bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
2SCENT
Authors: Kumar Rohit , Calders Toon
Published: September 2020

In interaction networks nodes may interact continuously and repeatedly. Not only which nodes interact is important, but also the order in which interactions take place and the patterns they form. These patterns cannot be captured by solely inspecting the static network of who interacted with whom and how frequently, but also the temporal nature of the network needs to be taken into account. In this paper we focus on one such fundamental interaction pattern, namely a temporal cycle. Temporal cycles have many applications and appear naturally in communication networks. In financial networks, on the other hand, the presence of a temporal cycle could be indicative for certain types of fraud, and in biological networks, feedback loops are a prime example of this pattern type. We present 2SCENT, an efficient algorithms to find all temporal cycles in a directed interaction network. 2SCENT consist of a non-trivial temporal extension of a seminal algorithm for finding cycles in static graphs, preceded by an efficient candidate root filtering technique which can be based on Bloom filters to reduce the memory footprint. We tested 2SCENT on six real-world data sets, showing that it is up to 300 times faster than the only existing competitor and scales up to networks with millions of nodes and hundreds of millions of interactions. Results of a qualitative experiment indicate that different interaction networks may have vastly different distributions of temporal cycles, and hence temporal cycles are able to characterize an important aspect of the dynamic behavior in the networks.
Distributed representations of tuples for entity resolution
Authors: Ebraheem Muhammad , Thirumuruganathan Saravanan , Joty Shafiq , Ouzzani Mourad , Tang Nan
Published: September 2020

Despite the efforts in 70+ years in all aspects of entity resolution (ER), there is still a high demand for democratizing ER - by reducing the heavy human involvement in labeling data, performing feature engineering, tuning parameters, and defining blocking functions. With the recent advances in deep learning, in particular distributed representations of words (
a.k.a
. word embeddings), we present a novel ER system, called D
eep
ER, that achieves good accuracy, high efficiency, as well as ease-of-use (
i.e
., much less human efforts). We use sophisticated composition methods, namely uni- and bi-directional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) with long short term memory (LSTM) hidden units, to convert each tuple to a distributed representation (
i.e
., a vector), which can in turn be used to effectively capture similarities between tuples. We consider both the case where pre-trained word embeddings are available as well the case where they are not; we present ways to learn and tune the distributed representations that are customized for a specific ER task under different scenarios. We propose a locality sensitive hashing (LSH) based blocking approach that takes all attributes of a tuple into consideration and produces much smaller blocks, compared with traditional methods that consider only a few attributes. We evaluate our algorithms on multiple datasets (including benchmarks, biomedical data, as well as multi-lingual data) and the extensive experimental results show that D
eep
ER outperforms existing solutions.
Progressive indexes
Authors: Holanda Pedro , Raasveldt Mark , Manegold Stefan , Mühleisen Hannes
Published: September 2020

Interactive exploration of large volumes of data is increasingly common, as data scientists attempt to extract interesting information from large opaque data sets. This scenario presents a difficult challenge for traditional database systems, as (1) nothing is known about the query workload in advance, (2) the query workload is constantly changing, and (3) the system must provide interactive responses to the issued queries. This environment is challenging for index creation, as traditional database indexes require upfront creation, hence a priori workload knowledge, to be efficient.

In this paper, we introduce
Progressive Indexing
, a novel performance-driven indexing technique that focuses on automatic index creation while providing interactive response times to incoming queries. Its design allows queries to have a limited budget to spend on index creation. The indexing budget is automatically tuned to each query before query processing. This allows for systems to provide interactive answers to queries during index creation while being robust against various workload patterns and data distributions.
Optimal column layout for hybrid workloads
Authors: Athanassoulis Manos , Bøgh Kenneth S. , Idreos Stratos
Published: September 2020

Data-intensive analytical applications need to support both efficient reads and writes. However, what is usually a good data layout for an update-heavy workload, is not well-suited for a read-mostly one and vice versa. Modern analytical data systems rely on columnar layouts and employ delta stores to inject new data and updates.

We show that for hybrid workloads we can achieve close to one order of magnitude better performance by tailoring the column layout design to the data and query workload. Our approach navigates the possible design space of the physical layout: it organizes each column's data by determining the number of partitions, their corresponding sizes and ranges, and the amount of buffer space and how it is allocated. We frame these design decisions as an optimization problem that, given workload knowledge and performance requirements, provides an optimal physical layout for the workload at hand. To evaluate this work, we build an in-memory storage engine, Casper, and we show that it outperforms state-of-the-art data layouts of analytical systems for hybrid workloads. Casper delivers up to 2.32x higher throughput for update-intensive workloads and up to 2.14x higher throughput for hybrid workloads. We further show how to make data layout decisions robust to workload variation by carefully selecting the input of the optimization.
LINC
Authors: Ma Chenhao , Cheng Reynold , Lakshmanan Laks V. S. , Grubenmann Tobias , Fang Yixiang , Li Xiaodong
Published: September 2020

