bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Optical coherence tomography angiography characterisation of Best disease and associated choroidal neovascularisation
Authors: Guduru Abhilash , Gupta Arushi , Tyagi Mudit , Jalali Subhadra , Chhablani Jay
Published: August 2017

Aims

To characterise the vasculature of the retina in patients with Best vitelliform dystrophy, including those with choroidal neovascularisation (CNV), using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) and correlate with fluorescein angiography (FA).

Methods

This prospective observational study included 19 eyes of 10 patients with Best disease. Using OCTA, all layers of retina were qualitatively characterised for each eye. Patients with CNV also underwent FA, and areas of CNV were measured by OCTA and FA and correlated.

Results

Retinal characteristics revealed 14 (74%) eyes with abnormal foveal avascular zone (FAZ) in the superficial layer, 19 eyes (100%) had an abnormal FAZ in deep layers, 11 (58%) eyes had a hyper-reflective centre in the superficial layer, 18 (95%) had patchy vascularity loss in the deep layer, 17 (89%) eyes had hyporeflective centre in the choriocapillary (CC) layer and 12 (63%) of those eyes had hyper-reflective material within the hyporeflective centre. Also, notably 6 (86%) CNV eyes had a "halo" or a hypolucent area surrounded in the CNV complex in the outer retinal layer. CNV patterns resembled dense net, loose net, mixed and a new found pattern of a ring shape. CNV measurements revealed an average area of 1.66±1.18mm2 using OCTA and an average area of 0.88±0.76mm2
using FA (p=0.15).

Conclusion

OCTA reveals that eyes with Best disease have abnormal FAZ, patchy vascularity loss in the superficial and deep layers of the retina and capillary dropout with a hyporeflective centre in CC layer. Further, OCTA is superior to FA in measuring CNV.
Sepsis and Critical Illness Research Center investigators: protocols and standard operating procedures for a prospective cohort study of sepsis in critically ill surgical patients
Authors: Loftus Tyler J , Mira Juan C , Ozrazgat-Baslanti Tezcan , Ghita Gabriella L , Wang Zhongkai , Stortz Julie A , Brumback Babette A , Bihorac Azra , Segal Mark S , Anton Stephen D , Leeuwenburgh Christiaan , Mohr Alicia M , Efron Philip A , Moldawer Lyle L , Moore Frederick A , Brakenridge Scott C
Published: August 2017

Introduction

Sepsis is a common, costly and morbid cause of critical illness in trauma and surgical patients. Ongoing advances in sepsis resuscitation and critical care support strategies have led to improved in-hospital mortality. However, these patients now survive to enter state of chronic critical illness (CCI), persistent low-grade organ dysfunction and poor long-term outcomes driven by the persistent inflammation, immunosuppression and catabolism syndrome (PICS). The Sepsis and Critical Illness Research Center (SCIRC) was created to provide a platform by which the prevalence and pathogenesis of CCI and PICS may be understood at a mechanistic level across multiple medical disciplines, leading to the development of novel management strategies and targeted therapies.

Methods

Here, we describe the design, study cohort and standard operating procedures used in the prospective study of human sepsis at a level 1 trauma centre and tertiary care hospital providing care for over 2600 critically ill patients annually. These procedures include implementation of an automated sepsis surveillance initiative, augmentation of clinical decisions with a computerised sepsis protocol, strategies for direct exportation of quality-filtered data from the electronic medical record to a research database and robust long-term follow-up.

Ethics and dissemination

This study has been registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, approved by the University of Florida Institutional Review Board and is actively enrolling subjects. Dissemination of results is forthcoming.
Balance deficiencies in women with fibromyalgia assessed using computerised dynamic posturography: a cross-sectional study in Spain
Authors: Pérez-de-Heredia-Torres Marta , Huertas-Hoyas Elisabet , Martínez-Piédrola Rosa , Palacios-Ceña Domingo , Alegre-Ayala Jorge , Santamaría-Vázquez Montserrat , Fernández-de-las-Peñas César
Published: August 2017

Objectives

Our aims were (1) to compare the sensory organisation of balance control and balance strategies between women with fibromyalgia (FM) and healthy women; (2) to investigate which sensory component, that is, vestibular, visual or somato-sensory, is the most affected in FM and (3) to determine the associations between the functional independence measure (FIM) and balance responses in FM.

Design

Cross-sectional observational study.

Setting

Urban regional hospital and university (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain).

Participants

Twenty women with FM and 20 matched healthy women.

Primary/secondary outcome measures

The sensory organisation test (SOT) was used to determine postural sway and balance during six different conditions with subjects in a standing position. The FIM was used to determine the level of functional independence in daily life activities (ADL). Between-group differences were analysed with analysis of covariance, and the Spearman's test was used for correlations.

