bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Bacteriophage Adherence to Mucus Mediates Preventive Protection against Pathogenic Bacteria
Authors: Almeida Gabriel M. F. , Laanto Elina , Ashrafi Roghaieh , Sundberg Lotta-Riina
Published: November 2019

The mucosal surfaces of animals are habitat for microbes, including viruses. Bacteriophages—viruses that infect bacteria—were shown to be able to bind to mucus. This may result in a symbiotic relationship in which phages find bacterial hosts to infect, protecting the mucus-producing animal from bacterial infections in the process. Here, we studied phage binding on mucus and the effect of mucin on phage-bacterium interactions. The significance of our research is in showing that phage adhesion to mucus results in preventive protection against bacterial infections, which will serve as basis for the development of prophylactic phage therapy approaches. Besides, we also reveal that exposure to mucus upregulates bacterial virulence and that this is exploited by phages for infection, adding one additional layer to the metazoan-bacterium-phage biological interactions and ecology. This phenomenon might be widespread in the biosphere and thus crucial for understanding mucosal diseases, their outcome and treatment.
Multidrug Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae: Identification of Functionally Important Residues in the MtrD Efflux Protein
Authors: Chitsaz Mohsen , Booth Lauren , Blyth Mitchell T. , O’Mara Megan L. , Brown Melissa H.
Published: November 2019

With over 78 million new infections globally each year, gonorrhea remains a frustratingly common infection. Continuous development and spread of antimicrobial-resistant strains of
Neisseria gonorrhoeae
, the causative agent of gonorrhea, have posed a serious threat to public health. One of the mechanisms in
N. gonorrhoeae
involved in resistance to multiple drugs is performed by the MtrD multidrug resistance efflux pump. This study demonstrated that the MtrD pump has a broader substrate specificity than previously proposed and identified a cluster of residues important for drug binding and translocation. Additionally, a permeation pathway for the MtrD substrate progesterone actively moving through the protein was determined, revealing key interactions within the putative MtrD drug binding pockets. Identification of functionally important residues and substrate-protein interactions of the MtrD protein is crucial to develop future strategies for the treatment of multidrug-resistant gonorrhea.
The Immune Protein Calprotectin Impacts Clostridioides difficile Metabolism through Zinc Limitation
Authors: Lopez Christopher A. , Beavers William N. , Weiss Andy , Knippel Reece J. , Zackular Joseph P. , Chazin Walter , Skaar Eric P.
Published: November 2019

Clostridioides difficile
infection (CDI) is the leading cause of postantibiotic nosocomial infection. Antibiotic therapy can be successful, yet up to one-third of individuals suffer from recurrent infections. Understanding the mechanisms controlling
C. difficile
colonization is paramount in designing novel treatments for primary and recurrent CDI. Here, we found that limiting nutrients control
C. difficile
metabolism during CDI and influence overall pathogen fitness. Specifically, the immune protein CP limits Zn availability and increases transcription of
C. difficile
genes necessary for proline fermentation. Paradoxically, this leads to reduced
C. difficile
proline fermentation. This reduced fermentation is due to limited availability of another nutrient required for proline fermentation, Se. Therefore, CP-mediated Zn limitation combined with low Se levels overall reduce
C. difficile
fitness in the intestines. These results emphasize the complexities of how nutrient availability influences
C. difficile
colonization and provide insight into critical metabolic processes that drive the pathogen’s growth.
A Fungal Arrestin Protein Contributes to Cell Cycle Progression and Pathogenesis
Authors: Telzrow Calla L. , Nichols Connie B. , Castro-Lopez Natalia , Wormley Floyd L. , Alspaugh J. Andrew
Published: November 2019

To survive under unpredictable conditions, all organisms must adapt to stressors by regulating adaptive cellular responses. Arrestin proteins are conserved regulators of adaptive cellular responses in eukaryotes. Studies that have been limited to mammals and model fungi have demonstrated that the disruption of arrestin-regulated pathways is detrimental for viability. The human fungal pathogen
Cryptococcus neoformans
causes more than 180,000 infection-related deaths annually, especially among immunocompromised patients. In addition to being genetically tractable,
C. neoformans
has a small arrestin family of four members, lending itself to a comprehensive characterization of its arrestin family. This study serves as a functional analysis of arrestins in a pathogen, particularly in the context of fungal fitness and virulence. We investigate the functions of one arrestin protein, Ali1, and define its novel contributions to cytokinesis. We additionally explore the virulence contributions of the
C. neoformans
arrestin family and find that they contribute to disease establishment and progression.
The Staphylococcus aureus Transcriptome during Cystic Fibrosis Lung Infection
Authors: Ibberson Carolyn B. , Whiteley Marvin
Published: November 2019

