bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effect of resveratrol on fat mobilization
Authors: Baile Clifton A. , Yang Jeong‐Yeh , Rayalam Srujana , Hartzell Diane L. , Lai Ching‐Yi , Andersen Charlotte , Della‐Fera Mary Anne
Published: January 2011

Higher levels of body fat are associated with increased risk for development of numerous adverse health conditions. Phytochemicals are potential agents to inhibit differentiation of preadipocytes, stimulate lipolysis, and induce apoptosis of existing adipocytes, thereby reducing adipose tissue mass. Resveratrol decreased adipogenesis and viability in maturing preadipocytes; these effects were mediated not only through down‐regulating adipocyte specific transcription factors and enzymes but also by genes that modulate mitochondrial function. Additionally, resveratrol increased lipolysis and reduced lipogenesis in mature adipocytes. In addition, combining resveratrol with other natural products produced synergistic activities from actions on multiple molecular targets in the adipocyte life cycle. Treatment of mice with resveratrol alone was shown to improve resistance to weight gain caused by a high‐fat diet. Moreover, dietary supplementation of aged ovariectomized rats with a combination of resveratrol and vitamin D, quercetin, and genistein not only decreased weight gain but also inhibited bone loss. Combining several phytochemicals, including resveratrol, or using them as templates for synthesizing new drugs, provides a large potential for using phytochemicals to target adipocyte adipogenesis, apoptosis, and lipolysis.
The beneficial effect of resveratrol on severe acute pancreatitis
Authors: Ma Qingyong , Zhang Min , Wang Zheng , Ma Zhenhua , Sha Huanchen
Published: January 2011

Acute pancreatitis is a common kind of acute abdominal disease. The management of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) is a challenge because of its high morbidity, which is due to systemic inflammatory response syndrome and multiorgan dysfunction syndrome. Therefore, it is important to explore therapies to control the disease's progression. A series of in vivo and in vitro experiments has demonstrated that resveratrol—an extract from Chinese herbs, grapes, and many plants—exhibits a wide range of biological and pharmacological activities, including anti‐inflammatory, antioxidation, and chemopreventive effects, as well as the inhibition of platelet aggregation, which could benefit the treatment of SAP. Here, we examine the possible mechanism of resveratrol in treating the progression of SAP. Resveratrol could inhibit the production and progression of SAP through down‐regulating pro‐inflammatory cytokines, improving microcirculation, modulating cell apoptosis, and blocking calcium overload. We propose that resveratrol has a potentially therapeutic effect on the progression of SAP.
Anti‐inflammatory effects of resveratrol: possible role in prevention of age‐related cardiovascular disease
Authors: Csiszar Anna
Published: January 2011

Cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of death among the elderly in the Western world. Resveratrol (3,5,4′‐trihydroxystilbene) is a plant‐derived polyphenol that was shown to exert diverse anti‐aging activity mimicking some of the molecular and functional effects of caloric restriction. This mini‐review focuses on the molecular and cellular mechanisms activated by resveratrol in the vascular system, and explores the links between its anti‐oxidative and anti‐inflammatory effects, which could be exploited for the prevention or amelioration of vascular aging in the elderly.
The phenomenon of resveratrol: redefining the virtues of promiscuity
Authors: Pezzuto John M.
Published: January 2011

Cancer chemoprevention entails the ingestion of dietary or pharmaceutical agents that can prevent, delay, or reverse the process of carcinogenesis. With support provided by the National Cancer Institute, we have been actively engaged in the systematic discovery and characterization of natural chemopreventive agents. The typical approach involves identifying active crude substances such as extracts derived from terrestrial plants or marine organisms, utilizing in vitro bioassay systems, followed by the isolation of pure active components. As part of this project, an extract obtained from a nonedible Peruvian legume, Cassia quinquangulata Rich. (Leguminosae), was evaluated and found to be active as an inhibitor of cyclooxygenase. The active component was identified as resveratrol. Surprisingly broad spectrum activity was observed, indicative of potential to inhibit carcinogenesis at the stages of initiation, promotion, and progression. This discovery has led to many additional research efforts. There are now around 3,500 papers concerning some aspect of resveratrol action, yet the molecule is unusually promiscuous and specific mechanisms remain elusive. Considering the structural simplicity of this stilbene, the intensity of interest is phenomenal.
Resveratrol and life extension
Authors: Agarwal Beamon , Baur Joseph A.
Published: January 2011

Age is the most important risk factor for diseases affecting the Western world, and slowing age‐related degeneration would greatly improve the quality of human life. In rodents, caloric restriction (CR) extends lifespan by up to 50%. However, attempts to mimic the effects of CR pharmacologically have been limited by our poor understanding of the mechanisms involved. SIRT1 is proposed to mediate key aspects of CR, and small molecule activators may therefore act as CR mimetics. The polyphenol resveratrol activates SIRT1 in an in vitro assay, and produces changes that resemble CR in vivo, including improvements in insulin sensitivity, endurance, and overall survival in obese mice. However, resveratrol has numerous other targets that could contribute to its health benefits. Moreover, unlike bona fide CR, resveratrol has not been shown to extend lifespan in lean mice. Overexpression of SIRT1 or treatment with a novel activator is sufficient to improve metabolism, supporting the idea that resveratrol could act through this pathway. However, the poor phenotype of SIRT1 null mice has thus far precluded a more definitive test.
Chemosensitization of tumors by resveratrol
Authors: Gupta Subash C. , Kannappan Ramaswamy , Reuter Simone , Kim Ji Hye , Aggarwal Bharat B.
Published: January 2011

