bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Illness perception in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Authors: Borge Christine Råheim , Moum Torbjørn , Puline Lein Martha , Austegard Elise Lynn , Wahl Astrid Klopstad
Published: July 2014

Illness perception (IP) concerns how patients evaluate living with a disease. To get a broader understanding of IP in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we investigated whether breathlessness is an important precursor of IP and whether IP in its turn is related to mental health, physical health and global quality of life (QOL). One hundred and fifty‐four patients with COPD participated in a cross‐sectional survey. Participants underwent pulmonary function testing, provided socio‐demographic and clinical information, and completed the following standardized instruments: Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire, Respiratory Quality of Life Questionnaire, Short‐Form 12 Health Survey and the Quality of Life Scale. Multiple regression analyses were performed. A high IP score indicates that a patient believes that his/her illness represents a threat. Participants with a high score on the IP dimensions consequences, identity, concern and emotional representation, experienced more breathlessness. High scores on the IP dimensions consequences, identity and concern were associated with impaired physical health and high scores on the IP dimensions consequences, identity and emotional representation were associated with impaired mental health. Impaired global QOL was associated with high scores on the IP dimensions consequences, identity, concern, coherence and emotional representation. The strength of the associations between breathlessness and physical/mental health and global QOL decreased when certain dimensions of IP were included as predictors, indicating that IP to some extent acts as a mediating factor. These findings may have practical implications of patient counselling by helping COPD patients to cope with their disease by restructuring their personal models of illness.
How Voters Become Misinformed: An Investigation of the Emergence and Consequences of False Factual Beliefs*
Authors: Reedy Justin , Wells Chris , Gastil John
Published: July 2014

Objectives

Voters develop not only different opinions about politics but also different sets of empirical beliefs. It is less clear how falsifiable beliefs take hold. In particular, it remains unclear as to whether news and campaign messages, moderated by political knowledge, drive the process, or whether deep‐seated values principally sway voters' acceptance of factual claims. These contrasting views point to a set of testable hypotheses that we use to refine a model of ideologically‐biased empirical belief generation, which we call “knowledge distortion.”

Methods

We conduct an analysis of survey data on three ballot measures in Washington State, testing hypothesized relationships between voters' empirical beliefs about political issues, news and campaign messages, political knowledge, political values, and partisanship, as well as vote choices on the ballot measures.

Results

Our analysis reveals that voters' values and partisanship had the strongest associations with distorted beliefs, which then influenced voting choices. Self‐reported levels of exposure to media and campaign messages played a surprisingly limited role.

Conclusion

Our findings provide further evidence of politically motivated factual misperceptions on political issues, which have an independent effect on voters' ballot decisions. These misperceptions do not seem to be driven by news media and campaign messages, suggesting that citizens may be generating relevant empirical beliefs based on their underlying political values and ideology.
China's Age Cohorts: Differences in Political Attitudes and Behavior*
Authors: Harmel Robert , Yeh Yao‐Yuan
Published: July 2014

Objective

The main objective of this article is to explore whether age seems to affect political attitudes and behavior in authoritarian China and, if so, whether “generation” seems to matter, in addition to “age” itself, in driving differences among age cohorts.

Methods

The primary analytical method of identifying “perturbations” (Watts, 1999) focuses on determining deviations from what are considered to be established Western democratic “baselines” for various age‐behavior/attitude relationships, drawing upon regime type and “generational differences” as primary factors in explaining the deviations.

Results and Conclusion

Among all of the results, the most consistent pattern and conclusion is that of a “One Child” generation that is markedly different from its predecessors, and not just due to youthfulness.
Environmental Concern Over Time: Evidence from the Longitudinal Analysis of a British Cohort Study from 1991 to 2008*
Authors: Melis Gabriella , Elliot Mark , Shryane Nick
Published: July 2014

Objective

We examined whether and how levels of environmental concern (EC) changed over time in the United Kingdom, from 1991 to 2008–2009, as well as how EC relates to socioeconomic characteristics across this same timeframe.

Methods

Using item response theory models on the last three sweeps of the British National Child Development Study 1958, we evaluated a measure of EC. Then, using latent growth curve models (LGCMs) we estimated the pattern of change for EC across time. Finally, theoretically relevant sociodemographic characteristics were introduced as covariates into the LGCM.

Results

We found a small but significant downfall of the mean level of EC over time, with individual‐level values displaying higher dispersion in 2008–2009 against the previous sweeps of data. We also found that political orientation has significant effects on the outcome and on its changes across time.

Conclusions

Hypotheses regarding the influence of interest in politics and voting choices on EC are supported. The increasing variance of EC over time warrants further investigation.
Parental reports of behavioural outcome among paediatric leukaemia survivors in Malaysia: a single institution experience
Authors: Hamidah Alias , Sham Marina Mohd , Tamil Azmi M. , Loh C‐Khai , Zarina Latiff A. , Jamal Rahman , Tuti Iryani Mohd Daud , Ratnam Vijayalakshmi C.
Published: July 2014

Objectives

To determine the behavioural impact of chemotherapy in survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) treated with chemotherapy only and to identify treatment‐related or sociodemography‐related factors that might be associated with behavioural outcome.