In graph applications (e.g., biological and social networks), various analytics tasks (e.g., clustering and community search) are carried out to extract insight from large and complex graphs. Central to these tasks is the counting of the number of
motifs
, which are graphs with a few nodes. Recently, researchers have developed several fast motif counting algorithms. Most of these solutions assume that graphs are deterministic, i.e., the graph edges are certain to exist. However, due to measurement and statistical prediction errors, this assumption may not hold, and hence the analysis quality can be affected. To address this issue, we examine how to count motifs on uncertain graphs, whose edges only exist probabilistically. Particularly, we propose a solution framework that can be used by existing deterministic motif counting algorithms. We further propose an approximation algorithm. Extensive experiments on real datasets show that our algorithms are more effective and efficient than existing solutions.
Secure multi-party functional dependency discovery
Authors: Ge Chang , Ilyas Ihab F. , Kerschbaum Florian
Published: September 2020

Data profiling is an important task to understand data semantics and is an essential pre-processing step in many tools. Due to privacy constraints, data is often partitioned into silos, with different access control. Discovering functional dependencies (FDs) usually requires access to all data partitions to find constraints that hold on the whole dataset. Simply applying general secure multi-party computation protocols incurs high computation and communication cost.

This paper formulates the FD discovery problem in the secure multi-party scenario. We propose secure constructions for validating candidate FDs, and present efficient cryptographic protocols to discover FDs over distributed partitions. Experimental results show that solution is practically efficient over non-secure distributed FD discovery, and can significantly outperform general purpose multi-party computation frameworks. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first one to tackle this problem.
Vacuum filters
Authors: Wang Minmei , Zhou Mingxun , Shi Shouqian , Qian Chen
Published: September 2020

We present vacuum filters, a type of data structures to support approximate membership queries. Vacuum filters cost the smallest space among all known AMQ data structures and provide higher insertion and lookup throughput in most situations. Hence they can be used as the replacement of the widely used Bloom filters and cuckoo filters. Similar to cuckoo filters, vacuum filters also store item fingerprints in a table. The memory-efficiency and throughput improvements are from the innovation of a table insertion and fingerprint eviction strategy that achieves both high load factor and data locality without any restriction of the table size. In addition, we propose a new update framework to resolve two difficult problems for AMQ structures under dynamics, namely duplicate insertions and set resizing. The experiments show that vacuum filters can achieve 25% less space in average and similar throughput compared to cuckoo filters, and 15% less space and >10x throughput compared to Bloom filters, with same false positive rates. AMQ data structures are widely used in various layers of computer systems and networks and are usually hosted in platforms where memory is limited and precious. Hence the improvements brought by vacuum filters can be considered significant.
Pushing data-induced predicates through joins in big-data clusters
Authors: Kandula Srikanth , Orr Laurel , Chaudhuri Surajit
Published: September 2020

Using data statistics, we convert predicates on a table into data induced predicates (diPs) that apply on the joining tables. Doing so substantially speeds up multi-relation queries because the benefits of predicate pushdown can now apply beyond just the tables that have predicates. We use diPs to skip data exclusively during query optimization; i.e., diPs lead to better plans and have no overhead during query execution. We study how to apply diPs for complex query expressions and how the usefulness of diPs varies with the data statistics used to construct diPs and the data distributions. Our results show that building diPs using zone-maps which are already maintained in today's clusters leads to sizable data skipping gains. Using a new (slightly larger) statistic, 50% of the queries in the TPC-H, TPC-DS and JoinOrder benchmarks can skip at least 33% of the query input. Consequently, the median query in a production big-data cluster finishes roughly 2x faster.
An end-to-end learning-based cost estimator
Authors: Sun Ji , Li Guoliang
Published: September 2020

Cost and cardinality estimation is vital to query optimizer, which can guide the query plan selection. However traditional empirical cost and cardinality estimation techniques cannot provide high-quality estimation, because they may not effectively capture the correlation between multiple tables. Recently the database community shows that the learning-based cardinality estimation is better than the empirical methods. However, existing learning-based methods have several limitations. Firstly, they focus on estimating the cardinality, but cannot estimate the cost. Secondly, they are either too heavy or hard to represent complicated structures, e.g., complex predicates.

To address these challenges, we propose an effective end-to-end learning-based cost estimation framework based on a tree-structured model, which can estimate both cost and cardinality simultaneously. We propose effective feature extraction and encoding techniques, which consider both queries and physical operations in feature extraction. We embed these features into our tree-structured model. We propose an effective method to encode string values, which can improve the generalization ability for predicate matching. As it is prohibitively expensive to enumerate all string values, we design a patten-based method, which selects patterns to cover string values and utilizes the patterns to embed string values. We conducted experiments on real-world datasets and experimental results showed that our method outperformed baselines.
Learning to sample
Authors: Walenz Brett , Sintos Stavros , Roy Sudeepa , Yang Jun
Published: September 2020