Although bacteria have been studied in infection for over 100 years, the majority of these studies have utilized laboratory and animal models that often have unknown relevance to the human infections they are meant to represent. A primary challenge has been to assess bacterial physiology in the human host. To address this challenge, we performed transcriptomics of
S. aureus
during human cystic fibrosis (CF) lung infection. Using a machine learning framework, we defined a “human CF lung transcriptome signature” that primarily included genes involved in metabolism and virulence. In addition, we were able to apply our findings to improve an
in vitro
model of CF infection. Understanding bacterial gene expression within human infection is a critical step toward the development of improved laboratory models and new therapeutics.
Chemogenomic Screen for Imipenem Resistance in Gram-Negative Bacteria
Authors: El Khoury Jessica Y. , Maure Alexandra , Gingras Hélène , Leprohon Philippe , Ouellette Marc
Published: November 2019

Gram-negative carbapenem-resistant bacteria are a major threat to global health. The use of genome-wide screening approaches to probe for genes or mutations enabling resistance can lead to identification of molecular markers for diagnostics applications. We describe an approach called Mut-Seq that couples chemical mutagenesis and next-generation sequencing for studying resistance to imipenem in the Gram-negative bacteria
Escherichia coli
,
Klebsiella pneumoniae
, and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa
. The use of this approach highlighted shared and species-specific responses, and the role in resistance of a number of genes involved in membrane biogenesis, transcription, and signal transduction was functionally validated. Interestingly, some of the genes identified were previously considered promising therapeutic targets. Our genome-wide screen has the potential to be extended outside drug resistance studies and expanded to other organisms.
Is computer-assisted instruction more effective than other educational methods in achieving ECG competence amongst medical students and residents? A systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors: Viljoen Charle André , Scott Millar Rob , Engel Mark E , Shelton Mary , Burch Vanessa
Published: November 2019

Objectives

It remains unclear whether computer-assisted instruction (CAI) is more effective than other teaching methods in acquiring and retaining ECG competence among medical students and residents.

Design

This systematic review and meta-analysis followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

Data sources

Electronic literature searches of PubMed, databases via EBSCOhost, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and grey literature were conducted on 28 November 2017. We subsequently reviewed the citation indexes for articles identified by the search.

Eligibility criteria

Studies were included if a comparative research design was used to evaluate the efficacy of CAI versus other methods of ECG instruction, as determined by the acquisition and/or retention of ECG competence of medical students and/or residents.

Data extraction and synthesis

Two reviewers independently extracted data from all eligible studies and assessed the risk of bias. After duplicates were removed, 559 papers were screened. Thirteen studies met the eligibility criteria. Eight studies reported sufficient data to be included in the meta-analysis.

Results

In all studies, CAI was compared with face-to-face ECG instruction. There was a wide range of computer-assisted and face-to-face teaching methods. Overall, the meta-analysis found no significant difference in acquired ECG competence between those who received computer-assisted or face-to-face instruction. However, subanalyses showed that CAI in a blended learning context was better than face-to-face teaching alone, especially if trainees had unlimited access to teaching materials and/or deliberate practice with feedback. There was no conclusive evidence that CAI was better than face-to-face teaching for longer-term retention of ECG competence.

Conclusion

CAI was not better than face-to-face ECG teaching. However, this meta-analysis was constrained by significant heterogeneity amongst studies. Nevertheless, the finding that blended learning is more effective than face-to-face ECG teaching is important in the era of increased implementation of e-learning.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42017067054.
Association between procrastination, white-collar work and obesity in Japanese male workers: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Narisada Akihiko , Suzuki Kohta
Published: November 2019

Objective

To investigate the associations among procrastination (time inconsistency), work environment and obesity-related factors in Japanese male workers.

Design

Cross-sectional study.

Setting

Data were collected at two work sites of Japanese electronics manufacturing company in 2015.

Participants

795 full-time male workers in a Japanese electric company, aged 35–64 years, who underwent health checkups in 2015.

Main outcome measures

Body mass index (BMI), adult weight change, obesity (BMI ≥25 kg/m2), adult weight gain over 10 kg (AWG10) and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Multivariable linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to assess the associations of procrastination assessed by using a one-item questionnaire and white-collar and blue-collar work with obesity-related factors.

Results

White-collar workers with high procrastination levels showed positive associations with BMI (B: 0.75, 95% CI 0.06 to 1.44) and adult weight change (B: 1.77, 95% CI 0.26 to 3.29), and had increased odds of AWG10 (OR: 1.85, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.29) and MetS (OR: 2.29 95% CI 1.18 to 4.44) after adjustment for age, education, work-related factors and lifestyle factors. However, such positive associations were not observed among blue-collar workers.