Methods

We examined 57 survivors of childhood ALL, who were off treatment for at least 2 years and were in remission, aged 4–18 years, and 221 unrelated healthy controls. The Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) parent report was used either in English or in Bahasa Malaysia (the national language of Malaysia) to assess the behavioural outcome.

Results

Childhood ALL survivors had significantly higher scores on externalising behaviour on the CBCL parent report than did controls. Higher problem scores were found in ALL survivors with single parents on ‘total problems’ (P = 0.03) and subscales ‘withdrawn’ (P = 0.03), ‘social problems’ (P < 0.01) and ‘delinquent behaviour’ (P = 0.03) than in survivors with married parents. Significant associations were seen between a lower education level of the father and the variables representing internalising (withdrawn, anxious/depressed) and externalising (aggressive behaviour). We observed trends on higher scores in all scales in ALL survivors with single parents than in controls with single parents or with fathers with low education level, especially primary education only.

Conclusions

Malaysian childhood ALL survivors had a significantly increased risk for externalising behavioural problems, and there was a trend towards increased risk of problems in many other behavioural scales. Understanding the sociocultural dimension of patients’ health is important to be able to design the most appropriate remedy for problem behaviours detected in this multi‐ethnic population.
Repeated High-Intensity-Effort Activity in Elite and Semielite Rugby League Match Play
Authors: Black Georgia M. , Gabbett Tim J.
Published: July 2014

Purpose:

No study has investigated the frequency and nature of repeated high-intensity-effort (RHIE) bouts across elite and semielite rugby league competitions. This study examined RHIE activity in rugby league match play across playing standards.

Participants:

36 elite and 64 semielite rugby league players.

Methods:

Global positioning system analysis was completed during 17 elite and 14 semielite matches.

Results:

The most commonly occurring RHIE bouts involved 2 efforts (2-RHIE) for both elite and semielite players. Only small differences were found in 2-RHIE activity between elite and semielite match play (effect size [ES] ≥0.31 ± 0.15, ≥88%, likely). RHIE bouts were more likely to involve contact as the number of efforts in a bout increased (ES ≥0.40 ± 0.15, 100%, almost certainly). Semielite players performed a greater proportion of 2-contact-effort RHIE bouts than their elite counterparts (68.2% vs 60.6%, ES 0.33 ± 0.15, 92%, likely), while elite players performed a greater proportion of 3-effort bouts (26.9% vs 21.1%, ES 0.31 ± 0.15, 88%, likely). Elite players also had a shorter recovery (1.00−3.99 vs ≥4.00 min) between RHIE bouts (ES ≥1.60 ± 0.71, ≥94%, likely).

Conclusion:

These findings highlight the RHIE demands of elite and semielite rugby league match play. Elite players are more likely to perform RHIE bouts consisting of 3 efforts and to have a shorter recovery time between bouts. Exposing players to these RHIE demands in training is likely to improve their ability to tolerate the most demanding passages of match play.
Ex Vivo
Activity of Endoperoxide Antimalarials, Including Artemisone and Arterolane, against Multidrug-Resistant Plasmodium falciparum Isolates from Cambodia
Authors: Lanteri Charlotte A. , Chaorattanakawee Suwanna , Lon Chanthap , Saunders David L. , Rutvisuttinunt Wiriya , Yingyuen Kritsanai , Bathurst Ian , Ding Xavier C. , Tyner Stuart D.
Published: July 2014

Novel synthetic endoperoxides are being evaluated as new components of artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) to treat artemisinin-resistant
Plasmodium falciparum
malaria. We conducted blinded
ex vivo
activity testing of fully synthetic (OZ78 and OZ277) and semisynthetic (artemisone, artemiside, artesunate, and dihydroartemisinin) endoperoxides in the histidine-rich protein 2 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against 200
P. falciparum
isolates from areas of artemisinin-resistant malaria in western and northern Cambodia in 2009 and 2010. The order of potency and geometric mean (GM) 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC
50
s) were as follows: artemisone (2.40 nM) > artesunate (8.49 nM) > dihydroartemisinin (11.26 nM) > artemiside (15.28 nM) > OZ277 (31.25 nM) > OZ78 (755.27 nM).
Ex vivo
activities of test endoperoxides positively correlated with dihydroartemisinin and artesunate. The isolates were over 2-fold less susceptible to dihydroartemisinin than the artemisinin-sensitive
P. falciparum
W2 clone and showed sensitivity comparable to those with test endoperoxides and artesunate, with isolate/W2 IC
50
susceptibility ratios of <2.0. All isolates had
P. falciparum
chloroquine resistance transporter mutations, with negative correlations in sensitivity to endoperoxides and chloroquine. The activities of endoperoxides (artesunate, dihydroartemisinin, OZ277, and artemisone) significantly correlated with that of the ACT partner drug, mefloquine. Isolates had mutations associated with clinical resistance to mefloquine, with 35% prevalence of
P. falciparum
multidrug resistance gene 1 (
pfmdr1
) amplification and 84.5% occurrence of the
pfmdr1
Y184F mutation. GM IC
50
s for mefloquine, lumefantrine, and endoperoxides (artesunate, dihydroartemisinin, OZ277, OZ78, and artemisone) correlated with
pfmdr1
copy number. Given that current ACTs are failing potentially from reduced sensitivity to artemisinins and partner drugs, newly identified mutations associated with artemisinin resistance reported in the literature and
pfmdr1
mutations should be examined for their combined contributions to emerging ACT resistance.
Bacterial Drug Tolerance under Clinical Conditions Is Governed by Anaerobic Adaptation but not Anaerobic Respiration
Authors: Hemsley Claudia M. , Luo Jamie X. , Andreae Clio A. , Butler Clive S. , Soyer Orkun S. , Titball Richard W.
Published: July 2014

