bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
EMC2: an emergency management system using mobile cloud computing
Authors: Ramasamy V. , Gomathy B. , Sarkar Joy Lal , Panigrahi Chhabi Rani , Pati Bibudhendu , Majumder Abhishek
Published: June 2019

A natural or unexpected man‐made emergency may occur at any time and which affects the economy as well as human life of the country. The most important task in an emergency is to collect the essential information about the emergency places and do a proper analysis to take effective action. In those situations, mobile gadgets are very much helpful to collect the information in a significant way. The mobile devices have certain limitations such as less battery power, lack of Internet connectivity for data transmission or less computational resources. So the energy hungry applications can be offloaded to the cloud to reduce the workload of the mobile devices. To overcome these problems, the authors propose an emergency management system named as , which follows peer‐to‐peer communication using Bluetooth technology. first detects the available mobile devices present in a network using mobile probing service (MPS) and then it chooses the suitable mobile device among them using mobile ranking service (MRS). also determines the best network resources while roaming in heterogeneous access networks (HANs). The experimental results of authors– proposed approach shows the increased performance and out‐performs in terms of receiving time as compared to the baseline algorithm.
Atmospheric circulation of Venus measured with visible imaging spectroscopy at the THEMIS observatory
Authors: Gaulme Patrick , Schmider François-Xavier , Widemann Thomas , Gonçalves Ivan , López Ariste Arturo , Gelly Bernard
Published: June 2019

Measuring the atmospheric circulation of Venus at different altitudes is important for understanding its complex dynamics, in particular the mechanisms driving super-rotation. Observationally, Doppler imaging spectroscopy is in principle the most reliable way to measure wind speeds of planetary atmospheres because it directly provides the projected speed of atmospheric particles. However, high-resolution imaging spectroscopy is challenging, especially in the visible domain, and most knowledge about atmospheric dynamics has been obtained with the cloud tracking technique. The objective of the present work is to measure the global properties of the atmospheric dynamics of Venus at the altitude of the uppermost clouds, which is probed by reflected solar lines in the visible domain. Our results are based on high-resolution spectroscopic observations with the long-slit spectrometer of the solar telescope THEMIS. We present the first instantaneous “radial-velocity snapshot” of any planet of the solar system in the visible domain, i.e., a complete radial-velocity map of the planet obtained by stacking data on less than 10% of its rotation period. From this, we measured the properties of the zonal and meridional winds, which we unambiguously detect. We identify a wind circulation pattern that significantly differs from previous knowledge about Venus. The zonal wind reveals a “hot spot” structure, featuring about 200 m s−1 at sunrise and 70 m s−1 at noon in the equatorial region. Regarding meridional winds, we detect an equator-to-pole meridional flow peaking at 45 m s−1 at mid-latitudes, i.e., about twice as large as what has been reported so far.
Calibration of fish-eye lens and error estimation on fireball trajectories: application to the FRIPON network
Authors: Jeanne S. , Colas F. , Zanda B. , Birlan M. , Vaubaillon J. , Bouley S. , Vernazza P. , Jorda L. , Gattacceca J. , Rault J. L. , Carbognani A. , Gardiol D. , Lamy H. , Baratoux D. , Blanpain C. , Malgoyre A. , Lecubin J. , Marmo C. , Hewins P.
Published: June 2019

Context. Fireball networks are developing over the whole planet, with the aim of recovering meteorites and at the same time determining their orbits. The ultimate goal of such networks is to identify the parent bodies of meteorite families to achieve this, orbit accuracy is critical. Yet, the determination of an orbit relies on a long and complex reduction process including: (1) astrometry, with heavy distortion for fish-eye lenses, (2) estimation of the external bias on the observation, (3) fit of the trajectory, (4) deceleration model, and (5) actual orbit computation.

Aims. Our goal is to compute accurate trajectories with an estimate of internal and external errors as realistic as possible, taking advantage of the dense observation network FRIPON (Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network), which comprises more than 100 cameras in France and Europe. In particular, we pay special attention to the distortion of images due to fish-eye lenses. In the present paper, we describe the analytical protocol that allows us to compute trajectories and their uncertainties.

Methods. We developed a general distortion model to be used on the FRIPON fish-eye cameras. Such a model needs to be accurate even at low elevation, as most fireball observations are performed low on the horizon. The radial distortion is modelled by a nine-degree odd polynomial, hence by five parameters. In addition, we used three parameters to describe the geometry of the camera and two for non-symmetrical distortion. Lastly, we used a new statistical method taking systematic errors into account, which allows us to compute realistic confidence intervals. We tested our method on a fireball that fell on 2017-08-94 UT 00:06.

Results. The accuracy of our astrometrical model for each camera is 2 arcmin (1σ), but the internal error on the fireball of 2017-08-94 UT 00:06 measurement is 0.7 arcmin (better than 1/10 pixel). We developed a method to estimate the external error considering that each station is independent and found it equal to 0.8 arcmin. Real residuals are coherent with our estimation of internal and external error for each camera, which confirms the internal consistency of our method. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this protocol.
Gravitational waves from bodies orbiting the Galactic center black hole and their detectability by LISA
Authors: Gourgoulhon E. , Le Tiec A. , Vincent F. H. , Warburton N.
Published: June 2019

Aims.We present the first fully relativistic study of gravitational radiation from bodies in circular equatorial orbits around the massive black hole at the Galactic center, Sgr A* and we assess the detectability of various kinds of objects by the gravitational wave detector LISA.