Because tumors develop resistance to chemotherapeutic agents, the cancer research community continues to search for effective chemosensitizers. One promising possibility is to use dietary agents that sensitize tumors to the chemotherapeutics. In this review, we discuss that the use of resveratrol can sensitize tumor cells to chemotherapeutic agents. The tumors shown to be sensitized by resveratrol include lung carcinoma, acute myeloid leukemia, promyelocytic leukemia, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer, oral epidermoid carcinoma, and pancreatic cancer. The chemotherapeutic agents include vincristine, adriamycin, paclitaxel, doxorubicin, cisplatin, gefitinib, 5‐fluorouracil, velcade, and gemcitabine. The chemosensitization of tumor cells by resveratrol appears to be mediated through its ability to modulate multiple cell‐signaling molecules, including drug transporters, cell survival proteins, cell proliferative proteins, and members of the NF‐κB and STAT3 signaling pathways. Interestingly, this nutraceutical has also been reported to suppress apoptosis induced by paclitaxel, vincristine, and daunorubicin in some tumor cells. The potential mechanisms underlying this dual effect are discussed. Overall, studies suggest that resveratrol can be used to sensitize tumors to standard cancer chemotherapeutics.
Clinical trials of resveratrol
Authors: Patel Ketan R. , Scott Edwina , Brown Victoria A. , Gescher Andreas J. , Steward William P. , Brown Karen
Published: January 2011

An expanding body of preclinical evidence suggests resveratrol has the potential to impact a variety of human diseases. To translate encouraging experimental findings into human benefits, information is first needed on the safety, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and, ultimately, clinical efficacy of resveratrol. Published clinical trials have largely focused on characterizing the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of resveratrol. Recent studies have also evaluated safety and potential mechanisms of activity following multiple dosing, and have found resveratrol to be safe and reasonably well‐tolerated at doses of up to 5 g/day. However, the occurrence of mild to moderate side effects is likely to limit the doses employed in future trials to significantly less than this amount. This review describes the available clinical data, outlines how it supports the continuing development of resveratrol, and suggests what additional information is needed to increase the chances of success in future clinical trials.
Resveratrol: a cardioprotective substance
Authors: Wu Joseph M. , Hsieh Tze‐chen
Published: January 2011

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major and preventable cause of morbidity and death in the United States. Recently, significant research efforts have been directed at an epidemiological phenomenon known as the “French paradox.” This observation refers to the coexistence of high risk factors with unanticipated low incidence of CHD, and is postulated to be associated with low‐to‐moderate consumption of red wine. In vivo studies have shown that red wine intake is more CHD‐preventative in comparison to other alcoholic drinks; enhanced cardioprotection may be attributed to grape‐derived polyphenols, e.g., resveratrol, in red wine. This review summarizes results of in vitro and animal studies showing that resveratrol exerts multifaceted cardioprotective activities, as well as evidence demonstrating the presence of proteins specifically targeted by resveratrol, as exemplified by N‐ribosyldihydronicotinamide:quinone oxidoreductase, NQO2. A mechanism encompassing nongenomic and genomic effects and a research roadmap is proposed as a framework for uncovering further insights on cardioprotection by resveratrol.
Resveratrol modulates astroglial functions: neuroprotective hypothesis
Authors: Quincozes‐Santos André , Gottfried Carmem
Published: January 2011

Resveratrol, a redox active compound present in grapes and wine, has a wide range of biological effects, including cardioprotective, chemopreventive, and anti‐inflammatory activities. The central nervous system is a target of resveratrol, which can pass the blood–brain barrier and induce neuroprotective effects. Astrocytes are one of the most functionally diverse groups of cells in the nervous system, intimately associated with glutamatergic metabolism, transmission, synaptic plasticity, and neuroprotection. In this review, we focus on the resveratrol properties and response to oxidative insult on important astroglial parameters involved in brain plasticity, such as glutamate uptake, glutamine synthetase activity, glutathione content, and secretion of the trophic factor S100B.
Neuroprotective properties of resveratrol and derivatives
Authors: Richard Tristan , Pawlus Alison D. , Iglésias Marie‐Laure , Pedrot Eric , Waffo‐Teguo Pierre , Mérillon Jean‐Michel , Monti Jean‐Pierre
Published: January 2011