Noninherited antibiotic resistance is a phenomenon whereby a subpopulation of genetically identical bacteria displays phenotypic tolerance to antibiotics. We show here that compared to
Escherichia coli
, the clinically relevant genus
Burkholderia
displays much higher levels of cells that tolerate ceftazidime. By measuring the dynamics of the formation of drug-tolerant cells under conditions that mimic
in vivo
infections, we show that in
Burkholderia
bacteria, oxygen levels affect the formation of these cells. The drug-tolerant cells are characterized by an anaerobic metabolic signature and can be eliminated by oxygenating the system or adding nitrate. The transcriptome profile suggests that these cells are not dormant persister cells and are likely to be drug tolerant as a consequence of the upregulation of anaerobic nitrate respiration, efflux pumps, β-lactamases, and stress response proteins. These findings have important implications for the treatment of chronic bacterial infections and the methodologies and conditions that are used to study drug-tolerant and persister cells
in vitro
.
Time-Kill Assay and Etest Evaluation for Synergy with Polymyxin B and Fluconazole against Candida glabrata
Authors: Pankey George , Ashcraft Deborah , Kahn Heather , Ismail Abdulrahim
Published: July 2014

Fluconazole-resistant
Candida glabrata
is an emerging pathogen that causes fungemia. Polymyxin B, a last-resort antibiotic used to treat multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacterial infections, has been found to possess
in vitro
fungicidal activity and showed synergy with fluconazole against a single strain of
C. glabrata
. Since both agents may be used simultaneously in intensive care unit (ICU) patients, this study was performed to test for possible synergy of this combination against 35
C. glabrata
blood isolates, using 2 methods: a time-kill assay and an experimental MIC-MIC Etest method. Thirty-five genetically unique
C. glabrata
bloodstream isolates were collected from 2009 to 2011, identified using an API 20C system, and genotyped by repetitive sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR). MICs were determined by Etest and broth microdilution methods. Synergy testing was performed using a modified bacterial Etest synergy method and time-kill assay, with final results read at 24 h. The Etest method showed synergy against 19/35 (54%) isolates; the time-kill assay showed synergy against 21/35 (60%) isolates. Isolates not showing drug synergy had an indifferent status. Concordance between methods was 60%.
In vitro
synergy of polymyxin B and fluconazole against the majority of
C. glabrata
isolates was demonstrated by both methods. The bacterial Etest synergy method adapted well when used with
C. glabrata
. Etest was easier to perform than time-kill assay and may be found to be an acceptable alternative to time-kill assay with antifungals.
Phase 1b Study of New Posaconazole Tablet for Prevention of Invasive Fungal Infections in High-Risk Patients with Neutropenia
Authors: Duarte Rafael F. , López-Jiménez Javier , Cornely Oliver A. , Laverdiere Michel , Helfgott David , Haider Shariq , Chandrasekar Pranatharthi , Langston Amelia , Perfect John , Ma Lei , van Iersel Marlou L. P. S. , Connelly Nancy , Kartsonis Nicholas , Waskin Hetty
Published: July 2014

Posaconazole tablets, a new oral formulation of posaconazole, can be effective when given as antifungal prophylaxis to neutropenic patients at high risk for invasive fungal infection (e.g., those with acute myelogenous leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome). Such effectiveness might be specifically important to patients with poor oral intake because of nausea, vomiting, or chemotherapy-associated mucositis. This was a prospective, global study in high-risk patients to characterize the pharmacokinetics and safety profile of posaconazole tablets and to identify the dose of posaconazole tablets that would provide exposure within a predefined range of exposures (steady-state average concentration [area under the concentration-time curve/24 h] of ≥500 ng/ml and ≤2,500 ng/ml in >90% of patients). The study evaluated two sequential dosing cohorts: 200 mg posaconazole once daily (
n
= 20) and 300 mg posaconazole once daily (
n
= 34) (both cohorts had a twice-daily loading dose on day 1) taken without regard to food intake during the neutropenic period for ≤28 days. The exposure target was reached (day 8) in 15 of 19 (79%) pharmacokinetic-evaluable patients taking 200 mg posaconazole once daily and in 31 of 32 (97%) patients taking 300 mg posaconazole once daily; 300 mg posaconazole once daily achieved the desired exposure target. Posaconazole tablets were generally well tolerated in high-risk neutropenic patients. (This study has been registered at
ClinicalTrials.gov
under registration no. NCT01777763.)
In Vitro
Analysis of Finasteride Activity against Candida albicans Urinary Biofilm Formation and Filamentation
Authors: Chavez-Dozal Alba A. , Lown Livia , Jahng Maximillian , Walraven Carla J. , Lee Samuel A.
Published: July 2014