Results

Significant differences between-groups and between-conditions were found for all SOT conditions (all, p<0.001): women with FM showed lower scores being the vestibular score the most affected. Different correlations between SOT conditions and some specific ADL were observed in the FM group: bathing activity and balance condition 6 (rs=0.541; p<0.001), bed transfers activity and conditions 2 (rs=0.491; p<0.001) and 3 (rs=0.510; p<0.001), positioning strategy six and dressing the upper (rs=0.530; p<0.001) or lower (rs=0.562; p<0.001) body, and toileting (rs=0.521; p<0.001): the greater the loss of balance, the greater the interference on some daily life activities.

Conclusions

Women with FM exhibited balance deficiencies and used different strategies for maintaining their balance in standing, which was associated with a negative impact on functional independence.
Prevalence and correlates of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder among Chinese healthcare workers exposed to physical violence: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Shi Lei , Wang Lingling , Jia Xiaoli , Li Zhe , Mu Huitong , Liu Xin , Peng Boshi , Li Anqi , Fan Lihua
Published: August 2017

Objectives

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychological maladjustment to undergoing a traumatic event. Our aim was to measure the prevalence of PTSD among Chinese healthcare workers exposed to physical violence‚ and explore the associations of their demographic characteristics, social support, personality traits‚ and coping styles with their PTSD symptoms.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted using the Workplace Violence Scale, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), Social Support Rating Scale (SSRS), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale and Trait Coping Style Questionnaire. We used convenience sampling method to collect data from March 2015 to September 2016. Healthcare workers (n=2706) from 39 public hospitals located in Heilongjiang, Hebei and Beijing provinces of China completed the questionnaires (effective response rate=84.25%).

Results

Overall, the prevalence of physical violence in the previous 12 months was 13.60% (n=2706). The prevalence of PTSD among the healthcare workers who experienced physical violence was 28.0% (n=368). Most of the victims of physical violence (50.80%) did not exhibit PTSD symptoms based on their PCL-C scores, and 47.0% did not manifest the diagnostic criteria for PTSD after experiencing physical violence. The level of PTSD symptoms was negatively correlated with their scores on the SSRS (r=−0.188, p<0.001). The hierarchical regression analysis (block 3) revealed that, in women, positive coping was significantly associated with PTSD symptoms (β=−0.376, p=0.001). However, the effect of positive coping was not significant in men.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the aftermath of physical violence contributes to the current prevalence of PTSD. The positive effects of social support on PTSD symptoms suggest that it has practical implications for interventions to promote psychological health. The healthcare workers’ coping styles influenced the development of PTSD symptoms. Therefore, adopting effective coping styles and receiving social support have potential roles in the recovery from trauma after experiencing physical violence.
Childhood respiratory illness presentation and service utilisation in primary care: a six-year cohort study in Wellington, New Zealand, using natural language processing (NLP) software
Authors: Dowell Anthony , Darlow Ben , Macrae Jayden , Stubbe Maria , Turner Nikki , McBain Lynn
Published: August 2017

Objectives

To identify childhood respiratory tract-related illness presentation rates and service utilisation in primary care by interrogating free text and coded data from electronic medical records.

Design

Retrospective cohort study. Data interrogation used a natural language processing software inference algorithm.

Setting

36 primary care practices in New Zealand. Data analysed from January 2008 to December 2013.

Participants

The records from 77 582 children enrolled were reviewed over a 6-year period to estimate the presentation of childhood respiratory illness and service utilisation. This cohort represents 268 919 person-years of data and over 650 000 unique consultations.

Main outcome measure

Childhood respiratory illness presentation rate to primary care practice, with description of seasonal and yearly variation.

Results

Respiratory conditions constituted 46% of all child-general practitioner consultations with a stable year-on-year pattern of seasonal peaks. Upper respiratory tract infection was the most common respiratory category accounting for 21.0% of all childhood consultations, followed by otitis media (12.2%), wheeze-related illness (9.7%), throat infection (7.4%) and lower respiratory tract infection (4.4%). Almost 70% of children presented to their general practitioner with at least one respiratory condition in their first year of life; this reduced to approximately 25% for children aged 10–17.

Conclusion

This is the first study to assess the primary care incidence and service utilisation of childhood respiratory illness in a large primary care cohort by interrogating electronic medical record free text. The study identified the very high primary care workload related to childhood respiratory illness, especially during the first 2 years of life. These data can enable more effective planning of health service delivery. The findings and methodology have relevance to many countries, and the use of primary care ‘big data’ in this way can be applied to other health conditions.
Improving hospital death certification in Vietnam: results of a pilot study of injury-related fatalities
Authors: Walton Merrilyn , Harrison Reema , Chevalier Anna , Esguerra Esmond , Chinh Nguyen Duc , Haian Haphan , Duong Dang Van , Giang Huong
Published: August 2017

Background

Vietnam has prioritised the establishment of a civil registration system for deaths but as yet is unable to report accurate national statistics for the population of 93.5 million people due to inadequate mortality data. Verbal autopsy data suggest that injury is a third leading cause of death (by International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision chapters) in Vietnam, with road traffic injuries in particular a significant and increasing challenge. The study aims to present a more accurate profile of the number and probable causes of these deaths based on data collected hospitals using a version of the WHO death certificate modified for the Vietnamese context.