Stilbenoid compounds consist of a family of resveratrol derivatives. They have demonstrated promising activities in vitro and in vivo that indicate they may be useful in the prevention of a wide range of pathologies, such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, as well have anti‐aging effects. More recently stilbenoid compounds have shown promise in the treatment and prevention of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer's diseases. This paper primarily focuses on the impact of stilbenoids in Alzheimer's disease and more specifically on the inhibition of β‐amyloid peptide aggregation.
Transport, stability, and biological activity of resveratrol
Authors: Delmas Dominique , Aires Virginie , Limagne Emeric , Dutartre Patrick , Mazué Frédéric , Ghiringhelli François , Latruffe Norbert
Published: January 2011

Numerous studies have reported interesting properties oftrans‐resveratrol, a phytoalexin, as a preventive agent of several important pathologies: vascular diseases, cancers, viral infections, and neurodegenerative processes. These beneficial effects of resveratrol have been supported by observations at the cellular and molecular levels in both cellular andin vivomodels, but the cellular fate of resveratrol remains unclear. We suggest here that resveratrol uptake, metabolism, and stability of the parent molecule could influence the biological effects of resveratrol. It appears that resveratrol stability involves redox reactions and biotransformation that influence its antioxidant properties. Resveratrol's pharmacokinetics and metabolism represent other important issues, notably, the putative effects of its metabolites on pathology models. For example, some metabolites, mainly sulfate‐conjugated resveratrol, show biological effects in cellular models. The modifications of resveratrol stability, chemical structure, and metabolism could change its cellular and molecular targets and could be crucial for improving or decreasing its chemopreventive properties.
Stages and Muddles: The House of Lords Act 1999
Authors: KELSO ALEXANDRA
Published: January 2011

As one of the most significant pieces of constitutional legislation enacted in the last century, the House of Lords Act 1999 radically reformed the membership of the second chamber of the Westminster parliament by removing almost all the hereditary peers who sat there. The act formed a key part of the constitutional reform agenda of the Labour government elected in 1997, but despite its massive majority in the house of commons, eliminating the hereditary peerage proved far harder than might first have been imagined. This article seeks to explore the events surrounding that act, the political machinations and deals leading up to it, the course of the legislation through parliament, and the intricacies of the process involved in securing constitutional reform of this magnitude. It concludes by examining the consequences of the act for subsequent attempts at further second chamber reform during the rest of the Labour government's time in office.
Introduction: A Century of Change
Authors: NORTON PHILIP
Published: January 2011

With the United Kingdom lacking a codified constitution, there has been no extraordinary formal mechanism for amending the provisions of the constitution. Change has been achieved through parliament. The century since the passage of the Parliament Act 1911 has witnessed significant constitutional change. The measures enacted have affected basic relationships at the heart of the nation's constitutional arrangements: those between the two chambers of parliament, between parliament and the people, between the state and the individual, between the UK and the rest of the world, and between the centre and the rest of the UK. The measures enacted prior to 1997 were essentially individual statutes produced in response to particular challenges. The period since 1997 has seen proactive and extensive legislation, changing substantially the contours of the constitution. Despite the scale of the change, the measures have been disparate and discrete and not generated within a coherent philosophical framework. Although achieving their principal goals, not all have had the effects intended. This volume treats some of the key measures enacted in this period.
Extending the Role of the Courts: The Human Rights Act 1998
Authors: FELDMAN DAVID
Published: January 2011

The Labour Party in the 1990s supported enactment of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) rights for party‐political as well as principled reasons. The Human Rights Bill sought to balance parliamentary sovereignty and effective protection of rights, relying on both legal and political remedies for victims of violations. Whilst the potentially major constitutional and legal effects of the bill, which made it highly controversial from the start in the press, were partly hidden by highly‐technical drafting, members of both Houses were fully aware of the scale of the bill's implications. Scrutiny was particularly rigorous in relation to the effect of decisions of the European Commission and Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on domestic courts especially in the light of the Strasbourg organs' view of the ECHR as an evolving instrument, the position of particular interest groups such as journalistic and religious organisations, domestic courts' new obligation to interpret legislation so far as possible compatibly with the rights and their power to make a declaration of incompatibility should that prove impossible, and parliamentary scrutiny of legislation to remedy incompatibilities. Some worries have proved well founded, and political controversy has not diminished since 1998, partly because of heightened concern with measures to combat terrorism since 2001.
Analysis of the Bacterial Heat Shock Response to Photodynamic Therapy‐mediated Oxidative Stress
Authors: St. Denis Tyler G. , Huang Liyi , Dai Tianhong , Hamblin Michael R.
Published: January 2011

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (PDT) has recently emerged as an effective modality for the selective destruction of bacteria and other pathogenic microorganisms. We investigated whether PDT induced protective responses such as heat shock proteins (HSPs) in bacteria. Using the photosensitizer Toluidine Blue O (TBO) at sublethal PDT conditions, a seven‐fold increase in bacterial HSP GroEL and a three‐fold increase in HSP DnaK were observed in Escherichia coli post PDT. Pretreatment with 50°C heat for 30 min reduced PDT killing in both E. coli and in Enterococcus faecalis, with the most pronounced inhibition occurring at 50 μm TBO with 5 J cm−2 635 nm light, where E. coli killing was reduced by 2 log10 and E. faecalis killing was reduced by 4 log10. Finally, inhibition of the highly conserved chaperone DnaK using a small molecule benzylidene lactam HSP inhibitor potentiated (but not significantly) the effect of PDT at a TBO concentration of 2.5 μm in E. faecalis; however, this effect was not observed in E. coli presumably because inhibitor could not gain access due to Gram‐negative permeability barrier. Induction of HSPs may be a mechanism whereby bacteria could become resistant to PDT and warrants the need for further study in the application of dual PDT‐HSP‐inhibition therapies.
Ejecta–megaregolith accumulation on planetesimals and large asteroids
Authors: WARREN Paul H.
Published: January 2011

