bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Critical Evaluation of Gene Expression Changes in Human Tissues in Response to Supplementation with Dietary Bioactive Compounds: Moving Towards Better-Quality Studies
Authors: Pokimica Biljana , García-Conesa María-Teresa
Published: June 2018

Pre-clinical cell and animal nutrigenomic studies have long suggested the modulation of the transcription of multiple gene targets in cells and tissues as a potential molecular mechanism of action underlying the beneficial effects attributed to plant-derived bioactive compounds. To try to demonstrate these molecular effects in humans, a considerable number of clinical trials have now explored the changes in the expression levels of selected genes in various human cell and tissue samples following intervention with different dietary sources of bioactive compounds. In this review, we have compiled a total of 75 human studies exploring gene expression changes using quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR). We have critically appraised the study design and methodology used as well as the gene expression results reported. We herein pinpoint some of the main drawbacks and gaps in the experimental strategies applied, as well as the high interindividual variability of the results and the limited evidence supporting some of the investigated genes as potential responsive targets. We reinforce the need to apply normalized procedures and follow well-established methodological guidelines in future studies in order to achieve improved and reliable results that would allow for more relevant and biologically meaningful results.
Allicin Bioavailability and Bioequivalence from Garlic Supplements and Garlic Foods
Authors: Lawson Larry D. , Hunsaker Scott M.
Published: June 2018

Allicin is considered responsible for most of the pharmacological activity of crushed raw garlic cloves. However, when garlic supplements and garlic foods are consumed, allicin bioavailability or bioequivalence (ABB) has been unknown and in question because allicin formation from alliin and garlic alliinase usually occurs after consumption, under enzyme-inhibiting gastrointestinal conditions. The ABB from 13 garlic supplements and 9 garlic foods was determined by bioassay for 13 subjects by comparing the area under the 32-h concentration curve of breath allyl methyl sulfide (AMS), the main breath metabolite of allicin, to the area found after consuming a control (100% ABB) of known allicin content: homogenized raw garlic. For enteric tablets, ABB varied from 36–104%, but it was reduced to 22–57% when consumed with a high-protein meal, due to slower gastric emptying. Independent of meal type, non-enteric tablets gave high ABB (80–111%), while garlic powder capsules gave 26–109%. Kwai garlic powder tablets, which have been used in a large number of clinical trials, gave 80% ABB, validating it as representing raw garlic in those trials. ABB did not vary with alliinase activity, indicating that only a minimum level of activity is required. Enteric tablets (high-protein meal) disintegrated slower in women than men. The ABB of supplements was compared to that predicted in vitro by the dissolution test in the United States Pharmacopeia (USP); only partial agreement was found. Cooked or acidified garlic foods, which have no alliinase activity, gave higher ABB than expected: boiled (16%), roasted (30%), pickled (19%), and acid-minced (66%). Black garlic gave 5%. The mechanism for the higher than expected ABB for alliinase-inhibited garlic was explored; the results for an alliin-free/allicin-free extract indicate a partial role for the enhanced metabolism of γ-glutamyl S-allylcysteine and S-allylcysteine to AMS. In conclusion, these largely unexpected results (lower ABB for enteric tablets and higher ABB for all other products) provide guidelines for the qualities of garlic products to be used in future clinical trials and new standards for manufacturers of garlic powder supplements. They also give the consumer an awareness of how garlic foods might compare to the garlic powder supplements used to establish any allicin-related health benefit of garlic.
A Differentiable Model for Optimizing Hybridization of Industrial Process Heat Systems with Concentrating Solar Thermal Power
Authors: Stuber Matthew D.
Published: June 2018

A dynamic model of a concentrating solar thermal array and thermal energy storage system is presented that is differentiable in the design decision variables: solar aperture area and thermal energy storage capacity. The model takes as input the geographic location of the system of interest and the corresponding discrete hourly solar insolation data, and calculates the annual thermal and economic performance of a particular design. The model is formulated for use in determining optimal hybridization strategies for industrial process heat applications using deterministic gradient-based optimization algorithms. Both convex and nonconvex problem formulations are presented. To demonstrate the practicability of the models, they were applied to four different case studies for three disparate geographic locations in the US. The corresponding optimal design problems were solved to global optimality using deterministic gradient-based optimization algorithms. The model and optimization-based analysis provide a rigorous quantitative design and investment decision-making framework for engineering design and project investment workflows.
In-Channel 3D Models of Riverine Environments for Hydromorphological Characterization
Authors: Vandrol Jan , Rivas Casado Monica , Blackburn Kim , Waine Toby W. , Leinster Paul , Wright Ros
Published: June 2018

