bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Maternal ADHD symptoms, child ADHD symptoms and broader child outcomes
Authors: Efron Daryl , Furley Kirsten , Gulenc Alisha , Sciberras Emma
Published: January 2018

Objective

This study investigated the associations between maternal symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and child functional outcomes in a community-based sample of children with and without ADHD.

Design and setting

In this cohort study, children with ADHD and healthy controls were recruited through schools in Melbourne, Australia, using a combined screening (Conners 3 ADHD Index) and case confirmation (Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children Version IV) procedure.

Patients

117 children with ADHD and 149 control children were included in the analyses.

Main outcome measures

Maternal ADHD symptoms (Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scale) and child outcomes (ADHD severity, quality of life (QoL), academic competence, social-emotional functioning) were measured at a mean child age of 8.9 years.

Results

Mothers of children with ADHD had clinically elevated ADHD symptoms compared with mothers of control children (adjusted analysis: 18.0% vs 2.0%, P<0.001). Elevated maternal ADHD symptoms were associated with greater child ADHD symptom severity and lower QoL by maternal report for children with (severity P=0.01; QoL P=0.003) and without (severity P=0.003; QoL P=0.003) ADHD. Elevated maternal ADHD symptoms were additionally associated with increased parent-rated emotional problems, peer problems and total impairment scores in children without ADHD (all P<0.01).

Conclusions

Maternal ADHD symptoms are associated with increased ADHD symptom severity and reduced QoL by maternal report in offspring with or without ADHD, and have broader negative associations with emotional and social functioning in children without ADHD. In the evaluation of the referred children, maternal ADHD symptoms should be considered and referral made to adult services where indicated.
Chronic tic disorders in children with ADHD
Authors: Poh William , Payne Jonathan M , Gulenc Alisha , Efron Daryl
Published: January 2018

Objective

To examine in a community-based cohort: (1) the prevalence of chronic tic disorder (CTD) in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with non-ADHD controls at ages 7 and 10; and (2) the additional psychiatric and functional burden of CTD in children with ADHD.

Methods

Children aged 6–8 years with ADHD (n=179) and controls (n=212) were recruited through 43 Victorian schools using parent and teacher screening surveys (Conners 3 ADHD Index), followed by case confirmation (Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-IV (DISC-IV)). CTD was identified using the DISC-IV categories chronic motor tic disorder, chronic vocal tic disorder or Tourette syndrome at baseline and 36-month follow-up. Internalising and externalising disorders, social functioning, academic performance and quality of life were also measured. Tests of proportions and independent t-tests were used to compare the ADHD+CTD group with sex-matched ADHD alone children.

Results

Compared with controls, children with ADHD were 4.1 (95% CI 1.1 to 14.1) times more likely to have CTD at age 7, and 5.9 (95% CI 1.6 to 17.9) times more likely at age 10. Children with ADHD+CTD experienced higher rates of internalising disorders and peer problems, and poorer quality of life than those with ADHD alone.

Conclusions

CTD prevalence is higher in children with ADHD compared with controls, and confers substantial additional psychiatric and functional burden. Clinicians need to consider CTD in both the initial assessment and ongoing management of children with ADHD, and address both the symptoms and the associated impairments.
Infant feeding practices among HIV-exposed infants less than 6 months of age in Bomet County, Kenya: an in-depth qualitative study of feeding choices
Authors: Lang’at Purity Chepkorir , Ogada Irene , Steenbeek Audrey , MacDonald Noni E , Ochola Sophie , Bor Wesley , Odinga Godfrey
Published: January 2018

Background

In children, HIV can be acquired from the mother during pregnancy, delivery and through breast milk. The WHO recommends exclusive breast feeding or exclusive replacement feeding for the first 6 months after birth for HIV-exposed infants. Barriers such as HIV-related stigma, inadequate resources, lack of access to safe water and negative cultural beliefs have been shown to influence infant feeding among HIV-exposed infants in some settings. In Kenya, there is limited literature on the barriers. The purpose of this study was to identify barriers to optimal feeding among HIV-exposed infants 0–5 months of age attending a mission hospital in Bomet County, Kenya.

Methods

A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted at a referral mission hospital in Bomet County, Southwest Kenya. Four focused group discussions were conducted among mothers/caregivers of HIV-exposed infants aged 0–5 months in accordance with their infant feeding practices, while two key informant interviews were also held with healthcare workers. All sessions were audio recorded and later transcribed verbatim. Content analysis was performed, and conclusions were made based on identified themes.

Results

Factors influencing the infant feeding choices were: financial constraints, cultural beliefs and practices, HIV-related stigma and conflicting knowledge among mothers/caregivers and healthcare workers on the recommendations for feeding HIV-exposed infants 0–5 months of age.

