bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Digital droplet polymerase chain reaction to monitor ultraviolet C treatment of single‐donor and buffy coat platelet units
Authors: Voglau Uta , Müller Thomas H. , Seltsam Axel , Gravemann Ute , Handke Wiebke , Doescher Andrea
Published: June 2020

BACKGROUND

UVC illumination of agitated platelet concentrates (PCs) inactivates pathogens and white blood cells by modifications of their nucleic acids. Related effects on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in platelets serve as a basis for an efficient monitoring suited for routine quality control (QC) of this purely physical pathogen reduction technology.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

Samples from PCs (n = 530) were tested with an established LightCycler PCR (LC PCR) for QC of the UVC procedure. RNR2 and TRNK/ATP8 genes were sequenced in the PCs (n = 21) with out‐of‐specification results in the LC PCR. A digital droplet PCR (ddPCR) was developed to minimize the outliers and cross‐validated by testing the 530 PCs. The ddPCR was further evaluated in a subgroup of 300 PCs without mtDNA extraction and in samples from systematic variations of UVC dose and agitation speed.

RESULTS

Apheresis PCs (n = 380) resulted in 5.3% outliers in LC PCR versus only 0.7% in buffy coat pool PCs (n = 150). Sequencing of these outliers revealed single‐nucleotide polymorphisms in the primer‐ and probe‐binding sites of LC PCR. The development of a ddPCR assay with modified probe sequences reduced the outliers to 0.4%. The ddPCR analysis of PCs both with and without mtDNA extraction demonstrated low intra‐ and interassay variabilities and congruent results also compared to LC PCR. Experiments varying the UVC dose and the agitation speed demonstrated that the ddPCR results closely reflect functional effects of the UVC treatment.

CONCLUSION

The ddPCR assay offers a valid and reliable tool for QC of routine production of the UVC‐treated PCs as well as for monitoring treatment conditions during optimization of the UVC procedure.
Biomechanical evaluation of an autologous flexor digitorum lateralis graft to augment the surgical repair of gastrocnemius tendon laceration in a canine ex vivo model
Authors: Duffy Daniel J. , Curcillo Chiara P. , Chang Yi‐Jen , Gaffney Lewis , Fisher Matthew B. , Moore George E.
Published: June 2020

Objective

To evaluate the effect of an autologous flexor digitorum lateralis (FDL) graft to augment a three‐loop pulley (3LP) core repair in a canine cadaveric gastrocnemius tendon (GT) laceration model.

Study design

Ex vivo, biomechanical study.

Sample population

Twenty‐six canine cadaveric hind limbs.

Methods

Tendons were divided into two groups (n = 13). After sharp transection, paired GT were repaired with 3LP or 3LP + FDL tendon augmentation. Yield, peak and failure loads, tensile loads required to create 1 and 3‐mm gapping, and failure modes were analyzed. Significance was set at P < .05.

Results

Yield and failure force (mean ± SD) for 3LP + FDL were 134.9 ± 44.1 N and 205.4 ± 46.4 N, respectively, which were greater than for 3LP alone (67.9 ± 12.2 N and 91.8 ± 9.9 N, respectively, P < .0001). No constructs (0%) formed 1 or 3‐mm gaps in the 3LP + FDL graft group compared with 84% and 39% for 3LP, respectively (P < .0001). Failure modes were different between groups (P < .001), with 85% of 3LP + FDL constructs failing by tissue rupture at the myotendinous junction, distant to the repair site.

Conclusion

Addition of an autologous FDL graft to a core 3LP tendon repair increased yield, peak, and failure forces by twofold, 2.3‐fold, and 2.2‐fold, respectively, compared with core 3LP alone while preventing the occurrence of gap formation.

Clinical significance

Use of FDL tendon augmentation for GT laceration may increase repair site strength and resist gap formation better than 3LP core suture use alone. Additional studies are required in vivo to determine the effect of FDL graft augmentation on clinical function.
Benefits of Semi-Leisure Time in the Context of Conversion to Anti-Leisure Time in the Elderly
Authors: Janiš Kamil
Published: June 2020

Leisure time and leisure time activities are commonly used concepts and quality fulfilment of leisure time is considered desirable by the lay public. However, the terms semi-leisure and anti-leisure time are close to a particular group of experts. Although semi-leisure time activities are commonly realized, we do not just refer to them as semi-leisure time activities. For the elderly, however, they may have more benefits than leisure time activities, but it is necessary to understand the fundamental risk of becoming anti-leisure. The paper deals with both of the concepts above in the context of old age. It is written as a discussion paper and therefore asks questions raising polemics. The paper aims to describe the benefits of semi-leisure time for the elderly in the context of risks of anti-leisure. The title of the article is its goal.
Andragogické aspekty využívania voľného času
Authors: Koricina Michal
Published: June 2020

KRYSTOŇ, M. 2011. Andragogické aspekty využívania voľného času. Banská Bystrica: UMB. 144 s. ISBN 978-80-557-0240-7.
Finite Darcy–Prandtl Number and Maximum Density Effects on Gill's Stability Problem
Authors: Naveen S. B. , Shankar B. M. , Shivakumara I. S.
Published: June 2020