Methods.Our computations are based on the theory of perturbations of the Kerr spacetime and take into account the Roche limit induced by tidal forces in the Kerr metric. The signal-to-noise ratio in the LISA detector, as well as the time spent in LISA band, are evaluated. We have implemented all the computational tools in an open-source SageMath package, within the Black Hole Perturbation Toolkit framework.

Results.We find that white dwarfs, neutrons stars, stellar black holes, primordial black holes of mass larger than 10−4 M⊙, main-sequence stars of mass lower than ∼2.5 M⊙, and brown dwarfs orbiting Sgr A* are all detectable in one year of LISA data with a signal-to-noise ratio above 10 for at least 105years in the slow inspiral towards either the innermost stable circular orbit (compact objects) or the Roche limit (main-sequence stars and brown dwarfs). The longest times in-band, of the order of 106years, are achieved for primordial black holes of mass ∼10−3 M⊙down to 10−5 M⊙, depending on the spin of Sgr A*, as well as for brown dwarfs, just followed by white dwarfs and low mass main-sequence stars. The long time in-band of these objects makes Sgr A* a valuable target for LISA. We also consider bodies on close circular orbits around the massive black hole in the nucleus of the nearby galaxy M 32 and find that, among them, compact objects and brown dwarfs stay for 103–104years in LISA band with a one-year signal-to-noise ratio above ten.
XMM-Newton observations of PSR J0726−2612, a radio-loud XDINS
Authors: Rigoselli Michela , Mereghetti Sandro , Suleimanov Valery , Potekhin Alexander Y. , Turolla Roberto , Taverna Roberto , Pintore Fabio
Published: June 2019

We present the results of an XMM-Newton observation of the slowly rotating (P = 3.4 s), highly magnetized (B ≈ 3 × 1013 G) radio pulsar PSR J0726–2612. A previous X-ray observation with the Chandra satellite showed that some of the properties of PSR J0726–2612 are similar to those of the X-ray-dim isolated neutron stars (XDINSs), a small class of nearby slow pulsars characterized by purely thermal X-ray spectra and undetected in the radio band. We confirm the thermal nature of the X-ray emission of PSR J0726–2612, which can be fitted by the sum of two blackbodies with temperatures kT1=0.074+0.006-0.011 keV and kT2=0.14+0.004-0.002 keV and emitting radii R1=10.4+10.8-2.8 km and R2=0.5+0.9-0.3 km, respectively (assuming a distance of 1 kpc). A broad absorption line modeled with a Gaussian profile centered at 0.39+0.02-0.03 keV is required in the fit. The pulse profile of PSR J0726–2612 is characterized by two peaks with similar intensity separated by two unequal minima, a shape and pulsed fraction that cannot be reproduced without invoking magnetic beaming of the X-ray emission. The presence of a single radio pulse suggests that in PSR J0726–2612 the angles that the dipole axis and the line of sight make with the rotation axis, ξ and χ, respectively, are similar. This geometry differs from that of the two radio-silent XDINSs with double-peaked pulse profiles similar to that of PSR J0726–2612, for which ξ ∼ 90° and χ ∼ 45° have recently been estimated. These results strengthen the similarity between PSR J0726–2612 and the XDINSs and support the possibility that the lack of radio emission from the latter might simply be due to an unfavorable viewing geometry.
Predicting the phase behavior of hydrogen in NaCl brines by molecular simulation for geological applications
Authors: Lopez-Lazaro Cristina , Bachaud Pierre , Moretti Isabelle , Ferrando Nicolas
Published: June 2019

Hydrogen is targeted to have a significant influence on the energy mix in the upcoming years. Its underground injection is an efficient solution for large-scale and long-term storage. Furthermore, natural hydrogen emissions have been proven in several locations of the world, and the potential underground accumulations constitute exciting carbon-free energy sources. In this context, comprehensive models are necessary to better constrain hydrogen behavior in geological formations. In particular, solubility in brines is a key-parameter, as it directly impacts hydrogen reactivity and migration in porous media. In this work, Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out to generate new simulated data of hydrogen solubility in aqueous NaCl solutions in temperature and salinity ranges of interest for geological applications, and for which no experimental data are currently available. For these simulations, molecular models have been selected for hydrogen, water and Na+and Cl−to reproduce phase properties of pure components and brine densities. To model solvent-solutes and solutes-solutes interactions, it was shown that the Lorentz-Berthelot mixing rules with a constant interaction binary parameter are the most appropriate to reproduce the experimental hydrogen Henry constants in salted water. With this force field, simulation results match measured solubilities with an average deviation of 6%. Additionally, simulation reproduced the expected behaviors of the H2O + H2 + NaCl system, such as the salting-out effect, a minimum hydrogen solubility close to 57 °C, and a decrease of the Henry constant with increasing temperature. The force field was then used in extrapolation to determine hydrogen Henry constants for temperatures up to 300 °C and salinities up to 2 mol/kgH2O. Using the experimental measures and these new simulated data generated by molecular simulation, a binary interaction parameter of the Soreide and Whiston equation of state has been fitted. The obtained model allows fast and reliable phase equilibrium calculations, and it was applied to illustrative cases relevant for hydrogen geological storage or H2natural emissions.
Hourly Profiles of Air Pollution Variation in Selected Cities, Towns and Villages in Poland
Authors: Cichowicz Robert , Stelegowski Artur
Published: June 2019