Recent legislative approaches to improve the quality of rivers have resulted in the design and implementation of extensive and intensive monitoring programmes that are costly and time consuming. An important component of assessing the ecological status of a water body as required by the Water Framework Directive is characterising the hydromorphology. Recent advances in autonomous operation and the spatial coverage of monitoring systems enables more rapid 3D models of the river environment to be produced. This study presents a Structure from Motion (SfM) semi-autonomous based framework for the estimation of key reach hydromorphological measures such as water surface area, wetted water width, bank height, bank slope and bank-full width, using in-channel stereo-imagery. The framework relies on a stereo-camera that could be positioned on an autonomous boat. The proposed approach is demonstrated along three 40 m long reaches with differing hydromorphological characteristics. Results indicated that optimal stereo-camera settings need to be selected based on the river appearance. Results also indicated that the characteristics of the reach have an impact on the estimation of the hydromorphological measures; densely vegetated banks, presence of debris and sinuosity along the reach increased the overall error in hydromorphological measure estimation. The results obtained highlight a potential way forward towards the autonomous monitoring of freshwater ecosystems.
Understanding Long-Term Savanna Vegetation Persistence across Three Drainage Basins in Southern Africa
Authors: Bunting Erin L. , Southworth Jane , Herrero Hannah , Ryan Sadie J. , Waylen Peter
Published: June 2018

Across savanna landscapes of southern Africa, people are strongly tied to the environment, meaning alterations to the landscape would impact livelihoods and socioecological development. Given the human–environment connection, it is essential to further our understanding of the drivers of savanna vegetation dynamics, and under increasing climate variability, to better understand the vegetation–climate relationship. Monthly time series of Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)- and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) derived vegetation indices, available from as early as the 1980s, holds promise for the large-scale quantification of complex vegetation–climate dynamics and regional analyses of landscape change as related to global environmental changes. In this work, we employ time series based analyses to examine landscape-level vegetation greening patterns over time and across a significant precipitation gradient. In this study, we show that climate induced reductions in Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI; i.e., degradation or biomass decline) have had large spatial and temporal impacts across the Kwando, Okavango, and Zambezi catchments of southern Africa. We conclude that over time there have been alterations in the available soil moisture resulting from increases in temperature in every season. Such changes in the ecosystem dynamics of all three basins has led to system-wide changes in landscape greening patterns.
A Novel Change Detection Approach for Multi-Temporal High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images Based on Rotation Forest and Coarse-to-Fine Uncertainty Analyses
Authors: Feng Wenqing , Sui Haigang , Tu Jihui , Huang Weiming , Xu Chuan , Sun Kaimin
Published: June 2018

In the process of object-based change detection (OBCD), scale is a significant factor related to extraction and analyses of subsequent change data. To address this problem, this paper describes an object-based approach to urban area change detection (CD) using rotation forest (RoF) and coarse-to-fine uncertainty analyses of multi-temporal high-resolution remote sensing images. First, highly homogeneous objects with consistent spatial positions are identified through vector-raster integration and multi-scale fine segmentation. The multi-temporal images are stacked and segmented under the constraints of a historical land use vector map using a series of optimal segmentation scales, ranging from coarse to fine. Second, neighborhood correlation image analyses are performed to highlight pixels with high probabilities of being changed or unchanged, which can be used as a prerequisite for object-based analyses. Third, based on the coarse-to-fine segmentation and pixel-based pre-classification results, change possibilities are calculated for various objects. Furthermore, changed and unchanged objects identified at different scales are automatically selected to serve as training samples. The spectral and texture features of each object are extracted. Finally, uncertain objects are classified using the RoF classifier. Multi-scale classification results are combined using a majority voting rule to generate the final CD results. In experiments using two pairs of real high-resolution remote sensing datasets, our proposed approach outperformed existing methods in terms of CD accuracy, verifying its feasibility and effectiveness.
On Maximizing the Throughput of Packet Transmission under Energy Constraints
Authors: Wu Weiwei , Dai Guangli , Li Yan , Shan Feng
Published: June 2018

More and more Internet of Things (IoT) wireless devices have been providing ubiquitous services over the recent years. Since most of these devices are powered by batteries, a fundamental trade-off to be addressed is the depleted energy and the achieved data throughput in wireless data transmission. By exploiting the rate-adaptive capacities of wireless devices, most existing works on energy-efficient data transmission try to design rate-adaptive transmission policies to maximize the amount of transmitted data bits under the energy constraints of devices. Such solutions, however, cannot apply to scenarios where data packets have respective deadlines and only integrally transmitted data packets contribute. Thus, this paper introduces a notion of weighted throughput, which measures how much total value of data packets are successfully and integrally transmitted before their own deadlines. By designing efficient rate-adaptive transmission policies, this paper aims to make the best use of the energy and maximize the weighted throughput. What is more challenging but with practical significance, we consider the fading effect of wireless channels in both offline and online scenarios. In the offline scenario, we develop an optimal algorithm that computes the optimal solution in pseudo-polynomial time, which is the best possible solution as the problem undertaken is NP-hard. In the online scenario, we propose an efficient heuristic algorithm based on optimal properties derived for the optimal offline solution. Simulation results validate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm.
The SDN Approach for the Aggregation/Disaggregation of Sensor Data
Authors: Lin Yi-Bing , Wang Shie-Yuan , Huang Ching-Chun , Wu Chia-Ming
Published: June 2018