The simultaneous effect of a time-dependent velocity term in the momentum equation and a maximum density property on the stability of natural convection in a vertical layer of Darcy porous medium is investigated. The density is assumed to vary quadratically with temperature and as a result, the basic velocity distribution becomes asymmetric. The problem has been analyzed separately with (case 1) and without (case 2) time-dependent velocity term. It is established that Gill's proof of linear stability effective for case 2 but found to be ineffective for case 1. Due to the lack of Gill's proof for case1, the stability eigenvalue problem is solved numerically and observed that the instability sets in always via traveling-wave mode when the Darcy–Prandtl number is not larger than 7.08. The neutral stability curves and isolines are presented for different governing parameters. The critical values of Darcy–Rayleigh number corresponding to quadratic density variation with respect to temperature, critical wave number, and the critical wave speed are computed for different values of governing parameters. It is found that the system becomes more stable with increasing Darcy–Rayleigh number corresponding to linear density variation with respect to temperature and the Darcy–Prandtl number.
First report of marine intertidal mites of the family Fortuyniidae (Acari: Oribatida) from Iran, with description of a new species and an updated key to the world’s species of Fortuynia

Authors: Akrami Mohammad Ali , Asadi Mahdieh
Published: June 2020

The marine intertidal zone constitutes one of the most interesting ecosystems on the earth. Oribatid mites of the family Fortuyniidae inhabit marine intertidal habitats in the tropical and subtropical coasts of the world. This family has not been known from Iran until now. The present work deals with a new oribatid species of this family found at the coast of the Gulf of Oman, southeastern Iran, from algae in the intertidal zone of a rocky shore. Fortuynia iranica sp. nov., is described from littoral environments of Chabahar Beach, Sistan and Baluchistan province based on adult and juvenile (deutonymph) stages. The new species is characterized by the presence of both prodorsal external and internal channels; fourteen smooth, thin and long notogastral setae, with a light-colored porose spot in the insertions, c3 completely absent; sensilli with a very slightly oriented head; glove-like lenticulus; epimeral setation 3-1-3-2 and presence of one pair of aggenital setae. An updated diagnostic key to the adults of known species of Fortuynia van der Hammen, 1960 is given.
Variability in individual constriction contributions to third formant values in American English /ɹ/
Authors: Harper Sarah , Goldstein Louis , Narayanan Shrikanth
Published: June 2020

Although substantial variability is observed in the articulatory implementation of the constriction gestures involved in /ɹ/ production, studies of articulatory-acoustic relations in /ɹ/ have largely ignored the potential for subtle variation in the implementation of these gestures to affect salient acoustic dimensions. This study examines how variation in the articulation of American English /ɹ/ influences the relative sensitivity of the third formant to variation in palatal, pharyngeal, and labial constriction degree. Simultaneously recorded articulatory and acoustic data from six speakers in the USC-TIMIT corpus was analyzed to determine how variation in the implementation of each constriction across tokens of /ɹ/ relates to variation in third formant values. Results show that third formant values are differentially affected by constriction degree for the different constrictions used to produce /ɹ/. Additionally, interspeaker variation is observed in the relative effect of different constriction gestures on third formant values, most notably in a division between speakers exhibiting relatively equal effects of palatal and pharyngeal constriction degree on F3 and speakers exhibiting a stronger palatal effect. This division among speakers mirrors interspeaker differences in mean constriction length and location, suggesting that individual differences in /ɹ/ production lead to variation in articulatory-acoustic relations.
Spectro-temporal weighting of interaural time differences in speech
Authors: Baltzell Lucas S. , Cho Adrian Y. , Swaminathan Jayaganesh , Best Virginia
Published: June 2020

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the perceptual weighting of interaural time differences (ITDs) is non-uniform in time and frequency, leading to reports of spectral and temporal “dominance” regions. It is unclear however, how these dominance regions apply to spectro-temporally complex stimuli such as speech. The authors report spectro-temporal weighting functions for ITDs in a pair of naturally spoken speech tokens (“two” and “eight”). Each speech token was composed of two phonemes, and was partitioned into eight frequency regions over two time bins (one time bin for each phoneme). To derive lateralization weights, ITDs for each time-frequency bin were drawn independently from a normal distribution with a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 200 μs, and listeners were asked to indicate whether the speech token was presented from the left or right. ITD thresholds were also obtained for each of the 16 time-frequency bins in isolation. The results suggest that spectral dominance regions apply to speech, and that ITDs carried by phonemes in the first position of the syllable contribute more strongly to lateralization judgments than ITDs carried by phonemes in the second position. The results also show that lateralization judgments are partially accounted for by ITD sensitivity across time-frequency bins.
Videoconference-Delivered Group-Based Physical Activity Self-Regulatory Support for Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: A Feasibility Study
Authors: Jeske Samantha J.D. , Brawley Lawrence R. , Arbour-Nicitopoulos Kelly P.
Published: June 2020