We study the problem of efficiently estimating counts for queries involving complex filters, such as user-defined functions, or predicates involving self-joins and correlated subqueries. For such queries, traditional sampling techniques may not be applicable due to the complexity of the filter preventing sampling over joins, and sampling after the join may not be feasible due to the cost of computing the full join. The other natural approach of training and using an inexpensive classifier to estimate the count instead of the expensive predicate suffers from the difficulties in training a good classifier and giving meaningful confidence intervals. In this paper we propose a new method of
learning to sample
where we combine the best of both worlds by using sampling in two phases. First, we use samples to learn a probabilistic classifier, and then use the classifier to design a stratified sampling method to obtain the final estimates. We theoretically analyze algorithms for obtaining an optimal stratification, and compare our approach with a suite of natural alternatives like quantification learning, weighted and stratified sampling, and other techniques from the literature. We also provide extensive experiments in diverse use cases using multiple real and synthetic datasets to evaluate the quality, efficiency, and robustness of our approach.
A meta-analysis of tumor necrosis factor-α-308 G>A polymorphism in gastric cancer
Authors: Jiang Xin , Naikoo Niyaz Ahmad , Gao Shuowei
Published: September 2020

Background

Gastric cancer (GC) is the common cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide and inflammation represents the early phases in the GC.

Objective

To review the tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-308 G>A (GG, GA, and AA) in GC by meta-analysis studies for any differences in TNF-α-308 G>A gene polymorphisms.

Methods

Case–control studies published from 2003 to 2017 were identified by searching PubMed, EMASE, and the Internet with the English language. The analysis published on TNF-α-308 G>A polymorphism was analyzed and a limited number of articles were included in the present study. TNF-α-308 G>A from 4,157 patients and 5,185 healthy controls was evaluated. Studies were evaluated using Cochrane Q-test and publication bias was evaluated by constructing funnel plots.

Results

Overall, TNF-α-308 GA genotype showed significant association [P < 0.0001, odds ratio (OR), 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.82 (0.74–0.91)]. However, meta-analysis of TNF-α-308 genotypes (GG, GA, AA, and GA + AA) between GC patients and controls showed nonsignificant association with GC [P > 0.05, recessive model: OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.15–1.66; dominant model: OR = 1.23, 95% CI: 1.09–1.39; (G/A) vs. (G/G): OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.02–1.28; (A/A) vs. (G/G): OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.19–1.73]. Analysis stratified by ethnicity showed same results in Asian and Caucasian populations.

Conclusions

Results revealed nonsignificant association of TNF-α-308 genotypes (GG, GA, AA, and GA + AA) and GC. TNF-α-308GA genotype showed significant association whereas homozygous genotype AA did not show association with GC risk.
Clinical features and immunohistochemistry profile of biopsy-proven gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST): a description of 5 years case series and literature review of GIST
Authors: Ongprakobkul Chuthamas , Rattanachaisit Pakkapon , Kwankajonwong Nachchakorn , Werawatganon Duangporn , Klaikaew Naruemon , Rerknimitr Rungsun
Published: September 2020

Background

Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) was the most common mesenchymal tumor of the gastrointestinal tract predominately occurring in the stomach. Although GIST was a rare disease, it was considered to be a life-threatening malignancy.

Objective

To explore the current status of gastric GIST in Thai patients.

Method

The medical records of patients who were diagnosed with histologically proven gastric GIST from 2012 to 2016 in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital were reviewed.

Results

Of 22 patients, there were 14 (63.6%) females and 8 (36.4%) males with the mean age of 62.6 ± 14.8 years. The average duration before the first presentation was 12 weeks. The initial symptoms were upper gastrointestinal bleeding (50.0%) followed by abdominal pain (31.8%). Tumor mostly located at the proximal part (fundus and cardia) in 20 (90.9%) patients. At the time of the diagnosis, three patients (13.6%) had distant metastasis. Of this group, 77.3% underwent surgical treatment.

Discussion

Although gastric GIST was an uncommon disease, early diagnosis and prompt treatment could save the lives of many patients.
Real-Variable Characterizations of Hardy–Lorentz Spaces on Spaces of Homogeneous Type with Applications to Real Interpolation and Boundedness of Calderón–Zygmund Operators
Authors: Zhou Xilin , He Ziyi , Yang Dachun
Published: September 2020

Let (𝒳,d,μ) be a space of homogeneous type, in the sense of Coifman and Weiss, with the upper dimensionω. Assume that η ∈(0, 1) is the smoothness index of the wavelets on 𝒳 constructed by Auscher and Hytönen. In this article, via grand maximal functions, the authors introduce the Hardy–Lorentz spacesH*p,q(𝒳)H_*^{p,q}\left( \mathcal{X} \right)with the optimal rangep∈(ωω+η,∞)p \in \left( {{\omega \over {\omega + \eta }},\infty } \right)andq ∈(0, ∞]. When andp∈(ωω+η,1]p \in ({\omega \over {\omega + \eta }},1]q ∈(0, ∞], the authors establish its real-variable characterizations, respectively, in terms of radial maximal functions, non-tangential maximal functions, atoms, molecules, and various Littlewood–Paley functions. The authors also obtain its finite atomic characterization. As applications, the authors establish a real interpolation theorem on Hardy–Lorentz spaces, and also obtain the boundedness of Calderón–Zygmund operators on them including the critical cases. The novelty of this article lies in getting rid of the reverse doubling assumption ofμby fully using the geometrical properties of 𝒳 expressed via its dyadic reference points and dyadic cubes and, moreover, the results in the caseq ∈(0, 1) of this article are also new even when 𝒳 satisfies the reverse doubling condition.
Avicenna on Mathematical Infinity
Authors: Zarepour Mohammad Saleh
Published: September 2020