Conclusions

Procrastination and white-collar work might have a joint effect on weight gain during adulthood and consequential obesity.
Systematic review of the relationship between comorbidity and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes
Authors: Majewski David , Ball Stephen , Finn Judith
Published: November 2019

Objectives

To assess the current evidence on the effect pre-arrest comorbidity has on survival and neurological outcomes following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).

Design

Systematic review according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.

Data sources

MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, Scopus, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and MedNar were searched from inception to 31 December 2018.

Eligibility criteria

Studies included if they examined the association between prearrest comorbidity and OHCA survival and neurological outcomes in adult or paediatric populations.

Data extraction and synthesis

Data were extracted from individual studies but not pooled due to heterogeneity. Quality of included studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment Scale.

Results

This review included 29 observational studies. There were high levels of clinical heterogeneity between studies with regards to patient recruitment, inclusion criteria, outcome measures and statistical methods used which ultimately resulted in a high risk of bias. Comorbidities reported across the studies were diverse, with some studies reporting individual comorbidities while others reported comorbidity burden using tools like the Charlson Comorbidity Index. Generally, prearrest comorbidity was associated with both reduced survival and poorer neurological outcomes following OHCA with 79% (74/94) of all reported adjusted results across 23 studies showing effect estimates suggesting lower survival with 42% (40/94) of these being statistically significant. OHCA survival was particularly reduced in patients with a prior history of diabetes (four out of six studies). However, a prearrest history of myocardial infarction appeared to be associated with increased survival in one of four studies.

Conclusions

Prearrest comorbidity is generally associated with unfavourable OHCA outcomes, however differences between individual studies makes comparisons difficult. Due to the clinical and statistical heterogeneity across the studies, no meta-analysis was conducted. Future studies should follow a more standardised approach to investigating the impact of comorbidity on OHCA outcomes.

PROSPERO registration number

CRD42018087578
Soldiering on: a survey on the lived experience of tinnitus in aged military veterans in the UK
Authors: Burns-O'Connell Georgina , Stockdale David , Hoare Derek James
Published: November 2019

Tinnitus has long been interrogated as a medical conundrum, with little discourse between medicine and other disciplines. It involves the perception of sound in the ears or head without any external sound source, most likely a natural consequence of some form of hearing loss. For many people, tinnitus is bothersome and associated with various problems such as insomnia, difficulty concentrating and impaired listening ability. Nevertheless, with little attention from humanities or the social sciences, our understanding of the wider perspectives and psychosocial context of adults with tinnitus is limited, especially among UK military veterans. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of tinnitus on aged UK veterans, and to consider the support they receive and require to live well with tinnitus. In all, 120 aged UK veterans took part in this study. Data revealed similarities and differences between UK veteran and other study populations. For example, tinnitus symptom severity was higher in aged veterans than a general (younger) research population, particularly so on measures of intrusiveness and the effect of tinnitus on listening ability. Veterans had mixed views on social support. Many did not want to talk about tinnitus with others and/or did not want to burden their family, preferring to deal with their tinnitus ‘backstage’. Others appreciated empathy or sympathy; many implied a desire that their family and/or friends could better understand their experience of living with tinnitus and the problems it caused them. These complexities support a need for cross-disciplinary work to understand and respond to tinnitus-related problems in veterans.
Molecular types, virulence profiles and antimicrobial resistance of Escherichia coli causing bovine mastitis
Authors: Nüesch‐Inderbinen Magdalena , Käppeli Nadine , Morach Marina , Eicher Corinne , Corti Sabrina , Stephan Roger
Published: November 2019

Background

Escherichia coli is an important aetiological agent of bovine mastitis worldwide.

Methods

In this study, 82 E. coli from bovine mastitis milk samples from 49 farms were analysed for their genetic diversity using phylogenetic grouping and multilocus sequence typing. The isolates were examined by PCR for a selection of virulence factors (VFs). Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles were assessed using the disk diffusion method.

Results

The most prevalent phylogroups were group B1 (41.5 per cent of the isolates) and group A (30.5 per cent). A variety of 35 different sequence types (STs) were identified, including ST1125 (11 per cent), ST58 (9.8 per cent), ST10 (8.5 per cent) and ST88 (7.3 per cent). Aggregate VF scores (the number of unique VFs detected for each isolate) ranged from 1 to 3 for 63.4 per cent of the isolates and were at least 4 for 12.2 per cent. For 24.4 per cent of the isolates, the score was 0. The three most frequent VFs were traT, fyuA and iutA. The majority (72 per cent) of the isolates harboured traT. The majority (68.3 per cent) of the isolates were fully susceptible to all antimicrobials tested, with 22 per cent resistant to ampicillin and 14.6 per cent to tetracycline. Resistance rates were low for gentamicin (3.7 per cent), amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (2.4 per cent) and ceftiofur (1.2 per cent), respectively.