Methods

Death data collected from Viet Duc Surgical and Trauma Hospital in Vietnam between 1 March 2013 to 31 March 2015 was analysed to explore the number and probable causes of deaths for deaths resulting from an injury.

Results

A total of 1616 deaths were recorded for Viet Duc Hospital, of which 73% (1181/1616) were associated with an injury. Most (83%; n=871/1049) injury-related deaths for which immediate cause of death was documented were as a result of head/brain injuries. Injury-related deaths were most commonly caused by from traffic accidents (72%, 853/1181). The majority of patients suffering injury-related deaths were discharged home to die (93%, 1097/1181).

Conclusion

The study confirms some findings from previous studies about deaths from injuries, while disagreeing with others, highlighting the challenge for Vietnam in collecting these data. Gathering detailed death data provides essential evidence on which to base decisions about allocation of government funding and policy for injury prevention and treatment.
Infectious keratoconjunctivitis and occurrence of Mycoplasma conjunctivae and Chlamydiaceae in small domestic ruminants from Central Karakoram, Pakistan
Authors: Fernández‐Aguilar Xavier , Rossi Luca , Cabezón Óscar , Giorgino Andrea , Victoriano Llopis Isis , Frey Joachim , López‐Olvera Jorge Ramón
Published: August 2017

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis (IKC) is a contagious eye disease primarily caused by Mycoplasma conjunctivae in domestic and wild Caprinae. Chlamydophila species have also been detected in ruminants with IKC. The objectives of this study are to investigate the ocular infection of M. conjunctivae and Chlamydiaceae and assess its interaction in relation to IKC in sheep and goats from remote communities around the Central Karakoram National Park in Pakistan, performing a combination of cross‐sectional and case–control study design. Mostly asymptomatic and endemic infections of M. conjunctivae and Chlamydiaceae were found in sheep (19.3 per cent and 4.5 per cent, respectively) and goats (9.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively) from all communities, assessed by qPCR. Prevalence significantly differed between species only for M. conjunctivae (P=0.0184), which was also more prevalent in younger sheep (P<0.01). Chlamydophila pecorum was identified by sequencing and was related with IKC only when coinfection with M. conjunctivae occurred, which suggest a synergic interaction. Cluster analysis of M. conjunctivae strains revealed higher diversity of strains than expected, evidenced interspecific transmission and suggested a higher local livestock trade than previously assumed. These results highlight the widespread occurrence of M conjunctivae in sheep worldwide and its implications for wildlife should be assessed from a conservation perspective.
Are serum amyloid A or D‐lactate useful to diagnose synovial contamination or sepsis in horses?
Authors: Robinson Claire S , Singer Ellen R , Piviani Martina , Rubio‐Martinez Luis M
Published: August 2017

Synovial sepsis in horses is life threatening and accurate diagnosis allowing prompt treatment is warranted. This study assessed the diagnostic value of serum amyloid A (SAA) and D‐lactate in blood and synovial fluid (SF) as diagnostic markers of synovial sepsis in horses and correlated them with total nucleated cell count (TNCC), percentage of neutrophils (%N) and total protein (TP) in SF. Blood and SF SAA and D‐lactate concentrations were determined in a case–control observational study including 112 horses (38 with synovial contamination or sepsis (SCS), 66 with non‐septic intra‐synovial pathology (NSISP) and 8 controls). Blood and SF SAA were significantly higher in SCS than in NSISP and control horses. SAA values were similar in NSISP and control horses. SF SAA was moderately correlated with synovial TNCC, TP and blood SAA. Blood and SF SAA were 82.4 per cent and 80 per cent sensitive and 88.9 per cent and 73 per cent specific for diagnosis of SCS, with cut‐off values of 60.7 and 1.14 µg/ml, respectively. Blood and SF D‐lactate concentrations were not significantly different between groups. This study shows that blood and SF SAA concentrations can aid to distinguish SCS from non‐septic synovial pathology; however, D‐lactate was not useful.
Characterization of eco-substituted cement containing waste ground calcined clay brick
Authors: Nigri Ghania , Cherait Yacine , Nigri Soraya
Published: August 2017

This paper discusses the potentialities of using waste bricks as a partial replacement of clinker in blended cement. The blended cements are produced by grinding and mixing clinker, waste brick and gypsum. Eight mixtures containing 0 to 35% of bricks as a clinker replacement are prepared and characterized. Partially replacing clinker by brick results in early strength, but are lower than that of the reference. However, at 90 days, the strengths are greater than that reference. The setting times and the shrinkages were reduced. Blended cement has been formulated with optimal composition of 10% of waste brick. The microstructure of the paste was studied using scanning electron microscopy and the evolution of cement hydration was studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. It was concluded that the binder with 10% of brick shows a dense and homogeneous particles distribution. The pozzolanic reaction occurs through the decreases of the amorphous silica during hydration.
A comparison of two-dimensional and three-dimensional flow structures over artificial pool-riffle sequences
Authors: Fazel Najafabadi Elham , Afzalimehr Hossein , Sui Jueyi
Published: August 2017