Videoconferencing is a novel method for overcoming time and transportation barriers to leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) interventions. This study examined the feasibility of a group videoconference intervention on LTPA self-regulatory skills training in a sample of nine adults with spinal cord injury (SCI). Session implementation checklists and self-report surveys were administered during four weekly sessions to assess intervention management, group processes, intervention resources, and initial efficacy. Attendance rate was high (91.7%), and the average weekly session duration was 79.6 min. Participants reported high ratings of group cohesion, facilitator collaboration, session content comprehension, and ease in operating the videoconference platform. Knowledge sharing among the group ranged from 18 to 58 exchanges per session, demonstrating learning and group cohesion. LTPA frequency increased among 44% of participants, and 22% of participants achieved the SCI-specific aerobic guidelines. Overall, group videoconferencing holds promise for LTPA support among adults with SCI. Long-term research is warranted to test LTPA self-regulatory and behavioral effects.
Sterol-Response Pathways Mediate Alkaline Survival in Diverse Fungi
Authors: Brown Hannah E. , Telzrow Calla L. , Saelens Joseph W. , Fernandes Larissa , Alspaugh J. Andrew
Published: June 2020

The work described here further elucidates how microorganisms sense and adapt to changes in their environment to establish infections in the human host. Specifically, we uncover a novel mechanism by which an opportunistic human fungal pathogen,
Cryptococcus neoformans
, responds to increases in extracellular pH in order to survive and thrive within the relatively alkaline environment of the human lung. This mechanism, which is intimately linked with fungal membrane sterol homeostasis, is independent of the previously well-studied alkaline response Rim pathway. Furthermore, this ergosterol-dependent alkaline pH response is present in
Candida albicans
, indicating that this mechanism spans diverse fungal species. These results are also relevant for novel antimicrobial drug development as we show that currently used ergosterol-targeting antifungals are more active in alkaline environments.
The Leader Peptide peTrpL Forms Antibiotic-Containing Ribonucleoprotein Complexes for Posttranscriptional Regulation of Multiresistance Genes
Authors: Melior Hendrik , Maaß Sandra , Li Siqi , Förstner Konrad U. , Azarderakhsh Saina , Varadarajan Adithi R. , Stötzel Maximilian , Elhossary Muhammad , Barth-Weber Susanne , Ahrens Christian H. , Becher Dörte , Evguenieva-Hackenberg Elena
Published: June 2020

Leader peptides encoded by transcription attenuators are widespread small proteins that are considered nonfunctional in
trans
. We found that the leader peptide peTrpL of the soil-dwelling plant symbiont
Sinorhizobium meliloti
is required for differential, posttranscriptional regulation of a multidrug resistance operon upon antibiotic exposure. Multiresistance achieved by efflux of different antimicrobial compounds ensures survival and competitiveness in nature and is important from both evolutionary and medical points of view. We show that the leader peptide forms antibiotic- and flavonoid-dependent ribonucleoprotein complexes (ARNPs) for destabilization of
smeR
mRNA encoding the transcription repressor of the major multidrug resistance operon. The seed region for ARNP assembly was localized in an antisense RNA, whose transcription is induced by antimicrobial compounds. The discovery of ARNP complexes as new players in multiresistance regulation opens new perspectives in understanding bacterial physiology and evolution and potentially provides new targets for antibacterial control.
Alterations in the Gut Microbiome in the Progression of Cirrhosis to Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Authors: Lapidot Yelena , Amir Amnon , Nosenko Rita , Uzan-Yulzari Atara , Veitsman Ella , Cohen-Ezra Oranit , Davidov Yana , Weiss Peretz , Bradichevski Tanya , Segev Shlomo , Koren Omry , Safran Michal , Ben-Ari Ziv
Published: June 2020

Development of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis is associated with alterations in intestinal microbiota, including an escalation of dysbiosis and reduced bacterial richness. This study demonstrates that reduced bacterial richness and dysbiosis escalate with the progression of cirrhosis from compensated to decompensated cirrhosis and to HCC-associated cirrhosis (HCC-cirrhosis). Moreover, we report for the first time the effect of environmental factors on HCC-cirrhosis. Excess weight was associated with increased dysbiosis in patients with HCC compared to their normal-weight counterparts. Moreover, fatty liver, consumption of artificial sweeteners, and high-sugar foods were associated with altered microbial composition, including altered levels of
Akkermansia muciniphila
in HCC-cirrhosis. We have successfully determined that levels of
Alphaproteobacteria
and the two genera
CF231
and
Clostridium
are significantly altered in cirrhotic patients who develop hepatocellular carcinoma, independently of cirrhosis severity and dietary habits.
Synthetic Symbiosis under Environmental Disturbances
Authors: Denton Jai A. , Gokhale Chaitanya S.
Published: June 2020

The power of synthetic biology is immense. Will it, however, be able to withstand the environmental pressures once released in the wild. As new technologies aim to do precisely the same, we use a much simpler model to test mathematically the effect of a changing environment on a synthetic biological system. We assume that the system is successful if it maintains proportions close to what we observe in the laboratory. Extreme deviations from the expected equilibrium are possible as the environment changes. Our study provides the conditions and the designer specifications which may need to be incorporated in the synthetic systems if we want such “ecoblocs” to survive in the wild.
Heterotrophic Thaumarchaea with Small Genomes Are Widespread in the Dark Ocean
Authors: Aylward Frank O. , Santoro Alyson E.
Published: June 2020

