for finding new solid electrolytes but the evaluation is known to be computationally expensive, particularly on ion migration property. In this work, we proposed a Bayesian-optimization-driven DFT-based approach to efficiently screen for compounds with low ion migration energies ($${{\\boldsymbol{E}}}_{{\\boldsymbol{b}}}{\\boldsymbol{)}}$$Eb). We demonstrated this on 318 tavorite-type Li- and Na-containing compounds. We found that the scheme only requires ~30% of the total DFT-$${{\\boldsymbol{E}}}_{{\\boldsymbol{b}}}$$Eb evaluations on the average to recover the optimal compound ~90% of the time. Its recovery performance for desired compounds in the tavorite search space is ~2× more than random search (i.e., for $${{\\boldsymbol{E}}}_{{\\boldsymbol{b}}}$$Eb < 0.3 eV). Our approach offers a promising way for addressing computational bottlenecks in large-scale material screening for fast ionic conductors.",
"corpus_id": 4808424
} | {
"title": "An aqueous rechargeable lithium battery of high energy density based on coated Li metal and LiCoO2.",
"abstract": "Using a coated Li metal as an anode and LiCoO2 as a cathode, an aqueous rechargeable battery is built up, whose average discharge voltage is 3.70 V. This high voltage stability is due to the \"cross-over\" effect of Li(+) ions, which is different from the traditional ways of increasing overpotentials. The total energy density can be 465 W h kg(-1).",
"corpus_id": 26708776,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "ParceLiNGAM: A Causal Ordering Method Robust Against Latent Confounders",
"abstract": "We consider learning a causal ordering of variables in a linear nongaussian acyclic model called LiNGAM. Several methods have been shown to consistently estimate a causal ordering assuming that all the model assumptions are correct. But the estimation results could be distorted if some assumptions are violated. In this letter, we propose a new algorithm for learning causal orders that is robust against one typical violation of the model assumptions: latent confounders. The key idea is to detect latent confounders by testing independence between estimated external influences and find subsets (parcels) that include variables unaffected by latent confounders. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our method using artificial data and simulated brain imaging data.",
"corpus_id": 1985835
} | {
"title": "Estimating Causal Effects with Ancestral Graph Markov Models",
"abstract": "We present an algorithm for estimating bounds on causal effects from observational data which combines graphical model search with simple linear regression. We assume that the underlying system can be represented by a linear structural equation model with no feedback, and we allow for the possibility of latent variables. Under assumptions standard in the causal search literature, we use conditional independence constraints to search for an equivalence class of ancestral graphs. Then, for each model in the equivalence class, we perform the appropriate regression (using causal structure information to determine which covariates to include in the regression) to estimate a set of possible causal effects. Our approach is based on the \"IDA\" procedure of Maathuis et al. (2009), which assumes that all relevant variables have been measured (i.e., no unmeasured confounders). We generalize their work by relaxing this assumption, which is often violated in applied contexts. We validate the performance of our algorithm on simulated data and demonstrate improved precision over IDA when latent variables are present.",
"corpus_id": 18551743
} | {
"title": "Underestimation of occult hepatitis C virus infection in chronic haemodialysis and kidney transplant patients.",
"abstract": "[1] Baid-Agrawal S, Schindler R, Reinke P, Staedtler A, Rimpler S, Malik B, et al. Prevalence of occult hepatitis C infection in chronic hemodialysis and kidney transplant patients. J Hepatol 2014;60:928–933. [2] Idrees M, Lal A, Malik FA, Hussain A, Rehman IU, Akbar H, et al. Occult hepatitis C virus infection and associated predictive factors: the Pakistan experience. Infect Genet Evol 2011;11:442–445. [3] Bokharaei-Salim F, Keyvani H, Monavari SH, Alavian SM, Madjd Z, Toosi MN, et al. Occult hepatitis C virus infection in Iranian patients with cryptogenic liver disease. J Med Virol 2011;83:989–995. [4] Saad Y, Zakaria S, Ramzy I, El Raziky M, Shaker O, Elakel W, et al. Prevalence of occult hepatitis C in Egyptian patients with non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Open J Int Med 2011;1:33–37. Letters to the Editor",
"corpus_id": 8499598,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Automatic tuning circuit for Gm-C filters",
"abstract": "This paper presents a CMOS on-chip automatic tuning circuit using phase lock loop (PLL) technique for continuous-time Gm-C filters. In the tuning circuit, to achieve the maximum tuning accuracy, the new VCO architecture that generates precisely fully differential clock swings and keeps the absolute oscillation in all operating condition was proposed. Measured results show that the designed automatic tuning circuit is suitable for the continuous-time Gm-C filter. The verified system is fabricated in a 0.18 mum CMOS technology and consumes 2.78 mW at a 1.8V supply voltage.",
"corpus_id": 2828454
} | {
"title": "A 1.8V triode-type transconductor and its application to a 10MHz 3/sup rd/-order Chebyshev low pass filter",
"abstract": "A fully differential dual input CMOS transconductor, with high linearity and low distortion, is proposed. To achieve high performance characteristics at low supply voltage, three design considerations are described from the viewpoint of DC-offsets, linear range, and distortions. A 1.8 V 10 MHz fully-differential 3/sup rd/-order Chebyshev Gm-C low pass filter, using this transconductor, is designed and fabricated using a 0.18 /spl mu/m CMOS process. Measured results in a nominal condition (Vc=1.05 V) show 11.3 MHz of bandwidth, 43.7 dBr of stop-band attenuation at 40 MHz, 0.38 dB of pass-band ripple, and 74.4 dB of dynamic range. In addition, the IIP3 obtained at the optimum resistance of the resistor utilized as a distortion canceller is 16.3 dBm. The filter consumes 2.34 mA at 1.8 V power supply.",
"corpus_id": 481244
} | {
"title": "Combined antenna selection and beamforming for secure transmission in distributed antenna systems",
"abstract": "In this paper, we propose two combined antenna selection and beamforming schemes: eavesdropper channel nulling (ECN) and distributed phase alignment (DPA), for physical layer security in distributed antenna systems. Two out of all available distributed antennas are selected for secure transmission which is the minimum setting for implementing beamforming. Among all possible two-antenna combinations, the best one that shows the maximum secrecy rate is selected and, therefore, provides a selection gain. ECN cancels the received signal at an eavesdropper when the distributed antennas are subject to a total power constraint. As the distributed antennas may have individual power constraints in practice, we also propose DPA which aligns the phases of the received beams at the eavesdropper to minimize the received signal strength. For ECN with an average total power constraint, we propose an analysis model to track the achievable secrecy rate. Numerical results show that ECN exhibits a closed performance as the optimal beamforming with all distributed antennas.",
"corpus_id": 527329,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Spyware and national privacy laws: consumer education is empowerment",
"abstract": "Spyware poses a serious threat of privacy infringement to unassuming internet users across the globe. Existing European legislation attempts to protect end-users from unethical processing of their personal data. Outlawing the technology used in spyware and strengthening the legal consent requirement to mine data are statutory solutions that can prevent spyware users from skirting the law. Transnational improvements are necessary to remedy the global spyware epidemic.",
"corpus_id": 153650027
} | {
"title": "European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms",
"abstract": "[EDITORIAL NOTE: At this time when continued attention is being directed to a review of the Charter of the United Nations, it is suggested that a proper review should include an examination of the indirect as well as the direct consequences of that body's deliberations. This article traces a development that took place both within and without the halls of the United Nations, the most recent event having occurred outside its framework. This article is especially interesting because it may provide an insight into a future role of the United Nations, appropriately to be considered when its Charter is reviewed.]",
"corpus_id": 142743842
} | {
"title": "Accuracy of information on smoking habits provided on self-administered research questionnaires.",
"abstract": "In the setting of a prepaid medical care plan, self-administered questionnaires were an accurate source of information on smoking habits and the standard against which the physiologic measures of smoking, serum thiocyanate, and expired carbon monoxide, must be judged. Questionnaire responses were internally consistent and highly reproducible. In contrast, the physiologic measures had low overall sensitivity as tests of current tobacco exposure (0.72). Their sensitivity was improved by utilizing the self-reported information.",
"corpus_id": 23593847,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Patients With Renal Dysfunction Require a Longer Duration Until Blood Pressure Dips During the Night",
"abstract": "We have postulated that the diminished renal capacity to excrete sodium causes nocturnal blood pressure (BP) elevation, which enhances pressure natriuresis in compensation for impaired daytime natriuresis. If such a mechanism holds, high BP during sleep at night may continue until excess sodium is sufficiently excreted into urine. This study examined whether the duration, defined as “dipping time,” until nocturnal mean arterial pressure began to fall to <90% of daytime average became longer as renal function deteriorated. Ambulatory BP measurements and urinary sodium excretion rates were evaluated for daytime and nighttime to estimate their circadian rhythms in 65 subjects with chronic kidney disease. Dipping time showed an inverse relationship with creatinine clearance (Ccr; &rgr;=−0.61; P<0.0001) and positive relationships with night/day ratios of mean arterial pressure (&rgr;=0.84; P<0.0001) and natriuresis (&rgr;=0.61; P<0.0001), both of which were also inversely correlated with Ccr (mean arterial pressure: r=−0.58, P<0.0001; natriuresis: r=−0.69, P<0.0001). When divided into tertiles by Ccr (mL/min), hazard ratios of nocturnal BP dip adjusted for age, gender, and body mass index were 0.37 (95% CI: 0.17 to 0.79; P=0.01) for the second tertile (Ccr: 50 to 90) and 0.20 (95% CI: 0.08 to 0.55; P=0.002) for the third tertile (Ccr: 5 to 41) compared with the first tertile (Ccr: 91 to 164). These findings demonstrate that patients with renal dysfunction require a longer duration until BP falls during the night. The prolonged duration until BP dip during sleep seems an essential component of the nondipper pattern of the circadian BP rhythm.",
"corpus_id": 390115
} | {
"title": "Disturbed circadian rhythm of the intrarenal renin-angiotensin system: relevant to nocturnal hypertension and renal damage",
"abstract": "BackgroundThe intrarenal renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an important role in the development of hypertension and renal damage. Disruption of diurnal blood pressure (BP) variation is an additional risk factor for renal damage. However, little is known regarding whether intrarenal RAS circadian rhythm exists or if it influences the disruption of diurnal BP and renal damage.MethodsWe investigated the circadian rhythm of urinary angiotensinogen (U-AGT) that reflects intrarenal RAS activity in 14 individuals without chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 36 CKD patients classified according to circadian BP rhythms.ResultsBP values were higher during the daytime than during the nighttime in both individuals without CKD and CKD patients. U-AGT levels were not different between the daytime and nighttime in individuals without CKD, but were significantly higher in the daytime in CKD patients (log U-AGT/creatinine: daytime, 2.39 ± 0.99; nighttime, 2.24 ± 1.06; p = 0.001). Furthermore, in CKD patients showing a riser pattern of circadian BP, U-AGT levels did not decrease during the nighttime compared with those in the daytime (log U-AGT/creatinine: daytime, 2.51 ± 0.65; nighttime, 2.52 ± 0.71; p = 0.78). Circadian fluctuation of albuminuria and proteinuria occurred parallel to that of the U-AGT levels. U-AGT levels were significantly and positively correlated with the levels of BP and circadian fluctuation of U-AGT was correlated with diurnal BP changes.ConclusionThese data suggest that the circadian rhythm of intrarenal RAS activation may lead to renal damage and hypertension, which are associated with diurnal BP variation.",
"corpus_id": 556536
} | {
"title": "Nocturnal decline in blood pressure is attenuated by NaCl loading in salt-sensitive patients with essential hypertension: noninvasive 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.",
"abstract": "We investigated the effect of NaCl on the circadian blood pressure rhythm in patients with essential hypertension classified according to the presence or absence of salt sensitivity. We obtained 24-hour noninvasive ambulatory blood pressure measurements in 64 Japanese patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension who ate a low NaCl diet (50 mmol/d) for 1 week, followed by a high NaCl diet (340 mmol/d) for 1 week. Twenty-six patients whose mean blood pressure was increased more than 10% by NaCl loading were classified as salt sensitive. The remaining 38 patients were classified as salt resistant. The nocturnal decline in mean blood pressure was significantly smaller in salt-sensitive patients (8.3+/-1.0%) than in salt-resistant patients (11.5+/-0.9%) (P<.05) during a high NaCl diet but was similar in both groups during a low NaCl diet. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of the non-dipper pattern between groups on a low NaCl diet, but the prevalence of the non-dipper pattern was significantly higher in salt-sensitive patients than in salt-resistant patients on a high NaCl diet (0.57 versus 0.26, chi2=6.4; P=.02; odds ratio, 3.82). These findings suggest that the NaCl loading blunted the nocturnal decline in blood pressure in salt-sensitive patients but not in salt-resistant patients.",
"corpus_id": 9266220,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Digitalisation and the regulation of work: theoretical issues and normative challenges",
"abstract": "This paper presents an introductory overview of the main issues that the digitalisation of industrial enterprises known as Industry 4.0 raises for social sciences. First, it will show that this technological transition—which, however, is unfinished and is seen to be in continuity with the so-called “third industrial revolution”—cannot be interpreted with reference to a deterministic approach. It can be analysed more usefully as a range of decisions affecting the industrial policies of national states, the conception and design of machines, their adoption in production processes and finally their use by operators. Second, certain aspects of Industry 4.0 of special concern in terms of organisation of work processes will be analysed on various scales (from inter-company transactions to the specific tasks of individual workers). Finally, we will explain various hypotheses that social and economic research is developing with regard to the new technologies’ controversial effects on employment.",
"corpus_id": 22142631
} | {
"title": "The Sharing Economy: Friend or Foe?",
"abstract": "The sharing economy is spreading rapidly worldwide in a number of industries and markets. The disruptive nature of this phenomenon has drawn mixed responses ranging from active conflict to adoption and assimilation. Yet, in spite of the growing attention to the sharing economy, we still do not know much about it. With the abundant enthusiasm about the benefits that the sharing economy can unleash and the weekly reminders about its dark side, further examination is required to determine the potential of the sharing economy while mitigating its undesirable side effects. The panel will join the ongoing debate about the sharing economy and contribute to the discourse with insights about how digital technologies are critical in shaping this turbulent ecosystem. Furthermore, we will define an agenda for future research on the sharing economy as it becomes part of the mainstream society as well as part of the IS research",
"corpus_id": 38158337
} | {
"title": "Work Capacity of Regulated Freelance Platforms: Fundamental Limits and Decentralized Schemes",
"abstract": "Crowdsourcing of jobs to online freelance platforms is rapidly gaining popularity. Most crowdsourcing platforms are uncontrolled and offer freedom to customers and freelancers to choose each other. This works well for unskilled jobs (e.g., image classification) with no specific quality requirement since freelancers are functionally identical. For skilled jobs (e.g., software development) with specific quality requirements, however, this does not ensure that the maximum number of job requests is satisfied. In this paper, we determine the capacity of regulated freelance systems, in terms of maximum satisfied job requests, and propose centralized schemes that achieve capacity. To ensure decentralized operation and freedom for customers and freelancers, we propose simple schemes compatible with the operation of current crowdsourcing platforms that approximately achieve capacity. Furthermore, for settings where the number of job requests exceeds capacity, we propose a scheme that is agnostic of that information, but is optimal and fair in declining jobs without wait.",
"corpus_id": 232147,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "Entrepreneurship, acquisitions and systems of innovation",
"abstract": "This theoretical research explores the relationship between the intensive activities of mergers and acquisitions in the high technology industry and the entrepreneurial activities led by technology entrepreneurs and managers. Furthermore, the research explains and highlights the relationship of acquisitions and entrepreneurship with innovation, the creation of new technologies and venture capital, in the context of a national system of innovation, using insights from the high technology industry.",
"corpus_id": 153462844
} | {
"title": "Are acquisitions a poison pill for innovation",
"abstract": "Executive Overview The recent wave of acquisition activity may be damaging the innovative capabilities of American firms, thus making them less competitive in the global marketplace. In fact, acquisitions often serve as a substitute for innovation, which may cause further neglect of internal research and development (R&D) programs. Additionally, acquisitions often lead to increases in leverage, diversification, and absorb significant amounts of executive time, which may lead to reduced managerial commitment to innovation. In this article, evidence is presented suggesting that acquisition activity may result in reductions in R&D inputs and outputs. On average, the 191 firms in the sample reduced their allocations to R&D relative to their competitors following acquisitions. Furthermore, the firms also experienced reductions in the number of patents. Implications from this evidence are offered for executives and acquisition strategies. Specifically, based on our results, we propose that firms can compensate ...",
"corpus_id": 167640445
} | {
"title": "Wireless network coding by amplify-and-forward for bi-directional traffic flows",
"abstract": "This paper introduces and analyzes relaying techniques that increase the achievable throughput in multi-hop wireless networks by applying network coding over bi-directional traffic flows. We term each such technique as bi-directional amplification of throughput (BAT)-relaying. While network coding is normally performed by combining decoded packets, here we introduce a relaying method based on amplify-and-forward (AF), where the relay node utilizes the inherent combining of packets provided by simultaneous transmissions over a multiple access channel. Under low noise levels, AF BAT-relaying offers a superior throughput performance. The unconventionality of AF BAT relaying opens many possibilities for further research.",
"corpus_id": 17508504,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Fabrication of Ni-Ti-O nanotube arrays by anodization of NiTi alloy and their potential applications",