Conclusion

Among the study's sample population, E. coli strains were genotypically diverse, even in cows from the same farm, although some STs occurred more frequently than others. Susceptibility to clinically relevant compounds remained high.
Neutrino mass models: new classification and model-independent upper limits on their scale
Authors: Herrero-García Juan , Schmidt Michael A.
Published: November 2019

We propose a model-independent framework to classify and study neutrino mass models and their phenomenology. The idea is to introduce one particle beyond the Standard Model which couples to leptons and carries lepton number together with an operator which violates lepton number by two units and contains this particle. This allows to study processes which do not violate lepton number, while still working with an effective field theory. The contribution to neutrino masses translates to a robust upper bound on the mass of the new particle. We compare it to the stronger but less robust upper bound from Higgs naturalness and discuss several lower bounds. Our framework allows to classify neutrino mass models in just 20 categories, further reduced to 14 once nucleon decay limits are taken into account, and possibly to 9 if also Higgs naturalness considerations and direct searches are considered.
Associated production of SM Higgs with a photon in type-II seesaw models at the ILC
Authors: Rahili L. , Arhrib A. , Benbrik R.
Published: November 2019

We consider the production of a single Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson ($$h^0$$h0) in association with a photon at the future Linear collider (LC) in the context of a type-II seesaw model. The type-II seesaw model extends the SM particle content by adding one triple Higgs where its Higgs coupling is a key parameter of the scalar potential triggering the electroweak symmetry-breaking mechanism in the SM. It is a well motivated model since it provides neutrino masses and mixing. The LC presents a particularly interesting possibility to probe Higgs couplings due to the clean beams in the initial state. We study the one loop processes $$e^+e^- \rightarrow h^0\gamma $$e+e-→h0γ and $$e^-\gamma \rightarrow e^- h^0$$e-γ→e-h0, we show that it is possible to correlate the total cross section predictions with the couplings $$h^0\gamma \gamma $$h0γγ and $$h^0\gamma Z$$h0γZ which are sensitive to the presence of singly and doubly charged Higgs. For parameter points allowed by the current experimental constraints, our numerical results show that the effect of $$H^\pm $$H± and $$H^{\pm \pm }$$H±± can be as large as ± 25% with respect to the SM predictions. For both processes, we also present differential cross section for different center of mass energy.
Varieties with nef diagonal
Authors: Suzuki Taku , Watanabe Kiwamu
Published: November 2019

For a smooth projective variety [Formula: see text], we consider when the diagonal [Formula: see text] is nef as a cycle on [Formula: see text]. In particular, we give a classification of complete intersections and smooth del Pezzo varieties where the diagonal is nef. We also study the nefness of the diagonal for spherical varieties.
Reaction rate of p14N →15Oγ capture to all bound states in potential cluster model
Authors: Dubovichenko Sergey , Burkova Nataliya , Dzhazairov-Kakhramanov Albert , Beysenov Bekmurza
Published: November 2019

Review of calculation results for astrophysical [Formula: see text]-factor of the [Formula: see text]N[Formula: see text]O capture reaction in the [Formula: see text]N channel of [Formula: see text]O was presented. It was carried out in the frame of the modified potential cluster model (MPCM) taking into account resonances in the [Formula: see text]O spectrum up to 3.2[Formula: see text]MeV at energy of incident protons varying of 30[Formula: see text]keV to 5[Formula: see text]MeV. It is possible to describe experimental data for the astrophysical [Formula: see text]-factors of the radiative proton capture on [Formula: see text]N to five excited states of [Formula: see text]O at excitation energies of 5.18[Formula: see text]MeV to 6.86[Formula: see text]MeV, only under assumption, that all five resonances are [Formula: see text] scattering waves. Quality new physical interpretation of the capture mechanism is discussed in this channel to the ground state of [Formula: see text]O. We assumed that the ground state of [Formula: see text]O is determined by the [Formula: see text]N[Formula: see text] channel with excited [Formula: see text]N[Formula: see text] cluster, which immediately allowed us to correctly describe order of values of the experimental [Formula: see text]-factor for capture to this state. Taking into account these results, the total [Formula: see text]-factor of the proton capture on [Formula: see text]N and the reaction rates to the ground and five excited states of [Formula: see text]O were determined at temperatures of 0.01[Formula: see text][Formula: see text] to 10[Formula: see text][Formula: see text]. The parametrization of the total reaction rate with a simple form is performed, which allows as to obtain [Formula: see text] equal to 0.06 with 5% errors of the calculated rate.
Managerial Ability and Firm Performance in Malaysia: Do Familiness and Foreignness of the CEOs Matter?
Authors: Chuah Shu-Fen , Foong Swee-Sim
Published: November 2019