Experiments have been carried out in a flume with one 2D pool-riffle sequence and one 3D pool-riffle sequence, respectively. Objectives of this study are to determine whether or not the convergence of lateral flow exists. Variations of the near-bed shear stress have been studied. The characteristics of the secondary currents along a pool-riffle sequence have been investigated. Results showed that for the 3D pool-riffle sequence, the near-bed velocity decreases along convective deceleration flow (CDF) and increases along convective acceleration flow (CAF), respectively. It is found that the shear velocities estimated from the slope of the velocity gradient in the inner layer, decrease in the CDF section, and increase in the CAF section in the 3D pool-riffle sequences. The Reynolds shear stress is highest at the CDF section along longitudinal lines with distances of 10 cm and 20 cm away from the channel wall.
Trap trees: an effective method for monitoring mountain pine beetle activities in novel habitats
Authors: Klutsch Jennifer G. , Cale Jonathan A. , Whitehouse Caroline , Kanekar Sanat S. , Erbilgin Nadir
Published: August 2017

Mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) has recently expanded its range into the lodgepole pine forests in Alberta, Canada. However, it is unknown whether semiochemical tools developed in the beetle’s historical range are suitable for monitoring MPB in the new environment. Thus, we conducted a 3-year study to test new MPB monitoring tools in Alberta. A field trial selected a combination of MPB pheromones and two host volatiles. Using this combination, we baited different numbers of trees in triangular, square, or rectangular formations (spatial arrangements of trees) to determine how the densities of baited trees affect MPB attraction. Three plots, each made up of three formations, were arranged in a linear transect at various distances between formation boundaries. The proportion of baited trees mass-attacked was highest in the square formation. However, the proportion of spillover trees mass-attacked (attacks on non-baited trees) was lower when formations were 1 km apart compared with 4 or 8 km apart. In a follow-up test of the square formation alone, there was no difference in trap tree effectiveness between distances of 8 and 12 km. We suggest that four baited trees spaced 50 m apart in a square formation at a 12 km distance can be used in the field.
Effect of carbon on behavior of helium in vanadium: A first-principles investigation
Authors: Hua Juan , Li Ying , Liu Yue-Lin , Zhao Ming-Wen , Liu Xiang-Dong
Published: August 2017

By using the first-principles calculations, we studied the effect of carbon (C) on the behaviors of helium (He) in vanadium (V). The results show that C can effectively reduce the solubility of He in bulk V. Compared with defect-free V bulk, the C-vac complex reduces the charge density around it, which makes it act as a trapping center and promotes He nucleation. The maximum number of He atoms trapped by the C-vac complex is five. Furthermore, the interaction between He and the C-vac complex is slightly stronger than that in a C-free vacancy, which indicates that C could increase the trapping ability of vacancy to He atom. Based on the above results, we conclude that C has a certain influence on the dissolution and the trapping behaviors of He in V.
Fast Non-Negative Matrix Factorizations for Face Recognition
Authors: Chen Wen-Sheng , Li Yugao , Pan Binbin , Xu Chen
Published: August 2017

Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NMF), as a promising image-data representation approach, encounters the problems of slow convergence and weak classification ability. To overcome these limitations, this paper, based on different error measurements, proposes two kinds of NMF algorithms with fast gradient descent and high discriminant performance. It is shown that the proposed Fast NMF (FNMF) methods have larger step sizes than those of traditional NMFs. Moreover, the traditional NMFs are the special cases of our methods. To further enhance the discriminative power of non-negative features, we exploit our previous block NMF technique and obtain Block FNMF (BFNMF) algorithms, which are supervised decomposition approaches with some good properties, such as the highly sparse features and orthogonal features from different classes. In experiments, both convergence on non-negative decomposition and performance on face recognition (FR) are considered for evaluations. Compared with traditional NMF algorithms and some state-of-the-art methods, experimental results indicate the effective and superior performance of the proposed NMF methods.
Lorenz gauge fixing of f(T) teleparallel cosmology
Authors: El Hanafy W. , Nashed G. G. L.
Published: August 2017

In teleparallel gravity, we apply Lorenz type gauge fixing to cope with redundant degrees of freedom in the vierbein field. This condition is mainly to restore the Lorentz symmetry of the teleparallel torsion scalar. In cosmological application, this technique provides standard cosmology, turnaround, bounce or [Formula: see text]CDM as separate scenarios. We reconstruct the [Formula: see text] gravity which generates these models. We study the stability of the solutions by analyzing the corresponding phase portraits. Also, we investigate Lorenz gauge in the unimodular coordinates, it leads to unify a nonsingular bounce and Standard Model cosmology in a single model, where crossing the phantom divide line is achievable through a finite-time singularity of Type IV associated with a de Sitter fixed point. We reconstruct the unimodular [Formula: see text] gravity which generates the unified cosmic evolution showing the role of the torsion gravity to establish a healthy bounce scenario.
Observing the shadow of modified gravity black hole
Authors: Alhamzawi Ahmed
Published: August 2017