Avicenna believed in mathematical finitism. He argued that magnitudes and sets of ordered numbers and numbered things cannot be actually infinite. In this paper, I discuss his arguments against the actuality of mathematical infinity. A careful analysis of the subtleties of his main argument, i. e.,The Mapping Argument, shows that, by employing the notion ofcorrespondenceas a tool for comparing the sizes of mathematical infinities, he arrived at a very deep and insightful understanding of the notion of mathematical infinity, one that is much more modern than we might expect. I argue, moreover, that Avicenna’s mathematical finitism is interwoven with his literalist ontology of mathematics, according to which mathematical objects are properties of existing physical objects.
The influence of sulfate availability on rheology of fresh cement paste
Authors: Mbasha Willy , Haldenwang Rainer , Masalova Irina
Published: September 2020

Natural gypsum can degenerate into hemihydrate during cement clinker grinding which changes the physical and chemical properties of cement hydration, affecting therefore the fresh and hardened properties of cement based materials. Cement systems containing a constant total amount of calcium sulfate (4%) with relative proportions of hemihydrate and natural gypsum were considered. Rheological measurements were executed on an Anton Paar MCR51 rheometer to evaluate the flow properties of cement pastes. Results show that, the yield stress and the plastic viscosity of cement pastes were affected when the degeneration of natural gypsum exceeded 50%. Above this concentration, the yield stress remarkably increased and a variation in plastic viscosity of about 50% was observed. Using TG-DSC techniques, it was shown that, the amount of formed ettringite could not explain these rheological changes. However, centrifugational packing and SEM-SE measurements confirmed that, more than the amount of ettringite precipitated, ettringite morphology plays a major role in controlling the yield stress and plastic viscosity of fresh cement pastes.
Polyphenol content and antioxidant activities of Prunus padus L. and Prunus serotina L. leaves: Electrochemical and spectrophotometric approach and their antimicrobial properties
Authors: Telichowska Aleksandra , Kobus-Cisowska Joanna , Ligaj Marta , Stuper-Szablewska Kinga , Szymanowska Daria , Tichoniuk Mariusz , Szulc Piotr
Published: September 2020

The aim of the study was to compare the content of selected phytochemicals as well as the antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of the leaves of Prunus padus L. and Prunus serotina L., as there is very little research on this subject in the literature. Therefore, it is used to deepen knowledge on this subject. In addition, an electrochemical test was also carried out, which was not yet available for the above plants. Antibacterial studies have also been deepened to include the analysis of new strains of bacteria and fungi, which has not been studied earlier. The water extracts of P. padus using the utra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) system showed a higher content of both phenolic acids and flavonols (651.77b ± 18.12 mg/100 g dw for acids and 3.85b ± 0.08 mg/100 g dw for flavonols, respectively). Ferulic and p-coumaric acids were the dominant polyphenols in leaves. Extracts from P. padus showed higher activity against DPPH radical, which was 6.62b ± 0.06 mg TE/1 g dw, as well as higher antioxidant capacity, measured using 2,2′-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS) cation radical (37.39b ± 3.81 mg TE/g dw). The higher antioxidant potential of P. padus was confirmed based on the oxidizing potentials of electroactive compounds present in them. Stronger inhibition against Enterococcus faecium and Klebsiella pneumoniae was found for P. padus, whereas P. serotina extract was more potent against Enterococcus faecium bacterium. It has been shown that P. padus can be an attractive raw material with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties that can be used on a much wider scale in food technology than its current application.
Language production experiments as tools for corpus construction: A contrastive study of complementizer agreement
Authors: Fingerhuth Matthias , Breuer Ludwig Maximilian
Published: September 2020

The investigation of linguistic phenomena in corpora of spontaneous speech is sometimes hindered by corpus size or by the complexity of the factors influencing their occurrence. Language Production Experiments (LPEs) can specifically elicit such phenomena and can therefore be used to build corpora that allow for their investigation. Yet experiments are a wide category that covers very different tasks, and there is little empirical research that compares speakers’ response behavior to different task types. In this paper, we compare the responses of a group of 22 speakers to a translation task and a completion task, both of which target the syntactic phenomena complementizer agreement (CA). The results indicate that both experimental methods offer legitimate ways to investigate the phenomenon with specific advantages and disadvantages. However, a comparison of results from both tasks allows for insights that a single task could not have provided.
Energy convexity of intrinsic bi-harmonic maps and applications I: Spherical target
Authors: Laurain Paul , Lin Longzhi
Published: September 2020

In this paper, we show an energy convexity and thus uniqueness for weakly intrinsic bi-harmonic maps from the unit 4-ball

B
1

⊂

ℝ
4

{B_{1}\subset\mathbb{R}^{4}}

into the sphere

𝕊
n

{\mathbb{S}^{n}}

. In particular, this yields a version of uniqueness of weakly harmonic maps on the unit 4-ball which is new. We also show a version of energy convexity along the intrinsic bi-harmonic map heat flow into