In many Internet of Things (IoT) applications, large numbers of small sensor data are delivered in the network, which may cause heavy traffics. To reduce the number of messages delivered from the sensor devices to the IoT server, a promising approach is to aggregate several small IoT messages into a large packet before they are delivered through the network. When the packets arrive at the destination, they are disaggregated into the original IoT messages. In the existing solutions, packet aggregation/disaggregation is performed by software at the server, which results in long delays and low throughputs. To resolve the above issue, this paper utilizes the programmable Software Defined Networking (SDN) switch to program quick packet aggregation and disaggregation. Specifically, we consider the Programming Protocol-Independent Packet Processor (P4) technology. We design and develop novel P4 programs for aggregation and disaggregation in commercial P4 switches. Our study indicates that packet aggregation can be achieved in a P4 switch with its line rate (without extra packet processing cost). On the other hand, to disaggregate a packet that combines N IoT messages, the processing time is about the same as processing N individual IoT messages. Our implementation conducts IoT message aggregation at the highest bit rate (100 Gbps) that has not been found in the literature. We further propose to provide a small buffer in the P4 switch to significantly reduce the processing power for disaggregating a packet.
Mechanism and Characteristics of Humidity Sensing with Polyvinyl Alcohol-Coated Fiber Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensor
Authors: Shao Yu , Wang Ying , Cao Shaoqing , Huang Yijian , Zhang Longfei , Zhang Feng , Liao Changrui , Wang Yiping
Published: June 2018

A surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor based on a side-polished single mode fiber coated with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is demonstrated for relative humidity (RH) sensing. The SPR sensor exhibits a resonant dip in the transmission spectrum in ambient air after PVA film coating, and the resonant wavelength shifts to longer wavelengths as the thickness of the PVA film increases. When RH changes, the resonant dip of the sensor with different film-thicknesses exhibits interesting characteristics for optical spectrum evolution. For sensors with initial wavelengths between 550 nm and 750 nm, the resonant dip shifts to longer wavelengths with increasing RH. The averaged sensitivity increases firstly and then drops, and shows a maximal sensitivity of 1.01 nm/RH%. Once the initial wavelength of the SPR sensor exceeds 850 nm, an inflection point of the resonant wavelength shift can be observed with RH increasing, and the resonant dip shifts to shorter wavelengths for RH values exceeding this point, and sensitivity as high as −4.97 nm/RH% can be obtained in the experiment. The sensor is expected to have potential applications in highly sensitive and cost effective humidity sensing.
The Dynamics of Online Activities and Its Impact on Well-Being in Urban China
Authors: Huang Yinxuan
Published: June 2018

Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study examines the socioeconomic characteristics of Internet users, as well as the relationships between the dynamics of different forms of online activities and the subjective well-being of urbanites and rural migrants in urban China. The study finds that online behavior may clearly reflect differences in individuals’ personal traits and socioeconomic positions. Patterns of the association between online activities and subjective well-being tend to differ among rural migrants and urbanites, especially in terms of depression. A difference-in-differences model is employed to estimate the impact of intensified engagement in online activities on depression and life satisfaction from 2010 to 2016. The results show that individuals who exhibited increased frequency of online entertainment appeared to be less depressed and more satisfied with their lives. Spending more time on online social networking has a similar impact on rural migrants, but not on urbanites. These findings suggest that the rapid development of urban China’s online community has important implications for residents’ subjective well-being.
Company Engagement in Apprenticeships in Crisis-Hit Greece: A Critical Overview
Authors: Lalioti Varvara , Karantinos Dimitris , Chrysakis Manolis
Published: June 2018

In contrast to the relatively limited attention given in the past to apprenticeships and apprenticeship-related issues in Greece, the crisis has triggered a definite interest in this area. This is largely due to the serious implications of the crisis, in conjunction with the idea that apprenticeships could be an alternative educational pathway for boosting labour market integration, an idea also promoted by EU institutions. Against this backdrop, the present article is, essentially, the first effort made to highlight, in a succinct and critical way, the crucial dimensions of an under-researched key aspect of the apprenticeships in Greece: company engagement. Drawing on the findings of a large-scale, mostly qualitative, research project (December 2015–March 2017) that reviewed apprenticeship programmes in this country, and during which, inter alia, 150 stakeholders were surveyed and an online survey was conducted with 828 employers, the article highlights the strengths characterizing company involvement in apprenticeships, but also severe shortcomings which overshadow the strengths. It is argued that there is an urgent need for restructuring. Otherwise, the potential of apprenticeships in Greece to be an alternative educational pathway to boost employment at a time of extremely high unemployment, especially for young people, will be undermined.
Financial Risk Measurement and Prediction Modelling for Sustainable Development of Business Entities Using Regression Analysis
Authors: Valaskova Katarina , Kliestik Tomas , Svabova Lucia , Adamko Peter
Published: June 2018