"abstract": "Nickel-titanium-oxide (Ni-Ti-O) nanotube arrays (NTAs) prepared on nearly equiatomic NiTi alloy shall have broad application potential such as for energy storage and biomedicine, but their precise structure control is a great challenge because of the high content of alloying element of Ni, a non-valve metal that cannot form a compact electronic insulating passive layer when anodized. In the present work, we systemically investigated the influence of various anodization parameters on the formation and structure of Ni-Ti-O NTAs and their potential applications. Our results show that well controlled NTAs can be fabricated during relatively wide ranges of the anodization voltage (5–90 V), electrolyte temperature (10–50°C) and electrolyte NH4F content (0.025–0.8 wt%) but within a narrow window of the electrolyte H2O content (0.0–1.0 vol%). Through modulating these parameters, the Ni-Ti-O NTAs with different diameter (15–70 nm) and length (45–1320 nm) can be produced in a controlled manner. Regarding potential applications, the Ni-Ti-O NTAs may be used as electrodes for electrochemical energy storage and non-enzymic glucose detection, and may constitute nanoscaled biofunctional coating to improve the biological performance of NiTi based biomedical implants.",
"corpus_id": 14973597
} | {
"title": "Length-dependent corrosion behavior, Ni2+ release, cytocompatibility, and antibacterial ability of Ni-Ti-O nanopores anodically grown on biomedical NiTi alloy.",
"abstract": "In the present work, nickel-titanium-oxygen nanopores with different length (0.55-114 μm) were anodically grown on nearly equiatomic nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloy. Length-dependent corrosion behavior, nickel ion (Ni2+) release, cytocompatibility, and antibacterial ability were investigated by electrochemical, analytical chemistry, and biological methods. The results show constructing nanoporous structure on the NiTi alloy improve its corrosion resistance. However, the anodized samples release more Ni2+ than that of the bare NiTi alloy, suggesting chemical dissolution of the nanopores rather than electrochemical corrosion governs the Ni2+ release. In addition, the Ni2+ release amount increases with nanopore length. The anodized samples show good cytocompatibility when the nanopore length is <11 μm. Encouragingly, the length scale covers the one (1-11 μm) that the nanopores showing favorable antibacterial ability. Consequently, the nanopores with length in the range of 1-11 μm are promising as coatings of biomedical NiTi alloy for anti-infection, drug delivery, and other desirable applications.",
"corpus_id": 21659558
} | {
"title": "Nonequilibrium Modeling of Steam Plasma in a Nontransferred Direct-Current Torch",
"abstract": "This paper proposes a magnetohydrodynamic model that does not assume local thermal equilibrium (LTE) to predict the flow field and electron temperature and species density distributions inside a direct-current nontransferred-arc steam torch with a well-type cathode at atmospheric pressure. A steady, axisymmetric flow is assumed, and the azimuthal velocity component is not neglected. A finite volume method is adopted to solve the continuity equation, the current continuity equation, the momentum equation, and the energy equation according to a k-ε turbulence model. Ohm's law is used to calculate the induced magnetic field, and Ampere's circuital law is adopted to compute the current distribution in space. Fifty-two chemical and plasma kinetic equations are employed to describe the interactions among the 12 main species of water plasma, H2O, OH, H, O, H2, O2, HO2, H2O2, O3, H+, O+, and electrons, considered in this paper. The electron temperature is predicted from the transport equation based on the electron energy balance, whereas the transport coefficients of the plasma are obtained from the Chapman-Enskog solution of the Boltzmann equation. The thermal plasma flow of steam inside the plasma torch, which measures 503 mm in length and 9 mm in radius, is predicted to have I=180 A and Q=5 g/s. The non-LTE simulation suggests that a plasma temperature of 11600 K and flow velocity of 3.8 km/s can be achieved at the center of the torch outlet. Compared with the LTE model, the non-LTE calculation yields lower plasma temperature and higher axial velocity at the torch outlet. The calculated electron temperature principally varies between 1 and 3 eV, and energetic electrons occur not only near the electrode surfaces but also within the axial electric arc. The model predictions suggest that the thermal plasma is well approximated as LTE in the hot plasma core, which is characterized by an isothermal contour of 10 kK, and in the vicinity of the electrodes. The deviation from the LTE condition predominantly grows with the radial coordinate, and the temperature ratio approaches unity at the electrode surfaces. The dominant species components of the water plasma in the inner region (r<; 6 mm) at the torch outlet are monoatomic and ionic species of H and O, whereas the diatomic species and water molecule become relatively important in the outer region (r >6 mm) at the torch outlet.",
"corpus_id": 23658957,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "A survival guide for generalist physicians in academic fellowships",
"abstract": "SummarySuccessful transition from general medicine fellowship to junior faculty requires careful, strategic planning. Fellows should present their work at meetings and write manuscripts as early as possible, in order to demonstrate productivity. Mentors should help fellows decide whether or not to apply for grants during the training period. Finally, although securing a junior faculty position is an exciting process, it is also time-consuming; fellows should begin thinking about what type of job they want and searching for that job early during the final year of their program. We hope that a better understanding of these issues will aid fellows as they pursue their goals in academic general medicine.",
"corpus_id": 1819375
} | {
"title": "More informative abstracts revisited.",
"abstract": "Following proposals in 1987 and 1988, several medical journals have provided more informative abstracts (\"structured abstracts\") for articles of clinical interest. Structured abstracts for original studies require authors to systematically disclose the objective, basic research design, clinical setting, participants, interventions (if any), main outcome measurements, results, and conclusions; and for literature reviews the objective, data sources, methods of study selection, data extraction and synthesis, and conclusions. More informative abstracts of this kind can facilitate peer review before publication, assist clinical readers to find articles that are both scientifically sound and applicable to their practices, and allow more precise computerized literature searches. We review the feasibility, acceptability, and dissemination of structured abstracts, reassess the underlying strategy, and describe modifications of the approach. This innovation can aid communication from scientists to clinicians, and other clinical journals are invited to join this effort.",
"corpus_id": 30361575
} | {
"title": "Winter 12-4-2017 Modelling and Analysis of E-Health Ecosystems : A Case Study of the United States",
"abstract": "The United States (US), a world leader in medical technology, ironically also happens to be home to one of the least efficient healthcare systems in the world. The country’s mammoth, unsustainable spending on healthcare has triggered several key healthcare reforms to put the country’s healthcare system on the path for a major overhaul. One such reform was the HITECH Act of 2009 which made provision for incentives for adoption of Electronic Health Records by physicians and hospitals. The ultimate goal of this reform was to forge connectivity across the country’s fragmented healthcare system in the hope that it would lead to efficiency and consequently, a drop in the country’s healthcare expenditure. Although the reform no doubt spurred EHR adoption, its intended goal of connectivity has not been fully realized. A set of critical success factors has been proposed to overcome these issues and make the ecosystem both patient-centric and sustainable.",
"corpus_id": 54041166,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Synthesis of Ti matrix composites reinforced with TiC particles: in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction and modeling",
"abstract": "The reaction tending toward thermodynamic equilibrium during the synthesis of Ti/TiC MMC prepared by the powder metallurgy route was studied by in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The carbide composition was found to change rapidly from its initial stoichiometric value TiC0.96 toward a substoichiometric value (TiC0.57) corresponding to thermodynamic equilibrium with the C-saturated Ti matrix. The reaction rate is very fast, and the solid-state reaction is almost complete after only a few minutes at 1073 K (800 °C) for the smallest particles, whereas the rate-limiting step remains the particle size. In addition, modeling of the diffusion processes in MMCs, i.e., initial dissolution of particles and their trend toward equilibrium composition, was performed using three particles size classes and the calculations were performed using the ThermoCalc and Dictra package. First, dissolution of the smallest particles (10% of the initial TiC0.96 particles) is expected to be achieved after only 1 s at 800 °C. Second, the change in TiC composition leads to an increase in the total amount of carbide in the composite from 16 to 19 mass%. The consequences on the industrial process of Ti/TiC MMC synthesis have also been considered. A typical industrial heat treatment of a MMC billet, 1 h at 900 °C, was modeled, and the results showing an increase in the total amount of carbide in the composite from 16 to 22 mass% are in rather good agreement with the experimental value (21 mass%). This highlights the potential of thermodynamic and kinetic modeling to help understand and optimize industrial processes for MMC synthesis.",
"corpus_id": 4803772
} | {
"title": "Effect of phase transformation strain on the quasi-linear elastic deformation behavior for Nb/Ni50.3Ti49.7 composite",
"abstract": "The effect of the evolution of phase transformation strain on the quasi-linear elastic deformation behavior for Nb/Ni50.3Ti49.7 composite was investigated on the basis of the theoretical analysis of martensitic transformation crystallography and in situ synchrotron X-ray diffraction experiment. The calculated and experimental results suggest that during the stress-induced martensitic (SIM) transformation, the B19′ martensitic variants 6 (V6) and 6′ (V6′) survived preferentially among 12 different B19′ martensitic variants due to their maximum phase transformation strains. Additionally, the phase transformation strains for the V6 and V6′ along the < 110 > B2 direction increase nonlinearly as the increase in macroscopic strain during deformation, which is mainly ascribed to the discrepancy in the change rates of the lattice parameters for the B2 parent phase and B19′ martensite. This increase in transformation strains for the V6 and V6′ during deformation is conducive to achieving the high quasi-linear elastic deforming capability (quasi-linear elasticity plus large recoverable strain) in Nb/Ni50.3Ti49.7 composite.",
"corpus_id": 251599165
} | {
"title": "The burning velocities of methane and SNG mixtures with air",
"abstract": "Presentation de mesures de vitesse de combustion de methane et de melanges de substitution au gaz naturel (methane/hydrogene et methane/hydrogene/propane), avec de l'air, dans une flamme plate stationnaire, sur un bruleur a la pression d'un bar et a la temperature de 25°C, par la methode de suivi des particules. L'influence des gaz inertes est analysee",
"corpus_id": 98992657,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Optimization Design for the Converter by the Finite Element Method",
"abstract": "In order to study the influence of the geometric figure on the service life of the converter, four different geometric figures of the converters were analyzed by using finite element method in this paper. Refractory material behavior was described by Drucker-Prager plasticity model combined with strain softening material behavior at tension, and most of the material physical parameters changing with the temperature were considered. During the working process, a mechanical and thermal coupling diagram was introduced to optimize the geometric figure of the converter by software ABAQUS. The stresses of the converter were investigated, especially in the lower brick layers of the wall (the bottom wall transition zone). The result indicates a proper inclination at the joint between the bottom and wall of the converter can reduce the stress concentration, which make the refractory material damage decrease. Therefore the service life of the converter is expected to be prolonged.",
"corpus_id": 39405
} | {
"title": "Modeling of failure in a high temperature black liquor gasifier refractory lining",
"abstract": "Abstract Recently, in the pulp and paper industry, black liquor gasification (BLG) has been of interest as a potential replacement for the Tomlinson recovery boiler. Some commercial-scale BLG units have been developed. However, the full potential of high temperature gasifiers has not been realized because of the refractory failure. Computer simulation of existing materials will accelerate materials research in developing new refractory materials. A model based on continuum damage mechanics is presented to analyze the failure behavior of gasifier refractory lining under high temperature and chemical reactive environments by using the finite element method. This work provides a new methodology for the failure analysis of refractory material and would provide a powerful tool in the development of the high temperature gasifier refractories.",
"corpus_id": 137141340
} | {
"title": "Model‐based evaluation of microbial mass fractions: effect of absolute anaerobic reaction time on microbial mass fractions",
"abstract": "Although enhanced biological phosphorus removal processes (EBPR) are popular methods for nutrient control, unstable treatment performances of full‐scale systems are still not well understood. In this study, the interaction between electron acceptors present at the start of the anaerobic phase of an EBPR system and the amount of organic acids generated from simple substrate (rbsCOD) was investigated in a full‐scale wastewater treatment plant. Quantification of microbial groups including phosphorus‐accumulating microorganisms (PAOs), denitrifying PAOs (DPAOs), glycogen‐accumulating microorganisms (GAOs) and ordinary heterotrophic microorganisms (OHOs) was based on a modified dynamic model. The intracellular phosphorus content of PAOs was also determined by the execution of mass balances for the biological stages of the plant. The EBPR activities observed in the plant and in batch tests (under idealized conditions) were compared with each other statistically as well. Modelling efforts indicated that the use of absolute anaerobic reaction (ηı) instead of nominal anaerobic reaction time (η), to estimate the amount of available substrate for PAOs, significantly improved model accuracy. Another interesting result of the study was the differences in EBPR characteristics observed in idealized and real conditions.",
"corpus_id": 13486087,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Calibration method for periodic surface based chipless tags",
"abstract": "The aim of this paper is to introduce a novel calibration method for chipless tags. The proposed tag is based on a periodic impedance surface with an asymmetric unit cell geometry. The method relies on a differential encoding of amplitude or phase of the reflected signal. The unit cell of the tag comprises several concentric loops of rectangular shape which exhibits a different response when interrogated along two orthogonal planes of incidence. The novel calibration procedure is also preliminary verified experimentally for a simple single bit tag configuration. This work opens the way to a more practical implementation of chipless tags reading.",
"corpus_id": 6764737
} | {
"title": "Reading chipless RFID located on metallic platforms by using cross-polar scattering",
"abstract": "Aim of this paper is to design a fundamental building block of a spectral domain chipless RFID system based on cross-polar scattering. A novel chipless tag able to provide multi-frequency polarization conversion is proposed. The tag is able to convert the polarization of impinging electromagnetic fields at multiple frequencies guaranteeing good polarization conversion both for vertical, horizontal and oblique azimuthal incidence without introducing additional unwanted high-order resonances. The use of such tags allows a very low-cost tagging of very large metallic platforms regardless of their dimensions and their huge echo.",
"corpus_id": 39751676
} | {
"title": "A Novel Compact Printable Dual-Polarized Chipless RFID System",
"abstract": "A novel compact design of an ultralow-cost fully printable slot-loaded dual-polarized chipless radio frequency identication tag is presented with four near- and far-field reading techniques. The tag consists of four rectangular metallic patches loaded with multiple slot resonators. Slots with the same polarization for adjacent frequencies are placed alternately into two patches to reduce the mutual coupling between the slots. Then two similar sets are placed in horizontal and vertical polarizations to double the number of bits within the same frequency bandwidth. The tag can be detected using dual-polarized waveguide(s) or dual-polarized antennas. This single-sided compact chipless tag has higher data capacity and lower cost compared with the existing printable chipless tags and can be used in personal ID or credit cards and banknotes and can be directly printed on paper or plastic packets for item-level tagging.",
"corpus_id": 18353480,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "USING LANDSLIDE HAZARD INFORMATION IN PLANNING: AN EVALUATION OF THREE METHODS",
"abstract": "Abstract Landslides are a significant cause of property loss in the United States. For that reason, planners must become familiar with the nature of landslide problems and methods for dealing with them. In this article we review three methods of assessing landslide hazards and present the results of a test of the methods against actual landslide data. Unfortunately, none of the methods performs well. Until further research improves the accuracy of techniques for assessing landslide risk, planners must take advantage of the best available geological and engineering expertise to identify areas of high risk. An essential part of that process is to take the locations of previous landslides into account.",
"corpus_id": 153405042
} | {
"title": "The Jackson Flood of 1979 A Public Policy Disaster",
"abstract": "Abstract In April 1979, the Pearl River in Mississippi inflicted damage estimated at one-half billion dollars in the city of Jackson and surrounding areas. Most property damage accrued to development built in the floodplain since the previous major flood in 1961. This development was encouraged by public investment, including a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood control project completed in 1968 which proved unreliable. Issues for national flood policy posed by the Jackson experience include the need for (1) land use regulations as concomitants to flood control structures, (2) improved coordination between different levels and units of government sharing jurisdiction over floodplains, (3) consideration of inter-jurisdictional effects in the allocation of flood protection resources, (4) location of vital public services outside floodplains, and (5) revision of post-disaster recovery policies to encourage mitigation of future losses.",
"corpus_id": 154949728
} | {
"title": "Urban Flood Management: Problems and Research Needs",
"abstract": "Discussion and conclusions of a 1975 panel on urban flood management at the Quail Roost Workshop on Reorientation of Water Resources Research. Topics covered include the need for a restatement of national goals and objectives in terms relevant to state and local interests to standards of performance; Federal, state, and local interactions as they affect the capacity of local government to carry out flood-plain management; more exact and reliable techniques for flood-plain delineation for land-use regulation and flood insurance rates; social and economic consequences of floodway fringe development under present national policy; and many other subjects. Forty-two problem areas are identified for further identification and research.",
"corpus_id": 129752841,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Design and realization of optimal color filters for multi-illuminant color correction",