Concentration of air pollution in urbanized and agricultural areas is related to the activity of various economy sectors (the so-called SNAP categories). Therefore, the change in the emission of pollutants by an anthropogenic source should result in a change in the air pollution level in the selected area. To better understand the nature of changes in air pollution concentration in urban and agricultural areas, an analysis of data of five-year (2012-2016) air quality measurements, carried out at selected automatic air quality monitoring stations in Poland, Europe. The data came from stations located in 5 regions (Lower Silesia, Greater Poland, Lodz, Masovia and Lublin) in central Poland. The average hourly concentrations in selected areas in cities, towns and villages were compared with the hourly emission factors of power generation sector (SNAP1), residential and commercial combustion sector (SNAP2) and road transport sector (SNAP7). The hourly profiles of air pollution level were expressed by means of the “imission factor”, as analogous to the hourly profiles of the “emission factor” that is being used in the LOTOS-EUROS and the CHIMERE chemistry-transport models.
The control to aggregates of pumping stations using a regulator based on a neural network with fuzzy logic
Authors: Kuznetsov Vladlen , Dyadun Sergey , Esilevsky Valentin
Published: June 2019

A pumping station control system is considered using a controller based on a fuzzy logic neural network. The simulation of the classical and fuzzy regulators. The possibility of the implementation of the controller in the form of an adaptive multilayer neural network is shown. The use of the theory of fuzzy sets in combination with the theory of neural networks to create a fuzzy-neural regulator to control pumping units provides a promising approach. Simulation modeling and real operation have shown that fuzzy-logic regulators have a number of advantages over classical regulators, which allow the use of form and limitations. Using the neural network model allows you to add the properties of adaptability and learning. The fuzzy-neural controller for controlling pumping units is promising in terms of efficiency and safety by controlling pumping stations.
Research of the problems and development of the indicators of controllability analysis of pipeline systems
Authors: Novitsky Nikolay
Published: June 2019

The article is devoted to the problem of analyzing the controllability of pipeline systems (PLS) of the power industry (heat, water, gas, etc.). Controllability for the first time is considered as a complex property that includes such private properties as permissibility, reliability, and efficiency of PLS operation conditions achieved by the control. Against the background of the general characteristics of the processes of the intelligent automation of PLS management, the urgency of the problem of quantifying the resulting systemic effects is revealed. A brief structuring of the goals and objectives of the analysis of PLS controllability is given. Probabilistic models of their operation conditions are introduced, taking into account the uncertainty of external influences and the internal state of the PLS. A system of probabilistic indicators for an integral quantitative assessment of the controllability of the PLS, which can be used as a basis for analyzing the potential effects of introducing various components of the PLS intellectualization, as well as developing controllability standards is proposed.
An analysis of steady-state distribution in M/M/1 queueing system with balking based on concept of statistical mechanics
Authors: Arizono Ikuo , Takemoto Yasuhiko
Published: June 2019

The phenomenon of balking has been considered frequently in the steady-state analysis of the M/M/1 queueing system. Balking means the phenomenon that a customer who arrives at a queueing system leaves without joining a queue, since he/she is disgusted with the waiting queue length at the moment of his/her arrival. In the traditional studies for the steady-state analysis of the M/M/1 queueing system with balking, it has been typically assumed that the arrival rates obey an inverse proportional function for the waiting queue length. In this study, based on the concept of the statistical mechanics, we have a challenge to extend the traditional steady-state analysis model for the M/M/1 queueing system with balking. As the result, we have defined an extended analysis model for the M/M/1 queueing system under the consideration of the change in the directivity strength of balking. In addition, the procedure for estimating the strength of balking in this analysis model using the observed data in the M/M/1 queueing system has been also constructed.
Role of Renin-Angiotensin-System in Human Breast Cancer Cells: Is There a Difference in Regulation of Angiogenesis between Hormone-Receptor Positive and Negative Breast Cancer Cells?
Authors: Herr Daniel , Sauer Christof , Holzheu Iris , Sauter Regina , Janni Wolfgang , Wöckel Achim , Wulff Christine
Published: June 2019

Objective This study examined the role of the RAS in human breast cancer cells to question if there are differences between HR-positive and HR-negative cells with regard to regulation of VEGF.

Methods Expression of different RAS components in hormone receptor (HR)-positive and HR-negative breast cancer cells was investigated using RT-PCR. Different stimulation protocols with different RAS inhibitors were used to investigate the effect on VEGF expression. Angiotensin II-dependent expression of VEGF was quantified by real time PCR. In addition, the effect of intrinsic RAS was studied performing siRNA knockdown of angiotensinogen (AGT). Statistical analysis were calculated using IBM SPSS Statistics Version 21.