It has been known for many years that marine
Thaumarchaeota
are abundant constituents of dark ocean microbial communities, where their ability to couple ammonia oxidation and carbon fixation plays a critical role in nutrient dynamics. In this study, we describe an abundant group of putatively heterotrophic marine
Thaumarchaeota
(HMT) in the ocean with physiology distinct from those of their ammonia-oxidizing relatives. HMT lack the ability to oxidize ammonia and fix carbon via the 3-hydroxypropionate/4-hydroxybutyrate pathway but instead encode a form III-a RuBisCO and diverse PQQ-dependent dehydrogenases that are likely used to conserve energy in the dark ocean. Our work expands the scope of known diversity of
Thaumarchaeota
in the ocean and provides important insight into a widespread marine lineage.
Development and pilot testing of quality improvement indicators for integrated primary dementia care
Authors: Oostra Dorien L , Nieuwboer Minke S , Olde Rikkert Marcel G M , Perry Marieke
Published: June 2020

Background

Implementation of integrated primary care is considered an important strategy to overcome fragmentation and improve quality of dementia care. However, current quality indicator (QI) sets, to assess and improve quality of care, do not address the interprofessional context. The aim of this research was to construct a feasible and content-wise valid minimum dataset (MDS) to measure the quality of integrated primary dementia care.

Methods

A modified Delphi method in four rounds was performed. Stakeholders (n=15) (1) developed a preliminary QI set and (2) assessed relevance and feasibility of QIs via a survey (n=84); thereafter, (3) results were discussed for content validity during a stakeholder and (4) expert consensus meeting (n=8 and n=7, respectively). The stakeholders were professionals, informal caregivers, and care organisation managers or policy officers; the experts were professionals and researchers. The final set was pilot-tested for feasibility by multidisciplinary dementia care networks.

Results

The preliminary set consisted of 40 QIs. In the survey, mean scores for relevance ranged from 5.8 (SD=2.7) to 8.5 (SD=0.7) on a 9-point Likert scale, and 25% of all QIs were considered feasible to collect. Consensus panels reduced the set to 15 QIs to be used for pilot testing: 5 quality of care, 3 well-being, 4 network-based care, and 3 cost-efficiency QIs. During pilot testing, all QIs were fully completed, except for well-being QIs.

Conclusion

A valid and feasible MDS of QIs for primary dementia care was developed, containing innovative QIs on well-being, network-based care and cost-efficiency, in addition to quality of care QIs. Application of the MDS may contribute to development and implementation of integrated care service delivery for primary dementia care.
Phase IA/IB study of single-agent tislelizumab, an investigational anti-PD-1 antibody, in solid tumors
Authors: Desai Jayesh , Deva Sanjeev , Lee Jong Seok , Lin Chia-Chi , Yen Chia-Jui , Chao Yee , Keam Bhumsuk , Jameson Michael , Hou Ming-Mo , Kang Yoon-Koo , Markman Ben , Lu Chang-Hsien , Rau Kun-Ming , Lee Kyung-Hun , Horvath Lisa , Friedlander Michael , Hill Andrew , Sandhu Shahneen , Barlow Paula , Wu Chi-Yuan , Zhang Yun , Liang Liang , Wu John , Paton Virginia , Millward Michael
Published: June 2020

Background

The programmed cell death-1/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) axis plays a central role in suppressing antitumor immunity; axis dysregulation can be used by cancer cells to evade the immune system. Tislelizumab, an investigational monoclonal antibody with high affinity and binding specificity for PD-1, was engineered to minimize binding to FcγR on macrophages to limit antibody-dependent phagocytosis, a potential mechanism of resistance to anti-PD-1 therapy. The aim of this phase IA/IB study was to investigate the safety/tolerability, antitumor effects and optimal dose and schedule of tislelizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors.

Methods

Patients (aged ≥18 years) enrolled in phase IA received intravenous tislelizumab 0.5, 2, 5 or 10 mg/kg every 2 weeks; 2 or 5 mg/kg administered every 2 weeks or every 3 weeks; or 200 mg every 3 weeks; patients in phase IB received 5 mg/kg every 3 weeks. Primary objectives were to assess tislelizumab’s safety/tolerability profile by adverse event (AE) monitoring and antitumor activity using RECIST V.1.1. PD-L1 expression was assessed retrospectively with the VENTANA PD-L1 (SP263) Assay.

Results

Between May 2015 and October 2017, 451 patients (n=116, IA; n=335, IB) were enrolled. Fatigue (28%), nausea (25%) and decreased appetite (20%) were the most commonly reported AEs. Most AEs were grade 1–2 severity; anemia (4.9%) was the most common grade 3–4 AE. Treatment-related AEs led to discontinuation in 5.3% of patients. Grade 5 AEs were reported in 14 patients; 2 were considered related to tislelizumab. Pneumonitis (2%) and colitis (1%) were the most common serious tislelizumab-related AEs. As of May 2019, 18% of patients achieved a confirmed objective response in phase IA and 12% in phase IB; median follow-up duration was 13.6 and 7.6 months, respectively. Pharmacokinetics, safety and antitumor activity obtained from both phase IA and IB determined the tislelizumab recommended dose; ultimately, tislelizumab 200 mg intravenous every 3 weeks was the dose and schedule recommended to be taken into subsequent clinical trials.

Conclusions

Tislelizumab monotherapy demonstrated an acceptable safety/tolerability profile. Durable responses were observed in heavily pretreated patients with advanced solid tumors, supporting the evaluation of tislelizumab 200 mg every 3 weeks, as monotherapy and in combination therapy, for the treatment of solid tumors and hematological malignancies.