Conclusions

Health worker retraining in and reinforcement of WHO guidance on feeding HIV exposed/infected infants will clarify misconceptions around feeding HIV exposed/infected infants, though there remain social and economic barriers to full implementation.
Home polygraphic recording with telemedicine monitoring for diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnoea in stroke (HOPES Study): study protocol for a single-blind, randomised controlled trial
Authors: Kotzian Stefan Thomas , Schwarzinger Angela , Haider Sandra , Saletu Bernd , Spatt Josef , Saletu Michael Timothy
Published: January 2018

Introduction

Meta-analyses report that more than 50% of patients who had a stroke suffer from moderate to severe sleep apnoea (SA), with adherence rates to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy of only 30%. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether PAP adherence in patients who had a stroke with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) can be improved by a PAP training strategy during inhospital rehabilitation combined with a telemedicine monitoring system after discharge. Further objectives are (1) to compare the validity of a non-attended level-III polygraphy with that of a level-II polysomnography (PSG) in the diagnosis of SA, (2) to compare the validity of an apnoea-hypopnoea index (AHI) yielded by the PAP device with that obtained during PSG, (3) to determine changes in nocturnal systolic blood pressure (BP) due to PAP therapy with the pulse transit time (PTT) method and (4) to assess the impact of telemonitored PAP therapy on neurorehabilitation outcome parameters.

Methods and analyses

Single-blind, monocentre, randomised controlled trial. It includes 55 patients who had a subacute stroke, aged 19–70 years, with moderate to severe OSA, who have undergone successful PAP training and titration at the neurorehabilitation unit. Patients are randomised to either a standard care group or a telemedicine group.

PAP adherence, sleep and respiratory variables, subjective and objective sleep quality, systolic BP (PTT method) of the two groups are compared after 3 months and 1 year as well as cognitive and motor neurorehabilitation outcome parameters, quality of life and PAP satisfaction. Additionally, intranight AHI/total sleep time versus AHI/time in bed and night-to-night variability of the AHI are assessed.

Ethics and dissemination

Before screening, all participants will be provided with oral and written information. The study will be disseminated by peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations.

Trial registration number

NCT02748681; Pre-results.
Postexercise whole-body sweating increases during muscle metaboreceptor activation in young men
Authors: Friesen Brian J. , Poirier Martin P. , Lamarche Dallon T. , D’Souza Andrew W. , Kim Jung-Hyun , Notley Sean R. , Kenny Glen P.
Published: January 2018

We assessed the effect of metaboreceptor activation on whole-body evaporative heat loss (WB-EHL) in 12 men (aged 24 ± 4 years) in the early-to-late stages of a 60-min exercise recovery in the heat. Metaboreceptor activation induced by 1-min isometric-handgrip (IHG) exercise followed by 5-min forearm ischemia to trap metabolites increased WB-EHL by 25%–31% and 26%–34% during the ischemic period relative to IHG-only and control (natural recovery only), respectively, throughout recovery. We show that metaboreceptor activation enhances WB-EHL in recovery.
Behavior of a vacuum and naked singularity under a smooth gauge function in Lyra geometry
Authors: Zhi Haizhao
Published: January 2018

Lyra geometry is a conformal geometry that originated from Weyl geometry. In this article, we derive the exterior field equation under a spherically symmetric gauge function x0(r) and metric in Lyra geometry. When we impose a specific form of the gauge function x0(r), the radial differential equation of the metric component g00 will possess an irregular singular point (ISP) at r = 0. Moreover, we can apply the method of dominant balance to get the asymptotic behavior of the new space–time solution. The significance of this work is that we can use a series of smooth gauge functions x0(r) to modulate the degree of divergence of the singularity at r = 0, which will become a naked singularity under certain conditions. Furthermore, we investigate the physical meaning of this novel behavior of space–time in Lyra geometry and find out that no spaceship with finite integrated acceleration can arrive at this singularity at r = 0. The physical meaning of the gauge function and integrability is also discussed.
Active particle aggregate on complex bubble surfaces
Authors: Akguc Gursoy B.
Published: January 2018

Recently, colloids have been shown to form complex structures on bubble surfaces on demand. With the help of a high power pulse laser shining on a thin water film, water bubbles can be formed and heat unbalance creates a convective flow, which carries colloids on the surface of these water bubbles to form aggregates. Here, active particles are studied in a similar setup and conditions are laid out to form aggregates on water bubble surfaces. The effect of motility and chirality of active particles on formation of aggregate are discussed. The simulation results obtained here will hopefully help the experimental endeavors in future.
Theoretical estimates of the width of light-meson states in the SO(4) (2+1)-flavor limit
Authors: Yépez-Martínez Tochtli , Civitarese Osvaldo , Hess Peter Otto
Published: January 2018

The low-energy sector of the mesonic spectrum exhibits some features which may be understood in terms of the SO(4) symmetry contained in the QCD-Hamiltonian written in the Coulomb Gauge. In our previous work, we have shown that this is indeed the case when the Instantaneous Color-Charge Interaction (ICCI) is treated by means of nonperturbative many-body techniques. Continuing along this line of description, in this work we calculate the width of meson states belonging to the low portion of the spectrum ([Formula: see text] GeV). In spite of the rather simple structure of the Hamiltonian used to calculate the spectra of pseudoscalar and vector mesons, the results for the width of these states follow the pattern of the data.
Quantum dynamics intervened by repeated nonselective measurements
Authors: Filippov Sergey N.
Published: January 2018