"abstract": "A method of selecting optimal color filters to perform accurate multi-illuminant color correction is reviewed. The transmittances for a set of filters obtained by the method were provided to a color filter manufacturer. The manufacturer used a dichroic filter modeling program to produce transmittances that satisfied the physical constraints of the manufacturing process and approximated the optimal filter transmittances. The ideal and manufacturable filters are compared through computer simulation and their accuracy assessed during the CIE Δ E L*a*b measure. The results show that the unconventional shapes of the optimal filters can be weil approximated by actual filters with slight degradation in performance.",
"corpus_id": 1816352
} | {
"title": "Color characteristic design for color scanners.",
"abstract": "We propose a method of quantitative color characteristic design for color scanners. We used calorimetric simulation with an optical model and a color conversion circuit to match the scanner color characteristic to an objective color standard. A compensation matrix is defined using the least-squares method to minimize the average error for many colors. To determine the matrix, a color space must be selected. We compared the results of conversion using matrices obtained in the CIELAB color space and in the RGB color space. The comparison shows that both conversions are nearly the same. Using computer simulation, we designed a color scanner with excellent conversion performance. The average color difference for 440 colors was ~1.3.",
"corpus_id": 23480415
} | {
"title": "A two-dimensional optical cross-connect with integrated waveguides and surface micromachined crossbar switches",
"abstract": "Abstract The design, fabrication and test results of an all-optical cross-connect, which uses electrostatically actuated micromechanical digital mirrors to steer optical signals in a network of planar waveguides, are presented. The substrate consists of a network of spliced planar waveguides on silica substrates. The switches, located at the waveguide intersections, are formed with an electroplated T-structure consisting of a horizontal perforated square plate suspended by four elastic beams. When operated, the horizontal plate is pulled up making the mirror move out of the optical path thus steering the beam. An 8×8 switch array has been fabricated and tested. Actuation and relaxation switching times near 3 ms have been demonstrated with an actuation voltage of 120 V. The optical insertion loss for the array typically varied from 2.3 dB for a single trench in the optical path (shortest optical path) to 8 dB for 15 trenches in the optical path (longest optical path).",
"corpus_id": 110419612,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Optimization of Ozonation Process Implemant Sodium Persulfate using Azo Dyes",
"abstract": "Article history: Received 21 February 2018 Received in revised form 4 May 2018 Accepted 13 May 2018 Available online 10 Septemebr 2018 Ozonation (O3) process aided with other oxidants can be a best method for degradation compounds that presented by azo dyes specifically Acid Orange 52 (AO52). Numerous application of AO52 had been applied in textile industries, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. In this work, integration of hydroxyl radical with sulfate radical can enhanced the production of radical useful for colour and COD removal mechanism. It had been proven when its performance of ozonation + persulfate process better than ozonation process only. The effects of operational conditions had been investigated including the fixed initial concentration of AO52, initial pH of the AO52 (2-6), Na2S2O8 / sodium persulfate concentration (25-65mM) and contact time (3-25min) on the colour and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency. By predicting both of responses efficiency, Central Composite Design (CCD) had been applied to achieve the optimization of ozonation process with Na2S2O8 / sodium persulfate concentration, second-order polynomial equation was proposed. Good agreement of experimental values were found which is (Colour removal; R2 = 0.6615, COD removal; R2 = 0.5453), which proves the appropriateness of the model employed. Hence, success of CCD suggested the optimum conditions of ozonation process at (pH 6,65mM Na2S2O8 / sodium persulfate concentration, 25min). Both of process efficiency as a function of independent variables was shown specifically by mathematical modelling equation, interactive effect by cube plot, normal probability plot and ramp. However, the statistical tests are supported also with UV-Vis spectra evolution through each condition. By getting an optimum value, it could be applied in any dyes that contains same organic molecule. Furthermore, the new ozonation approach had been modified based on their factor achievement especially presence of Na2S2O8 /sodium persulfate concentration to improve the degradation performances.",
"corpus_id": 157065356
} | {
"title": "Mechanistic Insight into the Degradation Pathways of P-cresol in Ozonation, Peroxone, and Ozone-persulfate Process",
"abstract": "ABSTRACT The primary objective of this study is to identify the aromatic intermediate products in p-cresol degradation by ozonation, peroxone, and ozone-persulfate, and elucidate the pathways and mechanisms involved in the processes. The experiments were conducted in semi-batch operating mode, where ozone was bubbled into p-cresol in a 1.0 L cylindrical jacketed glass reactor. In general, the aromatic intermediate products of p-cresol is less toxic compared to p-cresol. All intermediate products degrade to shorter chain of carboxylic acids with further oxidation. The major degradation pathway of p-cresol is benzene ring oxidation through electrophilic aromatic substitution reaction by molecular ozone and hydroxyl radical, and single electron transfer by persulfate radical, evidenced by the presence of methyl group in majority of the detected compounds. Hydroxyl radical also oxidizes p-cresol through hydrogen atom abstraction at methyl group side-chain; evidenced by the detected 4-methylbenzyl alcohol, 4-hydroxy-benzaldehyde, 3,4-dihydroxy-benzaldehyde, and 3,4-dihydroxy-benzoic acid; the simultaneous oxidation pathway in peroxone leads to faster p-cresol degradation as compared to ozonation and ozone-persulfate.",
"corpus_id": 234459411
} | {
"title": "EKF-Based Enhanced Performance Controller Design for Nonlinear Stochastic Systems",
"abstract": "In this paper, a novel control algorithm is presented to enhance the performance of the tracking property for a class of nonlinear and dynamic stochastic systems subjected to non-Gaussian noises. Although the existing standard PI controller can be used to obtain the basic tracking of the systems, the desired tracking performance of the stochastic systems is difficult to achieve due to the random noises. To improve the tracking performance, an enhanced performance loop is constructed using the EKF-based state estimates without changing the existing closed loop with a PI controller. Meanwhile, the gain of the enhanced performance loop can be obtained based upon the entropy optimization of the tracking error. In addition, the stability of the closed loop system is analyzed in the mean-square sense. The simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.",
"corpus_id": 4621847,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Assessment and optimization of functional MRI analyses",
"abstract": "Numerous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data analysis strategies have been used by different laboratories to enhance the detection of brain activation. A consensus has not been achieved regarding the relative statistical power of different strategies. In this report, we compared several commonly‐used data analysis strategies for conventional (nonechoplanar imaging) fMRI data by evaluating statistical testing, spatial filtering, and thresholding. The strategies were assessed using synthetic fMRI images, which were produced by introducing focal “activations” of known intensity, size, and location into “resting” images of six normal volunteers. Three parametric statistical tests (paired t‐test, independent t‐test, and crosscorrelation coefficient) and three nonparametric statistical tests (Kolmogorov‐Smirnov test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, and Mann‐Whitney test) were evaluated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and normality. The results indicated that the independent t‐test and crosscorrelation coefficient were the most powerful statistical tests, performing identically well. The effects of smoothing on the detection of activation were assessed. Sensitivity of detecting brain activation can be enhanced by a factor of 8.7 by spatially filtering the raw image data. The optimal full width at half magnitude (FWHM) of the spatial filter was determined to be two pixels (2 mm) in this study. The conventional intensity‐only thresholding (IOT) technique was compared with the combined use of the spatial‐extent and intensity thresholding (SEe‐IT). A highly significant increase in sensitivity (up to 30‐fold) was obtained using the SEe‐IT technique compared to the IOT technique. Finally, the SEe‐IT method was parametrically optimized. A large extent threshold proved more sensitive for detecting brain activation. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.",
"corpus_id": 1095919
} | {
"title": "An evaluation of spatial thresholding techniques in fMRI analysis",
"abstract": "Many fMRI experiments have a common objective of identifying active voxels in a neuroimaging dataset. This is done in single subject experiments, for example, by performing individual voxel‐wise tests of the null hypothesis that the observed time course is not significantly related to an assigned reference function. A voxel activation map is then constructed by applying a thresholding rule to the resulting statistics (e.g., t‐statistics). Typically the task‐related activation is expected to occur in clusters of voxels rather than in isolated single voxels. A variety of spatial thresholding techniques have been proposed to reflect this belief, including smoothing the raw t‐statistics, cluster size inference, and spatial mixture modeling. We study two aspects of these spatial thresholding procedures applied to single subject fMRI analysis through simulation. First, we examine the performance of these procedures in terms of sensitivity to detect voxel activation, using receiver operating characteristic curves. Second, we consider the accuracy of these spatial thresholding procedures in estimation of the size of the activation region, both in terms of bias and variance. The findings indicate that smoothing has the highest sensitivity to modest magnitude signals, but tend to overestimate the size of the activation region. Spatial mixture models estimate the size of a spatially distributed activation region well, but may be less sensitive to modest magnitude signals, indicating that additional research into more sensitive spatial mixture models is needed. Finally, the methods are illustrated with a real bilateral finger‐tapping fMRI experiment. Hum Brain Mapp, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.",
"corpus_id": 1787004
} | {
"title": "Maternal communication of circadian phase to the developing mammal",
"abstract": "In rodents, an entrainable circadian clock begins oscillating prenatally in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN). The maternal circadian system coordinates (entrains) the timing of the developing clock to the prevailing light-dark cycle during both late fetal and early neonatal life. This maternal communication of circadian phase ensures that the developing animal is coordinated to the outside world until maturation of the normal pathway of light-dark entrainment in adults, the retinohypothalamic pathway, permits direct photic entrainment through the neonatal eye. The mechanism of maternal communication of circadian phase remains to be determined, but the necessity of the maternal SCN in this communication has been demonstrated. Indirect lines of evidence suggest that a similar scheme occurs for the development of circadian rhythms in humans.",
"corpus_id": 21576841,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "11-deoxy prostaglandin F(2α), a thromboxane A2 receptor agonist, partially alleviates embryo crowding in Lpar3((-/-)) females.",
"abstract": "OBJECTIVE\nTo determine cyclooxygenase-derived prostanoid signaling in alleviating embryo crowding in the Lpar3((-/-)) females.\n\n\nDESIGN\nExperimental mouse model.\n\n\nSETTING\nResearch laboratories.\n\n\nANIMAL(S)\nWild-type, Lpar3((+/-)), and Lpar3((-/-)) mice.\n\n\nINTERVENTION(S)\nIntraperitoneal (IP) administration of prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2)), cPGI (a stable analogue of PGI(2)), and 11-deoxy prostaglandin F(2α) (11-deoxy PGF(2α), a thromboxane A(2) receptor agonist) to preimplantation gestation day 3.5 Lpar3((-/-)) females.\n\n\nMAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)\nImplantation sites were detected by blue dye reaction and embryo spacing was determined by the distribution of the implantation sites along the uterine horns on gestation day 4.5; pregnancy outcome was measured by litter size at birth.\n\n\nRESULT(S)\nAdministration of PGE(2) + cPGI on gestation day 3.5 Lpar3((-/-)) females restored on-time implantation but did not affect embryo spacing or the number of implantation sites detected on gestation day 4.5; PGE(2) + cPGI treatment increased litter size at birth. Administration of PGE(2) + cPGI + 11-deoxy PGF(2α) on gestation day 3.5 Lpar3((-/-)) females rescued on-time implantation, partially dispersed the clustered implantation sites normally observed in the Lpar3((-/-)) females, increased the number of implantation sites detected on gestation day 4.5, and increased litter size at birth.\n\n\nCONCLUSION(S)\nThe thromboxane A(2) receptor agonist 11-deoxy PGF(2α) can partially alleviate embryo crowding in the Lpar3((-/-)) females and embryo crowding likely contributes to reduced litter size in the Lpar3((-/-)) females.",
"corpus_id": 3055365
} | {
"title": "Lipid signaling in embryo implantation.",
"abstract": "A reciprocal interaction between the implantation-competent blastocyst and the receptive uterus is required for successful implantation. Although various molecular pathways are known to participate in this cross-talk, a comprehensive understanding of the implantation process is still missing. Gene expression studies and genetically engineered mouse models have provided evidence that lipid mediators serve as important signaling molecules in coordinating the series of events during early pregnancy including preimplantation embryo formation and development, implantation and postimplantation growth. This review focuses on the roles of two groups of lipid mediators, prostaglandins (PGs) and endocannabinoids, during early pregnancy. Our laboratory has shown that while PGs generated by the cPLA2-cyclooxygenase (COX) system are essential to ovulation, fertilization, and implantation, endocannabinoids are important for synchronizing preimplantation embryo development with uterine receptivity for implantation. A better understanding of these molecular signaling pathways is hoped to generate new strategies to correct implantation failure and improve pregnancy rates in women.",
"corpus_id": 41455103
} | {
"title": "ADB Working Paper Series on Regional Economic Integration",
"abstract": "Regional cooperation arrangements (RCAs) have produced vastly dissimilar performances; some have spurred remarkable expansion in trade and cooperation among members, while several others have achieved little. Studies show that performances vary because RCAs differ from one another in important characteristics, namely the (i) objectives they aim to achieve, (ii) balance of power among member states, and (iii) political structures and processes of decision-making within individual member states. Subject characteristics uniquely influence and condition the functioning of RCAs. An assessment of the performance of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) reveals that the extremely skewed balance of power within the region and antagonistic inter-state relations among member states have stunted the organization‘s effectiveness. To reverse the situation, SAARC‘s member countries need to repair the prevailing atmosphere of distrust and suspicion, and build cordial inter-state relations. They also need to empower the SAARC Secretariat to function as a competent and neutral facilitator of cooperation in South Asia.",
"corpus_id": 15951228,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Managing Modular Ontology Evolution Under Big Data Integration",
"abstract": "Big Data integration frameworks provide unified view of the data available from heterogeneous data sources. These data sources are continuously evolving, forcing systems that integrate them to adapt their global schema after each change. This gets more challenging when aiming to maintain the global schema always reflecting data sources content. To cope with such complexity, in this paper we describe evolution scenarios and manage modular ontology evolution within Big Data integration framework in an a priori way according to changes performed against the data sources.",
"corpus_id": 34630245
} | {
"title": "Scalable RDF store based on HBase and MapReduce",
"abstract": "The growing size of Resource Description Framework (RDF) dataset requires RDF repository to be excellent scalable and highly efficient. Distributed and parallel processing model meets the urgent needs naturally. In this paper, we propose a scalable RDF store based on HBase, which is a distributed, column-oriented database modeled after Google's Bigtable. Our approach adopts the idea of Hexastore and considers both RDF data model and HBase capability. We store RDF triples into six HBase tables (S_PO, P_SO, O_SP, PS_O, SO_P and PO_S) which covers all combinations of RDF triple patterns. And we index them with HBase provided index structure on row key. Besides presenting the storage schema, we also propose a MapReduce strategy for SPARQL Basic Graph Pattern (BGP) processing, which is suitable for our storage schema. It uses multiple MapReduce jobs to process a typical BGP. In each job, it uses a greedy method to select join key and eliminates multiple triple patterns. The evaluation result indicates that our approach works well against large RDF dataset.",
"corpus_id": 14195394
} | {
"title": "A Survey on Visual Place Recognition for Mobile Robots Localization",
"abstract": "Visual place recognition is an active research field in the robotic navigation and localization, which means the ability to recognize a known place in the environment using vision as the main sensor modality. Despite significant progress in computer vision and machine learning techniques, challenges remain especially in dynamic environments such as illumination change, viewpoint change and so on. In this paper, a survey and comparative study on existing approaches of visual place recognition is presented, including place feature extraction methods, image similarity metrics and searching algorithms, as well as some benchmark datasets and evaluation metrics. Experimental results show that the methods combining feature extraction using convolutional neural networks and sequential image searching achieve higher precision in large scale dynamic environment.",
"corpus_id": 4777381,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "A Qualitative Analysis of Email Interactions of Children who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication",
"abstract": "The aim of this study was to introduce email as a form of interaction for a group of six children who used augmentative and alternative communication. In a 12-week exploratory study, aspects of the email messages sent were analyzed. The content of the messages was analyzed by an inductive qualitative method, and seven descriptive categories emerged. The most frequently occurring categories were Social Etiquette, Personal/Family Statistics and Personal Common Ground. The children utilized different email strategies that included use of most of the above-mentioned categories. Through the email writing practice, the children developed new social skills and increased their social participation. Email practice may be a good strategy to increase children's social networks.",
"corpus_id": 29481
} | {
"title": "An advanced test of theory of mind: Understanding of story characters' thoughts and feelings by able autistic, mentally handicapped, and normal children and adults",