Candida albicans
is the 3rd most common cause of catheter-associated urinary tract infections, with a strong propensity to form drug-resistant catheter-related biofilms. Due to the limited efficacy of available antifungals against biofilms, drug repurposing has been investigated in order to identify novel agents with activities against fungal biofilms. Finasteride is a 5-α-reductase inhibitor commonly used for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia, with activity against human type II and III isoenzymes. We analyzed the
Candida
Genome Database and identified a
C. albicans
homolog of type III 5-α-reductase, Dfg10p, which shares 27% sequence identity and 41% similarity to the human type III 5-α-reductase. Thus, we investigated finasteride for activity against
C. albicans
urinary biofilms, alone and in combination with amphotericin B or fluconazole. Finasteride alone was highly effective in the prevention of
C. albicans
biofilm formation at doses of ≥16 mg/liter and the treatment of preformed biofilms at doses of ≥128 mg/liter. In biofilm checkerboard analyses, finasteride exhibited synergistic activity in the prevention of biofilm formation in a combination of 4 mg/liter finasteride with 2 mg/liter fluconazole. Finasteride inhibited filamentation, thus suggesting a potential mechanism of action. These results indicate that finasteride alone is highly active in the prevention of
C. albicans
urinary biofilms
in vitro
and has synergistic activity in combination with fluconazole. Further investigation of the clinical utility of finasteride in the prevention of urinary candidiasis is warranted.
Simple and Rapid Method To Determine Antimycobacterial Potency of Compounds by Using Autoluminescent Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Authors: Sharma Sreevalli , Gelman Ekaterina , Narayan Chandan , Bhattacharjee Deepa , Achar Vijayashree , Humnabadkar Vaishali , Balasubramanian V. , Ramachandran Vasanthi , Dhar Neeraj , Dinesh Neela
Published: July 2014

A major obstacle in the process of discovery of drugs against
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
is its extremely slow growth rate and long generation time (∼20 to 24 h). Consequently, determination of MICs and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of potential drug candidates using current methods requires 7 days (resazurin-based MIC assay [REMA]) and 1 month (CFU enumeration), respectively. We employed a synthetic luciferase operon optimized for expression in high-GC-content bacteria and adapted it for use in mycobacteria. Using luminescence-based readouts, we were able to determine the MICs and bactericidal activities of approved tuberculosis (TB) drugs, which correlated well with currently used methods. Although luminescence-based readouts have been used previously to determine the MICs and bactericidal activities of approved TB drugs, in this study we adapted this assay to carry out a pilot screen using a library of 1,114 compounds belonging to diverse chemical scaffolds. We found that MICs derived from a 3-day luminescence assay matched well with REMA-based MIC values. To determine the bactericidal potencies of compounds, a 1:10 dilution of the cultures from the MIC plate was carried out on day 7, and the bactericidal concentrations determined based on time to positivity in 2 weeks were found to be comparable with MBC values determined by the conventional CFU approach. Thus, the luminescent mycobacterium-based approach not only is very simple and inexpensive but also allowed us to generate the information in half the time required by conventional methods.
Effect of Coadministered Fat on the Tolerability, Safety, and Pharmacokinetic Properties of Dihydroartemisinin-Piperaquine in Papua New Guinean Children with Uncomplicated Malaria
Authors: Moore B. R. , Benjamin J. M. , Salman S. , Griffin S. , Ginny E. , Page-Sharp M. , Robinson L. J. , Siba P. , Batty K. T. , Mueller I. , Davis T. M. E.
Published: July 2014

Coadministration of dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PQ) with fat may improve bioavailability and antimalarial efficacy, but it might also increase toxicity. There have been no studies of these potential effects in the pediatric age group. The tolerability, safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of DHA-PQ administered with or without 8.5 g fat were investigated in 30 Papua New Guinean children aged 5 to 10 years diagnosed with uncomplicated falciparum malaria. Three daily 2.5:11.5-mg-base/kg doses were given with water (
n
= 14, group A) or milk (
n
= 16, group B), with regular clinical/laboratory assessment and blood sampling over 42 days. Plasma PQ was assayed by high-performance liquid chromatography with UV detection, and DHA was assayed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Compartmental pharmacokinetic models for PQ and DHA were developed using a population-based approach. DHA-PQ was generally well tolerated, and initial fever and parasite clearance were prompt. There were no differences in the areas under the concentration-time curve (AUC
0–∞
) for PQ (median, 41,906 versus 36,752 μg · h/liter in groups A and B, respectively;
P
= 0.24) or DHA (4,047 versus 4,190 μg · h/liter;
P
= 0.67). There were also no significant between-group differences in prolongation of the corrected electrocardiographic QT interval (QT
c
) initially during follow-up, but the QT
c
tended to be higher in group B children at 24 h (mean ± standard deviation [SD], 15 ± 10 versus 6 ± 15 ms
0.5
in group A,
P
= 0.067) and 168 h (10 ± 18 versus 1 ± 23 ms
0.5
,
P
= 0.24) when plasma PQ concentrations were relatively low. A small amount of fat does not change the bioavailability of DHA-PQ in children, but a delayed persistent effect on ventricular repolarization cannot be excluded.
Mutations in
mmpL
and in the Cell Wall Stress Stimulon Contribute to Resistance to Oxadiazole Antibiotics in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus
Authors: Xiao Qiaobin , Vakulenko Sergei , Chang Mayland , Mobashery Shahriar
Published: July 2014