The issue of the debt, bankruptcy or non-bankruptcy of a company is presented in this article as one of the ways of conceiving risk management. We use the Amadeus database to obtain the financial and accounting data of Slovak enterprises from 2015 and 2016 to calculate the most important financial ratios that may affect the financial health of the company. The main aim of the article is to reveal financial risks of Slovak entities and to form a prediction model, which is done by the identification of significant predictors having an impact on the health of Slovak companies and their future prosperity. Realizing the multiple regression analysis, we identified the significant predictors in conditions of the specific economic environment to estimate the corporate prosperity and profitability. The results gained in the research are extra important for companies themselves, but also for their business partners, suppliers and creditors to eliminate financial and other corporate risks related to the unhealthy or unfavorable financial situation of the company.
Coal Power Environmental Stress Testing in China
Authors: Yuan Jiahai , Wu Mengya , Zhang Weirong , Guo Yu , Xiong Minpeng
Published: June 2018

The development of China’s coal power industry is accompanied by various environmental risks. In this paper, typical coal power enterprises are taken as examples to establish a tool for environmental cost internalization and environmental risk analysis under the risk constraints of energy efficiency standards, environmental protection tax, national carbon market, water resources tax, overcapacity and renewable energy substitution. The study considered the impact on the value of coal power companies under different stress scenarios and constructed a stress testing framework for environmental risks that affect financial costs. The results show that the impacts of overcapacity and carbon market on enterprise value for individual risks are the main risk drivers that most regions face in different scenarios. In the comprehensive risk stress test, the enterprise value of the 1000 MW ultra-supercritical units in each region was found to have a small difference from the corporate value of the reasonable return in the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios, while the 300 MW and 600 MW sub critical units were more likely to deviate from the reasonable return due to low energy efficiency and high operating costs. With continuous increase in the severity of environmental risks, the environmental stress test helps coal power companies and financial institutions understand the impact of environmental risks on the financial status of the company and thus influence investment decisions.
Fixed Points of Automorphisms of Certain Non-Cyclic p-Groups and the Dihedral Group
Authors: Hayat Umar , López-Aguayo Daniel , Abbas Akhtar
Published: June 2018

Let G=Zp⊕Zp2, where p is a prime number. Suppose that d is a divisor of the order of G. In this paper, we find the number of automorphisms of G fixing d elements of G and denote it by θ(G,d). As a consequence, we prove a conjecture of Checco-Darling-Longfield-Wisdom. We also find the exact number of fixed-point-free automorphisms of the group Zpa⊕Zpb, where a and b are positive integers with a<b. Finally, we compute θ(D2q,d), where D2q is the dihedral group of order 2q, q is an odd prime, and d∈{1,q,2q}.
Fixed Point Theorem for Neutrosophic Triplet Partial Metric Space
Authors: Şahin Memet , Kargın Abdullah , Çoban Mehmet Ali
Published: June 2018

Neutrosphic triplet is a new theory in neutrosophy. In a neutrosophic triplet set, there is a neutral element and antielement for each element. In this study, the concept of neutrosophic triplet partial metric space (NTPMS) is given and the properties of NTPMS are studied. We show that both classical metric and neutrosophic triplet metric (NTM) are different from NTPM. Also, we show that NTPMS can be defined with each NTMS. Furthermore, we define a contraction for NTPMS and we give a fixed point theory (FPT) for NTPMS. The FPT has been revealed as a very powerful tool in the study of nonlinear phenomena. This study is also part of the “Algebraic Structures of Neutrosophic Triplets, Neutrosophic Duplets, or Neutrosophic Multisets” which is a special issue.
Purinergic Vasotoxicity: Role of the Pore/Oxidant/KATP Channel/Ca2+ Pathway in P2X7-Induced Cell Death in Retinal Capillaries
Authors: Shibata Maho , Ishizaki Eisuke , Zhang Ting , Fukumoto Masanori , Barajas-Espinosa Alma , Li Tong , Puro Donald G.
Published: June 2018