𝕊
n

{\mathbb{S}^{n}}

, which in particular yields the long-time existence of the intrinsic bi-harmonic map heat flow, a result that was until now only known assuming the non-positivity of the target manifolds by Lamm [26]. Further, we establish the previously unknown result that the energy convexity along the flow yields uniform convergence of the flow.
Benefit Corporations and Corporate Social Intrapreneurship
Authors: Esposito De Falco Salvatore , Renzi Antonio
Published: September 2020

The present Special Issue focuses benefit corporation and social intrapreneurship as two topics which in the last decades have taken on a growing role in studies about both management and economics. This growing interest comes from globalization and digitization phenomena that have determined a change in firms’ stakeholders expectations. In this regard, social pressures about the behavior of companies have determined a new way of conceiving profit seen not only as shareholder remuneration but also as a direct or indirect tool to foster greater interdependence between economic activities and social objectives. For instance, the relationship between profit and sustainability no longer follows dichotomous logic. The firms are moving towards a path of socialization essential for their survival. The issue of sustainability, which previously appeared secondary in business economics studies, today is a pure necessity; the current competitive dimensions are based on intense and continuous engagement actions towards all stakeholders. This perspective is reflected in new theoretical strands such as the Social Emotional Wealth Theory, in which profit in the short run assumes secondary positions with respect to the survival not only of the company, but also of its founder, who tends to link its “immortality” to his/her firm. Thus, issues related to the sustainability are entering more and more the DNA of the firms on the one hand and economic policies are increasingly interested in the global aspects of sustainability (social, economic, environmental and governance) on the other hand. These trends have favored the development of new types of businesses, such as benefit corporation and start-ups related to the social entrepreneurship logic, committed to combining long-term profitability with certain standards and optimizing their positive impact on employees, the community in which they operate and the environment as well. The current economic crisis caused by Covid-19 seems to have accelerated this tendency to combine economic and social benefits.
Kinetics of iron removal from quartz under ultrasound-assisted leaching
Authors: Yang Chang-Qiao , Li Su-Qin
Published: September 2020

Kinetics of iron removal from quartz under the ultrasound-assisted leaching was explored in this paper, and the effects of temperature, leaching time, stirring speed and ultrasonic input power on iron removal were studied. The results revealed that the reaction kinetics followed the shrinking core model and the product layer internal diffusion was the rate-determining step in the ultrasound-assisted leaching process. The activation energy of the ultrasonic-assisted leaching reaction was 27.72 kJ/mol, which was 7.28 kJ/mol higher than that of the regular method. Moreover, the kinetic equation and mathematical model of iron removal from quartz were established. Compared with the regular leaching, only 40 min were required for the ultrasound-assisted leaching process to achieve an iron removal rate of up to 74%. Under the optimal parameters, SiO2 content of concentrate increased from 99.5828% to 99.9047%, and Fe2O3 content reduced from 0.0857% to 0.0223%. Additionally, it was found that the iron removal rate increased with increasing temperature, stirring speed or ultrasonic power.
Evolution of nonmetallic inclusions in pipeline steel during LF and VD refining process
Authors: Zhu Hangyu , Zhao Jixuan , Li Jianli , Hu Qian , Peng Chenxi
Published: September 2020

The formation and evolution of nonmetallic inclusions in pipeline steel were investigated by SEM, EDS and INCA Feature Analysis System, with the industrial process of electric arc furnace → ladle furnace (LF) refining → vacuum degassing → continuous casting. The composition, size and amount of inclusions during refining process were discussed systematically. The results show that inclusions at each refining step are mainly small-particle inclusions (below 5 µm), and the total number of inclusions has been reduced significantly due to the refining effect of slag during LF refining. The calcium (Ca) treatment increases the amount of small inclusions. The types of inclusion are mainly Al2O3 and MnO–SiO2–Al2O3 before LF, and they are transformed into CaO–Al2O3, MgO–Al2O3 and CaO–MgO–Al2O3 during LF process. After Ca treatment, inclusions are changed to CaO–Al2O3–(CaS) and CaO–MgO–Al2O3–(CaS). Typical inclusions are still mainly CaO–Al2O3 and CaO–MgO–Al2O3 in tundish, but the composition of those inclusions has been changed and located to the low melting point region in ternary phase diagram. Such inclusions will further be removed as continuous casting approaches.
Distressed Firm Valuation: A Scenario Discounted Cash Flow Approach
Authors: Buttignon Fabio
Published: September 2020