A study of the shadow cast by rotating black holes in different models of modified gravity is presented. It is shown that the size of the shadow cast depends on the modified gravity model used. The distortions of the shadow cast by modified gravity black holes are investigated and the effects are compared with the distortions cast by Kerr black hole. The shadow of a rotating black hole in modified gravity is found to be similar to the shadow cast by Kerr black hole but with different sizes and distortion effects. The naked singularity by rotating modified gravity black hole is discussed. Finally, it is shown that some modified gravity models can present a considerable contribution to the size of black hole shadow.
Quasinormal modes of scalar and Dirac perturbations of Bardeen de Sitter black holes
Authors: Wahlang Wadbor , Jeena Piyush A. , Chakrabarti Sayan
Published: August 2017

So far the study of black hole perturbations has been mostly focused upon the classical black holes with singularities at the origin and hidden by event horizon. Compared to that, the regular black holes are a completely new class of solutions arising out of modification of general theory of relativity by coupling gravity to an external form of matter. Therefore it is extremely important to study the behavior of such regular black holes under different types of perturbations. Recently a new regular Bardeen black hole solution with a de Sitter branch has been proposed by Fernando [ arXiv:1611.05337 [gr-qc]]. We compute the quasi-normal (QN) frequencies for the regular Bardeen de Sitter (BdS) black hole due to massless and massive scalar field perturbations as well as the massless Dirac perturbations. We analyze the behavior of both real and imaginary parts of QN frequencies by varying different parameters of the theory.
THE OPTIMAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THETROJAN Y CHROMOSOMEERADICATION STRATEGY OF AN INVASIVE SPECIES
Authors: KELLY MICHAEL R. , WANG XUEYING
Published: August 2017

Invasive aquatic species continue to be a persistent problem around the world. The Trojan Y Chromosome (TYC) eradication strategy has recently been developed to help fight the problem in aquatic systems by targeting only the invasive species, sparing native marine stock. It involves rearing genetically modified samples of the invasive species and introducing them into the environment to alter the sex ratio of the invasive population. The paper is devoted to finding the optimal implementation of the TYC eradication strategy of an invasive species as well as a modified, potentially more cost-effective strategy. The modified TYC strategy (MTYC) eliminates one round of exposure to sex hormones compared to the TYC strategy. After introducing both strategies, the optimal control problems for each are formulated. The two strategies are compared through numerical simulations. Our results illustrate that the MTYC strategy, with lower implementation costs, is a better strategy option when trying to minimize the overall effective cost in most scenarios.
Stackelberg Oligopoly TU-Games: Characterization and Nonemptiness of the Core
Authors: Hou Dongshuang , Lardon Aymeric , Driessen T. S. H.
Published: August 2017

In this paper, we consider the dynamic setting of Stackelberg oligopoly TU-games in [Formula: see text]-characteristic function form. Any deviating coalition produces an output at a first period as a leader and then, outsiders simultaneously and independently play a quantity at a second period as followers. We assume that the inverse demand function is linear and that firms operate at constant but possibly distinct marginal costs. First, we show that the core of any Stackelberg oligopoly TU-game always coincides with the set of imputations. Second, we provide a necessary and sufficient condition, depending on the heterogeneity of firms’ marginal costs, under which the core is nonempty.
Improvement of Method Queues by Progress of the Piezoresistive Accelerometer Parameters
Authors: Defdaf Mabrouk , Ghemari Zine , Elias Hadjaj Aoel. , Saad Salah
Published: August 2017

In this paper the queues are used as a method to improve maintenance performance. The information collected by vibration analysis is used to check the system status and see whether a maintenance operation is to be organized. Thus, for a precise decision, the improvement of accelerometer parameters is required. In order to solve this issue, the piezoresistive accelerometer step and impulse responses are enhanced by using appropriate parameters (damping rate and frequency range). Computer simulation tests were conducted to confirm this approach. The obtained results have shown the difference between the accelerometer with the proposed parameters and the accelerometer used in the experiment. It can be concluded that the proposed parameters provide stable and accurate accelerometer.
Comparative Evaluation of Performances of TiAlN-, AlCrN- and AlCrN/TiAlN-Coated Carbide Cutting Tools and Uncoated Carbide Cutting Tools on Turning EN24 Alloy Steel
Authors: Kumar T. Sampath , Prabu S. Balasivanandha , Kumar T. Sorna
Published: August 2017