"abstract": "Research has suggested that the core handicaps of autism result from a specific impairment in theory of mind (ToM). However, this account has been challenged by the finding that a minority of autistic subjects pass 1st- and even 2nd-order ToM tests while remaining socially handicapped. In the present study, able autistic subjects who failed ToM tasks, those who passed 1st-order, and those who passed 2nd-order tasks were tested with a battery of more naturalistic and complex stories. Autistic subjects were impaired at providing context-appropriate mental state explanations for the story characters' nonliteral utterances, compared to normal and mentally handicapped controls. Performance on the stories was closely related to performance on standard ToM tasks, but even those autistic subjects who passed all ToM tests showed impairments on the more naturalistic story materials relative to normal adult controls.",
"corpus_id": 34452671
} | {
"title": "Reflexive Journaling on Emotional Research Topics: Ethical Issues for Team Researchers",
"abstract": "Traditional epistemological concerns in qualitative research focus on the effects of researchers' values and emotions on choices of research topics, power relations with research participants, and the influence of researcher standpoints on data collection and analysis. However, the research process also affects the researchers' values, emotions, and standpoints. Drawing on reflexive journal entries of assistant researchers involved in emotionally demanding team research, this article explores issues of emotional fallout for research team members, the implications of hierarchical power imbalances on research teams, and the importance of providing ethical opportunities for reflexive writing about the challenges of doing emotional research. Such reflexive approaches ensure the emotional safety of research team members and foster opportunities for emancipatory consciousness among research team members.",
"corpus_id": 6801503,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Cysticercus of the Breast which Mimicked a Fibroadenoma: A Rare Presentation.",
"abstract": "Human cysticercosis is an infection which is caused by the larvae of the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. They can affect any part of the body, the most common sites being the muscle, the CNS and the subcutaneous tissues. In this report , we are presenting the case of a 32-year old woman who came with a history of a painless, freely mobile lump in the left breast. A clinical diagnosis of a fibroadenoma was made and an excision biopsy was done, which revealed the presence of cysticercus lavae, along with a foreign body giant cell reaction. A diagnosis of cysticercus at the atypical sites is rare and it depends mainly on the histopathological examination. Although it is rare, cysticercus should be considered as a differential diagnosis for a mass in the breast and in the areas of a greater prevalence.",
"corpus_id": 2648506
} | {
"title": "PARASITES IN HISTOPATHOLOGY: A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL EXPERIENCE",
"abstract": "Background: Parasitic infections are a major public health problem worldwide with one-quarter ofthe world’s population is suffering from it. Intestinal and extraintestinal parasitic infestations arerising in developing countries. There is a raise in the immunocompromised state in which tissueparasitic infestations are increasing which necessitates this type of study. Method: A retrospectivedescriptive study with data collected from histopathology register from January 2018 to December2020, all cases diagnosed as parasitic infestation with age, gender, location and histopathologicalevaluation with tissue response was analysed. Results: In the present study over 3 years 11parasitic infestations were identified. About 3(27.3%) cases of hydatid cyst, 5(45.5%) cases ofEnterobius vermicularis, 2 (18.2%) cases of cysticercosis and 1(9%) case of hard tick was identified.The most common age group affected was <25 years of age (54.5%). The most common parasitefound is Enterobius vermicularis in our study. Conclusion: A careful histopathological examinationto identify parasitic infestations in tissue sections will help to decrease morbidity and mortality byproviding specific treatment to the patient.",
"corpus_id": 238815017
} | {
"title": "Late Complication of Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy",
"abstract": "Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) is gaining popularity for the treatment of morbid obesity. It is a simple, low-cost procedure resulting in significant weight loss within a short period of time. LSG is a safe procedure with a low complication rate. The complications encountered nevertheless can result in morbidity and even mortality. The most significant complications are staple-line bleeding, stricture, and staple-line leak. The purpose of this paper is to present a patient who suffered from a staple-line leak presenting 16 months after LSG. Review of the current literature regarding this complication as well as outline of a strategy for the management of post-LSG gastric leaks is suggested.",
"corpus_id": 16057603,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Activity of \"reversed\" diamidines against Trypanosoma cruzi \"in vitro\".",
"abstract": "Chagas' disease is an important parasitic illness caused by the flagellated protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. The disease affects nearly 17 million individuals in endemic areas of Latin America and the current chemotherapy is quite unsatisfactory based on nitroheterocyclic agents (nifurtimox and benznidazol). The need for new compounds with different modes of action is clear. Due to the broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity of the aromatic dicationic compounds, this study focused on the activity of four such diamidines (DB811, DB889, DB786, DB702) and a closely related diguanidine (DB711) against bloodstream trypomastigotes as well as intracellular amastigotes of T. cruzi in vitro. Additional studies were also conducted to access the toxicity of the compounds against mammalian cells in vitro. Our data show that the four diamidines compounds presented early and high anti-parasitic activity (IC50 in low-micromolecular range) exhibiting trypanocidal dose-dependent effects against both trypomastigote and amastigote forms of T. cruzi 2h after drug treatment. Most of the diamidines compounds (except the DB702) exerted high anti-parasitic activity and low toxicity to the mammalian cells. Our results show the activity of reversed diamidines against T. cruzi and suggested that the compounds merit in vivo studies.",
"corpus_id": 1050540
} | {
"title": "Diamidines as antitrypanosomal, antileishmanial and antimalarial agents.",
"abstract": "Diamidine-containing compounds have a long history of use in the treatment of African trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis. The discovery that diamidine prodrugs possess in vivo antimicrobial activity when administered orally has led to a renewed interest in this class of compounds for the treatment of parasitic infections. In this review, the selectivity of diamidines against trypanosomes, Leishmania and Plasmodium is rationalized through mechanism-of-action studies. An overview of the antiprotozoal activities of newer diamidines and diamidine prodrugs is also presented, along with a summary of the progress made toward the clinical development of new diamidines for use against these parasitic diseases.",
"corpus_id": 45999295
} | {
"title": "Effects of cationic diamidines on polyamine metabolism in the trypanosomatid Crithidia fasciculata.",
"abstract": "The effect of a series of five recently synthesized cationic diamidines on cell proliferation and polyamine metabolism was studied on cultures of the model Trypanosomatid Crithidia fasciculata. Compounds displaying two arylic moieties (CGP039937A and CGP040215A) were ten fold more cytostatic than those displaying only one arylic residue (CGP033829A, CGP035753A and CGP036958A). The depletion of intracellular polyamine, putrescine and spermidine, pools and the effect of these compounds on S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase and putrescine uptake suggest the requirement of two arylic groups in their chemical structure to obtain measurable effects on both polyamine metabolism and cell growth.",
"corpus_id": 10913938,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "On the Risk of Life Insurance Liabilities: Debunking Some Common Pitfalls",
"abstract": "The objective of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the driving forces of a life insurance company. More specifically, the issues of the duration and convexity of insurance liabilities and equity are addressed. These issues deserve a careful rethinking given the recent trends that have affected the insurance landscape. A correct assessment of these risk measures is critical as they constitute the primary ingredients of any sound asset-liability management approach. In addition, the effort toward a more detailed and more accurate risk picture of life insurance operations enables one to debunk some pitfalls that are commonly encountered in the insurance industry. This paper was presented at the Financial Institutions Center's May 1996 conference on \"",
"corpus_id": 490185
} | {
"title": "Application of Game Theory to Pricing of Participating Deferred Annuity",
"abstract": "We study pricing models for a participating deferred annuity. Game theory is used to formulate different pricing models based on customers’ preference concerning benefits and risks. The objective is to maximize social welfare. Value at Risk (VaR) under multi-stage stochastic processes is applied to measure credit risk and its calculation is discussed. Monte Carlo simulation and stochastic optimization are used to find optimal solutions for price and dividend rate.",
"corpus_id": 2551372
} | {
"title": "Life insurance companies in a changing environment",
"abstract": "Major changes in the life insurance industry have occurred over the past two decades, especially in response to the high and volatile interest rates of the late 1970s. As the inflation rate climbed from 4 percent in 1971 to more than 13 percent in 1980, rising interest rates gave households opportunities to earn rates of return much higher than those on traditional cash-value life insurance policies, causing household savings to flow away from such products. Voluntary terminations of ordinary life insurance policies in force (otherwise known as lapses and surrenders) accelerated as interest rates and inflation climbed, and sales of new policies slowed. The liquidity of life companies was further strained as policyholders borrowed heavily against accumulated cash values at contractual rates well below market yields. According to surveys conducted by the American Council of Life Insurance, policyholder loans absorbed more than 22 percent of funds available for investment by the general accounts of life companies in the early part of 1980, compared with only 4 percent in early 1978. Regulations were slow to adapt to the changing environment, creating a drag on the ability of the industry to offer competitive products for household savings. Moreover, in addition to the liquidity problems, the effective tax burden of the industry was growing with the inflation-boosted rise in nominal interest rates. The life insurance industry has adapted to the new conditions through major changes in its products and investment strategy and more recently has been helped by changes in its tax and regulatory position. The types of life insurance products offered to the public have changed dramatically. Important regulations governing types of investments and loan rates have been eased. Tax rules have been redesigned. Investment managers of insurance company portfolios have sought to lessen their exposure to movements in interest rates by shortening maturities and by matching more closely the maturities of assets and liabilities. Liquidity building also has become more important, manifested by increased holdings of short-term investments and the purchases of long-term securities that have active secondary markets; and life companies have increased the equity component of their portfolios in order to boost returns. Life insurance companies have been more successful in competing for pension reserves. The increase in pension reserves at life companies reflects both a generalized movement toward savings in the form of pensions and the ability of the industry to compete with other pension fund managers. Life insurance companies in the United States traditionally have been important financial intermediaries. The life insurance and pension reserves they provide are savings instruments that help households accumulate wealth for retirement and bequests. Life companies in turn use the premiums paid for these products to invest in equities and bonds, thus efficiently helping to transform a large portion of the financial assets of households into real capital investment by business and government. Although insurance companies have made a successful transition into a new and more competitive economic environment, their smaller share of household savings has reduced their role in the intermediation process. However, despite currently low and stable rates of inflation and interest, the industry is likely to continue using its new strategies to compete for its lost share of household savings.",
"corpus_id": 166662249,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Self-assembled synthesis of SERS-active silver dendrites and photoluminescence properties of a thin porous silicon layer",
"abstract": "Via electroless metal deposition, well-defined silver dendrites and thin porous silicon (por-Si) layers are simultaneously prepared in ammonia fluoride solution containing AgNO3 at 50 degrees C. A self-assembled localized microscopic electrochemical cell model and a diffusion-limited aggregation mode are used to explain the growth of silver dendrites. The formation of silver dendritic nanostructures derives from the continuous aggregation growth of small particles on a layer of silver nanoparticles or nanoclusters (Volmer-Weber layer). Thin and homogeneous nanostructure por-Si layers display visible light-emission properties at room temperature. The investigation of the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) reveals that the film of silver dendrites on por-Si is an excellent substrate with significant enhancement effect. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",
"corpus_id": 505480
} | {
"title": "Controlling anisotropic nanoparticle growth through plasmon excitation",
"abstract": "Inorganic nanoparticles exhibit size-dependent properties that are of interest for applications ranging from biosensing and catalysis to optics and data storage. They are readily available in a wide variety of discrete compositions and sizes. Shape-selective synthesis strategies now also yield shapes other than nanospheres, such as anisotropic metal nanostructures with interesting optical properties. Here we demonstrate that the previously described photoinduced method for converting silver nanospheres into triangular silver nanocrystals—so-called nanoprisms—can be extended to synthesize relatively monodisperse nanoprisms with desired edge lengths in the 30–120 nm range. The particle growth process is controlled using dual-beam illumination of the nanoparticles, and appears to be driven by surface plasmon excitations. We find that, depending on the illumination wavelengths chosen, the plasmon excitations lead either to fusion of nanoprisms in an edge-selective manner or to the growth of the nanoprisms until they reach their light-controlled final size.",
"corpus_id": 4395884
} | {
"title": "Observations on the direct electrochemistry of bovine copper-zinc superoxide dismutase",
"abstract": "Abstract The cyclic voltammetric behavior of holo-superoxide dismutase (SOD) at pH 4.0 consists of an anodic peak at +0.270 V/SCE with no evidence of a cathodic feature on the forward (reduction) scan. Chronocoulometric data suggest that the reduced enzyme is strongly adsorbed in a close-packed arrangement. Background-subtracted differential pulse voltammograms yield poorly defined cathodic and anodic peaks at pH 5.0–7.0. Chemically reduced holo-SOD solutions exhibit markedly improved differential pulse voltammetric characteristics (especially the anodic), thus suggesting a conformational change occurring, possibly at the active site, consequent to electrochemical/chemical reduction that, in turn, enhances accessibility of the electrode to the active site.",
"corpus_id": 83923973,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Biosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles by Bamboo Leaves Extract and Their Antimicrobial Activity",
"abstract": "The synthesis of nanoparticles from biological processes is evolving a new era of research interests in nanotechnology. Silver nanoparticles are usually synthesized by chemicals which are quite toxic and ∞ammable in nature. This study deals with an environment friendly and biosynthesis process of antibacterial silver nanoparticles using bamboo leaves. The formation and characterisation of AgNPs were conflrmed by UV-Vis spectroscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray difiraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The antimicrobial activities were carried out against E. coli and S. aureus strains by using disc difiusion method.",
"corpus_id": 15325254
} | {
"title": "Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles by using carambola fruit extract and their antibacterial activity",
"abstract": "In this study well defined silver nanoparticles were synthesized by using carambola fruit extract. After exposing the silver ions to the fruit extract, the rapid reduction of silver ions led to the formation of stable AgNPs in solution due to the reducing and stabilizing properties of carambola fruit juice. The synthesized NPs were analyzed by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction pattern. The as-synthesized AgNPs were phase pure and well crystalline with a face-centered cubic structure. The AgNPs were characterized by TEM to determine their size and morphology. The antimicrobial activity of the synthesized AgNPs was investigated against Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by agar well diffusion method. This newly developed method is eco-friendly and could prove a better substitute for the current physical and chemical methods for the synthesis of AgNPs.",
"corpus_id": 20564483
} | {
"title": "A ballscrew drive mechanism with piezo-electric nut for preload and motion control",
"abstract": "Abstract This work reports the development of a ballscrew drive mechanism equipped with a piezo-electric nut for active ballscrew preload and fine motion control. This mechanism is intended for a motion stage of long-stroke, high-speed and ultra-precision applications. Motion of the piezo-electric nut ballscrew drive system consists of a high-speed coarse positioning and an ultra-fine positioning. Coarse positioning is done by a conventional servo motor and ballscrew where the piezo-electric nut exerts a light ballscrew preload in order to reduce the friction torque and wear at high speed motion. After the coarse positioning, a fine position adjustment is actuated by three piezo-electric actuators to get very precise positioning. Test results show that the positioning error can be fine-adjusted to the nanometer level. The low speed stability of the ballscrew drive mechanism has also been improved using the piezo-electric actuators by applying a dither signal to the ballscrew preload. The dither action can smooth and reduce the ballscrew friction force and consequently reduce the stick–slip phenomenon at low speed motion.",
"corpus_id": 109332532,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Eye as a key element of conspecific image eliciting lateralized response in fish",
"abstract": "Visual lateralization in different aspects of social behaviour has been found for numerous species of vertebrates ranging from fish to mammals. For inspection of a shoal mate, many fishes show a left eye–right hemisphere preference. Here, we tested the hypothesis that in fish, there is a key cue in the conspecific appearance, which elicits lateralized response to the whole image of the conspecific. In a series of eight experiments, we explored eye preferences in cryptic-coloured Amur sleeper, Perccottus glenii, fry. Fish displayed left-eye preferences at the population level for inspection of a group of conspecifics, their own mirror image, and a motionless flat model of a conspecific. In contrast, no population bias was found for scrutinizing an empty environment or a moving cylinder. When fry were showed a model of a conspecific in a lateral view with the eye displaced from the head to the tail, they again showed a significant preference for left-eye use. On the other hand, ‘eyeless’ conspecific model elicited no lateralized viewing in fry. Finally, the left-eye preference was revealed for scrutiny of the image of a conspecific eye alone. We argue that in Amur sleeper fry, eye is the element of the conspecific image, which can serve as a ‘key’ for the initiation of lateralized social response. This key element may serve as a trigger for the rapid recognition of conspecifics in the left eye–right hemisphere system. Possible causes and advantages of lateralized perception of social stimuli and their key elements are discussed in the context of current theories of brain lateralization.",