Abstract–

Megaregolith accumulation can have important thermal consequences for bodies that lose heat by conduction, as vacuous porosity of the kind observed in the lunar megaregolith lowers thermal conductivity by a factor of 10. I have modeled global average ejecta accumulation as a function of the largest impact size, with no explicit modeling of time. In conjunction with an assumed cratering size‐distribution exponent b, the largest crater constrains the sizes of all other craters that significantly contribute to a megaregolith. The largest impactor mass ratio is a major fraction of the catastrophic‐disruption mass ratio, and in general the largest crater’s diameter is close to the target’s diameter. Total accumulation is roughly 1–5% of (and proportional to) the target’s radius. Global accumulations estimated by this approach are higher than in the classic Housen et al. (1979) study by a factor of roughly 10. This revision is caused mainly by higher (typical) largest crater size. For b ∼ 2, the single largest crater typically contributes close to 50% of the total of new (nonrecycled) ejecta. Megaregolith can be destroyed by sintering, a process whose pressure sensitivity makes it effective at lower temperature on larger bodies. Planetesimals ∼100 km in diameter may be surprisingly well suited (about as well suited as bodies two to three times larger in diameter) for attaining temperatures conducive to widespread melting. A water‐rich composition may be a significant disadvantage in terms of planetesimal heating, as the shallow interior may be densified by aqueous metamorphism, and will have a low sintering temperature.
Primitive olivine‐phyric shergottite NWA 5789: Petrography, mineral chemistry, and cooling history imply a magma similar to Yamato‐980459
Authors: GROSS Juliane , TREIMAN Allan H. , FILIBERTO Justin , HERD Christopher D. K.
Published: January 2011

Abstract–

Knowledge of Martian igneous basaltic compositions is crucial for constraining mantle evolution, including early differentiation and mantle convection. Primitive magmas provide direct information about their mantle source regions, but most Martian meteorites either contain cumulate olivine or crystallized from fractionated melts. The recently discovered Martian meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 5789 is an olivine‐phyric shergottite. NWA 5789 has special significance among the Martian meteorites because it appears to represent one of the most magnesian Martian magmas known, other than Yamato (Y) 980459. Its most magnesian olivine cores (Fo85) are in Mg‐Fe equilibrium with a magma of the bulk rock composition, suggesting that the bulk represents a magma composition. Based on the Al/Ti ratio of its pyroxenes, we infer that the rock began to crystallize at a high pressure consistent with conditions in Mars’ lower crust/upper mantle. It continued and completed its crystallization closer to the surface, where cooling was rapid and produced a mesostasis of radiating sprays of plagioclase and pyroxene. The mineralogy, petrology, mineral chemistry, and bulk rock composition of NWA 5789 are very similar to those of Y‐980459. The similarities between the two meteorites suggest that NWA 5789 (like Y‐980459) represents a primitive, mantle‐derived magma composition. They also suggest the possibility that NWA 5789 and Y‐980459 formed in the same lava flow. However, based on the mineralogy and texture of its mesostasis, NWA 5789 must have cooled more slowly than Y‐980459. NWA 5789 will help elucidate the igneous geology and geochemistry of Mars.
Peer play, emotion understanding, and socio‐moral explanation: The role of gender
Authors: Mathieson Kay , Banerjee Robin
Published: January 2011

Engagement in peer play is an important factor in young children's adjustment as they make the transition to school. We evaluated individual differences in peer play within a sample of 58 children aged 4–5 years. Among boys, but not among girls, emotion understanding and verbal ability independently served as positive predictors of interactive peer play and negative predictors of disconnected play. Among girls, but not among boys, interactive peer play and socio‐moral reasoning about peer conflict situations independently predicted sociometric most‐like nominations. The results provide a foundation for further research on divergence in the early peer play of girls and boys.
Reconstruction Synthesis of the Calendrical Subsystem of Antikythera Mechanism
Authors: Yan Hong-Sen , Lin Jian-Liang
Published: January 2011