In the present work, the performances of TiAlN-, AlCrN- and AlCrN/TiAlN-coated and uncoated tungsten carbide cutting tool inserts are evaluated from the turning studies conducted on EN24 alloy steel workpiece. The output parameters such as cutting forces, surface roughness and tool wear for TiAlN-, AlCrN- and AlCrN/TiAlN-coated carbide cutting tools are compared with uncoated carbide cutting tools (K10). The design of experiment based on Taguchi’s approach is used to obtain the best turning parameters, namely cutting speed ([Formula: see text]), feed rate ([Formula: see text]) and depth of cut ([Formula: see text]), in order to have a better surface finish and minimum tool flank wear. An orthogonal array (L[Formula: see text] was used to conduct the experiments. The results show that the AlCrN/TiAlN-coated cutting tool provided a much better surface finish and minimum tool flank wear. The minimum tool flank wear and minimum surface roughness were obtained using AlCrN/TiAlN-coated tools, when [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]m/min, [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm/rev and [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm.
The Impact of Green Supply Chain on Enterprise Performance: In the Perspective of China
Authors: Khan Syed Abdul Rehman , Dong Qianli , Zhang Yu , Khan Syed Shahid
Published: August 2017

This study explores the impact of green supply chain (GSC) practices on the enterprise performance in the context of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. A sample of 415 companies’ data was collected from the Chinese manufacturing industry. There are five predictors, including green distribution, green purchasing, green manufacturing, green information system, and eco-design, that were measured for the GSC practices. The GSC practices were measured by five predictors, including green distribution, green purchasing, green manufacturing, green information system, and eco-design. By using exploratory analysis and linear multiple regression analysis, the findings show that except for green distribution, rest of the independent variables have been found to be positively significant to predict enterprise performance. However, the green purchasing has revealed the greatest impact on enterprise performance. Therefore, senior management of the enterprises should implement green practices in their supply chain to increase the overall performance. In future, researchers can conduct comparative studies between manufacturing industry and other industries. In addition, they may bring in some other independent variables, including green logistics, co-operation with customers, and green transportation system. In this research, we estimate the economic and environmental performances together as enterprise performance. But in future, researchers may also calculate the economic and environmental performances separately.
On Jackson’s proof of Ramanujan’s 1ψ1 summation formula
Authors: Villacorta Jorge Luis Cimadevilla
Published: August 2017

In this paper, the author proves some basic hypergeometric series which utilizes the same ideas that Margaret Jackson used to give a proof of Ramanujan’s [Formula: see text] summation formula.
On the index conjecture in zero-sum theory: Singular case
Authors: Ge Fan
Published: August 2017

Let [Formula: see text] be a minimal zero-sum sequence over a finite cyclic group [Formula: see text] of order [Formula: see text]. An important question in zero-sum theory is to determine the pairs [Formula: see text] for which every minimal zero-sum sequence [Formula: see text] of length [Formula: see text] over [Formula: see text] has index 1. Progress towards this question has been made by various authors; the only case that remains open, known as the index conjecture, is when [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. In this paper, we make a contribution to the index conjecture. Namely, we prove that if [Formula: see text] is singular then the index of [Formula: see text] is [Formula: see text].
Environmental Benefit of Improving Wastewater Quality: A Shadow Prices Approach for Sensitive Areas
Authors: Bellver-Domingo A. , Hernández-Sancho F.
Published: August 2017

The use of effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as a non-conventional source of water for wetlands in arid and semi-arid regions is becoming the most-often sought solution for maintaining water flow in sensitive wetlands there. However, the managing effluent quality should be a requirement because excess nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) can generate eutrophication problems in wetlands. In the Mediterranean area in general, wetlands are strongly vulnerable to eutrophication, which is why they are classified as sensitive areas. Our study uses a data set from 24 WWTPs, effluents of which are discharged to wetlands in the coast of Community of Valencia. We use the shadow prices methodology to quantify the environmental avoided costs and the environmental benefit (both in monetary units) of nitrogen and phosphorus removal in wastewater effluent. The results highlight the importance of reducing these pollutants in WWTP effluents for maintaining the suitable water quality in wetlands. Our study demonstrates the potential for using shadow prices methodology for monetary valuation of environmental externalities in wetlands that use treated wastewater as a non-conventional water source.
Differential Hybrid Games
Authors: Platzer André
Published: August 2017

This article introduces
differential hybrid games
, which combine differential games with hybrid games. In both kinds of games, two players interact with continuous dynamics. The difference is that hybrid games also provide all the features of hybrid systems and discrete games, but only deterministic differential equations. Differential games, instead, provide differential equations with continuous-time game input by both players, but not the luxury of hybrid games, such as mode switches and discrete-time or alternating adversarial interaction. This article augments
differential game logic
with modalities for the combined dynamics of differential hybrid games. It shows how hybrid games subsume differential games and introduces
differential game invariants
and
differential game variants
for proving properties of differential games inductively.
The Probability of a Computable Output from a Random Oracle
Authors: Barmpalias George , Cenzer Douglas , Porter Christopher P.
Published: August 2017