"corpus_id": 1638713
} | {
"title": "Visual Laterality of Calf–Mother Interactions in Wild Whales",
"abstract": "Background Behavioral laterality is known for a variety of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. Laterality in social interactions has been described for a wide range of species including humans. Although evidence and theoretical predictions indicate that in social species the degree of population level laterality is greater than in solitary ones, the origin of these unilateral biases is not fully understood. It is especially poorly studied in the wild animals. Little is known about the role, which laterality in social interactions plays in natural populations. A number of brain characteristics make cetaceans most suitable for investigation of lateralization in social contacts. Methodology/Principal Findings Observations were made on wild beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in the greatest breeding aggregation in the White Sea. Here we show that young calves (in 29 individually identified and in over a hundred of individually not recognized mother-calf pairs) swim and rest significantly longer on a mother's right side. Further observations along with the data from other cetaceans indicate that found laterality is a result of the calves' preference to observe their mothers with the left eye, i.e., to analyze the information on a socially significant object in the right brain hemisphere. Conclusions/Significance Data from our and previous work on cetacean laterality suggest that basic brain lateralizations are expressed in the same way in cetaceans and other vertebrates. While the information on social partners and novel objects is analyzed in the right brain hemisphere, the control of feeding behavior is performed by the left brain hemisphere. Continuous unilateral visual contacts of calves to mothers with the left eye may influence social development of the young by activation of the contralateral (right) brain hemisphere, indicating a possible mechanism on how behavioral lateralization may influence species life and welfare. This hypothesis is supported by evidence from other vertebrates.",
"corpus_id": 2259138
} | {
"title": "Lateralized cognition: Asymmetrical and complementary strategies of pigeons during discrimination of the “human concept”",
"abstract": "This study was aimed at revealing which cognitive processes are lateralized in visual categorizations of \"humans\" by pigeons. To this end, pigeons were trained to categorize pictures of humans and then tested binocularly or monocularly (left or right eye) on the learned categorization and for transfer to novel exemplars (Experiment 1). Subsequent tests examined whether they relied on memorized features or on a conceptual strategy, using stimuli composed of new combinations of familiar and novel humans and backgrounds (Experiment 2), whether the hemispheres processed global or local information, using pictures with different levels of scrambling (Experiment 3), and whether they attended to configuration, using distorted human figures (Experiment 4). The results suggest that the left hemisphere employs a category strategy and concentrates on local features, while the right hemisphere uses an exemplar strategy and relies on configuration. These cognitive dichotomies of the cerebral hemispheres are largely shared by humans, suggesting that lateralized cognitive systems already defined the neural architecture of the common ancestor of birds and mammals.",
"corpus_id": 8583298,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Molecular Analysis of Mechanisms Regulating Drug Sensitivity and\nthe Development of New Chemotherapy Strategies for Genitourinary Carcinomas",
"abstract": "A bstractThe emergence of drug-resistant tumors during treatment remains one of the major obstacles in cancer chemotherapy. Overexpression of P-glycoprotein encoded by the multidrug resistance 1 (MDR1) gene or multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) (or both) and decreased expression of DNA topoisomerase II are responsible for expression of the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype. The expression of P-glycoprotein is also often observed in untreated cancers showing spontaneous MDR, such as renal cell carcinoma. Regarding cisplatin resistance, decreased cisplatin accumulation, an increase in cisplatin detoxification by glutathione-related enzymes or metallothionein (or both), and increased repair of DNA damage are all considered to play an important role. The combination of reversal agents targeting such drug resistance markers may be a way to improve the outcome of chemotherapy. Regarding the presently available reversal agents, however, clinically relevant chemosensitizing doses cannot be given to humans without inducing significant toxicity. The development of new agents that reverse drug resistance without causing significant toxicity and their clinical application based on the mechanisms regulating drug sensitivity may therefore be a potentially effective new treatment strategy for genitourinary carcinomas.",
"corpus_id": 1396268
} | {
"title": "Expression of P-glycoprotein and multidrug resistance in renal cell carcinoma.",
"abstract": "The expression of the multidrug-resistance gene product, P-glycoprotein was examined immunohistochemically in 31 untreated human renal cell carcinomas. In 17 of these, chemosensitivity to Adriamycin and vinblastine was also assessed by a microtiter succinate dehydrogenase inhibition test and the correlation between the expression of P-glycoprotein and intrinsic multidrug resistance was investigated. P-glycoprotein was detected in 16 (51.6%) of the 31 carcinomas. In the chemosensitivity test, 14 (82.4%) of the 17 carcinomas were estimated to be resistant to both drugs (multidrug resistant; MDR). Eight (72.7%) of the 11 carcinomas with a positive expression of P-glycoprotein were MDR, and none of them were sensitive of both drugs. On the other hand, MDR carcinomas were not necessarily associated with the expression of P-glycoprotein. Eight (61.5%) of the 13 MDR carcinomas showed a positive expression of P-glycoprotein while the remaining 5 (38.5%) were negative. These results suggest that the expression of P-glycoprotein is an important factor responsible for the intrinsic MDR phenotype of renal cell carcinoma, however, there are probably other factors involved as well which have yet to be fully elucidated.",
"corpus_id": 850900
} | {
"title": "Renal denervation modulates angiotensin receptor expression in the renal cortex of rabbits with chronic heart failure.",
"abstract": "Excessive sympathetic drive is a hallmark of chronic heart failure (HF). Disease progression can be correlated with plasma norepinephrine concentration. Renal function is also correlated with disease progression and prognosis. Because both the renal nerves and renin-angiotensin II system are activated in chronic HF we hypothesized that excessive renal sympathetic nerve activity decreases renal blood flow in HF and is associated with changes in angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) and angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT2R) expression. The present study was carried out in conscious, chronically instrumented rabbits with pacing-induced HF. We found that rabbits with HF showed a decrease in mean renal blood flow (19.8±1.6 in HF vs. 32.0±2.5 ml/min from prepace levels; P<0.05) and an increase in renal vascular resistance (3.26±0.29 in HF vs. 2.21±0.13 mmHg·ml(-1)·min in prepace normal rabbits; P<0.05) while the blood flow and resistance was not changed in HF rabbits with the surgical renal denervation. Renal AT1R expression was increased by ∼67% and AT2R expression was decreased by ∼87% in rabbits with HF; however, kidneys from denervated rabbits with HF showed a near normalization in the expression of these receptors. These results suggest renal sympathetic nerve activity elicits a detrimental effect on renal blood flow and may be associated with alterations in the expression of angiotensin II receptors.",
"corpus_id": 13359338,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "The effects of red tide (Karenia brevis) on reflex impairment and mortality of sublegal Florida stone crabs, Menippe mercenaria.",
"abstract": "The Florida stone crab, Menippe mercenaria, is a major commercial fishery that occurs primarily along Florida's west coast, where harmful algal blooms of Karenia brevis frequently develop. To determine sublethal and lethal effects of K. brevis on M. mercenaria, we exposed sublegal stone crabs to three seawater treatments in laboratory conditions: no K. brevis (control), a low-toxin K. brevis strain (Wilson LT), and a toxic K. brevis (New Pass strain). Total food consumed, reflex impairment and survivorship of each crab was monitored throughout the nine-day experiment. Crabs in the toxic treatment consumed 67% less food. The probability of an individual losing a reflex significantly increased with time (days), and there was a 42% decrease in survivorship in the toxic treatment. This is the first study to demonstrate negative effects of K. brevis on the stone crab, presenting the critical need of further investigation to fully understand how red tide may impact sustainability of the fishery.",
"corpus_id": 4242659
} | {
"title": "Scavenging crustacean fauna in the Chilean Patagonian Sea",
"abstract": "The marine ecosystem of the Chilean Patagonia is considered structurally and functionally unique, because it is the transition area between the Antarctic climate and the more temperate Pacific region. However, due to its remoteness, there is little information about Patagonian marine biodiversity, which is a problem in the face of the increasing anthropogenic activity in the area. The aim of this study was to analyze community patterns and environmental characteristics of scavenging crustaceans in the Chilean Patagonian Sea, as a basis for comparison with future situations where these organisms may be affected by anthropogenic activities. These organisms play a key ecological role in marine ecosystems and constitute a main food for fish and dolphins, which are recognized as one of the main tourist attractions in the study area. We sampled two sites (Puerto Cisnes bay and Magdalena sound) at four different bathymetric strata, recording a total of 14 taxa that included 7 Decapoda, 5 Amphipoda, 1 Isopoda and 1 Leptostraca. Taxon richness was low, compared to other areas, but similar to other records in the Patagonian region. The crustacean community presented an evident differentiation between the first stratum (0–50 m) and the deepest area in Magdalena sound, mostly influenced by Pseudorchomene sp. and a marked environmental stratification. This species and Isaeopsis sp. are two new records for science. The discovery of undescribed species evidences that this region needs further studies exploring its biodiversity, which is most likely being already impacted by anthropogenic pressure.",
"corpus_id": 214783838
} | {
"title": "The resting cyst of the red-tide dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum (Dinophyceae)",
"abstract": "The sexual resting cyst (hypnozygote) of the red-tide dinoflagellate Alexandrium minutum Halim (Dinophyceae), the type species of Alexandrium, is described from surface sediments collected from the...",
"corpus_id": 86577445,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "A plasmonic sensor based on nanopatch photonic crystal slab with simultaneously high sensing performance and clear registration",
"abstract": "A plasmonic sensor based on nanopatch photonic crystal slab was proposed. The sizes of the nanopatch was optimized. With shallow etched and small size of the nanopatch, the sensor achieves simultaneously a high sensing performance of FOM=171.6 RIU-1 and a clear registration of FH/FWHM=0.261 for the lattice constant of P=750. The results of P=1000 and P=1250 are also presented.",
"corpus_id": 1081347
} | {
"title": "High‐Performance Plasmonic Sensors Based on Two‐Dimensional Ag Nanowell Crystals",
"abstract": "A high‐performance plasmonic biosensor based on two‐dimensional (2D) Ag nanowell crystals is rationally designed and fabricated by colloidal lithography. The crystals act as 2D metallic gratings that directly couple incident photons to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). The nanowell sizes are properly tuned to enable coupling between the SPPs and Raleigh anomalies, which proves to greatly contribute to sharp reflectance dips. Other geometric parameters including the nanowell depth and the lattice constant are respectively adjusted to optimize the lineshape and sensitivity. These inferences and experimental results are verified by finite‐difference time‐domain (FDTD) calculations. In this study, the fabricated crystal with 670 nm lattice constant, 483 nm nanowell size, and 40 nm nanowell depth possesses the highest refractive index sensitivity (RIS) (623.7 nm RIU−1), the maximum figure of merit (FOM) (55.2 RIU−1), and a very high value of full height/full width at half‐maximum (FH/FWHM) (28.3 ×10−3 nm−1). As a proof‐of‐concept, we adopt the well‐studied antigen‐antibody couple as a model system to illustrate the potential of the nanowell crystal in a quantitative analytical bioassay. The excellent sensing performance, together with the compact structure and the simple read‐out apparatus, suggest that the 2D Ag nanowell crystal is an excellent candidate for a label‐free biosensing platform.",
"corpus_id": 98229023
} | {
"title": "Photovoltaic properties of n‐CdSe/p‐ZnTe heterojunctions",
"abstract": "Measurements of the diffusion potential, depletion layer width, and bias dependence of quantum efficiency for n‐CdSe/p‐ZnTe heterojunctions are used to construct a band diagram for the junction and to propose a current transport model. A new value of the electron affinity of CdSe is indicated by measurements of the open‐circuit voltage at low temperatures and high intensities. The saturation current density J0 is controlled by a thermal activation energy of 0.8 eV, corresponding to electron flow to the interface where recombination occurs through interface states. Performance as photovoltaic cells is limited by the short diffusion length of holes in CdSe.",
"corpus_id": 96925770,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Arsenic species in wheat, raw and cooked rice: Exposure and associated health implications.",
"abstract": "Arsenic concentrations above 10μgL-1 were previously found in 89% of ground water sources in six villages of Pakistan. The present study has ascertained the health risks associated with exposure to total arsenic (tAs) and its species in most frequently consumed foods. Inorganic arsenic (iAs) concentrations were found to be 92.5±41.88μgkg-1, 79.21±76.42μgkg-1, and 116.38±51.38μgkg-1 for raw rice, cooked rice and wheat respectively. The mean tAs concentrations were 47.47±30.72μgkg-1, 71.65±74.7μgkg-1, 105±61.47μgkg-1. Wheat is therefore demonstrated to be a significant source of arsenic exposure. Dimethylarsinic acid was the main organic species detected in rice, whilst monomethylarsonic acid was only found at trace levels. Total daily intake of iAs exceeded the provisional tolerable daily intake of 2.1μgkg-1day-1 body weight in 74% of study participants due to concurrent intake from water (94%), wheat (5%) and raw rice (1%). A significant association between tAs in cooked rice and cooking water resulted in tAs intake 43% higher in cooked rice compared to raw rice. The study suggests that arsenic intake from food, particularly from wheat consumption, holds particular significance where iAs is relatively low in water. Chronic health risks were found to be significantly higher from wheat intake than rice, whilst the risk in terms of acute effects was below the USEPA's limit of 1.0. Children were at significantly higher health risk than adults due to iAs exposure from rice and/or wheat. The dietary exposure of participants to tAs was attributable to staple food intake with ground water iAs <10μgL-1, however the preliminary advisory level (200μgkg-1) was achievable with rice consumption of ≤200gday-1 and compliance with ≤10μgL-1 iAs in drinking water. Although the daily iAs intake from food was lower than total water intake, the potential health risk from exposure to arsenic and its species still exists and requires exposure control measures.",
"corpus_id": 4697881
} | {
"title": "Quantitative assessment of possible human health risk associated with consumption of arsenic contaminated groundwater and wheat grains from Ropar Wetand and its environs",
"abstract": "Arsenic (As) is a carcinogenic metalloid that enters food chain through food and water and poses health risk to living beings. It is important to assess the As status in the environment and risks associated with it. Hence, a risk assessment study was conducted across Ropar wetland, Punjab, India and its environs in pre-monsoon season of 2013, to estimate the risk posed to adults and children via daily consumption of As contaminated groundwater and wheat grains. Arsenic concentrations determined in groundwater, soil and wheat grain samples using atomic absorption spectrometer ranged from 2.90 to 10.56 μg L−1, 0.06 to 0.12 mg kg−1 and 0.03 to 0.21 mg kg−1, respectively. Arsenic in wheat grains showed significant negative correlation with phosphate content in soil indicating a competitive uptake of arsenate and phosphate ions by plants. Principal component analysis and cluster analysis suggested that both natural and anthropogenic factors contribute to variation in As content and other variables studied in soil and groundwater samples. Total cancer risk and hazard index were higher than the USEPA safety limits of 1.00 × 10−6 and 1, respectively, for both adults and children indicating a high risk of cancer and other health disorders. Consumption of As contaminated wheat grains was found to pose higher risk of cancer and non-cancer health disorders as compared to intake of As contaminated groundwater by both adults and children. Moreover, children were found to be more prone to cancer and other heath disorders due to As exposure via wheat grains and groundwater as compared to adults.",
"corpus_id": 11136516
} | {
"title": "Assessment of allelopathic, cytotoxic, genotoxic and antigenotoxic potential of Smilax brasiliensis Sprengel leaves.",
"abstract": "Smilax brasiliensis (Smilacaceae) is a native Brazilian plant found in the Cerrado biome and commonly used in folk medicine. The aim of this study was to evaluate the allelopathic, cytotoxic, genotoxic, and antigenotoxic potential of extract and fractions of Smilax brasiliensis leaves. Quercetin and rutin isomers were observed in the subfractions. The dichloromethane fraction (1000 μg/mL) decreased lettuce (Lactuca sativa) seed vigor, while and ethyl acetate and hydromethanol fractions (1000 μg/mL) affected the germination, and quercetin and rutin affected the vigor and germination of onion seeds. The extract, fractions, quercetin, and rutin inhibited or promoted lettuce hypocotyl and radicle growth. The extract and fractions inhibited onion hypocotyl growth at all concentrations. With regards to radicle growth, the results were diversified: growth was either inhibited or promoted. Rutin and quercetin inhibited onion hypocotyl and radicle growth at all concentrations. The extract and fractions of Smilax brasiliensis, rutin, and quercetin did not cause cytotoxic effect evaluated by mitotic index. The extract and fractions showed genotoxic effects. Quercetin and rutin did not cause genotoxic effects. On the other hand, the extract and fractions showed antigenotoxic effects at all tested concentrations, where they were able to revert chromosomal abnormalities caused by glyphosate. However, additional studies are required to evaluate the possible use of the S. brasiliensis leaf methanol extract and fractions as natural sources of bioherbicides.",
"corpus_id": 211133761,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Classifying streaming of Twitter data based on sentiment analysis using hybridization",