P2X7 receptor/channels in the retinal microvasculature not only regulate vasomotor activity, but can also trigger cells in the capillaries to die. While it is known that this purinergic vasotoxicity is dependent on the transmembrane pores that form during P2X7 activation, events linking pore formation with cell death remain uncertain. To better understand this pathophysiological process, we used YO-PRO-1 uptake, dichlorofluorescein fluorescence, perforated-patch recordings, fura-2 imaging and trypan blue dye exclusion to assess the effects of the P2X7 agonist, benzoylbenzoyl-ATP (BzATP), on pore formation, oxidant production, ion channel activation, [Ca2+]i and cell viability. Experiments demonstrated that exposure of retinal microvessels to BzATP increases capillary cell oxidants via a mechanism dependent on pore formation and the enzyme, NADPH oxidase. Indicative that oxidation plays a key role in purinergic vasotoxicity, an inhibitor of this enzyme completely prevented BzATP-induced death. We further discovered that vasotoxicity was boosted 4-fold by a pathway involving the oxidation-driven activation of hyperpolarizing KATP channels and the resulting increase in calcium influx. Our findings revealed that the previously unappreciated pore/oxidant/KATP channel/Ca2+ pathway accounts for 75% of the capillary cell death triggered by sustained activation of P2X7 receptor/channels. Elucidation of this pathway is of potential therapeutic importance since purinergic vasotoxicity may play a role in sight-threatening disorders such as diabetic retinopathy.
Water Use Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors in China: Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)—Tobit Model
Authors: Wang Shuqiao , Zhou Li , Wang Hui , Li Xiaocong
Published: June 2018

Water resources are important and irreplaceable natural and economic resources. Achieving a balance between economic prosperity and protection of water resource environments is a major issue in China. This article develops a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach with undesirable outputs by using Seiford’s linear converting method to estimate water use efficiencies for 30 provinces in China, from 2008–2016,and then analyzes the influencing factors while using a DEA-Tobit model. The findings show that the overall water use efficiency of the measured Chinese provinces, when considering sewage emissions as the undesirable output, is 0.582. Thus, most regions still need improvement. Provinces with the highest water efficiency are located in economically developed Eastern China. The spatial pattern of water use efficiency in China is consistent with the general pattern of regional economic development. This study implies that factors like export dependence, technical progress, and educational value have a positive influence on water use efficiency. Further, while industrial structure has had a negative impact, government intervention has had little impact on water use efficiency. These research results will provide a scientific basis for the government to make plans for water resource development, and it may be helpful in improving regional sustainable development.
Circulation Characteristic Analysis of Implied Water Flow Based on a Complex Network: A Case Study for Beijing, China
Authors: Hong Siyang , Wang Hongrui , Cheng Tao
Published: June 2018

Water and energy are two indispensable resources in national economic production. Water is circulated among economic sectors through products or services; however, indirect water consumption calculated by the input–output method fails to reflect the implied water utilised during energy consumption. This study combined the ecological input–output method with a complex network model to analyse the embodied energy intensity (EEI) and the implied water intensity of embodied energy (IWIEE), and then constructed and analysed the implied water circulation network (IWCN) of 40 sectors in 2007, 2010, and 2012 in Beijing. The results indicate that the energy consumption of all of the sectors is mainly embodied in the transfer of the external provinces of China, and the variation trend of the implied water intensity of the embodied energy is consistent with the embodied energy intensity. The implied water circulation networks had small-world characteristics, indicating that water-saving effects in key sectors can quickly spread to other sectors. However, this may also result in a corresponding negative impact if water shortages occur in these sectors, due to the same spreading effect. The node strength, eigenvector centrality, key edge, and key indirect water flow path were selected as indicators to measure key sectors. Finally, water-saving measures and suggestions were proposed according to the complex network characteristics.
Spatial Pattern of Bacterial Community Diversity Formed in Different Groundwater Field Corresponding to Electron Donors and Acceptors Distributions at a Petroleum-Contaminated Site
Authors: Ning Zhuo , Zhang Min , He Ze , Cai Pingping , Guo Caijuan , Wang Ping
Published: June 2018

The benefits of an electron-transfer mechanism for petroleum biodegrading have been widely acknowledged, but few have studied the spatial pattern of microbial community diversity in groundwater fields, and few discuss the bacterial community’s diversity in relation to electron donors-acceptors distribution, which is largely determined by groundwater flow. Eleven samples in different groundwater fields are collected at a petroleum-contaminated site, and the microbial communities are investigated using 16S rRNA gene sequences with multivariate statistics. These are mainly linked to the chemical composition analysis of electron donor indexes COD, BTEX and electron acceptor indexes DO, NO3−, Fe2+, Mn2+, and SO42−, HCO3−. The spatial pattern of the bacterial community’s diversity is characterized and the effect of the electron redox reaction on bacterial community formation in different groundwater field zones is elucidated. It is found that a considerable percentage (>65%) of the bacterial communities related to petroleum degrading suggest that petroleum biodegrading is occurring in groundwater. The communities are subject to the redox reaction in different groundwater field zones: The side plume zone and the upstream of the source zone are under aerobic redox or denitrification redox, and the corresponding bacteria are Rhodoferax, Novosphingobium, Hydrogenophaga, and Comamonas; the source zone and downstream of the source zone are under Fe3+, Mn4+, and SO42− reduction redox, and the corresponding bacteria are Rhodoferax, Treponema, Desulfosporosinus, Hydrogenophaga, and Acidovorax. These results imply that groundwater flow plays a definitive role in the bacterial community’s diversity spatial pattern formation by influencing the distribution of electron donor and acceptor.
Three Geostatistical Methods for Hydrofacies Simulation Ranked Using a Large Borehole Lithology Dataset from the Venice Hinterland (NE Italy)
Authors: Marini Mattia , Felletti Fabrizio , Beretta Giovanni Pietro , Terrenghi Jacopo
Published: June 2018