Trial registration number

NCT02407990.
Proanthocyanidins: Components, Pharmacokinetics and Biomedical Properties
Authors: Zeng Yan-Xi , Wang Sen , Wei Lu , Cui Ying-Yu , Chen Yi-Han
Published: June 2020

Proanthocyanidins (PAs) are a group of polyphenols enriched in plant and human food. In recent decades, epidemiological studies have upheld the direct relationship between PA consumption and health benefits; therefore, studies on PAs have become a research hotspot. Although the oral bioavailability of PAs is quite low, pharmacokinetics data revealed that some small molecules and colonic microbial metabolites of PAs could be absorbed and exert their health beneficial effects. The pharmacological effects of PAs mainly include anti-oxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammation, antimicrobial, cardiovascular protection, neuroprotection, and metabolism-regulation behaviors. Moreover, current toxicological studies show that PAs have no observable toxicity to humans. This review summarizes the resources, extraction, structures, pharmacokinetics, pharmacology, and toxicology of PAs and discusses the limitations of current studies. Areas for further research are also proposed.
Induction of chaotic fluctuations in particle dynamics in a uniformly accelerated frame
Authors: Dalui Surojit , Majhi Bibhas Ranjan , Mishra Pankaj
Published: June 2020

The ongoing conjecture that the presence of horizon may induce chaos in an integrable system, is further investigated from the perspective of a uniformly accelerated frame. Particularly, we build up a model which consists of a particle (massless and chargeless) trapped in harmonic oscillator in a uniformly accelerated frame (namely Rindler observer). Here, the Rindler frame provides a Killing horizon without any intrinsic curvature to the system. This makes the present observations different from previous studies. We observe that for some particular values of parameters of the system (like acceleration, energy of the particle), the motion of the particle trapped in harmonic potential systematically goes from periodic state to the chaotic. This indicates that the existence of horizon alone, not the intrinsic curvature (i.e. the gravitational effect) in the background, is sufficient to induce the chaotic motion in the particle. We believe the present study further enlighten and balustrade the conjecture.
Charged perfect fluid stellar structures with Bardeen model
Authors: Shamir M. Farasat , Mustafa G. , Hanif Quresha
Published: June 2020

This paper is devoted to study static spherically symmetric model in the presence of charged perfect fluid. This is the generalization of neutral perfect fluid (when there is no charge) through the solution of Einstein Maxwell equations. For this purpose, we consider a suitable form of gravitational potential [Formula: see text] and the electric field [Formula: see text], already used in the literature. The value of mass-radius ratio or compactness [Formula: see text], which depends upon the chosen model exceeds the value [Formula: see text] corresponding to neutral stars. The most important feature of the current study is to use the Bardeen model geometry instead of usual Reissner–Nordström model for the matching conditions. In this case the energy density and pressure remain positive, bounded and monotonically decreasing whereas electric field is monotonically increasing. Also the causality condition, i.e. the magnitude of speed of sound must be less than the speed of light, is satisfied. Moreover, the behavior of all the physical parameters at the center and on surface of star of mass [Formula: see text] and for Her X-1 are tabulated. All the results by graphical analysis and tabular information suggest that Bardeen model provides physically realistic stellar structures.
Numerical analysis of Bragg grating-based slot-micro-ring coupling resonator system for electromagnetically-induced transparency-like effect
Authors: Zhao C. Y. , Chen P. Y. , Zhang C. M.
Published: June 2020

We propose a novel bio-sensor structure composed of double sided-wall Bragg gratings and dual-slot-micro-ring waveguides. The slot waveguide is a better choice to interact the bio-material under investigation with the propagating light with in the slot region. The incident light field propagates clockwise through the slot micro-ring resonator, the reflection light field propagates counterclockwise in the slot Bragg grating. By optimizing the geometric parameters of the device, the spectral response is tailored to obtain a sharp resonant peak simulated by the finite- difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The spectrum can be tuned not only by geometrically changing the couple distance in slot Bragg grating resonator, but also by dynamically altering the depth and number of the Bragg grating. Furthermore, the device is easy to yield an extinction ratio of 11 dB, a FWHM of 1.1 nm and a quality factor of [Formula: see text]. The device with a small footprint can enable integration with some photonic devices on a chip and have great promising for applications including tunable sensors, slow-light devices and optical communication.
Polarization and bandgap characteristics of monolayer black phosphoene in magnetic field
Authors: Zhao Cuilan , Liu Jiali
Published: June 2020

The effect of magnetic field on the polarization effect of black phosphorene is studied. The ground state energy and the relevant energy bandgap formula of carrier and carrier–phonon interaction system is derived in turn, and the effect of applied magnetic field on ground state energy and bandgap is also investigated, by the method of variational method, LLP unitary transformation method and linear combination operator method. When the substrate is given, the ground state energy and the relevant bandgap of the carrier–phonon interaction system changes with the magnetic induction intensity, phonon energy and cutoff wave vector. It can be shown by numerical calculation: The ground state energy and the relevant bandgap of the Hole and the Hole–phonon interaction system in black phosphorene increases with increase in magnetic induction intensity [Formula: see text]. The ground state energy of the Hole, Hole–phonon system and the relevant bandgap are different when the substrate is different. Under the action of a magnetic field, the ground state energy of the Hole and Hole–phonon system and bandgap decreases with increase in phonon energy and increases with increase in cutoff wave vector when the substrate is fixed.
Design of an MTJ/CMOS-Based Asynchronous System for Ultra-Low Power Energy Autonomous Applications
Authors: Monga Kanika , Harbhajanka Kunal , Srivastava Arush , Chaturvedi Nitin , Gurunarayanan S.
Published: June 2020