Staphylococcus aureus
is a leading cause of hospital- and community-acquired infections, which exhibit broad resistance to various antibiotics. We recently disclosed the discovery of the oxadiazole class of antibiotics, which has
in vitro
and
in vivo
activities against methicillin-resistant
S. aureus
(MRSA). We report herein that MmpL, a putative member of the resistance, nodulation, and cell division (RND) family of proteins, contributes to oxadiazole resistance in the
S. aureus
strain COL. Through serial passages, we generated two
S. aureus
COL variants that showed diminished susceptibilities to an oxadiazole antibiotic. The MICs for the oxadiazole against one strain (designated
S. aureus
COL
I
) increased reproducibly 2-fold (to 4 μg/ml), while against the other strain (
S. aureus
COL
R
), they increased >4-fold (to >8 μg/ml, the limit of solubility). The COL
R
strain was derived from the COL
I
strain. Whole-genome sequencing revealed 31 mutations in
S. aureus
COL
R
, of which 29 were shared with COL
I
. Consistent with our previous finding that oxadiazole antibiotics inhibit cell wall biosynthesis, we found 13 mutations that occurred either in structural genes or in promoters of the genes of the cell wall stress stimulon. Two unique mutations in
S. aureus
COL
R
were substitutions in two genes that encode the putative thioredoxin (SACOL1794) and MmpL (SACOL2566). A role for
mmpL
in resistance to oxadiazoles was discerned from gene deletion and complementation experiments. To our knowledge, this is the first report that a cell wall-acting antibiotic selects for mutations in the cell wall stress stimulon and the first to implicate MmpL in resistance to antibiotics in
S. aureus
.
Porphyromonas gingivalis-Induced Reactive Oxygen Species Activate JAK2 and Regulate Production of Inflammatory Cytokines through c-Jun
Authors: Wang Huizhi , Zhou Huaxin , Duan Xiaoxian , Jotwani Ravi , Vuddaraju Himabindu , Liang Shuang , Scott David A. , Lamont Richard J.
Published: July 2014

Pathogen-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) play a crucial role in host innate immune responses through regulating the quality and quantity of inflammatory mediators. However, the underlying molecular mechanisms of this effect have yet to be clarified. In this study, we examined the mechanism of action of ROS stimulated by
Porphyromonas gingivalis
in gingival epithelial cells.
P. gingivalis
induced the rapid production of ROS, which lead to the phosphorylation of JAK2 and increased levels of secreted proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-1β. Neutralization of ROS by
N
-acetyl-
l
-cysteine (NAC) abrogated the phosphorylation of JAK2 and suppressed the production of IL-6 and IL-1β. ROS-mediated phosphorylation of JAK2 induced the phosphoactivation of c-Jun amino-terminal protein kinase (JNK) and the downstream transcriptional regulator c-Jun. Inhibition of JAK2, either pharmacologically or by small interfering RNA (siRNA), reduced both the phosphorylation of these molecules and the production of proinflammatory cytokines in response to
P. gingivalis
. Furthermore, pharmacological inhibition or siRNA-mediated gene silencing of JNK or c-Jun mimicked the effect of JAK2 inhibition to suppress
P. gingivalis
-induced IL-6 and IL-1β levels. The results show that ROS-mediated activation of JAK2 is required for
P. gingivalis
-induced inflammatory cytokine production and that the JNK/c-Jun signaling axis is involved in the ROS-dependent regulation of IL-1β and IL-6 production.
Porphyromonas gingivalis Exacerbates Ligature-Induced, RANKL-Dependent Alveolar Bone Resorption via Differential Regulation of Toll-Like Receptor 2 (TLR2) and TLR4
Authors: Lin Jiang , Bi Liangjia , Yu Xiaoqian , Kawai Toshihisa , Taubman Martin A. , Shen Baozhong , Han Xiaozhe
Published: July 2014

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a key role in the innate immune responses to periodontal pathogens in periodontal disease. The present study was performed to determine the roles of TLR2 and TLR4 signaling in alveolar bone resorption, using a
Porphyromonas gingivalis
-associated ligature-induced periodontitis model in mice. Wild-type (WT), Tlr2
−/−
, and Tlr4
−/−
mice (8 to 10 weeks old) in the C57/BL6 background were used. Silk ligatures were applied to the maxillary second molars in the presence or absence of live
P. gingivalis
infection. Ligatures were removed from the second molars on day 14, and mice were kept for another 2 weeks before sacrifice for final analysis (day 28). On day 14, there were no differences in alveolar bone resorption and gingival RANKL expression between mice treated with ligation plus
P. gingivalis
infection and mice treated with ligation alone. Gingival interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) expression was increased, whereas IL-10 expression was decreased in WT and Tlr2
−/−
mice but not in Tlr4
−/−
mice. On day 28, WT and Tlr4
−/−
mice treated with ligation plus
P. gingivalis
infection showed significantly increased bone loss and gingival RANKL expression compared to those treated with ligation alone, whereas such an increase was diminished in Tlr2
−/−
mice. Gingival TNF-α upregulation and IL-10 downregulation were observed only in WT and Tlr4
−/−
mice, not in Tlr2
−/−
mice. In all mice, bone resorption induced by ligation plus
P. gingivalis
infection was antagonized by local anti-RANKL antibody administration. This study suggests that
P. gingivalis
exacerbates ligature-induced, RANKL-dependent periodontal bone resorption via differential regulation of TLR2 and TLR4 signaling.
Distinct Susceptibilities of Corneal Pseudomonas aeruginosa Clinical Isolates to Neutrophil Extracellular Trap-Mediated Immunity
Authors: Shan Qiang , Dwyer Markryan , Rahman Samir , Gadjeva Mihaela
Published: July 2014