A large borehole lithology dataset from the shallowly buried alluvial aquifer of the Brenta River Megafan (NE Italy) is used in this paper to model hydrofacies with three classical geostatistical methods, namely the Object-Based Simulation (OBS), the Sequential Indicator Simulation (SIS), and the Truncated Gaussian Simulation (TGS), and rank alternative output models. Results show that, though compromising with geological realism and rendering a noisy picture of subsurface geology, the pixel-based TGS and SIS are better suited than OBS for their ease of conditioning to closely spaced boreholes, especially in fine-scale simulation grids. In turn, SIS appears to provide better prediction and less noisy hydrofacies models than TGS without requiring assumptions about relationship among operative facies, which makes it particularly suited for use with large borehole lithology datasets lacking detail and quality consistency. Flow simulation on a test volume constrained with numerous boreholes indicates the SIS hydrofacies models feature well-connected sands forming relatively fast flow paths as opposed to TGS models, which instead appear to carry a more dispersed flow. It is shown how such a difference primarily relates to ‘noise’, which in TGS models is so widespread to translate into a disordered spatial distribution of K and, consequently, a nearly isotropic simulated flow.
Electrical characterization of single nanometer-wide Si fins in dense arrays
Authors: Folkersma Steven , Bogdanowicz Janusz , Schulze Andreas , Favia Paola , Petersen Dirch H , Hansen Ole , Henrichsen Henrik H , Nielsen Peter F , Shiv Lior , Vandervorst Wilfried
Published: June 2018

This paper demonstrates the development of a methodology using the micro four-point probe (μ4PP) technique to electrically characterize single nanometer-wide fins arranged in dense arrays. We show that through the concept of carefully controlling the electrical contact formation process, the electrical measurement can be confined to one individual fin although the used measurement electrodes physically contact more than one fin. We demonstrate that we can precisely measure the resistance of individual ca. 20 nm wide fins and that we can correlate the measured variations in fin resistance with variations in their nanometric width. Due to the demonstrated high precision of the technique, this opens the prospect for the use of μ4PP in electrical critical dimension metrology.
Phoebe: A Surface Dominated by Water
Authors: Fraser Wesley C. , Brown Michael E.
Published: June 2018

The Saturnian irregular satellite, Phoebe, can be broadly described as a water-rich rock. This object, which presumably originated from the same primordial population shared by the dynamically excited Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs), has received high-resolution spectral imaging during the Cassini flyby. We present a new analysis of the Visual Infrared Mapping Spectrometer observations of Phoebe, which critically, includes a geometry correction routine that enables pixel-by-pixel mapping of visible and infrared spectral cubes directly onto the Phoebe shape model, even when an image exhibits significant trailing errors. The result of our re-analysis is a successful match of 46 images, producing spectral maps covering the majority of Phoebe’s surface, roughly a third of which is imaged by high-resolution observations (<22 km per pixel resolution). There is no spot on Phoebe’s surface that is absent of water absorption. The regions richest in water are clearly associated with the Jason and south pole impact basins. Phoebe exhibits only three spectral types, and a water–ice concentration that correlates with physical depth and visible albedo. The water-rich and water-poor regions exhibit significantly different crater size frequency distributions and different large crater morphologies. We propose that Phoebe once had a water-poor surface whose water–ice concentration was enhanced by basin-forming impacts that exposed richer subsurface layers. The range of Phoebe’s water–ice absorption spans the same range exhibited by dynamically excited KBOs. The common water–ice absorption depths and primordial origins, and the association of Phoebe’s water-rich regions with its impact basins, suggests the plausible idea that KBOs also originated with water-poor surfaces that were enhanced through stochastic collisional modification.
Energy Distribution of Pickup Ions at the Solar Wind Termination Shock
Authors: Kumar Rahul , Zirnstein Eric J. , Spitkovsky Anatoly
Published: June 2018

In-situ measurements taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft suggest that the solar wind termination shock is significantly affected by the presence of pickup ions that are produced in the inner heliosphere due to charge exchange between interstellar neutrals and the solar wind ions. We use a fully kinetic particle-in-cell method to self-consistently simulate the shock with all physical properties available from Voyager 2. We have performed a set of simulations with varying velocity distribution functions for the pickup ions, since it was not determined by Voyager’s measurements. We show that the measurements suggest that the pickup ions upstream of the shock are more energetic than generally believed. If their velocity distribution function assumes a filled-shell shape in the wind frame, the maximum cutoff speed for the pickup ions should be ≳650 km s−1 in order to reproduce the measurements, which is almost twice the local wind speed. We suggest that pickup ions upstream of the shock are energized by adiabatic compression of the solar wind plasma as well as due to an enhanced level of turbulence in a broad foreshock region.
Determining the Nature of Late Gunn–Peterson Troughs with Galaxy Surveys
Authors: Davies Frederick B. , Becker George D. , Furlanetto Steven R.
Published: June 2018