The damaged excavation of the Antikythera mechanism presents the oldest astronomical analog computer in ancient Greece. Its interior mechanism is a complicated gear train with many subsystems in which some are unclear, such as the calendrical subsystem. This work focuses on the reconstruction synthesis of the calendrical subsystem and provides a systematic approach to generate all feasible designs. Based on the studies of historical literatures and existing designs, the required design constraints are concluded. Then, according to the concepts of generalization and specialization of mechanisms, two feasible designs and 14 results of teeth counting, including the existing one by Freeth et al. (2002, “The Antikythera Mechanism: 1. Challenging the Classic Research,” Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, 2, pp. 21–35; 2002, “The Antikythera Mechanism: 2. Is It Posidonius Orrery?,” Mediterranean Archaeology & Archaeometry, 2, pp. 45–58; 2006, “Decoding the Ancient Greek Astronomical Calculator Known as the Antikythera Mechanism,” Nature (London), 444, pp. 587–591; 2008, “Calendars With Olympiad Display and Eclipse Prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism,” Nature (London), 454, pp. 614–617; 2009, “Decoding an Ancient Computer,” Sci. Am., 301(6), pp. 76–83), which are in consistent with the science theories and techniques of the subject’s time period, are synthesized.
Analysis and Performance of a Two-Axis PV Tracker in Southern Spain
Authors: Almonacid G. , Muñoz E. , Baena F. , Pérez-Higueras P. , Terrados J. , Ortega M. J.
Published: January 2011

El Girasol, a two-axis photovoltaic (PV) tracker system of 9.6 kWp connected to the grid at the Campus of the University of Jaén in Southern Spain, has reached an average yield of 2092 kWh/kWp·year. As far as it is known, it is one of the highest productivity data reported up to now in PV systems. This paper presents a description of the system and the working analysis during 2 years of operation. Related to the system behavior, the following performances are highlighted: global efficiency of 10.4%, performance ratio of 73.1%, a yield increase versus a fixed and ideally faced PV system of 45.8%, and high operation reliability with minimal maintenance needs.
Die Face Morphing With Formability Assessment
Authors: Zhou Liang , Hu S. Jack , Stoughton Thomas B.
Published: January 2011

A die face morphing concept was recently introduced for quick die design for evolutionary products from their prior generations. Based on this concept, this paper proposes a strain increment method for early formability assessment by predicting strain distribution directly from the part-to-part mapping process. This method consists of mapping the finite element mesh to the part geometry, solving a part-to-part mapping function with smoothness and strain gradient penalties, and extracting strain increment from geometric morphing. It is shown, through a case study, that the strain field estimated by the proposed strain increment method compares well with that from the direct finite element analysis. Since this method does not require the knowledge on new die surface, such formability assessment can serve as a tool for early manufacturing feasibility analysis on the new part design.
Scaling Analysis and a Critical Thickness Criterion for Thermosetting Composites
Authors: Secord Thomas W. , Mantell Susan C. , Stelson Kim A.
Published: January 2011

In thermosetting composite manufacturing, part thickness, mold temperature, pressure, and resin kinetics can affect the uniformity of cure in the finished part. If the interaction of these parameters is not accounted for, then unwanted overshoot of the processing temperature can occur within a part during cure. In this paper, the relationship between processing and material parameters was considered to establish a critical thickness separating parts having large overshoots from parts having small overshoots. The one-dimensional heat equation with an autocatalytic relation for curing was used to model the process. The equations were placed in dimensionless form using a scaling analysis. A finite difference model was also created to calculate part temperatures during cure as a function of the key dimensionless groups. For experimental validation, composite plates of varying thickness were fabricated from a glass fiber prepreg material, and the processing conditions were varied according to thickness. The scaling analysis identified five dimensionless groups. Two of these groups were found to affect the overshoot of the temperature: the modified Damköhler number Da∗, which includes the heat generated during the reaction, and the dimensionless temperature ramp rate t¯rise, which describes the tooling temperature ramp rate relative to the natural time scale of the heat transfer. There was good agreement between the numerical model prediction of temperature overshoot and the experimental data. The results also confirm that the behavior of thin and thick parts, as defined by the relative temperature overshoot, can be well defined and predicted by the two proposed dimensionless groups: Da∗ and t¯rise.
II-VI heterostructures obtained by encapsulation of colloidal CdSe nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy deposition of ZnSe
Authors: Liu Xinyu , Mintairov A. M. , Herzog J. , Vietmeyer F. , Pimpinella R. E. , Kuno M. , Merz J. L. , Kosel T. H. , Dobrowolska M. , Furdyna J. K.
Published: January 2011

In this work, 10 and 20 nm diameter colloidal CdSe nanowires (NWs) have been successfully incorporated into ZnSe layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy were carried out to study the surface morphology of the samples. Transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray analysis were also carried out to study the chemical composition and lattice structure around the embedded CdSe NWs. Finally, single NW photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and PL imaging were used to study the optical properties of ZnSe films containing CdSe NWs. The experimental results confirm the presence of embedded CdSe NWs in the ZnSe films and show that the embedded NWs remain optically active.
Cholesterol Is Not an Essential Source of Nutrition for
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
during Infection
Authors: Yang Xinxin , Gao Jin , Smith Issar , Dubnau Eugenie , Sampson Nicole S.
Published: January 2011

Rv1106c (
hsd
; 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase) is required by
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
for growth on cholesterol as a sole carbon source, whereas Rv3409c is not. Mutation of Rv1106c does not reduce
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
growth in infected macrophages or guinea pigs. We conclude that cholesterol is not required as a nutritional source during infection.
SEARCH FOR νμ→νe OSCILLATIONS IN THE MINOS EXPERIMENT
Authors:   for the MINOS Collaboration, YANG TINGJUN
Published: January 2011