Ocular bacterial keratitis, often associated with
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
bacterial infection, commonly occurs in contact lens wearers and may lead to vision impairment. In this study, we analyzed the contribution of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) to the mediation of protection during ocular keratitis. Both invasive and cytotoxic
P. aeruginosa
clinical isolates induced NET release by neutrophils. NETs carried the characteristic histone proteins, elastase, lysozyme, myeloperoxidase, and metabolic enzymes. While the invasive
P. aeruginosa
strains PAO1 (serogroup O5) and 6294 (serogroup O6) were trapped by NETs, the cytotoxic
P. aeruginosa
strains 6077, 6206 (serogroup O11), and PA14 (serogroup 010) were less sensitive to NET capture. The mechanism of escape by the cytotoxic strains from adhesion to NETs involved the shedding of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) that outcompeted the cytotoxic
P. aeruginosa
strains for NET binding. When ocular infection was caused by an invasive strain
in vivo
, NETs were released at the ocular surface to capture bacteria, limiting their spread. Treatment with MNase I had a dose-dependent effect, with low doses of MNase speeding up bacterial clearance and high doses of MNase having toxic consequences. Cumulatively, our data suggest that NET-mediated immunity is a two-step process. Initially, pathogens attach to NET fragments; subsequently, upon nuclease activity, active serine proteases, which proteolytically degrade NET-associated proteins and promote DNase activity, are released. Therefore, a balance between NET production and NET degradation is needed to achieve maximal NET immunity.
Consecutive transcatheter valve-in-valve implantations: the first in the aortic position, the second in the mitral position, in a patient with failing aortic and mitral bioprostheses
Authors: Duncan Alison , Davies Simon , Rosendahl Ulrich , Moat Neil
Published: July 2014

A 69-year-old man with a failing aortic valve homograft and failing mitral valve xenograft was admitted with an inability to complete full sentences and pulmonary oedema with right ventricular overload. Severe aortic and mitral regurgitation, severe biventricular impairment and pulmonary hypertension were confirmed on transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography. An urgent transfemoral valve-in-valve transcatheter valve implantation (TAVI) was performed within the aortic valve homograft with full resolution of aortic regurgitation. Three months later, a semielective trans-apical valve-in-valve procedure was performed in the mitral position, under cardiopulmonary bypass, with full resolution of mitral regurgitation. His exercise tolerance increased from 5 yards to half a mile. This case report summarises a staged double valve-in-valve procedure in a patient who had three previous sternotomies and who had severe heart failure due to failing aortic and mitral bioprostheses. We report two different delivery approaches, using two different transcatheter devices, and describe valve-in-valve techniques, including cardiopulmonary bypass, in the catheter laboratory.
Event ambiguity fuels the effective spread of rumors
Authors: Xu Jiuping , Zhang Yi
Published: July 2014

In this paper, a new rumor spreading model which quantifies a specific rumor spreading feature is proposed. The specific feature focused on is the important role the event ambiguity plays in the rumor spreading process. To study the impact of this event ambiguity on the spread of rumors, the probability p(t) that an individual becomes a rumor spreader from an initially unaware person at time t is built. p(t) reflects the extent of event ambiguity, and a parameter c of p(t) is used to measure the speed at which the event moves from ambiguity to confirmation. At the same time, a principle is given to decide on the correct value for parameter c A rumor spreading model is then developed with this function added as a parameter to the traditional model. Then, several rumor spreading model simulations are conducted with different values for c on both regular networks and ER random networks. The simulation results indicate that a rumor spreads faster and more broadly when c is smaller. This shows that if events are ambiguous over a longer time, rumor spreading appears to be more effective, and is influenced more significantly by parameter c in a random network than in a regular network. We then determine parameters of this model through data fitting of the missing Malaysian plane, and apply this model to an analysis of the missing Malaysian plane. The simulation results demonstrate that the most critical time for authorities to control rumor spreading is in the early stages of a critical event.
A novel method for direct investigation of dark matter
Authors: Bertoni R. , Chignoli F. , Chiesa D. , Clemenza M. , Ghezzi A. , Lucchini G. , Mazza R. , Negri P. , Pozzi S. , Pullia A. , Redaelli N. , Zanotti L. , Cundy D.
Published: July 2014

The Materia OSCura A Bolle (MOSCAB) experiment uses a new technique for Dark Matter search. The Geyser technique is applied to the construction of a prototype detector with a mass of 0.5 kg and the encouraging results are reported here; an accent is placed on a big detector of 40 kg in construction at the Milano Bicocca University and INFN.
An Energetic Criterion for Dynamic Instability of Structures Under Arbitrary Excitations
Authors: Xu Jun , Li Jie
Published: July 2014