Results Expression of AT1R, AT2R, AGT and ACE was shown in HR-positive and HR-negative breast cancer cell lines. Extrinsic stimulation with angiotensin II increased VEGF significantly. After treatment with captopril or AT1R-inhibitor candesartan, VEGF-expression decreased significantly in HR-positive and HR-negative cell lines. However, inhibition of AT2R using PD 123,319 did not show any significant changes of VEGF. After prevention of intrinsic angiotensin II, extrinsic angiotensin II as well as the combination with inhibitors of the receptors caused a significant reduction of VEGF. Surprisingly, the overall effect of the RAS after knockdown of AGT revealed a significant increase of VEGF in HR-positive cells at any time while a significant decrease was observed in HR-negative cells after 144 hours incubation.

Conclusion The RAS-dependent regulation of VEGF between HR-positive and HR-negative breast cancer cells seems do be different. These findings provide evidence for a possible future therapeutic strategy.
Unterschiede in der Wirksamkeit von Kurzpausenaktivitäten im Vergleich von Bewegungspausen zu psychoregulativen Pausen bei kognitiver Belastung
Authors: Gollner Erwin , Savli Markus , Schnabel Florian , Braun Carmen , Blasche Gerhard
Published: June 2019

Die Bedeutung einer bewussten Pausengestaltung und die Auswirkung auf die psychophysische Leistungsfähigkeit im Kontext der modernen Arbeitswelt ist noch wenig erforscht. Ermüdung durch geistige oder körperliche Tätigkeit kann als körperliches Warnsignal aufgefasst werden, um organischer Fehlbeanspruchung vorzubeugen. Um Ermüdung zu reduzieren, kommt der aktiven Pausengestaltung eine große Bedeutung zu. In der vorliegenden Studie wurden Studierende einer kognitiven Belastung (Vortrag) ausgesetzt – die durch 4 angeleitete Pausen (2 psychoregulative Pausen, 2 Bewegungspausen) in einem experimentellen Design unterbrochen wurde. Als Kontrollbedingung diente keine Pause. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen die signifikant höhere Wirkung von Bewegungspausen im Vergleich zu psychoregulativen Pausen und keiner Pause bei kognitiven Belastungen. Zudem sind die angeleiteten Bewegungspausen signifikant „beliebter“ als die psychoregulativen Pausen. Die Ergebnisse weisen auf die steigende Bedeutung einer aktiven Pausengestaltung im Hochschulsetting bzw. Arbeitsumfeld zur Steigerung der Konzentrationsfähigkeit hin.
Ectopia Cordis: Two Different Cases with Literature Review
Authors: Sahu Manoj Kumar , Yadav Mayank , Arora Yatin , Singh Sarveshpal , Devagourou Velayoudam , Chaudhary Shiv Kumar
Published: June 2019

Ectopia cordis is a rare congenital anomaly with thoracic exteriorization of the heart. With few exceptions, it is universally fatal. Surgical correction is the only final treatment option for this defect but with a very high mortality. The authors present two cases of ectopia cordis, both were operated upon in urgent basis, and one baby survived.
Malrotation in Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia: Is It Really a Problem?
Authors: de Blaauw Ivo , van Ling Julia , Botden Sanne M. B. I. , Heiwegen Kim
Published: June 2019

Introduction Congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) has been associated with other congenital malformations, such as intestinal rotation abnormalities. However, there is no standard evaluation and treatment of intestinal rotation during initial CDH repair. This study evaluates intestinal malrotation in CDH patients.

Materials and Methods All patients with a CDH treated in a high-volume center between 2000 and 2015 were retrospectively evaluated. Demographics, gastrointestinal characteristics, surgical treatment, and abdominal outcomes (acute surgery, small bowel obstruction, and volvulus) were described.

Results A total of 197 CDH patients were surgically repaired. In 76 (39%) patients, a malrotation was described at initial CDH repair, in 39 (20%) patients, a normal rotation, but 82 patients (42%) had no report on intestinal rotation. During follow-up (range: 2–16 years), 12 additional malrotations were diagnosed, leading to a prevalence of at least 45% (n = 88). These were mostly diagnosed due to acute small bowel obstruction, of which three had a volvulus. Of the 12 later diagnosed malrotations, 58% required acute surgery, compared to 3% of the 76 initially diagnosed patients (p < 0.001).

Conclusion Malrotation is associated with CDH, with a prevalence of at least 45% and in 21% a normal intestinal rotation. “Missed” malrotations have a higher risk on need for acute surgery later in life.
Vascular Nanomedicine: Current Status, Opportunities, and Challenges
Authors: Sun Michael , Sen Gupta Anirban
Published: June 2019