"abstract": "Twitter is a social media that developed rapidly in today’s modern world. As millions of Twitter messages are sent day by day, the value and importance of developing a new technique for detecting spammers become significant. Moreover, legitimate users are affected by means of spams in the form of unwanted URLs, irrelevant messages, etc. Another hot topic of research is sentiment analysis that is based on each tweet sent by the user and opinion mining of the customer reviews. Most commonly natural language processing is used for sentiment analysis. The text is collected from user’s tweets by opinion mining and automatic sentiment analysis that are oriented with ternary classifications, such as “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative.” Due to limited size, unstructured nature, misspells, slangs, and abbreviations, it is more challenging for researchers to find sentiments for Twitter data. In this paper, we collected 600 million public tweets using URL-based security tool and feature generation is applied for sentiment analysis. The ternary classification is processed based on preprocessing technique, and the results of tweets sent by the users are obtained. We use a hybridization technique using two optimization algorithms and one machine learning classifier, namely particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm and decision tree for classification accuracy by sentiment analysis. The results are compared with previous works, and our proposed method shows a better analysis than that of other classifiers.",
"corpus_id": 13816246
} | {
"title": "Opinion mining and sentiment analysis on a Twitter data stream",
"abstract": "Opinion mining and sentiment analysis is a fast growing topic with various world applications, from polls to advertisement placement. Traditionally individuals gather feedback from their friends or relatives beforepurchasing an item, but today the trend is to identify the opinions of a variety ofindividuals around the globe using microbloggingdata. This paper discusses an approach where a publicised stream of tweets from the Twitter microblogging site are preprocessed and classified based on their emotional content as positive, negative and irrelevant; and analyses the performance of various classifying algorithms based on their precision and recall in such cases. Further, the paper exemplifies the applications of this research and its limitations.",
"corpus_id": 34880624
} | {
"title": "A computational analysis of poetic style Imagism and its influence on modern professional and amateur poetry",
"abstract": "How do standards of poetic beauty change as a function of time and expertise? Here we use computational methods to compare the stylistic features of 359 English poems written by 19th century professional poets, Imagist poets, contemporary professional poets, and contemporary amateur poets. Building upon techniques designed to analyze style and sentiment in texts, we examine elements of poetic craft such as imagery, sound devices, emotive language, and diction. We find that contemporary professional poets use significantly more concrete words than 19th century poets, fewer emotional words, and more complex sound devices. These changes are consistent with the tenets of Imagism, an early 20thcentury literary movement. Further analyses show that contemporary amateur poems resemble 19th century professional poems more than contemporary professional poems on several dimensions. The stylistic similarities between contemporary amateur poems and 19th century professional poems suggest that elite standards of poetic beauty in the past “trickled down” to influence amateur works in the present. Our",
"corpus_id": 17928230,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "The Meteor Automatic Metric for Machine Translation evaluation, originally",
"abstract": null,
"corpus_id": 207883479
} | {
"title": "Quality expectations of machine translation",
"abstract": "Machine Translation (MT) is being deployed for a range of use-cases by millions of people on a daily basis. There should, therefore, be no doubt as to the utility of MT. However, not everyone is convinced that MT can be useful, especially as a productivity enhancer for human translators. In this chapter, I address this issue, describing how MT is currently deployed, how its output is evaluated and how this could be enhanced, especially as MT quality itself improves. Central to these issues is the acceptance that there is no longer a single ‘gold standard’ measure of quality, such that the situation in which MT is deployed needs to be borne in mind, especially with respect to the expected ‘shelf-life’ of the translation itself.",
"corpus_id": 4092729
} | {
"title": "Calculating Statistical Similarity between Sentences",
"abstract": "Sentence similarity plays an important role in text-related research and applications. It is closely related to word similarity and document similarity. The statistical similarity measures between sentences, based on symbolic characteristics and structural information, could measure the similarity between sentences without any prior knowledge but only on the statistical information of sentences. This paper presents several approaches to calculating statistical similarity between sentences on a test corpus of 40 sentences. These measures can be used in short text related applications such as corpus construction and title/abstract based document recommendation. The evaluation results show the differences of these measures.",
"corpus_id": 14627943,
"score": -1
} |
{
"title": "The Context of Cultural Intelligence – A Book Review of David Livermore's Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success",
"abstract": "Copyright © 2010 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines Livermore’s contribution to global leadership is his pioneering work on cultural intelligence (CQ), a new addition to a growing number of multiple formulations of human intelligences and quotients. By addressing culture as a key factor of leadership in a global context, he now provides a neutral perspective on culture for corporate leaders. This perspective is aligned with the growing trend of understanding other cultures and civilizations with empathy. Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success may yet facilitate the implementation of global hypernorms proposed in integrative social contract theory and facilitate compliance to global standards of codes of conduct.",
"corpus_id": 154989413
} | {
"title": "Bridging Cultural Discontinuities in Global Virtual Teams: Role of Cultural Intelligence",
"abstract": "Prior research on global virtual teams (GVTs) identifies ‘cultural discontinuity' as a salient boundary that needs to be bridged for better performance. Grounding the study in organizational discontinuity theory (ODT), we propose cultural intelligence (CQ) as one of the modalities through which cultural discontinuities in GVTs could possibly be bridged. Situating the discussion, in transactional model of stress and coping (TMSC), we develop a CQ nomological network describing the inter-relationships and mechanisms through which different CQ dimensions influence GVT performance. Further, leveraging compensatory adaptation theory (CAT) we hypothesize the significant role of structural adaptation (role str ucture adaptation), in addition to behavioral adaptation (CQ behavior), in the proposed CQ framework for the GVT context. The theorized model is tested via data collected through a two-wave survey design comprising 128 GVT members in 32 teams. Study provides support to the extended CQ nomological network and makes several valuable theoretical and practical contributions.",
"corpus_id": 14429110
} | {
"title": "Circuits and circumstances: the neurobiological consequences of early relationship experiences and how they shape later behaviour",
"abstract": "The last decade has seen a vast increase in knowledge of how the human brain develops. It has been demonstrated that both the establishment of synaptic connections between neurones and the programming of neurochemical responses that have an effect on the whole body are dependent on experience. The most sensitive period for brain growth, the time of optimal plasticity, is over the first two or three years of life. If the baby's neurological development is threatened by abuse or neglect, which includes excessive attachment disruption, the damage may set its stamp on the rest of life.",
"corpus_id": 1666122,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Predicted Quantum Topological Hall Effect and Noncoplanar Antiferromagnetism in K_{0.5}RhO_{2}.",
"abstract": "The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) phase is a two-dimensional bulk ferromagnetic insulator with a nonzero Chern number in the presence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) but in the absence of applied magnetic fields. Associated metallic chiral edge states host dissipationless current transport in electronic devices. This intriguing QAH phase has recently been observed in magnetic impurity-doped topological insulators, albeit, at extremely low temperatures. Based on first-principles density functional calculations, here we predict that layered rhodium oxide K_{0.5}RhO_{2} in the noncoplanar chiral antiferromagnetic state is an unconventional three-dimensional QAH insulator with a large band gap and a Néel temperature of a few tens of Kelvins. Furthermore, this unconventional QAH phase is revealed to be the exotic quantum topological Hall effect caused by nonzero scalar spin chirality due to the topological spin structure in the system and without the need of net magnetization and SOC.",
"corpus_id": 5370189
} | {
"title": "Topological properties and functionalities in oxide thin films and interfaces",
"abstract": "As symbolized by the Nobel Prize in Physics 2016, ‘topology’ has been recognized as an essential standpoint to understand and control the physics of condensed matter. This concept may be spreading even into application areas such as novel electronics. In this trend, there has been reported a number of studies for oxide films and heterostructures with topologically non-trivial electronic or magnetic states. In this review, we overview the trends of new topological properties and functionalities in oxide materials by sorting out a number of examples. The technological advances in oxide film growth achieved over the last few decades are now opening the door for harnessing novel topological properties.",
"corpus_id": 119384418
} | {
"title": "Spin entropy as the likely source of enhanced thermopower in NaxCo2O4",
"abstract": "In an electric field, the flow of electrons in a solid produces an entropy current in addition to the familiar charge current. This is the Peltier effect, and it underlies all thermoelectric refrigerators. The increased interest in thermoelectric cooling applications has led to a search for more efficient Peltier materials and to renewed theoretical investigation into how electron–electron interaction may enhance the thermopower of materials such as the transition-metal oxides. An important factor in this enhancement is the electronic spin entropy, which is predicted to dominate the entropy current. However, the crucial evidence for the spin-entropy term, namely its complete suppression in a longitudinal magnetic field, has not been reported until now. Here we report evidence for such suppression in the layered oxide NaxCo2O4, from thermopower and magnetization measurements in both longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields. The strong dependence of thermopower on magnetic field provides a rare, unambiguous example of how strong electron–electron interaction effects can qualitatively alter electronic behaviour in a solid. We discuss the implications of our finding—that spin-entropy dominates the enhancement of thermopower in transition-metal oxides—for the search for better Peltier materials.",
"corpus_id": 4342057,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "The two transfer regions of the Rhizobium lupini conjugation",
"abstract": "SummaryIn fertile Rhizobium lupini strains the donor ability has been eliminated. One way transfer experiments reveal the existence of two different fertility factors, which activate the transfer of different chromosomal regions. Therefore four different fertility types can be defined with different donor characterstics.",
"corpus_id": 1972206
} | {
"title": "Production of a merodiploid strain from a double male strain ofE. coli K12",
"abstract": "SummaryA double male strain ofE. coli K12 is capable of siring F′ progeny at a frequency approximately 103 to 105 times greater than that shown by normal Hfr strains. The F′ derivatives are merodiploid for approximately 30% of the standardE. coli map. The F′ element inherited by these progeny is called F20. Anomalies in the donor characteristics of the F′ progeny are explained by a description of the possible recombinant types in which markers heterozygous in the merodiploid strains are reassorted and by an analysis of the concept of the F′ strain. Characterization of the F′ progeny biochemically and morphologically is also discussed.",
"corpus_id": 25999567
} | {
"title": "Effects of exposure to 50Hz or 20kHz [corrected] magnetic fields on weights of body and some organs of CBA mice.",
"abstract": "Males from mouse litters exposed to 50Hz magnetic fields (MF) during the fetal stages right up to 280 days of age, showed a significantly lower body weight as well as kidney and liver weights compared with control animals. These results were not found in females. Adult mice exposed to MF for 140 days showed a significantly lower growth. Similar effects were seen in younger male mice exposed for 60 days. After 90 days exposure kidney and liver weights were significantly lower than controls. Young male mice exposed only for a few days showed a trend towards decreased body weight compared with controls. Using a 20kHz MF, young male mice showed the opposite pattern after 60 days of exposure. In conclusion, we found that the effects depended on exposure time. Young mice and males were found to be more sensitive. Finally, the effects were larger at 50 Hz than at 20 kHz.",
"corpus_id": 89036023,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "The phylogenetic significance of leaf anatomical traits of southern African Oxalis",
"abstract": "BackgroundThe southern African Oxalis radiation is extremely morphologically variable. Despite recent progress in the phylogenetics of the genus, there are few morphological synapomorphies supporting DNA-based clades. Leaflet anatomy can provide an understudied and potentially valuable source of information on the evolutionary history and systematics of this lineage. Fifty-nine leaflet anatomical traits of 109 southern African Oxalis species were assessed in search of phylogenetically significant characters that delineate clades.ResultsA combination of 6 leaflet anatomical traits (stomatal position, adaxial epidermal cells, abaxial epidermal cells, mesophyll, sheath around vascular tissue, degree of leaflet conduplication) clearly support various clades defined by previous DNA-based phylogenetic work. Other, mostly continuous leaflet anatomical traits were highly variable and showed less phylogenetic pattern.ConclusionsMajor and unexpected findings include the transition from ancestral hypostomatic leaflets to adaxially-located stomata in the vast majority of southern African Oxalis, the loss of semi-swollen AB epidermal cells and the gain of swollen adaxial and abaxial epidermal cells in selected clades, and multiple changes from ancestral bifacial mesophyll to isobilateral or homogenous mesophyll types. The information gathered in this study will aid in the taxonomic revision of this speciose member of the Greater Cape Floristic Region and provide a basis for future hypotheses regarding its radiation.",
"corpus_id": 461239
} | {
"title": "Do pollinators influence the assembly of flower colours within plant communities?",
"abstract": "The co-occurrence of plant species within a community is influenced by local deterministic or neutral processes as well as historical regional processes. Floral trait distributions of co-flowering species that share pollinators may reflect the impact of pollinator preference and constancy on their assembly within local communities. While pollinator sharing may lead to increased visitation rates for species with similar flowers, the receipt of foreign pollen via interspecific pollinator movements can decrease seed set. We investigated the pattern of community flower colour assembly as perceived by native honeybee pollinators within 24 local assemblages of co-flowering Oxalis species within the Greater Cape Floristic Region, South Africa. To explore the influence of pollinators on trait assembly, we assessed the impact of colour similarity on pollinator choices and the cost of heterospecific pollen receipt. We show that flower colour is significantly clustered within Oxalis communities and that this is not due to historical constraint, as flower colour is evolutionarily labile within Oxalis and communities are randomly structured with respect to phylogeny. Pollinator observations reveal that the likelihood of pollinators switching between co-flowering species is low and increases with flower colour similarity. Interspecific hand pollination significantly reduced seed set in the four Oxalis species we investigated, and all were dependant on pollinators for reproduction. Together these results imply that flower colour similarity carries a potential fitness cost. However, pollinators were highly flower constant, and remained so despite the extreme similarity of flower colour as perceived by honeybees. This suggests that other floral traits facilitate discrimination between similarly coloured species, thereby likely resulting in a low incidence of interspecific pollen transfer (IPT). If colour similarity promotes pollinator attraction at the community level, the observed clustering of flower colour within communities might result from indirect facilitative interactions.",
"corpus_id": 7539082
} | {
"title": "Achieving Sustainability in Manufacturing Using Robotic Methodologies",
"abstract": "Abstract There has been a recent push in robotics globally. This work makes an attempt at exploring the role of robotics in achieving sustainability in manufacturing. Its describes the advancement made so far in applying robots to manufacturing- welding shot blasting, painting, and so forth, within the sustainability framework. Factors militating against the sustainable economic model are addressed. New methodologies are much needed to bridge the knowledge gap between research and industry, regarding the design and implementation of robotic applications in manufacturing and also a skill-gap and skill shortages framework. The adoption of new technologies like Robotic Operating Systems (ROS), in the approaches to the design of industrial robots, could enhance sustainability in the use of robots in manufacturing at a reduced cost.",
"corpus_id": 114651527,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Glucocorticoid administration in antiemetic therapy: Is it safe?",
"abstract": "BACKGROUND. Although glucocorticoids are often used in cancer therapy, in particular to enhance the effectiveness of antiemetic therapy, they have been associated with impaired tumor apoptosis and an increased frequency of metastases in some reports. The current study aimed to determine whether glucocorticoid treatment had an adverse effect on outcomes in patients with ovarian carcinoma. METHODS. Records of patients with ovarian carcinoma who were scheduled to receive at least six courses of systemic chemotherapy were reviewed. Patients were grouped into those who had or had not received corticosteroid medication as a part of general antiemetic prophylaxis before chemotherapy, and details of hematologic parameters during treatment and disease recurrence-free and overall survival were recorded. RESULTS. Altogether, 245 patients with ovarian carcinoma had received chemotherapy. Of these, 62 had been given concurrent glucocorticoid treatment and 183 had not. The two patient groups were well balanced with respect to disease stage and other prognostic factors. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed no significant differences in survival between the groups. Patients who received glucocorticoid treatment had significantly higher leukocyte values in the days immediately after chemotherapy, higher nadir leukocyte values, and higher counts before subsequent courses of chemotherapy (P < 0.01; Levene test, t test) compared with patients who did not receive glucocorticoid treatment. As a result, the initial treatment targets were achieved significantly more often in the glucocorticoid group (P = 0.007; chi-square test). CONCLUSIONS. There was no evidence that glucocorticoid treatment had a negative effect on outcomes in these patients. Glucocorticoids may exert protective effects on the bone marrow.",
"corpus_id": 2436259
} | {
"title": "Mechanisms of organ selective tumour growth by bloodborne cancer cells.",