We derive the theory of open quantum system dynamics intervened by a series of nonselective measurements. We analyze the cases of time-independent and time-dependent Hamiltonian dynamics between the measurements and find the approximate master equation in the stroboscopic limit. We also consider a situation, in which the measurement basis changes in time, and illustrate it by nonselective measurements in the basis of diabatic states of the Landau–Zener model.
Quantum-entanglement storage and extraction in quantum network node
Authors: Shan ZhuoYu , Zhang Yong
Published: January 2018

Quantum computing and quantum communication have become the most popular research topic. Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond have been shown the great advantage of implementing quantum information processing. The generation of entanglement between NV centers represents a fundamental prerequisite for all quantum information technologies. In this paper, we propose a scheme to realize the high-fidelity storage and extraction of quantum entanglement information based on the NV centers at room temperature. We store the entangled information of a pair of entangled photons in the Bell state into the nuclear spins of two NV centers, which can make these two NV centers entangled. And then we illuminate how to extract the entangled information from NV centers to prepare on-demand entangled states for optical quantum information processing. The strategy of engineering entanglement demonstrated here maybe pave the way towards a NV center-based quantum network.
High-Performance Instruction Scheduling Circuits for Superscalar Out-of-Order Soft Processors
Authors: Wong Henry , Betz Vaughn , Rose Jonathan
Published: January 2018

Soft processors have a role to play in simplifying field-programmable gate array (FPGA) application design as they can be deployed only when needed, and it is easier to write and debug single-threaded software code than create hardware. The breadth of this second role increases when the performance of the soft processor increases, yet the sophisticated out-of-order superscalar approaches that arrived in the mid-1990s are not employed, despite their area cost now being easily tolerable. In this article, we take an important step toward out-of-order execution in soft processors by exploring instruction scheduling in an FPGA substrate. This differs from the hard-processor design problem because the logic substrate is restricted to LUTs, whereas hard processor scheduling circuits employ CAM and wired-OR structures to great benefit. We discuss both circuit and microarchitectural trade-offs and compare three circuit structures for the scheduler, including a new structure called a
fused-logic matrix scheduler
. Using our optimized circuits, we show that four-issue distributed schedulers with up to 54 entries can be built with the same cycle time as the commercial Nios II/f soft processor (240MHz). This careful design has the potential to significantly increase both the IPC and raw compute performance of a soft processor, compared to current commercial soft processors.
Charging a Smartphone Across a Room Using Lasers
Authors: Iyer Vikram , Bayati Elyas , Nandakumar Rajalakshmi , Majumdar Arka , Gollakota Shyamnath
Published: January 2018

We demonstrate a novel laser-based wireless power delivery system that can charge mobile devices such as smartphones across a room. The key challenges in achieving this are multi-fold: delivering greater than a watt of power across the room, minimizing the exposure of the resulting high-power lasers to human tissue, and finally ensuring that the design meets the form-factor requirements of a smartphone and requires minimal instrumentation to the environment. This paper presents a novel, and to the best of our knowledge, the first design, implementation and evaluation of an end-to-end power delivery system that satisfies all the above requirements. Our results show that we can deliver more than 2 W at ranges of 4.3 m and 12.2 m for a smartphone (25 cm2) and table-top form factor (100 cm2) receiver respectively. Further, extensive characterization of our safety system shows that we can turn off our laser source much before a human moving at a maximum speed of 44 m/s can even enter the high-power laser beam area.
SnapLink
Authors: Chen Kaifei , Fürst Jonathan , Kolb John , Kim Hyung-Sin , Jin Xin , Culler David E. , Katz Randy H.
Published: January 2018

As the number and heterogeneity of appliances in smart buildings increases, identifying and controlling them becomes challenging. Existing methods face various challenges when deployed in large commercial buildings. For example, voice command assistants require users to memorize many control commands. Attaching Bluetooth dongles or QR codes to appliances introduces considerable deployment overhead. In comparison, identifying an appliance by simply pointing a smartphone camera at it and controlling the appliance using a graphical overlay interface is more intuitive. We introduce SnapLink, a responsive and accurate vision-based system for mobile appliance identification and interaction using image localization. Compared to the image retrieval approaches used in previous vision-based appliance control systems, SnapLink exploits 3D models to improve identification accuracy and reduce deployment overhead via quick video captures and a simplified labeling process. We also introduce a feature sub-sampling mechanism to achieve low latency at the scale of a commercial building. To evaluate SnapLink, we collected training videos from 39 rooms to represent the scale of a modern commercial building. It achieves a 94% successful appliance identification rate among 1526 test images of 179 appliances within 120 ms average server processing time. Furthermore, we show that SnapLink is robust to viewing angle and distance differences, illumination changes, as well as daily changes in the environment. We believe the SnapLink use case is not limited to appliance control: it has the potential to enable various new smart building applications.
Luciola
Authors: Uno Yuki , Qiu Hao , Sai Toru , Iguchi Shunta , Mizutani Yota , Hoshi Takayuki , Kawahara Yoshihiro , Kakehi Yasuaki , Takamiya Makoto
Published: January 2018