The term “nanotechnology” was coined by Norio Taniguchi in the 1970s to describe the manipulation of materials at the nano (10−9) scale, and the term “nanomedicine” was put forward by Eric Drexler and Robert Freitas Jr. in the 1990s to signify the application of nanotechnology in medicine. Nanomedicine encompasses a variety of systems including nanoparticles, nanofibers, surface nano-patterning, nanoporous matrices, and nanoscale coatings. Of these, nanoparticle-based applications in drug formulations and delivery have emerged as the most utilized nanomedicine system. This review aims to present a comprehensive assessment of nanomedicine approaches in vascular diseases, emphasizing particle designs, therapeutic effects, and current state-of-the-art. The expected advantages of utilizing nanoparticles for drug delivery stem from the particle's ability to (1) protect the drug from plasma-induced deactivation; (2) optimize drug pharmacokinetics and biodistribution; (3) enhance drug delivery to the disease site via passive and active mechanisms; (4) modulate drug release mechanisms via diffusion, degradation, and other unique stimuli-triggered processes; and (5) biodegrade or get eliminated safely from the body. Several nanoparticle systems encapsulating a variety of payloads have shown these advantages in vascular drug delivery applications in preclinical evaluation. At the same time, new challenges have emerged regarding discrepancy between expected and actual fate of nanoparticles in vivo, manufacturing barriers of complex nanoparticle designs, and issues of toxicity and immune response, which have limited successful clinical translation of vascular nanomedicine systems. In this context, this review will discuss challenges and opportunities to advance the field of vascular nanomedicine.
Investigation of Recurrent Cases of Head and Neck Cancer after Initial Treatment
Authors: Kitoh Ryosuke , Mori Kentaro , Usami Shin-ichi
Published: June 2019

The optimal follow-up strategy for patients with head and neck cancer after primary treatment is still under debate. This study aimed to review the data of patients with recurrence and evaluate our follow-up strategy. Patients with head and neck cancer who underwent surgery or chemoradiotherapy as the primary treatment between 2012 and 2016 were enrolled. All the patients were carefully followed up at our institution via intensive clinical examination and routine computed tomography (CT) and positron emission tomography (PET)/CT. Recurrence was detected in 20 of the patients treated by surgery and 25 of 96 patients treated by chemoradiotherapy. In more than 90% of the patients, recurrence occurred within 2 years of the primary treatment. Among the patients with recurrence, 11 showed local recurrence, 17 showed regional recurrence, and 17 others showed distant metastasis. In almost all patients with distant metastases, recurrence was detected using CT or PET/CT, whereas among the patients with local or regional recurrence, recurrence was detected based on the patients' complaints and their clinical examination results. Only salvage surgery was observed to be associated with disease-free survival after recurrence. Thus, analysis of the recurrence patterns and appropriate surveillance can result in improved salvage treatment for patients with recurrence.
A dusty gas model-direct simulation Monte Carlo algorithm to simulate flow in micro-porous media
Authors: Ahmadian Mohammad Hassan , Roohi Ehsan , Teymourtash Alireza , Stefanov Stefan
Published: June 2019

A new efficient direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is proposed for the simulation of microporous media based on the dusty gas model (DGM). Instead of simulating gas flow through a microporous medium with a complex geometry of micropores that mimics the physical pore morphology, the DGM-DSMC method replaces it with the gas flow through a system of randomly distributed motionless virtual particles with simple spherical shapes confined in the considered domain. In addition, the interactions of gas molecules with the porous particles are simulated stochastically. For the aim of our study, the DGM is implemented in Bird’s two-dimensional DSMC code. The obtained results for the average velocity of gas flow through microscale porous media with given porosity are verified for different pressure gradients with those reported in the literature where porous particles are modeled physically in the domain. Thereafter, the effective parameters in porous media such as porosity, particle diameter, and rarefaction on flow behavior including velocity profile, apparent gas permeability, and mass flow rate are investigated. A comparison with the results predicted by the Open source Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM) software suggests that the employed DGM-DSMC is more accurate in highly porous media and its computational cost is considerably low.
Frozen-mode small polaron quantum master equation with variational bound for excitation energy transfer in molecular aggregates
Authors: Teh Hung-Hsuan , Jin Bih-Yaw , Cheng Yuan-Chung
Published: June 2019

The small polaron quantum master equation (SPQME) is a powerful method for describing quantum dynamics in molecular systems. However, in the slow-bath regime where low-frequency vibrational modes dominate the dynamics, the fully dressed small polaron coordinates lead to errors in the SPQME theory. Furthermore, low-frequency modes also cause infrared divergence in the SPQME method, making the theory applicable only to systems described by spectral densities of the super-Ohmic form. In this study, we propose to treat these low-frequency vibrations as dynamically arrested “frozen” modes in a semiclassical representation and apply the small polaron representation only to the high-frequency vibrations. Furthermore, we show that a variational polaron approach can be utilized to determine the frequency upper bound of the frozen modes, allowing dynamical simulations free of manually tuned parameters. This frozen-mode SPQME is applied to models describing excitation energy transfer (EET) in molecular aggregates and comprehensively compared with the quasiadiabatic path integral method a well as the Redfield theory to demonstrate the applicability of this new method. We show that errors due to slow baths in the original SPQME theory are significantly reduced by the frozen-mode approximation. More significantly, we show that the new approach successfully extends the SPQME theory to be applicable to systems with the Drude-Lorentz spectral density, resulting in a great expansion of the applicability of the SPQME theory for EET problems. In summary, we demonstrate a “frozen-mode” SPQME that provides efficient and accurate simulations of EET dynamics of molecular systems in a broad parameter regime.
Particle number control for direct simulation Monte-Carlo methodology using kernel estimates
Authors: Gorji Hossein , Küchlin Stephan , Jenny Patrick
Published: June 2019