"abstract": "The sites of tumour development for 6 rat tumours injected into syngeneic rats via different vascular routes was determined. Xenografts of human tumours were also injected intra-arterially (i.a.) into immunosuppressed rats. Following intravenous (i.v.) and intraportal (i.ptl.) injection of cells tumour colonies localized in lung and liver respectively due to tumour cell arrest. Arterially injected radiolabelled cells disseminated and arrested in a similar distribution to cardiac output and did not 'home' to any organs. Following arterial injection of unlabelled tumour cells colonies grew in many organs. While the pattern of growth for a particular tumour varied with the cell dose, the 'arterial patterns' for all of the tumours studied followed a similar pattern. Some organs (eg adrenals, ovaries and periodontal ligament) were consistently preferred, others (eg skin and skeletal muscle) only supported tumour growth following the delivery of large numbers of cells, while in some tissues (eg spleen and intestines) tumour never grew. Viable tumour cells could be demonstrated by bioassay in many organs for up to 24h after i.a. injection. However tumour growth only occurred in certain organs and the pattern of this growth was not related to the number of tumour cells arrested or their rate of autolysis. This site preference could be expressed quantitatively as the probability of an arrested cell developing into a tumour and was considered a 'soil effect'. Site preference was not directly related to organ vascularity. Organ colonisation was promoted by steroid treatment but the mechanism was unclear and was not secondary to T-cell immunosuppression or prostaglandin synthesis suppression. The adrenal glands were preferred sites of tumour growth but pharmacological manipulation of adrenal function did not alter tumour growth to this organ. Sites of injury and healing were preferred sites of tumour colonisation and this could not be accounted for by increased delivery of tumour cells to these regions. The possibility that the macrophage component of the inflammatory response promoted tumour growth was suggested from studies in which the interval between trauma and inoculation of tumour cells was varied as well as by promotion of intraperitoneal (i.p.) tumour growth by a macrophage infiltrate.",
"corpus_id": 16679642
} | {
"title": "Induction of bcl-xL expression in mammary epithelial cells is glucocorticoid-dependent but not signal transducer and activator of transcription 5-dependent.",
"abstract": "In the present study, we examined the role of prolactin and glucocorticoids in regulating bcl-x transcription in mammary epithelial cells. We report that dexamethasone, but not prolactin, induced native bcl-x gene expression in a dose-dependent manner in HC11 cells and enhanced serum-starved HC11 cell survival. This effect was mediated through the glucocorticoid receptor and independent of STAT-5 activity. We propose that the mechanism through which glucocorticoids enhance mammary epithelial cell survival is by increasing steady-state levels of bcl-xL, RNA.",
"corpus_id": 1859878,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Treatment of Valproate-Induced Alopecia",
"abstract": "areasare thencoveredby cloth,cotton,wool,or a bandage,\" Thereshould be warnings of the product's irritant propertiesand the need for proper application. The information in the packageinsertsof all medicated oilscontaining methylsalicylateshouldbe scrutinized moreclosely.Adequateand clear warningsof toxicity, the propermethodof handlingand application, and the need to consult a physician,especially in case of poisoning,should be included. Given that ingestionof as little as 4 mLof wintergreenoil by a child can be fatal,6 the bottles always should be closed tightly or, preferably, have child-resistant caps. All physicians and pharmacists should appreciate fully the toxic potential of these liquid, concentrated methylsalicylate formulations.",
"corpus_id": 2517452
} | {
"title": "Poisoning due to Chinese proprietary medicines",
"abstract": "1 To determine the toxic potentials of those Chinese pro prietary medicines (CPM) which are commonly used for self-poisoning by adults in Hong Kong, all patients admit ted to four of the eight general medical wards at the Prince of Wales Hospital between January 1988 and December 1993 were retrospectively studied. 2 There were 54 women and 17 men with their age rang ing from 15 to 86 years. Twenty-three subjects (32%) also took alcohol, chemicals or drugs. Of the 51 subjects (72%) who had taken topical medicaments, 22 had no symptoms while 28 had minor features of gastrointestinal irritation (n = 26), mild (n = 2) or severe (n = 1) salicylate poisoning. Of the 17 subjects (24%) who had taken CPM tablets/cap sules, nine had mild symptoms including nausea/vomiting and drowsiness. The three remaining patients (4%) who had ingested liquid CPM preparations were asymptomatic. Elevated plasma salicylate or paracetamol concentrations (> 0.1 mmol l-1l) were found in some patients who had taken topical medicaments and CPM tablets/capsules, respectively. All the 71 patients completely recovered. 3 Most of the CPM used for self-poisoning in Hong Kong were of low to moderate toxicity except for those contain ing wintergreen oil (methyl salicylate).",
"corpus_id": 11369006
} | {
"title": "Increasing Adoption of Smart Learning Content for Computer Science Education",
"abstract": "Computer science educators are increasingly using interactive learning content to enrich and enhance the pedagogy of their courses. A plethora of such learning content, specifically designed for computer science education, such as visualization, simulation, and web-based environments for learning programming, are now available for various courses. We call such content smart learning content. However, such learning content is seldom used outside its host site despite the benefits it could offer to learners everywhere. In this paper, we investigate the factors that impede dissemination of such content among the wider computer science education community. To accomplish this we surveyed educators, existing tools and recent research literature to identify the current state of the art and analyzed the characteristics of a large number of smart learning content examples along canonical dimensions. In our analysis we focused on examining the technical issues that must be resolved to support finding, integrating and customizing smart learning content in computer science courses. Finally, we propose a new architecture for hosting, integrating and disseminating smart learning content and discuss how it could be implemented based on existing protocols and standards.",
"corpus_id": 11284400,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Computational model of soft tissues in the human upper airway",
"abstract": "This paper presents a three‐dimensional finite element model of the tongue and surrounding soft tissues with potential application to the study of sleep apnoea and of linguistics and speech therapy. The anatomical data was obtained from the Visible Human Project, and the underlying histological data was also extracted and incorporated into the model. Hyperelastic constitutive models were used to describe the material behaviour, and material incompressibility was accounted for. An active Hill three‐element muscle model was used to represent the muscular tissue of the tongue. The neural stimulus for each muscle group was determined through the use of a genetic algorithm‐based neural control model. The fundamental behaviour of the tongue under gravitational and breathing‐induced loading is investigated. It is demonstrated that, when a time‐dependent loading is applied to the tongue, the neural model is able to control the position of the tongue and produce a physiologically realistic response for the genioglossus. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.",
"corpus_id": 2299700
} | {
"title": "Digital human modeling and its applications: Review and future prospects.",
"abstract": "OBJECTIVE\nThe digital human modeling combines information technology with bioscience, applied to analog study from DNA molecule and protein to cell and tissue, as well as organ. It has been widely implemented in various fields such as aviation, national defense, film and television, sports and medical treatment. This paper sorts relative research achievements and progress in recent years and summarizes issues and challenges of research work. The purpose of this paper is to provide references for the development of Digital Human Modeling.\n\n\nMETHODS\nBasing on the development plans proposed by Federation of American Scientists (FAS) and current theories, we sorted academic achievements and relative references since the beginning of the digital human concept until 2014 into four aspects, which were named as Visible Human, Virtual Physical Human, Virtual Physiological Human, and Intelligent Virtual Human. We collected information of data acquisition, data analysis and dataset establishment for Visible Human. We outlined the Virtual Physical Human references in four physical categories, including radiation, ultrasonic, electrics, and mechanics. For Virtual Physiological Human, relative researches related to the physiological and biochemical changes of human body were categorized in four aspects as gene molecules, cells, and organs. Relative researches of Virtual Brain Human were mainly concentrated on virtual human brain and virtual human control.\n\n\nRESULTS\nAccording to the differences in investigations and applications requirements of Digital Human in all aspects, we classified, analyzed and concluded extensive preference data. The overall plan of Digital Human, as well as technical routes, work plans, present states, goals, results and application value in each stage of research was summarized. We discussed the technical issues existing in each aspect of Digital Human, along with the urgent key technologies including data collection, data processing, and modeling.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nAnalyzing the core technologies and the general technical schemes in the field of Digital Human, this paper summarizes the technical solutions, research results and technical problems of major researchers. The future prospects of Digital Human are reviewed.",
"corpus_id": 25833761
} | {
"title": "Comparison of biomechanical and structural properties between human aortic and pulmonary valve.",
"abstract": "OBJECTIVE\nPulmonary valve autografts have been reported as clinically effective for replacement of diseased aortic valve (Ross procedure). Published data about pulmonary valve mechanical and structural suitability as a long-term substitute for aortic valve are limited. The aim of this study was to compare aortic and pulmonary valve properties.\n\n\nMETHODS\nExperimental studies of biomechanical properties and structure of aortic and pulmonary valves were carried out on pathologically unchanged human heart valves, collected from 11 cadaveric hearts. Biomechanical properties of 84 specimens (all valve elements: cusps, fibrous ring, commissures, sinotubular junction, sinuses) were investigated using uniaxial tensile tests. Ultrastructure was studied using transmission and scanning electron microscopy.\n\n\nRESULTS\nUltimate stress in circumferential direction for pulmonary valve cusps is higher than for aortic valve (2.78+/-1.05 and 1.74+/-0.29 MPa, respectively). Ultimate stress in radial direction for pulmonary and aortic cusps is practically the same (0.29+/-0.06 and 0.32+/-0.04 MPa, respectively). In ultrastructural study, different layout and density in each construction element are determined. The aortic and pulmonary valves have common ultrastructural properties.\n\n\nCONCLUSIONS\nMechanical differences between aortic and pulmonary valve are minimal. Ultrastructural studies show that the aortic and pulmonary valves have similar structural elements and architecture. This investigation suggests that the pulmonary valve can be considered mechanically and structurally suitable for use as an aortic valve replacement.",
"corpus_id": 544672,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Semantically-Enabled Large-Scale Science Data Repositories",
"abstract": "Large heterogeneous online repositories of scientific information have the potential to change the way science is done today. In order for this potential to be realized, numerous challenges must be addressed concerning access to and interoperability of the online scientific data. In our work, we are using semantic web technologies to improve access and interoperability by providing a framework for collaboration and a basis for building and distributing advanced data simulation tools. Our initial scientific focus area is the solar terrestrial physics community. In this paper, we will present our work on the Virtual Solar Terrestrial Observatory (VSTO). We will present the emerging trend of the virtual observatory – a virtual integrated evolving scientific data repository – and describe the general use case and our semantically-enabled architecture. We will also present our specific implementation and describe the benefits of the semantic web in this setting. Further, we speculate on the future of the growing adoption of semantic technologies in this important application area of scientific cyberinfrastructure and semantically enabled scientific data repositories.",
"corpus_id": 906859
} | {
"title": "Understanding Semantic Web Applications",
"abstract": "Ten years have passed since the concept of the semantic web was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee. For these years, basic technologies for them such as RDF(S) and OWL were published. As a result, many systems using semantic technologies have been developed. Some of them are not prototype systems for researches but real systems for practical use. The authors analyzed semantic web applications published in the semantic web conferences (ISWC, ESWC, ASWC) and classified them based on ontological engineering. This paper is a review of application papers published in Semantic Web conferences. We discuss a trend and the future view of them using the results.",
"corpus_id": 2823462
} | {
"title": "Risk estimation model for regional flood disasters and its application",
"abstract": "In order to reduce flood disaster loss,a risk estimation model for regional flood disasters was established according to the risk indexes in system. The Markov chain was employed to extrapolate some trend of risk prediction and to estimate the non-measured value state of flood disasters.The Bayes statistical theory and method was adopted to inquire the posterior distribution through the prior distribution and sample information and to distinguish the trend of risk estimation based on the maximum probability principle.The strategies for flood disasters were appropriately adjusted according to the estimated results and the local actual situations so as to control and reduce the caused impact as much as possible.The feasibility of the proposed model was validated by case study.",
"corpus_id": 156192900,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "The hyporheic habitat of river ecosystems",
"abstract": "Contemporary river ecology is based primarily on biogeochemical studies of the river channel and interactions with shoreline vegetation, even though most rivers have extensive floodplain aquifers that are hydraulically connected to the channel. The hyporheic zone, the interstitial habitat penetrated by riverine animals, is characterized as being spatially limited to no more than a few metres, in most cases centimetres, away from the river channel1–9. However, riverine invertebrates were collected in hundreds per sample within a grid of shallow (10 m) wells located on the flood-plain up to 2 km from the channel of the Flathead River, Montana, USA. Preliminary mass transport calculations indicate that nutrients discharged from the hyporheic zone may be crucial to biotic productivity in the river channel. The strength and spatial magnitude of these interactions demonstrate an unexplored dimension in the ecology of gravel-bed rivers.",
"corpus_id": 4285225
} | {
"title": "The Role of the Limnologist in Ground Water Studies",
"abstract": "The following topics are discussed: the advantages of an interdisciplinary approach to ground water studies; the porous aquifer as an open system; the problem of the terminology used in ground water ecology; the interest of ecologists in hydrogeological terminology; biological activity in the unsaturated zone of porous aquifers; the distribution of ground water fauna in the saturated zone of porous aquifers; ground water animals as environmental indicators; the manipulation of ground water ecosystems; basic lines for the further development of ground water ecological studies.",
"corpus_id": 84895644
} | {
"title": "An Interstitial Water-Sampling Receptacle for Intertidal Mud Flats",
"abstract": "In the apparatus described, a common receptacle may be used in conjunction with a pressure-compensating chamber or a vacuum service unit. The pressure-compensating unit is operable at any stage of the tide and requires from 12 to 24 hr to obtain a sample. The vacuum extract unit is operable on the exposed flat at low tide only and usually requires from 20 to 30 min to obtain a sample.",
"corpus_id": 86542894,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Learning Activity Predictors from Sensor Data: Algorithms, Evaluation, and Applications",
"abstract": "Recent progress in Internet of Things (IoT) platforms has allowed us to collect large amounts of sensing data. However, there are significant challenges in converting this large-scale sensing data into decisions for real-world applications. Motivated by applications like health monitoring and intervention and home automation we consider a novel problem called Activity Prediction, where the goal is to predict future activity occurrence times from sensor data. In this paper, we make three main contributions. First, we formulate and solve the activity prediction problem in the framework of imitation learning and reduce it to a simple regression learning problem. This approach allows us to leverage powerful regression learners that can reason about the relational structure of the problem with negligible computational overhead. Second, we present several metrics to evaluate activity predictors in the context of real-world applications. Third, we evaluate our approach using real sensor data collected from 24 smart home testbeds. We also embed the learned predictor into a mobile-device-based activity prompter and evaluate the app for nine participants living in smart homes. Our results indicate that our activity predictor performs better than the baseline methods, and offers a simple approach for predicting activities from sensor data.",
"corpus_id": 1226294
} | {
"title": "Online Sequential Prediction via Incremental Parsing: The Active LeZi Algorithm",
"abstract": "Intelligent systems that can predict future events can make more reliable decisions. Active LeZi, a sequential prediction algorithm, can reason about the future in stochastic domains without domain-specific knowledge. In this article, potential of constructing a prediction algorithm based on data compression techniques are investigated. Active LeZi prediction algorithm approaches sequential prediction from an information-theoretic standpoint. For any sequence of events that can be modeled as a stochastic process, ALZ uses Markov models to optimally predict the next symbol",
"corpus_id": 1342432
} | {
"title": "Designing for collaboration: improving usability of complex software systems",
"abstract": "Designing for collaboration approaches systems and users as a team and focuses on the cooperation between the two. This work in progress aims to delineate how designing for collaboration is also inherently designing for usability. It is proposed that designing for collaboration is theoretically more appropriate for building complex problem-solving applications, where the user and system are by definition co-information-processors.",
"corpus_id": 3004181,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Coatings in Dentistry—A Review of Some Basic Principles",
"abstract": "Different coatings are used in dentistry in an attempt to prevent caries, improve bonding of restorative materials to tooth tissues, and coat implant surfaces in efforts to speed up osseointegration. These are just a few of the many coating applications used in dentistry. The intention of this review is not to cover the entire field of different coatings used in dentistry, because that topic is just too big to be covered in one single paper. Therefore, this review aims to highlight some fundamental coating principles and present these principles to an audience consisting mainly of dentists. To do so, this review will focus on the fundamental principles of coatings, namely surface properties/adhesives in general, since these topics form the foundation for most coating procedures used in dentistry.",