This study examines whether the relationship between managerial ability and firm performance is driven by familiness and foreignness of the CEOs. We divide the sample of CEOs according to their familiness and foreignness and estimate CEOs abilities via DEA and Tobit regression. We then employed dynamic GMM panel estimator to address the endogeneity issues. Based on a sample of 361 firms in Malaysia over 2011–2015, we documented empirical evidence that managerial ability of local CEOs with foreign working or education experience are most positively related to Tobin’s Q, followed by local CEOs without foreign experience. We further found that local CEOs contribute to firm performance only if they are not family connected with the firm. Last, our findings also suggest that the presence of foreign CEOs improve the firm performance when they are nonfamily CEOs originated from high management practice countries.
Convergence of Markovian stochastic approximation for Markov random fields with hidden variables
Authors: Qi Anna , Yang Lihua , Huang Chao
Published: November 2019

This paper studies the convergence of the stochastic algorithm of the modified Robbins–Monro form for a Markov random field (MRF), in which some of the nodes are clamped to be observed variables while the others are hidden ones. Based on the theory of stochastic approximation, we propose proper assumptions to guarantee the Hölder regularity of both the update function and the solution of the Poisson equation. Under these assumptions, it is proved that the control parameter sequence is almost surely bounded and accordingly the algorithm converges to the stable point of the log-likelihood function with probability [Formula: see text].
Automated Design of Robotic Hands for In-Hand Manipulation Tasks
Authors: Hazard Christopher , Pollard Nancy , Coros Stelian
Published: November 2019

Grasp planning and motion synthesis for dexterous manipulation tasks are traditionally done given a pre-existing kinematic model for the robotic hand. In this paper, we introduce a framework for automatically designing hand topologies best suited for manipulation tasks given high-level objectives as input. Our pipeline is capable of building custom hand designs around specific manipulation tasks based on high-level user input. Our framework comprises of a sequence of trajectory optimizations chained together to translate a sequence of objective poses into an optimized hand mechanism along with a physically feasible motion plan involving both the constructed hand and the object. We demonstrate the feasibility of this approach by synthesizing a series of hand designs optimized to perform specified in-hand manipulation tasks of varying difficulty. We extend our original pipeline 32 to accommodate the construction of hands suitable for multiple distinct manipulation tasks as well as provide an in depth discussion of the effects of each non-trivial optimization term.
Think Fast: Rapid Localization of Teleoperator Gaze in 360° Hosted Telepresence
Authors: Zhang Jingxin , Katzakis Nicholas , Mostajeran Fariba , Lubos Paul , Steinicke Frank
Published: November 2019

We evaluate the ability of locally present participants to localize an avatar head’s gaze direction rapidly in hosted telepresence. We performed a controlled user study to test two potential solutions to indicate a remote user’s gaze. We analyze the influence of the user’s distance to the avatar and display technique on localization accuracy. Furthermore, we examine the effect of the avatar head’s rotation around the pitch and yaw axes on the localization accuracy. Our experimental results suggest that all these factors have a significant effect on the localization accuracy with different extent. The results also verified that people had a better perceptive and localizing ability when interacting with a 3D AR-displayed avatar. In addition, participants preferred to interact with a 3D avatar displayed using a simulated AR technique instead of with a 2D avatar displayed in a tablet because of its high realism. Our findings motivate the need for 3D avatar display in the further design of telepresence systems.
Mobile Banking Impacting the Performance of Microfinance Institutions: A Case Study from Rwanda
Authors: Uwamariya Marthe , Loebbecke Claudia , Cremer Stefan
Published: November 2019

Globally, high costs and loan defaults are the biggest threats to microfinance profitability and sustainability. This explorative study investigates how and to what extent mobile banking can foster the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). It expands the traditional dimensions of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) by adding a loan default aspect. The study offers an explorative case study on “Urwego Opportunity Bank” (UOB) — Rwanda’s first commercial mobile service. Based on qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews from the bank’s staff and its customers, the case shows how mobile banking allows for reducing transaction costs and loan defaults and thereby increases efficiency of MFIs. Further, it identifies high agent visibility, and sufficient savings to drive the usage of mobile banking — which, in turn, promotes the deployment of financial services to still unbanked parts of the population in emerging economies.
CONTEXTUAL EMBEDDEDNESS AS A FRAMEWORK: THE CASE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN SOUTH AFRICA
Authors: SWARTZ ETHNÉ M. , AMATUCCI FRANCES M. , MARKS JONATHAN T.
Published: November 2019