The MINOS experiment uses the NuMI νμ beam to make precise measurements of neutrino flavor oscillations in the "atmospheric" neutrino sector. MINOS can also probe the yet-unknown neutrino mixing angle θ13 by searching for a νe appearance signal in the νμ beam. This paper reviews the techniques developed for the first νe appearance analysis in MINOS.
ON p-BRANES AND ANTISYMMETRIC NON-ABELIAN TENSORIAL GAUGE FIELD THEORIES OF DIFFEOMORPHISMS
Authors: CASTRO CARLOS
Published: January 2011

It is shown how actions corresponding to antisymmetric non-Abelian tensorial gauge field theories of (p+1)-dimensional diffeomorphisms yield p-brane actions associated with their (p+1)-dimensional worldvolume evolution. We conclude with a discussion of how to obtain p-brane actions from the large N limit of covariant matrix models based on generalized hypermatrices. A deformation quantization of Nambu classical mechanics furnishing Nambu quantum mechanics by constructing the n-ary noncommutative product of n functions f1 •f2 • ⋯ •fn, the n-ary version of the Moyal bracket, and the analog of the Weyl–Wigner–Groenowold–Moyal map among operators and c-functions remains an open problem. A solution to this problem will reveal important relations between the physics of p-branes and matrix models based on generalized hypermatrices in the large N limit.
SUPERCONNECTION FORMALISM FOR QUANTIZED BF THEORIES ON BRST–VSUSY SUPERSPACE
Authors: AIDAOUI A. , TAHIRI M.
Published: January 2011

The arbitrary dimensional BF theory is presented in a superconnection formalism. This makes the off-shell BRST-VSUSY superalgebra more obvious. We also discuss how to build the BRST–VSUSY exact quantum action.
NOTES ON PARA-NORDEN–WALKER 4-MANIFOLDS
Authors: SALIMOV A. A. , ISCAN M. , AKBULUT K.
Published: January 2011

A Walker 4-manifold is a pseudo-Riemannian manifold, (M4, g) of neutral signature, which admits a field of parallel null 2-plane. The main purpose of the present paper is to study almost paracomplex structures on 4-dimensional Walker manifolds. We discuss sequently the problem of integrability, para-Kähler (paraholomorphic), quasi-para-Kähler and isotropic para-Kähler conditions for these structures. The curvature properties for para-Norden–Walker metrics with respect to the almost paracomplex structure and some properties of para-Norden–Walker metrics in context of almost product Riemannian manifolds are also investigated. Also, we discuss the Einstein conditions for these structures.
JACOBI FIELDS IN GEODESIC SURFACE CONGRUENCES
Authors: CHO YONG SEUNG
Published: January 2011

Using the Nambu–Goto string action in the space of the surfaces spanned by closed strings in a spacetime manifold, we investigated the geodesic surface equation in the space of surfaces joining two given strings and the geodesic surface deviation equation in geodesic surface congruence which yields a Jacobi field along a given geodesic surface, and singularities in geodesic surface congruences. In this paper, assuming that the singularity exists in geodesic surface congruences in a conformally symmetric manifold, we compute the Jacobi fields of the geodesic surface deviation equations and observe them.
RICCATI DIAGONALIZATION OF HERMITIAN MATRICES
Authors: FUJII KAZUYUKI , OIKE HIROSHI
Published: January 2011

In this paper, a geometric method based on Grassmann manifolds and matrix Riccati equations to make Hermitian matrices diagonal is presented. We call it Riccati diagonalization.
HAMILTON–JACOBI THEORY IN k-SYMPLECTIC FIELD THEORIES
Authors: DE LEÓN M. , DE DIEGO D. MARTÍN , MARRERO J. C. , SALGADO M. , VILARIÑO S.
Published: January 2011

In this paper, we extend the geometric formalism of Hamilton–Jacobi theory for Mechanics to the case of classical field theories in the k-symplectic framework.
LOCKSMITH
Authors: Pratikakis Polyvios , Foster Jeffrey S. , Hicks Michael
Published: January 2011

Locksmith is a static analysis tool for automatically detecting data races in C programs. In this article, we describe each of Locksmith's component analyses precisely, and present systematic measurements that isolate interesting trade-offs between precision and efficiency in each analysis. Using a benchmark suite comprising stand-alone applications and Linux device drivers totaling more than 200,000 lines of code, we found that a simple no-worklist strategy yielded the most efficient interprocedural dataflow analysis; that our sharing analysis was able to determine that most locations are thread-local, and therefore need not be protected by locks; that modeling C structs and void pointers precisely is key to both precision and efficiency; and that context sensitivity yields a much more precise analysis, though with decreased scalability. Put together, our results illuminate some of the key engineering challenges in building Locksmith and data race detection analyses in particular, and constraint-based program analyses in general.
Towards accessible search systems
Authors: Serdyukov Pavel , Hiemstra Djoerd , Ruthven Ian
Published: January 2011