Valuation of a distressed company is a very tricky issue, for which many approaches and methods have been provided by the literature. Unfortunately, many of the more suitable proposals from a theoretical point of view (i.e., those based on option pricing theory, and even integrated with game theory) are very difficult to apply to real cases. To face the many contingencies emerging in a real case valuation, a scenario discounted cash flow (SDCF) model is provided here. The focus is on companies at an advanced stage of distress, where their ability to operate as a going concern is in question, and maintenance or recovery of business continuity requires significant interventions in the firm’s strategic, operational, and financial structure. In this context, SDCF, with a number of arrangements elaborated here, appears useful for valuing assets, debt, and equity – from current or potential new investors – and the interactions between them, which are particularly critical for distressed companies. At the same time, SDCF takes into account the firm’s liquidation option, not only at the valuation date but even after a restructuring plan has been launched. The going-concern value including the liquidation option should be the reference point for judging the suitability of business continuity compared to liquidation. In presenting the model, the key concepts and methodology adopted are set out following a numerical example inspired by a real case.
A Novel Dual Image Watermarking Technique Using Homomorphic Transform and DWT
Authors: Khare Priyank , Srivastava Vinay Kumar
Published: September 2020

In this paper a new technique of dual image watermarking is proposed for protection of ownership rights which utilizes salient properties of homomorphic transform (HT), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), singular value decomposition (SVD) and Arnold transform (AT). In embedding algorithm host image is splitted into reflectance and illumination components using HT, DWT is further applied to the reflectance component resulting in frequency subbands (HL and LH) which are transformed by SVD. Two image watermarks are selected for embedding process whereas security of proposed algorithm is strengthen by performing scrambling of second watermark through AT. Both watermarks are transformed with DWT and SVD. Singular values (SVs) of both transformed watermark are embedded into SVs of host image. Simulation results clearly signifies for high robustness and imperceptibility of proposed algorithm as it is examined under various attacks. Superiority of proposed technique is illustrated by comparing it with other reported methods.
Glycogen storage disease type VI can progress to cirrhosis: ten Chinese patients with GSD VI and a literature review
Authors: Lu Shi-Qi , Feng Jia-Yan , Liu Jie , Xie Xin-Bao , Lu Yi , Abuduxikuer Kuerbanjiang
Published: September 2020

Objectives

The aim of our study is to systematically describe the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of Glycogen storage disease type VI (GSD VI), especially in Chinses population. 

Methods

We retrospectively analyzed ten Chinese children diagnosed as having GSD VI confirmed by next generation sequencing in Children’s Hospital of Fudan University and Jinshan Hospital of Fudan University. We described the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of GSD VI through the clinical and genetic data we collected. Moreover, we conducted a literature review, and we compared the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of GSD VI between Chinese population and non Chinese population. 

Results

For the first time, we found that four Chinese patients showed cirrhosis in liver biopsy characterized by the formation of regenerative nodules. In addition, c.772+1G>A and c.1900G>C, p.(Asp634His) were recurrent in three Chinese families and four European families respectively indicating that the genotypic spectrum of PYGL gene may vary among the population. Furthermore, we identified seven novel variants in PYGL gene. 

Conclusions

Our study enriched the genotypic and phenotypic spectrum of GSD VI, and provided a new clue for management of GSD VI.
Self-assessed puberty is reliable in a low-income setting in rural Pakistan
Authors: Campisi Susan C. , Humayun Khadija N. , Wasan Yaqub , Soofi Sajid , Islam Muhammad , Lou Wendy , Vandermorris Ashley , Söder Olle , Bhutta Zulfiqar A.
Published: September 2020

Objectives

Staging sexual maturation is an integral component of adolescent research. The Pubertal Development Scale (PDS) is commonly used as a puberty self-assessment tool because it avoids the use of images. Among the youth living in rural Pakistan, we determined the accuracy of self-reported pubertal assessments using a modified PDS compared to the ‘gold standard’ of physically assessed Tanner stages by a physician.

Methods

The strength of agreement between self-assessed puberty using a modified PDS and the ‘gold’ standard of physician-assessed Tanner stages was reported using weighted kappa (κ
w) for girls (n = 723) of 9.0–14.9 years of age or boys (n = 662) of 10.0–15.9 years of age living in the rural District of Matiari.

Results

Agreement between the gold standard and self-assessment for puberty was substantial, with a κ
w of 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.67; 0.79) for girls and a κ
w of 0.61 (95% CI: 0.55; 0.66) for boys. Substantial agreement was observed for both boys and girls classified as thinness but only for girls with a normal body mass index. Those who were classified as severely thin had moderate agreement. The prevalence of overestimation was 18.5% (95% CI: 15.9–21.5) for girls and 2.7% (95% CI: 1.7–4.3) for boys, while the prevalence of underestimation estimation was 8.0% (95% CI: 6.2–10.2) for girls and 29.0% (95% CI: 25.8–32.6) for boys.