Why does South Africa underperform on benchmarks for nascent entrepreneurship? We use a contextualization framework to evaluate articles on entrepreneurship in South Africa, which appear in seven leading global entrepreneurship journals for the period 1986–2017. The literature is then discussed using a six-dimension contextualization framework. The historical and institutional dimensions of the contextualization framework unveil the path-dependent nature of entrepreneurial choice for Black South Africans. Understanding entrepreneurship in South Africa requires research designs that focus on where and when entrepreneurship developed in the country to render meaningful the why of entrepreneurial choices made by Black South Africans. This study illustrates the idiosyncratic nature of South Africa and its social, political and economic transitions, and how these have affected entrepreneurship development, particularly among previously disadvantaged Black South Africans. The nature of the South African case has broader impact and importance for developing and transitional economies.
Shoksha quartzite, a heritage stone of international importance from Russia
Authors: Bulakh Andrey , Touret Jacques
Published: November 2019

Shoksha quartzite is a heritage stone of international importance. This stone, a hematitic quartzite composed predominantly of quartz with subordinate amounts of chalcedony and sericite, is Jatulian (2.3–2.0 Ga) in age. The sarcophagus of Napoleon I, Emperor of France, inside the
Dôme des Invalides
in Paris was cut from Shoksha quartzite quarried by Lake Onega, Russia. The details of the sarcophagus were cut and polished in Paris using steam machinery, an early use of this method. A monument to Russian Emperor, Nicholas I, in St Petersburg is also made in part of this quartzite. This stone also has been utilized in the Grave of the Unknown Soldier and the monument to Heroic Cities near the Kremlin in Moscow, as well as for other uses.
Changing roles of State Geological Surveys in the USA: experiences from Illinois
Authors: Stumpf Andrew J. , Berg Richard C. , Curry B. Brandon
Published: November 2019

State Geological Surveys (SGSs) in the USA play vitally important roles, providing sound, unbiased scientific information to each state and the nation. Although implementation of each survey's scientific programme has evolved differently, these organizations are often the principal drivers of economic development, and they consult on policies for protecting land and water, mitigating geologic hazards and promoting sustainable development. The SGSs are represented by the American Association of State Geologists. For more than 110 years, they have partnered with the federal government on important geoscience issues concerning topographic and geologic mapping, water, mineral and energy resources, and geologic hazards. These collaborations continue to develop and expand across multiple specialties, providing critical support to the SGSs. The future role of SGSs will depend on legislative decisions, contributions to research and development and scientific advancement, and ability to leverage support from existing and new collaborations with academia and with federal, state, county and municipal agencies. The Illinois State Geological Survey, one of the largest SGSs, has continually pursued relationships across geoscience sectors to develop a strong multidisciplinary scientific programme. Going forward, all SGSs will be challenged to develop an effective data stewardship programme to communicate with a diverse clientele.
Data-driven Model-based Detection of Malicious Insiders via Physical Access Logs
Authors: Cheh Carmen , Thakore Uttam , Fawaz Ahmed , Chen Binbin , Temple William G. , Sanders William H.
Published: November 2019

The risk posed by insider threats has usually been approached by analyzing the behavior of users solely in the cyber domain. In this article, we show the viability of using physical movement logs, collected via a building access control system, together with an understanding of the layout of the building housing the system’s assets, to detect malicious insider behavior that manifests itself in the physical domain. In particular, we propose a systematic framework that uses contextual knowledge about the system and its users, learned from historical data gathered from a building access control system, to select suitable models for representing movement behavior. We suggest two different models of movement behavior in this article and evaluate their ability to represent normal user movement. We then explore the online usage of the learned models, together with knowledge about the layout of the building being monitored, to detect malicious insider behavior. Finally, we show the effectiveness of the developed framework using real-life data traces of user movement in railway transit stations.
Sequential Schemes for Frequentist Estimation of Properties in Statistical Model Checking
Authors: Jegourel Cyrille , Sun Jun , Dong Jin Song
Published: November 2019

Statistical Model Checking (SMC) is an approximate verification method that overcomes the state space explosion problem for probabilistic systems by Monte Carlo simulations. Simulations might, however, be costly if many samples are required. It is thus necessary to implement efficient algorithms to reduce the sample size while preserving precision and accuracy. In the literature, some sequential schemes have been provided for the estimation of property occurrence based on predefined confidence and
absolute
or
relative
error. Nevertheless, these algorithms remain conservative and may result in huge sample sizes if the required precision standards are demanding. In this article, we compare some useful bounds and some sequential methods. We propose outperforming and rigorous alternative schemes based on Massart bounds and robust confidence intervals. Our theoretical and empirical analyses show that our proposal reduces the sample size while providing the required guarantees on error bounds.
Development of an Augmented Reality Tour Guide for a Cultural Heritage Site
Authors: Koo Seungbum , Kim Jinyoung , Kim Changhyuk , Kim Jeeyeop , Cha Hee Sung
Published: November 2019