Most of today’s IoT-based computing systems offer an opportunity to build smarter systems for application areas such as healthcare monitoring and wireless sensor nodes. Since these systems are energy limited and remain idle for most of the time, they suffer from large leakage power dissipation. Another problem faced by such computing systems is sporadic power failures when employed with energy harvesters where the system loses its current state and needs long reinitialization time. To address these problems, this work combines asynchronous design techniques with nonvolatility to achieve ultra-low power operation during active mode and data retention during power failure. This paper first presents a detailed analysis of different implementations of volatile c-element and compares their performance in terms of power and delay. Then one of the implementations is selected for nonvolatile design of a hybrid c-element using emerging spin transfer torque–magnetic tunnel junction (STT–MTJ) technology which allows energy-efficient data retention during idle mode/power-off mode and during sudden power failures. Using this hybrid c-element, we design a novel nonvolatile weak conditioned half-buffer. The extensive analysis of these designs with different design metrics is performed at the circuit level using Synopsys HSPICE circuit simulator.
Systematic Risk in the Asia Pacific Region: A Clinical Death?
Authors: Thang Nguyen Cong , Vu Tan Ngoc , Do Trung Thanh , Nguyen Vuong Minh , Vo Duc Hong
Published: June 2020

Beta is considered an important measure of systematic risk which is arguably present in an emerging market. Daily data for 2200 Australian listed firms is collected for the January 2007–December 2016 period. Various portfolios are considered. Days with announcements (the a-day) related to crucial macroeconomic news are allocated into the group which is separated from the n-day (nonannouncement days) group. Findings indicate that beta is negatively related to daily expected excess returns in the announcement days in comparison with the nonannouncement days. It is the claim of this paper that portfolio formations do matter when empirical studies on asset pricing are conducted.
Hardy-type inequalities for Dunkl operators with applications to many-particle Hardy inequalities
Authors: Velicu Andrei
Published: June 2020

In this paper, we study various forms of the Hardy inequality for Dunkl operators, including the classical inequality, [Formula: see text] inequalities, an improved Hardy inequality, as well as the Rellich inequality and a special case of the Caffarelli–Kohn–Nirenberg inequality. As a consequence, one-dimensional many-particle Hardy inequalities for generalized root systems are proved, which in the particular case of root systems [Formula: see text] improve some well-known results.
On a conjecture of Harris
Authors: Dan Ananyo
Published: June 2020

For [Formula: see text], the Noether–Lefschetz locus [Formula: see text] parametrizes smooth, degree [Formula: see text] surfaces in [Formula: see text] with Picard number at least 2. A conjecture of Harris states that there are only finitely many irreducible components of the Noether–Lefschetz locus of non-maximal codimension. Voisin showed that the conjecture is false for sufficiently large [Formula: see text], but is true for [Formula: see text]. She also showed that for [Formula: see text], there are finitely many reduced, irreducible components of [Formula: see text] of non-maximal codimension. In this paper, we prove that for any [Formula: see text], there are infinitely many non-reduced irreducible components of [Formula: see text] of non-maximal codimension.
Silver sulfadiazine Loaded Poly (ε-Caprolactone)/Poly (Ethylene Oxide) Composite Nanofibers for Topical Drug Delivery
Authors: Barbak Zarife , Karakas Hale , Esenturk Imren , Erdal M. Sedef , Sarac A. Sezai
Published: June 2020

In this study, silver sulfadiazine (SSD) loaded Poly ([Formula: see text]-caprolactone)/Poly (ethylene oxide) (PCL/PEO) nanofiber patches were prepared via electrospinning method for topical drug delivery applications. SSD was loaded for the first time into PCL/PEO nanofibers. Nanofiber patches were characterized by Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR) to check the presence of chemical bonding between SSD and polymer matrix. The surface morphology of the nanofibers was observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). SEM images showed that uniform and smooth composite nanofibers were obtained. The diameter of the nanofibers decreased with the addition of SSD. X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis was carried out to examine the crystallinity of composite nanofiber patches. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) analysis was performed to confirm Ag and S contents in the SSD loaded composite nanofibers and EDS Mapping was used to show the homogeneous distribution of SSD in the fiber structure. In order to investigate the release and solubility properties of SSD, an unused buffer solution; Water/Propylene Glycol/Phosphoric Acid (82:16:2) was prepared. The release of SSD was performed in this buffer and the release amount of SSD was calculated by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer. Thereby, SSD containing PCL/PEO composite nanofiber carriers were electrospun to achieve the enhancement in solubility, effective drug release and efficient drug loading of SSD. All experimental studies demonstrated that SSD loaded PCL/PEO composite nanofibers have great potential to be used in topical drug delivery applications.
Chaos synchronization in a new 6D hyperchaotic system with self-excited attractors and seventeen terms
Authors: AL-Azzawi Saad Fawzi , Al-Obeidi Ahmed S.
Published: June 2020