An energetic criterion for identifying the global dynamic instability of structures subjected to any kind of excitations is proposed in the paper. The concept of dynamic stability for structures is firstly interpreted and distinguished from the stability concept in the Lyapunov sense. It is demonstrated that the dynamic instability depends not only on the properties of the structure, but also relates to the change of external excitations on the structure, which distinguishes the essence of dynamic instability from the pseudo static stiffness criterion. This background leads to a novel energetic criterion with which the first passage of the variation of intrinsic energy over the input energy manifests the dynamic instability of structures. The proposed criterion has been extensively tested and verified in the numerical examples, with its advantages clearly illustrated.
Two rare silicoflagellate double skeletons of the Star-of-David configuration from the Eocene
Authors: Mccartney Kevin , Abe Kenta , Witkowski Jakub , Jordan Richard W.
Published: July 2014

Abstract. Two, rare double skeletons of Corbisema silicoflagellates have been observed from Early and Middle Eocene sediments. Both specimens are in the Star-of-David configuration, with the basal corners of each skeleton aligned with the middle of sibling basal sides. These specimens are of a species that has an elongate basal ring, which shows that skeletons are flipped 180° with respect to one another, rather than simply rotated.
Personalized Recommendations of Locally Interesting Venues to Tourists via Cross-Region Community Matching
Authors: Zhao Yi-Liang , Nie Liqiang , Wang Xiangyu , Chua Tat-Seng
Published: July 2014

You are in a new city. You are not familiar with the places and neighborhoods. You want to know all about the exciting sights, food outlets, and cultural venues that the locals frequent, in particular those that suit your personal interests. Even though there exist many mapping, local search, and travel assistance sites, they mostly provide popular and famous listings such as Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower, which are well-known places but may not suit your personal needs or interests. Therefore, there is a gap between what tourists want and what dominant tourism resources are providing. In this work, we seek to provide a solution to bridge this gap by exploiting the rich user-generated location contents in location-based social networks in order to offer tourists the most relevant and personalized local venue recommendations. In particular, we first propose a novel Bayesian approach to extract the social dimensions of people at different geographical regions to capture their latent local interests. We next mine the local interest communities in each geographical region. We then represent each local community using aggregated behaviors of community members. Finally, we correlate communities across different regions and generate venue recommendations to tourists via cross-region community matching. We have sampled a representative subset of check-ins from Foursquare and experimentally verified the effectiveness of our proposed approaches.
VSRank
Authors: Wang Shuaiqiang , Sun Jiankai , Gao Byron J. , Ma Jun
Published: July 2014

Collaborative filtering (CF) is an effective technique addressing the information overload problem. CF approaches generally fall into two categories: rating based and ranking based. The former makes recommendations based on historical rating scores of items and the latter based on their rankings. Ranking-based CF has demonstrated advantages in recommendation accuracy, being able to capture the preference similarity between users even if their rating scores differ significantly. In this study, we propose VSRank, a novel framework that seeks accuracy improvement of ranking-based CF through adaptation of the vector space model. In VSRank, we consider each user as a document and his or her pairwise relative preferences as terms. We then use a novel degree-specialty weighting scheme resembling TF-IDF to weight the terms. Extensive experiments on benchmarks in comparison with the state-of-the-art approaches demonstrate the promise of our approach.
Limitations of MOOCs for Computing Education- Addressing our needs
Authors: Guzdial Mark
Published: July 2014

Computing education has some significant education challenges today. We aren't diverse enough, and we need to be able to develop more teachers. Despite popular opinion, the current generations of MOOCs don't meet those needs.
Extending the graphics pipeline with adaptive, multi-rate shading
Authors: He Yong , Gu Yan , Fatahalian Kayvon
Published: July 2014

Due to complex shaders and high-resolution displays (particularly on mobile graphics platforms), fragment shading often dominates the cost of rendering in games. To improve the efficiency of shading on GPUs, we extend the graphics pipeline to natively support techniques that adaptively sample components of the shading function more sparsely than per-pixel rates. We perform an extensive study of the challenges of integrating adaptive, multi-rate shading into the graphics pipeline, and evaluate two- and three-rate implementations that we believe are practical evolutions of modern GPU designs. We design new shading language abstractions that simplify development of shaders for this system, and design adaptive techniques that use these mechanisms to reduce the number of instructions performed during shading by more than a factor of three while maintaining high image quality.
Projective dynamics
Authors: Bouaziz Sofien , Martin Sebastian , Liu Tiantian , Kavan Ladislav , Pauly Mark
Published: July 2014

We present a new method for implicit time integration of physical systems. Our approach builds a bridge between nodal Finite Element methods and Position Based Dynamics, leading to a simple, efficient, robust, yet accurate solver that supports many different types of constraints. We propose specially designed energy potentials that can be solved efficiently using an alternating optimization approach. Inspired by continuum mechanics, we derive a set of continuum-based potentials that can be efficiently incorporated within our solver. We demonstrate the generality and robustness of our approach in many different applications ranging from the simulation of solids, cloths, and shells, to example-based simulation. Comparisons to Newton-based and Position Based Dynamics solvers highlight the benefits of our formulation.
Shape2Pose
Authors: Kim Vladimir G. , Chaudhuri Siddhartha , Guibas Leonidas , Funkhouser Thomas
Published: July 2014