In this article, the design, development, and evaluation of augmented reality (AR)-based mobile application for a tour guide are discussed. The objectives of this article are twofold. First, the research focuses on the development of a complete working set of a mobile tour application furnished with AR. For such an application to be successfully adopted by the general public, user requirements and application usability are investigated, and the application is designed and implemented to fulfill those findings. Second, the developed application is demonstrated by applying it to a UNESCO designated World Heritage site, Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, South Korea, and evaluated via a survey instrument developed explicitly for mobile application evaluation. A systematically developed survey instrument from the fields of tourism, information systems, and human-computer interaction is tailored to fit into this research and employed for the application evaluation. The application’s operation flow consists of three main functions: navigation to the points of interest, visualization of information with AR technology, and interactive learning activities with AR-based serious games. Efforts are made to provide a more immersive and interactive experience of the historical, cultural, and architectural details of the heritage site utilizing novel AR visualization methods. The evaluation returned positive results with suggestions of possible refinements for future works. The proposed device-aided tour mechanism is anticipated to enhance tourists’ experiences as well as being important guidance in future mobile tourism application development as to how the application should be designed and implemented to be accepted by the general public.
Game design documentation
Authors: Colby Richard , Colby Rebekah Shultz
Published: November 2019

Changes in technology, development philosophy, and scale have required game designers to change how they communicate and mediate design decisions. Traditional game design studios used an extensive game design document (GDD), a meta-genre that described most of the game before it was developed. Current studies suggest that this is no longer the case. We conducted interviews at four independent game studios in order to share their game design documentation processes, revealing that, while an exhaustive GDD is rare, the meta-genre functions are preserved in a variety of mediated ways.
From the book review editor
Authors: Edenfield Avery
Published: November 2019

The role of a book review is to serve the authors by bringing visibility to (and increasing the impact of) their work. For readers, it offers a snapshot so they can decide whether or not to invest in the book. For
Communication Design Quarterly (CDQ)
, book reviews should aim for an audience made of practitioners, teachers, and researchers. So, to resist the bifurcation between academic scholarship and practitioners, we recognize that many of our readers' concerns are shared. Books that are selected for review should be useful for scholars and practitioners alike. Similarly, reviews should aim to address shared concerns.
RCR Report for Analysis of Spatiotemporal Properties of Stochastic Systems Using TSTL
Authors: Vandin Andrea
Published: November 2019

“Analysis of Spatiotemporal Properties of Stochastic Systems Using TSTL” [1] proposes a three-valued spatiotemporal logic to enrich the analysis framework for Signal Spatiotemporal Logic previously developed by the authors. This allows one to reason on the evolution of the satisfaction of properties expressed in a spatiotemporal logic, providing additional insight on the behavior of the studied system. The approach has been validated on two case studies: the fire spread and evacuation models originally presented in [2], and a novel case study on privacy in a communication network. This replicated computation result report focuses on the artifact accompanying the article, consisting in a prototypical tool implementation of the techniques presented in the article, together with all files necessary to replicate the analysis performed thereof. The artifact is available at https://ludovicalv.github.io/TOMACS/. After a few iterations with the authors, I found that the artifact agrees with the guidelines on availability (Artifact Avaliable) and replicability (Results Replicated) dictated in https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/artifact-review-badging. The software was made available in an accessible archival repository, and thanks to the instructions provided in the accompanying webapge, it has been straightforward to replicate the experimental results from the article.
Experience
Authors: Aswani Reema , Kar Arpan Kumar , Ilavarasan P. Vigneswara
Published: November 2019

Governance of misinformation is a serious concern in social media platforms. Based on experiences gathered from different case studies, we offer insights for the policymakers on managing misinformation in social media. These platforms are widely used for not just communication but also content consumption. Managing misinformation is thus a challenge for policymakers and the platforms. This article explores the factors of rapid propagation of misinformation based on our experiences in the domain. An average of about 1.5 million tweets were analysed in each of the three different cases surrounding misinformation. The findings indicate that the tweet emotion and polarity plays a significant role in determining whether the shared content is authentic or not. A deeper exploration highlights that a higher element of surprise combined with other emotions is present in such tweets. Further, the tweets that show case-neutral content often lack the possibilities of virality when it comes to misinformation. The second case explores whether the misinformation is being propagated intentionally by means of the identified fake profiles or it is done by authentic users, which can also be either intentional, for gaining attention, or unintentional, under the assumption that the information is correct. Last, network attributes, including topological analysis, community, and centrality analysis, also catalyze the propagation of misinformation. Policymakers can utilize these findings in this experience study for the governance of misinformation. Tracking and disruption in any one of the identified drivers could act as a control mechanism to manage misinformation propagation.
Supporting the Cross-cultural Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Puppetry Through a Digital Gesture Library
Authors: Zhao Shichao , Kirk David , Bowen Simon , Chatting David , Wright Peter
Published: November 2019