Based on a state feedback controller, a new 6D hyperchaotic system with real variables and a self-excited attractor is constructed. The dynamic behavior of the new system is investigated in terms of Lyapunov exponents, equilibrium points, and stability. Moreover, chaos synchronization implementation is also presented. A nonlinear control scheme was proposed to find the stability of error dynamics, which reduced the computational complexity of the synchronization algorithm. In comparison to the existing synchronization approaches, the controller in this paper was designed based on the analytical technique (linearization method), which does not require an auxiliary function (Lyapunov function) as in traditional methods. Numerical simulations were carried out by using MATLAB to validate the effectiveness of the analytical technique.
Automorphism groups of simply reducible groups
Authors: Luan Yongzhi
Published: June 2020

Simply reducible groups are closely related to the eigenvalue problems in quantum theory and molecular symmetry in chemistry. Classification of simply reducible groups is still an open problem which is interesting to physicists. Since there are not many examples of simply reducible groups in literature at the moment, we try to find some examples of simply reducible groups as candidates for the classification. By studying the automorphism and inner automorphism groups of symmetric groups, dihedral groups, Clifford groups and Coxeter groups, we find some new examples of candidates. We use the computer algebra system GAP to get most of these automorphism and inner automorphism groups.
The relation between the minimum edge dominating energy and the other energies
Authors: Movahedi Fateme
Published: June 2020

Let [Formula: see text] be a graph of the order [Formula: see text] and size [Formula: see text]. The minimum edge dominating energy is defined as the sum of the absolute values of eigenvalues of the minimum edge dominating matrix of the graph [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we establish relations between the minimum edge dominating energy of a graph [Formula: see text] and the graph energy, the energy of the line graph, signless Laplacian energy of [Formula: see text].
A novel fractional grey model applied to the environmental assessment in Turkey
Authors: Shaheen Aliya , Sheng Jinyong , Arshad Sadia , Defterli Ozlem , Xie Xiaoqing , Baleanu Dumitru
Published: June 2020

This study presents a novel fractional order grey model FGM ([Formula: see text],1) obtained by extending the grey model (GM (1,1)). For this, we generalize the whitenization first-order differential equation to fractional order by using the Caputo fractional derivative of order [Formula: see text]. A real-world case study, scrutinize the economic growth influence on environmental degradation in Turkey, is performed to evaluate the significance of the projected model FGM ([Formula: see text],1) in contrast to the current classical GM. We apply autoregressive distributed lags bounds testing co-integration approach to empirically examine the long-run and short-run relation among economic growth, agriculture, forestry and fishing (AFF), electricity utilization and CO2emissions. Using the new fractional order model, all the variables are forecasted in the forthcoming years until 2030. Findings disclose that electricity utilization and economic growth (GDP) accelerate emission of CO2though in the long run agriculture, forestry, and fishing reduce the environmental pollution in Turkey.
Emerging Role of Protein Post-Translational Modification in the Potential Clinical Application of Cancer
Authors: Xue Xiangfei , Zhang Xiao , Sun Fenyong , Wang Jiayi
Published: June 2020

Cancer, one of the largest public health problems in the world, greatly endangers human health. Every country in the world faces a significant burden due to cancer. Protein post-translational modification (PTM) plays a very important role in life. PTM makes the structure of proteins more complex and the functions more perfect. Common PTM processes include methylation, acetylation, phosphorylation, glycosylation and ubiquitination. In this paper, we introduce several common types of PTMs that were discovered in recent years in various cancer types, especially the early stages of cancer, and we explore the role of related molecules in cancer screening, diagnosis, disease surveillance and prognosis. We look forward to using PTM-relevant molecules as markers for the early diagnosis of cancer, after further in-depth research and large-scale clinical trials, to contribute to the early and accurate diagnosis of cancer, thereby improving the prognosis.
End-User Development of Experience Sampling Smartphone Apps -Recommendations and Requirements
Authors: Rough Daniel J. , Quigley Aaron
Published: June 2020

Professional programmers are significantly outnumbered by end-users of software, making it problematic to predict the diverse, dynamic needs of these users in advance. An end-user development (EUD) approach, supporting the creation and modification of software independent of professional developers, is one potential solution. EUD activities are applicable to the work practices of psychology researchers and clinicians, who increasingly rely on software for assessment of participants and patients, but must also depend on developers to realise their requirements. In practice, however, the adoption of EUD technology by these two end-user groups is contingent on various contextual factors that are not well understood. In this paper, we therefore establish recommendations for the design of EUD tools allowing non-programmers to develop apps to collect data from participants in their everyday lives, known as "experience sampling" apps. We first present interviews conducted with psychology researchers and practising clinicians on their current working practices and motivation to adopt EUD tools. We then describe our observation of a chronic disease management clinic. Finally, we describe three case studies of psychology researchers using our EUD tool Jeeves to undertake experience sampling studies, and synthesise recommendations and requirements for tools allowing the EUD of experience sampling apps.
VocalLock
Authors: Lu Li , Yu Jiadi , Chen Yingying , Wang Yan
Published: June 2020