As 3D acquisition devices and modeling tools become widely available there is a growing need for automatic algorithms that analyze the semantics and functionality of digitized shapes. Most recent research has focused on analyzing geometric structures of shapes. Our work is motivated by the observation that a majority of man-made shapes are designed to be used by people. Thus, in order to fully understand their semantics, one needs to answer a fundamental question: "how do people interact with these objects?" As an initial step towards this goal, we offer a novel algorithm for automatically predicting a static pose that a person would need to adopt in order to use an object. Specifically, given an input 3D shape, the goal of our analysis is to predict a corresponding human pose, including contact points and kinematic parameters. This is especially challenging for man-made objects that commonly exhibit a lot of variance in their geometric structure. We address this challenge by observing that contact points usually share consistent local geometric features related to the anthropometric properties of corresponding parts and that human body is subject to kinematic constraints and priors. Accordingly, our method effectively combines local region classification and global kinematically-constrained search to successfully predict poses for various objects. We also evaluate our algorithm on six diverse collections of 3D polygonal models (chairs, gym equipment, cockpits, carts, bicycles, and bipedal devices) containing a total of 147 models. Finally, we demonstrate that the poses predicted by our algorithm can be used in several shape analysis problems, such as establishing correspondences between objects, detecting salient regions, finding informative viewpoints, and retrieving functionally-similar shapes.
Pteromys
Authors: Umetani Nobuyuki , Koyama Yuki , Schmidt Ryan , Igarashi Takeo
Published: July 2014

This paper introduces novel interactive techniques for designing original hand-launched free-flight glider airplanes which can actually fly. The aerodynamic properties of a glider aircraft depend on their shape, imposing significant design constraints. We present a compact and efficient representation of glider aerodynamics that can be fit to real-world conditions using a data-driven method. To do so, we acquire a sample set of glider flight trajectories using a video camera and the system learns a nonlinear relationship between forces on the wing and wing shape. Our acquisition system is much simpler to construct than a wind tunnel, but using it we can efficiently discover a wing model for simple gliding aircraft. Our resulting model can handle general free-form wing shapes and yet agrees sufficiently well with the acquired airplane flight trajectories. Based on this compact aerodynamics model, we present a design tool in which the wing configuration created by a user is interactively optimized to maximize flight-ability. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our tool for glider design by novice users, we compare it with a traditional design workflow.
A similarity measure for illustration style
Authors: Garces Elena , Agarwala Aseem , Gutierrez Diego , Hertzmann Aaron
Published: July 2014

This paper presents a method for measuring the similarity in style between two pieces of vector art, independent of content. Similarity is measured by the differences between four types of features: color, shading, texture, and stroke. Feature weightings are learned from crowdsourced experiments. This perceptual similarity enables style-based search. Using our style-based search feature, we demonstrate an application that allows users to create stylistically-coherent clip art mash-ups.
Adaptive tearing and cracking of thin sheets
Authors: Pfaff Tobias , Narain Rahul , de Joya Juan Miguel , O'Brien James F.
Published: July 2014

This paper presents a method for adaptive fracture propagation in thin sheets. A high-quality triangle mesh is dynamically restructured to adaptively maintain detail wherever it is required by the simulation. These requirements include refining where cracks are likely to either start or advance. Refinement ensures that the stress distribution around the crack tip is well resolved, which is vital for creating highly detailed, realistic crack paths. The dynamic meshing framework allows subsequent coarsening once areas are no longer likely to produce cracking. This coarsening allows efficient simulation by reducing the total number of active nodes and by preventing the formation of thin slivers around the crack path. A local reprojection scheme and a substepping fracture process help to ensure stability and prevent a loss of plasticity during remeshing. By including bending and stretching plasticity models, the method is able to simulate a large range of materials with very different fracture behaviors.
A constructive theory of sampling for image synthesis using reproducing Kernel bases
Authors: Lessig Christian , Desbrun Mathieu , Fiume Eugene
Published: July 2014

Sampling a scene by tracing rays and reconstructing an image from such pointwise samples is fundamental to computer graphics. To improve the efficacy of these computations, we propose an alternative theory of sampling. In contrast to traditional formulations for image synthesis, which appeal to nonconstructive Dirac deltas, our theory employs constructive reproducing kernels for the correspondence between continuous functions and pointwise samples. Conceptually, this allows us to obtain a common mathematical formulation of almost all existing numerical techniques for image synthesis. Practically, it enables novel sampling based numerical techniques designed for light transport that provide considerably improved performance per sample. We exemplify the practical benefits of our formulation with three applications: pointwise transport of color spectra, projection of the light energy density into spherical harmonics, and approximation of the shading equation from a photon map. Experimental results verify the utility of our sampling formulation, with lower numerical error rates and enhanced visual quality compared to existing techniques.
Unified particle physics for real-time applications
Authors: Macklin Miles , Müller Matthias , Chentanez Nuttapong , Kim Tae-Yong
Published: July 2014

We present a unified dynamics framework for real-time visual effects. Using particles connected by constraints as our fundamental building block allows us to treat contact and collisions in a unified manner, and we show how this representation is flexible enough to model gases, liquids, deformable solids, rigid bodies and cloth with two-way interactions. We address some common problems with traditional particle-based methods and describe a parallel constraint solver based on position-based dynamics that is efficient enough for real-time applications.