Consider a universal oracle Turing machine that prints a finite or an infinite binary sequence, based on the answers to the binary queries that it makes during the computation. We study the probability that this output is infinite and computable when the machine is given a random (in the probabilistic sense) stream of bits as the answers to its queries during an infinitary computation. Surprisingly, we find that these probabilities are the entire class of real numbers in (0,1) that can be written as the difference of two halting probabilities relative to the halting problem. In particular, there are universal Turing machines that produce a computable infinite output with probability exactly 1/2. Our results contrast a large array of facts (the most well-known being the randomness of Chaitin’s halting probability) that witness maximal initial segment complexity of probabilities associated with universal machines. Our proof uses recent advances in algorithmic randomness.
The Complexity of Phylogeny Constraint Satisfaction Problems
Authors: Bodirsky Manuel , Jonsson Peter , Pham Trung Van
Published: August 2017

We systematically study the computational complexity of a broad class of computational problems in phylogenetic reconstruction. The class contains, for example, the rooted triple consistency problem, forbidden subtree problems, the quartet consistency problem, and many other problems studied in the bioinformatics literature. The studied problems can be described as
constraint satisfaction problems
, where the constraints have a first-order definition over the rooted triple relation. We show that every such phylogeny problem can be solved in polynomial time or is NP-complete. On the algorithmic side, we generalize a well-known polynomial-time algorithm of Aho, Sagiv, Szymanski, and Ullman for the rooted triple consistency problem. Our algorithm repeatedly solves linear equation systems to construct a solution in polynomial time. We then show that every phylogeny problem that cannot be solved by our algorithm is NP-complete. Our classification establishes a dichotomy for a large class of infinite structures that we believe is of independent interest in universal algebra, model theory, and topology. The proof of our main result combines results and techniques from various research areas: a recent classification of the model-complete cores of the reducts of the homogeneous binary branching C-relation, Leeb’s Ramsey theorem for rooted trees, and universal algebra.
Report on the 5th International Workshop on Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval (BIR 2017)
Authors: Mayr Philipp , Frommholz Ingo , Cabanac Guillaume
Published: August 2017

This workshop report presents the output of the fifth Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval (BIR) workshop, which has been co-located with the 39th European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR 2017) in Aberdeen, UK. We motivate our workshop and outline the papers (one keynote, six regular papers and five poster papers) presented at BIR 2017. Finally, we conclude with an outlook and future directions of this workshop activity.
ECIR 2017 Workshop on Exploitation of Social Media for Emergency Relief and Preparedness (SMERP 2017)
Authors: Ghosh Saptarshi , Ghosh Kripabandhu , Ganguly Debasis , Chakraborty Tanmoy , Jones Gareth J.F. , Moens Marie-Francine
Published: August 2017

The first international workshop on Exploitation of Social Media for Emergency Relief and Preparedness (SMERP) was held in conjunction with the 2017 European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR) in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK. The aim of the workshop was to explore various technologies for extracting useful information from social media content in disaster situations. The workshop included a peer-reviewed research paper track, a data challenge, two keynote talks, and discussion sessions on the relevant open research challenges. This report presents an overview of the workshop, including the motivations behind organizing the workshop, and summaries of the research papers and keynote talks at the workshop. We also reflect on the future directions as inferred from discussion sessions during the workshop
Literature-Based Discovery by Learning Heterogeneous Bibliographic Information Networks
Authors: Sebastian Yakub
Published: August 2017

Literature-based discovery (LBD) research aims at finding effective computational methods for retrieving previously unknown information connections between clusters of research papers from disparate research areas. Existing methods encompass two general approaches. The first approach searches for these unknown connections by examining the textual contents of research papers. In addition to the existing textual features, the second approach incorporates structural features of scientific literatures, such as citation structures. These approaches, however, have not considered research papers' latent bibliographic metadata structures as important features that can be used for predicting previously unknown relationships between them

This thesis investigates a new graph-based LBD method that exploits the latent bibliographic metadata connections between pairs of research papers. The heterogeneous bibliographic information network is proposed as an efficient graph-based data structure for modeling the complex relationships between these metadata. In contrast to previous approaches, this method seamlessly combines textual and citation information in the form of path-based metadata features for predicting future co-citation links between research papers from disparate research fields. The results reported in this thesis provide evidence that the method is effective for reconstructing the historical literature-based discovery hypotheses

This thesis also investigates the effects of semantic modeling and topic modeling on the performance of the proposed method. For semantic modeling, a general-purpose word sense disambiguation technique is proposed to reduce the lexical ambiguity in the title and abstract of research papers. The experimental results suggest that the reduced lexical ambiguity did not necessarily lead to a better performance of the method. This thesis discusses some of the possible contributing factors to these results.