Recent years have witnessed the surge of biometric-based user authentication for mobile devices due to its promising security and convenience. As a natural and widely-existed behavior, human speaking has been exploited for user authentication. Existing voice-based user authentication explores the unique characteristics from either the voiceprint or mouth movements, which is vulnerable to replay attacks and mimic attacks. During speaking, the vocal tract, including the static shape and dynamic movements, also exhibits the individual uniqueness, and they are hardly eavesdropped and imitated by adversaries. Hence, our work aims to employ the individual uniqueness of vocal tract to realize user authentication on mobile devices. Moreover, most voice-based user authentications are passphrase-dependent, which significantly degrade the user experience. Thus, such user authentications are pressed to be implemented in a passphrase-independent manner while being able to resist various attacks. In this paper, we propose a user authentication system, VocalLock, which senses the whole vocal tract during speaking to identify different individuals in a passphrase-independent manner on smartphones leveraging acoustic signals. VocalLock first utilizes FMCW on acoustic signals to characterize both the static shape and dynamic movements of the vocal tract during speaking, and then constructs a passphrase-independent user authentication model based on the unique characteristics of vocal tract through GMM-UBM. The proposed VocalLock can resist various spoofing attacks, while achieving a satisfactory user experience. Extensive experiments in real environments demonstrate VocalLock can accurately authenticate user identity in a passphrase-independent manner and successfully resist various attacks.
Fine-Grained Air Pollution Inference with Mobile Sensing Systems
Authors: Ma Rui , Liu Ning , Xu Xiangxiang , Wang Yue , Noh Hae Young , Zhang Pei , Zhang Lin
Published: June 2020

Air pollution is a global health threat. Except static official air quality stations, mobile sensing systems are deployed for urban air pollution monitoring to achieve larger sensing coverage and greater sampling granularity. However, the data sparsity and irregularity also bring great challenges for pollution map recovery. To address these problems, we propose a deep autoencoder framework based inference algorithm. Under the framework, a partially observed pollution map formed by the irregular samples are input into the model, then an encoder and a decoder work together to recover the entire pollution map. Inside the decoder, we adopt a convolutional long short-term memory (ConvLSTM) model by revealing its physical interpretation with an atmospheric dispersion model, and further present a weather-related ConvLSTM to enable quasi real-time applications.

To evaluate our algorithm, a half-year data collection was deployed with a real-world system on a coastal area including the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in north China. With the resolution of 500 m x 500 m x 1 h, our offline method is proved to have high robustness against low sampling coverage and accidental sensor errors, obtaining 14.9% performance improvement over existing methods. Our quasi real-time model better captures the spatiotemporal dependencies in the pollution map with unevenly distributed samples than other real-time approaches, obtaining 4.2% error reduction.
Countering Acoustic Adversarial Attacks in Microphone-equipped Smart Home Devices
Authors: Bhattacharya Sourav , Manousakas Dionysis , Ramos Alberto Gil C. P. , Venieris Stylianos I. , Lane Nicholas D. , Mascolo Cecilia
Published: June 2020

Deep neural networks (DNNs) continue to demonstrate superior generalization performance in an increasing range of applications, including speech recognition and image understanding. Recent innovations in compression algorithms, design of efficient architectures and hardware accelerators have prompted a rapid growth in deploying DNNs on mobile and IoT devices to redefine user experiences. Relying on the superior inference quality of DNNs, various voice-enabled devices have started to pervade our everyday lives and are increasingly used for, e.g., opening and closing doors, starting or stopping washing machines, ordering products online, and authenticating monetary transactions. As the popularity of these voice-enabled services increases, so does their risk of being attacked. Recently, DNNs have been shown to be extremely brittle under adversarial attacks and people with malicious intentions can potentially exploit this vulnerability to compromise DNN-based voice-enabled systems. Although some existing work already highlights the vulnerability of audio models, very little is known of the behaviour of compressed on-device audio models under adversarial attacks. This paper bridges this gap by investigating thoroughly the vulnerabilities of compressed audio DNNs and makes a stride towards making compressed models robust. In particular, we propose a stochastic compression technique that generates compressed models with greater robustness to adversarial attacks. We present an extensive set of evaluations on adversarial vulnerability and robustness of DNNs in two diverse audio recognition tasks, while considering two popular attack algorithms: FGSM and PGD. We found that error rates of conventionally trained audio DNNs under attack can be as high as 100%. Under both white- and black-box attacks, our proposed approach is found to decrease the error rate of DNNs under attack by a large margin.
Determining the Length Scale of Transport Impedances in Li-Ion Electrodes: Li(Ni0.33Mn0.33Co0.33)O2
Authors: Hui Zeyu , Mayilvahanan Karthik S. , Yang Yuan , West Alan C.
Published: June 2020

Battery cathodes are complex multiscale, multifunctional materials. The length scale at which the dominant impedance arises may be difficult to determine even with the most advanced experimental characterization efforts, and thus modeling can play an important role in analysis. Discharge and voltage relaxation curves, interrogated with theory, are used to distinguish between transport impedance that arise on the scale of the active crystal and on the scale of agglomerates (secondary particles) comprised of nanoscale crystals. Model-selection algorithms are applied to determine that the agglomerate scale is dominant in the

Li

Ni

0.33

Mn

0.33

Co

0.33

O

2

electrode studied here. Furthermore, conditions where the agglomerate and crystal-scale models yield distinct simulation results are demonstrated, providing approaches that can be applied to other systems.