In this paper, we present an approach to realize the levitation of a small object with an embedded electronic circuit. Luciola is a light-emitting particle with a diameter of 3.5mm and a weight of 16.2mg moving in mid-air in a 10.4cm x 10.4cm x 5.4cm space through acoustic levitation using two 40-kHz 17 x 17 ultrasonic transducer arrays placed face-to-face at a distance of 20cm and wirelessly powered by 12.3-MHz resonant inductive coupling. The novelty of this paper is the acoustically levitated electronic object by the combined application of ultrasonic levitation and wireless powering to the levitated electronic object. A new shape of the levitated object and a new placement of the receiver coil to simultaneously realize acoustic levitation and wireless powering are proposed, achieving a stable wireless powering to a rotating levitated object at the bottom of an acoustic potential. To enable the levitation of a particle, a custom IC chip is essential in reducing the size and weight of the particle. In the design of the custom IC chip, a new voltage detector circuit enabling an accurate voltage detection and a correct output during the start-up is proposed to achieve an intermittent lighting of the LED to increase the maximum distance between the transmitter and the receiver coil. Luciola is applied to a self-luminous pixel in a mid-air display and drawings of characters in mid-air are demonstrated.
Auth ‘n’ Scan
Authors: Hashizume Takahiro , Arizono Takuya , Yatani Koji
Published: January 2018

Recent commodity smartphones have biometric sensing capabilities, allowing their daily use for authentication and identification. This increasing use of biometric systems motivates us to design an opportunistic way to sense user's additional physiological or behavioral data. We define this concurrent physiological or behavioral data sensing during biometric authentication or identification as dual-purpose biometrics. As an instance of dual-purpose biometrics, we develop photoplethysmography (PPG) sensing during mobile fingerprint authentication, called Auth ‘n’ Scan. Our system opportunistically extracts cardiovascular information, such as a heart rate and its variability, while users perform phone unlock of a smartphone. To achieve this sensing, our Auth ‘n’ Scan system attaches four PPG units around a fingerprint sensor. The system also performs noise removal and signal selection to accurately estimate cardiovascular information. This paper presents the hardware implementation and signal processing algorithm of our Auth ‘n’ Scan prototype. We also report our system evaluations with 10 participants, showing that, despite a little low precision (a standard deviation of 3--7), estimation of heart rates with high accuracy (under a mean error of 1) is possible from PPG data of five seconds and longer if their baseline information is given. We discuss the feasibility of opportunistic PPG sensing in mobile fingerprint authentication.
Context Recognition In-the-Wild
Authors: Vaizman Yonatan , Weibel Nadir , Lanckriet Gert
Published: January 2018

Automatic recognition of behavioral context (location, activities, body-posture etc.) can serve health monitoring, aging care, and many other domains. Recognizing context in-the-wild is challenging because of great variability in behavioral patterns, and it requires a complex mapping from sensor features to predicted labels. Data collected in-the-wild may be unbalanced and incomplete, with cases of missing labels or missing sensors. We propose using the multiple layer perceptron (MLP) as a multi-task model for context recognition. Based on features from multi-modal sensors, the model simultaneously predicts many diverse context labels. We analyze the advantages of the model's hidden layers, which are shared among all sensors and all labels, and provide insight to the behavioral patterns that these hidden layers may capture. We demonstrate how recognition of new labels can be improved when utilizing a model that was trained for an initial set of labels, and show how to train the model to withstand missing sensors. We evaluate context recognition on the previously published ExtraSensory Dataset, which was collected in-the-wild. Compared to previously suggested models, the MLP improves recognition, even with fewer parameters than a linear model. The ability to train a good model using data that has incomplete, unbalanced labeling and missing sensors encourages further research with uncontrolled, in-the-wild behavior.
Exploring the Communication of Progress in Home-based Falls Rehabilitation using Exergame Technologies
Authors: Uzor Stephen , Baillie Lynne
Published: January 2018

Little is known on how to effectively represent rehabilitation progress, over a period of time, using exercise game (exergame) technologies. Progress in falls rehabilitation, which consists of improved performance in balance and muscle strength, is essential to assuring seniors of a reduced risk of falling. In this paper, we build on our previous research into exergames for falls, and we investigate how an exergame system can be used to communicate long-term progress to seniors. Using a multiphase user-centered requirements gathering process, we first investigated stakeholder perspectives regarding progress in self-managed rehabilitation. Following this we describe the home-based evaluation of our prototype exergame system, which highlights rehabilitation progress, with seniors, over a period of 2 months. Progress, in our system is communicated using charts of exercise performance and frequency, as well as medals awarded for achieving longer-term rehabilitation milestones. We report on seniors' opinions and preferences regarding the potential of our exergame system to communicate this rehabilitation progress in a meaningful way. Finally we discuss implications for design, based on our studies, to inform the development of more effective exergame systems for long-term unassisted rehabilitation in the home.
An LSTM Based System for Prediction of Human Activities with Durations
Authors: Krishna Kundan , Jain Deepali , Mehta Sanket V. , Choudhary Sunav
Published: January 2018