In recent years, digital cultural heritage has attracted much attention in the HCI domain, but there are currently few studies that focus on enhancing the appreciation of intangible cultural heritage content amongst cross-cultural audiences. This article reports on the development of a Digital Gesture Library to support cross-cultural appreciation of traditional Chinese puppetry. We describe fieldwork with professional puppeteers to understand their practices and art form, which informed the development of the Digital Gesture Library, which uses a three-perspective archive of puppetry gestures and a tangible interface to support cross-cultural audiences’ appreciation of puppetry and encourages further exploration of Chinese culture. We present findings on the efficacy of the Digital Gesture Library from qualitative and quantitative user studies and, from this, discuss the opportunities and challenges for developing digital technology for cross-cultural appreciation of intangible heritage.
Autonomous Semantic Community Detection via Adaptively Weighted Low-rank Approximation
Authors: Yang Liang , Wang Yuexue , Gu Junhua , Cao Xiaochun , Wang Xiao , Jin Di , Ding Guiguang , Han Jungong , Zhang Weixiong
Published: November 2019

Identification of semantic community structures is important for understanding the interactions and sentiments of different groups of people and predicting the social emotion. A robust community detection method needs to autonomously determine the number of communities and community structure for a given network. Nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF), a component decomposition approach for latent sentiment discovery, has been extensively used for community detection. However, the existing NMF-based methods require the number of communities to be determined
a priori
, limiting their applicability in practice of affective computing. Here, we develop a novel NMF-based method to autonomously determine the number of semantic communities and community structure simultaneously. In our method, we use an initial number of semantic communities, larger than the actual number, in the NMF formulation, and then suppress some of the communities by introducing an adaptively weighted group-sparse low-rank regularization to derive the target number of communities and at the same time the corresponding community structure. Our method not only maintains the efficiency without increasing the complexity compared to the original NMF method but also can be straightforwardly extended to handle the non-network data. We thoroughly examine the new method, showing its superior performance over several competing methods on synthetic and large real-world social networks.
Adding Successor
Authors: Place Thomas , Zeitoun Marc
Published: November 2019

Given a class
C
of word languages, the
C
-separation problem asks for an algorithm that, given as input two regular languages, decides whether there exists a third language in
C
containing the first language, while being disjoint from the second. Separation is usually investigated as a means to obtain a deep understanding of the class
C
.

In this article, we are mainly interested in classes defined by logical formalisms. Such classes are often built on top of each other: given some logic, one builds a stronger one by adding new predicates to its signature. A natural construction is to enrich a logic with the successor relation. In this article, we present a transfer result applying to this construction: We show that for suitable logically defined classes, separation for the logic enriched with the successor relation reduces to separation for the original logic. Our theorem also applies to a problem that is stronger than separation: covering. Moreover, we actually present two reductions: one for languages of finite words and the other for languages of infinite words.
Chunking for Dynamic Linear Pipelines
Authors: Mastoras Aristeidis , Gross Thomas R.
Published: November 2019

Dynamic scheduling and dynamic creation of the pipeline structure are crucial for efficient execution of pipelined programs. Nevertheless, dynamic systems imply higher overhead than static systems. Therefore, chunking is the key to decrease the synchronization and scheduling overhead by grouping activities. We present a chunking algorithm for dynamic systems that handles dynamic linear pipelines, which allow the number and duration of stages to be determined at run-time. The evaluation on 44 cores shows that chunking brings the overhead of dynamic scheduling down to that of a static scheduler, and it enables efficient and scalable execution of fine-grained dynamic linear pipelines.
Democratic Stability: A Long View
Authors: Carugati Federica
Published: November 2019

What are the sources of democratic stability? The evidence from three modern waves suggests that stability rests on economic growth, strong states, and liberal institutions. But can we secure democratic stability beyond liberalism? This question is relevant to those developing countries that have little hope, and perhaps little interest in liberal democracy. But it is also increasingly relevant to those developed nations where the achievements of the twentieth-century liberal order are being eroded. This article takes a fresh look at democratic stability by reviewing the evidence from the last two and a half millennia. Particular attention is devoted to the case of ancient Athens, which highlights the importance of alignment between shared norms and appropriately designed institutions. Athens’ case suggests that goods that we usually associate with modern liberal democracy do not necessarily rely on a given set of values and do not have a unique institutional manifestation.