The SIGIR workshop Towards Accessible Search Systems was the first workshop in the field to raise the discussion on how to make search engines accessible for different types of users. We report on the results of the workshop that was held on 23 July 2010 in conjunction with the 33rd Annual ACM SIGIR Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.
Workshop on desktop search
Authors: Elsweiler David , Jones Gareth , Kelly Liadh , Teevan Jaime
Published: January 2011

The first SIGIR workshop on Desktop Search was held on 23rd July 2009 in Geneva, Switzerland. The workshop consisted of 2 industrial keynotes, 10 paper presentations in a combination of oral and poster format and several discussion sessions. This report presents an overview of the scope and contents of the workshop and outlines the major outcomes.
Query representation and understanding workshop
Authors: Croft W. Bruce , Bendersky Michael , Li Hang , Xu Gu
Published: January 2011

This report summarizes the events of the SIGIR 2010 workshop on Query Representation and Understanding, which was held on July 23rd, 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Web N-gram workshop 2010
Authors: Zhai Chengxiang , Wang Kuansan , Yarowsky David , Vogel Stephan , Viegas Evelyne
Published: January 2011

The Web N-gram Workshop was held on July 23, 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland, in conjunction with the 33rd Annual ACM SIGIR Conference. The workshop brought together leaders in information retrieval and language modeling to discuss the challenges in information retrieval and how language modeling approaches may help address some of these challenges, with a focus on using n-gram model to help solve them. The workshop consisted of 1 invited talk, 1 tutorial, 1 panel, 10 refereed paper presentations along with discussion sessions built-in in the agenda.
DIR 2010
Authors: Kraaij Wessel , Verberne Suzan , Hinne Max , van der Heijden Maarten , van der Weide Theo
Published: January 2011

The Dutch-Belgian Information Retrieval workshop (DIR) is an annual event where the latest research results by Dutch and Belgian IR researchers are presented. The workshop is an important instrument to strengthen and maintain local contacts. This paper reports on the tenth DIR meeting, which took place in January 2010. The DIR 2010 programme included invited talks by Elizabeth D. Liddy and Cornelis (Kees) Koster.
HCIR 2010
Authors: Capra Robert , Kules Bill , Smith Catherine L. , Tunkelang Daniel , White Ryen W.
Published: January 2011

This report describes the 2010 workshop on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Retrieval. Now in its fourth year, the event was held in August 2010 in conjunction with the Information Interaction in Context Symposium. The workshop brought together researchers from academia, industry, and government and a range of disciplines to present and discuss their research. We had a record 70 attendees, making this the largest of our workshops to date. New for this year, we ran a challenge, and six research groups participated.
Report of the 4th workshop on information credibility on the web (WICOW 2010)
Authors: Jatowt Adam , Tanaka Katsumi
Published: January 2011

The 4th Workshop on Information Credibility on the Web (WICOW 2010) was held in conjunction with the WWW 2010 conference in Raleigh, NC, USA on the 27th April, 2010. Ten full papers and a keynote speech were presented in four sessions. This report briefly outlines the main outcomes of the workshop.
Linguistic and semantic passage retrieval strategies for question answering
Authors: Bilotti Matthew W.
Published: January 2011

Question Answering (QA) is the task of searching a large text collection for specific answers to questions posed in natural language. Though they often have access to rich linguistic and semantic analyses of their input questions, QA systems often rely on off-theshelf bag-of-words Information Retrieval (IR) solutions to retrieve passages matching a set of terms extracted from the question.

There is a fundamental disconnect between the capabilities of the bag-of-words retrieval model and the retrieval needs of the QA system. Bag-of-words IR retrieves documents matching a query, but the QA system really needs documents that contain answers. Through question analysis, the QA system has compiled a sophisticated information need representation for what constitutes an answer to the question. This representation is composed of a set of linguistic and semantic constraints satisfied by answer-bearing passages. Unfortunately, off-the-shelf IR libraries commonly used in QA systems can not, in general, check these types of constraints at query-time. Poor quality retrieval can cause a QA system to fail if no answer-bearing text is retrieved, if it is not ranked highly enough, or if it is outranked or overwhelmed by false positives, text that matches the query well, yet supports a wrong answer.

This thesis proposes two linguistic and semantic passage retrieval methods for QA, one based on structured retrieval and the other on rank-learning techniques. In addition, a methodology is proposed for mapping annotated text consisting of labeled spans and typed relations between them into an annotation graph representation. The annotation graph supports query-time linguistic and semantic constraint-checking, and serves as a unifying formalism for the QA system's information need and for retrieved passages. The proposed methods rely only on the relatively weak assumption that the QA system's information need can be represented as an annotation graph. The two approaches are shown to retrieve more answer-bearing text, more highly ranked, compared to a bag-of-words baseline for two different QA tasks. Linguistic and semantic passage retrieval methods are also shown to improve end-to-end QA system accuracy and answer MRR.