Human activity prediction is an interesting problem with a wide variety of applications like intelligent virtual assistants, contextual marketing, etc. One formulation of this problem is jointly predicting human activities (viz. eating, commuting, etc.) with associated durations. Herein a deep learning system is proposed for this problem. Given a sequence of past activities and durations, the system estimates the probabilities for future activities and their durations. Two distinct Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) networks are developed that cater to different assumptions about the data and achieve different modeling complexities and prediction accuracies. The networks are trained and tested with two real-world datasets, one being publicly available while the other collected from a field experiment. Modeling on the segment level public dataset mitigates the cold-start problem. Experiments indicate that compared to traditional approaches based on sequence mining or hidden Markov modeling, LSTM networks perform significantly better. The ability of LSTM networks to detect long term correlations in activity data is also demonstrated. The trained models are each less than 500KB in size and can be deployed to run in real-time on a mobile device without any dependencies on the cloud. This can help applications like mobile personal assistants by providing predictive context.
3DLoc
Authors: Huang Zengshi , Gu Naijie , Hao Jianlin , Shen Jie
Published: January 2018

A variety of indoor applications require both accurate location and orientation, such as indoor navigation and augmented reality. This paper presents 3DLoc, with which you can find your location and orientation by pointing your smartphone camera at 3D features e.g., doors and entrances. Different from the previous image-based localization of matching features via SIFT or SURF, 3DLoc takes advantage of rules for 3D features, including the ratio between height and width, the orientation and the distribution on the 2D floor map. The features around users are regarded as a unique 3D signature for the location. Based on prior researches on vanishing points and indoor geometric reasoning, we propose an algorithm to extract the signature from captured images and robustly decode the signature to accurate location and orientation. In terms of efficiency and user-friendliness, a series of optimizations are adopted through fusion of smartphone sensors and vision. We conduct experiments on different floors of a typical office building via the prototype built on Huawei P7 and iPhone 5S. Ninety percent of errors for location and orientation are within 25cm and two de4rees, respectively. With a 2D floor map provided, KB (-KiloByte-) level storage is required for the additional 3D information.
The EGFR-ADAM17 Axis in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Cystic Fibrosis Lung Pathology
Authors: Stolarczyk Marta , Scholte Bob J.
Published: January 2018

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cystic fibrosis (CF) share molecular mechanisms that cause the pathological symptoms they have in common. Here, we review evidence suggesting that hyperactivity of the EGFR/ADAM17 axis plays a role in the development of chronic lung disease in both CF and COPD. The ubiquitous transmembrane protease A disintegrin and metalloprotease 17 (ADAM17) forms a functional unit with the EGF receptor (EGFR), in a feedback loop interaction labeled the ADAM17/EGFR axis. In airway epithelial cells, ADAM17 sheds multiple soluble signaling proteins by proteolysis, including EGFR ligands such as amphiregulin (AREG), and proinflammatory mediators such as the interleukin 6 coreceptor (IL-6R). This activity can be enhanced by injury, toxins, and receptor-mediated external triggers. In addition to intracellular kinases, the extracellular glutathione-dependent redox potential controls ADAM17 shedding. Thus, the epithelial ADAM17/EGFR axis serves as a receptor of incoming luminal stress signals, relaying these to neighboring and underlying cells, which plays an important role in the resolution of lung injury and inflammation. We review evidence that congenital CFTR deficiency in CF and reduced CFTR activity in chronic COPD may cause enhanced ADAM17/EGFR signaling through a defect in glutathione secretion. In future studies, these complex interactions and the options for pharmaceutical interventions will be further investigated.
Robust Command Filtered Adaptive Backstepping Control for a Quadrotor Aircraft
Authors: Liu Yicheng , Ma Junhui , Tu Haiyan
Published: January 2018

This paper addresses a robust trajectory tracking controller for an underactuated quadrotor with external bounded disturbances and unknown inertia parameters. Different from most of the existing control algorithms, the proposed method does not adopt the dual-loop scheme in which the design is divided into position control and attitude control. Instead, command filter backstepping is employed to design the controller based on the integrated motion model such that the stability can be guaranteed strictly for the flight control system. Furthermore, adaptive compensation and robust compensation are introduced to deal with the uncertainty of the inertia parameters and the external bounded disturbances, respectively. Finally, a similar skew symmetric structure is chosen as the desired structure of the closed-loop system to facilitate the analysis of the stability of the integrated system. Stability and robust performance of the designed controller are verified by Lyapunov stability theorem. Simulations are provided to validate the proposed controller.
Adsorption Mechanism of Typical Gases Exhaled by Lung Cancer Patients on the Anatase TiO2(101) Surface
Authors: Wan Qianqian , Xu Yancheng , Zhang Xiaoxing
Published: January 2018