Conclusions

Most girls and boys assessed their pubertal development with substantial agreement with physician assessment. Girls were better able to assess their puberty, but they were more likely to overestimate. Agreement for boys was also substantial, but they were more likely to underestimate their pubertal development. In this rural Pakistan population, the PDS seems to be a promising tool for self-assessed puberty.
On Method: The Fact of Science and the Distinction between Natural Science and the Humanities
Authors: Falkenburg Brigitte
Published: September 2020

This article examines Cohen’s “transcendental method”, Windelband’s “critical method”, the neo-Kantian distinctions between natural science and the humanities (i. e., human or cultural sciences), and Weber’s account of ideal-typical explanations. The Marburg and the Southwest Schools of neo-Kantianism have in common that their respective philosophies of science focused on method, but they substantially differ in their approaches. Cohen advanced the “transcendental method”, which was taken up and transformed by Natorp and Cassirer; later, it became influential in neo-Kantian approaches to 20thcentury physics. Windelband distinguished between facts and values, linking the former to the “genetic” method of history and the latter to the “critical” method of philosophy; and between the “nomothetic” and “idiographic” methods of the empirical sciences, a distinction further elaborated by Rickert. The distinction does not give rise to a sharp discrimination but is rather what Weber would later call an ideal type. All these approaches contribute in different ways to understanding the structure of scientific knowledge, focusing on different aspects of the general path of the empirical sciences between rationalism and empiricism.
An estimation of density and population size for Eld’s deer in the Xonnabouly Eld’s deer sanctuary, Lao PDR
Authors: Khotpathoom Thananh , Vu Thinh Tien
Published: September 2020

Eld’s deer (Rucervus eldi) was once thought to be extinct in the wild in Lao PDR. In early 2000, however, conservationists discovered that they still exist in Savannakhet Province. In 2004, the government of Lao PDR established the Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary with an area of about 93,000 ha. However, no population size estimates for this significant population are available for guiding conservation efforts of preserving this important species. In this study, we used the line transect method to assess the Eld’s deer density and abundance during the survey. During our surveys, we made 27 visual observations of Eld’s deer. We estimated the average detection probability to be 0.57 (CI: 0.45–0.72) and the average density to be 0.58 (CI: 0.33–1.01). We estimated the total number of Eld’s deer in the surveyed area of the Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary to be 173 (95% CI: 99–305). The population in the Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary seems to be the most important Eld’s deer population forR. e. siamensissubspecies as well as for theR. eldii, at least in the continental part of Asia. With the sharp decline of Eld’s deer populations in other protected areas (especially in Cambodia and Myanmar), we should pay special attention and give more priority on the conservation efforts of preserving the remaining population in Xonnabouly Eld’s Deer Sanctuary.
Active plasmonic nanoantenna: an emerging toolbox from photonics to neuroscience
Authors: Habib Ahsan , Zhu Xiangchao , Fong Sabrina , Yanik Ahmet Ali
Published: September 2020

Concepts adapted from radio frequency devices have brought forth subwavelength scale optical nanoantenna, enabling light localization below the diffraction limit. Beyond enhanced light–matter interactions, plasmonic nanostructures conjugated with active materials offer strong and tunable coupling between localized electric/electrochemical/mechanical phenomena and far-field radiation. During the last two decades, great strides have been made in development of active plasmonic nanoantenna (PNA) systems with unconventional and versatile optical functionalities that can be engineered with remarkable flexibility. In this review, we discuss fundamental characteristics of active PNAs and summarize recent progress in this burgeoning and challenging subfield of nano-optics. We introduce the underlying physical mechanisms underpinning dynamic reconfigurability and outline several promising approaches in realization of active PNAs with novel characteristics. We envision that this review will provide unambiguous insights and guidelines in building high-performance active PNAs for a plethora of emerging applications, including ultrabroadband sensors and detectors, dynamic switches, and large-scale electrophysiological recordings for neuroscience applications.
Production of a fine fraction using micro-perforated screens
Authors: Björk Elisabeth , Bouveng Mikael , Vomhoff Hannes
Published: September 2020

The objective for this work was to investigate the possibility to use a pressure screen equipped with a micro-perforated screen basket to produce a fine fraction from bleached chemical pulp. Trials were performed with unrefined bleached chemical hardwood pulp, and with unrefined and refined bleached chemical softwood pulp. The effect of feed concentration, feed flow, and volumetric fine fraction flow was evaluated. The difference between the fine fraction (i. e. the particles passing the screen) and the feed was analysed by studying the fibre morphology. The results showed that high feed concentration was positive for both the fine fraction concentration and the separation efficiency. A higher fine fraction concentration was also obtained when using hardwood pulp, which was explained by the shorter fibre length. Refining of the pulp prior to the fractionation proved beneficial, as a larger share of the refined pulp passed the screen, resulting in a twice as high concentration of the fine fraction when compared to unrefined pulp.
Effect of different particle sizes of nano-SiO2 on the properties and microstructure of cement paste
Authors: Meng Tao , Ying Kanjun , Hong Yongpeng , Xu Qinglei
Published: September 2020

Nano-materials modified cement-based materials have attracted wide attention due to their advantages of improving strength and durability. In this paper, the effect of nano-SiO2 (NS) with particle sizes of 15 and 50 nm on the mechanical properties and microstructure of cement paste was studied. The results showed that 50 nm NS provided a greater compressive strength than that of 15 nm NS, while 15 nm NS afforded a denser microstructure than that of 50 nm NS. A fluctuation in the compressive strength was revealed using a physicochemical reaction equation, and the microstructure was interpreted by a pore structure analysis. In addition, the orientation index of calcium hydroxide (CH) with 15 nm NS could be reduced significantly in the early stages (the early stages refer to the first three days from the maintaining of specimens) compared with when the 50 nm NS was used. The experimental results also showed that NS helped increase the mechanical strength of cement paste, advance the endothermic peak of CH, and refine the size of the CH crystals. The microstructural changes at different stages of cement paste with different particle sizes of NS were investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry and differential thermal analysis. This study is expected to promote the research and application of nano-materials in the cement industry by clarifying the performance of NS with different particle sizes.
Between the Times – and Sometimes Beyond: An Essay in Dialectical Theology and its Critique of Religion and “Religion”
Authors: von Sass Hartmut
Published: September 2020