Available online at: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mbilotti/thesis.pdf.
Personalised video retrieval
Authors: Hopfgartner Frank
Published: January 2011

A challenging problem in the user profiling domain is to create profiles of users of retrieval systems. This problem even exacerbates in the multimedia domain. Due to the Semantic Gap, the difference between low-level data representation of videos and the higher concepts users associate with videos, it is not trivial to understand the content of multimedia documents and to find other documents that the users might be interested in. A promising approach to ease this problem is to set multimedia documents into their semantic contexts. The semantic context can lead to a better understanding of the personal interests. Knowing the context of a video is useful for recommending users videos that match their information need. By exploiting these contexts, videos can also be linked to other, contextually related videos. From a user profiling point of view, these links can be of high value to recommend semantically related videos, hence creating a semantic-based user profile. This thesis introduces a semantic user profiling approach for news video retrieval, which exploits a generic ontology to put news stories into its context.

Major challenges which inhibit the creation of such semantic user profiles are the identification of user's long-term interests and the adaptation of retrieval results based on these personal interests. Most personalisation services rely on users explicitly specifying preferences, a common approach in the text retrieval domain. By giving explicit feedback, users are forced to update their need, which can be problematic when their information need is vague. Furthermore, users tend not to provide enough feedback on which to base an adaptive retrieval algorithm. Deviating from the method of explicitly asking the user to rate the relevance of retrieval results, the use of implicit feedback techniques helps by learning user interests unobtrusively. The main advantage is that users are relieved from providing feedback. A disadvantage is that information gathered using implicit techniques is less accurate than information based on explicit feedback.
Scalability of findability
Authors: Ke Weimao
Published: January 2011

Amid the rapid growth of information today is the increasing challenge for people to survive and navigate its magnitude. Dynamics and heterogeneity of large information spaces such as the Web challenge information retrieval in these environments. Collection of information in advance and centralization of IR operations are hardly possible because systems are dynamic and information is distributed.

While monolithic search systems continue to struggle with scalability problems of today, the future of search likely requires a decentralized architecture where many information systems can participate. As individual systems interconnect to form a global structure, finding relevant information in distributed environments transforms into a problem concerning not only information retrieval but also complex networks. Understanding network connectivity will provide guidance on how decentralized search and retrieval methods can function in these information spaces.

The dissertation studies one aspect of scalability challenges facing classic information retrieval models and presents a decentralized, organic view of information systems pertaining to search in large scale networks. It focuses on the impact of network structure on search performance and investigates a phenomenon we refer to as the Clustering Paradox, in which the topology of interconnected systems imposes a scalability limit. Experiments involving large scale benchmark collections provide evidence on the Clustering Paradox in the IR context. In an increasingly large, distributed environment, decentralized searches for relevant information can continue to function well only when systems interconnect in certain ways. Relying on partial indexes of distributed systems, some level of network clustering enables very efficient and effective discovery of relevant information in large scale networks. Increasing or reducing network clustering degrades search performances. Given this specific level of network clustering, search time is well explained by a poly-logarithmic relation to network size, indicating a high scalability potential for searching in a continuously growing information space.
A framework for supporting user-centric collaborative information seeking
Authors: Shah Chirag
Published: January 2011

Collaboration is often required or encouraged for activities that are too complex or difficult to deal with for an individual. Many situations involving information seeking also call for people working together. Despite its natural appeal and situational necessity, collaboration in information seeking is an understudied domain. The nature of the available information and its role in our lives have changed significantly, but the methods and tools that are used to access and share that information in collaboration have remained largely unaltered. This dissertation is an attempt to develop a new framework for collaborative information seeking (CIS) with a focus on user-centric system designs. To develop this framework, existing practices for doing collaboration, along with motivations and methods, are studied. This initial investigation and a review of literature are followed by a series of carefully created design studies, helping us develop a prototype CIS system, Coagmento. This system is then used for a large-scale laboratory experiment with a focus on studying the role and the impact of awareness in CIS projects. Through this study, it is shown that appropriate support for group awareness can help collaborators be more productive, engaged, and aware in collaboration without burdening them with additional load. Using the lessons derived from the literature as well as the set of studies presented in this dissertation, a novel framework for CIS is proposed. Such a framework could help us develop, study, and evaluate CIS systems with a more comprehensive understanding of various CIS processes, and the users of these systems.

Dissertation available online at: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~chirags/papers/Shah_Dissertation.pdf.
Using virtualization and live migration in a scalable mobile wireless testbed
Authors: Hahn Dongwoon , Lee Ginnah , Walker Brenton , Beecher Matt , Mundur Padma
Published: January 2011

Laboratory-based mobile wireless testbeds such as MeshTest and the CMU Wireless Emulator are powerful platforms that allow users to perform controlled, repeatable, mobile wireless experiments in the lab. Unfortunately such systems can only accommodate 10-20 nodes in an experiment. We have designed and built a prototype of a system that uses software virtualization and live migration to facilitate experiments involving intermittently connected networks with many multiples of the number of physical nodes available on such a testbed.

Building a system like this presents many technical and research challenges. In this paper, we will describe the physical construction and software architecture of the system while providing a discussion on the research issues that we are currently addressing.