Considerable researches have proved that, to a great extent, high death rate of lung cancer is on account of its crypticity in the early stage, and detection of typical exhaled gases of possible patients has emerged as an effective and workable method to realize the prognosis of lung cancer. In this paper, the adsorption of the three typical exhaled components, namely, C6H6, C8H8, and C5H8, of lung cancer patients on the anatase TiO2(101) surface was simulated based on the density functional theory method in order to recommend TiO2nanotube arrays as sensing materials to fulfill this aim. Analysis based on adsorbing parameters, frontier molecular orbital theory, and density of states congruously implies that the anatase TiO2(101) surface possesses certain sensitivity to these three gases, especially to C8H8which possesses the best activity to be adsorbed on the proposed surface. Our experimental study showed great consensus with the theoretical calculations. Therefore, TiO2nanotube arrays can be applied as proper gas-sensing material for the preparation of lung cancer prognosis sensors as a family device to realize the simple and convenient detection of lung cancer in our daily life.
Exploiting the Vulnerability of Flow Table Overflow in Software-Defined Network: Attack Model, Evaluation, and Defense
Authors: Zhou Yadong , Chen Kaiyue , Zhang Junjie , Leng Junyuan , Tang Yazhe
Published: January 2018

As the most competitive solution for next-generation network, SDN and its dominant implementation OpenFlow are attracting more and more interests. But besides convenience and flexibility, SDN/OpenFlow also introduces new kinds of limitations and security issues. Of these limitations, the most obvious and maybe the most neglected one is the flow table capacity of SDN/OpenFlow switches. In this paper, we proposed a novel inference attack targeting at SDN/OpenFlow network, which is motivated by the limited flow table capacities of SDN/OpenFlow switches and the following measurable network performance decrease resulting from frequent interactions between data and control plane when the flow table is full. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first proposed inference attack model of this kind for SDN/OpenFlow. We implemented an inference attack framework according to our model and examined its efficiency and accuracy. The evaluation results demonstrate that our framework can infer the network parameters (flow table capacity and usage) with an accuracy of 80% or higher. We also proposed two possible defense strategies for the discovered vulnerability, including routing aggregation algorithm and multilevel flow table architecture. These findings give us a deeper understanding of SDN/OpenFlow limitations and serve as guidelines to future improvements of SDN/OpenFlow.
Exclusion Limits on a Scalar Decaying to Photons and Distinguishing Its Production Mechanisms
Authors: Mandal Tanumoy
Published: January 2018

LHC run-II has a great potential to search for new resonances in the diphoton channel. Latest 13 TeV data already put stringent limits on the cross sections in the diphoton channel assuming the resonance is produced through the gluon-gluon fusion. Many beyond the Standard Model (SM) theories predict TeV-scale scalars, which copiously decay to diphotons. Apart from the gluon-gluon fusion production, these scalars can also be dominantly produced in other ways too at the LHC, namely, through the quark-quark fusion or the gauge boson fusions like the photon-photon, photon-Z, WW, or ZZ fusions. In this paper we use an effective field theory approach where a heavy scalar can be produced in various ways and recast the latest ATLAS diphoton resonance search to put model-independent limits on its mass and effective couplings to the SM particles. If a new scalar is discovered at the LHC, it would be very important to identify its production mechanism in order to probe the nature of the underlying theory. We show that combining various kinematic variables in a multivariate analysis can be very powerful to distinguish different production mechanisms from one another.
Determinants of Dental Care Attendance during Pregnancy: A Systematic Review
Authors: Rocha Juliana Schaia , Arima Letícia Yumi , Werneck Renata Iani , Moysés Samuel Jorge , Baldani Márcia Helena
Published: January 2018

Despite the fact that dental care attendance during pregnancy has been recommended by guidelines and institutions, the demand for dental services is still low among pregnant women. The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the determinants of dental care attendance during pregnancy. We performed a systematic literature search in the electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, Brazilian Library in Dentistry, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Medline using relevant keywords. Studies were filtered by publication year (2000-2016) and language (English, Portuguese, Spanish, and French). The included studies were assessed for quality. Their characteristics and statistically significant factors were reported. Fourteen papers were included in the review. The prevalence of dental service usage during pregnancy ranged from 16 to 83%. Demographic factors included women's age, marital status, parity, and nationality. The socioeconomic factors were income, educational level, and type of health insurance. Many psychological and behavioral factors played a role, including oral health practices, oral health and pregnancy beliefs, and health care maintenance. Referred symptoms of gingivitis, dental pain, or dental problems were perceived need. Demographic, socioeconomic, psychological, behavioral factors and perceived need were associated with the utilization of dental services during pregnancy. More well-designed studies with reliable outcomes are required to confirm the framework described in this review.
O-Arm-Guided Percutaneous Radiofrequency Cordotomy
Authors: Strauss Ido , Berger Assaf , Arad Michal , Hochberg Uri , Tellem Rotem
Published: January 2018