Finally, topic modeling is used for learning the latent topical relations between research papers. The learned topic model is incorporated into the heterogeneous bibliographic information network graph and allows new predictive features to be learned. The results in this thesis suggest that topic modeling improves the performance of the proposed method by increasing the overall accuracy for predicting the future co-citation links between disparate research papers.
A Study of the Overlap Among Document Representations
Authors: Katzer Jeffrey , Tessier Judith , Frakes William , Das-Gupta Padmini
Published: August 2017

Most previous investigations comparing the performance of different representations have used recall and precision as performance measures. However, there is evidence to show that these measures are insensitive to an important difference between representations. To explain, two representations may perform similarly on these measures, while retrieving very different sets of documents. Equivalence of representations should be decided on the basis of similarity in performance and similarity in the documents retrieved. This study compared the performance of four representations in the PsycAbs database. In addition, overlap between retrieved sets was also computed where overlap is the proportion of retrieved documents that are the same for pairs of document representations. Results indicate that for any two representations considered, performance values differed slightly while overlap scores were also low, thus supporting the evidence that recall and precision as performance measures mask differences between the sets of retrieved documents. Results are interpreted to propose an optimal ordering of the representations and to examine the contribution of each representation given this combination.
A New Theoretical Framework For Information Retrieval
Authors: van Rijsbergen C. J.
Published: August 2017

A new franework based on a non-classical logic is proposed for investigating IR. The paper motivates the use of a particular conditional logic as the 'right' logic for IR. A new principle, the logical uncertainty principle, is proposed, to deal with the inherent uncertainty associated with applicable inferences.
Scatter/Gather
Authors: Cutting Douglass R. , Karger David R. , Pedersen Jan O. , Tukey John W.
Published: August 2017

Document clustering has not been well received as an information retrieval tool. Objections to its use fall into two main categories: first, that clustering is too slow for large corpora (with running time often quadratic in the number of documents); and second, that clustering does not appreciably improve retrieval.

We argue that these problems arise only when clustering is used in an attempt to improve conventional search techniques. However, looking at clustering as an information access tool in its own right obviates these objections, and provides a powerful new access paradigm. We present a document browsing technique that employs docum-ent clustering as its primary operation. We also present fast (linear time) clustering algorithm.
Pivoted Document Length Normalization
Authors: Singhal Amit , Buckley Chris , Mitra Manclar
Published: August 2017

Automatic information retrieval systems have to deal with documents of varying lengths in a text collection. Document length normalization is used to fairly retrieve documents of all lengths. In this study, we ohserve that a normalization scheme that retrieves documents of all lengths with similar chances as their likelihood of relevance will outperform another scheme which retrieves documents with chances very different from their likelihood of relevance. We show that the retrievaf probabilities for a particular normalization method deviate systematically from the relevance probabilities across different collections. We present pivoted normalization, a technique that can be used to modify any normalization function thereby reducing the gap between the relevance and the retrieval probabilities. Training pivoted normalization on one collection, we can successfully use it on other (new) text collections, yielding a robust, collectzorz independent normalization technique. We use the idea of pivoting with the well known cosine normalization function. We point out some shortcomings of the cosine function andpresent two new normalization functions--pivoted unique normalization and piuotert byte size normalization.
IR evaluation methods for retrieving highly relevant documents
Authors: Järvelin Kalervo , Kekäläinen Jaana
Published: August 2017

This paper proposes evaluation methods based on the use of non-dichotomous relevance judgements in IR experiments. It is argued that evaluation methods should credit IR methods for their ability to retrieve highly relevant documents. This is desirable from the user point of view in modem large IR environments. The proposed methods are (1) a novel application of P-R curves and average precision computations based on separate recall bases for documents of different degrees of relevance, and (2) two novel measures computing the cumulative gain the user obtains by examining the retrieval result up to a given ranked position. We then demonstrate the use of these evaluation methods in a case study on the effectiveness of query types, based on combinations of query structures and expansion, in retrieving documents of various degrees of relevance. The test was run with a best match retrieval system (In- Query I) in a text database consisting of newspaper articles. The results indicate that the tested strong query structures are most effective in retrieving highly relevant documents. The differences between the query types are practically essential and statistically significant. More generally, the novel evaluation methods and the case demonstrate that non-dichotomous relevance assessments are applicable in IR experiments, may reveal interesting phenomena, and allow harder testing of IR methods.
Relevance-Based Language Models
Authors: Lavrenko Victor , Croft W. Bruce
Published: August 2017

We explore the relation between classical probabilistic models of information retrieval and the emerging language modeling approaches. It has long been recognized that the primary obstacle to effective performance of classical models is the need to estimate a relevance model: probabilities of words in the relevant class. We propose a novel technique for estimating these probabilities using the query alone. We demonstrate that our technique can produce highly accurate relevance models, addressing important notions of synonymy and polysemy. Our experiments show relevance models outperforming baseline language modeling systems on TREC retrieval and TDT tracking tasks. The main contribution of this work is an effective formal method for estimating a relevance model with no training data.