Recent observations have discovered long (up to ∼110 Mpc/h), opaque Gunn–Peterson troughs in the z ∼ 5.5 Lyα forest, which are challenging to explain with conventional models of the post-reionization intergalactic medium. Here, we demonstrate that observations of the galaxy populations in the vicinity of the deepest troughs can distinguish two competing models for these features: deep voids where the ionizing background is weak due to fluctuations in the mean free path of ionizing photons would show a deficit of galaxies, while residual temperature variations from extended, inhomogeneous reionization would show an overdensity of galaxies. We use large (∼550 Mpc/h) semi-numerical simulations of these competing explanations to predict the galaxy populations in the largest of the known troughs at z ∼ 5.7. We quantify the strong correlation of Lyα effective optical depth and galaxy surface density in both models, and estimate the degree to which realistic surveys can measure such a correlation. While a spectroscopic galaxy survey is ideal, we also show that a relatively inexpensive narrowband survey of Lyα-emitting galaxies is ∼90% likely to distinguish between the competing models.
A New Technique for Measuring Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission in Different Environments
Authors: Xie Yanxia , Ho Luis C. , Li Aigen , Shangguan Jinyi
Published: June 2018

We present a new method to decompose the emission features of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from mid-infrared spectra using theoretical PAH templates in conjunction with modified blackbody components for the dust continuum and an extinction term. The primary goal is to obtain robust measurements of the PAH features, which are sensitive to the star formation rate, in a variety of extragalactic environments. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our technique, starting with the simplest Galactic high-latitude clouds to extragalactic systems of ever-increasing complexity, from normal star-forming galaxies to low-luminosity active galaxies, quasars, and heavily obscured infrared-luminous galaxies. In addition to providing accurate measurements of the PAH emission, including the upper limits thereof, our fits can reproduce reasonably well the overall continuum shape and constrain the line-of-sight extinction. Our new PAH line flux measurements differ systematically and significantly from those of previous methods by ∼15% to as much as a factor of ∼6. The decomposed PAH spectra show remarkable similarity among different systems, suggesting a uniform set of conditions responsible for their excitation.
Dieu, son langage et son souffle. Les relations internes de Dieu dans l’œuvre de Jean Grosjean
Authors: Matura Thaddée
Published: June 2018

Ce florilège s’intéresse au discours trinitaire dans les œuvres du poète Jean Grosjean (1912-2006). Loin des formulations théologiques traditionnelles ou canoniques, le poète s’est plongé dans la Parole pour faire entrer la beauté poétique dans la manifestation de Dieu en tant qu’il est relation, dans son langage et dans son souffle.
Le livre et l’œuvre : la Penitence Adam entre l’Anonyme de l’Arsenal et Colard Mansion ( c. 1450-1480)
Authors: Fabre Isabelle
Published: June 2018

L’article attend contribuer à la réflexion sur les frontières disciplinaires et séculaires en posant la question du rapport entre le livre et l’œuvre à partir d’un apocryphe de l’Ancien Testament, la Vita Adae et Evae , « translaté » au xv e siècle par un traducteur anonyme, puis par Colard Mansion. Le contraste entre les deux versions, l’une transmise à la fin d’un recueil encyclopédique, l’autre sous forme de traité pénitentiel autonome, fait valoir l’importance d’une approche tenant compte du support au croisement de la poétique des textes et de l’histoire du livre.
Discours, invectives et autres paradoxes « contre les lettres » : topique, thème ou genre ?
Authors: Corréard Nicolas
Published: June 2018

Les discours « contre les lettres », adversus literas et literatos , forment à la Renaissance un ensemble qui n’a jamais été étudié comme tel : entre Érasme et l’« Apologie » de Montaigne, mais aussi avant et après eux, une multitude de productions paradoxales développent le thème à partir de conventions et de sources identiques, sous des étiquettes génériques disparates. Nous proposons un repérage de l’ensemble du corpus, en mettant l’accent sur le rôle de textes méconnus, mais influents. Leur interprétation pose des problèmes similaires, entre sérieux et comique, si bien que les textes s’éclairent les uns les autres et font apparaître des enjeux peu évidents.
La logistique, colonne vertébrale du commerce électronique
Authors: Venne Jean-François
Published: June 2018

La montée incontournable des achats en ligne transforme profondément les modèles d’affaires des détaillants. Et la logistique pointe en tête des défis à relever de toute urgence pour s’adapter aux désirs des clients et parer à la concurrence des grands joueurs.
Creating Interprofessional Teams
Authors: Kowalski Karren
Published: June 2018

In an era where collaboration is integral to effective care of patients and families, staff development educators can have a powerful effect on interprofessional team development. This first article in a five-part Teaching Tips series emphasizes the work of creating competencies for such teams. It is neither effective nor advisable to create a group of people and tell them to go be a team. Knowledge, skills, and tools are helpful in creating such teams, which will be a focus of these next several Teaching Tips articles.