Background: Pain is often one of the most debilitating symptoms in patients with advanced oncological disease. Patients with localized pain due to malignancy refractory to medical treatment can benefit from selective percutaneous cordotomy that disconnects the ascending pain fibers in the spinothalamic tract. Objectives: Over the past year, we have been performing percutaneous radiofrequency cordotomy with the use of the O-Arm intraoperative imaging system that allows both 2D fluoroscopy and 3D reconstructed computerized tomography imaging. We present our experience using this technique, focusing on technical nuances and complications. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of all patients who underwent percutaneous cordotomy between March 2016 and March 2017. Results: Nineteen patients underwent percutaneous cordotomy procedures. Two patients developed intraoperative delirium and were unable to tolerate the procedure. In 16 out of 17 completed procedures, we achieved excellent immediate pain relief (94%). At 1 month after operation, 15 of the 17 (88%) patients were pain free, and at 3 months 5 out of 5 patients available for follow-up were still free of their original pain. Mirror pain developed in 6 of the 17 patients (35%), but was mild in 4 of these cases and controlled with medications. We experienced 1 serious complication (6%) of ipsilateral hemiparesis. Conclusion: Percutaneous cordotomy using the O-Arm is safe and effective in the treatment of intractable oncological pain.
Tuberculosis-Associated Chylothorax: Case Report and Systematic Review of the Literature
Authors: Rajagopala Srinivas , Kancherla Roopa , Ramanathan Ramanathan Palaniappan
Published: January 2018

Tuberculosis (TB) is a rare cause of chylothorax. We describe a case and the results of a systematic review of all reported cases of TB-chylothorax. We identified 37 cases of TB-chylothorax. The symptoms at presentation were constitutional (85.7%; 30/35), dyspnea (60.6%; 20/33), and cough (54.5%; 18/33). Chylothorax developed subsequent to the diagnosis of TB in 27.8% (10/36) of the patients, after a median of 6.75 weeks (IQR 4–9). Chylothorax developed during an immune reconstitution syndrome (IRS) in 16.7% (10/36) of the patients, including immunocompetent ones. TB was disseminated in 45.9% (17/37) of the patients at the diagnosis of chylothorax. Chylothorax developed in the absence of any mediastinal lymphadenopathy in 45.9% (17/37) of the patients; 13.5% (5/37) had isolated tubercular empyema alone. The diagnosis of TB was established microbiologically in 72.2% (26/36) and by biopsy alone in 27.8% (9/36) of the patients. Anti-TB treatment (ATT) was administered for a median of 7.57 months (IQR 6–9). Steroids were administered to 22.9% (8/35) of the patients, often for suspected IRS. Thoracic duct ligation and octreotide were required for only 17.1% (6/35) and 8.6% (3/35) of the patients, respectively. In all, 94.4% (34/36) of the patients had resolution of chylothorax and completed treatment successfully; only 5.6% (2/36) died. In conclusion, TB-chylothorax may develop without obvious mediastinal lymphadenopathy and be associated with tubercular empyema alone. TB-chylothorax can develop during treatment of TB due to IRS, even in immunocompetent patients. ATT and dietary manipulation are associated with good resolution and low mortality, and duct ligation is needed for only a small minority of patients.
The Impact of Aging on Mechanisms of Mammalian Epimorphic Regeneration
Authors: Brunauer Regina , Muneoka Ken
Published: January 2018

Aging is associated with a significant decline of tissue repair and regeneration, ultimately resulting in tissue dysfunction, multimorbidity, and death. Salamanders possess remarkable regenerative abilities and have been studied with the prospect of inducing regeneration in humans and counteracting regenerative decline with aging. However, epimorphic regeneration, the full replacement of amputated structures, also occurs in mammals. One of the best studied models is digit tip regeneration, which is described for mice, and occurs in humans in a comparable manner. To accomplish regeneration, the amputated digit tip has to undergo three interdependent, overlapping steps: (i) wound healing without formation of a scar; (ii) formation of a blastema, a highly proliferative cell mass; and (iii) spatiotemporally regulated differentiation to generate a pattern similar to the original structure. Aging likely interferes with each of these steps. In this article, we provide an overview of the critical signaling pathways for regeneration, as revealed by investigating mammalian digit regeneration, the possible impact of aging on these pathways, and approaches to induce regeneration in the elderly. We hypothesize that with aging, increased Wnt signaling, NF-κB and tumor suppressor activity, and loss of positional information hampers regeneration. Knowledge about the impact of aging on regenerative mechanisms will enable us to safely activate endogenous regeneration in the elderly, and to generate a regeneration-permissive environment for cell therapies.
Hospital Readmission among New Dialysis Patients Associated with Young Age and Poor Functional Status
Authors: Hickson LaTonya J. , Thorsteinsdottir Bjorg , Ramar Priya , Reinalda Megan S. , Crowson Cynthia S. , Williams Amy W. , Albright Robert C. , Onuigbo Macaulay A. , Rule Andrew D. , Shah Nilay D.
Published: January 2018