"corpus_id": 9982151
} | {
"title": "Effect of Montmorillonite Nanogel Composite Fillers on the Protection Performance of Epoxy Coatings on Steel Pipelines",
"abstract": "Montmorillonite (MMT) clay mineral is widely used as filler for several organic coatings. Its activity is increased by exfoliation via chemical modification to produce nanomaterials. In the present work, the modification of MMT to form nanogel composites is proposed to increase the dispersion of MMT into epoxy matrices used to fill cracks and holes produced by the curing exotherms of epoxy resins. The dispersion of MMT in epoxy improved both the mechanical and anti-corrosion performance of epoxy coatings in aggressive marine environments. In this respect, the MMT surfaces were chemically modified with different types of 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid (AMPS) nanogels using a surfactant-free dispersion polymerization technique. The effect of the chemical structure, nanogel content and the interaction with MMT surfaces on the surface morphology, surface charges and dispersion in the epoxy matrix were investigated for use as nano-filler for epoxy coatings. The modified MMT nanogel epoxy composites showed excellent resistance to mechanical damage and salt spray resistance up to 1000 h. The interaction of MMT nanogel composites with the epoxy matrix and good response of AMPS nanogel to sea water improve their ability to act as self-healing materials for epoxy coatings for steel.",
"corpus_id": 23589559
} | {
"title": "Sustainable unfired bricks manufacturing from construction and demolition wastes",
"abstract": "Abstract The management of construction and demolition wastes is a huge challenge for most Governments. The greatest component of such wastes is concrete and masonry fragments or remains. Among the most common approaches to valorization of such wastes is to convert them to recycled aggregates, however this may be hampered by low quality of some recycled aggregates compared to natural aggregates. This paper presents the results of experimental investigation where concrete and ceramic remains were used to partially substitute clay soil in producing unfired bricks. The bricks were then tested for mechanical strength, water absorption freeze-thaw resistance. Additionally the environmental impact of the bricks was assessed based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). It was established that concrete waste could be used to substitute up to 50% of the clay whereas ceramic wastes could only substitute a maximum of 30% of the clay. Blended bricks made from clay and concrete waste mixes had a lower mechanical strength than those made from clay and ceramic waste. As regards water absorption, there was no marked difference between the two blends of brick however reduction in water resistance was slightly greater in bricks containing concrete waste that in those containing ceramic wastes. Also, tests showed that freeze-thaw resistance was greater in bricks blended with concrete wastes than in those incorporating ceramic wastes. Life Cycle analyses demonstrated that it is the binder content in the mix that largely determines the environmental impact of the blended bricks. Lastly, it was demonstrated that the most desirable technical and environmental credentials of brick material mixes resulted from using the binder combination: CL-90-S+GGBS 2/8.",
"corpus_id": 109931851,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Destruction of concentrated chlorofluorocarbons in India demonstrates an effective option to simultaneously curb climate change and ozone depletion",
"abstract": "Abstract The Montreal Protocol aims to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out production of substances that contribute to ozone depletion, currently covering over 200 individual substances. As most of these compounds are synthetic greenhouse gases, there is an opportunity to curb both ozone depletion and climate change simultaneously by requiring Parties of both the Montreal and the Kyoto Protocol to destroy their existing stocks of concentrated chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Many emerging countries still possess stocks which need to be destroyed in an environmentally sound manner but costs may be prohibitive. The UNEP Technology and Economic Assessment Panel identified in 2002 eleven destruction technologies which meet the criteria for environmentally sound destruction of chlorofluorocarbons. Cement kilns were among these, but no study has been reported in scientific literature assessing its destruction performance under real developing country conditions up to now. In contrast to incinerators and other treatment techniques, high temperature cement kilns are already in place in virtually every country and can, if found technical feasible, be retrofitted and adapted cost-efficiently to destroy chemicals like CFCs. India has the second largest cement industry in the world and several hazardous waste categories have been tested successfully in recent years. The objective of this study was to carry out the first full scale demonstration involving high feeding rates of concentrated CFC-gases in a local cement kiln and to assess its feasibility and destruction performance. The test in Madhya Pradesh demonstrated that the kiln was able to destroy several concentrated CFC-gases effectively in an irreversible and environmental sound manner without causing increased releases of HCl, HF or PCDD/PCDF. The destruction and removal efficiency was >99.9999% and the overall environmental performance in compliance with Indian regulation and international best practice. The test also revealed that cement kilns have a much higher disposal capacity than previously anticipated and that such undertaking can contribute significantly to reduce the release of both ODS and greenhouse gases; the destruction of 16.3 tonnes of CFCs done in this demonstration is equivalent to saving the release of 131,265 tonnes of CO2 to the atmosphere.",
"corpus_id": 153936208
} | {
"title": "The Clean Development Mechanism: a review of the first international offset programme",
"abstract": "This review article examines the primary issues, the successes and the challenges of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), established under the Kyoto Protocol. It is the primary international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions offset programme in existence today, and while not perfect, it has helped to establish a global market for GHG emission reductions. It generates offsets through investments in developing countries. The CDM has managed to establish – in its relatively nearly decade of existence –a credible, internationally recognized, multibillion dollar carbon offset market with participation from a large number of developing countries and private investors. It has also created processes and methodologies that other programmes are already emulating. A vast amount of work and investment – by participating countries, the private sector, and the UNFCCC secretariat – has gone into developing the CDM's rules, procedures and institutional structures. The creation and rapid growth of a large and unprecedented international programme, however, has not been without its challenges or controversies. Issues have been raised regarding the governance of CDM, the quality of approved projects and the contribution of CDM to sustainable development.",
"corpus_id": 153725412
} | {
"title": "Adaptive sliding mode robust control of manipulator driven by tendon-sheath based on HJI theory",
"abstract": "The load side and the motor connected by flexible joints in the manipulators’ joint servo system. During the motion of manipulators driven by tendon-sheath, the status change of the end-effector will result in the change of the load side rotational inertia. The perturbation of the inertia of the load side will result in the modeling mismatch of the servo system. So the modeling uncertainty and the system robustness will decrease. An adaptive sliding mode robust control based on HJI (Hamilton-Jacobi-Issacs) theory is proposed in this paper to improve the robustness of the system. Firstly, according to D-H coordinate method, kinematics and dynamics models of the manipulator are established. Then, the basic strategy of adaptive sliding mode robust control is proposed. The variation of control parameters of a single joint of the manipulator is adjusted to reduce the control cost. Next, the sliding mode control law was established through the design of the Lyapunov function based on the HJI theory. The manipulator dynamics model was taken as the research object. The simulation analysis was conducted in uncertain parameters. Finally, a series of manipulator prototype experiments were carried out to proof our control theory. The experiment results show that our method can better solve the model uncertainty caused by the servo system. The adaptive sliding mode robust control strategy based on HJI theory has lower dependence on accurately modeling and stronger robustness.",
"corpus_id": 251535943,
"score": 0
} |
{
"title": "Upper bound by Kolmogorov complexity for the probability in computable POVM measurement",
"abstract": "We apply algorithmic information theory to quantum mechanics in order to shed light on an algorithmic structure which inheres in quantum mechanics. \nThere are two equivalent ways to define the (classical) Kolmogorov complexity K(s) of a given classical finite binary string s. In the standard way, K(s) is defined as the length of the shortest input string for the universal self-delimiting Turing machine to output s. In the other way, we first introduce the so-called universal probability m, and then define K(s) as -log_2 m(s) without using the concept of program-size. We generalize the universal probability to a matrix-valued function, and identify this function with a POVM (positive operator-valued measure). On the basis of this identification, we study a computable POVM measurement with countable measurement outcomes performed upon a finite dimensional quantum system. We show that, up to a multiplicative constant, 2^{-K(s)} is the upper bound for the probability of each measurement outcome s in such a POVM measurement. In what follows, the upper bound 2^{-K(s)} is shown to be optimal in a certain sense.",
"corpus_id": 60045
} | {
"title": "From Heisenberg to Gödel via Chaitin",
"abstract": "In 1927 Heisenberg discovered that the “more precisely the position is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.” Four years later Gödel showed that a finitely specified, consistent formal system which is large enough to include arithmetic is incomplete. As both results express some kind of impossibility it is natural to ask whether there is any relation between them, and, indeed, this question has been repeatedly asked for a long time. The main interest seems to have been in possible implications of incompleteness to physics. In this note we will take interest in the converse implication and will offer a positive answer to the question: Does uncertainty imply incompleteness? We will show that algorithmic randomness is equivalent to a “formal uncertainty principle” which implies Chaitin’s information-theoretic incompleteness. We also show that the derived uncertainty relation, for many computers, is physical. In fact, the formal uncertainty principle applies to all systems governed by the wave equation, not just quantum waves. This fact supports the conjecture that uncertainty implies algorithmic randomness not only in mathematics, but also in physics.",
"corpus_id": 14763338
} | {
"title": "Quantization strategies for low-power communications.",
"abstract": "A detachable electrical contact arrangement for positioning between contact surfaces on units to form electrical connections therebetween characterized by a thin insulating sheet having contact elements disposed thereon in a predetermined pattern and the contact elements having a current path through the sheet which is not more than one millimeter in length. In one embodiment the contact elements are either elastic hollow metal spheres or elastic wire balls mounted in openings in an insulating sheet. In another embodiment the insulating sheet has a net configuration form of strips and the contact elements are metal deposits surrounding the strip or points of intersection of the strip. A third embodiment is a thin flexible metal sheet sandwiched between a pair of insulating film or sheets which metal sheet has had portions removed to provide a plurality of contact elements interconnected by connecting strips. The insulating film is provided with openings to expose the surface of the contact element and a portion of the film and connecting strips are subsequently removed to electrically isolate selected contact elements from adjacent contact elements.",
"corpus_id": 12548105,
"score": 1
} |
{
"title": "Mydriatic responses to sympathomimetic amines in patients treated with L-dopa.",
"abstract": "Abstract Pupil size and mydriatic responses to phenylephrine and tyramine have been studied in eighteen patients undergoing treatment with oral L-dopa in order to investigate the possible effects of L-dopa or its metabolites on the sympathetic nervous system. During treatment with L-dopa no change in resting pupil size was demonstrated, nor was the mydriatic response to tyramine affected. There was, however, a significant reduction of phenylephrine mydriasis during treatment. These results suggest that L-dopa or its metabolites may produce a competitive adrenergic α-receptor blockade with a rise in the noradrenaline content of the adrenergic nerve-ending. The hypotension sometimes observed during treatment with L-dopa may be explained by this mechanism.",
"corpus_id": 65334
} | {
"title": "The interactions of local guanethidine and sympathomimetic amines in the human eye.",
"abstract": "The responses of the human eye to the intraocular administration of the adrenergic neurone blocking drugs guanethidine sulfate and debrisoquin sulfate have been investigated by photographically recording the pupillary changes. After protracted treatment with local guanethidine sulfate (100 mg/ml), the mydriatic action of phenmetrazine hydrochloride, amphetamine sulfate, hydroxyamphetamine hydrobromide, ephedrine hydrochloride, and tyramine hydrochloride was abolished and that to methoxamine hydrochloride, epinephrine bitartrate, and phenylephrine hydrochloride potentiated. Following chronic debrisoquin (20 mg/ml) the mydriatic responses to phenylephrine and ephedrine were potentiated. These results indicated that guanethidine exhibits pharmacological actions which parallel postganglionic sympathectomy, while debrisoquin mimicks preganglionic sympathectomy.",
"corpus_id": 30743085
} | {
"title": "A gas-liquid-chromatographic procedure for separating a wide range of metabolites occuring in urine or tissue extracts.",
"abstract": "1. A gas-liquid-chromatographic procedure is described which permits separation and identification on the same chromatogram of a wide range of substances occurring in urine or tissue extracts. The method uses hydrogen flame ionization, which detects organic compounds whether free or conjugated with no requirement for specific reactive groups. 2. For chromatography, carboxyl groups are quantitatively converted into methyl esters or trimethylsilyl esters. Phenolic, alcoholic and potential enolic groups are converted into trimethylsilyl ethers. Separations are carried out on a 6ft. column of either 10% F-60 (a polysiloxane) or 1% F-60, temperature programming at 2 degrees /min. being used over such part of the temperature range 30 degrees -260 degrees as is required. Propionyl derivatives of hydroxy compounds can also be used, but only on a non-quantitative basis. Derivatives and columns have been selected for optimum range of usefulness when large numbers of samples are examined by using automated gas chromatography. 3. The method is applicable to: fatty acids above butyric acid; di- and tri-carboxylic acids; hydroxy acids and keto acids; polyhydroxy and alicyclic compounds such as glycerol, inositol, quinic acid, shikimic acid, ascorbic acid and sugar alcohols; aromatic hydroxy and acidic compounds, both benzenoid and indolic; sesquiterpenes; steroids; glycine conjugates; mercapturic acids; glucuronides. It is not satisfactory for sulphate conjugates, iminazoles or polypeptides. 4. Methylene units provide an accurate and reproducible parameter for characterizing peak position. Methylene unit values are reported for a large variety of substances occurring in, or related to those occurring in, urine and tissue extracts. 5. The nature of derivatives was confirmed by combining gas chromatography with mass spectrometry. Combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry gives a diagnostic tool of great power in the evaluation of metabolic patterns, and various uses are discussed.",
"corpus_id": 23035238,
"score": 2
} |
{
"title": "Study on the interaction of chromate with bovine serum albumin by spectroscopic method",
"abstract": "The interaction between two chromates [sodium chromate (Na2CrO4) and potassium chromate K2CrO4)] and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in physiological buffer (pH 7.4) was investigated by the fluorescence quenching technique. The results of fluorescence titration revealed that two chromates could strongly quench the intrinsic fluorescence of BSA through a static quenching procedure. The apparent binding constants K and number of binding sites n of chromate with BSA were obtained by the fluorescence quenching method. The thermodynamic parameters enthalpy change (ΔH), entropy change (ΔS) were negative, indicating that the interaction of two chromates with BSA was driven mainly by van der Waals forces and hydrogen bonds. The process of binding was a spontaneous process in which Gibbs free energy change was negative. The distance r between donor (BSA) and acceptor (chromate) was calculated based on Forster’s non-radiative energy transfer theory. The results of UV–Vis absorption, synchronous fluorescence, three-dimensional fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectra showed that two chromates induced conformational changes of BSA.",
"corpus_id": 4906838
} | {
"title": "Investigation on the interaction between endocrine disruptor triphenyltin with human serum albumin.",
"abstract": "The interaction between triphenyltin (TPT) and human serum albumin (HSA) in physiological buffer (pH=7.4) was investigated by the fluorescence quenching technique. The results of fluorescence titration revealed that TPT could strongly quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA through a static quenching procedure. The apparent binding constants K and number of binding sites n of TPT with HSA were 2.51×10(3) and 0.96 at 298 K which were obtained by the fluorescence quenching method. The thermodynamic parameters enthalpy change (ΔH), entropy change (ΔS) were positive, which indicated that the interaction of TPT with HSA was driven mainly by hydrophobic forces. The process of binding was a spontaneous process in which Gibbs free energy change was negative. The distance r between donor (HSA) and acceptor (TPT) was calculated to be 3.13 nm based on Forster's non-radiative energy transfer theory. The results of synchronous fluorescence, three-dimensional fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) spectra showed that the triphenyltin induced conformational changes of HSA.",
"corpus_id": 43511769
} | {
"title": "In vitro study on the interaction between thiophanate methyl and human serum albumin.",
"abstract": "Thiophanate methyl (MT) is one of the widely used fungicides to control important fungal diseases of crops, which has led to potential toxicological risk to public health. Several different transport proteins exist in blood plasma, but albumin only is bound by a wide diversity of xenobiotics reversibly with high affinity. We studied the interaction of MT with human serum albumin by using spectroscopic methods including fluorescence quenching technology, UV and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy under simulative physiological conditions. The result of fluorescence titration revealed that MT could quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA. The binding process was exothermic and spontaneous, as indicated by the thermodynamic analyses. In addition, the studies of FT-IR spectroscopy showed that the binding of MT to HSA changed molecular conformation of HSA. The results obtained from molecular modeling showed that the interaction between MT and HSA was dominated by hydrophobic force, and there was also hydrogen bond interaction between the pesticide and the residues of HSA, which was in good agreement with the result of binding mode.",
"corpus_id": 2246577,
"score": 2
} |