J Contin Nurs Educ.
2018;49(7):297–298.
La Universidad y la vida..., o cómo mantenernos vivos en medio de la neoliberalización de la Universidad
Authors: Ávila Débora , Ayala Ariadna , García Sergio
Published: June 2018

La presente reflexión intenta tensionar el concepto de precariedad, entendida únicamente en términos de fragilización de las condiciones laborales, para preguntarse acerca de los efectos que las recientes transformaciones experimentadas por la Universidad (y que afectan no solo al ejercicio cotidiano de nuestro trabajo, sino también a la manera en la que nos vinculamos con nuestros compañeros y estudiantes, así como a la forma en la que nos pensamos) tienen sobre el sostenimiento de nuestra propia vida, incompatible, en demasiadas ocasiones, con las nuevas exigencias del guion neoliberal.
Música, género e identidad: fandangos y coplas del Romero
Authors: Arredondo Pérez Herminia , García Gallardo Francisco J.
Published: June 2018

Este artículo explora la relación de la música y el género en el contexto de una manifestación ritual festiva en Almonaster la Real, localidad de la provincia de Huelva. Durante la celebración de la Cruz de Mayo y en los actos preliminares a la fiesta, las mujeres cruceras protagonizan el ritual e interpretan las coplas del Romero y varios estilos de fandangos de la Cruz. Analizamos las implicaciones del género en esta actividad musical, en las tradiciones interpretativas, repertorio, formas expresivas y sus significados para las mujeres de las dos cruces o hermandades de Almonaster. Examinamos cómo esta práctica musical contribuye a afirmar y articular ideas, modelos y roles específicos relacionados con el género, que expresan y configuran la identidad de grupo e identidad personal de las mujeres en este contexto.
Mapping the Migratory Movements
Authors: Bacon Lucie , Clochard Olivier , Honoré Thomas , Lambert Nicolas , Mekdjian Sarah , Rekacewicz Philippe
Published: June 2018

Based on several conventional geography works and/or artistic works – some of them made by the authors of this paper –, this article focuses on how the mapping of international migrations has evolved since the beginning of the 1990s. The representation of migratory movements, which oscillates between arrows, measurements of stocks and different forms of design, implies both scientific and political stakes for the cartography and geography of migrations. After making a brief recalling of the changes that the mapping of migratory flows has experienced from its origins in the 19th century until today, the authors refer to the main technical and epistemological challenges that cartography of migratory movements and the presentations of itineraries raise nowadays. Finally the article analyses the new cartographic forms that have emerged since the beginning of the 2000s within the interconnected domains of sciences, arts, and militancy.
Formalizing the Mapping of UML Conceptual Schemas to Column-Oriented Databases
Authors: Abdelhedi Fatma , Brahim Amal Ait , Zurfluh Gilles
Published: June 2018

Nowadays, most organizations need to improve their decision-making process using Big Data. To achieve this, they have to store Big Data, perform an analysis, and transform the results into useful and valuable information. To perform this, it's necessary to deal with new challenges in designing and creating data warehouse. Traditionally, creating a data warehouse followed well-governed process based on relational databases. The influence of Big Data challenged this traditional approach primarily due to the changing nature of data. As a result, using NoSQL databases has become a necessity to handle Big Data challenges. In this article, the authors show how to create a data warehouse on NoSQL systems. They propose the Object2NoSQL process that generates column-oriented physical models starting from a UML conceptual model. To ensure efficient automatic transformation, they propose a logical model that exhibits a sufficient degree of independence so as to enable its mapping to one or more column-oriented platforms. The authors provide experiments of their approach using a case study in the health care field.
Compliance with International Soft Law
Authors: D'Rosario Michael , Zeleznikow John
Published: June 2018

The present article considers the importance of legal system origin in compliance with ‘international soft law,' or normative provisions contained in non-binding texts. The study considers key economic and governance metrics on national acceptance an implementation of the first Basle accord. Employing a data set of 70 countries, the present study considers the role of market forces and bilateral and multi-lateral pressures on implementation of soft law. There is little known about the role of legal system structure-related variables as factors moderating the implementation of multi-lateral agreements and international soft law, such as the 1988 accord. The present study extends upon research within the extant literature by employing a novel estimation method, a neural network modelling technique, with multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network (MPANN). Consistent with earlier studies, the article identifies a significant and positive effect associated with democratic systems and the implementation of the Basle accord. However, extending upon traditional estimation techniques, the study identifies the significance of savings rates and government effectiveness in determining implementation. Notably, the method is able to achieve a superior goodness of fit and predictive accuracy in determining implementation.