This paper gives a systematic account of Dialectical Theology (DT) and its surprisingly ramified usage of the concept of religion on the backdrop of recent debates about the “return of religion.” First, the positional context between Schleiermacher and Barth is sketched. Second, the highly divergent positions of Bultmann, Barth, Brunner as well as Gogarten and Tillich are presented – always in regard to their sometimes programmatic, sometimes rather hidden references to “religion” between its facticity and normativity. Third and by way of conclusion, it is suggested to restrict “religion” as a concept to non-theological disciplines, i.e., to treat “religion” as a strictly empirical and sociological term, whereas theology is concerned with faith that belongs to a very different game than religion, as DT helps to clarify.
Some new extensions for fractional integral operator having exponential in the kernel and their applications in physical systems
Authors: Rashid Saima , Baleanu Dumitru , Chu Yu-Ming
Published: September 2020

The key purpose of this study is to suggest a new fractional extension of Hermite–Hadamard, Hermite–Hadamard–Fejér and Pachpatte-type inequalities for harmonically convex functions with exponential in the kernel. Taking into account the new operator, we derived some generalizations that capture novel results under investigation with the aid of the fractional operators. We presented, in general, two different techniques that can be used to solve some new generalizations of increasing functions with the assumption of convexity by employing more general fractional integral operators having exponential in the kernel have yielded intriguing results. The results achieved by the use of the suggested scheme unfold that the used computational outcomes are very accurate, flexible, effective and simple to perform to examine the future research in circuit theory and complex waveforms.
HiAP als Leitthema des vierten „Zukunftsforum Public Health“
Authors: Matusall Svenja
Published: September 2020

Das 4. Zukunftsforum Public Health vom Januar 2020 vereinte die wichtigen AkteurInnen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis von Public Health in Deutschland. Gesundheit in allen Politikfeldern (Health in All Policies/HiAP) war Schwerpunkt der Veranstaltung und der Diskussionen um eine Public-Health-Strategie für Deutschland. Das Konzept HiAP kann die Instrumente liefern, um eine Public-Health-Strategie in die Praxis umzusetzen. Darüber wurde in Vorträgen, Podiumsdiskussionen und Arbeitsgruppen diskutiert. Dabei waren sich die Teilnehmenden einig, dass ein intersektoraler Ansatz und ein abgestimmtes Vorgehen notwendig sind, um die Gesundheit der Menschen in Deutschland insgesamt zu verbessern.
Arbeitslosigkeit und Gesundheit als politikfeldübergreifende Herausforderung
Authors: Hollederer Alfons
Published: September 2020

In Folge der Corona-Pandemie droht eine weltweite Rezession mit steigender Arbeitslosigkeit. Der Bedarf an Gesundheitsförderung für Arbeitslose leitet sich aufgrund der Wechselbeziehungen von Arbeitslosigkeit und Gesundheit ab. Darauf zielt der Interventionsansatz von JOBS Program, das erstmalig in Deutschland etabliert wird. In der Kooperation von Gesundheitsförderung und Arbeitsförderung liegt eine Handlungsstrategie, um diese gesamtgesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen besser zu bewältigen.
Evidenz in der SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie: Chancen und Herausforderungen
Authors: Sell Kerstin , Stratil Jan M. , Pfadenhauer Lisa M. , Rehfuess Eva A. , Coenen Michaela
Published: September 2020

Zur Eindämmung der SARS-CoV-2 Pandemie erfolgt seit März 2020 in Deutschland eine stark auf Infektionsschutz ausgerichtete Politik. In diesem Artikel werden Beobachtungen zur Generierung und Nutzung wissenschaftlicher Evidenz im Rahmen der Pandemieantwort analysiert, Herausforderungen geschildert und Chancen für die langfristige Stärkung einer multisektoralen gesundheitsfördernden Gesamtpolitik (Health in All Policies) herausgearbeitet.
WHO (EURO): Von Health for All bis HiAP
Authors: Zöllner Herbert
Published: September 2020

Der periodisch angepasste Politikrahmen Health for All (HFA) der WHO (EURO) betrifft nicht nur die Belange des Gesundheitswesens, sondern auch Gesundheitsförderung und Primärprävention in einer Politik partizipativer Demokratie. Der Begriff „Health in all Policies“ (HiaP) hat sich gegenüber den sperrigen Begriffen „Settings-gestützte“ und „multisektorale“ Politiken durchgesetzt. Er ist ein wichtiger, theoretisch anerkannter Bestandteil von HFA, der sich, abgesehen von Pandemiezeiten, in der politischen Praxis kaum durchgesetzt hat.