The efficiency of stochastic particle schemes for large scale simulations relies on the ability to preserve a uniform distribution of particles in the whole physical domain. While simple particle split and merge algorithms have been considered previously, this study focuses on particle management based on a kernel density approach. The idea is to estimate the probability density of particles and subsequently draw independent samples from the estimated density. To cope with that, novel methods are devised in this work leading to efficient algorithms for density estimation and sampling. For the density inference, we devise a bandwidth with a bounded bias error. Furthermore, the sampling problem is reduced to drawing realizations from a normal distribution, augmented by stratified sampling. Thus, a convenient and efficient implementation of the proposed scheme is realized. Numerical studies using the devised method for direct simulation Monte-Carlo show encouraging performance.
Numerical study of a bubble driven micromixer based on thermal inkjet technology
Authors: Tan Hua
Published: June 2019

The Editor and publisher have retracted “Numerical study of a bubble driven micromixer based on thermal inkjet technology” Phys. Fluids 31, 062006 (2019)]. Due to a legal issue related to the publication of work covered under a confidentiality agreement, the electronic version of the paper has been removed from the website.
An actuator–sensor hybrid device made of carbon-based polymer composite for self-sensing systems
Authors: Nakamura Atsushi , Kawakami Shotaro
Published: June 2019

This paper presents the concept, design, and characterization of a new type of integrated device with a hybrid structure. The proposed device is hybridized with an electrothermal actuator and a bending sensor with temperature-compensating ability, which can serve as a self-sensing system. The sensor displays a parallel change in the electrical resistance upon the temperature alteration, resulting enables a cancellation of cross talk. The actuator exhibits a visible maximum strain of 1.2% at an electric power intensity of around 1.05 mW/mm3, and the bending sensor can display the curvature without the need for an external monitoring system such as a laser displacement meter. The traceability of the motion is represented well while power is supplied, but a slight delay occurs when the power is switched off, this being due to the difference in thermal conductivity between the composite of the actuator and the sensor. This proposed hybrid device realizes a simple self-sensing operation using a simple power supply and monitoring reading lines. It offers ease of fabrication and promising practical applications in remote sensing/operating devices.
New multi-bit non-volatile memory cells with higher data storage density
Authors: Berkowitz Jacob
Published: June 2019

Researchers demonstrate proof-of-concept of an easy to fabricate MRAM architecture with multi-bit cells driven by a single transistor.
Detergent-resistant microdomains (lipid rafts) in endomembranes of the wild halophytes
Authors: Rozentsvet Olga , Nesterkina Irina , Ozolina Natalia , Nesterov Viktor
Published: June 2019

In the present work, we studied detergent-resistant membrane microdomains (DRM) of chloroplasts and mitochondria – organelles that provide photosynthesis and respiration in a plant cell. The objects of the study were euhalophyte Salicorniaperennans Willd., which relates to salt-accumulating plants and glycohalophyte Artemisia santonica L., which relates to salt-excluder plants. To get DRM, the chloroplast and mitochondria fractions were solubilised with a solution containing Triton X-100. The resulting material was introduced in sucrose gradient of 35–25–15–5% and centrifuged at 200000 g, 2 h. The presence of an opalescent detergent-resistant zone of membranes in 15% sucrose layer and a specific lipid composition of this zone were the signs of successful rafts obtaining of. The isolated DRM are sterol- and cerebroside-enriched (27–89% of the sum of membrane lipids) domains with a high degree of saturation of fatty acids composition (more than 50% of the sum). The main DRM-specific lipids of chloroplast of A. santonica glycohalophyte are cerebrosides, whereas those of S. perennans euhalophyte are sterols. The revealed differences in the composition of raft-forming lipids in chloroplast and mitochondria halophyte membranes, differing in the salt-resistance strategy, suggest the participation of rafts in salt-resistance mechanisms.
RNAi mediated silencing of dehydrin gene WZY2 confers osmotic stress intolerance in transgenic wheat
Authors: Yu Zhengyang , Wang Xin , Mu Xiaoqian , Zhang Linsheng
Published: June 2019

Dehydrins are involved in the prevention of osmotic damage in plants. Many studies have shown that overexpression of dehydrin genes can enhance the osmotic stress tolerance in transgenic plants. Our previous studies showed a YnSKn-type dehydrin gene WZY2 could be induced by polyethylene glycol (PEG), cold, indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), salicylic acid (SA) and abscisic acid (ABA). In the present study, we examined the phenotype and physiological indices in a dehydrin gene WZY2 RNA interference (RNAi) lines in wheat. Real-time PCR indicated a depressed WZY2 gene expression in transformed wheat. Furthermore, transgenic wheat showed lower relative water content, oxidative-related enzyme activities and higher malondialdehyde (MDA) content than wild-type bread wheat (Zhengyin No.1) under osmotic stress. Overexpression of the WZY2 in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. revealed a significant increase in tolerance to drought stress. Further studies also showed that WZY2 could participate in ABA-induced stomatal closure. These results demonstrated a key function of WZY2 in plant response to osmotic stress.
甘青方言格標記「哈」的來源
Authors: Zhou Chenlei
Published: June 2019