Background/Aims: Over one-third of hospital discharges among dialysis patients are followed by 30-day readmission. The first year after dialysis start is a high-risk time frame. We examined the rate, causes, timing, and predictors of 30-day readmissions among adult, incident dialysis patients. Methods: Hospital readmissions were assessed from the 91st day to the 15th month after the initiation of dialysis using a Mayo Clinic registry linkage to United States Renal Data System claims during the period January 2001–December 2010. Results: Among 1,727 patients with ≥1 hospitalization, 532 (31%) had ≥1, and 261 (15%) had ≥2 readmissions. Readmission rate was 1.1% per person-day post-discharge, and the highest rates (2.5% per person-day) occurred ≤5 days after index admission. The overall cumulative readmission rate was 33.8% at day 30. Common readmission diagnoses included cardiac issues (22%), vascular disorders (19%), and infection (13%). Similar-cause readmissions to index hospitalization were more common during days 0–14 post-discharge than days 15–30 (37.5 vs. 22.9%; p = 0.004). Younger age at dialysis initiation, inability to transfer/ambulate, serum creatinine ≤5.3 mg/dL, higher number of previous hospitalizations, and longer duration on dialysis were associated with higher readmission rates in multivariable analyses. Patients aged 18–39 were few (8.3%) but comprised 17.7% of “high-readmission” users such that a 30-year-old patient had an 87% chance of being readmitted within 30 days of any hospital discharge, whereas an 80-year-old patient had a 25% chance. Conclusions: Overall, 30-day readmissions are common within the first year of dialysis start. The first 10-day period after discharge, young patients, and those with poor functional status represent key areas for targeted interventions to reduce readmissions.
Arteriovenous Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Differences Across Selected Organs of the Rat
Authors: Książek Monika , Baranowska Urszula , Chabowski Adrian , Baranowski Marcin
Published: January 2018

Background/Aims: Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a bioactive lysosphingolipid that is found in high concentration in plasma. The majority of plasma S1P is transported bound to HDL and albumin. Although the major sources of circulating S1P have been identified, it remains obscure what is the contribution of different organs/tissues to S1P homeostasis in plasma. Answering this question was the major aim of the present study. Methods: The experiment was performed on male Wistar rats from whom blood samples were taken from either: 1) femoral vein, right ventricle of the heart, and abdominal aorta (n=15) or 2) hepatic vein, portal vein, and abdominal aorta (n=11). Plasma was fractionated by sequential flotation ultracentrifugation and sphingolipids were quantified by a HPLC method. Results: Compared to the mixed venous blood sampled from the right ventricle, total plasma and lipoprotein-depleted plasma (LPDP) concentration of S1P in the arterial blood was lower. On the other hand, the level of S1P increased across the leg both in plasma and LPDP. The concentration of S1P, sphingosine, and sphinganine in the plasma, HDL, and LPDP isolated from the blood taken from the hepatic vein was markedly higher compared to both arterial and portal blood. Conclusions: We conclude that, in contrast to HDL-bound S1P, albumin-associated S1P is very labile in the circulation. It is degraded in the pulmonary, and to a lesser extent, gastrointestinal circulation, and released across the liver and skeletal muscle. We also conclude that liver is an important source of HDL-bound S1P and circulating free sphingoid bases.
Multilevel Inverter Fed Switched Reluctance Motors (SRMs): 6/4, 8/6 and 10/8 SRM Geometric Types
Authors: Farah Nabil , Talib M.H.N. , Lazi Jurifa , Ali Majed Abo , Ibrahim Z.
Published: January 2018

Nowadays power electronics circuits are embedded to most of electrical application areas. This approached offers a great control mechanism with simple and easy circuit configuration. Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) is one of the most recent apparatus which draws a great number of researchers’ interests. Previously several attempts are made to use the power converters as driver for SRM such as Voltage Source Inverter (VSI) and bridge converters. This paper presents an analysis study of three level inverter to control the SRM. The inverter is controlled using space vector modulation SVM. The aim of this paper is to report the use the multilevel inverter to be fed into the SRM. The implementation of the multilevel inverter is abl to reduce the Total Harmonics Distortion (THD). Performance comparison are made between the multilevel and previous power electronics circuits that applied to the SRM. The simulation results have been conducted by MATLAB/SIMULINK software.
Speed and Position Estimator of Dual-PMSM for Independent Control Drives using Five-Leg Inverter
Authors: Mat Lazi Jurifa , Ibrahim Zulkifilie , Hairul Talib MD , Jidin Auzani , Sutikno Tole
Published: January 2018

Nowadays, A lot of industry requires Multi Motor System (MMS) applications such as propulsion and traction power, HEV, conveyer and air-conditioner. The Conventional arrangement for MMS usually done by cascading the motors drives which each drives has individual inverter. Part of MMS, Dual-Motor drives fed by a single inverter is being paid attention by the researchers. Dual-motor drives using a single three-leg inverter has its limitation in the case of different operating conditions and independent speed control requirement. Therefore, dual-Motor drives using a single Five-leg Inverter (FLI) was proposed for independent control for both motors. In PMSM drives, the information of the feedback speed and rotor angular position is compulsory for variable speed drives. Conventional solution is by using speed sensor which will increase size, cost, extra hardwire and feedback devices, especially for the case of dual-PMSM drives. The best solution to overcome this problem is by eliminating the usage of speed and position sensors for Dual-motor drives. This paper presents a new sensorless strategy using speed and position estimator for Independent Dual- Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machine (PMSM) drives which utilize Five-Leg Inverter (FLI). The proposed strategy is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink to evaluate the overall motor drive performance. Meanwhile the experimental set-up is connected to dSPACE 1103 Board. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed estimator is successfully managed to control the Dual-PMSM drives for variation of speed and for different direction applications.