抽象

本文探討甘青方言格標記「哈」的來源。首先梳理學界的兩種主要觀點，即頓詞說和方位詞說，進而提出本文的假設：「哈」本字是漢語的「下」，在和藏語的接觸中，首先用如與格標記並標記部分「賓語」，進而擴展到整個賓語，成為賓格標記，從而形成共時層面不見於藏語和阿爾泰語的與格-賓格同形的狀態。在共時的甘青方言的格系統中，「哈」是早期和藏語接觸的產物，離格標記、部分方言的工具格標記和反身領屬標記等是後期和阿爾泰語接觸的產物。
論漢語數詞-動量詞組合的成分完整性
Authors: He Chuansheng , Tan Dandan
Published: June 2019

抽象

傳統語言學界對漢語動量詞的研究儘管在細節方面有不同的分析方法，但是都認為數詞和動量詞構成一個句法整體，在具體結構中作狀語、賓語等。生成語言學者大部分也是把數詞和動量詞構成一個句法整體，也有生成語言學者不把數詞和動量詞構成一個句法整體，而是投射層級結構。本文評論Zhang (2017)的層級句法分析，首先指出Zhang提出的事實概括並非只支持層級分析，然後論證Zhang提出的兩個佐證也不支持動量詞的層級分析，甚至得出相反的結論，最後提出動量詞層級分析會導致多個難以解釋的句法語義方面的困難。
Newly recognised languages in Chamdo
Authors: Nyima Tashi , Suzuki Hiroyuki
Published: June 2019

This article presents information regarding newly recognised
non-Tibetic Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in three counties, Dzogang, Markham,
and Drag-yab, of Chamdo Municipality and the adjacent Dzayul County in the Tibet
Autonomous Region. First, we introduce four languages – Lamo, Larong sMar,
Drag-yab sMar, and gSerkhu – identifying the location of each language on the
Chinese administrative map as well as the numbers of speakers of the languages.
Second, we provide a brief historical background on these languages, which
suggests a relationship between them and Qiangic groups. Third, we display
lexical evidence that shows not only their non-Tibetic features but also their
closeness to Qiangic languages. Finally, the article focuses on Lamo, an endangered language spoken in
Dzogang County, and provides a linguistic analysis of an annotated Lamo
historical narrative in the Appendix.
Ral GTPases in Schwann cells promote radial axonal sorting in the peripheral nervous system
Authors: Ommer Andrea , Figlia Gianluca , Pereira Jorge A. , Datwyler Anna Lena , Gerber Joanne , DeGeer Jonathan , Lalli Giovanna , Suter Ueli
Published: June 2019

Small GTPases of the Rho and Ras families are important regulators of Schwann cell biology. The Ras-like GTPases RalA and RalB act downstream of Ras in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors. However, the physiological role of Ral proteins in Schwann cell development is unknown. Using transgenic mice with ablation of one or both Ral genes, we report that Ral GTPases are crucial for axonal radial sorting. While lack of only one Ral GTPase was dispensable for early peripheral nerve development, ablation of both RalA and RalB resulted in persistent radial sorting defects, associated with hallmarks of deficits in Schwann cell process formation and maintenance. In agreement, ex vivo–cultured Ral-deficient Schwann cells were impaired in process extension and the formation of lamellipodia. Our data indicate further that RalA contributes to Schwann cell process extensions through the exocyst complex, a known effector of Ral GTPases, consistent with an exocyst-mediated function of Ral GTPases in Schwann cells.
The cell biology of the hepatocyte: A membrane trafficking machine
Authors: Schulze Ryan J. , Schott Micah B. , Casey Carol A. , Tuma Pamela L. , McNiven Mark A.
Published: June 2019

The liver performs numerous vital functions, including the detoxification of blood before access to the brain while simultaneously secreting and internalizing scores of proteins and lipids to maintain appropriate blood chemistry. Furthermore, the liver also synthesizes and secretes bile to enable the digestion of food. These diverse attributes are all performed by hepatocytes, the parenchymal cells of the liver. As predicted, these cells possess a remarkably well-developed and complex membrane trafficking machinery that is dedicated to moving specific cargos to their correct cellular locations. Importantly, while most epithelial cells secrete nascent proteins directionally toward a single lumen, the hepatocyte secretes both proteins and bile concomitantly at its basolateral and apical domains, respectively. In this Beyond the Cell review, we will detail these central features of the hepatocyte and highlight how membrane transport processes play a key role in healthy liver function and how they are affected by disease.
Loss of nuclear envelope integrity? No probLEM—BAF has it covered
Authors: King Megan C. , Lusk C. Patrick
Published: June 2019

Ruptures of the nuclear envelope can drive a catastrophic loss of nucleocytoplasmic compartmentalization. In this issue, Halfmann et al. (2019. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201901116) describe a mechanism for surveilling the integrity of the nuclear barrier and coupling the sensing of nuclear ruptures to the recruitment of the nuclear envelope repair machinery.
Making health care responsive to the needs of older people
Authors: Bridges Jackie , Pope Catherine , Braithwaite Jeffrey
Published: June 2019

This commentary highlights the importance of health system responsiveness to older people living with complex health needs. Age-related changes and associated morbidity can present barriers to identifying an individual’s health needs, expectations, values and preferences, and so sufficient time, skill and resource is required to inform the development of a tailored plan for each individual. A focus on responsiveness moves thinking beyond the responsibilities of the individual clinician in the single encounter, and allows us to identify elements of the wider system that may constrain how well the clinician is able to respond. Setting the goal of responsive health care requires us to assess the suitability of wider health system features and processes for meeting the diverse needs of individual people throughout their journey, and the extent to which the system can adapt dynamically as needs change. Standardised approaches to care prescribed across organisations (such as time-based targets or routinised approaches to inpatient nursing care) are likely to result in low responsiveness as individual complexity grows, disadvantaging patients with needs that do not fit the prescribed approach. Responsiveness is high when individual practitioners and clinical teams have the resources, decentralised authority, flexibility and autonomy to provide the care required. Building a more responsive health system requires a greater understanding of how these conditions can be achieved.
National trends in prescription drug expenditures and projections for 2019
Authors: Schumock Glen T , Stubbings JoAnn , Hoffman James M , Wiest Michelle D , Suda Katie J , Rim Matthew H , Tadrous Mina , Tichy Eric M , Cuellar Sandra , Clark John S , Matusiak Linda M , Hunkler Robert J , Vermeulen Lee C
Published: June 2019

Purpose

Historical trends and factors likely to influence future pharmaceutical expenditures are discussed, and projections are made for drug spending in 2019 in nonfederal hospitals, clinics, and overall (all sectors).

Methods

Drug expenditure data through calendar year 2018 were obtained from the IQVIA National Sales Perspectives database and analyzed. New drug approvals, patent expirations, and other factors that may influence drug spending in hospitals and clinics in 2019 were also reviewed. Expenditure projections for 2019 for nonfederal hospitals, clinics, and overall (all sectors) were made through a combination of quantitative analyses and expert opinion.

Results

U.S. prescription sales in calendar year 2018 totaled $476.2 billion, a 5.5% increase from 2017 spending. The top 3 drugs by expenditures were adalimumab ($19.1 billion), insulin glargine ($9.3 billion), and etanercept ($8.0 billion). Prescription expenditures in nonfederal hospitals totaled $35.8 billion, a 4.8% increase from 2017. Expenditures in clinics in 2018 increased by 13.0% to $80.5 billion. The increase in spending in nonfederal hospitals was largely driven by new products and increased utilization of existing products. The list of the top 25 drugs by expenditures in nonfederal hospitals and clinics was dominated by specialty drugs.

Conclusion

We predict continued moderate growth of 4–6% in overall drug expenditures (across the entire U.S. market). We expect the clinic sector to continue to experience high (11–13%) growth in drug spending in 2019. Finally, for nonfederal hospitals we anticipate growth in the range of 3–5%. These estimates are at the national level. Health-system pharmacy leaders should carefully examine local drug utilization patterns to determine their own organization’s anticipated spending in 2019.
Deep learning on chaos game representation for proteins
Authors: Löchel Hannah F , Eger Dominic , Sperlea Theodor , Heider Dominik
Published: June 2019

Motivation

Classification of protein sequences is one big task in bioinformatics and has many applications. Different machine learning methods exist and are applied on these problems, such as support vector machines (SVM), random forests (RF) and neural networks (NN). All of these methods have in common that protein sequences have to be made machine-readable and comparable in the first step, for which different encodings exist. These encodings are typically based on physical or chemical properties of the sequence. However, due to the outstanding performance of deep neural networks (DNN) on image recognition, we used frequency matrix chaos game representation (FCGR) for encoding of protein sequences into images. In this study, we compare the performance of SVMs, RFs and DNNs, trained on FCGR encoded protein sequences. While the original chaos game representation (CGR) has been used mainly for genome sequence encoding and classification, we modified it to work also for protein sequences, resulting in n-flakes representation, an image with several icosagons.

Results

We could show that all applied machine learning techniques (RF, SVM and DNN) show promising results compared to the state-of-the-art methods on our benchmark datasets, with DNNs outperforming the other methods and that FCGR is a promising new encoding method for protein sequences.

Availability and implementation

https://cran.r-project.org/.

Supplementary information

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Differentially expressed lncRNA-m433s1 regulates FSH secretion by functioning as a miRNA sponge in male rat anterior pituitary cells†
Authors: Han Dong-Xu , Sun Xu-Lei , Wang Chang-Jiang , Yu Ze-Wen , Zheng Yi , Huang Yi-Jie , Wang Wen-Hua , Jiang Hao , Gao Yan , Yuan Bao , Zhang Jia-Bao
Published: June 2019

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important regulators that have multiple functions in a variety of biological processes. However, the contributions of lncRNAs to follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) secretion remain largely unknown. In this study, we first identified a novel lncRNA, lncRNA-m433s1, as an intergenic lncRNA located in the cytoplasm. We next used MS2-RIP assays to demonstrate that lncRNA-m433s1 interacted with miR-433. Furthermore, we detected the levels of lncRNA-m433s1, miR-433, and Fshβ expression, FSH concentrations, and apoptosis upon overexpression and knockdown of lncRNA-m433s1, revealing that lncRNA-m433s1 upregulated Fshβ expression. Globally, lncRNA-m433s1 reduced the inhibitory effect of miR-433 on Fshβ and further regulated FSH secretion as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) by sponging miR-433. This ceRNA model will provide novel insight into the regulatory mechanisms of lncRNAs associated with rat reproduction.